Leadership in Action

Sharing his journey on this week’s episode of Leadership In Action is a local entrepreneur who takes pride in a job well done. With a knack for entrepreneurship, he started his first landscaping company in his early teens. Welcome to the show, Chief Executive Officer at The Difference Landscapes, Greg Cuoco! Host Mark Stiles interviews Greg to learn about how he got started as an entrepreneur, the importance of transparency with employees, and what the future of the landscaping industry holds. 

Takeaways:

• For Greg, starting a business meant the freedom to control the direction and growth in a way that he wanted to. When Greg was looking to make a switch, his background in landscaping made owning a landscaping company a promising venture. 
• Buying a company has advantages, but finding the right company is a full time job. To successfully find one to buy, you need to build strong relationships with business owners, so when it comes time to sell, you’re the first person on their mind. 
• Landscaping offers many benefits for potential business owners. With a contract based clientele, you build up a steady stream of recurring revenue. Landscaping is also recession resistant, as most residential clients will continue paying for services. 
• When starting or buying a business, it’s important to play to your strengths. If you’re great at sales, you want a team that can excel operationally. Establish a role that lets you utilize your skills, and enable your team to fill in your weak areas. 
• To build a strong roster of employees, you need to focus on building relationships and being transparent. Don’t sell dreams. It won’t take an employee long to realize it was a false bill of goods, and to start looking elsewhere for employment. 
• When looking for an industry to purchase a business in, trades based industries are rife with opportunities. There are many owners who are looking to retire, but few of their kids want to take over. Because of this dynamic, there are many trades businesses available. 
• AI is revolutionizing businesses, and landscaping is no exception. For landscaping, AI could calculate a quote, and send a potential customer a personalized outreach at the click of a button. 

Links: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorycuoco/ 
• Website: https://thedifferencelandscapes.com/ 

Quote of the Show

• “Ultimately what it comes down to is relationships.” - Greg Cuoco

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Transcript:

Mark: Hey folks. Welcome back to Leadership In Action, your Boston Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization local podcast. I am really excited today to talk about some forward thinking trades, especially the landscaping trade and where that is going in the future. Today's guest is a local entrepreneur. Who takes pride in a job well done.

He started his first landscaping company in his early teens. He's a leadership legend who knows how to motivate teams and drive effective results. He's the Chief Executive Officer at The Difference Landscapes. Please welcome Greg Cuoco. Welcome to the show. Greg.

Greg: Thank you. Appreciate the introduction.

Mark: Let's go right into it. Why did you start your business?

Greg: Yeah, so I've always had the, uh, entrepreneurial bl bug in me ever since I was a kid. Um, always looking for ways to, um, make money. Um, I started my first landscaping company just in my neighborhood. One of my, um, neighbors actually approached me. Uh, they needed some landscaping, uh, and some snow shoveling done.

So, uh, it just started from there. I did a great job. Word of mouth, got out, ended up doing my whole neighborhood. Uh, then I went to college and, you know, was on the track to go, you know, corporate. I was in corporate for a while, but, I was never a yes man. Um, I never kind of just went with the flow. I've, I've always wanted to have more.

Um, and I always was trying to, uh, strive for the best and make everything, um, The best it possibly could, and definitely ruffled some feathers with some of my input, uh, at some of those, uh, meetings that, that, that were done. And, you know, I just wasn't succeeding in the corporate life and I was, I was always kinda knocking my head against the wall of why it wasn't working out.

Um, and I actually got fired from every single job that I've had, uh, in corporate. And I kinda went back to the drawing board and figured out, you know, I don't think this is right for me. Um, and I didn't want to have, uh, something else in control of my destiny and my growth. And so I ended up looking for, um, a business to start and I said, Hey, you know what worked for the past of me?

And it was, it was landscaping. And so I was, you know, going around. I just, I would just talk to entrepreneurs and. Basically asked him what was the best way to go about this. And I ended up running into a family friend. He owns several bars in Boston. Um, and cuz that was another thing I wanted to do too, is potentially to open up a, a, a bar as well.

