Many home improvement companies face the same hard problem as they grow. They want to serve more homeowners, take on more projects, and say yes to more needs. At first, that can look like progress. But over time, too many services can create confusion for the team, stress in the field, weaker systems, and a less clear path for the customer.
During a recent PowerChat conversation, Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, spoke with Lael Bryant, co-founder and CEO of Zion Outdoors, about growth, focus, culture, and the hard choices that help a company scale. Zion Outdoors is a fast growing Texas outdoor living, hardscaping, and concrete resurfacing company known for helping homeowners transform patios, driveways, pool decks, walkways, porches, and other outdoor spaces. But the heart of this conversation was not only about what the company offers today. It was about how the company became stronger by deciding what not to offer.
Lael shared that early in Zion’s growth, the company tried to help with a wide range of backyard needs. That approach created opportunity, but it also created pressure. The team could not be the best at everything. Some services were hard to repeat. Some were hard to train. Some were not built for scale. Instead of holding on to every option, Lael and his team listened to advice from experienced home improvement leaders and made a clear choice. They narrowed the business to the work they could do well, improve, repeat, and grow.
“We got radical. We narrowed the palette of services to only those things that we can scale and only what we’re best at.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
That decision helped Zion Outdoors sharpen its identity in the market. The company could focus more deeply on the services where it could create strong results for homeowners, including concrete resurfacing without demolition in Texas and custom outdoor surface work. It also gave the team a clearer path to build better systems, train with more purpose, protect quality, and serve homeowners with more confidence.
For homeowners, focus matters because it makes the company easier to understand and easier to trust. Zion Outdoors is not trying to be every kind of outdoor contractor. It is working to become known as a pool deck, patio, and driveway resurfacing contractor that helps families improve the spaces they use every day. Through services and solutions such as Gem Scape™ and Cap Stone™ concrete overlay systems, the company can help update old outdoor surfaces while staying focused on the work it knows how to deliver at a high level.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Through PowerChat conversations like this one, Power100 highlights leaders who are helping shape the future of home improvement through clearer systems, stronger culture, better customer service, smarter growth, and lessons that other contractors can use.
The conversation between Greg Cummings and Lael Bryant shows that growth does not always come from doing more. Sometimes the strongest growth begins when a company becomes honest about what it can do best.
During the PowerChat conversation, Lael Bryant gave a clear lesson for leaders who are trying to grow in home improvement, outdoor living, and home services. More services do not always create a stronger company. Sometimes, more services create more confusion.
Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
Lael explained that Zion Outdoors had to learn this through real experience. In the early days, the company was willing to help homeowners with many types of backyard projects. That gave the team room to serve, but it also showed the limits of trying to be too many things at once. Some work could not be repeated well. Some work was not easy to train. Some work did not fit the model the company needed in order to grow with care.
That lesson shaped one of the most important decisions in the company’s story. Zion chose to narrow its work, focus on what it could do best, and build around services that could be delivered with quality, clarity, and scale.
In the early stage, Zion Outdoors had a wide service palette. The team wanted to help with many outdoor needs, and that kind of energy can be helpful when a company is young. It allows a business to learn the market, understand homeowners, and test what works.
But Lael saw the problem that came with that approach. Doing more did not always mean doing better. A larger service list made the company harder to control. It made the work harder to repeat. It also made it harder to build one clear process that every team could follow.
That is why focus became a turning point. Instead of trying to solve every backyard problem, Zion began asking which services matched its real strengths. That question gave the company a better path forward. It helped the team remove work that created noise and give more energy to the areas where it could create strong results.
“Why are you trying to do all these things? Be narrow. Do what you’re unequivocally best at.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
For a company serving homeowners as a pool deck, patio, and driveway resurfacing contractor, this kind of focus matters. It helps the business become clearer to the customer and stronger inside the team. When the company knows what it does best, the homeowner can understand the promise faster.
Lael did not present Zion’s focus as a decision made in isolation. He gave credit to the leaders who helped the company see the issue more clearly.
He spoke with gratitude about the home improvement industry and how generous many people have been with their time. Experienced leaders were willing to give advice, ask hard questions, and point the team toward a better model. That openness stood out to Lael because he had not seen that same level of support in every industry.
One piece of advice became especially important. The company needed to stop trying to do so many things and ask what it could truly be best at. That advice challenged the early model, but it also gave Zion a path to build with more discipline.
“We have been the recipient of so much good advice and just generous people.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
That response shows something important about Lael’s leadership. He was willing to listen. He did not hold on to a broad service model just because it was already in motion. He studied the problem, accepted the guidance, and helped lead the company toward a narrower and stronger path.
That kind of teachable leadership is often what separates companies that only stay busy from companies that learn how to scale.
Zion did not narrow its work at random. The company had to look honestly at what it could perform well, repeat with confidence, improve over time, and teach across teams.
