Episode 18: Greg Bland is the man with a Landscape Architectural Plan.

Randy Wilburn 0:20

Hey folks, and welcome back to another episode of Encourage Build Grow. I'm your host, Randy Wilburn. And we are here today talking about leadership development, communication and personal development for design professionals. And I've actually got another friend as I told you a couple of weeks ago on the on the podcast that I've just been twisting the arms of all the people that actually like me to convince them to come on this podcast, and eventually I'll get other people that don't either know me or don't like me to come on this podcast. And that's kind of the way it's working out. And, in all seriousness, though, I have a good friend of mine, Greg bland, who is a registered landscape architect. He's actually a friend of mine, our kids know each other. We're working quasi neighbors because he doesn't live that far from me here in Fayetteville, Arkansas. But Greg has been doing landscape architecture for some time now. And I thought it would be really cool to have him on the podcast to talk about leadership and communication from his perspective and then just kind of go from there. So without further ado, Greg Bland. How are you doing?

Greg Bland 1:21

And I'm doing great, Randy. Thanks for having me on your podcast as alot of fun glad to have you over to the house and get to catch up with you a little bit.

Randy Wilburn 1:28

Yeah, we're actually sitting out here on his back deck. It's a nice cool breeze we've been feeling 90 degree heat here in Arkansas and in the late September month so it's nice to get a little respite from that but well, that's cool. So So Greg, why don't you just just talk a little bit about yourself and your background just to share with the audience where you know where you've come from, and as we like to call it your superhero origin story.

Greg Bland 1:52

My superhero origin story? Oh, wow. To tell about the kryptonite as well.

Randy Wilburn 1:55

Yes. Okay. Tell it all.

Greg Bland 1:57

Well, I mean, you say Northwest Arkansas. I was born in Fayetteville. So I'm a hometown guy here. I've always been been loving Northwest Arkansas and the landscape here, spent most of my time here, went to the University of Arkansas spent a little bit of time in Nashville, Tennessee, kind of cutting my teeth over there kind of learning the trades and came back over here whenever I got licensed and decided to kind of set up shop for myself and doing some some fun design work for custom homes and other landscapes that they kind of call for that same level of detail.

Randy Wilburn 2:32

So and I know that I've seen some of your work, your work has been featured and in several magazines locally, and I was really blown away. I'm like, man, my friend actually did that. That was kind of cool. So, you know, a lot of times people don't know what landscape architects do, and anybody that's listening to this, you know what you do as a landscape architect, but just give the audience just a rough idea of what a day looks like for you when you're in the throes of multiple projects.

Greg Bland 2:59

Oh, I would just love to love to tell you that I spend all my days walking around outside and picking roses and it's, it's probably a lot like a lot of your listeners, I sit in front of a computer probably, you know more time than not, I do get to go out and spend a little time on site, you know, meeting clients walking around their landscapes in kinda talking about improvements, or maybe it's a new site, you know, new home that's about to get put in the ground. So we kind of help pick where that house is going to go and the orientation and how its approached where the pool is going to go. That's that kind of fun stuff. I mean, most it's a lot of educational, you know, people are hiring me, you know, they've never hired a landscape architect or designer and they're just kind of, you know, so I have to educate them a lot and say, Well, you know, I don't just pick plants you know, I'm working on the drainage and the lights and the tell them my analogy is, you know, if you if your landscape is a cake and the icing is your plants. I probably spend 90% of my time on the cake. And maybe 10% on the plants, you know, you get, you got to get to know on the front end, you know that what the icing is going to look like but, you know, I spend more of my time, you know, doing grading and drainage and, and slopes and all that good stuff. So I enjoy it.

Randy Wilburn 4:13

Okay. So I mean, what I'm curious to learn is was it what you expected coming into this when you were going to school and you were getting you were studying Landscape Architecture I have actually have quite a few landscape architect friends, and they all have different stories about what they expected coming into the industry. And I mean, I'm asking this really for those that are listening that may be studying Landscape Architecture right now in school, and they don't know kind of in what direction they're going to go when they come out. But was it what you thought it was going to be?

