Most landscaping businesses start with a lawnmower and a dream. Very few sit down and actually design the company they end up running. CMS Landscape did — and it changed everything.

In this episode, Katy sits down with Brian and Josh Mark of CMS Landscape, a high-end residential company on Cape Cod that their father, Chris, started in 1973. Brian and Josh get real about the exact moments that took CMS from a truck-and-a-mower operation to a 50-plus-person company.

You'll learn:

• Why Brian had to step out of the field entirely to move the business forward — and how hard that transition actually was
• The org chart question from their business coach that neither of them could answer at first
• How moving from "check the checkbook in December" to weekly forecasting changed the way they run the business
• Why their best hiring decisions came from defining the seat before they went looking for the person
• How CMS built a "sandbox" culture that lets their team pitch and test new ideas — including a five-year robotics initiative that started with one team member's idea
• Why, after all the systems and technology, communication is still what Brian credits for 70 percent of client happiness

If you've ever felt like your business is running you instead of the other way around, this conversation will hit close to home.