Thursday Feb 13, 2025
6: The John Lane Episode
In this episode, host Sid Graef interviews John Lane, founder of Castle Rock Lawn and Sprinkler. With over 40 years of entrepreneurial experience, John still feels like he’s just getting started. He talks about starting multiple lawn-care ventures, why he’s now franchising in his 70s, and what continues to drive him after decades in the industry. John’s story reveals the power of consistent learning, strategic acquisitions, and disciplined systems—particularly how a simple online scheduling calendar helped scale his lawn and sprinkler blowout services from zero customers to thousands of automatic appointments each season. If you’ve ever thought you’re “too old” or “too late” to reinvent your business, John proves otherwise.
SHOW NOTES
- Zig Ziglar
- Winston Churchill Quotes (e.g., “Never, never, never quit”)
- Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
- Landscape Workshop (example of large-scale acquisitions)
- Castle Rock Lawn and Sprinkler (John Lane’s company)
- The Huge Convention (largest annual event for home service businesses)
- Huge Mastermind (for businesses $750K+)
- Huge Foundations Platform
- The Huge Insider Newsletter Signup
- Huge Insider Downloadable Action Guide
TRANSCRIPT
Sid (Host):
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast. I’m Sid Graef out here in Montana.
Gabe (Co-Host):
And I’m Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. We are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders and owners in the industry—folks that have already built seven- and eight-figure home service businesses and want to help you succeed. There are no fake gurus on this show, just real-life owners who’ve been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100 percent experience, 0 percent theory.
We’re going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on this wild journey of entrepreneurship. Let’s dive in.
Sid (Host):
Hi, my friend. This is Sid with the Huge Transformations Podcast. Today’s interview was a lot of fun, for a lot of reasons. If you have the opportunity, you gotta look it up on YouTube because while we were doing the interview, it was on video over StreamYard, and I swear I thought I was talking to Harrison Ford—John Lane looks like Harrison Ford, talks like him, and he’s got the wisdom and charisma of Harrison Ford. But let me tell you a bit about John: he’s been in business for a long time. Most people with his maturity and wisdom would already be retired, but not John.
He’s owned a landscape-installation company and a sprinkler company for years—it’s highly successful. I asked him how much time he spends in the company. Is it 100 percent, 50 percent, 25 percent? He said he’s at 44 percent, so he could effectively be retired, collect a check, let younger guys do the work. But no—he steps up his game, says every year he’s always looking at what’s next. He’s got a bigger future planned, including franchising his operation. So he views today as day one, even though he’s been doing this for over 30 years. You’re going to love this conversation. I got so inspired talking to John, and I hope you do too. Please meet John Lane.
Sid (Host):
Thanks for joining us today. We have John Lane on the Huge Transformations Podcast with us today. John is in the Denver, Colorado area; he owns Castle Rock Lawn and Sprinkler. And John, thanks for joining us. You’ve been at it for a good while. You’ve got vast experience in business.
John (Guest):
Yes, indeed. I started in business when I was basically 27, and now I’m almost 72, so that’s a lot of years of back-alley beatings.
Sid (Host):
That’s why I’m so excited to have you on the show—most pop-culture success stories are about someone making millions in five years with an app, but that’s a unicorn scenario. Often, people don’t make it past five or ten years, so hearing from someone with 30 or 40 years of experience gives a whole different perspective.
John (Guest):
You make a good point. You see those overnight success stories, and you wonder, “Where did I miss the boat?” because I’ve been grinding forever. But it just takes time. Even now, I’m still a guy trying to learn, going to events, talking to people, walking humbly because this road can be perilous. The moment you think you know it all, you’ll slip. So I keep learning. The last few years especially, because I was able to remove myself from the day-to-day with my general manager, and now I can lead the organization and take us further.
I’ve been in lawn care since 1998, with a break in between. I sold one company, traveled, came back to this particular one about ten years ago, started from scratch—no customers, just me. Today we have nearly 6,000 customers, plus a full staff. Experience really helps once you already know the road.
Sid (Host):
Yeah, that first conversation you and I had, I asked how involved you still are. You said maybe 8 percent?
John (Guest):
Something like that, yeah. You see, if something happens to me, my wife doesn’t have to jump in and figure out how to run it. But personally, an older man looks forward to the next day of work. I love having a place to go, a purpose. I enjoy learning, meeting new folks like you at the Mastermind. I’m just trying to find my way, even now.
Sid (Host):
That’s fantastic. Contrast now with the early days. Back then, you were all hustle. Now, a different purpose. So what is your purpose or vision now?
