She earned a college degree in physical education. She went to church, played sports and took a basketball scholarship after high school. Her uncles worked on the General Motors assembly line. A country girl from Montrose, Mich., Webber grew up in a working class family. Webber started mowing lawns to help pay for college at the University of Denver, a “fancy school … even though I wasn’t fancy at all,” she says. “I really believe that’s because she’s a gal, and she’s running her business with feeling.” “She’s transparent and warm, and the demeanor that she has is just so rare,” Beckstrom says. Webber is a mentor who wishes more landscapers would study business – a hospitable nurturer who invites industry peers to see what she has built and shows them how they can have the same rewards.
In short, someone who “wants to be better, just like the rest of us.” Webber will tell you about being lesbian, a mother of toddlers, a recovering addict, a struggling startup, a hungry entrepreneur in acquisition mode, a good leader, a tough manager, a business junkie, a partner supporting a young family, a hard worker who needs more sleep. “There’s some point when you just have to say, ‘Dump it – dump it all and just be yourself.
#CHRISTY WEBBER PROFESSIONAL#
“Christy models that permissive professionalism that has a stronger punch than trying to behave all the time,” says Angelia Woodside Beckstrom, national board president for the National Association of Professional Women in Landscape. And once people meet me, they are either really disappointed … or I come off as who I am, and that’s someone who can encourage others to think, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’” “I don’t talk about these great things like flowers or winning designs,” says Webber, founder and CEO of one of Chicago’s largest firms, Christy Webber Landscapes. She’s got a grittier story to tell – one that grabs you like a smutty tabloid, teaches you hard-knocks lessons and encourages you to push yourself to the limit – and then push harder.
If you’re looking for a sweet fairy tale about a landscape company’s birth and coming of age, don’t call Christy Webber. In the photo at top, she spends some time at the White House with her life partner, Jennifer Rule. Christy Webber started mowing lawns to help pay for college at the University of Denver.
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