Pod Insights Green Industry Podcast Financial Margin: The Secret to Opportunity About this episode Unpack the power of maintaining financial margin to unlock new possibilities in your life. 📚 Level Up Your Money (New Release) 👉 Get Your Paperback Copy! 🎧 Level Up Your Money (Audiobook) 👉 Listen on Audible 🎟️ Equip Expo 2025 👉 Save 50% off Equip Expo Ticket w/ Promo Code PAUL: Register Here 📲 Connect with Paul - Visit Official Website 🛠️ Paul's Recommended Tools & Professionals 💻 Horizon360 – All-in-one contractor business software: gethorizon360.com 📞 CallRail – Track where your leads are coming from: callrail.com 📚 The Landscaping Bookkeeper – Know your numbers, stress less: thelandscapingbookkeeper.com 📈 Lawn Care Launch: Click Here (new program for business owners) 🌐 Footbridge Media – Get a pro lawn care website: footbridgemedia.com 🎬 VIP On-Demand: Lawn Care Life Conference 🎥 Watch All Replays Now — Includes Brandon Gray, Andy Mulder, Jason Creel, Paul Jamison & more. Learn pricing, profit, burnout prevention, and how to scale smart. 📦 Business-Building Resources by Paul Price Increase Letter Template Contract Templates Know Your Numbers 📚 Paul's Most Popular Business Books How to Build a Thriving Lawn Care Business: Buy on Amazon Cut That Grass and Make That Cash: Buy on Amazon Level Up Your Money (New Release): Buy Now 🌿 Paul's Online Banking Recommendation Relay's Online Banking: Open an Account
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Motive. Growing a landscaping company means more trucks, more trailers and more equipment and more revenue doesn't always mean more profit. Motive gives you one platform to see where your vehicles and equipment are, cut idle time and fuel waste and protect your crews with AI dash cams. Motive customers report 20% annual savings on maintenance and fuel. See what it could do for your business at gomotive.com. Again, that's gomotive.com.
0:31 Speaker 01 Hello and welcome to the Green Industry Podcast, your go-to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host, Paul Jameson, is the author of five bestselling books, including Cut That Grass and Make That Cash and his latest, Level Up Your Money, all available on Amazon and Audible. Now get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jamison.
1:08 Speaker 00 Thanks for tuning in. Today on the program, we're going to talk about financial margin in our life. Do you have margin in your life? Meaning when you look in your bank account, is there some savings in there? Is your income much larger than your expenses? Or you have that breathing room? Hopefully the answer is yes. But if you are where I used to be stressed out, right? You run your debit card and you're like, I hope this thing works, right? You're Robin Peter to pay Paul. You're waiting for that next paycheck just so you can make your payments and it's the rat in the wheel financially. Well, we're going to talk today about how we can build that financial breathing room
1:52 Speaker 00 and get margin in our life. Before we dive into today's podcast, I want to say thank you for, thank you to our episode sponsor, Relco. So Kohler Engines is now Relco. And I'm going to be having a podcast interview with them air very soon where they explain. Everything you could want to know about that change acquisition, but basically Kohler Engines, as we've known them, they've been around for such a long time, such a great reputation of powerful engines, durable engines, reliable engines. I went to their facility years ago in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and actually watched them make the engines, which was super cool. I mean, they have like a warehouse where they put them all together
2:37 Speaker 00 and everything. Well, anyway, same great engine. It's just a new name on the company now, which is Rehleco, R-E-H-L-K-O. So thanks to them for sponsoring today's program. My new audiobook is out, Level Up Your Money. And in each chapter, we do something called a author interview, where Mr. Producer interviews me to talk about that chapter. And so recently, Mr. Producer and I sat down to record these, and I want to give you a little sneak peek into our author interview from chapter five about the power of financial margin. How do we create space for growth, for opportunity, for peace of mind, where our income is greater than our expenses, and our savings and our investments build this cushion in our life
3:22 Speaker 00 where we can have peace and breathing room? Let's talk about it.
