Changing the Straw Industry
In this episode of the Green Industry Perspectives Podcast, Ty Deemer welcomes Matt Lowe, owner of Swift Straw.
Innovation has been at the heart of Swift Straw’s growth. Change can make people uncomfortable, but Matt Lowe’s vision has always been to disrupt the straw industry for the better. Rolls and bags are replacing bales, allowing for increased shipping capacity. However, there is a shortage of equipment, labor, and straw. Matt dives into all this and more in the episode.
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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
- The role innovation has played in Swift Straw’s success
- How obstacles become opportunities
- Why government policy is hurting the industry
- The importance of having a business mentor
LINKS TO LOVE:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Ty Deemer:
You’re listening to The Green Industry Perspectives Podcast, presented by SingleOps, a podcast created for green industry professionals looking for best practices, tactics, and tips in running their tree care or landscape business.
All right, everyone, welcome back to Green Industry Perspectives. My name is Ty Deemer. I’m your host and on the marketing team here at SingleOps, and today we’ve got a great episode with you. Someone that is very close to SingleOps and well-known in the Atlanta area. We have Matt Lowe, the CEO of Swift Straw joining us to talk about their business. Matt, welcome to the show.
Matt Lowe:
Hey, welcome. Thanks for having me.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah, absolutely. Matt, like we talked about a second ago before we hit record, we ask our guests the same question to kick off every episode to provide immediate value for our audience, and the question’s really straightforward. In your experience, what have been the top two to three things that you believe have led to Swift Straw’s success over the years?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah, great question. The first thing that comes to mind, when I [inaudible 00:01:12] I dropped my pen. When I sat down initially and sketched out the business plan or the idea for Swift Straw on the yellow pad, the initial vision from the very beginning was to create a hundred-million-dollar business. I really think about the fact that we all are kind of limited by our own expectation and the fact, for better or worse, that the bar was set at a hundred I think has been a big contributing factor to our expectation of ourselves and the growth that we want to foster.
We obviously experience challenges every day that a lot of businesses that aren’t growing at our pace experience, but being kind of focused on the expectation of getting to that initial mark, it just makes it part of the journey and makes it acceptable. I think it’s created a guiding North Star for our business that just the bar might be set a little bit higher than somebody with a lesser expectation or a group of people with a lesser expectation.
Ty Deemer:
Absolutely. Yeah, I love that because, I mean, you just set the goal from day one and it was lofty and it drives every decision you make today. That’s the beauty of a North Star metric. I will say for Green Industry Podcast, that might be the first time North Star’s ever been brought up on our show, but for SaaS businesses that’s pretty normal.
Matt Lowe:
Yeah, exactly. The second thing is along with the initial milestone or the initial North Star, we came up with a guiding mission and purpose. Our mission’s been from the very beginning to change the industry forever. We were very fortunate to come into a category that hadn’t innovated in a long time, really since inception, so we entered a space that’s a pretty good-sized niche within the greater green industry, but there’s not great data around it, unfortunately.
Let’s assume that there’s 500, 600, maybe $700 million worth of pine straw sold every year, and when we entered the category, it was still being hand-raked, put into wooden boxes, close the lid, hand-tie it with string, and that was the process. We were very fortunate to enter a space where we could come in and completely disrupt it through innovation. Having that as a mission ended up… Of course, we also created a purpose to empower people to become the best version of themselves by constantly improving jobs and the status quo and making the impossible possible.
When you combine that type of a purpose with a very disruptive, exciting mission, that I would say is probably the second-most important step is we knew what the North Star was, but the mission and purpose kind of dictates what kind of company we’re going to build and how we’re going to conduct ourselves and it kind of guides the day-to-day and the year-to-year a little bit more than just the overarching lofty North Star that were going for.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah, and that’s so true, too, because before any episode, I always like to check out the company I’m interviewing’s website and the different messaging they have. That’s literally front and centerfold on Swift Straw’s website, disrupting the straw industry. Your team has some videos, your team has… Like even just what you say on your website, it’s clear that’s the tone you bring probably even in your business deals of like, “Look, we’re not just in this industry, we’re disrupting it. We’re changing it.” When you believe in that messaging and it seeps into all parts of your business, especially in an industry that’s been doing it the same way because they’ve always done it that way, it’s probably been a huge reason for y’all’s rapid growth.
