Up Close with Sam Keffer: If You Need Better Landscaping or a Great Steak, He’s Your Guy

When Sam Keffer lived in Japan for four months, he feasted on food that might make you pause, from sea urchins to whole fried squid on a stick.

“I tried all kinds of crazy food,” he says, but what really struck him was the food service there.

“It’s just ingrained in their culture to give you fantastic service,” he says. “They’re so happy to serve you and so prideful about their work, taking full pride in what they do every day.”

Sam brought that work attitude back home with him and calls on it now in his job as a business developer at Level Green Landscaping.

He still loves sushi, too.

Sam’s Goal: Customer Service You’ll Remember

Sam worked in food service before joining Level Green and spent several years as a bartender at a high-end restaurant.

What does bartending have to do with business development? It makes a lot of sense when Sam explains it.

“The conversational aspect of being a bartender helps me in this role,” he says. “You’re constantly meeting new people, seeing new faces, talking to people you don’t know, trying to make them happy. I’m a pretty social person, so I love that.”

As a bartender, Sam loved crafting drinks that would delight his customers, mixing in top-notch service to make their whole experience memorable and valuable.

Now, he brings that high-end service to landscaping customers. But he had some intense training first.

Learning and Growing on the Job

Sam spent several months in Level Green’s manager associate program, which offers a comprehensive, well-rounded look at the entire business operation.

Manager associates spend time in every department of the company as they prepare for a position as an operations manager, account manager or business developer. They learn on the job what these positions entail, from sales calls and customer relations to writing proposals for enhancements and supervising crews.

Sam shadowed team members, visited job sites, observed crews, attended management and financial meetings. He worked in the field, getting his hands dirty.

The whole experience typically lasts between six months and a year. When the training is complete, the hope is the associate joins the Level Green team as a manager or business developer.

Along the way, Sam job shadowed several business developers and discovered he loved that aspect of the business.

“I love the constant challenge of finding new business,” he says, “of trying to meet the right person to help you find new work for the company. There’s a bit of a thrill to it that’s exciting.”

Sam digs deep with potential new customers to match their needs to Level Green’s strengths.

“I love finding out where their current vendor isn’t succeeding and showing them how we can help them,” he says. “It’s important to match the urgency of the client. If they want to move quickly, we have to move quickly, too, getting the job mapped and the estimate done.”

He’ll Reverse-Sear You a Steak

Sam hits the gym five days a week; played baseball since he was 5; and happily cheers on the Washington Commanders and the Washington Nationals.

But the thread that runs through his life away from work is food.

A foodie who readily splurges on a dazzling restaurant meal, Sam also loves spending time in the kitchen, sizzling steaks; whipping up from-scratch tomato soup; creating poke bowls with rare tuna steak and borrowing his mom’s chicken and rice recipe he’s loved since he was a kid. He gets helpful culinary tips on TikTok.

He tells how he finally perfected preparing steak, settling on a “reverse searing” method where he cooks a thick-cut steak low and slow in the oven first, then finishes it with a fast, high-heat sear in a hot skillet.

“I used to be a picky eater as a kid, which seems funny now,” he says. “I’ll try anything once.”

Taking Good Advice from Dad

Sam didn’t stumble into Level Green by accident. His dad, Dave Keffer, worked there for years, most recently as a branch manager.

Sam has heard him say good things about the place for years.

“My whole life I’ve watched my dad wake up and go to work, always doing a good job,” Sam says. “He’s my biggest role model in life. He’s a great dad.

“There are always stresses that come with day to day life,” he says. “But I saw how much he liked the environment at Level Green. He’s always talked about how much they care about their people, and how he’s loved all the people who worked for him.”

It seemed like a great place to launch a new career.

“Everybody has a rough day once in a while, but the good outweighs any one rough day,” Sam says, “or my Dad wouldn’t have stayed there.”

Want to Join the Team?

Sam is just one of the dedicated team members we have here at Level Green Landscaping. And we’re always looking for hard-working, talented people to join our team.

Are you ready to work for a strong, supportive company that will train you from the ground up?