So like, talking to him and he was telling me, Hey, why, why would you wanna start something? Why don't you buy something? And a light bulb really went off in my head, you know, because the. Hardest thing is, is the time it takes to build something up. And a lot of people, they're, you know, a 10 night, a 10 year overnight success.

Uh, and, and it takes a lot of time to build that. And so that's the one thing, you know, we all have, is a limited amount of time. So I actually end up looking at buying a company. And so I just networked like crazy cuz a lot of these businesses aren't advertised for sale because they're scared they're gonna lose their customers, they're gonna lose their employees.

So it's all, you know, hard knock, knocking on doors. Um, cold calling, networking, uh, old fashioned grip, um, because they're not, a lot of these companies aren't advertised. So I went down that route, uh, ended up finding, um, uh, someone who's looking to get out of the business. Ended up talking to him and, you know, we had a, a connection, um, for, you know, our, our drive and determination and I ended up buying it from him.

And that's, that's been, uh, the story since.

Mark: So there's, there's your, there's your, um, buy process, overnight success. Tell us about the journey there. How many different. Companies that you talked to, how did you approach them and how did you find your way to this person willing to sell?

Greg: Yeah, it took me probably about two years to find, find the right company. Uh, I mean, I, buying a company is a full-time job in itself. You really gotta get upriver. There are sites such as bis, buy, sell, that you can go on. Uh, a lot of those deals have already been shopped around before and it's kind of the leftovers that are there.

Um, but what I did is I actually would cold call business brokers. Um, I would call, um, investment bankers and just I had my pitch of, Hey, you know, my name is Greg. Um, you know, I'm an entrepreneur. I've started other, uh, various businesses before. I had a, a background in software sales. Um, so I just would hit the phones.

I would go to networking events. I would go to business broker events and just try to establish myself and create those, um, relationships. Cause ultimately what it comes down to is relationships. Getting to know people so that when an opportunity comes across their desks, that you're the first one in mind when something comes across their desk.

So, um, that's what I did as I just reached out. I called everyone that I could. And then eventually, you know, I got approached with, Hey, I think I have the perfect, perfect deal for you. You should really check this out and look into it. And that's when I, um, ended up, you know, driving up to, uh, Portsmouth in the Portsmouth area.

Um, ended up meeting with, uh, the seller and it took about. Probably six to eight months to actually close a deal. Um, and it was, uh, uh, intense negotiations back and forth, but uh, we actually ended up, we ended up closing it and um, now it's been almost four years since then.

Mark: Wow. So the perfect deal. So this person calls you and says the perfect deal. What were the specifics, the metrics that you were looking for?

Greg: So recurring revenue is king because you don't wanna, like a roofing company, roofing companies make great money. Um, but you're, you eat what you kill. I didn't want to have to keep on, um, hunting and eating what I kill. So I wanted something with recurring revenue. I. Um, you know, contracts, um, was around for a long period of time, so this company was around for about 17 years, um, and didn't have a dense, um, customer concentration.

Uh, and landscaping is perfect cuz it's recession resistant too. So I wanted the most probable success of, uh, the highest chance of success. And with landscaping, it's, it's pretty res, recess and resistant. And I wanted to build my track record to then go out and buy other companies and, and that's actually what I'm in the process of now, is I have my operations manager, which I am grooming, uh, to then be absentee and, and buy other companies as well.

Mark: That's really cool. So that's why you chose the industry of landscaping, but specifically, what was the perfect package that somebody brought to you that this person in, in, what'd you say? It was Portsmouth area.

Greg: Yep. The Portsmouth area.

Mark: in the Portsmouth area that said this is, this is the business that you wanna buy. What was it about the client base, the regional nature of it?

Employees? Like what was what? What checked the boxes?