Matt Lowe:
Yes, for sure. I mean, we were not welcomed in the space by the original players before us, but no, it’s been very clear from the very beginning. We’re here to change everything about it for the better. We’re here to innovate. We’re here to create a better customer experience. We’re here to create a better product that shipped easier, that’s produced easier. We’re here to create efficiency, automation. I always tell our team, “We’re not here to have a seat at the table. We’re here to put the table over and set up a new table.”
It’s an ongoing journey, but I am excited to mention that what that evolution has looked like is we have introduced mechanical harvesting into the fields. We have introduced innovative products that are replacing those old hand rakes. We have changed the product norms in the industry. They used to be string-tied bales. If you go to any Home Depot in the country right now, you’re going to see a net-wrapped roll that comes from our machines. You go to… At this point, we’re probably in the thousands of retailers now that have our bagged products.
That was a concept that we came up with to solve for how messy bales were. If you didn’t have a truck or a trailer, people would throw bales in their car and it would take them a month to clean up all of the debris, and so the compression bag product solves for that. It’s palletized. It ships easier and we’ve got a patent on it, thankfully, so we’re able to protect that one. No, it’s been a constant evolution of raising the bar, challenging the way it’s always been done. Coming up with new and better ways to do things and now, thankfully, you can actually see it in the markets now. You’re going to see a lot more rolls. You’re going to see a lot more bags and you’re going to see a lot fewer bales over the coming years.
Ty Deemer:
That’s awesome. Do you have a third point you want to go through?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. I mean, I’m sure it’s probably not a huge surprise, but along with creating a mission and a purpose is we had to create core values that determine who we want to be. What kind of company do we want to be in the market? How do we want people to see us? Those values, I think, have guided us on the people that we bring on the team. Faith is our number one core value. That’s the only value that we have that will never change. Every couple of years we get together and we challenge the core values that we have, and we’re actually about to go through that process here pretty soon where we’re going to say, “Look, things have changed a lot in the last two years since we refreshed our core values.”
Faith, that’s the only one that will not change, but the rest of them are up for debate as we continue to grow, but the core values that we come up with as a business, that determines the kind of people that we want to attract and the type of people that makes sense to be a part of our team. Growth mindset has been one that’s been with us from the very beginning.
If you’re not comfortable challenging the status quo every single day, if you’re not comfortable with being uncomfortable, if you’re not comfortable with balancing… executing on a normal business that’s trying to grow at a rapid rate, but also juggling three to five long-term initiatives that aren’t even going to come to fruition for the next three years, it’s a lot.
Again, the values have dictated the type of people that we attract and people that are onboard with us and stay with us. Of course, those people at this point are the reason that we are where we are.
Ty Deemer:
Absolutely. We’re going to dive like probably into all three of those topics a little more as we go on throughout the show, but I always kind of like to have the guest provide their background, not just professionally in what all Swift Straw’s doing, what you’ve already touched on a little bit, but also you personally. What did it look like for you to step into the green industry? You talked about the ideation process of having that yellow legal pad and thinking of a business, but talk to me through like your story today and really the progression of Swift Straw as well because y’all have had really impressive growth.
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Just a little background. From Atlanta and went to Auburn, as we discussed before. I’ve been very fortunate to work with different mentors, and prior to Swift Straw, worked with a very successful investment group here in town, a guy named Lee Woodall who’s just been a super instrumental mentor of mine and just taught me so many different things. Lee’s got a very contrarian approach to investing, and so learning from him I’ve always had this kind of contrarian approach, a contrarian approach to different business opportunities.
Based on some of the other mentors I’ve had in the past, I’ve always wanted to build an operating company, and so to take some of the things that I learned on the investing side and apply to building something that is so much bigger and greater than any individual and, of course, so much bigger than something I can do myself.
Swift Straw was really the culmination of learning some unbelievable things from prior mentors and business partners, learning different investment strategies, and I actually went to Richard Branson’s Necker Island, golly, 10 years ago. Just an entrepreneur friend of mine invited me and, of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend some time with him, and so just leading up to that trip, I read everything I possibly could about Richard Branson and his approach to strategy and disruption and entrepreneurship.
