Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carmen Maendel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Carmen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

I have owned and co-owned four companies in the last twelve years (Genoa Denim & Leather Apparel, Carmen Maendel Photography, Maendel Fitness Gym & Spa, and Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC. I was a Stock Broker and Financial Advisor for eight years and a Special Education teacher for five years prior to that. I recently stepped down from Maendel Fitness Gym & Spa that I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into for eight years and trained over fifty women there. I taught them Strength Training, HIIT Cardio, Core Work, and Mind & Body & Spiritual Connection. My goal was to “teach them how to fish” instead of giving them fish so that they would be able to sustain their workouts for a lifetime after they finished training with me. I was obedient to step away from all this when God asked me to come aboard and help my husband own and operate Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC with him. I was also obedient to find my true identity in Christ and discover my Spiritual Gifts through sending time with God in the Bible and prayer, while allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and direct my life. My idea of Entrepreneur ship has shifted dramatically since I re-dedicated my life to Jesus Christ on 11/04/2006. Prior to that, my main focus was to earn as many degrees and as much money as I possibly could, following very closely in my father’s footsteps. My father was an orthopedic surgeon and became very wealthy by about age forty. I call it the “Entrepreneurial Flip” in my book, Courageous Woman: Casting Cares Upon Jesus. This idea that everything belongs to God in the first place: my money, loved ones, time, my accomplishments, and all of my possessions. They all belong to God in the first place and it is my job to be a good steward of the things God blesses my with. I was also obedient to follow a calling on my life to write 10 Book Anthologies with women around the world, 1 Solo Book, and 1 Companion Journal to my Solo Book: Courageous Woman: Casting Cares Upon Jesus. I started by writing one chapter in one Book Anthology after having ga conversation on FB messenger with one of the CEO’s of She Rises Studios and Fenix TV, Hanna Olivas. I then wrote nine more Book Anthologies following that first Chapter in the book, “Pray Don’t Panic” this year. Within the course of a year I wrote nine book anthologies, one Solo Book, and 1 Companion Journal. I pray about all my writing and the Holy Spirit guides me in it. It literally flows out of me. My husband and I had an opportunity to go to a Emmy’s Gifting Suite in Hollywood and I am speaking at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NE on February 22, 2026. God continues to open various door for me and I feel very blessed to have the opportunities that have come about this past year and into next year. I am continuing to pray about the future as well. “I am not my own, God take me and use me in the areas that you see fit to bring the most glory and honor to you.”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC
Tagline: “Where Service is More than a Transaction”

We are a Christ centered company and believe in deepening our client relationships instead of transactional business interactions.

With over 30 years of expertise, we specialize in tree removal, trimming, and total property transformations. Year-round tree work, free estimates, and a passion for serving our community make us your go-to for a beautiful, safe outdoor space. We recently purchased a CAT and expanded our work offerings to skid steer work as well. We do snow removal and sell firewood in the winter as well as continuing the tree work and CAT work all year round.

We truly care about our clients and aim at leaving a property much more beautiful than when our NPM Team first set foot on it. We have an incredibly strong work ethic and work well as a husband and wife team. Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC would not be the same with either one of us left out of the equation. We appreciate each other and the different roles and gifting from God that we bring to the table.

We like to communicate well with our clients so that there are no surprises on either end from start to finish. From the time they call, we do an estimate, and we finish their project we have open communication with our clients about all the details of the projects. If they are not happy about something, we will address it and make it right!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

n 1993, Nate began working in this industry mowing lawns and everything grew from there. He owned and operated a landscaping and tree company, Greens & Things from 1999 to 2009 in Colorado. Nate and I ran Greens & Things together as a husband and wife team up to the point of our move to Minnesota in 2009. So upon our move to MN, we renamed our company, Nate’s Property Maintenance and specialized in tree work primarily from that point forward. Just this year in April we changed our business formation to an LLC becoming Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC. This means that Nate has had thirty plus years of experience working with all sorts of sizes, shapes, and varieties of trees.
With all that being said, it takes time, a business plan, business strategy, and several different components working together simultaneously to build and scale a company. We have been working up to this moment since day one in our business. We have collaborated with different businesses and professionals as we continued to scale our company. We have seen the most tremendous growth in our company within the last year and a half of owning and operating it together. We have worked with various realtors, ad design specialists, marketing companies, and the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce as we continued to acquire various pieces of business equipment and broaden our professional network in the Brainerd Lakes Area.
This year we started to build a NPM Team of workers to help service the noticeable increase in business opportunities that were coming to us. We have an incredible team in place now, and we plan to continue to build that into the future. We just started our new YouTube channel this week. Please feel free to visit us on YouTube today at: https://youtube.com/@natespropertymaintenancell-n8m…. Like, share, and subscribe in order to see videos we post in the near future. None of this would be possible without having the blessing of God guiding and directing us on a daily basis. We have been blessed to accomplish all this while remaining debt free in both our personal and business life. This company has afforded us the opportunity and privilege to reach out and help and support other businesses, organizations, and individuals along the way! So this brings us to today, and the final crucial piece of the puzzle that has been missing from our company over all these years!
We have recently invested and collaborated with a professional company that designs websites, hosts, and increases SEO for businesses online. We have been privileged to be introduced to both Kai Ishimi and Sidney Tebbal with First Hit LLC. We are excited to announce that we now have a professional website for Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC live online! Please feel free to visit us online at natespropertymaintenance.com. This will make it much easier for you to find us and contact us online, and for us to help you with all your tree and property needs! We are always open to comments and suggestions of how we can do a better job of serving you with our company!

How’d you meet your business partner?

My husband (business partner) of our company today, Nate’s Property Maintenance LLC and I me initially at Woodmen Valley Chapel at our Singles Group called Mosaic. We became very close friends and were best friends for an entire year prior to having any romantic evolvement with each other. We spent many hours at Starbucks talking about the future and the possibility of doing world missions work together and possibly owning a business together as a family someday. We started officially courting one another and about a year later were married on July 21, 2007. We worked as a husband and wife team together in a landscaping company we owned called Greens & Things and when we moved from CO to MN to be closer to his side of the family, we specialized in the tree work and did not do as much landscaping as we used to. Today we specialize in mostly tree work, skid steer work, property transformations, and snow removal in the winter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://courageouswoman.net and https://natespropertymaintenance.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maendelcarmen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ncmaendel/ and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093303554586
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-maendel-17510944/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQu3uiXr0xMubmwvhFgu2HQ
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/ircEPJY1-zdRgTIIXbLqLg
• Other: Tick Tock: https://www.tiktok.com/@carmenmaendel

Image Credits

Heidi Adele Photography
Erin Heemstra