Getting Rooted in Care: Meet your Hosts
Welcome to Rooted in Care, where we amplify the voices of our clients and dive into how tree care plays an integral role in our everyday lives.
Buddy Marshall:Whether you're familiar with A Plus Tree or new to our community, we're here to bring the service industry together to explore the deep rooted connection between people, trees, and the environment.
Chantel Davis:I'm Chantelle Davis, Chief Revenue Officer at A Plus Tree.
Buddy Marshall:I'm Buddy Marshall, VP of Commercial Sales at A Plus.
Chantel Davis:We'll dig into what matters most to you. Your input shapes how tree care enhances the beauty of our communities while protecting our natural surroundings.
Buddy Marshall:Let's get to the root of thoughtful tree care for your property, your city, your home. Hi, everyone out there. I'm Buddy Marshall, and I am the vice president of sales for A Plus Tree. We're just gonna spend a few moments and let you guys know how Chantel and I met, some of our hobbies, some of the things we like to do. So I think I'll start off by saying, you know, I really I really enjoy golfing.
Buddy Marshall:Unfortunately, I don't think golf courses really care for me. They're constantly fixing my divots. I'm also a world champion dart thrower.
Chantel Davis:I mean, that that's amazing. I mean, I'll I'll tell you. I am not a I'm not a great golfer. I'll tell everybody a little bit about myself. So Chantel Davis, I'm actually the chief revenues officer here at A Plus Tree.
Chantel Davis:What are my fun facts? So I'm actually born and raised in beautiful LA, Burbank, California to be exact. And I decided to move all the way up to Northern California, East Of Sacramento. I cannot golf and I cannot play darts. What I am really good at is I actually used to be a youth bowling champion.
Chantel Davis:And Buddy knows this because Buddy and I actually went bowling for the first time. He did not believe I was good at bowling and I destroyed him. I'm pretty sure that he sat down and walked away because it was so bad. Right, buddy? He's like, no.
Buddy Marshall:I was destroyed. I don't even think, Shantel, I don't even believe you had on bowling shoes that
Chantel Davis:I was wearing heels, actually.
Buddy Marshall:I think you were wearing yeah. You were wearing street shoes for sure and still whooped me. That was that was quite an experience.
Chantel Davis:I think my street shoes were actually heels though, buddy. I honestly do. I don't wear a lot of street shoes. Yeah. Not not sure about that.
Buddy Marshall:I don't know if I don't know if Skechers makes heels, Shantel.
Chantel Davis:No. Well, funny enough. So there you know, I'm really excited. We'll kinda get into why we created this podcast. But Buddy and I met a couple years ago.
Chantel Davis:And Buddy, can you tell me actually the first thing we did when we first met? I think that'd be interesting for the viewers to know. What did we do?
Buddy Marshall:Well, outside of the board meetings, one of the first the first fun things we did is we actually went karaoke. You know, everyone says, oh yeah, I can sing. I can do this. I can do that. You know, I think I can sing in the shower.
Buddy Marshall:You know, and Chantel's like, well, I love the karaoke. Chantel, I'm not gonna say which song it was, but verbatim took out one of the most iconic rap songs known to the two thousands. And it was amazing.
Chantel Davis:I mean
Buddy Marshall:And I was just in awe. I stopped singing. I'm not even joking, Chantel. I just stopped once I heard you.
Chantel Davis:I mean, that is my millennial self. I I've practiced that in the shower so many times that I won't do it on this podcast. I probably would embarrass myself, but I do love karaoke. That was my other fun fact. Love karaoke.
Chantel Davis:I actually got a karaoke machine set up at my house, but nobody wants to do it with me. So that is what I do in my free time is bowling and karaoke. Right? That's that's a great way to spend your time. But let's kinda dive in.
Chantel Davis:I think it'd be really good for, you know, outside of getting to know us, why did we create rooted in care? Right? Where did that come from? And so I'd love to tell you guys a little bit about it and why I asked Buddy to do it. And so you guys all know I mentioned that I'm from LA, born and raised down there.
Chantel Davis:And over the last month, there's been some devastating fires. I mean, it's been really rough. Communities are completely gone. And as a tree care company, we try to figure out what are we gonna do? How can we help?