Greg Bland 4:43

I would say I'm getting it's coming around, like I'm getting to direct it kind of more into the, the direction that I wanted it to be back then.

Randy Wilburn 4:51

Okay, which was what?

Greg Bland 4:53

Well, just, you know, the idea of, you know, being able to come up with a great design and have somebody implement it. Yeah. You know, coming out of school you think oh, I'm a great designer whatever I can throw a few lines on a page and somebody's just going to fall in love with it it's just going to appear in the landscape or in the built environment and and there's just there's so many more things that they don't teach in school that you know the the politics of it the getting people on board with your ideas early before you even before they even see a design so it's just all the relationship building and it's just it's it's a huge process and huge profession that can kind of come out of school thinking you know it all but it's a it's kind of a lifelong learning process. Really,

Randy Wilburn 5:35

it is and the fact that clients have opinions is one of them for sure.

Greg Bland 5:40

You get humans involved. And there's all kinds of fun stuff that happens.

Randy Wilburn 5:44

Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. So let's let's stay here for a second because I would like to talk about what because you brought it up and it's something that we talk about a lot when when we talked to design professionals it's it's some of it is the lack of the lack of preparation. beyond the scope of the technical abilities that an individual is equipped with, when they go to college and go through and matriculate through and get a degree, what were the things that were missing for you? And I'll give you an example just to kind of help you a lot of design professionals that I talked to say, Man, you know, we never got like project management training. We never, nobody ever walked us through how to work with a client, you know, just told us how to deliver a product or service, but they never walked us through those interactions and those relationships, and I'd love for you to kind of talk about what you didn't get, and what it took for you to actually get up to speed where you felt comfortable and felt like you were actually doing something.

Greg Bland 6:10

You know, it's so easy to throw the education system under the bus, you know, they've only got you for four years.

Randy Wilburn 6:47

Right. Right. And I'm not trying to do that at all.

Greg Bland 6:49

I get it. But yeah, but I mean, I think I think a lot of our people in our profession will do that. Well, they just didn't prepare me blah, blah. Well, it's, I mean, it's just part of the system as you you know, you learn some of those technical things in school yet the out on the job having those interactions with that contractor and learning how to rely on them. And, just all the different follow ups you've got to do in the documentation as as you work with the client and kind of keep keep good notes. That's so there's tons of good things you learn in school, but just how you apply them into the system of actually going and interning underneath someone who's been there and done that. Really. It's critical.

Randy Wilburn 7:29

Yeah. Would you have done anything differently in your years in college before you'd actually gotten out into the workforce, maybe a different type of internship maybe would have tried to do something else to develop your skill set?

Greg Bland 7:42

Looking back I probably would have taken a couple more business courses. Okay. You know, I wouldn't you know, I kind of imagined that I would be out working for somebody else which I did for a little bit but you know, going out on my own you know, he just kind of do some learn as you go trial by fire things. Some those lessons can be a little, little painful, but boy they they stick with you?

Randy Wilburn 8:03

Yeah, no, they definitely do. They definitely do. So I like the fact that I mean, I appreciate your honesty about that. Because it's, I hear it over and over again. And I don't know that there is a way to change the curriculum of schools in terms of making sure that they give more of the soft skill development side of things for design professionals, which we all know they need. Right, which is what that's why I talk about leadership development. That's why I talked about communication to me, they're like the two major things. But why don't you share like some of your leadership lessons that you've learned over the years that have really served you well, as you've gone out to serve the needs of your clients as a landscape architect?

Greg Bland 8:44

Oh, man, I mean, some of the most painful ones always come with with dollar signs. Yeah. When you, you know, when you're dealing with the client, preparing them on the front end for what bills might be coming down the road and then that's, that's just so critical. And I think you know, when you're first are now it's it you don't know. And so it's it's really hard to kind of project those things, but really kind of getting that communication in early and saying, Hey, here's where we're going to go in. And if, you know, maybe you've planned so many hours or so many dollars and you've gone way over, just you got to chalk that up to, you know, to education, you know, paying, you've paid for your education there by, "hey, I'm just gonna stick to my word." You know, I'm going to charge you what I said I was going to charge you and I'm going to eat the rest just because, you know, that's, there's so many times that happens. I think early on that doing that little bit more will, you know, you're you might be hungry at the time, you might really need to be needing that check, but the relationship is way more important. And that will it will pay for itself. Dividends later on down the road. Yeah, but keep it by preserving those relationships. I think

