Announcer: 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasley Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author, and financial advisor Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. Through his innovative work and the forward-focused forum, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a little fun. Now, let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein: 0:40

Good morning, America. How are you? It's a beautiful sunny day in Philadelphia. It's not always sunny, but today it's sunny in Philadelphia. And I've got a great crew in here this morning. Got TJ Engineering, who hasn't done it for a while. I can't say he's my favorite engineer because that would insult other people, but happy to have you here today, TJ. We've got Ray Loewe in the studio, who's been a frequent uh guest and partner in some of these podcasts. We've got Brad here, who I'll introduce in a minute. We've got Sandy Loewe here today. So uh she doesn't want to be recognized. Anyway, gonna be a great day. So the topic of the day, guys, is domains. And I've talked about this a little bit on the show before, but uh we used to call them areas of life. You know, Ray, in the old in the insurance business, the million dollar round table would be uh the whole person, and they would talk about you know the whole person and talk about you have your family life, your financial life, your business life, your uh your health, your social, you know, and all the community, all the different areas of your life. Um I've come to call them domains because I think sometimes they require separation. You know, it's nice to have all those things going, but I remember being overwhelmed by boy, I gotta manage all these different areas of my life. There's a lot there. Um especially when you're an entrepreneur. I think it's even more so. And so you've got these different domains, and one of the things that I've become aware of is that sometimes you need to separate domains. So, as an example, I have a financial planning business and many of my friends are clients, and many of my clients are friends. And you know, you might be out to dinner and people want to start to talk business. And if the line gets blurry, the relationship can start to get blurry. So I've been very careful to say, you know, that's the that's the domain of our of our client relationship. Um we can talk about it now, but let's get into that mode if we're going to do it, and we've got other people here, maybe it's not the best time. Would you like to do that Monday morning? Uh or you know, vice versa, you know, I'm in a client meeting and say, Hey, I got something personally to talk about. Would you mind if at the end of this we shift domains or should I give you a call tomorrow or whatever it is? But I want people to be aware that that that separation. Um I want to ask how that plays into your your lives. The other thing that we've talked about recently, and you can apply this however you want, is you know, that domain sometimes one domain uh has effects going on, like if your health isn't good, how does that affect another domain in your life and how do you manage that? Or you can just talk about how you use the domains or how you think about them. So, Brad, let's start with you and then I'll ask Ray.

Brad Stephenson: 3:16

Okay. Yeah, um, I think for me, I actually just did an exercise um last week, which was I think there's 112 hours in the day or in the week that if you look at the 112 hours, how do you start breaking down you know, family, work, uh brad time too? Like I like to have a lot of brad time. Um, but when you start breaking it down and saying, well, I could spend 20 hours here, I can spend 10 hours here, 15, you start realizing you actually have a big chunk of time. And you're like, what what have I done with that time before? And usually it could be TV, it could be just sitting around. And I don't think people realize how much time they waste in in a week. And I think when you start documenting that sort of thing, you start realizing, man, if I'm if I'm focused with my calendar, so I'm a big calendar blocker with you know, making sure you're blocking time and uninterrupted time. So in my calendar, how can I make sure that each part of my life, my family, my work, my future, all that stuff, how's that blocked out? And how can I make sure that I'm spending the time I need to in the different areas? So to me, it it it hit it home because I just did the exercise and really it comes back to my mom has dementia. And how can I spend more time with her with like I don't want to I don't want to live with guilt and oh I didn't do this, I didn't do that. So how can I carve out that time to help my dad who's dealing with her, but then also be with my mom and and help help them through this. Uh so it was it was really important, and I think it's it it hit a nerve uh for sure uh when you started talking about today.

Marc Bernstein: 4:56

It's interesting because I've always had like locked in family time or exercise time, physical exercise, or meditation time, which is you know part of my me time or whatever it is, but I never really thought about it to like say to look at it like you said, and say you realize how much time you have that you might not be dealing with any of those things and like what are you doing with that time?

