Tim Lovett ⛳️

I've started carrying a turf sample everywhere. I carry it openly, sit it on tables, and draw attention to it. People stop me to touch it and ask for quotes for their backyard. Marketing turf doesn't have to be complicated - a bit of pattern disruption does the trick.

What's the worst state unemployment insurance agency to work with as an employer? Michigan is at the top of my list.

@StevenShortino Hard agree - we do a weekly scoreboard Also some other software around financial data

All of our franchisees can publicly view the performance of any open iSmash location. Stores are ranked from first to last in a variety of categories. Competition at the top. Proper embarrassment for the bottom. Big red flag for any franchise system unwilling to do this.

Everyone on X who has been talking about spending 30 hours per week building AI agents for the last 3 months Are still building AI agents 30 hours per week I havent seen any meaningful business progress from anyone who is on this hamster wheel Once use cases are productized, you will be able to pay consultants to do this for you a fraction of what your own hourly rate would have been to do this yourself In the meantime you can sell more and grow your business

@bprintco If you need a good agency, just ask

I'm gonna ruffle some feathers here, so prepare for a dumpster fire of comments... Digital marketing agencies, in their current form, are essentially pointless now. People that charge $3k to $5k a month to manage your website, paid ad campaigns, social media, Google Profile, SEO, and all that crap have become commoditized. X is busting at the seams with these people selling these services, which is why this post is going to get a lot of people fired up. Your knowledge and expertise you've spent years refining is no longer special, unique, or valuable. When I can train an AI by just dumping links to YouTube channels, guides, and posts for the top expert in every one of these specialties and then give it API access to execute all the top strategies for me and my business, then wtf do I need you for? What does any business owner need you for? Truth is... most small business owners hire these agencies and never get results, or only hear from them when their monthly bill is due. They automate crap metric emails that mean nothing and have done nothing to improve anything for their customers. So the small business owner gets frustrated and just moves on to the next company to do the same thing to them. Meanwhile, the agency business model only succeeds in focusing on constant new signups rather than fostering success for their current clients. Gotta ramp up that MRR amirite?! Nah... their days are numbered. A newer, more affordable, and better model is coming to eat their lunch and provide real and consistent value to clients at a fraction of the cost. Some of you guys have figured it out, most haven't. I've been on both sides of this. I've been on the agency side and built thousands of websites, managed online marketing for hundreds of companies, and helped generate many millions of dollars for them. But I've also been on the small business owner side fielding relentless phone calls after being scraped into their prospect lists and watching my small business owner peers consistently get bad results with them and feel like they've been robbed. Nobody ever takes the side of the small business owner because they are by far the minority, especially on X. Agency owners seem to utilize AI tools all day, but in the same breath say they're irreplaceable. Nah dude... you're first on the list.

@DanReese21 Agree Dan - information (much different than knowledge) is commoditized, wisdom is now at a premium

Hard disagree. This is incorrect at best, dangerous at worst. Find someone with real expertise in a subject. Multiple decades of winning, losing, and learning. Have that person press AI about said area of expertise. AI's knowledge will likely be directionally correct, but still surface level and underwhelming. The uninitiated don't know any better and mistake AI as foolproof. False confidence can be dangerous. AI is obviously an incredible tool and accelerator. But to think "knowledge is worth almost zero" is wild to me. In life and business there's endless variables, nuance, and the "human factor". The most valuable knowledge is driven by experience.

@sodacitysimpson Write this on my gravestone

You’re not a visionary, you’re just lazy I can’t tell you how many people have told me “I’m more of a visionary” You’re probably just lazy Execution is where business is fought and won Building an amazing system/team is an excuse 9/10 times Go sell something, everybody has ideas, few can do anything about it Signed A recovering visionary

@SuccessWithJake My inbox runs clean, text messages are a disaster

I never heard back. Was I too harsh?

Franchises are usually talked about as having value from the systems + network Rarely talked about is the value of the network and culture Because standards on who can become a franchisee are high, i regularly wake up to seeing messages like this in our group chat No where other than franchising can you have friendly competition every day of the week within the same exact same business, while owning all the equity upside

Is it just artificial turf or was Feb an all time month for home services?

Waterloo Turf’s first annual conference was ELECTRIC @brianbeers brought the heat talking delegation and cash flow as a franchisee @AustinMDistel discussed how to grow your business through proven marketing strategies We gave away a no-expense-spared Caribbean Vacation for two to the franchise owner who cut the best s seam Announced a 2027 fly fishing, turkey hunting, and whiskey tasting trip with my business partner and I in the blue ridge mountains for the top two franchise owners of 2026 And learned financing strategies in selling turf, how to construct championship level greens, and gave out a bunch of awards. This conference will be 3-4x the size next year - it’s about to be a BIG year in the artificial turf world!

We cut Turf at the Turf Conference

There are some incredible deals on truck leases right now. I know this for a fact as I am a terrible vehicle negotiator. I should not be getting the deals I am

@joshkadkins Mostly just keeping an eye on artificial turf threads Sometimes they end up being local

@TimLovettTurf Smart smart going to do that and do you look for local Reddit forums or any Turf forum will do?

When it comes to marketing - everyone is looking for a silver bullet. In reality if you want to win in marketing you have to dominate everywhere at all times. A new owner operator doesn’t have the bandwidth to do that in addition to selling and operating. This is why we have hugely invested in the marketing team at the franchisor level at Waterloo Turf. My goal is that by the time the franchise owner shows up to the customers house, the customer has already recognized Waterloo Turf as the authority on Artificial Turf.

@joshkadkins If someone is talking about artificial turf we chime in and offer any thoughts. Been doing this for maybe 6 months now Sometimes will link back to a blog on website or YouTube video which are more conversion focused to the local franchise owner

@TimLovettTurf How are you using Reddit?

When you ask the content employee: "Please make me a hype video for our conference by EOD" 🏌️‍♂️

@joshkadkins This was a banger

@TimLovettTurf 🔥

Not a bad job to wrap up a Wednesday.. onto the next one tomorrow

@elonmusk just poached one of my employees Not sure how to feel about it

Check the FDD for franchisor cash on the balance sheet before you sign with an emerging brand I understand that brands all have their own cash mgmt and treasury strategy, so all their cash won’t just be sitting there But I haven’t heard a good argument yet for an emerging, non brick and mortar, brand to not have at least their own standard item 7 reqs in cash that they require for their own franchisees to have when launching If cash is low AND that emerging brand is working with an FSO, I would have many more questions