On Pointe
News and stories for friends like you.
What Do You Choose?
Happy Thursday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Embrace Results.
“Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you.” Ralph Marston.
This was a big lesson for me to learn during the first several years of owning Focal Pointe. I would see clients that, from the outside, had everything a person could want, but were miserable. I …
The Purpose of Life
Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Put People First.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, honorable, and compassionate.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
We live in a culture that talks a lot about happiness and warps the definition of it through social media. The perfect pose, attending the sold out show, perfect kids, the perfect job…the perfect lives online are presented as proof of happiness, fed to the public, in a much more shallow place.
The people who make the biggest positive …
Creating a Future in Spite of the Fog
In July of 2026, the annual Lawn and Landscape Top 100 reception took place in Arizona. Our Founder and CEO took a handful of our team members with him to attend the reception. This was his daily message to us the following morning:
Happy Thursday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Embrace Results.
Last night, Dana Fritsche, Lisa Stoner, Adam Benes, Molly, and I accepted Focal Pointe’s plaque at the Lawn and Landscape Top 100 ceremony. What they measure is top line revenue, but there is so much more to running …
What Do You Believe About Yourself?
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future.
“Getting what you want out of life largely boils down to (1) the story you tell yourself and (2) where you direct your attention.
What story do you tell yourself about what has happened to you, what you’re capable of, and what you hope to achieve? Is the conversation in your head each day empowering and encouraging you, or holding you back?
And are you taking control and directing your attention toward what matters or merely letting …
We Inspire Communities
Good Morning Focal Pointe Team,
Today is a special one for our family as we celebrate John’s birthday. Because today also falls on the day he would typically write about “Inspiring Communities,” I wanted to share a few words from a perspective that I’ve been honored to have over the years.
For nearly 30 years of marriage, I’ve had a front-row seat to the heart behind the vision of this company. I’ve watched John dream about what Focal Pointe could become since his college days. I’ve seen the early years when …
Thank You
Good Evening Team,
Yesterday, Brett and I had our Advisory Board meeting, and today, we had our quarterly Strategic Planning meeting with the Executive team. Both meetings require us to reflect on our progress and line out where we’re headed. I just want each of you to know how thankful and proud I am. We…and I mean all 600+ of us…are building an incredible company and it is an honor for me to be a part of it.
Also, Molly and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in a …
A Life of Hope vs Expectations
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future.
With two children’s graduation ceremonies, and multiple related events within the last 10 days, one can’t help but think about the future. All graduates complete a significant chapter in life and set their sights on the next. Some roll into the more certain chapter of continued education, but others roll into adulthood and the pressures & uncertainty that come with it.
Thinking about that, I began to reflect on the difference between one having hope and one having expectations. It …
Our Vision…So What’s It Mean?
Happy Monday Everyone! Our Vision is to be The Most Trusted and Admired Landscape Company in the World. What’s that mean?
Trust is the belief or confidence that someone or something is reliable, honest, and will act in accordance with your expectations or best interests — even when you can’t verify or control the outcome. It’s built slowly through consistent behavior and broken quickly through betrayal or failure. At its core, trust is what makes cooperation possible — without it, nearly every human relationship and social structure would collapse.
Admiration is …
A Future Worthy of a Rocking Chair
Happy Wednesday Everyone and Unhappy Tax Day! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future.
Last Wednesday, Fernando who is our Branch Ambassador from Kansas City, shared a message from Ana who is one of our team members at the KC Branch. Ana is a single mother of four, who is creating her future and recently bought a home. She wanted Fernando to share the story with me, and he did in last Wednesday’s Morning Message.
Someday, many years from now, I would like to sit in a rocking chair on …
Real Education Should…
Happy Tuesday Everyone and Happy Last Day of the First Quarter! I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to believe we are 25% through 2026. The world needs to slow down its rotations!
Today’s Core Value is: We Put People First. “Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all humanity.” Nancy Astor.
If you take that quote, and make it a reality for yourself – it will serve you better, and create more value in …
Habits = Future
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future.
“Success is the product of daily habits — not once‑in‑a‑lifetime transformations.” James Clear
After a last gasp from Winter, Spring is roaring back starting today and our two busiest months are on our doorstep. With that in mind, I want to offer a friendly reminder that where we’re headed isn’t decided by one big moment or one big decision. It’s shaped by what we do every day — the habits we build, the standards we keep, and the small choices …
You Inspire
Happy Friday Everyone…Friday the 13th! Today’s Core Value is: We Inspire Communities.
This Tuesday, Barry Phillips, from our Construction Branch stuck his head in my office for a quick chat. He thanked me for what Focal Pointe is growing into, and the impact it’s making on him. “I enjoy working here so much, I almost feel guilty. This place makes me a better person.”
When we talked about how he ended up at Focal Pointe, he said that Mark Doering, our Senior Superintendent in Construction recruited him. During that discussion, Barry …
Input = Output
Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Put People First.
