Podcast: From Mexico’s Dirt Floors to Chicago’s Largest Commercial Landscaper
In 1967, a man named Medina showed up at doors across Chicago with a language barrier, limited machinery, and no established name in the industry. He had been pushed out of a partnership when the friend he started with brought in his own brother instead. So he went door to door. He built his business one client at a time and became the first Hispanic landscaper in Chicago.
His son Carlos Medina Jr. was watching all of it. And in 1998, when the business needed someone to take it forward, he stepped in.
On a recent episode of Everyday Excellence, Todd Baldwin sat down with Carlos for a conversation spanning nearly 60 years of family history, multiple businesses across four industries, a fire department career, a movie set medic career with 69 IMDB credits, a memoir, fire engines donated to a Mexican hometown, and the commercial landscaping company that Carlos has built into one of Chicago’s most recognizable outdoor service operations.
White Gold, Lincoln Park Zoo, and What Commercial Landscaping Really Looks Like
Medina Lawn Care today operates at 90 percent commercial and 10 percent residential. The shift was deliberate. When Carlos took over in 1998, the company was what he calls a mow and blow: quick residential visits, in and out. He had a different vision. He opened an office, hired administrative staff, invested in marketing, and started going after the accounts that most residential-focused companies cannot handle.
The flagship client is the Lincoln Park Zoo: 45 acres, the largest single snow removal account in Carlos’s portfolio. When Chicago gets hit in the winter, Carlos describes that moment with characteristic energy: “White gold. The gift from God.” Eight skid steers, a front-end loader, six pickup trucks, dump trucks, and a five-ton vehicle. When snow falls, the commercial accounts that Medina has built over decades activate, and the revenue comes in fast and hard.
Snow removal is not the only high-margin service. Synthetic turf has become the most profitable install in the portfolio. The material does not rot, does not dry up, and can be ordered and stored indefinitely without degrading. Carlos installed it at his own home 16 years ago and fields the same question from everyone: a landscaper with synthetic lawn? His answer is immediate: why would he want to water it, fertilize it, aerate it, dethatch it, and apply grub control? One and done.
COVID turned out to be an accelerant for the outdoor project side of the business. After an initial slow period, Medina ran 15 to 20 percent more revenue than typical years, driven by homeowners sitting in their houses looking out at their yards and deciding it was time to do something substantial.
A Life Built on Not Stopping
Carlos’s entrepreneurial timeline starts at 24 years old and has barely paused since. Two Subway restaurants in 1990 and 1991. Two car washes in 1993 and 1994. A wedding flower and cake shop called Flower and Icing. Multiple apartment buildings as a landlord. The landscaping company. And running alongside all of it, simultaneously, a 27-year career as a Chicago firefighter and 39 years as a medic on movie sets.
He started in the film industry as a Greensman, a Hollywood landscaper, working for director John Hughes on the Home Alone films, Baby’s Day Out, Miracle on 34th Street, and Dennis the Menace. He later worked for Michael Bay on both Transformers films. His IMDB page carries 69 credits. He celebrated his 21st birthday on the set of The Untouchables.
All of this came from a single conviction formed when Carlos arrived in the United States at age 11 from a small town in Mexico with dirt floors and no running water. He decided then that was not the life he wanted for himself or his family. He bought his first house at 21, his first business at 24, and has not stopped since. He frames the American Dream not as a phrase but as an operating philosophy that he is still actively living.
What’s Working Now: Video, Wrapped Trucks, and the 20-Year Digital Partnership
Medina Lawn Care’s marketing runs on three things that work together: social media video content, wrapped vehicles, and a long-term digital partnership that has been in place for over 20 years.
The social video strategy is simple and effective. Carlos pays employees ten dollars extra per day for every three acceptable job site videos they submit. The crew sends more than he asks for. He edits and splices the footage into content for Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, where the combined Medina Lawn Care presence has accumulated over 90,000 followers. The content is authentic because it is shot in the middle of real work, which is exactly what the landscaping audience responds to.
The vehicle wraps extend the marketing into every mile driven. Carlos describes getting some of his largest commercial jobs from property managers who noticed the truck parked next to them on the highway, wrote down the number, and called. When someone calls because of a truck wrap, the lead is already warm. They had a need and went looking.
