Interview with Gary Patridge, Owner Better Outdoor Products

[Sean Adams]

This is LawnSite.com's first ever podcast. I had the privilege of setting aside some time with Gary Patridge, the owner of Better Outdoor Products. Click on the play button below and listen to Gary and I have a great conversation.

RSS - Interview with Gary Patridge, Owner Better Outdoor Products


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[treetopguy2028]

Sean,
I enjoyed your conversation podcast with Gary Patridge. It was well worth the time and his story sounds a lot like mine. If you would like a bio of my work as an arborist I could put it together from some emails I have recently sent. Because North Arkansas had a devastating ice storm January 26-27, I am swamped with tree service work as an arborist. To make the challenge greater, I will shift to my other part-time job five weeks from now, at the Ozark Folk Center State Park as a craft interpreter. I make top spinning tops on an antique foot lathe and have sold 5,800 tops in the past eight years. I'll continue with tree work on my days off until the end of June. Thus my email address nickname is treetopguy.
Sincerely,
Sherm Anderson
Member, TCIA

[Damon Max]

Sean, Gary-
I work for Peter- the CEO of ACCELERATOR- who has worked with you guys for a long time- and we have been happy building catchers for your mowers- but this interview really gave me (the lowly sales manager) a really good understanding of how you guys (Better Outdoor Products) came to be. It's really great to hear the story of a "real " guy making "real" product for "real" people. Keep up the good work- this business is the best that way- just a good group of people to be involved with. Being a gearhead(probably more of a knuckle head) of sorts myself, I gotta know what your first bike was?

[GPDesign1]

It will come as no surprise for anyone who works in the Green Industry to say that women just plain dig guys with "grass on their shoes". We all know it. It's a well-known fact. Landscaper "hotness" is something we've just come to accept. We all know that if you're gonna work in the Landscape Industry, it's a burden one just has to learn to live with. Sometimes I swear it woulda been easier to be a rock-star, but who could deal with that kinda boredom?

Immediately (and I mean right now) after the interview hit the bandwidth, I discovered the awesome and full-blown spectacle that is the:

"Sean Adams Effect"

I don't know how the man does it. I feel like "Ringo" to Sean's "Paul".

My Gosh... I can't even go outside anymore! I open the drapes for a coupla seconds just to peek out and it's like 25 girls there, pecking on the window, wanting me to autograph their weedeater, asking "What was it like talking to Sean"? and "Can I have Sean's Skype number...". Yuck. It's wearing me out! Day and night. Blocking my driveway. Digging through my trash looking for anything that says "Lawnsite" on it. We've hired armed security around all the doors of the Better Outdoor Products Global Center. They're nuts I'm tellin' ya...

The whole landscaper-allure thing was something it took me years to get comfortable with - I had finally made peace with it. Amongst the glitter and glamour of our industry, I had finally managed to carve out a nice and almost semi-normal life. But after doing this interview, it was right back into the frickin' Star Machine.

All I have to say is Thanks Sean for ruining my life!!!!

[whoopassonthebluegrass]

Originally Posted by GPDesign1

...I open the drapes for a coupla seconds just to peek out and it's like 25 girls there, pecking on the window, wanting me to autograph their weedeater...

What kinda girls are these, exactly? PECKING at the window? You some sort of bird-weirdo, or something?

(By the way, I never did get an answer as to why my Dually is nowhere near 7.2mph...)

[LIBERTY BELL LAND]

That was awsome. Came up in a split second. Very informative.
God bless the builders