Landscape firm chases market share — and $40M in sales

Former FBI agent and Sarasota County Sheriff’s deputy Bill Walters spent more than a decade talking people down in heated situations and de-escalating potential crises.

Then he switched gears, got into retail management and now, landscaping. But business, Walters has learned, requires a similar deft, but firm, touch, resourceful wit and psychological smarts to get — and stay — ahead. That goes from dealing with dissatisfied customers to corralling employees to work as a team. It’s why Walters, after five years and multiple promotions at Venice-based ArtisTree, continues to rely on his law enforcement training, what he calls verbal judo, to control a situation.