On the digital side, Carlos has worked with the same web and Google Ads partner for over 20 years. The website generates between 13,000 and 15,000 monthly visits. In an industry where most business owners describe their digital agency experience with frustration and anxiety, Carlos’s loyalty to a partner who consistently delivers is both unusual and worth noting. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” He will not change what is working. Loyalty is a core value for him in business relationships as much as anywhere else.
Customer service is handled with the same owner-level commitment. Carlos uses a 24/7 phone answering service so that every client call reaches a real person and gets routed correctly. He has given the service strict parameters: he only wants to hear about actual customer needs. No sales solicitations. No advertising inquiries. When clients call Medina Lawn Care, they talk to a person and get a response. The buck stops with Carlos.
The Lesson: Act as If, Pay It Forward, and Do the Things Most People Won’t
Carlos runs a Friday team meeting every week. The message that anchors every one of them is the same: act as if you are the owner. When you are on a job site, your name is on the truck, your name is on the shirt, your name is on the check. The response you give a homeowner should be the response the owner would give. A warehouse banner reinforces the standard: Soluciones No Excusas. Solutions, not excuses. If something went wrong, he does not want to hear about it. He wants to know how they are going to fix it.
For entrepreneurs at any stage, Carlos offers a framework that is harder than it sounds: “Do things for 10 years that most people won’t, so you can do for the rest of your life what most people can’t.” That means long days, sacrifice, lean years, and being ready to lose friends who do not understand why you are not available the same way anymore. Starting a business produces admiration only from the outside. From the inside, it is relentless work before the results arrive.
The pay-it-forward principle runs through everything Carlos has built. He started three employees who had been with the company between 18 and 20 years in their own businesses, handing them accounts, lending them trucks and trailers, and helping them build something they could own. He donated two fire engines, an ambulance, and firefighting equipment to his hometown of Durango, Mexico, financing and driving it all himself, receiving the keys to the city in return. He puts it plainly: if you have been blessed, bless somebody else.
At Everyday Media Group, Todd Baldwin and the team work with commercial service businesses to build the organic SEO and content infrastructure that grows alongside a company like Medina Lawn Care. Carlos’s story of a 20-year digital partner delivering consistent monthly traffic is the outcome every growing service business should be working toward.
Key Takeaways
- Soluciones No Excusas. Solutions, not excuses. Carlos printed this on a ten-foot banner and hung it in the warehouse. The same standard applies to how his team handles customer problems, job site issues, and service failures. Acknowledging what went wrong matters less than moving immediately to what you are going to do about it.
- “Do things for 10 years that most people won’t, so you can do for the rest of your life what most people can’t.” The sacrifice window is real, not motivational. Carlos ran 16-hour days at the Subway restaurant. He juggled a fire department career, movie set work, and multiple businesses simultaneously. That decade of pressure built the foundation everything else stands on.
- If you have been blessed, bless somebody else. Carlos started three long-term employees in their own businesses. He donated fire engines to a Mexican hometown out of pocket. He lent equipment and passed accounts to people coming up behind him. The legacy he is proudest of is not the revenue or the fleet. It is the trail he paved for others.
About Carlos Medina Jr.
Carlos Medina Jr. is the owner of Medina Lawn Care, a commercial landscaping and snow removal company serving the Chicago area. The company was founded by his father in 1967, making it one of Chicago’s longest-running landscape operations. Carlos has been the owner since 1998 and has grown the business from residential service to a 90 percent commercial portfolio with clients including the Lincoln Park Zoo. A 27-year Chicago firefighter, a 39-year movie set medic, a real estate investor, and a serial entrepreneur, Carlos is also the author of Across the Lawn, a memoir available on Amazon.
Follow Carlos and Medina Lawn Care on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
Looking for a Commercial Landscaping Partner in Chicago?
Medina Lawn Care has been serving Chicago’s commercial clients since 1967 with the same owner-level commitment to service that Carlos describes in this episode. And for any growing home service or commercial landscaping business looking to build the digital foundation that earns 20-year client relationships, Everyday Media Group works with companies at every growth stage. Schedule a conversation with Todd Baldwin and the team.