Greg: So the biggest thing is it's kind of like, um, Gina Wickman in Traction. There's the, uh, visionary and there's the implementer. Um, I see myself more as a visionary, so I set the vision. I. I get people to buy into it. I help, uh, grow them to achieve their goals. I, I help the team, um, try to make sure everyone's rowing in the, the same, the same, um, direction.

So what I really wanted is I was strong in sales. Um, I wasn't the strongest and I'm not the strongest in operations. So I wanted to have a company that already had a built out management team so I could come in. And more or less, uh, feed, feed the Beast. So I wanted to go out, I wanted to focus on sales, um, and recruiting of personnel, and then have the operations team take over the day-to-day and grow from there.

So I wanted something that had that, uh, uh, that presence, uh, already in place.

Mark: So now that you're out seeking other companies similar to that, what are the, what are the metrics like? What is the multiplier of that annual recurring revenue target?

Greg: So I, I want a company that's doing at least 2 million in ebitda. Um, and I try to get it under five times multiple of ebitda. Um, and you know, it, it's, it's tough because, um, with like assets, I want it be asset light, um, and, and scale more scalable. That's, that's probably the one downfall of the landscaping industry is that it's very tough to get.

People to that want to continue to work in this industry. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's very tough to, to find those people and to scale it up, um, because it is very geographic specific.

Mark: So how do you find those people? Because that was one of your, you're the visionary, you are the sales team, but you were also talking about recruiting contributors, right?

Greg: Correct. So I think the biggest thing with recruiting and attracting personnel, a lot of it's word of mouth. And my number one core value is partnerships. I like to have a partnership and relationship, with people, whether it's customers, the employees, vendors. I like to have a partnership that's win-win.

Everyone leaves the table better off than when they sat down and. I don't sell dreams and I tell people, upfront, you know what the expectations are, what it looks like. There's a lot of people that. Will sell a dream to someone to try to get them, in their company. And it doesn't take long to realize that it was just a, false bill of goods.

So what I do is I'm very transparent. I tell them, you know what this looks like, I don't sell, uh, a, a, a dream. And I've actually had a lot of employees, um, leave the company. And come back because, uh, don't ex excuse the pun, but you know, the grass is greener where you water and fertilize it. So people will leave, they'll be sold as false bill of goods with another company and, uh, come back and, you know, realize how good they had it.

Um, I, I keep my word, um, when I say something, I do it and, you know, it's all about that relationship and, um, having that mutual understanding. I, I've had employees that have. Had phenomenal opportunities and they've stayed with the company, um, because, you know, I'm loyal to them, they're loyal to me. Um, and it's been a really good relationship, uh, in that aspect.

Mark: So how are you running your businesses differently than the models you were stuck in, in the corporate world that weren't fits?

Greg: So I've had good bosses and I've had bad bosses, so, It's really not a us versus them kind of model leadership model. Um, I believe in a servant leadership model. So the org chart is flipped upside down. So I'm actually at the bottom and I serve. The employees and the employees serve the customers. So everything kind of comes full circle.

So it all takes care of itself. But I, I, I would say that every single one of my employees is more talented at their job than I would be at their specific role. So I am just the one organizing it all, having everyone come together, believe in that vision, believe that we're all going the same direction, believe we all have the same goals.

Motivate them, and that's how you make magic happen.

Mark: Did you experience any servant leaders while you were. Coming up.

Greg: I experienced one or two. Um, but I, I, I, the majority of the leaders and bosses that I've had before were more, I. Do this because I say so then, um, more ask you to do it, um, with them, you know, uh, it's, it's a team. You know, we're all on the same team here. We all win together, we all lose together, and that's what I firmly believe in.

Mark: So where did you learn that primarily? I mean, I heard you mention traction, right? Traction's amazing. But where did you really immerse into the servant leadership? Was it always in you?

Greg: So I've always had leadership capabilities, uh, was the captain of the hockey team back in high school. Um, but also I've always just had the entrepreneurial bug and itch. It's definitely a different d n a and I've always been attracted and, um, compelled to other entrepreneurs and I would meet other entrepreneurs and I was just fascinated and.