3:28 Speaker 01 Paul, I absolutely love that chapter, bringing in some real life information from people that we've watched on TV. And I think all of us have experienced lifestyle creep in some form or fashion. We've seen how it can erode the financial margin that you were talking about. How have you dealt with that in your own life? Or as you've seen it in others, what type of advice are you giving these days?
3:54 Speaker 00 Yeah, well, I've definitely experienced this, which is a negative experience, but it gave me some wake up calls because when the income starts getting bigger, we just start justifying, oh, well, you know, I can get a little bit nicer of a house. Well, then you get the nicer house, and then the property taxes are a lot more, and you need more furniture, and there's more upkeep. And the next thing you know, your income went up, but your expenses... Went up to be at the same level of your income, or even worse, your expenses actually bumped up beyond your new income. And so I think with housing, it's a temptation. Oh, we're making more money, right? Let's get a little bit nicer of a place. And that that's a big temptation.
4:38 Speaker 00 The luxury car one is is a huge one that I see in our industry. I just see people putting on Instagram their newest, brand new truck or brand new. What I'm not going to say here, name, names of vehicles and people are, you're talking about me, Paul. Well, I am talking about.
4:54 Speaker 01 If you just bought that brand new SUV for $70,000, Paul is talking about you.
5:01 Speaker 00 Because that's a depreciating asset. So if you would have put that money into the S and P 500 or in some kind of good mutual fund that's going up eight, 10, 12% every year, your money is now growing for you, building your wealth, rather than that $70,000 SUV that's going down in value. And five years from now, that SUV is going to be worth nowhere near 70,000. And, and you, and you know, there's other cars with the same tires, the same windshield, the same engine or near same engine that will get you from point A to point B. But lifestyle creep for me where it got me, you know, I got a Honda Accord. So you don't see me out there, you know, whipping around in my BMW. But what got me was dining out DoorDash. I
5:45 Speaker 00 stopped that habit. But, but DoorDash makes it so easy. You just click a couple buttons and the next thing you know, I got First Watch, you know, sitting out at my door, which was my go to. There's a breakfast place around here called First Watch. And, you know, it's like 20 bucks a pop. Well, I can make my eggs from, from shopping. I shop at a place called Aldi here. And I can get eggs for really cheap and some like bagels and whatnot. I can make my own breakfast for like $2, maybe $3. Versus, you know, 20, 25 bucks on DoorDash. And you do that a couple of times a day. So the food out is a big lifestyle creep. And then I just got back on a vacation that I spent too much on because once you get there,
6:27 Speaker 00 there's all kind of other expenditures you didn't quite think through with eating at the hotel and stuff like that. One lifestyle creep, I was just checking this this morning. Is on my phone, I was looking at have nine active subscriptions.
6:41 Speaker 01 I was just about to ask about subscriptions because death by subscription, I think is could be a great follow up chapter.
6:48 Speaker 00 Yeah. And thankfully, my nine, they're all very justifiable. I mean, I'm using, I went through all nine and I'm like, I'm using that for my business. I'm using that for my business. I'm actually using that. All of them, the nine that I have are, you know, serving me in some way, bringing me an ROI, making my life more efficient and they're all, they're all justifiable. But there's a section on my phone that said expired subscriptions and I had NFL plus, right? Cause when the Browns were out of market, I wanted to listen to them lose. And I had MLB plus, when the Indians were in the playoffs back a few years ago, I was listening to all the radio games of the Indians losing. Cleveland sports are just a waste of my time and life and money.
7:30 Speaker 01 We've noticed that theme through these author interviews.
7:33 Speaker 00 I was spending money on it and, and, and I have the, so I, I, I don't know if I wised up, but the season ended and then I'd cancel it. And, and so I'm tempted not to, you know, I'm tempted to get it back, but this year I ain't doing it because the Browns made me so mad when they, they passed on Travis Hunter. And then in the second round, they draft, they could have drafted Travion Henderson, probably one of the best running backs at Ohio State's history. This guy could block, like when you're going back to pass, he's a great blocker. He's a great runner. He's a guy to, you know, clean, lose a clean life. And they didn't pick him and they picked this other thug who's not even going to play this year because he has domestic stuff going on. And I got so mad when they didn't pick Travion Henderson and then they got rid of Nick Chubb. I literally don't know if I'm drafting Cleveland Browns
8:18 Speaker 00 this year because I'm like, you could have had Travion Henderson and Nick Chubb as your running backs and they're so, you know, stupid that they send Nick Chubb away and then they, they, they, they draft a criminal. And so anyway.
