938. Systems, Efficiency, and Profit: One Year of Leanscaper with Tommy Cole

·38 min·3 clips

Tommy Cole says 40% of landscaping businesses is pure waste—here’s how to reclaim it.

The episode opens with host Brian Fullerton and guest Tommy Cole bantering about the sunny setting in Cape Coral, Florida, contrasting it with harsh northern winters. Cole, founder of Leanscaper, marks the company’s one-year anniversary since its launch in Nashville with about 100 attendees. He frames the landscaping industry as inefficient, with only 3% net profit, and emphasizes that Leanscaper aims to build systems that eliminate waste. Cole details his background: five years as a landscape architect, work in civil construction, and rising to vice president of operations at a $30 million Dallas landscaping company. He explains that operations is the hardest part of the business because it involves coordinating weather, labor, equipment, and perishable goods while meeting client expectations. The core problem is that knowledge is often trapped in owners’ heads or lacks systematic processes, leading to leakage—small inefficiencies that erode profit. Cole illustrates lean principles with examples: not touching dirt twice to save margins, reducing plant handling, and planning like a fighter pilot with multiple contingencies. He introduces Leanscaper’s AI-powered operating system, which captures issues like a broken sprinkler head in real-time, reducing re-communication that can cost $350 per incident. Fullerton shares how learning concepts like the “golden hammer analogy” transformed his business, cutting unnecessary Home Depot trips. Cole discusses practical implementations, such as a fuel delivery system that saved thousands monthly and an upcoming inventory manager agent with QR code tracking. The conversation touches on broader themes: the industry’s fragmentation, shiny object syndrome, and the need for immersion to learn effectively. Fullerton concludes with a personal endorsement, stating that Leanscaper directly correlated to his company’s growth over 12 months, and Cole invites listeners to engage with their free community and tools.

As heard by us

Tommy Cole turns repeated plant and mulch handling into a practical case for finding profit in operational waste.

Brian Fullerton's conversation with Tommy Cole of Leanscaper lands on a practical point: landscaping profit often leaks out through routine handling. A plant is delivered, unloaded, watered, weeded, rotated, loaded again, and moved to the job site.

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Want to find the profit hiding between a five-gallon plant and the job site?

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