What they were doing, I would ask them, Hey, can I shadow you for a day and just watch what you do, um, and see, hey, is this really right for me or not? Because it is, it is tough. It is really hard. There's a lot of sacrifice involved, but it is one of the most fulfilling things that you can do in my personal experience.

So,

Mark: what is that though? What is that it that? That that you're talking about, what is that shared d n a that you're connecting with with other entrepreneurs?

Greg: We're just wired different, we think so different. I, I, I, I don't know how to explain it, but it's just that you think your perspective of life and how you see life is just so different. So I, I would gravitate to these individuals and I. Shadow them and kind of just sit back, watch and learn of how they did things and what made them so successful.

And the people that were really successful, you know, treated others with respect, um, and had that partnership team mentality.

Mark: I love it. You're gonna love EO it. You know, it is a group of curious people seeking freedom. Um, lot of, lot of shared experiences to be had. Let's talk about the future of landscaping. Are you primarily residential? Commercial? A little mix.

Greg: I'm 80% commercial, uh, 20% residential. Um, so we do commercial and high end, high end residential.

Mark: got it. So you've mentioned being in software sales. How are you utilizing software, ai, web three, maybe smart contracts? Are you doing those yet?

Greg: Not smart contracts yet, but AI is definitely taking over. Uh, and, and you'd be foolish not to incorporate it in your business in some way, shape, or form. What I would like to do with AI from just the start, and you know, this is probably just scratching, uh, scratching the surface is. Getting, uh, an area that I want to break into and, you know, sending people a quote saying, Hey, this is the quote of us servicing your property.

Um, because the, the biggest. Thing that, that, um, uh, the expense is the time of sending someone out to do a quote to go and give someone a price. So I would love to incorporate ai, um, in giving people quotes, saying in a, in a mailer and saying, Hey, this is what we can do, uh, in service your property for, for, for the year.

Mark: And you could figure that out simply using. Software that's available now, bringing it together and figuring out the square foot is the time, the intricacies, the level of difficulty where it is regionally with your headquarters and boom, here's a firm quote, we don't even need to meet.

Greg: Correct. Yeah. We, we use Google Maps as it is right now for, um, probably the majority of our properties just measuring out the square footage. Um, but we're still manually doing it. So how do we incorporate AI that we can almost send unsolicited, uh, quotes to people and get them on board to then be a customer?

Mark: It's pretty enticing. You know, if you're sitting back and you, you, you know what your line item is on landscaping, and then this postcard comes in and it's a lot less than that. It's a, it's at minimum a phone call. Right.

Greg: Absolutely.

Mark: That's brilliant. What about robotics? Tell me about what you see with robotics and landscaping.

Greg: Yeah, that's another initiative that we have. Um, it's funny because I was at one of my initial EO dinners and I always sit next to an individual that had a robotics company and I was talking to him, uh, about what his niche was and he's done. Um, Uh, facilities. He's done manufacturing plants. He's worked with nasa, he's worked with the government diffusing, uh, mines, uh, and bombs.

And so I, I spoke to him, I said, you know, what's your niche? And he told me he's done a bunch of various contract work, but he doesn't really have a niche. And I was telling him, You know, you should really get into robotics. You know, there was a McDonald's actually in Texas that recently went fully robotic, um, and got rid of all their employees.

And then, and from what I've heard so far, it's doing Fanta fantastic and

Mark: all of the employees.

Greg: Yeah, so I, I, I'm assuming they have cleaners that maybe come in, you know, once a week. But it's a fully robotics, uh, fully robotic McDonald's in Texas. Um, because the same thing is, you know, peop it's very hard to find people in the labor industry and it's only gonna get worse.

And that's what we're trying to figure out is, you know, how do we, how do we, uh, almost kind of preemptively. Uh, get down the path of getting the work done and doing work when people really aren't getting into the industry. People don't really want to do labor anymore, so, um, how can we do more with what we have?