8:34 Speaker 01 Well, part of my job is to rein you back in. And I know, I know we touched a nerve there. Obviously looking at the biblical foundation of everything is a sinner because the, the whole book is exploring these biblical principles that will lead to financial success. And what does the Bible have to say about margin?
8:58 Speaker 00 Well, I definitely, I definitely think that the most convicting verse says that a fool gulps everything they got down, but the wise stave up for the future. So when we receive our income, the foolish thing to do would be to gulp it all down, to spend it all.
9:21 Speaker 01 Consume it all right away. Yes.
9:23 Speaker 00 Right. So Warren Buffett says that you should save first and then spend whatever's left. And I think the average, at least here in America, the average person, they spend first, right? They pay their mortgage or rent, they pay their groceries, they pay everything first. And then if there's anything left over, they consider it a little bit of savings. But that's, that's the opposite of what the Bible, the Bible talks about in the house of the wise. There's, you store up choice oil and food and you, you save first and then from there you, you consume. And so I think that's the biblical example for us and warning not to be a fool.
10:06 Speaker 00 If the Bible calls you a fool, well, what did you got, what do you got to do to earn that title as a fool? And it's simply gulp it all down. And I used to be a fool. I used to, not that I made a lot of money, but what did come in, you know, went to Wendy's and, and Arby's and Taco Bell and, and, and the, uh, this shirt I'm wearing here, I know you're listening to an audio book, can't see it, but this, this thing I got off Amazon Essentials, I got a six pack of these. They were super comfortable and I think it was like 25 bucks for six of these shirts. But back when I was young and dumb, I went to Lululemon and I paid $80 or $70.
10:42 Speaker 01 For one shirt, right?
10:43 Speaker 00 One shirt. Honestly, this, this shirt right here is more comfortable. This Amazon Essentials six pack for like 25 bucks. So, um, the, the, the fool gulps it all down. The wise person looks ahead and says, you know what, I'm going to save and I'm going to invest for the future first. And then after I do that first, we'll worry about, you know, shelter.
11:09 Speaker 00 Horizon 360 is a problem.
11:11 Speaker 02 Sponsor of the Green Industry Podcast and I have a promotion today to help simplify your day-to-day operations with Horizon 360's real-time equipment tracking, you can gain immediate actionable insights into your fleet's performance, whether it's tracking location, usage, or maintenance needs. This means you can make smarter decisions on the fly, reduce unnecessary downtime, and ultimately cut costs while boosting productivity. It's a game changer for contractors who need to stay on top of their equipment without guesswork. Head to the show notes and enter the promo code PAUL for an exclusive seven-month free trial of Horizon 360. Your lawn care business deserves to be seen.
11:53 Speaker 02 Footbridge Media crafts optimized, mobile-ready websites to put you ahead. These guys are great. That's why they have so many five-star reviews. They're simply the best. To get started with Footbridge Media and have them create you a banger of a website, visit today's show notes, click on that link, and let Footbridge Media transform your online presence.
12:17 Speaker 01 And do you have a specific plan that you put into place? Do you have certain buckets that you like to fill up when you get your paycheck? Do you automatically, I guess some people are familiar with the old Dave Ramsey envelope method, where you, you put money into these certain envelopes and that's what you have to spend. What in practicality is your plan for executing what you've taught in this chapter?
12:43 Speaker 00 Yeah, so in the multitude of counselors, there's safety. So I'm very, very thankful for my bookkeepers, Joey, Megan, Coburn Lee, and I'm thankful for my budget consultant. Her name's Leila Kartferoche. And so Leila and I, we meet at the end of every month. And what we do at the beginning of our meeting, we, we look back and we study, how did the previous month go financially? Like here's what we expected to come in. Did I get paid from everybody? And then here's what we planned to spend, save, and invest. Did I, did I follow that? So I'm doing it by a monthly review. And then what we do is we Set the budget for the next month. So I already know, we, we met at the last, you know, the last, or it might've been the second to last day, last month.
