The Winding Path to Success
Bourque’s story isn’t the typical straight line from employee to entrepreneur. After working six summers in landscaping to pay for university, he graduated with a psychology degree and took a job as a group therapist for the Federal Correctional Service, a stable job with good benefits. But despite his educational training, it just didn’t feel like a good fit.
“I remember the first year thinking there’s no way I can do this job for the next 30 years. It was just so different from what I pictured myself doing,” Bourque said. “Working outside made me feel free, made me feel like I had so many options. When you work in a building, and you’re confined to a desk or just interviews all day, it has a totally different vibe.”
Growing up, Bourque had been told that job security only comes from jobs with a pension so he was apprehensive about leaving his federal job behind for something less certain. Instead, he kept his day job and started a landscape business on the side.
What began with passing flyers on weekend to secure any landscaping work he could find gradually grew into something substantial, eventually leading to a partnership and co-ownership that included two garden centers and two landscape and hardscape companies across different cities.
Then came 2008-2009. The economic downturn forced dramatic changes, but Bourque discovered something valuable in the process.
“We dramatically reduced the size of the company,” he said. “But when we started growing again, we realized that we had really gotten rid of a lot of waste in the business.”
He didn’t know it yet, but the lessons he learned would soon translate into a new phase of his hardscaping career.
The Coaching Calling
After more than a decade of juggling two careers, Bourque finally made the leap to full-time entrepreneurship. By 2015, he had begun the transition from business owner to business coach—a move that aligned perfectly with his psychology background and hard-won industry experience.
“Looking back, it has so much power,” he said. “Because when you’re coaching other people, when they come to you and they’re kind of in a panic, if you’ve never felt that, if you’ve never been in a panic because you’re at your last dollar in your business, or you don’t know where the money is going to come from next week… I’ve been there. I remember the pain.”
This lived experience gives Bourque a unique credibility with his clients. He’s not just teaching theory. He’s sharing battle-tested wisdom from someone who has weathered economic storms, made costly mistakes, and found his way to sustainable success.
“I went through all this pain. Looking back, I’m like, ‘Wow, I never want anyone else around me to have to do the same thing,’” he explains. “I can save them 10-15 years of having to work hard and struggle and learn and try new things and readjust on your own.”
Advice for Aspiring Hardscape Entrepreneurs
When Bourque reflects on his journey, he often thinks about what he wishes someone had told him when he was starting out.
Early in his landscaping career, Bourque tried to be everything to everyone, accepting every job that came his way without a clear vision.
“I accepted every job that came my way. And then I realized, this doesn’t really line up with where I’m trying to go,” he said. “When I offered all the services and tried to be an expert in everything, I became an expert in nothing.”
Leadership development is where Bourque now tells young entrepreneurs to begin.
“In order to own a business, you have to start with leadership,” he said. He describes true leadership as the ability to inspire rather than just manage, creating a vision that motivates your team to follow you willingly rather than simply taking orders.
It also took nearly a decade for Bourque to fully appreciate the importance of business systems and processes.
“Back then, ‘business systems,’ it was just words, big words not meaning much to me,” he said.
Now he understands that systematic approaches prevent you from “reinventing the wheel every time you have a problem.” When a challenge arises, you can create a process to address it, ensuring the same issue won’t derail your business again.
Perhaps most importantly, Bourque came to value adaptability above almost everything else.
“The business owner who adapts the fastest will have the best results long term,” he said.
This adaptability extends to embracing new technologies, learning from industry shows like Hardscape North America (HNA), and maintaining a continual learning mindset.
Building Value as an Employee
The path to success in hardscaping doesn’t always start with business ownership. Bourque speaks with equal passion about how employees can stand out and build exceptional careers in the industry.
“If you want your value to go up, focus on reliability,” Bourque said.
An employee who shows up consistently, communicates absences well in advance, and can be counted on becomes invaluable, especially in an industry where teams depend on each other daily.
Communication skills create another critical difference between average workers and exceptional team members. Bourque has seen talented workers undermine their value through poor communication, such as complaining to colleagues rather than addressing issues appropriately or failing to ask the right questions at the right time. He encourages employees to consider how they deliver their concerns, because “how you deliver it is going to have an impact on your job, on how people perceive you.”
Bourque also advises aspiring hardscapers who lack experience to show their potential through their attitude.
“If you tell your potential employer, ‘Listen, I’m teachable, and I will learn fast. I just need someone to show it to me and answer my questions,’ every employer wants to hear that,” he said.
This teachability often matters more than existing skills, particularly for those new to the industry.
What particularly impresses Bourque are employees who show initiative in pursuing certification and further education, such as CMHA’s installer certifications. Those who get certifications immediately position themselves in the industry’s top tier, he noted. It signals seriousness about building a career rather than just holding a job.
He wants aspiring hardscapers to know that industry offers a lot for those willing to learn and commit to excellence.
“There’s so many opportunities, especially if you have a growth mindset,” Bourque said.
A Vision for the Industry
Bourque will share some of his hard-won expertise through a workshop and an education session at the 2025 Hardscape North America trade show.
In the workshop, he will help business owners answer critical questions: Are you truly ready to hire? Do you have specific roles and responsibilities written down? Can you provide proper training and career development opportunities?
His education session focuses on AI and how hardscaping business owners can leverage the technology to streamline their businesses, particularly when it comes to marketing and operations.
Bourque’s ultimate goal extends beyond individual business success to industry transformation.
Through his education work with the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association (CMHA) and other organizations, Bourque is committed to elevating the entire landscape and hardscape sector.
“I wanted to be part of the people who care to help this industry and to bring the whole industry to the next level,” Bourque said.
“In this industry, there’s so many things you can do. You can work for someone. You can work for yourself. You can own a small business, a big business, but you can also help others with their journey. That’s what I’m passionate about. Every career transition brought something else and this was the perfect transition for me.”