Brad Stephenson: 5:17

Yeah, pretty interesting. Yeah, you only have a certain period of time, right? So you gotta make the most of it and like the amount of time we waste. And then and then usually when I talk to business owners, I I just need more time. Well, no, you don't. You actually don't. You have plenty of time. You're just not you're not specific, you're not clear with what you want. Right. And that's that's how you that's how you start changing.

Marc Bernstein: 5:39

I have those conversations with people as well. Yeah, everybody's got the same amount of time, right? Yeah, that's not nobody's got different amounts of time. Uh Ray, the luckiest guy in the world, what it what's your take on this subject?

Ray Loewe: 5:50

Well, let's go back to something you're familiar with, and that's strategic coach. This was a coaching program we were in for years. And one of the first things that we were taught was to create focus day, buffer days, and free days, and never the three shall mix. And it really did make a big difference in terms of clarity. So, in other words, uh as an entrepreneur, what typically happens is you go to work and you never take vacations because you can't figure out how to get the time to take them. And you never get messes cleaned up because you're always busy about thinking about how to make money. But then the messes get in the way and your wife eventually yells at you it's time to take a vacation. And so that clutters your life. So they divided us up into these three things, and I added one uh along the way, which was an opportunity day, which was uh a day when I could just go on out and explore opportunities without worrying about the current business thing. Just find new things that would allow me to go into different directions. You know, one one other thing uh that goes along with that is uh uh getting rid of things like email. Uh you know, how many times does that dinging phone interrupt your trend of thought or your phone call? And uh people get mad at me because I look at email maybe twice a day, maybe sometimes once a day, and maybe sometimes not even in a day.

Marc Bernstein: 7:21

My experience is less than once a day, but okay.

Ray Loewe: 7:24

So uh and and and for you, Marc, I I make a special exclusion. Once a month, yeah.

Brad Stephenson: 7:30

I always say no ringers, dingers, or dongs. I I turn everything off, no interruptions, uh, nobody can reach me, and my wife knows that, but she can alert me if she needs to. But I like you have to have focused time. If you're allowing everybody to to get into your life and and steal your time from you, you can't have focused time. Uh so I tell if somebody somebody from my work answers the phone, I'm angry because that means they weren't they weren't focused on what they were doing. Let me leave a message and then you schedule a time when you're gonna you're gonna call me back. I don't expect anybody to answer my call.

Marc Bernstein: 8:03

Well, Terray's point, uh because but the way Dan Sullivan talks about it, the founder of Strategic Coach, it's a 24 hours. So if if today is Wednesday, this is a focus day for me, you know, my that not that I don't have family time, not that I don't go home and walk Arlo the dog, or not that I don't hug my wife, but this is a day dedicated to business. That's what it is. The first thing they ha that we I block out when I do my planning, because I still practice this, are the free days. And on a free day, I don't work. So when we're talking about domains, so I didn't want to get into that, but uh but you know, I'll tell clients, you know, this is a free day for me. Can we talk on Monday? Right. You know, and and and it works. And it's and I did and I it got a little blurry because I started a new business. Whenever you start something new, you know, things seem to overtake you. But we went on a two-week vacation, we were talking about it to Alaska recently, and no business. And it was it was so refreshing and rejuvenating, which is the whole idea of that. So we could spend hours just talking about it.

Ray Loewe: 9:05

Yeah, let me add one quick thing. Uh I I had a day in my business life that was very disconcerting to me. My staff told me I was not allowed in the office on Monday. Oh, I remember that. Yeah.

Brad Stephenson: 9:18

It sounds like a great thing.

Ray Loewe: 9:19

They wouldn't let me in. And and I complained about it. I said, It's my office. I'm allowed to be here. And they said, No, we have things to do. If you come in, we don't have anything scheduled for you, you're gonna get in our way and nothing's gonna get done. At least they were honest. So the first Monday that I did that, it was I was miserable. I didn't know what to do. I I went to Barnes and Noble, sat there.

Marc Bernstein: 9:39

Is this pre- or post-coach?

Ray Loewe: 9:41

Oh, this was during coach.

Marc Bernstein: 9:43

Okay. Okay.

Ray Loewe: 9:44

And and the second time it happened, though, I actually picked up the phone, made some calls. We actually made a lot of money that day. So uh yeah, domains are important.

