Joining Jonathan Goldhill in this episode of the Disruptive Successor Podcast is Scott Lesak, a team-oriented leader who is passionate on bettering the green and snow industries and Owner of Kasel Rocks Landscape Company. Being a people-first company means nurturing the talent within and making sure that each employee's physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial well-being is taken care of. This has produced an amazing teamwork that allows Scott to step back from the business and devote his time exclusively growing the company. This means that Scott is able to coach his team and nurture their talents for them to become even better than he ever was at critical tasks within the company. The key ingredient to do this successfully is trust that your team can do it and that micromanagement is not the driver of success.
HIGHLIGHTS
02:02 Kasel Rocks is a people-first company
04:39 Transforming into a high-level landscaping company began with personal change
08:09 The catalyst for change: Hitting rock-bottom and going to rehab
10:19 Leadership and hiring: Respect for time and problem-solving are winning traits
15:29 Learning the values of communication and entrepreneurship from childhood
17:32 Honing the athlete's mindset and applying it to business
22:57 Growing the business from his father's leadership post-graduation
27:04 For founders: Trust your team, let go, and coach them through their failures
30:21 Finding the right labor and incentivizing them to grow the company
34:53 Connect with Scott
QUOTES
02:37 "We need to help breed and build the leaders within and part of that is the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial wellbeing. All five of those key characteristics are really important to living a good life."
05:38 "I realized that I needed to make a change myself to make sure that I can give everybody that I was surrounded with what I want from myself. So I decided to get healthy, decided to quit drinking, and decided to get more physically active."
21:04 "I am not relied on for anything else in the business other than building and making the business grow. Our leadership team and our sales team really support that and have seen what it's doing for the company's growth."
27:08 "You got to trust everybody else especially in small companies. This might be hard for the wrong person to hear right now, but owners are micromanagers. They want to have their fingers in absolutely everything."
32:07 "Some of our guys that are making 20 to $25 an hour are doing double the work of somebody that's making $15 an hour. So they actually save us money. So if that's the trend we have to go, ha half-staffed with doubly productive people, sure."
To learn more about Scott, you can check out the email address below.
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