Trades Talk Podcast

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White broadcasts from the road ahead of NALP Elevate, with a lot cooking in both the public markets and inside K&D. He breaks down what this week's midterm elections signaled to the AI and data center world, why it rattled the market, and why he is doubling down on AI anyway. Then he gets tactical, sharing exactly what came out of a labor variance meeting with K&D's design build team just 24 hours earlier, and the fundamentals quietly transforming the culture. In this update: Why the midterms sent the AI and data center market into a tizzy, and Justin's contrarian response The three ways to protect your profit when the next downturn hits The job-site miss that quietly erases 20 percent of a short project's labor budget Why Justin says fix your electric infrastructure before you chase robots Justin unpacks his down-market playbook, the assistant crew leader role that lets K&D keep scaling, and the "quality at bats" idea that explains why winning teams focus on behaviors, not just outcomes. He also previews the AI experience at Elevate and challenges you to use the final 55 days of the year to build your most ambitious vision for 2027. If you want a real-time look at how a fast growing landscape company is navigating AI, efficiency, and a shifting market, start here. Weekly Updates are powered by Kress! https://www.jwhitegroup.com/kress JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Marcus Sheridan, bestselling author of They Ask, You Answer and Endless Customers, and the man who saved his pool company during the 2008 crash by doing the one thing nobody else would: telling customers the truth about pricing. Now he is sounding the alarm for the trades. Homeowners want to know roughly what things cost before they ever reach out, and AI is about to make pricing transparency non-negotiable. In this episode: Why AI jumped from 6% to 47% of local contractor searches in a single year The pricing estimator that takes paid ad conversions from 8% to around 60% The three pages every contractor needs to actually get recommended by AI The pride cycle, and Justin's raw admission about where K&D is right now Marcus breaks down the three F's of innovation, why 75% of buyers now want a seller-free experience, and the exact pages you can stand up in a week to start winning. Justin also gets honest about the fundamentals K&D let slip and how they fixed it in a single Friday. If you run a landscaping or home services business and you want to be found, trusted, and chosen in an AI-first world, this one is a playbook you can act on today. This week's episode is brought to you by Weathermatic: Get your Discount Here! (get.weathermatic.com/disruptors)  JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

In part two of the robotics as a service panel, Justin White gets back in the studio with Joe Langton of Automated Outdoor Solutions and Tyler Reiter of MoTek to go under the hood on the money and the infrastructure most owners never see coming. If part one sold you on autonomous mowing, this one shows you how to actually make it profitable. In this episode: Why your landscape yard will soon need the power of an RV park The preventative maintenance cost that can quietly eat a quarter of your mowing margin Why pricing robots cheaper than gas is a race to the bottom How to size the machine, the route, and the charging before you buy Joe and Tyler break down charging amps, the true cost per acre, battery cycles, cut and go versus stay on site, and why staying profitable is exactly what keeps private equity from feasting on the industry. Justin adds a warning: treat your first year of automation as an R&D project and expect surprises. If you plan to roll out robotic mowing in 2027, this is the financial playbook to study first. JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is fired up and moving fast. He walks through a packed week at K&D, from a brand new autonomous mowing community to two new technology partnerships, and makes one of his biggest calls yet. K&D is going all in on Claude and Anthropic for 2027, betting on one horse and building serious infrastructure around it instead of jumping between models. In this update: Why K&D is committing 100 percent to Claude and removing the other variables from its tech stack The electric bet Justin calls his best decision in three years, and the 46 percent growth behind it How to tell a real robotics expert from someone just repeating a playbook Why the next two months are a rare window to pull ahead of everyone coasting into the holidays Justin also previews the robotics as a service live stream with Joe Langton and Tyler, the AI experience at NALP Elevate, and the Marcus Sheridan episode on getting AI to recommend your company. His challenge to owners is simple: own your innovation, do not outsource it, and go all in while the competition slows down. If you want to build an unclosable gap between you and your competition heading into 2027, start here. Weekly Updates are powered by Kress! https://www.jwhitegroup.com/kress JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Ryan Hawk, host of The Learning Leader Show, keynote speaker, leadership coach, and author of the new book The Price of Becoming. Ryan has spent nearly twelve years and more than seven hundred episodes interviewing the best leaders on the planet, from Jim Collins to Navy SEALs, then turning what he learns into a coaching business that serves teams all over the world. A former college and arena football player turned corporate sales leader, Ryan walked away from a VP seat to bet on himself. In this conversation he breaks down what actually separates great leaders from lazy ones, and the daily habit that compounds into an extraordinary life. In this episode: The one sentence definition of leadership Ryan learned from Jim Collins What Jim Collins empties out of his pockets before every conversation, and why it matters Why outsourcing your thinking to AI quietly makes you a weaker leader The three end of day questions that compound into your best work Ryan's trade secret is deceptively simple, and it starts with three questions you ask yourself before bed. Whether you are leading a crew of fifteen or a company of a thousand, chasing a big goal, or just trying to close the gap between who you are and who you could be, this one will change how you show up tomorrow. Ryan invited listeners to send him their own end of day prompts. Email him at [email protected], and grab The Price of Becoming wherever you get your books. JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo Ryan Hawk / The Learning Leader Show: https://learningleader.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/