Marc Bernstein: 9:54

Yep. Okay, good. Well, we spent a lot of time on that, and I want to get the Brad story. So, real quick, Ray, who's here with me today, is is um not only the luckiest guy in the world, but he is founder of Changing the Rules Podcast, and his new venture, which you can hear on the show what we just did with Ray Loewe, is Legacy Private Podcasts. Tell your story your way. Brad Stephenson, our guest today, is CEO of co- and co-owner of Newcastle Lawn and Landscape, and founder of Brad Stephenson LLC, Dream Hire. Brad is a passionate leader, entrepreneur, certified behavioral analysis consultant who's dedicated to transforming lives and businesses. As the owner, CEO, and visionary of Newcastle Lawn and Landscape, Brad has successfully guided the company to becoming a thriving enterprise. We'll talk about that. Through his consulting business, Brad Stephenson LLC, he empowers small business owners to achieve transformation, transformative growth, blending strategy with inspiration to help them dream bigger. And we're gonna talk about your big dreams as well. So welcome, Brad. Thanks for having me. So, Brad, tell us we're gonna run a little short of time as we always do. So let's start maybe quickly going through kind of your history of um, you know, how you love mulch. Yeah.

Brad Stephenson: 11:10

Well, it starts when I was two years old. So yeah, I I got a quick uh let's just my my goal is uh to to impact lives, change a hundred thousand lives. That's my goal. And it really started back when I was two years old. Um, you know, I was I was talking to Ray a little bit about my mom and and the dementia, but she had um she was manic depressive bipolar growing up, so I learned a lot of my people skills as a young child growing up. So being able to meet people where they're at and listen to them and feel like what they're going through has been super important for what the next level of my life right now. And I've always built people. No matter where I I was, I always built people up, whether it be in high school where I didn't do well in because I was at ADHD, um, which it was ADD back then, and I thought everybody was calling me stupid, and I told my parents I was gonna kill them. Anyway, we won't talk about that today. That'll be another story maybe for Rick. Um, but no, but just you know, sticking up for kids in in high school, kids that you know maybe had some intellectual disabilities and kids that would be picked on, I would beat them up. I mean, I just I was physical at that point, and it's funny because the teachers used to leave me, leave me go. Like they let they knew what was happening, they knew they couldn't do anything, but I could. So just you know, I've always been a protector. I've always wanted more for others than myself, and it just naturally progressed into you know, 20 years ago, I started at Newcastle, I started as a laborer. Um, you know, we were a small company, we had maybe eight employees at that time, 500, 400 to 500,000 in revenue. But, you know, I knew that there was some growth potential there. I knew the skills that I had they needed. And, you know, through the the trajectory, 20 years being there, you know, I became the CEO of the company, majority shareholder, but I just I cut I kept working. I knew there was an opportunity there, but it all all my opportunities came from growing other people around me. It wasn't just me. It's like when you're lifting people up and and and building them up as you're growing, they start, they start uh building you up. So it's always about people and and how like how can you help more people, and that's that's why I do what I do.

Marc Bernstein: 13:24

And that and I know that translates through all your activities, all the businesses. By the way, transform a hundred lives, just having gotten to know you a little bit, I'm sure you've already done that. 100,000. Oh, 100,000. I'm at I have I'm at 108. Oh, 108. So you're right. Yeah. So you're counting. I am. Well, there's a lot of people's lives you transform that I guarantee you don't even know you transformed just by being in their presence.

Brad Stephenson: 13:48

Yeah, and I I do I do believe that, and really that 100,000, I just needed that that really large goal, that that big hairy, audacious goal, right? Um, to to try to hit. But ultimately it's just one person at a time, one conversation at a time. Um that's that's what I'm after.

Marc Bernstein: 14:05

That's uh that's wonderful. So let talk about I mean you talked about your personal challenges. You well, you also let's talk about you had an addiction challenge. Let's talk about that and and how you met that challenge.

