1. How did you get into the commercial landscape industry?

I began working in Retail Nurseries when I was in college and was hooked.

2. How does it feel to be a woman in role that is filled predominantly by men in the industry?

It feels awesome, there are women in the industry but not many make it into the branch manager role. The Landscape Industry has always been very supportive to my career development and most of the time I feel very appreciated, like the only girl in a family full of boys. I consider the other branch managers in our region to be my adopted brothers and you could not ask for a better bunch of people to work with. Each and every one of them reached out to me when I came on board and made me feel very welcome.

Above: Nicole Hill and her team posing with their favorite exmark mowers.

3. What is your favorite part about your job? What is your favorite part about the landscape industry?

My favorite part about my job is the people I have the privilege to work with. I love coming to work every morning and starting the day with our crews for morning stretch. Every success we have comes from the hard working folks in the field and building a relationship with the team has been incredibly rewarding. As far as the industry, where else can you work outside with beautiful plants, amazing people and your job is to literally to make the world a more beautiful place?

4. What advice do you have for women trying to break into the landscape industry?

I think the landscape industry is a wonderful industry and for some reason is not one a lot of women think of when making career choices. I hope that changes. I have found it to be a very welcoming industry for my whole career so, I would encourage anyone to pick an area they may be passionate about such as design, irrigation, roses, arboriculture-whatever they find interesting and start asking questions…all of the people in the industry that I know love talking about their jobs and are usually happy to encourage people. I think many people would be surprised at the many career options there really are in the landscape industry.

Above: Hill and her entire Inland Empire Branch posing in front of a giant LandCare mural they painted!

5. What is the best career/life advice you have ever received and how has it helped you?

I have been fortunate to have benefited from many mentors over the years so it is hard to condense everything into one answer! But right now I have a sign facing my desk that reminds me

Today/

do great work

don’t waste time

be kind

make it happen

be awesome

do what you love

so that pretty much sums it up!

Thanks for the advice, Nicole!