Build A Better Landscape Co. ’26 | Arlington, Virginia

Most green industry owners are working harder than they need to — because nobody ever handed them the business fundamentals that actually drive profit. You know your craft. You know your crews. But somewhere between the jobs and the invoices, the margin disappears, and you're not sure where it went.
The Break Records Tour exists to fix that. In two days with the best educators in the green industry, you'll get the numbers, systems, and habits that the best-run landscape businesses already have — and you'll leave with a written plan to put them into practice starting Monday.

Day One | The Main Stage (8:00 AM – 5:00 PM) | SAM GEMBEL
✓ Financial clarity you can act on
You'll know exactly where your margin is going, what your numbers are telling you, and which levers to pull first. No more guessing.
✓ A pricing framework built on real benchmarks
How to estimate work so that winning jobs builds your business — not just your revenue. Templates and benchmarks from operators who've already figured this out.
✓ An operational diagnostic for your business
A structured way to find where you're leaking capacity and margin — crew utilization, schedule integrity, route efficiency — so you can fix it the week you get home.
✓ People and team systems that actually work
The hiring, onboarding, and accountability frameworks that let your team perform without you in every conversation. Walk through a real operation to see it in practice.
✓ AI tools you can use this week
Practical shortcuts operators are already using to draft estimates, write job postings, follow up with clients, and brief crews. No Silicon Valley fluff — just tools that save real hours.
✓ The daily habit that changes how you lead
How the best operators start and end every day — a morning check-in before the crew rolls out, an end-of-day review before they go home. Small, consistent, compounding.
✓ A written 90-day plan
You build it before you leave the room. Not a notebook of notes — a prioritized plan with timelines and accountability partners from the room

Day Two | The Backstage Pass (8:00 AM – 12:30 PM) | Brian Fullerton
An immersive facility tour hosted and emceed by Brian Fullerton inside a real host company.
✓ A real operation, open to you
Walk through rotating stations led by the actual team running a high-performing landscape business every single day. Yard, fleet, crew, estimating, sales, culture — all of it.
✓ The systems behind what you see
Brian connects what you observe at each station back to the frameworks from Day 1. You leave knowing not just what great looks like — but why it works and how to replicate it.
✓ Peer conversation that cuts through the noise
You're in a room with operators wrestling with the same problems. The debrief sessions are where some of the best ideas of the two days actually surface.
✓ Three actions for Monday morning
Brian closes the program by helping you translate everything into three clear, specific actions you can take back to your business immediately.

Across two days, you will:

• Learn the financial and pricing systems top contractors use to protect margin and grow profit.
• See how winning companies build teams that are accountable, aligned, and capable—so the owner isn’t the bottleneck.
• Get one operator-built playbook you can take home and apply immediately for record-breaking growth.

No product names. No forward promises.
Just the best education in the industry—and a room full of serious operators ready to break records together.

Every attendee also walks away with the official Break Records Tour tee—because this isn’t just an event you attend. It’s a movement you’re part of.

Info: Arrive, meet the room, grab coffee. The people sitting next to you are running the same business you are.

Info: Why most landscape businesses hit a ceiling — and what the ones that break through do differently. Sam sets the frame for the day and asks the one question every operator in the room should be sitting with.

Info: Your P&L is telling you something. This session teaches you how to listen. Real margins, real overhead, real benchmarks from operators who've already done the work. Job costing, overhead allocation, and the financial levers that actually move the needle. You'll leave this hour knowing exactly what your numbers mean — and what to do about the ones that are off.

Info: How to price work so that winning jobs actually build your business. The estimating decisions most operators get wrong, the benchmarks that separate profitable companies from busy ones, and a framework you can bring back to your team the following week. Live examples, real numbers, a pricing model you can pressure-test against your own work.

Info: Structured peer conversation by business size and service type, facilitated by Sam. This is where you realize you're not the only one dealing with this — and where some of the best ideas of the day get shared across the table.

Info: Where operators leak margin without knowing it — and how to stop it. Crew utilization, schedule integrity, route efficiency, and the day-to-day operational decisions that separate businesses running smoothly from businesses constantly putting out fires. You'll leave with a diagnostic you can run on your own operation the week you get home.

Info: The hardest part of running a landscape business isn't the work — it's the people. Hiring, onboarding, training, and accountability systems that let your team perform without you in every conversation. Brian Fullerton joins for a facility walkthrough — you won't just hear about great teams, you'll walk through one the next day.

Info: The AI tools operators are already using right now to draft estimates, write job postings, follow up with clients, brief crews, and reclaim hours from their week. Hands-on and practical — built for green industry operators, not Silicon Valley. You'll leave with a shortlist of tools and a clear picture of where to start.

Info: The best operators share one thing: they run their business before it runs them. The daily habits that keep leaders ahead — opening your software every morning before the crew rolls out to review estimates needing approval and jobs trending over budget, and closing the loop at the end of the day before you go home. Small, consistent actions that compound into a business that's always one step ahead.

Info: You build it before you leave the room. Not a notebook of notes — a prioritized plan with timelines and accountability partners from the room.

Info: Brian Fullerton joins Sam on stage to introduce tomorrow's host company and prepare attendees for what they're about to experience. This isn't a tour preview — it's a strategic briefing. Attendees leave knowing exactly which systems to look for, which questions to ask, and how to connect today's classroom to tomorrow's reality. Networking, drinks, and concert tee pickup for all registered attendees.

Info: Day 1 wraps. Day 2 begins at 8:00 AM.

Info: Brian opens the day by connecting yesterday’s classroom sessions to today’s real-world experience and sets the strategic lens for the tour. The focus isn’t just to observe — it’s to observe with purpose. You’ll learn what to watch for at each station and how to translate what you see back to your own operation.

Info: Led by the Avanza Landscaping team, the people running these systems every day, you’ll move through a series of focused stations. Brian facilitates the experience, pulling out key insights and tying everything back to Day 1.

You’ll see, in real time:
Dispatch, Routing & Daily Scheduling
Job Planning, Estimating & Job Costing in Action
Crew Training & Development Systems
Equipment Management & Yard Operations
Sales Process & Customer Communication
Leadership, Culture & People Systems
AI Operational Efficiencies

This is your backstage pass to a high-performing landscape business in motion.

Info: The tour is over. Now what? Brian helps you narrow two days of ideas into three clear actions you can take in your business immediately. An open Q&A with the host company’s leadership gives you direct access to the people running the operation you just toured.

We’ll close by looking at how top operators in the room are already using their morning check-in and end-of-day review to stay one step ahead — the daily habit in practice, from a peer who’s living it.

Info: Go break some records.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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