Brad Stephenson: 14:17

Sure. Yeah. So in my early 20s, uh I had a herniated disc in my back. And you know, back in in my early 20s, they didn't want to do surgery. And during that whole opioid crisis crisis, I was a part of that. So over a five-year period, we're st we're still in that, aren't we? Yeah, but it's it's a little different. I'm actually on the board for Karen treatment centers, and the reason why I'm on there because of what I went through. And I don't i it's a disease. It's not it's not something that people want. And for me, like I was given I was given so much Vicodin. Every time I went into the doctor, they'd give me vats of Vicodin. And and like Vats, 500 pills at a shot. And oh, we're gonna be we have holidays coming up. Are you sure you have enough pills? You just gave me 500. How can I not have? So, you know, through through five years of taking Vicodin, I didn't really think about it, but I got two surgeries in those five years. They they kept me on it. The five-year point, they they cut me off because I had my last surgery. I had two surgeries, the same disc space. And by the way, that disc space, L5S1, actually it the nerves go to your groin as well. So being a 20-year-old, and if you can you can paint the picture uh not so not so good. So very uh defeating, very dis depressing. But you know, through that whole thing, you know, I I became addicted. So when I went off uh the Vicadin, I had a nervous breakdown. Uh I was in the middle of my living room, bawling my eyes out, and my wife didn't know what to do with me. Is that the first time you realized you were addicted? Yeah. Well, I didn't even know at that point. I just thought, what is going on? But really, I I I I was telling Ray this earlier. I believe everything happened in my life for a reason. And the reason is to be able to meet people anywhere they are, anywhere they are in life. I can meet anybody in addiction. So I know how it feels. I can meet anybody in depression because I used to think the reason why I think and I know why this was put into my life is because I always told people, just think yourself out of that anxiety, that to just think yourself out. I used to tell my mom that. Well, going through that and feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, knowing you can't do anything, um, was was a blessing. So, you know, getting through that, you know, I had to be on, I was on LexaPro for about a year and I got I got through it. But um, yeah, I think it's just one of those stories now that I can meet people and help people in addiction and build them up from there. That's wonderful.

Marc Bernstein: 16:40

Let's take a quick break and we'll be back in a minute on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 16:46

New Castle Lawn & Landscape isn’t just in the business of landscaping — they’re on a mission to positively impact 100,000 lives through their work. For over 30 years, they’ve helped homeowners and businesses throughout Eastern Pennsylvania transform their properties into spaces where people can live, gather, and thrive. From expert lawn care and professional landscape design to custom outdoor living spaces, lighting, and commercial maintenance services, New Castle brings precision, care, and purpose to every project. Their belief is simple: when a property flourishes, so does the community around it. To learn more or get started, visit NC94.com or call (610) 796-7818. New Castle Lawn & Landscape — impacting lives, one landscape at a time.

Marc Bernstein: 17:30

Impacting lives one one life at a time. I love that, because that's that's you. That's all I do. That's all we do. That's great. That's and people don't think about that in landscaping that that's what you're doing, but you can impact lives in really anything you do if you think about it. So you also had some business challenges. So we talked about the personal challenges. Let's talk about some of the business challenges you've got.

Brad Stephenson: 17:53

Yeah, you know, in the landscape industry, you know, labor is always a hard thing to get. And you know, we deal with the H2B program, which is legal migrant workforce. And in 2018, it's not all of our employees, it's just a a group. In 2018, uh, we were supposed to have 25 guys uh come over. We had the visas set up, but two weeks before the mowing season started, the government told us that we were not gonna get our guys. So that year we um It was the the worst year that we ever had, but we implemented EOS during that year. I hired 80 people, we were left at with two at the end of the year.

Marc Bernstein: 18:25

It's entrepreneurs operating systems for people that yeah.

