A Speaking Page – Jeff McManus

Book Jeff McManus for Your Next Event.

Inspire your audience with the strategies, tools, and insight to grow great teams.

Great teams don't just happen.
Great teams are cultivated.

How much time is wasted from micromanagement? How many resources are lost through turnover and continuously reinforcing high standards? How many opportunities are missed because your teams don’t have the capacity to say “Yes”?

Your teams were meant for greatness.

Grow Great Teams with Jeff McManus at your next event

Save Time

Say goodbye to micromanaging with Jeff’s structures and insight.

Save Money

Reduce waste and team member turnover through Jeff’s team cultivation resources.

Do More

Confidently accept new projects with high-functioning teams.

Jeff McManus

Jeff McManus doesn’t just grow landscapes—he grows leaders. For nearly 25 years, he
transformed Ole Miss from an overlooked campus into the most beautiful in the nation, earning recognition from Forbes, The New York Times, Huffington Post, PGMS, Newsweek, and USA Today. His bestselling book, Growing Weeders into Leaders, reveals how he turned an unmotivated disorganized team into a nationally recognized powerhouse.

A dynamic speaker and member of the National Speakers Association, Jeff has inspired top companies, universities, and leadership teams with his high-impact programs on teamwork, leadership, and building world-class training programs. Dan Cathy, Chairman of the Board for Chick-fil-A, put it best: “Jeff reminds us that all leaders can be cultivated with the right pruning and nurturing.”.

Auburn University educated him in Horticulture, but hands-on experience made him a cultivator—of landscapes, teams, and cultures of excellence. After retiring from Ole Miss in 2025, he took on a new challenge at the University of Texas—where the only thing tougher than the weeds is deciding between brisket or tacos for lunch.

Tune in to Jeff's latest podcast interview...

Jeff is a frequent guest on podcasts where he talks about his experience growing great teams. Take a listen!

Looking for more podcasts featuring Jeff McManus? Click here!

Or schedule a call to book Jeff for your next event!

Read Jeff's feature article, "Employee Acquisition and Retention"!

Jeff is featured in the February 2025 Edition of Turf Magazine. Click this link to read the article!

Or schedule a call to book Jeff for your next event!

Read about Jeff...

Stu Heinecke is the inventor of the Weed Strategy™ model for explosive business growth. Jeff & Stu connected, and one of the results is a terrific article Stu posted on his LinkedIn profile.

Listen to testimonials from one of Jeff's recent events...

Jeff gives many talks through keynote addresses and webinars where he talks about his experience growing great teams. Listen to what participants have to say about Jeff’s talks.

More Videos – Testimonials from Jeff McManus Group Events

Schedule a call to book Jeff for your next event!

Jeff can help you cultivate your teams.

Jeff understands how frustrating it is to have teams fall short of their potential. When presented with big goals, a small budget, and underperforming teams, Jeff was able to cultivate teams that shaped the campus at the University of Mississippi into one that is routinely recognized as “Most Beautiful”.

Cultivate your Teams

Don't wait for Human Resources or anyone else to invest in your team.
You will miss a tremendous opportunity to do something really great.

Jeff McManus

Growing Weeders into Leaders: Leadership Lessons from the Ground Level

Create your Grow Great Teams event

1. Schedule a Call

2. Design Your Event

3. Watch your Teams thrive

Praise for Jeff McManus

We would highly recommend Jeff for any event where you need a leadership or motivational speaker. His direct, hands-on experience providing leadership to multiple teams over the years is evident through his presentation. He gives direct and practical tips for leaders to apply to their own teams. Our attendees LOVED Jeff’s presentation!

Wally Davis & Emily Cagle

System Vice President/Payor Strategy and Partnerships, & Health Link Manager
North Mississippi Health Services/Health Link

Working with Jeff McManus for our 2025 New England Cemetery Association Annual Meeting and Conference was crucial for making the event a success. Throughout the process, Jeff and Terri maintained the highest standard of professionalism, and Jeff’s presentation was engaging and chock full of incredibly valuable information that was relevant to each and every person in attendance. Jeff also took extra time to have several individual conversations with some of our attendees, offering additional insights and advice. Overall, we could not be more pleased with our decision to work with Jeff.

Greg Howard

Administrative Director, River Bend Cemetery Company

Jeff McManus delivers a meaningful message on leadership development that is suitable for any audience, regardless of education levels or socio-economic background. He is an extremely talented communicator – period. While his background is in the green industry, his message on how to build teams and develop synergy within groups will resonate at both supervisor and supervisee levels within any organization. Building upon his experience leading award-winning landscape management crews, Jeff’s humor and ability to detail real-world experiences in leadership development provides an inspiring and motivational presentation.

