We spoke with both Michaela Rivas and Danielle Padilla of Padilla Group, Inc. in California to get some tips for other women working in a male-dominated industry such as landscaping.

With Danielle’s parents starting the business from the ground up, she’s always been involved in the landscaping industry and about a decade ago she took over the company full time.  Michaela on the other hand originally worked for Danielle’s parents, left for a few years to enter the tech industry, but ultimately decided to come back to Padilla Group, Inc.

She explained that there’s something about this industry that pulled her back in. “I love the green industry because it’s truly hard-working people, the blue-collar workers, we’re not any different from each other."

Danielle shared that when she took over the family business, it was quite a transition for her employees as they previously were led by her father and then her brother, but now she had to be the good and bad cop.

One of the situations she described was having an issue with her employees keeping their trucks clean. “One day I got really fed up and I collected all the trash from one guy’s truck, dumped it on his seat, and then next morning he walks in and asked, ‘what is this?’…from that day forward we never had any issues,” Danielle said.

She explained that having that one confrontation showed her team that she’s in charge, she’s here to stay, and that they needed to respect her.

Check out the full interview below as both shared advice for women in the green industry as well as tips for college and high school age students looking into careers within the world of landscaping.