Even using the current people that we do have? How do we do more? It's not about replacing them, it's about doing more as well.

Mark: That's really interesting, and I know this conversation, uh, petrifies people immensely, right? So AI robotics eliminating humans, but if you look at it and you shift that paradigm and you, and you push them up, the knowledge. Base, baseline. You know, it gives them the opportunity to do other things, I suppose.

But let me ask you this, what about the influx of, um, immigrants, migrant workers, folks coming from south of the border? You know, are they gonna step in in the meantime before the robotics are available?

Greg: It seems to be, um, the short-term solution for now. Um, you know, send them, send 'em up to New Hampshire. I'll, I'll, I'll take 'em. You know, I, I haven't really seen, uh, many around here, but, um, It's, I think robotics, uh, it's gonna be a must, um, because like I said, people just don't want to do these types of jobs.

Um, but

Mark: is that?

Greg: it's tough. It's, it's a tough way to, to, um, you know, and it's not, it's just not for everyone. I, I. think that it's almost looked down upon, um, some of these jobs. Um, and the funny part is, I mean, you can make some good money, but you know, would you, you know, rather be, um, you know, a, a, a lawyer or an accountant, um, or a landscaper, even if you make the same amount of money.

It's kind of that status, um, uh,

Mark: I don't know. So I've been identified as a lawyer for a long time and I, friends who are close to me know that. I have a passion for landscaping. So, you know, that's an interesting conversation. But more so, you know, there is a knowledge-based requirement, right? So you have people who don't know the language, you know, so they're gonna be limited in what they can do here.

However, you know. What about the people who. Simply aren't working like is I see what you're saying. But at the same token, it used to be that it was honorable to roll up your sleeves and work really hard for an honest wage and go home and take care of your family. Like did Covid really affect our world that much or was this already a slippery slope?

Greg: Yeah, I think it's been going on for a while. I mean, I, I. Got pushed into college. I, I actually didn't wanna go to college. Um, my parents pushed me to go because it's that, it's that safety net that everyone has. Um, but with it getting, you know, so expensive, um, I don't know if it's even, uh, that's a totally different conversation.

Um, but yeah,

Mark: a must have.

Greg: a abs absolutely. But it's, it's kind of funny because especially where I've been out, um, you know, I'm approaching. 10 years that I've been outta college and you know, people that have done corporate because they've been kind of told to by their parents, um, or they just had a mountain of.

College debt, they're starting to just say, Hey, you know what? Screw this. Life is short. I'm gonna do what I want to do. Um, and I've actually noticed that a lot with a lot of the, uh, people that I've known from colleges. They're actually getting out of their corporate jobs and they're doing other stuff that's more fulfilling, um, and stuff that they've always wanted to do.

But the, the pressure to go into corporate, um, and do the nine to five was, I guess a, a, a burden that they've always complied with.

Mark: Be born, work hard, get good grades, go to a good school, get a job, get a pension, retire, die, do that In that success.

Greg: exactly. Follow the script.

Mark: I don't think so. I don't think so. No. So we spoke, uh, briefly, um, off of the recording about your North Stars, your. Bhag, right? The big hairy, audacious gold of of creating a franchise model.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Greg: Yeah, so that's another initiative that, you know, we're looking into, um, is kind of spinning it off into a contractor, um, subcontractor based model. Like I said, you know, you gotta be creative with the labor market today. It is a fierce competition for talent and. Anything that you can do to get a leg up will will definitely help.

So one thing that we've been looking into is essentially having people being subcontractors. So you get paid for the amount of properties that you service. So if you decide to do, you know, 20 properties in one day, you get 20 times the amount of money. Then if you just did one or two, um, so. You know, we've been looking at leasing out equipment to individuals, um, having them get paid per property and it incentivizes both parties because they make more money the more property they service.

