We recently connected with Evan Lambert and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Evan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

My family and I took a big risk of me moving back to Arizona and starting a new business after living in NYC for 9 years and moving back to Az during the pandemic.

Starting a business during this time in a state I had moved away from 9 years earlier was a big risk. But I wanted to take my experience working in NYC for some of the bigger companies doing interior and exterior installations for some of the biggest companies or some of the richest and most famous people in the US and world.

Looking back I’m glad we made this decision.

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

Pretty much most of my background in plants goes back to my first job at a local nursery I used to go to with my mom and got my landscaping bug pretty early on. The store I worked in my first job I later ended up managing years later. I later got into the landscape/construction side after getting out of the nursery retail side of the business. I later got into the sales side as a sales rep for local growers back in the day. Then came my construction side of the industry and most of that experience was when I was living in New York working for a couple of big interior and exterior companies and running installs for the likes of companies like Google, NY/NJ Port Authority at Laguardia Airport.

When my wife and I decided to leave NYC during the pandemic and me move back home with my family, I wanted to take my experience of managing installs as well as a group of horticulturists maintaining installs at some of the most famous or biggest companies in the world.

So, when I started Phoenix Green Walls that later became who we are now Vert Plantworks little over two years ago I wanted to give homeowners or renters and commercial clients a new way to incorporate plants into their homes, home offices or offices with interior/exterior living walls, interior plantscaping and moss art.

We are proud of several things, the team I have around me, being certified as a green business and with that we try and use products that are ecofriendly or made out of recycled materials.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My pivot happened twice in my career/life, the first was back in 2008 when Arizona was hit very hard during the housing crises and being in the landscape industry everything regarding housing dried up so needing a change I decided to move to NYC, having some family there it made the choice easier, so I got a one-way ticket and moved to NYC. I landed a job at one of the early companies pushing the limits of landscaping 30-80+ stories in the air. Later worked for a couple other companies that would do both interior and exterior urban landscaping, and gain some much knowledge and skills during my 9 plus years in NYC.

My second pivot was when my wife and I decided to leave NYC, my wife is a born eastcoaster and when the pandemic happened and living in Brooklyn at the time and working during it the whole time and with what the city became during that time and the city just became even more expensive to live in, we decided we wanted to move. We through around a few different places but decided to move back to my hometown and this is where Vert Plantworks was born.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

My advice for managing a team is knowing your team members, knowing what it takes to get the best out of each of them. Knowing how they learn best, giving them the resources they need to be successful in their roll or function. Talking to everyone on a daily basis, check in’s and follow up’s are a good way to use that time to learn more about each employee and this allows you to take what you learn to be a better manager as well as allow them to be a better employee.

Maintaining high morale is very important, if not it can kill a vibe of a company and its employees. I like to have my employees see that no matter what it takes I will be there with them helping out on whatever it takes to get the job done successfully.

Allowing your employees to have fun, but to be honest working with plants is always fun, so I think that is a great tool we have for anyone working in the plant industry. Getting to create a fun moss piece, a cool living wall or a fun planter wall always makes for a fun day.

Contact Info:

• Website: vertplantworks.com
• Instagram: @vertplantworks
• Facebook: Vert Plantworks

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