About ten years after starting the Walker Mower marketing program, I had been thinking about publishing a newsletter or some other customer communication piece. There was advice from marketers from several directions that pointed to the effectiveness of staying in touch with customers and prospective customers.

One of my enjoyments is music and songs. I find that great music and words go deep inside me and send profound messages and pleasures that go beyond mere communication and the mechanics of sound and rhythm. I enjoy the great classics (not too much long-hair), country, gospel, hymns, Dixieland, German-Swiss folk music, Hawaiian to name a few styles and sounds. Although maybe not the perfect analogy, I believe we have been singing a “song” with the publication of 25 issues of Walker Talk.

After logging a couple of hundred thousand miles in the air and on the ground and visiting with nearly a hundred Walker operators, I have a confession to make. I have not been writing about a mower. Instead, I have been writing about the people who do the mowing. But if you’ve been a Walker Talk reader over the years, you know that.

Walker Talk editor Rod Dickens catches up with the subjects of profiles from the first 24 editions of the magazine.

When it comes to selling your wares, you don’t need a degree in marketing from a top 10 university, nor do you need an extravagant marketing plan. Oh, sure, degrees and plans are nice, but they don’t necessarily generate business. What does increase sales is a good dose of common sense. Walker users have pointed that out in issues of Walker Talk over the years, in many different ways.

When Juan Berriz’s father Gabriel immigrated to Puerto Rico from Cuba in the early 1960s, the landscaping profession was in its infancy. In fact, Juan says many of the developers on the island attributed his dad’s influence to the growth of the profession, more specifically in helping to meld together the separate disciplines of landscape design and installation. Juan now looks to carry on the tradition by strengthening the natural ties between landscape installation and maintenance.