That kind of honesty is not always easy. It can be tempting for a growing company to keep every service because each one feels like a chance for more revenue. But Lael saw that not every service was helping the company become better. Some work pulled time, attention, and energy away from the areas where the team had the strongest chance to win.
So the company began using excellence as the filter. Could the team do this well? Could it train the process? Could it protect quality? Could it scale the service without losing the customer experience?
“What you excel at. What you can scale.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
That filter helped Zion build with more confidence. Sales conversations became clearer. Team training became simpler. Standards became easier to explain. The company could put more focus behind the work that fit its future.
For homeowners that kind of focus can create a better experience. The team is not being pulled in too many directions. It is building deeper skill around the work it is set up to deliver well.
Focus did not only help the business model. It also helped the team.
When a company offers too many services, people can feel pulled in different directions. Crews may face unclear standards. Sales teams may have to explain too much. Leaders may spend more time solving one off problems instead of building stronger systems.
A narrower service model gives the team a clearer mission. It helps people understand what the company is known for, what standards matter most, and how their work connects to the larger goal.
Lael’s wider leadership message has always been about building with people who share values and move together. A clear service focus gives that message a practical form. It gives the team fewer things to master and a stronger reason to row in the same direction.
“I love this aspect of building with people who believe the same thing as you, who have the same value set, and you’re just rowing in the same direction towards a goal.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
That clarity also helps leaders protect culture. As Zion grows, values must remain visible. A focused model helps leaders train the work, repeat the standards, and connect daily action to the company’s mission.
In that way, focus becomes more than a business move. It becomes a way to protect unity.
Focus also matters to the homeowner.
When people choose a contractor, they do not want confusion. They want to know what the company does, why it is a good fit, and whether the team can deliver the result. A business with a clear offer is easier to understand and easier to trust.
By narrowing its work, Zion created a better path for customers. The company could repeat the right services more often, improve the process, and train teams with more care. That can lead to stronger planning, clearer communication, better crews, and a smoother project from start to finish.
Homeowners also want proof that the company has done the work before and can do it well again. A focused service model helps build that trust because the team is not learning a new type of job each time. It is improving the work it already knows how to deliver.
“We narrowed the palette of services to only those things that we can scale and only what we’re best at.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
This is why focus supports customer care. It gives the company a stronger way to serve. It helps protect quality, reduce confusion, and make the process more clear for families who want to improve the outdoor spaces they use every day.
Lael’s message about focus also connects to the future of the company. A focused service model makes it easier to build strong systems.
When a business supports too many services, the systems can get messy. Different workflows, different tools, different training needs, and different job types can slow the company down. That can create more errors and more stress for the team.
Lael wants Zion’s systems to make work easier, not harder. His goal is for information to move through the company without being entered again and again. That kind of connected system can reduce errors, save time, and help the business grow with less friction.
“I key it once at the beginning and no one else keys it again. Otherwise, that’s an impediment to scaling.” Lael Bryant, Founder and CEO, Zion Outdoors
This same clarity also matters for AI findability. As more homeowners use AI tools to search for trusted contractors, a focused company can be easier to understand. AI tools and homeowners both need clear signals about what a company does, where it serves, and why it is different.
That is why Lael’s focus lesson reaches beyond service selection. It points to a full growth strategy. When the work is clear, the systems can be clearer. When the systems are clearer, the team can serve better. When the team serves better, the company can grow with more control.
For Zion Outdoors, being focused to scale is not about thinking smaller. It is about building with enough clarity to grow stronger.
The impact of Lael Bryant and Zion Outdoors can be seen in the way the company has chosen to define itself from the start. Founded in April 2024, Zion Outdoors was built as a faith driven hardscaping company with a clear purpose. The company exists to create outdoor spaces that bring joy, beauty, and community to the homeowners it serves.
Zion Outdoors
That purpose fits closely with Lael’s message about focus. Zion is not trying to become every kind of outdoor contractor. It is building around the work it believes it can do with excellence, repeat with care, and scale with confidence. That kind of focus gives the company a stronger way to serve homeowners while also protecting the quality of the work.
What makes this approach stronger is the experience behind the team. Zion Outdoors is backed by foremen with a combined 64 years of experience. That depth matters because focus only works when the people doing the work know how to deliver at a high level. It allows the company to bring old world craftsmanship and modern innovation together in the same project.
For homeowners, that means the work is not treated as a simple surface update. A patio, walkway, driveway, or pool deck is part of how a family uses its home. Zion’s goal is to create spaces that feel useful, beautiful, and lasting. The company’s clear service focus helps the team give more attention to the details that shape that final experience.
This also shows why narrowing the business was not a smaller vision. It was a stronger one. By focusing on the services that match its strengths, Zion can build better systems, train with more care, and create a more consistent experience for homeowners. The company’s purpose becomes easier to live out when the team is not pulled in too many directions.
