Marty Grunder – Growing a Winning with Class Business

Marty Grunder started Grunder Landscaping Co (GLC) in 1984 so that he and his brother could buy more baseball cards.  He didn’t have any idea then what it would become.  He still serves as the company’s Founder and CEO, working to connect with those in the community who could use a great partner in their landscaping.  Marty also runs his own business consultancy, The Grow Group, which teaches landscape professionals from across the country how to implement the business practices that work so well for GLC.  Their annual event, The Grow Annual Conference, brought 1,000 + landscape pros to Columbus, OH in 2025.

Marty has been recognized as the Ohio Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Midwest by the Small Business Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.  He was also named the Dayton/Miami Valley Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001 by Ernst & Young, and in 2021 was inducted into the Dayton Business Hall of Fame.  He’s been recognized by the Dayton Business Journal’s (DBJ) 40 under 40 and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2020.  He was recognized as a Leader in Diversity by the DBJ in 2023 and is an award-winning regular columnist for Landscape Management Magazine.  

A lifelong Daytonian, Marty enjoys rooting for the Reds, Bengals, and Dayton Flyers.  When he’s not working, he loves spending time with his wife, Lisa, visiting their four children, and being “Mulch” and “Pop” to his two granddaughters.

Takeaways:

1. Pursuing your WHY.  As he mentioned, from the start of his business journey, Marty had a love for landscaping.  This passion was soon combined with a drive, at that time, to get out of college with no debit.  This early WHY transformed and expanded into that of building a great team, business, and culture, all while maintaining family as his top priority.  What a great example of the notion that when you have a great WHY and pour your heart and soul into chasing it, success is soon to follow.  
2. Leadership.  Marty has gained so many great leadership lessons on his journey and he continually shares them with his team and consulting group – the Grow Group – they’re all lucky to have him.  As Marty shared with us, leadership is an ongoing, evolving journey that he’s still pursuing.  Just to highlight a few of his lessons.. Marty made a great point about how, no matter how hard it is, you need to find a way to delegate.  To really grow, you can’t do it alone, so, you need to find a way to trust others, build a team of great people around you, and then let them handle responsibilities that are in line with their talents.  He also mentions how he battled ego in the beginning.  I think this is fairly normal - handling success at young age is NOT easy.  It takes a true focus to stop at that line of the confidence that comes from success and making sure it doesn’t cross over into cockiness and ego driven behavior that is poisonous to teams and businesses.  Marty did this and, now like the great leader he is – he helps other young business owners do the same through the Grow Group.
3. Emotional Intelligence.  Related to the leadership points above, Marty mentions the importance of emotional intelligence and how it is a skill you can develop.  He points out that it’s all about pondering, thinking, slowing down, learning when to talk and when to listen when you’re frustrated, etc.  Marty’s “TNT”– standing for Temperature – cooling down, realizing there is No reason to react, and then finding the T  - the opportunity to Teach.  This is all a part of building and maintaining solid emotional intelligence – something that is absolutely essential to both leadership and the building of solid and lasting relationships. 
4. Culture. Marty makes great culture points here.  I love his mantra about how external customer services will never exceed internal customer service, meaning that he needs to treat his team as well as he aims to treat customers.  This leads to low turnover and an engaged and inspired team which will in turn, treat the customers well on the front lines.  Marty emphasized that NOTHING is more important than culture.  He brought this home by describing how he likes to create an atmosphere that is as if the front door is open and back door is closed.  They come in the front door and it’s so great, they don’t want to leave.  Marty’s built a great model of this and his company’s low turnover rate in a high turnover industry is proof that it has been a success.
5. Integrity.  I love how simply and bluntly Marty mentioned integrity.  It’s so essential that he doesn’t need a sign for it.  It should be automatic.  Marty and his team lead by example with a focus on doing the right thing always – no signs are needed for this one. 

Links:

Websites: https://grunderlandscaping.com/ 

Instagram: @grunderlandscaping, @growgroup, @martygrunder

Facebook: Grunder Landscaping Company, Marty Grunder, The Grow Group