Episode Transcript
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Hey, this is Lacey with Smartcast, and I'm here today with Tucker, my cousin, and we are very excited to announce a co hosted giveaway that we're going to be doing for his landscaping company. And it is Thomas Outdoor innovations. So, Tucker, tell me a little bit about your company. You are an engineer?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Was an engineer, yes. I started my business back in January of 2023, the full year of 2023. I was still working the engineering job downtown Birmingham. I actually got my business going, only working on the weekends.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: So I had to do a lot of engineering Monday through Friday, landscaping on the weekends.
I actually got my business started by vacuuming leaves. As weird as it sounds, the cities of Homewood, Hoover, Vistavia, they used to offer a city curbside leaf vacuuming service.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: They did, because my mom was in river chase, and that was part of their hoa, went into vacuuming up the.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Leaves, and I kind of found out the hard way that the cities didn't do that service anymore. I got all my leads to the curb, talked to my neighbor. He said, just call the city. They'll come by and get it.
And Hoover told me that they no longer did that.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: So, kind of got the business started from that. I thought, well, there's got to be a ton of residences throughout the cities that no longer have that service.
So I did some research and luckily found a guy in Huntsville that was getting out of the leaf vacuum service, and I got into it. So, on the weekends in the January through March, spent my time picking up leaves on the weekend. But once it started warming up, figured I got to figure something out to continue to keep the business going.
Really don't come from a landscaping background, but I studied and learned and researched and did a lot of projects on my own and going on year two. Now, here we are. We're a full landscaping company.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: I know. I remember when you very first started doing this on the side, and I knew it wouldn't take long for you to jump into it full time. But I think that that's really an interesting background that you do have, engineering. So that way, whenever you start doing, like, hardscapes and big projects like that, you can utilize what you studied in school for.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Help increase the value of what you're offering to your clients.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it definitely helps having that background.
I mean, I loved engineering, too. The whole engineering thing I did was problem solving, and the field that I was in was actually soil and foundation design.
So, yeah, my engineering background definitely helps me able to problem solve, and I still have that little bit of math knowledge. I came from engineering. That helps me do what I do today.
But, yeah, we love it. We're a small team. We have about five guys that operate the business with me.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Do you have specific cities that you work in, or you just kind of.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah, typically a lot of our works in Vestavia and Mountain Brook, some homewood and Hoover. Usually we stay in those four cities.
We've been asked to do a few projects on Lake Martin, Logan Martin. So a few lake jobs we've done. But, yeah, typically we stay around here and we love it. We want to grow, obviously, but we really do enjoy doing work here for these cities. Mountain Brook, Estabia, Homewood.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Are you doing a lot of, like, new construction or renovations for hardscapes, or are you doing primarily, like, maintenance type projects?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: So I typically only handle, I like to say, outdoor construction.
I know we brought up the giveaway at the beginning of this. We work with a company called Alr Construction. They are a general contracting company. They do really everything as far as residential home building. They'll build new homes. They'll do renovations.
If you need a big 50 foot by 50 foot deck edition, they're very, very talented over there.
That company is ran by David Morrison. He's the owner. And then a very, very good buddy of mine, Jake Threet, he's also the project manager for ALR. So, to answer your question, Alr and Thomas Outdoor do a lot of projects together. They'll come in, either build a new house, renovate the existing house, and then we'll come in behind them and kind of finish up the outdoor if that needs to do any concrete work, fences, plant installs, hardscapes, paver patios, etcetera.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Well, when you guys decide to add in pool construction to your list of things that you want to do, let me know.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Because there's definitely a shortage of available pool contractors right now in Birmingham. We know a couple, and they're fantastic, but they're like, one of our, one of my friends, her and her husband own a pool company, and they're booked out for a year right now.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's. I mean, I've never been into the pool construction world, but I do hear the same things that you hear. I think it's a very niche kind of industry, but you'd be the first to know. If we ever get into the pool construction, we'll definitely let you know.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Well, with your engineering background and your contractor friends, I think it could definitely be something that you add in to what you guys do.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think so, too.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: So tell me a little bit about the giveaway that we're doing. I know that I met David and we did a cute little picture together to promote the giveaway.
So it's going to be us and you guys and David's contracting company. Is there anybody else that's involved in this as well?
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Yeah, Alr and Thomas outdoor. We both use the same marketing company. It's ran. Bye. Riley lynch and Olivia sills. Their company is called Glow social.