Michael Goatley, Jr.

Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist, School of Plant and Environmental Science, Virginia Tech

Jeff McManus presents relevant information in an entertaining and thoughtful way. He prepares well and takes time to research the company he is speaking to. He connected with our people and delivered the message we wanted in a very insightful presentation. His message transcends the landscape industry and would be a benefit to any organization in any industry.

Kevin McHale

Principle, McHale Landscape Design, Inc.

Jeff McManus is an investment worth making. He can speak to every level of a company with ease. Jeff makes learning fun and allows his audience to engage in discussion and shares real life experiences. The hands-on life application of Jeff's presentations challenges the audience to desire to do more, to be better, to buy in to the company they work for. I highly recommend Jeff as an instructor or presenter. I have had the privilege of experiencing both class room learning and a presentation in front of 300 business leaders in Southaven. He never disappoints! Thanks for all you do to assist companies and grow future leaders!

Debbie King

Executive Director, South Haven Chamber of Commerce

Jeff is always an inspiration! I love listening to his different stories of moments of growth. They are so relatable the way he shares. I can always take tidbits back to my team on how to be a better leader, no matter how many times I hear him. He continually shares new things that help me in my leadership journey.

Pam Swain

President/CEO, Oxford Lafayette Chamber of Commerce

I would like to start off by saying, thank you. I have gained much from your lectures at the FNGLA Landscape Show over the last 3 years, and more recently your webinars, and I do what I can to carry that gained knowledge with me and use it to the betterment of myself and others that I work with. One of the items that I just presented at our biannual safety meeting to help facilitate the team "buy in" to the safety program, is the idea of using the small magnets as rewards when one of our team is observed using proper safety practice, and other various actions. This idea was met with resounding appreciation and given immediate approval. So thank you for that!

Will McCroskery

Landscape Operations Manager, Lombardo Landscaping & Water Features, Inc.

Jeff McManus delivered an inspiring message during our Russell Landscape Annual Meeting, blending humor, personal stories, and actionable insights. His message on leadership, growth, and cultivating excellence resonated with our team, offering practical personal and professional development strategies. Highly recommended for anyone to boost their leadership skills and mindset.

Brandon Thomas

Vice President, Operations/Relationship Manager Russell Landscape

Jeff's ability to connect with his audience and interact with them is exceptional. He knows the questions to ask to make people think and ask themselves further questions which in turn strengthens their leadership journey and skills.

Brad Parker

President, Fiddlers Green Landscaping, Inc.

Jeff has spoken to my real estate leaders 4 times in recent years. I continue to invite him back because he is an engaging and inspirational speaker. His real-world lessons on leadership are insightful and practical, and offer our attendees a road map to successful leadership.

Beth Hansen

Chief Executive Officer, Mississippi Association of Realtors

As a well-known and respected leader, Jeff’s presentation speaks from experience, is inspirational to a wide range of industry participants, and is strengthened from his proven record. His passion and sincerity is contagious, and we received very positive responses from all attendees. There is a unique genuineness about his presentation, and his message is one that all can benefit from. We will definitely invite Jeff back again!

Tom Ewing

Landscape Program Development
Proven Winners

During my years as Chancellor at Ole Miss, I had the privilege of working on many landscape projects with Jeff McManus. Jeff’s experience, insight and vision of growing and developing not only the campus, but also the people with whom he worked truly enriched the campus environment.

Robert Khayat

Chancellor of University of Mississippi (1995-2009)

Jeff is an inspirational speaker who motivates the audience. His knowledge coupled with his wit and charisma combine to provide a most exciting and enjoyable presentation!

Steve Vassallo

Economic Development Consultant

Jeff McManus was a profound addition to our event! He coupled his expertise with a genuine desire to serve the people in attendance. His authenticity and wisdom left a lasting, positive impact on the entire audience. We are truly grateful to have had him as a speaker at our TEDx event!

Joshua M. Evans

Director
Tedx Sugarland

Jeff’s lecture on the value of landscaping to young Architects in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (hosted by the Ministry of Peace) went beyond physical aesthetics and uncovered the undeniable relationship humans have with both their environment and nature. We all left inspired to gear up efforts in our respective professions to bring more intentional green spaces to Addis Ababa.

Rachel Daniel

External Communications Manager
F.D.R.E. Ministry of Peace, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I have worked with many speakers over the years and Jeff stands out as a true professional. Our audience loved him, and we continue to invite him back. Jeff’s industry experience, packaged with his insight and vision for developing leaders, delivered a great performance. Jeff is a wealth of knowledge, but it is truly his love for teaching and how he engages his audience that makes it a pleasure to have him present at our events. He packs a house and brings them back again each year!