And so will, will we. Um, so, and then also they'd be, you know, have essentially their own small entity, their own small business. And it, it would be a win-win all the way around and they wouldn't get paid unless the, the work was done. Well, so the customer wins too because, you know, they're not getting paid unless there's, there's good work done.

So there's all d different creative strategies we're ki trying to come up with before it's too late because, uh, the writing is kind of on the wall that I, I don't think it's going to, the labor market is going to get any better. I only think it's gonna get worse.

Mark: I love it. So those folks listening to this who are thinking about going to college, but maybe a landscape employee model doesn't work in your home domain, if you will. But buying in, right, not having to start it up. The, the, the franchise model has always been really interesting to me because success is based on the processes and the procedures.

And without those, it's really hard to succeed. And for this person coming up and says, you know, college isn't for me, I'm not really into that $200,000 anchor holding me down cuz. Why am I doing that? You know, here's an opportunity. Buy in. Probably have some financing. Get 'em up and running and fly, birdie, fly.

You've got your own business now. Really, truly. It's not kind of like it is.

Greg: Yeah, I, I think the apprentice model ship should honestly come back. Not enough people are getting into the trades. Um, there's just a wave of baby boomers that are looking for, um, an exit plan and a lot of their kids don't want to take over their businesses. So if you're willing to get in the trades, you're willing to get your hands dirty for a couple years.

You know, there are individuals out there that want someone that was like them, you know, 30, 40 years ago that they can pass down their business to, um, and take it over. And then also give them that exit, uh, the monetary exit so they can go to Florida. So there's different routes that can be taken. It's not, you know, just one route.

And I think people need to really, um, start being creative.

Mark: Yeah, it, I, I couldn't agree more. And that was one of the questions I had for you when you acquired that landscaping business. I mean, it wasn't a, a letter out to the client saying, Hey, new owner, check 'em out. Good guy. They phase that in. How does, how does that process work? And I mean, that could obviously be utilized in so many different ways.

Greg: Do you mean like letting the customers

Mark: Yeah. Did he, did your seller hang on for a little while?

Greg: So we had a a year transition, um, to make sure everything went smoothly. Um, and like they say, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Um, I only have three employees, uh, still left that were, uh, of the original company because there's different cultures, there's different leadership styles, um, you know, people, um, Don't like change.

Um, so people were, you know, either they, they went on their own or they didn't grow with the company. Um, and you know, there is, there is a big change that happens whenever, uh, a company is transitioning hands, um, different cultures, different leadership MO models. So there is a big, a big change. But he, he stood sit around for about a year to make sure the transition went smoothly.

Um, and then he went sailing off into the sunset. Um, originally I didn't let the customers know because I didn't wanna rock the boat. Um, and I wanted to make sure that I was securely. In there because, you know, when you first take over a company, it's like drinking from the fire hydrant. Um, it's just so much going on that, you know, I was working seven days a week and if there was an eighth day, I would've worked that too.

Um, and eventually that, you know, obviously went down. Um, but when everything's just so new that there's just so much going on, I mean, you're getting. Placed right into a sprint, um, right from the beginning. So, um, it definitely was really good. I couldn't have asked for a, a better result and, um, you know, we've been just growing it and taking it further from here.

It's been, uh, a tremendous ride.

Mark: And what was the capture rate? How many How many stuck?

Greg: So, um, I don't have the exact data on, on, like when they fell off. Um, but like I said, there's only three left from,

Mark: No. Clients. Clients,

Greg: oh clients. Um, actually the client, the client retention rate was actually really good. But the problem was, is that the first four months of owning the company, covid hit So a lot of people Yeah, it was, it was, it was fantastic.

It was like, yeah, I just bought, I bought this company and then Covid hit four months later,

Mark: oh my goodness.

Greg: That's the life of entrepreneurship. But I, the biggest problem was it wasn't the loss of customers, it was more them scaling back services. So everyone freaked out. Um, especially with people not working in the office.

They're like, Hey, you know, we don't need the property looking pristine. We're gonna cut back. That was the.