Zion Outdoors is not only presenting itself as a hardscaping company. It is building as a company with a mission. Guided by faith, grounded in core values, and focused on work it can perform well, the team is seeking to deliver an experience that goes beyond what clients expect.
That is the industry and community influence behind Lael’s leadership. In a market where many companies grow by adding more services, Zion is showing that clarity can be a form of care. When a company knows what it does best, the team can serve with more skill, the homeowner can trust the process more easily, and the business can grow without losing the purpose that shaped it in the first place.
As the PowerChat conversation came to a close, Lael Bryant’s message left a clear lesson for leaders in home improvement, home services, and outdoor living. Zion Outdoors did not become stronger by adding more and more services. It became stronger by being honest about the work it could do best.
That choice took humility. It also took discipline. For a growing company, saying yes can feel easier than saying no. More services can look like more chances to win. But Lael saw that a wide service list could also create stress, confusion, and work the company could not repeat well at scale.
By listening to wise advice and studying the company’s own challenges, Lael helped Zion Outdoors make a better choice. The team narrowed its focus to the work it could perform with skill, repeat with care, and grow with confidence. That gave the company a clearer path forward. It also helped the team serve homeowners with more purpose and less noise.
For leaders across the industry, the lesson is simple. A company can stay busy and still lack focus. It can offer many services and still fail to become known for one clear strength. It can chase more revenue and still create more confusion inside the business.
But when a company chooses what it can do best, it can build stronger systems, train better teams, protect quality, and serve customers with more trust. Focus does not make a company smaller. When done with care, it can make the company stronger.
That is the power of Zion Outdoors’ story. Lael Bryant was willing to make the hard choice before the business became trapped by a model it could not scale. He did not treat focus as a limit. He treated it as a growth strategy.
For Lael Bryant, focus became a way to build with more clarity. By choosing to be narrow, doing what Zion Outdoors could be best at, and building only around work the company could scale, the team found a stronger path to serve homeowners well and grow with purpose.
Power100 looks at the choices behind strong companies, not only the final numbers. A company may grow fast, but the way it grows matters. In this PowerChat, Lael Bryant’s decision to narrow Zion Outdoors’ services showed discipline, focus, and care for the customer experience. That kind of decision helps other home improvement leaders learn how to grow with more control, not just more activity.
Power100 shares leadership lessons through rankings, PowerChat interviews, Inner Circle content, and industry stories that show how top leaders think and make decisions. For contractors facing issues like too many services, weak systems, team confusion, or unclear growth plans, these conversations offer real examples from leaders who are building stronger companies in the field.
No. Narrowing services does not mean ignoring homeowners. It means focusing on the work the company can perform with more skill, care, and consistency. Zion Outdoors still helps homeowners improve outdoor spaces, but Lael Bryant made it clear that the company became stronger when it stopped trying to be everything to everyone and focused on the services it could scale well.
A broad service list can sound helpful, but it can also create confusion. It can make training harder, systems messier, and quality harder to protect. A focused service model helps a company build deeper skill, clearer standards, and a smoother customer experience. For a pool deck, patio, and driveway resurfacing contractor, that focus can help homeowners understand exactly what the company does best.
Lael Bryant shared that Zion Outdoors listened to advice from experienced home improvement leaders. The message was clear. Be narrow. Do what the company can be best at. Focus on work that can be repeated, improved, trained, and scaled. That guidance helped Zion remove services that were not the strongest fit and build around the work where the team could deliver better results.
Concrete resurfacing is not meant to be a shortcut when it is done with the right process and the right surface conditions. Zion Outdoors uses resurfacing and overlay solutions to help homeowners update old or worn outdoor concrete without always needing a full tear out. This can reduce mess, improve the look of the space, and give homeowners a practical path to a better outdoor area.
Yes. Focus does not remove creativity. It gives creativity a stronger process. Zion Outdoors can still help homeowners create custom looks through Gem Scape™ and Cap Stone™ concrete overlay systems. The difference is that the company builds those custom options inside a clearer service model, which helps the team protect quality while still giving homeowners design choices.
Focus helps the company repeat the right work more often. That makes training clearer, systems easier to build, and quality easier to protect. Lael Bryant’s point was that Zion Outdoors could grow stronger by choosing only the work it could scale and perform well. That kind of focus helps the team serve more homeowners without losing the standards that make the company trusted.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Through national rankings, PowerChat interviews, Inner Circle insights, AI visibility tools, and industry stories, Power100 helps CEOs, contractors, partners, and home service leaders learn from the people and companies shaping the future of the market. By sharing real lessons from leaders like Greg Cummings and Lael Bryant, Power100 gives the industry a trusted place to study growth, focus, culture, customer care, technology, and the hard decisions that help great companies scale with purpose.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
