When the televised sports schedule runs dry and there aren’t any new episodes of The Real Housewives to watch (I’ll let you guess which one of us watches which), my wife and I often turn the television to HGTV and let episodes of House Hunters or House Hunters International take over our evenings.
It’s a pretty decent compromise, because both of us find something to like in those shows. We also find plenty to laugh about … or more precisely, to laugh at … while watching couples argue about garages, closet space and carpeting versus hardwood floors.
It’s all in good fun, of course, and I know for a fact that show participants are strongly encouraged to, um, “emphasize” any disagreements about design tastes or finances for the sake of the storyline — a friend of a friend appeared on an episode and confirmed my suspicion.
Knowing that, however, doesn’t stop me from getting mildly annoyed every time one of the show’s stars whines about the need to gut a perfectly functional, relatively modern bathroom or kitchen before they’d even consider putting in an offer on the home. I come from the school of “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It,” so watching these first-time home buyers confuse their wants with their needs always sets me off just a little bit.
Unfortunately, it also highlights a little of my own hypocrisy and the 180 I take when it comes to my professional life and the magazines I’ve been lucky enough to manage over my career. In those instances, I can’t wait to fix things that aren’t broken and try new things, even when the finished product we’re delivering each month already regularly plays to rave reviews.
And that’s definitely the case with Landscape Management. The magazine that I joined last April was a clear industry leader with a stable of regular contributors who were respected voices in landscaping and lawn care. Readers relied on the magazine to help make their businesses more efficient and more profitable.
But Seth Jones, LM’s editorial director, and I knew we could do even more. We knew there was room to grow, to improve and to bring even more to you. We knew we could take things to a whole other level.
This month, you’ll get your first look at that all-new level as we welcome two new columnists to the LM family who bring a wealth of real-world industry experience and expertise to the table.
First up is Bryan Christiansen, the chief executive officer for the Mariani Premier Group, which ranked No. 7 on our 2024 LM150 listing of the top 150 revenue-generating companies in the industry. In his new bimonthly column, Green Industry MBA, Christiansen will share business insights focused on growth, mergers and acquisitions and the proven tips and techniques that have made Mariani one of the fastest-growing companies in the business. You can find Christiansen’s first column for LM on page 44.
Our other new columnist is a longtime friend of the magazine — Tito Caceres, the managing director at Bloom Talent Solutions. Caceres has been a go-to source on staffing and human resource matters for LM, so we thought, “Why not give him his own column?”
And that’s what we did. In Blooming Talent, he’ll offer advice and suggestions about how landscape and lawn care companies can overcome labor challenges and manage their teams in ways that benefit both employees and employers. Caceres’ column will appear quarterly and debuts this month on page 47.
And Christiansen and Caceres aren’t the only new faces we’re looking to add to our stellar group of columnists that already included industry luminaries like Marty Grunder and Jeffrey Scott. We have several other irons in the fire that will solidify our place as the magazine of choice for landscape professionals, so stay tuned for more big announcements.
While LM is clearly no fixer upper, it’s hard to argue that the fresh faces we’re adding to our roster will put a new shine on the work we do every month. We hope you’ll agree and that you’ll enjoy the perspectives that Christiansen and Caceres — and all our outstanding contributors — bring to the magazine.