13:28 Speaker 00 So this, this month, we planned, okay, I'm going to invest this amount into my individual 401k this month. I'm going to invest this amount into my tax savings, you know, plan. Based off of what we forecasted, I'm going to receive an income this month. I, you know, um, budgeted what we're going to spend on groceries and rent and all of this stuff. So I'm, I'm always looking ahead of the month and I already kind of have a plan. Here's the amount that my goal is to put into my investments. Here's my amount of what I'm spending, uh, cause I have a trip coming up this month, a personal trip. Uh, with family. So I budgeted a thousand dollars ahead of time. Knowing that when I'm out on that trip, I've already allocated that I'm going to enjoy a thousand dollars at the,
14:13 Speaker 00 you know, the hotel and eating out and all that stuff. But it's already, it's already planned and it's already budgeted. So I don't necessarily have buckets and percentages and things of that nature. I have a real life meeting with a, a, a certified consultant. Who helps me each month, because every month's very different. And so every month before the month starts, we have a plan. Here's what we're going to save. Here's what we're going to invest. Here's what we're going to spend. Here's what we're going to give. Um, so that's, that's kind of what works best for me. Cause then I don't, I'm not making the decisions. I'm, uh, Layla's helping me. Say, hey, you really need to remember to put money into your Roth IRA and solo 401k. Let's, how much we're going to do this month. And then,
14:54 Speaker 00 you know, it's, it's, it's good to have a consultant who we've already talked about what the goals are long-term. So month by month of making sure we're going, we're going on that path and, and the money is being invested in appreciating assets that are going up in value, like in the stock market typically goes up eight, 10, 12% with my investments. Or more, this year's been great, but um, avoiding those depreciating assets. That's why I drive a Honda Accord and rather put my money in the stock market.
15:23 Speaker 01 You concluded the chapter by saying, "By prioritizing financial margin, you'll set yourself up for peace, prosperity, and long-term success." What type of peace and prosperity have you been experiencing as a result of implementation?
15:41 Speaker 00 Well, just the absence of the stress is peace. That's more than enough for me because when I was running, for a while I was running my expenses above my income. And when you're doing that, you're, "I need to get paid from this customer because I gotta pay this bill. I gotta, I gotta pay paid here because I got this." And you're, it's a constant juggling act of like, you gotta get the next payment so that you can, you can get caught back up with the next expense. And so, once that margin, once, once those expenses started diminishing and getting lower, and my income started getting higher, and there started to be a gap there, the margin there,
16:20 Speaker 00 all of a sudden, I wasn't stressed out about, you know, so-and-so payment, you know, coming through because everything, there's margin built in. I have money in my business expense account to pay all my business expenses, and I have money in my checking account personally to pay my, you know, expenditures, and it just, it just gives me peace. So, because for so long I operated with my income and expenses too close together, or even worse, my expenses above my income, now that the gap is widening, it's so peaceful. It's so, it's so relieving, I think would be a good word.
17:00 Speaker 00 And I never want to go back. I never, ever, ever want to go back where I'm stressed out about money like I used to be. When I wasn't following these biblical principles, I was following impulse and arrogance that I could outearn my stupidity because I'm a go-getter and I got, you know, I'm not afraid of working and trying new things and whatnot. So, I always just thought, "Well, I'll just go make more money." And that's not always how it works.
17:29 Speaker 01 If you're the type of person that struggles to focus, or you're easily distracted, Chapter 6 is perfect for you.
17:54 Speaker 01 Hey, it's Marty, producer of the Green Industry Podcast. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services that you heard about during the episode. And thanks for listening.
Previous Your Net Worth Starts with Your Network Next Mastering Social Media Marketing for Your Lawn Care Business, Part 1 Page updated November 10, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