David Morrison and I have both used Riley and Olivia, and they've done really phenomenal work for both companies.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Riley's great. I've known Riley for a really long time.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Yeah, Riley's good. Olivia is very good, too.
But we want what we want to do. As we all know, social media is a great tool to promote businesses. So David and I got with you, Lacy, and we thought we would do a giveaway for smart skin. That way people can share, you know, all four businesses that we spoke of can really increase our followings, kind of increase our audience kind of support, you know, local small businesses as well.
But what we want to do, I guess you'll probably need to talk about more about what we're giving away.
But what we're going to do, we're going to do a giveaway. I think it's going to start here in a couple days.
We'll post it on Instagram and like other giveaways.
For a chance to enter the giveaway, you'll just follow all four companies on their Instagram. I think you tag three friends like the post and share it that way. I think we'll run it for maybe seven to ten days, I believe.
And then, yeah, we'll announce the winner. And then that lucky winner will be able to get, I think, a package from you guys.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think we were doing the ultrasound elite, which is our signature facial here at smart skin. It's $175 value. And so they will be able to come in if they get chosen as the winner, they'll come in either with a clean face or if they need to wash their face. Here we have everything that they need to be able to do that. The facial itself includes a light hydrodermabrasion, which is going to take off the top layer of dirt, oil, and makeup. There is an ultrasound which is going to help stimulate collagen, help shrink the pores. It's going to help with tone, texture, and elasticity. There's steam. There's going to be a custom mask. There's going to be an oxygen jet treatment, which is a salt saline solution that micro deposits in the pores. It's going to help preserve the gel that we use with the ultrasound, and it also is going to help hydrate the skin.
And that whole treatment is done in 30 minutes. So they're able to come in on a lunch break or, you know, if they have other things that they need to do. It just makes it really efficient for their time so that they can come in and get a treatment that's going to give them a little bit of everything. So it's exfoliation, hydration, tone, texture, anti aging, everything all in one. It's the treatment that we've been doing here at smart skin for over 25 years, and it's definitely one of our top performing services that we offer. Everybody loves the treatment, so it's also a part of our membership program that we have here. So if it's something that they really like and want to continue to do, we do have a membership program where they can choose that or several other offerings that we have at the spa so that they can come in every single month and pamper themselves.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that'll be good for anybody. I guess this is, it's male, female. It really doesn't matter. I guess. That's, that's awesome.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah. We've got a lot of men, women coming in together on their own.
All the, all the people are loving it.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: That's very, very good. Yeah. And I haven't even said yet, I did want to thank, I want to thank smart skin Lacy, Miss Carmen, I want to thank Olivia Ann Reilly for putting this all together again. Thank David Morrison with ALR for really bringing this idea to the table.
You know, we have positive thoughts about it. I think it's going to do great for everybody. And hopefully, hopefully it won't be our last one either. Hopefully we can see that this giveaway has a lot of positive feedback.
Getting a lot of new customers at Thomas Outdoor, at Alrmartskin, Riley and Olivia can get some more customers as well. I think it'll be great for everybody.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Well, I think it's anytime that you can help promote any small businesses and work together to build an audience, I think that that's definitely a good, positive thing.
Love to be able to partner with other small businesses and local businesses. And of course, whenever you reached out, we're happy to be a part of anything you guys are doing. I'm so proud of you and what you've accomplished. Thank you. But I do want to touch a little bit on skincare for outdoors and some protection. So tell me, do you personally, are you using an SPF when you're spending this much time outdoors?
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Yes. So it's. It's a. As most people know, landscapers were outside all day.
Here in Alabama. That sun can sneak up on you for sure. Me being a little fair skinned and redheaded, I always have to protect my skin. So I know there's probably always room for improvement in my daily routine. But first things first. I'm always covering pretty much any skin that's going to be exposed. I'm covering that up with a strong spF.
I usually wear a good hat that has the flap on the back to protect the neck. Usually with my work, I'm usually looking down at the ground, either building something or picking something up.
What kind of recommendations would you have to outdoor landscapers that they could protect their skin out in the sun?