That planted a lot of seeds in my mind about, what does it mean to disrupt an industry? What does it mean to enter a category and totally flip it on its head, but it’s for the better? It’s not like you’re coming in and ruining something for no reason. You’re challenging the old way of doing it and creating a better way, and so disruption combined with innovation, it’s a positive all the way around.
Swift Straw, it was really for me just kind of a culmination of all of these awesome mentors and ideas and a little bit of a contrarian, disruptive nature already, and then the desire to create something that’s not only much greater and larger than myself, but an operating company is a beautiful thing because it builds on itself. Like an investment, that’s a great decision by one person. An operating company is a group of people that are aligned by a common goal and a common mission. There’s no limit to what that can become, and that was what was really exciting for me is my job is to sort of cast the initial vision and maybe to help set up the initial infrastructure. Beyond that, it’s my job is to serve that company in a way that it can compound and grow itself.
I’m certainly learning every day on how to be better at serving those people, serving the business in a way that can continue to compound and grow, but at least that’s kind of at this point how I view myself in all of this is I kind of did my part on the front end. At this point, it’s more for me to step back and encourage, support, be a resource for giving the company what it needs now to grow itself.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah, and first of all, that’s like true leadership as well. That’s how it’s structured and how it’s done well. Talk to us about Swift Straw in general and how the company has progressed over time. When did it start? Then, what did it look like? Not in too much detail, but what is the evolution look like? What all do you do now? How has the company grown?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Man, so the [crosstalk 00:13:28]-
Ty Deemer:
Loaded [crosstalk 00:13:30] question, I know.
Matt Lowe:
Well, there’s just a lot to unpack there, so I’m trying to think of how I can explain it in like two minutes. Swift Straw officially started not quite 10 years ago, but getting pretty close. Of course, I mentioned the yellow pad. There was the business plan that we started with, and it was when we entered the category, there’s a natural supply-demand gap that’s always plagued the pine straw industry where when the peak season hits, the demand relative to what’s available to be produced because it was hand raked, it’s so labor-intensive to produce a trailer of straw that the industry was just plagued with every peak season there were substantial delays every year.
We can get into this year. It’s probably the worst delays that the industry’s ever seen for other reasons, but it was just normal for every spring. There’s lots of delays, people wait, and initially we saw it as a big opportunity to solve for some of those delays through some innovative inventory techniques and just kind of with a a slightly different way of looking at things. We came into a category that was used to not serving the customer well in the spring time, and that was just kind of expected and okay. We came in and grew $7.5 million in our first year just-
Ty Deemer:
Wow.
Matt Lowe:
… by thinking about the spring and the peak season differently and the way that we prepare for it. The first year out of the gate was 7.5 million. By the second year, we were almost to 11, and by the third year we had to slow it down a little bit. We only grew by maybe… made it to 12 or 13 million by the third year, but it’s been a rapid growth story from the very beginning just because we came in and we were looking at things differently. The innovations of actual like product innovations and field innovations started really more around 2014 and ’15. The first couple of years, we were just kind of getting our feet under us and learning the category, asking a lot of questions, looking at things differently.
2015 and ’16, we started to introduce some of these new methods of harvesting and coming to the market and saying, “Hey, guys, super scary, but we’ve got a better product. It’s a net wrap roll.” Everybody said no one would buy it and it couldn’t be done, but fast forward about 18 months into it and people started buying them and they started preferring them. That product was introduced in 2015 and it took five years, six years, but now that’s the preferred product. That was kind of our first product innovation.
The bagged product, and this is back before I had kids and on the weekends I would spend hours and hours on Google just like going down rabbit holes and different ways to package. I look back, I’ve got a book of all of the different diligence of finding, how did the waste industry do it? How did the peat moss industry do it? We came up or came across this compression bag concept and it was primarily adopted in the alfalfa category, so it was through kind of unique kind of niche industries in the ag space. We felt like we can take some of that technology, tweak it, and use it for pine straw.