Mark: gonna, we're we're gonna be home. We can do

Greg: Yeah. Yeah. But it was like a shift. It was a shift from the commercial to the residential because people were home and people wanted to enjoy their backyards. They didn't have anywhere to go.

Mark: And the commercial was like, no one's coming in. We can, we can do it half the amount of time. Wow, that's really interesting. Well, I'm sure that was an amazing story

Greg: Oh, oh yeah.

Mark: gonna be able to shoot.

Greg: It was a blast. Yeah, it was a blast, but it was just, it was just a pivot, you know? And you gotta be able to pivot and move fast, uh, because you know, it can, it can happen quick where, you know, you can get yourself in trouble. So,

Mark: Did you look at the contract to see if there was any acts of God, uh, provisions in there that you could get out of it and unwind the deal?

Greg: you know, um, You don't know what you, what you don't know. And um, cause I was 27 when I bought the company as my, I mean, I've never bought a company before. This is my first company. I, I didn't know what I was doing. Um, but I mean, I learned a ton. I know what to, to do now. I mean, like, one thing for instance is, um, I got really lucky because, When there, there has to be a, uh, transferability clause in the contract.

So when you sell a company, um, there has to, the, the contract has to be reassign to the new person buying it, otherwise they can just get outta the contract. Luckily that, um, no customer really was like, Hey, I wanna get outta my contract. You know, there's new ownership, so then this is not an enforceable contract.

So I was, I was really lucky in that. But there is a lot of other aspects that. You know, I just learned, um, that I wish I knew before I bought it, but the way I figured it is no matter what issue I come across, if I just double down and work harder, I can get through of any issue that I have. And that's pretty much what I did, is I just put my head down and just grip my way through it.

Mark: I love that. I love that. So you'll be more prepared for the next acquisition. For sure.

Greg: Oh, absolutely.

Mark: Hey, so what are you, um, what are you hoping to get outta eo? Why'd you join eo?

Greg: yeah. Um, it's all about relationships. So you know, you are the five, uh, closest people, um, in your network. Uh, your network is your net worth. I really love how entrepreneurs are always kind of pushing the barriers. They do fun stuff. They always are looking for what's next. They're constantly looking to be the best at whatever they do.

Um, and I just really enjoy hanging around with other entrepreneurs. Uh, it's always fascinating conversations. They're always, you know, into the next crazy thing. I, I, I don't think that I've ever had a dull conversation with an entrepreneur, so I'm really looking to just build relationships. Um, And lifelong friends, um, potentially business partners and kind of just see where, where the journey takes me.

Mark: I love it. I love it. While you're going to get. At a lot of shared experiences, you're not gonna get any advice from an EO member, but you'll get shared experiences and those you can build on. And I'm sure you're gonna help a lot of folks with some of your experiences too. And, you know, where we we win or learn, right?

Is how, how that saying goes, Hey, so Greg, someone wants to connect with you. What is the best way? And uh, where can they find you?

Greg: So LinkedIn will be the best way to find me. So it's Gregory Cuoco, c u o c o, with the difference landscapes. So you can find me there, just drop me a message. I'm always, um, willing and wanting to connect with other entrepreneurs and you know, if you're maybe looking to buy a business. Um, have a business to sell.

Um, I'm open to having a conversation and, and helping out anyone, uh, any way I can. I, I was helped when I was, uh, looking for advice and it's not easy to find information on this kind of stuff. So if anyone's, uh, looking to connect, uh, always happy to have a conversation with someone.

Mark: Very cool, very cool. And EO members. When you see Greg, let 'em know. You heard or or saw the podcast. Greg, thank you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being vulnerable and explaining your story for us

Greg: Appreciate being on here. It's been a been an honor.

Mark: Well, folks. Thank you. This has been another amazing episode of Leadership in Action. If you learn something today, share it with somebody. If you laughed, share it with somebody. If there's a question you had hoped I would ask, let me know. I'm always looking to get better too. Have a great week, everybody.