In the fall of 1999, the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) hosted their annual Green Industry
Conference. This event, held in Baltimore, MD, was the first of many professional conferences I've attended throughout my career. The speakers, and fellow contractors I met there, had a lasting impact on me and my business. I learned later that I had a lasting impact on some of them too.
I flew to the event with my brother, and then partner, Brook Klausing. While there, we had the pleasure of meeting Jim Paluch, a professional speaker, coach, and business consultant. During a “first time attendee” event we spoke with Jim and shared the story of our business. We didn’t think we made much of an impression at the time but, apparently we did. Jim used our story and our personalities as inspiration for the two main characters in his first novel. Growing Dreams chronicles two young brothers, Oscar and Curtis (Roscoe and Brook respectively), and their quest to own a prosperous professional landscape company. I never could have imagined there would be a novel about two boys growing a landscaping business and I'd be the star!
Interested in reading the novel? Buy ithere.