Randy Wilburn 9:48

I'm glad you brought relationships up. I was just doing a training in New York City with the Port Authority. And one of the things that we talked about with some very seasoned design firm owners was the importance of continuing to develop those relationships. The example that I gave was simply that if you build a relationship with your client, and they become a friend, well, I always tell people, friends don't fire friends.

Greg Bland 10:12

Yeah

Randy Wilburn 10:12

Right. That never happens. Now there might be, you might run into a situation where a friend has to come to you and say, Hey, Greg, you know, this has been great. But here's where I am. And they'll have a moment with you where they'll share and bare their soul and be like, we can't move on with our current relationship. And here's why. And I want to, you know, so you get that level of transparency instead of that call saying, hey, things just aren't working out the way that we had hope we're going to go in a different direction because no design professional ever wants to hear that.

Greg Bland 10:41

Oh, no. That's the nail thru the heart.

Randy Wilburn 10:44

Exactly. Exactly. And I only say that I only bring that up because you brought up the word relationship, the R word and I think relationship is very, I mean, it's critical in any business setting, right? You have to from a B2B perspective, if you're working with other businesses and serving their needs, Or if you're working directly with a consumer, which you do, you have to understand how important those relationships are. Not only is it important for your bottom line, but most of those relationships lead to other relationships. And I'm sure most of or not most, but a good portion of your work is probably word of mouth.

Greg Bland 11:21

Yeah, good. A good percentage, I would say.

Randy Wilburn 11:24

It's like the 80/20 rule, right? Yeah, we get 80% of your business from 20% of your clients.

Greg Bland 11:30

And the people that are unhappy are going to speak out more loudly than the ones that are happy so and you got to keep them happy.

Randy Wilburn 11:37

Yeah. So what do you see is some of the biggest challenges facing design professionals and specifically landscape architects since you're you know, you're you are in the throes of it but what do you see as as as a threat to the industry as it stands right now?

Greg Bland 11:54

Well, I'm a home based business so I work out of the home and so I don't get...

Randy Wilburn 11:58

You have a nice setup. Your office looks good.

Unknown Speaker 12:02

I'm not out there, you know, cruising through other people's offices all the time. So, you know, my view on that's a little limited, but I'll just so just know from my point of view, the technology changing every 12 seconds is really hard for, you know, the solo entrepreneur guy who's just trying to manage everything. And when, you know, when you got 10 different pieces of software, and three of them are, you know, updating, it's just hard to kind of stay on top of that, for sure. But, but I think there's a lot of, I guess I don't focus too much on the threats as I do on the on the opportunities. Yeah, like right now, um, I never would have decided I've kind of made a choice for myself that I don't want to start, you know, a big company where I've got lots of people working for me in an office. I could do that. But I'm just that's not my thing I like to design. But right now I'm using technology to my advantage. I've got a draftsman in Bolivia, who's awesome. I mean, he'll probably listen to this. So, What's up Diego!?, that's cool. We've got this awesome relationship. He's an architect, he does a lot of 3d modeling in the software that I use, and he, you know, whenever I need him, he's just a, he's just happy to help out. And so we do a lot of work together.

Randy Wilburn 13:15

How did you come in contact with him?

Greg Bland 13:17

I used a website called Upwork.

Randy Wilburn 13:20

Yep, sure.

Greg Bland 13:21

So yeah, outsourcing. And it's just anything that can be done on the computer, you can you can get help with is those of us who are, you know, kind of get overwhelmed at times, you know, the wave of clients comes in all at once, you know, like, right now we get seven new clients in the last week, you know, they're calling and its just like, how do I deal with all this? So setting up some, some checklists and some, some routines that are standardized that you can help kind of hand off in bits and pieces really helps. And we're talking, we're hitting like 10 different subjects right now.