Chantel Davis:Outside of going down there and providing support and relief, how can we help make sure it doesn't happen again or have preventative measures? And so one of the things that we talked about is do people understand defensible space and how to take care of your trees and making sure that if your property is protected, it actually could maybe prevent a fire hitting your property. And so that's something that really hit home to me. And I reached out to Buddy and I said, Buddy, wouldn't it be great if we just educated people? There's so much.
Chantel Davis:Right? I have beautiful trees outside my window, but I know nothing about them. Right? I don't know when you're supposed to prune them. I don't know if they die.
Chantel Davis:I don't really know anything. I always get nervous when they swag because they think they're gonna fall in my house, but we really wanted to help. And so that is why we put it together. And buddy, I'm not quite sure why you wanted to join in on this adventure with me, but maybe you could tell everybody a little bit about what it means to you. Why did we do this?
Buddy Marshall:Oh, absolutely. So originally, I came from the multifamily world where I was a regional manager in multifamily space. I also have a background in restoration and insurance. So, Chantel, when you came to me, you're like, hey, these trees and and it just dawned on me like, how can we educate folks on these trees? Because I'm gonna tell you right now, I didn't know much about trees.
Buddy Marshall:I I knew that they grew. I knew they had leaves. I knew that we needed them. They needed us. But I'll tell you what, there were some really funny things, and maybe not funny, things that surprised me about trees.
Buddy Marshall:I was very surprised at how complex and specialized tree care is. Our arborists actually do soil samples. You know, tree health is very important to our company. I think a lot of the arborists that we have, I wanna say all of them, our our company, we don't think about cutting the tree down initially, which for me, I see a tree that's dying. I'm like, oh, let's just cut it down.
Buddy Marshall:Before I came to a plus. Now, you know, I understand that there's tree health care. We may be able to nurse this tree back to health. And that was really, really surprising to me. And, of course, to get to work with you again, when you moved on, you thought enough to to bring me on because we could do maybe make a change in this industry.
Chantel Davis:I think that's huge. As Buddy mentioned, he comes for that restoration insurance background. Mine's a little bit of a similar path. I I come from a little bit of restoration. Also worked for a laundry service company.
Chantel Davis:But what's really unique about it is we we have the same outreach. So we're talking to the same multifamily clients and HOAs and business owners and residents, and we're really just trying to provide a service. And for me, when I got approached about tree care, I had to think about it, but then I realized we're actually making a difference. We're we're kind of that first point of contact whenever something happens. And my lesson that I learned when I first got here, and and I'd love for Buddy to share a little bit about this, but we're used to actually in restoration being the first person they call.
Chantel Davis:And if I take a step back, let me take it back one more level. I actually live with a firefighter. So I know that the firefighters are right? They're first out. And if a tree falls on your house and a firefighter comes out, they can't do anything.
Chantel Davis:And if a restoration company comes out, they can't do anything. And so all of your property is getting wet, it's damaged. Who do you need? You need a tree care company. And I never realized that.
Chantel Davis:I never thought of that. And with working with Buddy, we actually partner with some restoration companies up in Seattle. There was a huge storm up there. And I think there was dozens of trees. We had 50 plus emergency calls, and they just needed us to come out and cut our trees down and get rid of them and really help them out so they can go and protect these people's properties.
Chantel Davis:Right? It's their livelihood. It's everything they have. And I don't think a lot of people think about that when they think of tree care. They believe tree care is a tree's dying.
Chantel Davis:Go cut it down. Or, oh, the tree is in the way because we're building some new development. Go cut it down. But it's not about that. It's about taking care of the tree and making sure that it's healthy so when there are storms and other things that happen, it doesn't ruin our properties.
Chantel Davis:It doesn't fall down. I know, Buddy, you you mentioned about our arborists. Our arborists care about our trees because at the end of the day, we need trees. Right? Trees give oxygen.
Chantel Davis:Without trees, we don't breathe. Right? It's a really important concept of life. Right? That circle of life.
Chantel Davis:But I don't know, buddy. You're in Seattle. I mean, how how was that experience for you? Because it was it was pretty crazy just watching and seeing the videos that we were getting.
Buddy Marshall:Well, even even Chantel, when I was in restoration as a regional manager for a local company here, our nationwide company here in Washington, every time there was a storm and we have them every year like clockwork. Some years are worse, some years are not so bad. But every single year, my estimators would scramble, hey, we have this tree on a on a roof. Who do I call? We never really grasp the attention that that was needed on an annual basis.
