Bless the Broken Road: Mistakes and Lessons Learned over Nearly 40 Years in Landscaping
As Grunder Landscaping Co. celebrates its 40th year in business, Marty Grunder has reflected on all of the mistakes they’ve made along the way. You may have heard him joke before that if we were to hold an event to talk about all of his failures, it would be a 3-year course.
Well, consider this session the preview of that course, filled with funny stories (like when they cut down the wrong trees for a client…twice), practical advice, and things he wishes he had learned sooner. All throughout, he’ll share what he’s learned and how you can apply those lessons to your own company as you prepare to face 2026.
Marty Grunder
Marty Grunder is President and CEO of The Grow Group and of Grunder Landscaping Co., one of the most successful design-build operations of its kind in the Midwest. An unusual combination of full-time landscape professional and leading Green-Industry coach, Marty is uniquely positioned to deliver real-world, real-time guidance to Grow Group clients. His landscaping company has earned more than 50 local and national design awards and is a two-time winner of the Better Business Bureau’s Eclipse Integrity Award, while Marty has himself been named Entrepreneur of the Year by both Ernst & Young and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The author of The 9 Super Simple Steps to Entrepreneurial Success, he has coached tens of hundreds of landscaping professionals and companies across the U.S. and Canada and delivered more than 550 talks, motivating audiences of all sizes and shapes—from a small gathering of 20 to a stadium of 9,000—to achieve success.