We designed and built and bought our first bag roll, I think, in 2000, golly, the years run together now, maybe ’17 or ’18. Now, the same thing, super scary, never been done before. We had to build this process from scratch, but we introduced it to the market. Now, we’ve got way more demand than we can keep up with. We’ve got a second bag line that took over a year to develop, and with COVID delays it took about five or six months longer than it should have, but that line’s about to be up and running, so that bag product is now expanding rapidly. Again, the two innovative products are now becoming the market norms and the preferred products, so I guess that was my best shot at glossing over 10 years in two and a half minutes.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. No, that’s awesome and it really sets up kind of going more into the topical conversation as well. You talk about the evolution of your business and how it’s really been fueled by really strong growth, and you mentioned that growth mindset earlier. You also touched on the fact that with any growing company or any growing operating company, the people are key. The people that you have on your team are the ones that are going to like take what you started and see it through to grow it. I’m curious, as you’ve grown your team over the years, what have been the key attributes you’ve looked for in team members to joining you? That’s one thing we hear in the green industry as a whole. Hiring is difficult. It’s something that every company struggles with at some point, but there’s no doubt in my mind that a big part of your success has been the people you’ve been able to bring into the fold to help make y’all successful. What has been your team’s approach towards finding/bringing in the right team members?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. I mean, it’s we don’t have it down to a perfect science, you know? It’s been-
Ty Deemer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Matt Lowe:
… a challenge. We’ve got a very unique culture, and so I think first and foremost, it is difficult to find people that really align with our values. It’s very unique. It’s a much more challenging business. We’re a much more challenging business to work for than the average company. I fully acknowledge that, and so now we’ve got an awesome HR Director, Ben Hertel, who helps with recruiting, but before it was basically relying on rockstars that we had to recruit other rockstars. Really, that was what was most effective, but as far as the continued grow and what does it take, every year, regardless of where we were last year, we’ve got to be growing into the… Each of us as individuals has to be growing into the person that we need to be for the next level of the business.
I have failed so many different times and ways in myself continuing to grow to match up with what I needed to be next year, and so up to this point, one of the key attributes for team members is being able to, number one, have a growth mindset, obviously, but to be able to operate with a certain level of autonomy to make up for some of the shortfalls at my level, where if they’re not getting all of the support that they need and deserve, that they’re self-reliant, autonomous, growth-oriented, and are able to kind of go out and get it done themselves.
This is kind of top of mind right now. We’re working with a business coach here in town and it’s just every time I talk with him, it’s I’m reminded of how much I didn’t know I didn’t know. I’m just reminded every day. We’re trying to continue to raise the bar and grow as leaders, but man, it’s kind of painful sometimes looking in the mirror like, for example, one of the really, really helpful exercises that we’re going through right now is a role clarification exercise where myself and our COO and our President and our CFO, our senior direction of each division are going through and we’re detailing the very specific roles and responsibility of each role and clarifying to make sure, where is the overlap? Where am I getting into your swim lane?
Going through that exercise, it is so helpful, but it’s also like looking in the mirror. It’s like, I mean, how in the world can we expect to run an efficient business and to have a highly effective team without having simple role verification? That’s just like one example, just a reminder of how much I need to grow in my role as a leader to continue taking the business to the next level.
A second thing we’re working on is effective communication, which seems very simple, but as we’ve grown a lot, especially in this new COVID environment where we’ve got a lot of Zoom calls every day, but it didn’t seem like the effectiveness of those calls and the effectiveness of those conversations was as optimal as it should be. We kind of took a step back and said, “How do we have more effective conversations? How do we communicate about the right things, the right metrics? Create true success plans around the things you want to accomplish and then effectively communicate.
We’ve made some adjustments recently clearing the clutter on some of the like high-frequency meetings and replacing those with very intentional whether it be one-on-ones or fewer, more effective meetings where we’re communicating about the right things. Those are just two things that are relevant for me right now. It’s a constant reminder of how much growth that I need to grow and then also… That’ll never stop, obviously, but it’s like that was why it just reminded me of how awesome our team is to be able to do what they’ve done without proper guidance from me sometimes.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. No, that’s such good stuff there because I think the two things that stood out to me, and it’s something that most likely… I actually know it’s true because we talk to a lot of people in this podcast that acknowledge that it’s really hard to find the right people for your business. You know, I’m a believer that strong players attract other strong players. If you are someone who’s a go-getter or a rockstar, typically you hang out with other people like that.