Randy Wilburn 13:53

It's fine because you're bringing up a good point and it's actually taking me to that that other place that I like to talk about, which is the future You obviously I mean, there are I keep telling people that in the not so distant future, there will come a time where design firms will be able to go out. And just like you order or get an Uber or a Lyft, you'll be able to find a design professional that can come come in and help you on a project. And you'll you will be able to vet them by looking at their portfolio of work, what they've done, how competent they are, and then you'll be able to pick and choose people from there. Now, a lot of times people say, Oh, well, I don't really want that, because I want everyone internally. And I don't know that we're going to have that luxury. Yeah, I just don't think it's going to exist. And so what you're describing in terms of your relationship with Diego, we're seeing it. There are several design firms architectural design firms, based out of India that will basically pick up where if I'm, if it's five o'clock in, in La Jolla and California and I'm, you know, I'm wrapping up for the day, I'm transferring all my files to a server in the cloud. And then we have a team of people in Mumbai or someplace else in India or someplace else just fill in the blank and they're going to pick it up from there and yeah working on it and then when I come back to the office in the morning on that much further ahead, now a lot of firms are willing to embrace that and then some are resistant to it and I think those that are resistant to it are going to miss out because even and you are a perfect example of that because you're you are a solo practitioner, like you said, you're and you're using somebody in another country that has a lot of the same capabilities that you have to generate additional work and to also be able to take on what you have on your plate and help you out either the same I do that I have I can you know with when it comes to podcasting and a lot of my website stuff I can do all of that, but I just don't have the time to.

Greg Bland 14:33

Yeah, we are finite creatures.

Randy Wilburn 15:46

Exactly. So I always have to look for some help but I only say all that is is to encourage those that are listening is where and when possible. I'm if you're a small design firm owner and you can identify some skilled and individuals to help you especially on the design side of things which contend to take up a lot of time. I'm not suggesting that you hire somebody externally for business development unless they're local. Because I mean, you can't have anybody doing BD for you in India, that would be very difficult unless you're doing business in India. Yeah. But I think you can hire individuals, like a Diego and others that can help you achieve objectives that you've set forth in your organization.

Greg Bland 16:26

Well, and, and I can hit and I've heard the, you know, the pushback from other people to that, you know, it's like, well, why aren't you you know, hiring somebody here locally, and whatever it's like, well, you know, I don't have a consistent need. And, you know, it's, it's really complicated, trying to, you know, keep somebody busy, and I've done it and it's hard. And it just it creates, it actually increases my workload instead of taking it down. You know, you're talking about, you know, going to India or whatever. I kind of like the South America thing. It kind of keeps us on the same same time zone roughly. Yeah. And so we're kind of working side by side rather than handing off. It's like when he's got a question, just shoots it to me. And we're back and forth. It's great. But also, I think, also people will say, well, you're just kind of, you're abusing, you know, the system or whether it's like now well, you know, he's getting paid really well, you know, right for that for where he's at. I, from what I understand. Yeah, I don't know, for sure. But I mean, everything I've looked on, you know, he gets paid pretty well for where he's at. And I just, I couldn't afford that here, you know, and still still make a profit. So, man, it's, it's just kind of the life we're living right now. And it's been a help.

Randy Wilburn 17:37

Yeah, no, I think it's really good. I know a lot of people listening probably have questions about, well, what does that look like? And how hard is it? Because I personally work with virtual assistants in Asia. And so I'm usually always 12 hours behind them. Yep, actually 13 and so when I'm getting up in the morning, they're about to you know, they're calling it a day and when I am going to bed, they are just getting started. So, you know, our conversations tend to work out, you know, happen early early in the morning or late in the evening at a small window either the day that so that yes, there is there is the drawback of not being able to just like I have a question or an idea at 12 noon my time? Well, I know if I send them a message, they're not going to respond until about six or seven hours later. So, you know, I have to kind of, you know, you have to govern yourself accordingly. But it's not that difficult to do. I mean, you can certainly do that and figure out a way to set it up. But But you're right, if you can get into the same hemisphere on in, you know, in similar time zones, especially with people in South America, in their virtual assistants everywhere, it doesn't matter. Yeah, you know, where Eastern Europe you name it, depending on what you need is a virtual system out there for everything.