Brad Stephenson: 18:28

So, you know, but I thought, you know what, we're just gonna get all the crap out of the way. Let's let's start this. We self-implemented, we didn't bring in an integrator, we just self self-implemented. I built a leadership team, we worked through it, uh, and thank God we did. Like it helped us get to where we're at right now, those those issues. And the great book, The Obstacles the Way. I believe that when there's obstacles in your path, that's exactly the path you're supposed to be on. If you have no obstacles, that means you're not challenging yourself enough. But we had some obstacles. I think I cried like every other day. My it was just it was awful. Um, but so good. That that trajectory, so we were at like three million at that point, and now we're gonna be at 13. And that was in 2018. So we had some massive growth after that. And it's because of systems and processes. We didn't have any, we were just kind of going at it, you know, the entrepreneurs, right? Just go figure it out every day, and it doesn't work as you as you grow and scale. You can't scale. And usually the companies I work with they get stuck or hung up in the three to five million dollar range. That's usually the hump where processing people have to come into play, and you really have to get that tightened up in order to get to the next level. Now, our future, you know, we want to get to 50 million. Now we're in more process and more people uh in the future.

Marc Bernstein: 19:45

Uh so uh by the way, as I'm listening to you, I'm listening, you're kind of explaining your uh consulting business as you're going through this, because right, because there were it's your stories, and I'm sure that's what you do with your clients, the way you're handling your own business. Um let's let's skip ahead for a second. Um we have we have probably about seven, eight minutes left. Time flies on the show, but let's go right to your tenure vision. You know, if we're talking, if this is we're now it's October of 2025, if it's October of 35, and you and I are talking, and Ray, we'll all be at the table together, and we're talking, you know, what would have had to happen? It's the like way I like to ask this question, Brad. For in your life, personally, professionally, anything else you want to add in for you to feel that that was a successful 10-year period in your in your in your life and business?

Brad Stephenson: 20:38

Well, I think you know, I don't even remember what answers I gave you, but it probably changed since I talked to you when you gave me the interview question. Uh ultimately, you know, we want to get to 50 million in revenue. Um, why? Well, that's to impact more lives. Um, you know, I think we have a group of people in the landscaping side of things. It's not driven by the money, I just wanted to mention. It's not driven by the money, but you have to have something out there to scale up to that. But it comes back to our mission is changing 100,000 lives. So, you know, changing 100,000 lives, 50 million in revenue, revenue, it could be 100 million, owning the East Coast, whatever, but it's all about impacting lives. I I read a book five years ago. I was in this in a little bit lost in purpose, and I read the book The Second Mountain, and about giving back and the true meaning in life. And once I started leaning into my gifts, giving back, helping others, it's not about me, it's never about me. Man, when you start leaning into that and you help others grow, that's when that's when you really get the rewards. So I tell you, in in 10 years, if I'm talking to you guys, I want to still be there. Like I still want to be in the giving back. I still want to be, you know, in what my I'm here for a reason. Like my purpose, the reason why I'm here, it's not it's not to to mow grass, it's to change people's lives. And that's why and I know. I'm here because of that. So as long as I'm there, I I still want to be married too. I've been married for twelve I'll be married for 25 years. So a 35-year anniversary would be great. Yeah, and my kids, I want some grandchildren. But like the legacy, you know, we talked a little bit about legacy and and and future. Uh but I want if anything, I want people to remember that I did everything I could for others. And it was always about other people.

Marc Bernstein: 22:27

So I am here with change agents today. Ray's changing the rules, you're changing lives. Ray, do you have any questions for Brad you'd like to ask? I'm sure you'd like to.

Ray Loewe: 22:36

Well, I I think uh what he's doing is really interesting because uh with the the vision that he has of changing lives, uh the other stuff's gonna come along and and it's what's really important. And I got news for you, you'll be changing lives for a lot longer than ten years. Uh uh I'm now at the ripe old age of I can't even count that high, but it's well into the eighties, and I live in a community where it's all about changing lives, and it's all about uh giving back and being helpful to other people and and caring about your neighbors. And uh when uh I envision with the kind of employee that you tend to gravitate to, a lot of the lives you're gonna change are built around helping employees build a life. So keep going.

Brad Stephenson: 23:27

Yeah, no, and I I I love that that whole thing. I mean, I think with H2B guys getting their green cards, um, going through that process. You know, the our first H2B guy, Beto, um, he actually became a citizen three years ago. Uh Hugo, my filmographer, he just became a citizen two years ago. So, like giving them you know the right way, giving them that uh that opportunity to become a citizen, uh, it changed their lives. Now Beto you know brought his family over. Two two of his kids went through college, like and seeing that, and a lot of times like I forget about that stuff. Uh it's always about you know helping more. I try not to dwell on you know who I helped, even though I I have to remember it. That's why I have a list and the how I how I impacted, how we impacted their life, how we changed their life.