Linda Reindl

Director of Educaiton
Florida Nursery
Growers and Landscape Association

An area we can always develop is our leadership. Jeff was able to connect to our employees and talk about leadership of their own lives and leading others. He provided great insight into areas we’d like to grow. I’d love to have Jeff back to campus and offer that to other departments.

Scott Wallace

Dean of Student Life
Augusta University

It was our pleasure to have Jeff McManus as one of the featured speakers at our 2019 annual conference. Jeff did a great job. He was one of the highest-rated speakers that we had at our conference of over 80 speakers for the week. He also was really easy to deal with which is something that we really value in speakers. He was a pleasure to work with and our members really had a great time interacting with him throughout the week. We look forward to having Jeff back in Ohio, and we would highly recommend him if you're looking for a great speaker for any event that you are having.

Woody Woodward

Executive Director
Ohio Park and Recreation Association

The people with whom I spoke who attended Jeff’s sessions spoke positively of his message and suggestions. He was a good fit for WVNLA, partially because his own landscape company is not large, which is the case for most of our attendees.

Julie Robinson

Executive Director, West Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association

It is can be difficult to find speakers for the Professional Development section of our state turfgrass conference, but this year we hit a home run with Jeff McManus. His message on empowering individuals to lead their teams resonated with our group. Jeff kept a group of 300+ people engaged for over three hours, which is not an easy task!

Jim Brosnan, Ph.D.

Professor, University of Tennessee
Director - UT Weed Diagnostics Center

Jeff brings energy, relatability, and experience into the room. He can work well with vice-presidents and seamlessly shift attention to front-line workers. He can adapt to his audience and provide answers that pertain to their specifics. His value as an asset is quickly noticed once you see the response he gains from your team.

Division of Administration and Finance Staff

Old Dominion University

Jeff's message to over 1600 people was spot on for me and so relevant for today’s industry leaders. One corporation bought and distributed, to participants and members, hundreds of Jeff’s book, Growing Weeders Into Leaders. This book is an excellent resource for those who want creative ways to grow their people to the next level. Jeff has walked the walk and is now sharing how he and his team went from last place to 5-time Nationally Recognized Champions in campus beautification. When you add in his integrity, Jeff is a rare commodity. I highly recommend Jeff McManus for your next keynote event.

Joe Kovolyan, CGM, CSFM, ISA

richland School District
GIE Past President PGMS vice President & STMA Member

Jeff McManus provides such an inspiring and motivating message for leaders at all levels and a variety of fields. His experience and leadership insight provide for relatable and realistic guidance on ways to grow your team. I highly recommend working with Jeff if you want to find ways to inspire or rejuvenate a group of leaders for greatness! Susan Jenkins, Ed.D.

Susan Jenkins, Ed.D.

Staff Development Director, North Mississippi Regional Center

In my role, I look for three attributes in a speaker: (1) a great message, (2) someone who is easy to work with, and (3) someone the audience can relate to. JEFF IS ALL THREE! He is a very genuine speaker and did an awesome job connecting with our Nutrition Staff members and providing an outstanding motivational message that set the tone for our entire day of training.

Jennifer L. McNeil, RD, SNS

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, NUTRITION SERVICES HEMET UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Jeff’s talk was engaging and entertaining! Having a speaker with knowledge of the real world challenges our industry members deal with, and creative solutions to those challenges was refreshing and enlightening.

Andrew Muntz

Green Velvet
President
Ohio turfgrass Foundation President

Jeff McManus is not only a great leader, but a great speaker and teacher. Our group was engaged from the start. Jeff took the interest of the audience and ran with it. Groups looking for ways to improve leadership and morale in their businesses will benefit from Jeff's presentations.

Rhett Murphy

CONVENTION COORDINATOR
ALABAMA URBAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

Jeff’s recent campus visit fostered an influential vision geared towards growth, direction and development in future recruitment goals. His insightful perspective in classroom discussions , campus walks and attention to detail throughout the facility connected our staff to improved potential, purpose and direction in our mission at Impact 360 Institute. We immediately employed his masterful insight towards making Impact 360 Institute the community at its best

Eric Turner

Director of Operations Impact 360 Institute

Jeff's message resonates with all levels of our workforce. His humble attitude and passion for leadership and learning was the highlight of our educational program.

Dr. Jay McCurdy

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
TURFGRASS EXTENSION SPECIALIST
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY

Jeff McManus brings a personal yet powerful leadership message that is applicable to a broad array of people. You will walk away inspired with new ideas and encouragement for your own leadership journey, and your team members will realize the difference that everyone can make within an organization in the pursuit of greatness.

Brent A. Marsh, Ph.D