Greg Bland 18:45

Well, on the flip side, I mean, this part of what I'm about is, is really kind of giving back to the profession in some way. And so I do believe in you know, locally, you know, we got the university here, going up there and sitting on critiques Stuff like that. So I do, I do enjoy the face to face personal investing in the people here and the students coming up. So I'm always offering Hey, if you know students if you're if you're in the profession or you know, you're studying and come shadow for a day, I'll be glad to show you around, you know, some job sites under construction because I know that was something that was kind of missing, I didn't get to really get those boots on the ground like that I have available I can, you know, kind of show them what's going on. But also we're doing some, you know, plans for the future as, as our business we're we're actually doing some online training. And it's a it's kind of a virtual thing, but I'm really wanting to pour back in and teach some of this next generation some of the some of the lessons learned, you know, as we've gone through learning for ourselves.

Randy Wilburn 19:47

Well tell us so so you've got Landform Design, which is is your your design practice, but then you also have Plans for the Future. Tell us a little bit about give us a glimpse inside of Plans for the Future. Is it a Landscape Architecture University online, what is it?

Greg Bland 20:03

Well, it's it's kind of in its infancy Still, we were in the first year, my friend David Schmidt, he had Township Designs here in town, and we both really love, you know, doing the residential thing. And we both, you know, been doing it a while and kind of realized we, we've gained some knowledge along the way that we could pass along. And really to kind of benefit the most people, we saw that the technology was there to kind of record and create a class that could be accessed anywhere in the world. So it's plansforthefuture.net, um, it's, you know, we call it it's the rough version is kind of up and running right now. But it's one of those things that, you know, you kind of once a student buys in, they're in it for the long haul, and it's going to get upgraded and improved and added on to as as things go. So yeah, it's just starting off slow, but I'm hoping, hoping that idea will catch on,

Randy Wilburn 20:53

As if you don't already have enough work to do, right?

Greg Bland 20:56

I'm telling you. Parenting

Randy Wilburn 20:59

Yes, the whole nine yards. It's always something.

So what do you see are? What do you see in the future for for landscape? architects?

Unknown Speaker 21:09

That's a great question. I think the one of the best things about our profession is that a lot of it is rooted in plants, plants don't change just all that much. I mean, there's, there's people out there breeding new plants and stuff, but for the most part, you kind of have to work with what God gave you. Yeah, yeah. So that is one piece of stability that I kind of, kind of latch on to, but a lot of it is, you know, learning how to work with you know, architects doing new building systems, and being able to you know, work at the speed that they're working on and and responding in a timely manner. So, uh, just that adapting with the technology is huge. But,Yeah, I see that the software evolving and I'm just I'm hoping that somehow we don't get completely replaced by some you know, programm or somewhere but is for now it's like getting that real human eyes on the, on the ground. Right makes a huge difference. Right. And I don't see that being replaced anytime in my near future.

Randy Wilburn 22:11

So, you know, I have a question to ask because I know in a lot of a lot of landscape architecture shops, you know, the designers kind of feed off of each other so when it's time to do a charrette, and kind of sit down and go through some things, how do you accomplish that as a solo practitioner?

Greg Bland 22:29

Well, there's a few ways I mean, it's kind of fun working with my buddy David, I mean, we we've had to really compare notes and kind of figure out how we both do things and so it's that's been a fun experience. You know, the continuing education credits you gotta have so I'm constantly going to seminars and you know, sitting in classes and learning from other landscape architects so that's just the camaraderie there's a lot of fun you know, the state ASLA is the landscape architecture professional association here.

Randy Wilburn 23:00

So how many landscape architects are there in Arkansas?

Greg Bland 23:04

See you've got to prepare me with those kind of questions.

Randy Wilburn 23:06

I'm just wondering, because I mean, I would imagine that it's not not

Greg Bland 23:10

Not enough. Yeah, it's a pretty small number. Yeah, I don't I don't have that at the forefront of my mind.

