Scott Lillich, Telos Garden Retail Consulting
Scott Lillich is an ICF certified Leadership Coach, consultant, and national trainer specializing in independent retail garden centers and plant nurseries.
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After spending more than 20 years inside one of California’s premier garden centers, culminating in five years as General Manager, Scott understands firsthand the operational, financial, and leadership challenges owners and managers face every day. He has led teams through growth, complexity, staffing challenges, and the constant pressures of seasonal retail.
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With graduate training in Organizational Psychology and deep experience in boots-on-the-ground retail leadership, Scott helps garden center owners and managers close the gap between knowing and doing, building stronger teams, clearer systems, and more profitable, resilient businesses.
My Story
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved garden centers.
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As a child they were magical jungles to me, places where you could disappear among the trees and greenhouses while the adults happily wandered with a cart on a Saturday morning. They felt alive. Creative. Full of possibility.
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In middle school, while my classmates researched athletes and politicians, I chose Bonsai for my end-of-year project. I convinced my parents to drive me to a local nursery so I could interview the Bonsai expert, who I later learned was the owner of the business. After patiently answering my endless questions, he sent me home with a head full of knowledge and an armful of starter plants. That moment stayed with me.
A few years later, I walked into a local garden center to apply for my dream job. Unfortunately that particular store was closing, but fate intervened. A friend helped me land a position at Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, California and, what began as a Carryout/Cashier role, turned into a 20+ year journey working for Tom and Kathy Courtright.
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I worked at Orchard through high school, college (Psychology), and graduate school (Organizational Psychology). I grew into roles in sales, buying, management, and HR. Eventually, I had the privilege of leading the company as General Manager for five years.
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Leading Orchard was one of the greatest challenges and privileges of my life. It was there that I learned the hard truth: there is a massive gap between knowing and doing.
Business schools offer theory. Retail offers reality. Staffing shortages. Weather volatility. Margin pressure. Family dynamics. Leadership blind spots. The daily complexity of a seasonal, people-intensive business. Those years forged my philosophy: great garden centers are not built on theory, they are built on aligned teams, clear systems, strong leadership, and consistent execution.
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In my fifth year as GM, I was invited by internationally-known garden retail consultant Ian Baldwin to share what was working (and what wasn’t) with other independent garden centers across the country through his GAP Group. That experience changed everything.
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I discovered that I loved helping other owners and managers think strategically, lead more effectively, and build healthier organizations. I earned my ICF coaching credential and began working nationally with independent garden centers, including founding the GAP Manager Mentoring Group (“Baby Gap”), supporting next-generation leaders across the U.S.
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Today, I work with independent garden centers and plant nurseries across the U.S., while also consulting and coaching leaders in other industries who value practical, systems-aware, people-centered leadership.
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I help organizations:
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• Develop stronger leadership teams
• Improve operational clarity and accountability
• Increase collaboration and trust
• Build succession-ready structures
• Grow profitability without sacrificing culture
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My mission in simple:
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To help businesses reach their next level and to ensure that independent garden centers, in particular, continue to thrive as the magical, community-centered places that first captivated me as a kid.