Marc Bernstein: 24:19

I have a list on my phone and how uh it is a very interesting thing because you're going out not to solve your business problem, you're going out to change lives, and that's solving the business problem, which is really interesting.

Brad Stephenson: 24:30

What I tell my employees too, like when they're building hardscapes and landscapes, they're changing the people's lives that we're working for. Even mowing. When when somebody's working a hard day of work and they come home, they see the nice lines, green lawn, like it's it's gonna make them happy. So my employees are changing lives, which then so then you know the homeowners, well, now they're gonna treat their kids a little bit better, might treat their wife a little bit better, right? So it's it's a bigger picture. It's not just mowing grass. We're that's not what we do. We impact, we change lives in everything we do. You're happiness agents in the city. We're happiness agents.

Marc Bernstein: 25:07

I love that. Um so I know you love obstacles, you mentioned that, but and there will be obstacles getting to your vision, 50 million revenues, changing 100,000 plus lives. So, what what do you foresee in that? You know, what kind of challenges do you think you'll have and and and what strengths you've talked about some of the strengths you've developed, but tell us how that what that all looks like.

Brad Stephenson: 25:28

Well, I can tell you in the landscape industry alone, and the amount of AI and robotics that are coming into the industry is is ridiculous. The amount of private equity that's in our industry is ridiculous. So, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of change that's happening in our industry because again, it's hard. Most companies don't have labor, and most people don't have the people, so we have the people. Now, how can we expand our people and help them by getting more equipment so they're not breaking their backs like me? Like it may I I had two back surgeries, ankle surgery, shoulder surgery, all because I thought I was a hero and I never used equipment. How can I not have that happen to my employees? Uh is is pretty important so they can play with their kids at home.

Marc Bernstein: 26:14

And I'm sure you'll you'll figure out AI, you'll st you'll be you'll be ahead of the curve on that.

Brad Stephenson: 26:20

And that's yeah, and that's the goal. And I'm in the industry and everything, I'm a part of the technology in the industry, so I'm on boards and stuff in the industry, knowing what's coming down the line, making sure I'm ahead of that. Um, because I love the RD as well. As long as my partner does too. Like we're both kind of visionaries. Yeah. Um, you know, my majority. We also have two other partners as well, minority owners. Um so yeah, I think uh just figuring out how to make it easier, how to make it easier for our clients to do business with us as well. Uh I think sometimes we complicate it.

Marc Bernstein: 26:50

Uh a couple quick fire questions. One is books that you like to read. You mentioned the Second Mountain. I wrote that down. I don't know that one, and I do know a lot of the giving books. So we'll check it out. What else? What other books do you like?

Brad Stephenson: 27:02

Leadership and self-deception is a good, a good leadership book. Um it's it's always you, right? Uh look yourself in the mirror. If you have a problem at your at your work or at home, just look at yourself. You're probably there's something that you're doing that's creating that, even though you're affecting people. Um John Maxwell's uh Everybody Communicates, Few Few Connect, that's a good one. Um Jim Rohn, I listen to a lot of Jim Rohn. He's a he's a godfather. Um you listen to the the greats. Yeah, yeah. Um Les Brown, love Les Brown. Uh, but really, you know, the books that I read are they're mainly self-help or uh you know personal development. You know, I think at some point I'm gonna have to do like a fiction or something to try to mix it up a little bit because after a while they all kind of blend together.

Marc Bernstein: 27:50

But uh I'm trying to do that too, because I read the same kind of books you do.

Brad Stephenson: 27:53

I've never read a book from I I've never read a book. It's always I learn, I learn differently, but audible, I am constantly listening to books.

Marc Bernstein: 28:03

Um I think that's all we have time for. So uh great to have you here today, Brad. Ray, always a pleasure to have you here. Thank you. And thank you all for listening and look forward to speaking with you again next week on Founders Forum. Have a great day, have a great week, and uh keep keep uh enjoying the sun.