Randy Wilburn 23:16

Yeah, I mean, when you look at just the number of design professionals period, and all of the all of the verticals and all the markets, we just don't have enough period. You know, so I'm even telling young people, hey, you should consider STEM, you should consider these options that are out there. Because, you know, there, there's just going to be a lack of them, just like people are having a hard time finding good plumbers, having a hard time finding carpenters. I mean, it's, we're missing out.

Greg Bland 23:43

Well, and also, I think the focus on the environment is going to really play into that. So if you're, if you're on the fence about going to school for it, do it. It's, it's just going to, I think the demands just going to grow.

Randy Wilburn 23:55

Yeah. And what have you been doing lately to continue to refine and hone your business sense since that's not what what you were classically trained for, what have you been doing personally to really fine tune that? Whether It's Your ability to interact with a potential client, your ability to interact with another trade within the industry? Or how have you been? What have you been doing to improve that?

Greg Bland 24:22

One of the big things I think is, you know, working with David on, he's a little bit more business savvy than I am, I'm a little more, I'm just really passionate about design, and I stick to that as much as possible. But he's really kind of pushed me on standardizing processes. So I'm using a piece of software called Process Street. Which is just really cool as far as building some standardized checklists. And so every time I go through a project, you know, I'm always adding one little step. It's like, Oh, I should have had that one piece of information right there at my fingertips. Next time. I'm going to ask for that and a head of time and then it'll put go into the system and So that's, I know designers a lot of top. I know I resisted standardizing. So hey, it's just me. I don't need a handbook. Yeah. But when you do standardize the, you know, the non creative portions of what you do, it's, it really frees you up so whenever you do you have time to do the creative portions, you know, by standardizing the the other day to day things, it gets you through those faster so you can design it more and do a better job at it. Yeah,

Randy Wilburn 25:28

Well, it takes all the guesswork away. I mean, you just don't have...

Greg Bland 25:30

You don't miss the things falling through the cracks. Right, right. And it's also digitally so sitting in the cloud and actually, you can bring in other people like those digital assistance or my wife Julie she does the books and so she's over there helping you know putting together some some promo packets whenever we want to send those out to a new client or whatever. So she's, she's right there with me kind of improving the system as we go.

Randy Wilburn 25:55

No, I love that Yeah, Process Street. I've heard of that. There's several out there that that firms can use. I'm always surprised when I go into some of these, you know, I've gotten into some million dollar plus firms that you know, environmental and planning and landscape architecture firms, you know, they may have 30, 40, 50 people, and they're still doing everything on a dry erase board. Scheduling on a dry erase board and an Excel spreadsheet. And I'm kind of blown away by it. Not that, you know, you can use the basic tools, but there are enough new systems out there that can help you. And I think there there needs to be more simpler systems. Everybody can't afford Deltek Yeah, and Deltek may be overkill. I know that's heresy. I've done a lot of stuff. I've done a lot of work with Deltek. So I love Deltek, but it's not meant for everyone. And just like you're using Process Street there are other programs that are out there that are worth...

Greg Bland 26:44

Things like Asana, Trello, they cheap or free. Yeah, super helpful.

Randy Wilburn 26:50

And it's probably worth it for you to especially if you're a small if you're a solo practitioner and you don't want to use like a Process Street. I mean, what what Greg is mentioning with Asana or Trello you can probably come up with a simple manual for how you do your work, and then plug it into some of these off the shelf software's that would be available to you to use to then streamline the work that you do. So as Greg mentioned, you can get back to the thing that most designers I believe, enjoy, which is a design.

Greg Bland 27:19

Sure, yeah. And, you know, in Plans for the Future, that's one of the things is we, we've built out some of these processes, so you don't have to start from scratch. And so our beginner version of Plans for the Future is all about if you're starting up from scratch, you know, this is the boost that's going to get you up and running faster. So you don't spend six or eight months, you know, spinning your wheels trying to reinvent the wheel. And so, yeah, that's kind of why we did that.