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So one of my favorites for men right now is the no show from color science, purely physical sunscreen. And it completely dries down to clear, which was the first innovation of its kind, to have no white cast at all for no matter what skin tone you are. So that was really big innovation at scale. It was announced a couple of years ago, and still today, it's one of my favorites. My son uses it when he plays sports. My husband uses it when he's outside cutting grass. And then we always recommend it to our mendenna and our women, but specifically our men, because it's easy to use. It doesn't have a smell. It doesn't have a white cast. It feels really nice on the skin. And then to reapply sunscreen throughout the day, you can certainly use the color science brush on sunscreen. They have a matte one, and then they have some that's tinted skin color, but that one's really nice, too, especially if you're golfing or if you're just out in the sun and you, like, your hands are dirty or whatever, and you can't put your hands on your face. It's really easy to reapply your SPF throughout the day and even brush it on your ears and in your hairline, too, if you're not wearing a hat course. So those are really good. And I know sage sometimes will use that when he's out golfing for hours on end. He's sweaty, and that way he can not have a sunburn on his little scalp.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds like a product that's pretty easy to apply. You know, I can speak for myself. I know when I get my days going, it's pretty hectic, it's pretty fast paced. But it sounds like this product would be something very good that I could just throw on real quick, go do my day. And like you said, I do agree with the hands being dirty throughout the day. So using that product to do it throughout the day to reapply, really sounds good for us.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: Well, and another thing that we can do special for the listeners on this episode is if you're listening to this episode and you want to try out the color science no show or the color science brush on Sunscreen, we'll offer 20% off to the listeners of this episode. So if you'll just mention to our front desk that you heard our episode today and that you want to try the no show or the brush on sunscreen, we'll give you that 20% off.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: You might have a lot of dirty landscapers coming in the door, right?
[00:13:45] Speaker A: Yeah, no kidding.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: We heard it on today's episode and might be a line out the door.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Whatever it takes to protect those, that skin from the UVA and UVB rays. And it also protects from infrared. So even if you're, like, inside and you're under fluorescent lights or you're in front of a computer screen, it's going to protect your skin from that as well.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Let me ask this. You know, even though we're sitting here in August, sun's out, very bright. It's obviously easy to get sunburn and things like that. But what about in the winter and fall months when the sun's not as hot, temperatures are cooler? Would you still kind of recommend the same product if landscapers are going to be outside doing this kind of work?
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: That's good.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And because, like I said, too, not only is it going to protect your skin from the UVA and UVB, but it, it protects from the infrared and fluorescent lights and computer screens and all of that as well. So you're not going to get the burning rays as strong in the winter months. But it's. The sun is still out.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: You're still at risk for, for skin cancer.
So, I mean, like, even driving in your car, you know.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I know myself being slightly hard headed. I think I.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: No, definitely. It definitely comes from the Barrett side of the family.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: But I tell myself, well, that, you know, it's colder out, you know, surely I can't get that sunburn.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: But, yeah, you know, well, it's not just the burning damage. It's the. It's the other, you know, aspects of the sun exposure as well. If you're thinking more of, like, the cancer causing parts of the sun at that point, it's not necessarily just the burn.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Does smart skin do daily? Excuse me? Not daily, like annual checkups or anything, like, for myself, if I haven't been checked, to see if I have any signs of skin cancer or anything like that, is that something smart skin ever checks out?
[00:15:47] Speaker A: So not traditionally, like, checking out for skin cancer, but what we do is if you are part of our membership program, we're seeing you on a regular basis, and we see something that looks suspicious to us, we can certainly let you know that we feel like that's something that you should get checked out. And then we would refer you to one of our derm friends.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: Perfect. That's good.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: And we have lots of derms in the area. I mean, there's so many great options of dermatologists that you can use here in Birmingham. So we certainly will send you to one of those amazing partners that we have.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Perfect. That's definitely good to know.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: But you should be going and getting your annual checkup anyways.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: I do.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: But if something.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: If something happens in, if anybody listening did nothing. No. To be annually checked.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Yes, definitely go get your annual checkups. But if we see something suspicious in the meantime, we can definitely let you know that, hey, that doesn't look right. You should go get that checked out. So it's good to have somebody else kind of lay a second set of eyes on it to see whether or not we feel like it's something that should be checked out.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Well, perfect.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for coming on today.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Yes, thank you all. Again, I do want to say, I want to speak on behalf of alr construction, glowsocial and Thomas out on our innovations that we really, really appreciate Smartskin and Lacy for teaming up on this giveaway.
Again, like I said, we will post all the information here in a few days, so be sure to look out for that on Instagram, and we'll share.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: It on ours as well. And then we'll be pushing it out to our vip members that get our marketing text messages. We'll be sending a link for you to enter in the giveaway there as well.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Perfect. Perfect. So good luck to the. To the lucky winner.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Yes. Thank you so much.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Thank you, guys.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us on today's episode of Smartcast, and we'll see you next week.
