We’re looking forward to introducing you to Lindsay Scherr Burgess. Check out our conversation below.
Lindsay, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
At Green Wallscapes, we have niched down our business to be excellent at preserved moss walls that are for interior use only. We get calls all the time from people asking us to put these outside. The other thing that most people don’t understand is that these walls don’t require continuous maintenance, watering or any special lighting or plumbing when they are put up since they are not alive (although they look it). The moss is real, but preserved by glycerin, so it remains soft, but it does not grow. It gets it’s many colors through a dying process. We even have pink and purple mosses!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Lindsay Scherr Burgess, Founder and Moss Boss of Green Wallscapes. We create no-hassle preserved moss walls logos lettering and art for companies and residences all over the US, Canada and the Carribbean.
We have done over 1000 projects in over 35 states, Canada, and the Caribbean and employ a team of moss artists in our West Palm Beach studio. Green Wallscapes’ work has been called “a lavish expression of botanical joy” and has been featured in Architectural Digest, Veranda Magazine, Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach Daily News, and more. In 2023, Green Wallscapes won gold for the iPlants Magazine Biophilic Design Awards. Green Wallscapes was selected to participate in the prestigious Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse in 2019. Green Wallscapes’ client list includes major developers like Amli Residential, Aimco, Greystone, Related, Weinstein Properties, and Zom and major brands like Amazon, Starbucks, Autonation, Stella Artois, Garden of Life, IBM, Hilton, Westin, Marriott Vacation Rentals, and more.
My background is diverse, she has worked in organic produce, construction, commercial real estate, and book publishing in a sales and marketing role. I love to travel, speak fluent Italian, and can be found painting, doing yoga, and jet-skiing on the weekends. I graduated from Northwestern University, and lives in West Palm Beach with her entrepreneurial husband, Jon and their Daughter, Skylar.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
At 27 years old in 2008, I was a commercial real estate agent when the market tanked. I didn’t understand what was happening or how long it would take the economy at large to return. At one point I had $50,000 in credit card debt from the business, and no way of bringing in income. I made up so many stories about my business failure (it was my first time in business out of school, so I had no idea what was happening macro economically) and my inability to see what was happening around me. I spent 10 years digging myself out of that mistake. I attributed so much shame to that time in my life thinking – How could I let that happen? How did I not see it was going to get that bad? Now, more than 15 years later, I think to myself, how grateful I am that I had that experience. It forced me to continue to hustle and try new things, and understand that mistakes (often costly ones!) are part of business. I’ve had many times during the last 8 years at Green Wallscapes, whether it was the pandemic, employee or material issues, supply chain problems, or even entering motherhood, where I have had to calm myself down from that shame and worry about what could happen that would put us back in that situation again. I have to release that because it’s not my current reality. I kept going and now we have a successful business with a great team, but it has taken a long time to get here.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Everything takes FOREVER – way longer than you think it will. I think that technology makes it seem like you can do things faster (some people absolutely can, but many do not), and so what I would say to my younger self is – it takes a long time to build it right, but then it is established from a strong foundation. There are no shortcuts to experience, you literally have to live through it, try things, make mistakes, and WAIT. You can hustle super hard and do things slightly faster, but it takes a long time to build things properly. You can get a shallow understanding of things by doing them once or twice, but you cannot master anything unless you have done it a ton of times. We have completed over 1000 moss walls. I can tell in a second who has just learned about moss and tried to glue it to a board or frame and sell it. Their product is not the same as my product. It’s not a judgement, it’s just experience of doing and doing and doing it again. So the sooner we get interested in mastery, then the better off we will be longterm. It’s the opposite thinking of most people right now.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Growth, generosity, fun, happiness, and time with my family and friends – those are the things I care about most.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When have you had to bet the company?
I’ve had to bet the company multiple times. The first time was the pandemic, the second time was last year during the election. We had so many inquiries and no one would make a decision. In both cases, it was a pause of almost 6 months, which can be VERY difficult on cashflow. Both times, I had to decide to keep my team over making money. I had to do a lot of internal work to decide on the best plan of action to take because I was hearing that everyone was in the same boat. It was stressful because I had to invent things for my team to do when we were not busy. Luckily, because we held strong through both scenarios, we were able to pick back up once the economy started moving again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.GreenWallscapes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenwallscapes
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayscherrburgess
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenWallScapes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@greenwallscapes/about
Image Credits
Green Wallscapes
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