What you said at the beginning of your answer, I guess anyone who’s listening to this podcast and you’re like, “How do I get the right people on my team?” Those one or two people on your staff that you’re like, “Hey, those are my people,” go to them and be like, “Hey, where are your other people at?” That could be one of the easiest ways to add value to your team by like leveraging the good that you already have, so I love that you mentioned that.
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Just to further that point, so we’ve got two rockstars, Brent Hall and Joseph Arnold, that have been with really since the beginning. Those two guys are responsible for recruiting probably 80% of our team at this point.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I mean, it’s so true. It’s like the best hiring tactic is referrals and referrals from your best employees. I think like sometimes we overcomplicate things, and that’s definitely part of just the culture we’re in nowadays of how hiring looks. Look, if you have like a recipe that works and you have people that did it, and especially in this industry, it’s not like other industries. If you understand the people and they get what it looks like to service the customer well, likely they have friends that they spend time with that can do it as well. I love that point.
Then, I also just really appreciated the idea that you presented of having your team acknowledge that, “Hey, this is our mission of being a growth mindset company.” Realistically, I listen to a lot of people talk about… We work with innovative companies as a software company. If you’re even looking into software, you’re probably someone who’s trying to question the status quo of what you’re currently doing. We hear all of the time of people at these businesses that are against it or they don’t want to embrace that change because it’s switching it up.
Realistically, if you’re listening to this podcast, you need people on your team that are in line with change and growth. You have to hire towards that, and you touched on that a good bit and I just couldn’t agree more.
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Well that’s a reflection of leadership in my opinion because if leadership sets the tone, sets the culture, because we run into it all of the time because just like SingleOps because you’re selling something new and improved and different and change is scary. Well, on the Swift Straw side, we’ve been selling rolls, we’ve been selling bags, but if you’ve got a culture that is scared of change or people that are scared of change, you’re not going to grow, you’re not going to adopt new practices that put you ahead of your competition.
To me, it all comes back it’s a reflection of leadership. I mean, if anybody at Swift Straw turned their head on any opportunity to improve, to think differently, to find a better way of doing any part of our business, that probably would be an issue, but so-
Ty Deemer:
Yeah [crosstalk 00:27:03]-
Matt Lowe:
… I know that we fight a similar battle there, but I think SingleOps’ success is a testament to there’s a lot of leaders in the green industry that are not acceptable of the status quo, that are looking to improve, that are looking to find a software solution to replace pen and paper and that want to be on the cutting edge and don’t want to get left behind.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah, absolutely, and software or even if you listen to this podcast, no one seeks out resources if they’re wanting to stay the same. That’s what I tell [crosstalk 00:27:35] people all of the time. Anytime someone as a marketer reads one of our blog posts or listens to one of our episodes, it’s encouraging to me because it’s someone’s out there trying to look to how to grow their business. If you are that persona or you are that person right now, you just have to surround yourself with people that are like you in your business and that’s how you take the next step.
I do want to transition the conversation a little bit to another point you brought up at the beginning of the show around core values. One thing that I think is really unique about what you mentioned is that you readdress core values every one to two years. Most people in the green industry, and especially leaders, will acknowledge that your company has to have a mission and your company needs some core values that you can go back to and really reflect on like, “Are we living these out every day as we’re assuming, people?”
I’d love for you to talk to the importance of going back and addressing or readdressing the core values you established in the past because things do change, but I don’t necessarily think that’s the norm. I think a lot of companies decide the core values slap them on a wall and then just leave them there. How has it been beneficial for you and your team to readdress your core values over time?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Well, to me, it’s extremely important. In order to make core values real and relevant, it can’t just be a statement on a wall. It has to be something that everybody is a part of creating, and so the importance to me of a refresh is it’s not a, “Hey, guys, let’s get together. I’m going to tell you what our new values are.” It is an open conversation, a challenging conversation to say, “Guys, who are we? What kind of business are we trying to be right now? Let’s have an honest conversation around whether or nor our current set of core values accurately reflect that. If not, let’s shake things up a little bit.”
I think it’s critical to readdress those every so often, number one, just to make sure that they’re still an accurate reflection of who you want to be as a business, but also, it is extremely important that it’s got to be interactive, it’s got to be collaborative. If you’re not making time every so often, then I think people can very easily feel disconnected or that they weren’t part of the values that were created. Everybody’s going to have more ownership of something that they were a part of rather than something they were told to do.