Randy Wilburn 27:46

All right. I love that. That's great. Well, man, I really appreciate you taking time today to just sit down with us and kind of give us some insight into what it's like as a solo practitioner and a landscape architect and like I said, I've seen your work. And I'll try to link to it if I can still find that article online. I think it is. Or maybe you can share it with me. I'll set you up. Yeah, that'll be good. We'll link to that in the show notes. So you guys can check out Greg and and what he is all about. But Greg, if people want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Greg Bland 28:16

Go to landformdesigns.com, we've got a little form in there If you're interested in you know, being a client, you know, or just have a question. It will form an email for me and I'll email you back.

Randy Wilburn 28:27

Yeah, that would be nice. That's a novel idea. Right? So anybody out there that's a young landscape architect, Greg is certainly a resource and I would encourage you, I don't care where you are. You don't have to be in Arkansas to reach out to him just just shoot him an email and he is a man of his word. So he will get back to you and will certainly link to plansforthefuture.net and landformdesigns.com on our show notes so you can check it out. So last but not least, before we close out, I have to ask you and I am putting you on the spot now. What was the last book that you read that really impacted you?

Greg Bland 28:58

The last book that I read I would have to say that really impacted me. I'm sad to say I'm actually reading Lord of the...Lord, Lord of the Flies. No, Lord of the Rings for the first time. Okay, but the one that I most recently read that impacted me was Bill Bryson's, A walk in the woods. One of my longtime dreams is to hike the Appalachian Trail end to end in one venture but I don't know man, the way my middle age back is feeling. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that but I can at least do it through a book.

Randy Wilburn 29:33

Yeah, exactly. Well maybe you could...you've got some boys, maybe you can convince some of them to join dad on a trip and, you know, try to make it happen might not have to be a six month trip. I know. Maybe you know what I mean? If you did it, like if you legitimately did it, how long would does it take or mean? Or?

Greg Bland 29:51

I think it's I think it's four to six months it's a long way. Thousands of miles. Yeah,

Randy Wilburn 29:57

Yeah. So, wow, that would be cool. So Alright, what's the last good movie you saw?

Greg Bland 30:03

Good movie? Oh my gosh, boy. Well, my son's really showing me some interesting movies lately and this one was interesting. I don't know that it would be appropriate for all audiences But Baby Driver was an interesting...

Randy Wilburn 30:20

With Taron Egerton. Yeah, it was a good movie. It was really crazy though.

Greg Bland 30:23

It kind of felt a little Quentin Tarantino...

Randy Wilburn 30:27

Yeah, that was before everything hit the fan for Kevin Spacey. That was his last movie. That was his last one was lacking before he got thrYeah, exactly. Yeah. So So yeah, that but actually is a good movie. It is a really interesting movie. great soundtrack. The way...Yeah, that is true. And the ending is really kind of threw me a little bit so it's rough. Yeah, it is. It is. It is. So ya know that that's definitely have to check that out. All right, well, cool. Well, so there you have it, folks. Greg Bland. The man with the plan. No pun intended, he is a landscape architect. That's doing some amazing things here in Northwest Arkansas of all places. But there's a lot of good things happening in Northwest Arkansas and actually have a podcast about that. And, at some point in time, I'll share with this audience what I share over at that audience because I think that at some point, we can kind of connect the two.

Greg Bland 31:22

Cross pollination.

Randy Wilburn 31:22

Right, exactly. I'll do that, especially for those of you that may be looking to move or relocate to this area. And to understand why Greg and I both live here and why we really enjoy the place that they call Northwest Arkansas, so that's all I have for today's episode of Encourage, Build, Grow. Remember, our focus is helping leaders develop, helping you become a better communicator, and ultimately a better person through personal development. And I'm your host, Randy Wilburn, and you've been listening to Encourage Build Grow you can check us out you can hear all the episodes of the Encouraged Build, Grow podcast, at our website at encouragebuildgrow.com and you can check me out and connect with me on most social media at Randy Wilburn, Instagram, Twitter. That's where I can be found and all the other ways to reach out and connect with me will be in our show notes and you'll be able to find those on our website. So that's all we have for today. We hope you make it a great one and we will see you right back here at the appointed time next week.