Buddy Marshall:We didn't have a list of tree companies. We knew some tree companies, but we didn't partner with them. So I think what you and I are doing, like you mentioned earlier, is we really wanna have that be a year round partnership so that we're refreshed in their minds when it's time for those restoration companies to partner with us, whether it be, you know, an emergency or just maintenance. Because like you spoke of earlier, know, the defensible space, that's a very important thing. And a lot of restoration companies are being called out for that because maybe the tree is too close to the building, so they call their restoration company.
Buddy Marshall:They don't know. They know they can't call landscapers because the tree is too tall, but they'd call roofers. Those are the people that we're really trying to team up with and and really educate so we can educate the client as well as our vendor partners.
Chantel Davis:Yeah. It it's so crazy. Right? Before we started this podcast, I I went online and I watched a bunch of podcasts on tree companies. It was all about the arborist talking about the technicalities of the tree.
Chantel Davis:And so if I was an everyday person listening to it, I had no idea what they're talking about. I mean, I work for a tree company and sometimes I still don't know what they're talking about. I love our arborists and that's why they're certified in what they do, but they are specialists. And so I really wanted this to be something where the everyday person can just come on and understand how does it affect me? What do I need to do?
Chantel Davis:I'm sure you saw, I sent an article the other day to you about California and defensible space. Right? Everything that's happened with these fires, they're actually rezoning defensible space. And that's really scary because you are in insurance. When you rezone, that means there's gonna be people that can't get insurance or insurance premiums are gonna go up.
Chantel Davis:But what people don't realize is if you can meet those requirements of defensible space, you're actually compliant. And I feel like that's something that you just don't know. Right? I have a funny example, but you'll laugh because because you know about about me. So I moved, right, not too long ago and I live next to a park and a golf course.
Chantel Davis:Right? That's kinda like the catty corner of where I live. And there's beautiful oak trees. And I got a notice from my insurance company saying, we're sorry. We can't give you coverage.
Chantel Davis:I said, what? It's a golf course and a park. Right? Like, what's gonna catch fire? And they said it was about their trees.
Chantel Davis:And I went in and I worked with the park and it was able to trim the trees back to the right defensible space. And I sent it over to the insurance company. I think they're shocked to that. I sent it back. And I put a little note and I said, I work for a tree company and a firefighter lives here.
Chantel Davis:I'm pretty sure we're now cleared. And they ended up giving us insurance. And I talked to my agent and they said, we will do that. If you go and do the work and you get the clearance, we'll absolutely insure you. And right now, a lot of people can't, whether it's your property or your business.
Chantel Davis:It's just insurance premiums are so expensive. You're actually giving up doing other things. Right? Other amenity things that you'd focus on. So I don't know how it is up in in Washington, but I know here in California, that is a big topic for us, making sure we have coverage.
Buddy Marshall:Yeah. It's the same it's the same in Washington. And I think that's, again, that's another great point as to why we wanted to start the the podcast. People don't know what they don't know. If we can simplify all these terms, you don't really need to get technical and know all the terms.
Buddy Marshall:You just need to know how to protect yourself and and who's there to help you protect yourself. So.
Chantel Davis:I was giggling when you said terms. I I tried not to giggle when he kept saying terms. But when I started here at at A plus, there's a whole bunch of terminology, right, that our arborists were using. And one of them they kept saying over and over again was we need to make sure we're doing THC. And I kept pausing and I said, THC?
Chantel Davis:What? How does that have to do anything with the tree company? I don't know, buddy, if you thought anything when you saw it. I think you said you said nothing. Right?
Chantel Davis:You just
Buddy Marshall:Well, I just kept my mouth shut. I'm gonna someone's going to say what that means shortly.
Chantel Davis:Well, I didn't stay quiet. I I think I asked on a call. I said, what what are we doing? And they laughed and looked at me and said, tree health care, Chantel. Tree health care.
Chantel Davis:I said, oh, Tree Healthcare. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. We need to do THC.
Chantel Davis:But we might need to figure out how to, you know, reclassify these because we're going to our clients who are saying, Hey client, your tree needs some THC. Maybe that's why we're not selling it. And I joke about it because we talk so much like we're experts. Right? We have the experts talking, but we forget that everyday people just don't understand it.