That’s kind of at least our thought process and we’re about to have one of those sessions. We did a refresh a couple of years ago. One thing that we added that I thought was interesting is we… This is why I just agreed, so don’t get me wrong, but there’s an interesting dynamic between customers and service providers to where if you’re the service provider reaching out to a customer, you’ve got a totally different tone in your voice than if you get a solicitation call on your cell phone, right?
Ty Deemer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Matt Lowe:
If you’re reaching out to make a sale, you’ve got a servant mindset. You’re asking questions, you’re polite, and a lot of times if somebody solicits you, we can be a jerk. I’ve never liked that. I’ve always been in industries and businesses that provided a good or a service and I’ve never liked how it’s acceptable for just because I’m a service provider or just because you’re a service provider does not give me a right to be a jerk and does not give a right to be disrespectful.
We actually added a core value of respect that basically, not basically, that clearly states we are respectful to every single person we deal with, especially our vendors because no matter what kind of BS we get from… come our way, we’re going to squash it right there. We are not going to pass that along to somebody else. If we get yelled out, it stops with us, and so I thought that was one that was really interesting and I would like to kind of challenge other members of the green industry. There’s no reason to be disrespectful, period, end of the discussion, just because somebody’s a service provider. I think the more respectful that we can all be to each other in the industry, just the better experience we’re all going to have.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah, absolutely. That’s such a cool point, too, because I think sometimes we’re all a little naïve about even though a service provider is calling you, the connections that can be made when it’s a respectful interaction. I know from our end, we work with industry publications a lot and they make their business off of working with service providers by us advertising in their publications, going to their trade shows. If you build relationships with those people, they know a lot of people.
There’s a respect component of it where that’s how you should be treating everyone you interact with just because it’s the right thing to do, but it also like sets the tone for what people in the industry know what your business… like what it’s like to interact with your business, so that’s really cool.
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. No, you’re exactly right. I mean, even though we’re a pine straw company, we happen to know a lot of apartment painters and we happen to know a lot of connections in the real estate industry, not to mention that a service provider will serve you better if you’re respectful rather than being a jerk, and so I agree with you. There is the element that it is the right thing to do, but there is so many different benefits and opportunities to being respectful and creating meaningful relationships with people, so [crosstalk 00:33:21]
Ty Deemer:
Yeah.
Matt Lowe:
… so-
Ty Deemer:
I mean, people [crosstalk 00:33:22]-
Matt Lowe:
… that is one that popped up in our last core value session. It was like, “Yeah, we want to be the ones in the industry that set an example of how to be respectful even when somebody’s not serving us maybe the way we want to be served. Regardless, we’re going to… We’re going to be the one group at least for now that remains respectful regardless.” So-
Ty Deemer:
Yeah [crosstalk 00:33:40]-
Matt Lowe:
… I hope that answered your question about the core value [crosstalk 00:33:43]-
Ty Deemer:
Yeah [crosstalk 00:33:44]. It does, and I think for people listening to this show, the cool aspect of that is I think a lot of people look at their core values or their mission statement and it’s just a box they checked in the process of building their business. It’s like, “Hey, we set that out maybe 20 years ago and we said, ‘We’re going to be the best lawn care service in Dayton, Ohio,” or, “To provide an incredible lawn experience in Dayton, Ohio. We’ve got our mission statement and our core values are teamwork, trust, and integrity.” They just did that 20 years ago, but they haven’t even resaw it. “Does that make sense for us now? Is it different? Have we changed our services? Or does the tone of our team reflect those at all?”
If you’re readdressing those every so often, your business is only going to benefit from it because you’re going to have more buy-in, and it could take like two days every two years to sit down and have like a conference room booked to have your team sit around and talk through it. I love that you brought that point up.
I kind of like towards the back of the show, Matt, to talk through a little just more about like personal questions about the growth of your business and then talk about what you’re excited about next. I always think this answer gets some interesting responses, especially when you’re growing, and we all know growing oftentimes presents challenges. It’s just as you’re moving, you’re moving, things pop up and there are failures along the way.