John (Guest):
Locally, I want to be a good employer, provide jobs that let employees buy a home. I want to be reliable to suppliers and customers. Also, I love solving the puzzle—how do we get from here to there. That’s what keeps me motivated. And that’s how I ended up at your Mastermind in Nashville. You did this exercise about “Where you are now, remove a zero, how long did it take, now 10X again.” I’d been thinking about franchising for a year and a half, but in that moment, a little voice said, “Now’s the time.” When I got back, I contacted a consulting firm, and we’re rolling to franchise. So thank you for that. That was huge.
Sid (Host):
Glad it sparked something. That’s great. So you want to franchise. Five years down the road, what does that look like?
John (Guest):
The consulting firm laid out a business plan calling for 56 units in five years. We’re focusing on the front range of Colorado first, maybe some of my key employees will buy in. That was the idea: give them a chance to build real wealth, not just a decent wage. My guys earn 80 to 100 thousand a year for about 35 weeks of work and then get 17 weeks off. That’s not bad, but the franchise is a bigger step.
Sid (Host):
So you’re not just coasting. You’re accelerating.
John (Guest):
I am. I used to do everything alone, but that was the slow way. Now I see the value in connecting with bigger businesses or other trades to see what’s possible, like how you or someone might run a $10 million or $20 million operation. That helps me accelerate.
Sid (Host):
You also mentioned you started from scratch in the new iteration. You said “no customers,” and you had a truck and a compressor. Didn’t you mention you built an online scheduling system?
John (Guest):
Yes, exactly. About 10 years ago, I had a truck, a compressor, and I ran a Google AdWords campaign, plus an online scheduling calendar. I’d just forward that phone number to my cell. I went to bed, and the next morning, someone had already scheduled a blowout. Over 30 days, I ended up doing 200 customers for the winterization season. That was the beginning of what we have now.
Back then, the big breakthrough was attaching a scheduling calendar to that landing page. It was a system designed for, like, barbershops or massage parlors, but I adapted it. We basically built the business around that scheduling calendar. This spring or this fall, whenever I send an email campaign through Mailchimp that says, “It’s time to schedule your blowout,” in less than one minute, the first appointment is booked. Over the next week, we might schedule 1,000. Last season we did about 6,000 appointments, and 5,500 of them were scheduled online without ever talking to the customer on the phone. That was a huge win. So I can manage it with one office person. It’s insane how a little technology and an automated approach can change your life.
Sid (Host):
That’s amazing. So from day one, you recognized the power of that scheduling link. Because 5,500 appointments is a lot to handle manually.
John (Guest):
Yes, without it, we’d need a big call center. The automation is crucial. People want to book at midnight or on Sunday, so we let them. That’s been a huge success factor.
Sid (Host):
I love it. So you’re also looking at acquisitions to expand?
John (Guest):
Yes, absolutely. I used to think organic growth was the only way, but then I saw bigger companies do 21 acquisitions in a year. I realized if you have a system, it’s simpler to buy existing customer bases than fight for them. So we recently acquired a 3,000-customer company south of us, and I’m looking at a similar one north of us. Once I plug them into my scheduling and operating system, it’s seamless. That’s definitely a big growth strategy now.
Sid (Host):
Where’d you get the vision or the patience to think so long-term?
John (Guest):
Meeting bigger players, attending workshops, seeing how they do it. It’s an ongoing learning process. I used to be a lone wolf, but I realized life is easier when you partner or buy. I try to share that with other folks: get out, meet people, join masterminds, come to The Huge Convention, see what’s out there.
Sid (Host):
So, final question: a piece of advice for someone at seven figures who wants to reach eight, in the lawn care or any home service?
John (Guest):
Don’t quit. You’ll face obstacles. Keep learning, keep building relationships, see how bigger shops do it. If you persist and keep your mind open, you can achieve big-time growth.
Sid (Host):
John, thanks for your time.
John (Guest):
Thanks, Sid.
Sid (Host):
Hello, my friend, this is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking your time to listen to today’s episode. I hope you got some value from it. Anything covered—books, tools, references—are in the show notes. Our goal with the Huge Convention and this podcast is to help you gain financial and time freedom by running a better business. We do that with four main paths: the free Huge Insider newsletter, the Huge Foundations education platform with 120+ hours of training, the Huge Convention every August, and the Huge Mastermind if you’re at $750K and aiming for $1M, $5M, or $10M in the next five years. You can find it all at https://www.thehugeconvention.com. If you enjoyed the show, please give us a review on iTunes, then subscribe and share. That helps more people discover these resources. Keep on growing, keep on learning, and we’ll see you on the next episode.
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