What does it really take to go all in on a landscape business? Dean Ricci started mowing lawns at just 10 years old, pulling his mower behind a bicycle with a homemade trailer built by his dad. By high school, he had trucks, trailers, equipment, and employees. More than 30 years later, Ricci's Landscape Management has grown into a multimillion-dollar company with more than 65 employees. But this conversation isn't really about landscaping. It's about building a business. Dean and I talk about the transition from doing the work yourself to building a team that can operate without you, creating systems and SOPs, developing leaders, adopting technology, making mistakes, letting go of control, and surviving the growing pains that come with scaling a company. We also talk about something every contractor eventually has to confront: At some point, working harder stops working. If you're an irrigation contractor, landscaper, plumber, electrician, HVAC contractor—or anyone trying to turn a trade into a real business—there's a lot to learn from Dean's journey. From a lawn mower behind a bicycle to more than three decades in business. Dean Ricci went all in.

Your next opportunity might start with a message you haven't sent yet. When I started sharing my cell phone number on the podcast, I thought I might get overwhelmed with calls and texts. Turns out, very few people reach out. But an irrigation contractor in Indiana did—and the day this episode drops, we're meeting in person to explore technology, IoT, and possibilities for their business. In this nano episode, I'm reflecting on that small step between being curious and acting on it. Asking a question. Starting a conversation. Taking a little chance on something you'd love to understand better. We spend plenty of time talking about connecting devices. Here's a reminder to connect with people, too. Bring your curiosity. Just press send.

At some point, growing a service business requires the owner to stop being the person who does everything and become the person who builds the company. In this episode, Andy talks with Christy Carter, founder of WorkWife. Christy built an HVAC company from the kitchen table to more than $5 million in revenue before selling it. She knows firsthand how difficult the climb from a few hundred thousand dollars to several million can be—especially when every phone call, scheduling problem, unfinished process, and administrative task keeps landing back on the owner. Christy now helps service businesses strengthen their back-office operations with systems, implementation, and virtual assistant support. Her goal is simple: clear the owner's plate instead of adding more work to it. Andy and Christy discuss the messy middle of business growth, why the $2 million to $5 million stage is especially challenging, what begins to break as a company grows, and how owners can finally create enough space to lead. It may be time to put down the tool bag.

Live While You're Young What if you never hated learning? What if you only hated being told what, when, and how to learn? It's Labor Day weekend, everyone is heading back to school, and I've been thinking about the difference between school and learning. I was never meant for school. Both of my parents were teachers. My dad taught teaching at Middlebury College. I played by the rules and did the best I could—but I kept asking one question: Why? Why do I need to know this? Where will I use it? What problem does it solve? Why does it matter? Years later, I realized that kid asking "why" never hated learning. He fucking loved it. For those of us in irrigation, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, and the service trades, the field can become our university. The truck is the classroom. The job site is the laboratory. And when something doesn't work? Figure it out. You get to choose your curriculum now. This is your chance to unfuck what school may have taught you about learning. Take back your curiosity. Ask questions. Get things wrong. Go down rabbit holes. Become the world's best learner. You're not taking orders anymore. You're taking over. You are the captain of your learning ship. Sail well.

Sometimes the view changes when you stop looking straight ahead. In this Quickie, I'm thinking about perspective, curiosity, and what happens when we're willing to look through a different window—or maybe even fall through the looking glass. The answer you're searching for might already be there. You may just need to change where you're standing

This week, I'm in Palm Springs, California, helping build a LoRaWAN data layer across a private golf course. The first use case is simple: BLADE soil moisture sensors in the greens, giving the superintendent real-time insight without relying entirely on manual field scouting. But the bigger opportunity is the network itself. This isn't command and control. The irrigation controller already owns that job. This is a separate, open data layer — one that can support soil moisture, pressure, rainfall, water level, weather, flow, and whatever else we become curious enough to measure. Every golf course needs a data layer. And maybe every large landscape does too. Follow your curiosity. Try something. See what happens. Stay curious, my friends.  

Try MODURA for FREE: monitor.modura.app In this episode of the Sprinkler Nerd Show, Andy reflects on a lesson that has taken decades—and a whole lot of technology—to understand: technology is not the answer. Inspired by Jimmy Buffett's Life Is Just a Tire Swing, Andy goes back to where much of his curiosity began: riding in a truck with Paul Bassett, asking questions and getting honest answers about how irrigation really worked—and how it could work differently. After a career surrounded by controllers, sensors, flow meters, soil moisture, LoRaWAN, analytics, and AI, Andy is more convinced than ever that the future of irrigation starts with people first, simple mechanical solutions second, and digital technology third. Because information alone doesn't change anything. People do.

What if you could spy on an irrigation system without ever touching the controller? Welcome to Irrivoyeurism. In this quickie episode, Andy explores how a simple soil moisture sensor can reveal the hidden behavior of an irrigation system—from how often it waters and how long it runs to how quickly the soil dries down between irrigation events. For decades, if you wanted to understand an irrigation schedule, you went to the controller. Now you can go straight to the soil. Because every irrigation event leaves a signature. The soil becomes the diary of the irrigation system, recording what actually happened instead of what the controller says was supposed to happen. Drop in a sensor. Watch the data. Follow the evidence. The soil tells the story.

Every episode, Andy ends with the same invitation: "Reach out anytime." Thousands of people have heard those words. Only a handful have ever acted on them. What separates the people who send the email, make the phone call, introduce themselves, or ask the question? In this five-minute Quickie, Andy reflects on a story from Steve Jobs about calling Bill Hewlett at just 12 years old and how one simple question changed the course of his life. The biggest opportunities often begin with a single act of curiosity. Sometimes all it takes is the courage to ask. So... are you one of them?

What does it really mean to be real? In this short solo episode, Andy shares why authenticity has become one of the most important ideas shaping his life, business, and leadership. From admitting you don't have all the answers to trusting data over assumptions, this episode is a reminder that curiosity and honesty often build more trust than certainty. Andy also reads a heartfelt message from a young irrigation professional whose journey perfectly captures the spirit of the Sprinkler Nerd community—a group of people committed to learning, improving, and raising the standard together. Whether you're leading a team, serving customers, or simply trying to become a little better every day, this episode is an invitation to show up as yourself. Sometimes the most powerful words we can say are: "I don't know... but I'll find out."