I’d love for you to touch on like maybe, what has been a failure that you consider like your favorite failure that really you learned something and it was able to help you pick up an insight that was able to help you all grow eventually?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. That’s a tough question. We just with our history, culture, and the journey that we’ve been down, it’s continuous failure, and so it’s really hard for me to really hone in on one. The one that is like really relevant and real for me right now is just the failure in my ability to continue growing into the leader that I need to be at this stage. As I mentioned to you, the business coach that I’m working with, the simple role clarification exercise amongst our leadership team and the simple process of creating real, effective communication, fostering conversations where we’re talking about the right things. We’re clear on our goals. We’re not only clear on the goal, but we’ve created success plans that clearly spell out how we’re going to achieve our goals.
Then, having one-on-one conversations with the appropriate people to talk specifically about progress tied to the success plan that we’ve laid out. Just going through some of the growth and the coaching that I’m going through right now is just a constant reminder of my shortcomings. This may have worked at 30 million in revenue, but it’s not going to work at 50 and it’s darn sure not going to take us to a hundred. I guess that’s the most relevant and real failure is just my ability to keep up with who I need to be for what the business needs at this point. I’m working hard at it, but hopefully… Anyways, I’m definitely falling short, but I’m working hard at it.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah, and I think the cool part about that, too, though, is anybody who’s in a high-growth company, that is the mindset you have to take to honestly stay at a high-growth company. You have to acknowledge it’s… To me, I’ve always thought of it through two processes. It’s like, “What are we doing now versus what are we planning for in the future?” You have to do both kind of simultaneously. You can address what the now is, but if you’re not thinking about what the market is going to look like in two to three years now or what are the needs, you’ll look up in three years and go, “Oh, I’m not the person for this anymore.” If you’re at a company that it’s like has the values are there, it’s not going to align well. I definitely relate to that, for sure.
On the back half during the last part of the show, we spend a lot of time naturally reflecting on this podcast, talking about your business up to date, what all’s been going on, the wins, the struggles, everything in your mind, but I like to finish asking guests like, what comes next for you and Swift Straw? Really, right now, what are you most excited about?
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Well, I do want to touch quickly before I get into the kind of future what’s next, I just think it’s important for everybody in the green industry… Our industry is struggling right now in a really big way. I mean, this inflation that we’re all experiencing is absolutely no joke. This is the worst labor shortage that I’ve ever seen in my entire career. The world economy has been rushing to reopen and every business’ ability to scale and meet that demand has been stifled.
I just want to, number one… This has been the worst year that I’ve ever been a part of the pine straw industry that has been… Even with our innovations, we still have workers, but the available labor to work right now is 30% below where it was at this point last year. The availability of trust, drivers available and trucks to deliver is 20, 30% lower than it was this time last year, and the demand that we’re seeing is 25 to 30% greater in 2021 than in 2020.
I just wanted to touch on that. It’s created this… It’s been a huge struggle. Our entire industry, I mean, people are out of pine straw all over the country right now. I want to take a minute, just number one, to… I’ve been spending a lot of time just calling customers because we’ve got worst delays than we’ve ever experienced before. I just wanted to take a minute just to apologize if there are any customers of ours listening, just apologize for the delays, for the struggles that we’ve had this year. It is not because we don’t absolutely care about our… I mean, our customers are the only reason that we exist. We exist to serve them, period.
I hate that kind of macro economic factors and bad policy has impacted our ability to serve them the way they deserve to be served. I know there’s a lot of other green industry companies out there that are struggling, so just be comforted in knowing that you’re not alone. This is no joke. I’m very apolitical. I don’t resonate with any political party because I think that all politicians are self-serving and they’re not surrogate leaders, and so therefore I don’t associate myself with any politicians or political party.
The policy that is happening right now that’s created this labor shortage, that has created these rising costs, that’s created inflation, and created this backlog of demand that can’t be filled, it is no joke. It’s impacting all of us, and at some point it’s going to be up to the leaders in the grand stream beyond and just say, “You know what? It’s not okay.” You know, when you make bad policy that screws with my business and screws with my ability to serve my customers, it’s not okay.
I wish I had an answer for it, but I can just tell you right now it’s not okay what’s happening and how it’s impacting companies like ours, other companies in the green industry. I hope there is a way and a forum for the leaders to stand up and say, “You know what? It’s not okay.” Really, all I think any business leader’s asking for is, “Stay out of our way.” It’s like, “We don’t need your help. We need to get out of the way. We need you to just get out of our ability to hire people and stop the policies that are making our costs rise and are creating massive inflation.”