Chantel Davis:I don't know if you have a story, but with an acronym, but that that one cracked me up. I was like, for the longest time, what does that mean? And I realized that it's probably one of the most important processes in maintaining your trees is your health of your trees. Right? Make sure they're healthy and you don't have to worry about everything else.
Buddy Marshall:Well, I think as professionals in any industry, we have a tendency to use those acronyms and those those initials for for when we explain things. And it's I think that you and I try to do we try to do a good job at just saying what it is instead of using the initials because you'd never know who's gonna be on a call or on this podcast. Mhmm. So maybe that's something that we're gonna be conscious of going forward as well using acronyms to identify things in our industry.
Chantel Davis:No. I love that. And you and I talked about it. One of the things we wanna do with this podcast in in future episodes is having people that can break it down in layman's terms for us. Right?
Chantel Davis:We we wanna hear from not only our clients, we wanna hear from our vendors and we wanna hear from public figures that are facing disasters and things that are happening with tree care every single day. And so I'm really excited about it. Buddy has an insurance background, so we're really excited to be able to focus on having the, you know, some within that insurance space come and talk to us. And we have a lot of knowledgeable people at this company that are gonna join and they're gonna speak and they're gonna talk about, you know, all the acronyms and the importance of taking care of your trees. But we wanted you to hear it from real people like us.
Chantel Davis:Right? We are not from the tree industry, but we have a passion for it. And we wanna see it be successful. And we wanted to see it help our communities. We really want to help our communities.
Buddy Marshall:We're going to grow as we learn.
Chantel Davis:Grow as we learn. I know. Right? And that I mean, that's actually a really good point. People are asking, where did you come up with rooted in care?
Chantel Davis:And we really wanted to make sure that we've had it focused on a a tree care company, but we really do care about our people and we care about every single person. And so I really felt like Rooted in Care was a nice balance to really show who we are. Because if you go to our website and you check it out, we're all about being the biggest and baddest tree company out there. You'll see some crazy videos where, you know, these guys are climbing up hundred foot trees and there's drones and they're cutting these trees down. I don't know if you've seen any of those videos, buddy, but they're pretty crazy.
Chantel Davis:I mean, these people are they're they're they're intense. I can't even climb up a 10 foot tree, let alone a hundred. It's it's crazy. You know, I think something that would be really cool for the viewers to really know and and understand about us is what are some of the things that we do at A plus that people not may not realize what we do? What what do we do every day?
Buddy Marshall:That's a great great question. Everything everything with trees, Chantelle. We do everything with trees. But I I think even more importantly than that, we try to give back to the communities that we service as well. It's not just about business.
Buddy Marshall:It's not always just about who can get the most business, who can get the most, but what are what are we doing for our communities and how are we striving to give back and thanking those that are helping us stay in business in in the ways that we're helping our communities across the West Coast.
Chantel Davis:Yeah. I I think that's fantastic. And and we partner with companies all over The US. So we predominantly sit in the West Coast. We're in California, Washington, Oregon, a little bit in Nevada and and Utah.
Chantel Davis:And that's really where we can provide service, but we're always looking at partnering and making a difference. And so what I think is really cool as you guys get to know us and get to know this podcast is we just wanna hear from you all, right? You tell us what's important to you because right now we know that insurance, defensible space, right, that's all really important. And we also know you wanna protect your own home as well as where people live. And that's really what we wanna focus on in the next few episodes is all about that.
Chantel Davis:Right? We're gonna talk, as I mentioned, to people from Cal Fire on the importance of its defensible space. We're gonna talk to insurance adjusters on what is what do we need to look for? And, you know, we're also gonna hear from our own arborist, and they're gonna tell us what to look for when you're walking outside in your backyard. Right?
Chantel Davis:Very simple tips and tricks that I think can go a long way.
Buddy Marshall:I like it. I love it.
Chantel Davis:Thank you for listening to this episode of Rooted in Care.
Buddy Marshall:We have a fresh lineup of new episodes ready to drop. So tune in each week to hear people just like you share their experience and insights on how tree care impacts our daily lives. Subscribe to Rooted in Care. We're on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Chantel Davis:Tell us what you thought of this episode by leaving a review, commenting, or look us up on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Buddy Marshall:This podcast is a plus ed up production created in collaboration with Chorus Studios. Stay rooted out there.