During a dermatologist visit some years ago, the doctor was encouraging me to wear sunscreen and said, “what goes in when you’re young, will come out when you’re old.” We’ve all been told about the importance of sunscreen, but she put the advice in real terms that I could visualize. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a future with wrinkly hands and sunspots.
Because her advice struck me so clearly, I’ve reflected on that from time to time, …
The Power of a Purposeful Life
Happy Monday Everyone and Happy President’s Day! Our Core Purpose is to Beautify the World. I love rainy weekends, and true to form, I had one of the more relaxing weekends I can remember – I even got eight hours of sleep Saturday night! Combine that with my deep appreciation for our Founding Fathers…let’s go!
In 1755, George Washington was a 23-year-old colonial volunteer for the British army in the French and Indian War. During the Battle of Monongahela, Washington had two horses shot out from under him and four bullets pass …
Whatever is in front of you…
Happy Thursday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Embrace Results. “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Abraham Lincoln…today’s Birthday Boy!
Results don’t just happen—they’re earned through the choices we make in the moment. In our work and in our lives, progress comes from leaning into responsibility, not around it. When we decide to tackle the small things today with discipline, focus, and pride, we stack the deck for big wins tomorrow.
Whatever is in front of you—an overnight snow event, a full production schedule, a challenging …
Release and Create
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Victor Frankl
All of us have gone through hardship at some point in our lives. Some more difficult than others, but all of us have faced loss, fear, hurt, and a feeling that life isn’t fair. Sometimes those situations can become a story in our minds that gets replayed, repeatedly, in slow motion, trying to get our brains to process what took place, hoping if …
Grit – The Surest Path to Success
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the very early days of owning my business, I had a client who was the managing partner of a local Northwestern Mutual office. He had gone to a conference for entrepreneurs, and during a talk in his driveway one Saturday, he shared with me a lesson …
Faith in Something Bigger
Happy Monday Everyone! Our Core Purpose is: To Beautify the World. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Today, our Nation honors the memory of Dr. King. I have long been inspired by the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, and I think that inspiration is strengthened by the fact that many of them had a broken nature. It’s my personal belief that their wisdom was not limited to their own potential – divine wisdom was sewn into their thoughts.
To Be Worthy of Trust
Happy Monday Everyone! Our Vision is to be The Most Trusted and Admired Landscape Company in the World.
“Trust is the ability for everyone in an organization to confidently rely on (and predict) that others will do the right thing and make good on their promises.” Marie-Claire Ross.
What in your life may get in the way of keeping your promises and growing into someone people confidently rely on? It’s important to know that not all trust eroding actions are due to bad intentions. Just because you may have good …
Our Mission
Happy Monday Everyone! Our Mission Statement is intended to articulate what, at our core, we provide for our clients. At Focal Pointe, our Mission is to Create the Backdrop for Life’s Most Impactful Moments.
The start of the New Year isn’t only a good time to take inventory of your personal and professional goals, but what about the goals of our clients? What improvement opportunities do you see in how we serve them, or the results we produce for them? Living our Mission means that we look beyond the task we need …
A Story of Nines and Tens
Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Put People First.
For the past several years, Molly and I have taken the family skiing at Crested Butte, CO. We didn’t go this year due to a pesky Freshman boys’ basketball schedule, but the habit of the trip has that vacation on all our minds.
I bring this up, because eight years ago, we started a tradition in Crested Butte of going out to dinner at the “Wooden Nickel” on the night of January 1st, which was usually our last day or …
It’s a Wonderful Life
Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Put People First.
Looking for the Christmas Spirit, Sunday night, my daughter Amanda and I watched the 1946 Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Jimmy Stewart plays the character George Bailey. In the movie, George wants to move out of the small town he grew up in, get a college degree, and do big things in the world, like “plan modern cities.” As George’s life story unfolds throughout the movie, life events send him on a different path, and he questions the worth …
Take a Moment to Be Inspired
Happy Friday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Inspire Communities. Two cool stories to share this week that brought today’s Core Value to life. The first coming from the hygiene kits we put together at the Leadership Summit at Big Cedar…
“Hi Molly, I wanted to reach out and sincerely thank you for your generous donation of hygiene kits. Our Club staff absolutely loved them, and the parents were incredibly appreciative. These items were a high priority for many families, and your support made a meaningful difference. Thank you for helping meet …
Creating Your Future
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Create Our Future.
The Holiday Parties are in full force, which reminds me of a story. Several years ago, I was at a dinner party, and somehow, I got in a conversation with a few lawyer-types about what we’re all good at. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t give compliments well and I don’t take them well…the only thing more awkward than my relationship with compliments is vocalizing what I think I may be good at. “Get me out of this conversation” was the …
Putting A Loved One First
Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today’s Core Value is: We Put People First.
Last Friday, I was listening to a very busy gentlemen who facilitates retreats. Prior to one of his upcoming retreats, he was looking over the attendees list, and saw his dad’s name on the list. This was not good, because his dad was a “cash cow” of stories for his presentations – some flattering, some not so flattering, and almost all were…humorous.
This was not an ideal situation for the son, so he reached out to his dad, and the conversation went …