That’s the biggest challenge that we have right now. Me as a leader, I’m not afraid to stand up. I hope there’s others that aren’t afraid as well because it’s time. It’s not okay, but I did also want to give everybody some comfort that I promise you we’re not alone. We’re all fighting the same battle. We can’t get tractors right now. We can’t get hydraulic pumps. There’s delays on buying UTVs. We’re actively trying to scale our operations in the field to buy more equipment. We invested in a $1.4 million manufacturing line and it’s been six months delayed. They can’t get parts. Their costs have skyrocketed. It’s just… Man, it is-
Ty Deemer:
It’s tough.
Matt Lowe:
… it’s the policy right now is at war with business, with growth, and it’s like, “Man, this is real stuff.” I just wanted to give everybody else some comfort that I promise you you’re not alone in your struggles this year. We’re facing it head-on. I’m communicating with customers every single day, apologizing to them, letting them know that we’re working hard. We are going to get caught up.
That kind of leads into, what does the future hold? One of the things that I’m really excited about, we are doubling down on everything automation. We are doubling down on everything software like SingleOps. We are doubling down on manufacturing ERP systems. We are doubling down on innovation in the field. It’s going to take a crew of six down to a crew of four, and at some point-
Ty Deemer:
Wow.
Matt Lowe:
… a crew of four to a crew of two. Our new bag line, you literally put a thousand-pound roll in the front in and it’s a hundred percent automated all the way to a finished pallet with 40 bags on it. It’s net wrapped. It’s wrapped and ready to ship out. Unfortunately, with the inflation and the supply chain delays, even our innovation projects are delayed right now, but that’s more of a short-term challenge. Long term, I am super excited about… We’ve got a guy named Ronnie Martinez that’s running our first like fully-integrated field crew that has some of our new innovations in the field. That’s like the first step in a hugely innovative direction changing the way that we harvest, so that’s super, super exciting.
We’ve got our second bag line that’s coming online right now, super exciting. We’ve actually got a new product coming out that should be out in conjunction with this new line, so the bag product is a manufactured palletized product that is a good fit for the consumer. We’ve got a manufactured product that’s coming out on a pallet for the pro, for the landscaper-
Ty Deemer:
Wow.
Matt Lowe:
… for the contractor. That’s going to be out, revealed here in about 30 days hopefully, so those-
Ty Deemer:
Wow.
Matt Lowe:
… are just a few of the things I’m excited about, but even in the midst of all of these challenges, it is forcing us to get better. It is forcing us to innovate, and so although I’m not terribly pleased with some of the policy right now and in a lot of ways it just feels like they’re constraining and prohibiting us from being able to grow in the way that we want to grow, it is going to force positive change.
We are going to come out as the big winner in our category because we’re facing these things head-on and we’re making the necessary changes. We’re going to keep fighting and at some point it’s going to free up and the headwind will turn into a tailwind, but we’re right in the middle of it now.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I hear you, for sure, and how you’re approaching it, you’re exactly right, number one. Everyone in the industry is focusing it, but what you’re doing now, and it’s what everyone that’s listening to this podcast should be thinking through, is now is the time to double down in innovation, but doubling down on your customer as well. Keeping that clear channel of communication open and making sure they understand where you’re coming from in that they are top of mind for you. Then, that’s how you get through it and set yourself up for that success on the back end. I appreciate you sharing that and I definitely know people that listen to this show will relate to that as well.
Well, Matt, we’re pretty much towards the end of the show, wrapping up here, but I just wanted to thank you for joining us. We covered a ton of really great topics that I think will get a ton of value out to our audience. Just so the listeners know, we’ll be linking to Swift Straw’s website in the show notes in this along with Matt’s LinkedIn if you ever want to connect with him and follow him. Matt, thank you again for joining. This was an awesome episode.
Matt Lowe:
Cool. Thanks for having me, Ty. Appreciate it.
Ty Deemer:
Absolutely. Thank you.
Matt Lowe:
Yeah. Keep fighting the good fight at SingleOps.
Ty Deemer:
Yes, sir. Bye.
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