Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
A twenty seven thirteen ten wib A and ask the experts.
I mean joined just a moment by Kevin Ham of
hams Arborcare having a little connection issue. He sent me
a picture this morning of his view from where he
is right now down in St.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thomas. Now it's the work vacation, not a fun vacation.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
But the word vacation is in there, which means hopefully
Kevin is having some fun. And again, Ham's Arborcare the
website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's h a m ms Arborcare
dot com. And I do believe we can get Kevin
on if we hit that button.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Kevin, are you with us this morning?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Oh? We keep losing Kevin every time he connects. He's
down at a conference. He literally I called him and
I stepped out for a moment, he said, I stepped
out of the conference, and yeah, he was gonna make
a connection. I think he is with us, and I
here sounds Kevin. Are you Oh my goodness, yes, yes, yes,
how you doing my.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Friend good good down here in Saint Thomas. I'm looking
out on the bay right now.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And for folks that don't know, obviously, there is, there
is some fun.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And obviously, even even if you weren't at a great location,
I know, at a tree care conference, you would have
fun no matter what, no matter where it was.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It could be in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
You'd find out yourself. But there is a reason why
you're down and down in Saint Thomas. What's going on
down there, Kevin?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, it's the Tree Care Industry Association Winner Management Conference.
And so we're down here with much of folks from
the tree care industry, and you know, it's a really
great opportunity to network, you know, and me, I mean
I'm at you know, met people that operate billion dollar companies. Wow,
(01:49):
where would you run into somebody that does that? You know?
And but you come to a conference like this and
you can at work and interact with people. In fact,
we're going to be able to put a voucher out
for our biochar Bodyguard shampoo in the largest supply distribution
(02:09):
company in obriculture really, so like in a month, we'll
have forty thousand vouchers for our soap that will go out.
Oh wow, So that's quite a vertical marketing opportunity that
you know, you where would you run into that, right,
Well you can at the tree Carescasion Winter Management Conference.
(02:32):
So and then we've got a session today we were
talking about, you know, just a little nugget that you get.
His little slogan is tell me something good rather than
asking somebody you know, how you doing today? You know
what you can get when you ask somebody that. Right,
we have a kind of a culture of negativity that
(02:54):
we all live in, and that that idea of saying
tell me something good, you know, is it's probably a
little nugget I'm going to take back to the crew
and start employing. We do a weekly safety meeting where
we talk about uh, you know, near misses or something,
you know something. But what if we start that out
(03:16):
first by telling me something good? Because we have a
whole bunch of good happen every week and we have
clients tell us about that something good. So, yeah, just
some good things like that that come out in environments
like this. And then we're networking with with other companies
that are are like us, you know, but they're doing
(03:37):
things differently, and you get little ideas. It's just a great,
great environment. Plus yes it's in someplace funny.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh yeah, that's it. That's the last you gotta gotta
include that. But Kevin, I know, war yes, yeah, I
know in years past you've had a chance to do
some presentations and some other things. This year, are you
taking anything in as far is uh a little like
specific courses or anything that's really catching your attention this year?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know here it's kind of a general format. Everybody
goes to the same same stuff. I think uh uh
our next uh educational thing that we're going to, the
Wisconsin Arbust Association puts on a great show h later
in February here where we take the entire crew, And
(04:27):
so that's a learning opportunity for for our whole crew.
And that's just something that we we do. I mean,
obviously it's an expense as a company, but it's it's
a three day event that that really builds continuity within
our crew. The crew feels the value. It's a good
break from the routine and they're learning stuff about you know,
(04:51):
what we do. And uh so that's that's a big
thing we're doing here in a few.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Weeks with the with the obviously with the invention and
sharing that sharing information and going to those courses. I
think sometimes people forget obviously, I think we see reports
the type of work that you guys do can be
very dangerous, and understanding safety protocols and best practices and
(05:16):
sharing that information these are these things are really big deals,
and I think a lot of times we forget that
that even a limb that to to to the naked eye,
to me, to the lapers, and I see a tree
limb and I go, oh, that can't be that heavy.
They are. They are massively heavy. They're u an organic thing.
That means that they're not you know, it's it's not
like you're grabbing a steel bar that's measured to length
(05:39):
and you know exactly what to get. You've got to
you've got to have a lot of training, a lot
of understanding about about physics, about the biology of the tree,
the species of the tree, to really make that as
safe as possible and make sure that that that type
of work is done properly.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know, John, a twelve pound limb following twenty five
is a five hundred foot pound force that's lethal And
we had a speaker. He's actually from Wisconsin originally. He's
spent a long career in one of the largest tree
care companies in America over a billion dollar company and
(06:18):
he was the chief safety officer. And he opened his
talk he nineteen occasions where he had to disclose to
family members the death of an employee nineteen times. I mean,
that's like PTSD kind of experienced. And to open his
(06:43):
talk like that, and then he was sharing about how
a lot of the metrics that they used, like OSHA
and everybody uses all this time, have been wrong. And
it was really cuttied and stuff about how to look
at safety and how to you know, ensure your culture
(07:05):
is on the right track mentally as we approach this
very very dangerous work. Incidents have gone down, but fatalities
have not reduced at the same rate. And so that's
kind of interesting and sobering at the same time. And
(07:27):
so you know, yeah, we are in that industry. Someone
dies virtually about every three days in treecre you know,
so as you're hiring a tree care company, you know,
most people are thinking, you know, price. A ton of
times we are competing on price, and we lose a
(07:48):
contract because of price. You know, understand that we are
a company that is is you know, objectively looking at
what we're the conditions we're working and we are actively
you know, trying to create the best culture two to
safely deliver this service to our clients. And and so
(08:10):
that you know, you want to think about that as
you're uh investigating tree companies. And Madison is a blessed community.
We have a lot of good tree companies. If I
might even uh, you know, give some treatise to some
of my competitors. But as a consumer, you want to
you want to think about, uh, that safety factor when
(08:34):
you're hiring a company.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I know, obviously you spend a lot of time and
a lot of resources on training and education. You also
spend at Ham's Arborcare a lot when it comes to
the proper tools and the importance of having the proper
equipment for doing those jobs. You mentioned some of the
other other arborists uh here in the area. I know,
for folks that don't know, I will occasionally send Kevin
pictures of other arborists working, and Kevin will give me
(08:59):
feedback and often times you'll you'll point out, You're like, oh, yeah,
those guys, they do great work.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
We you know, we have these great relationships.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Obviously, when you talk about the type of industry that
you're in, I'm going to guess that birds of a
feather those who do good work, quality work. You guys,
probably I shouldn't say probably.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I know this.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You guys are all very supportive of the of the
work that you do. And when it comes to choosing
somebody to do work on your trees, and of course
to be working on your property, you want to make
sure that you're hiring the best. You're firing people that
actually have that experience, that education, that make that investment
in their teams and their equipment. That's a great thing
about working with Kevin Hamm and the folks at Ham's
Arborcare the website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's h a m
(09:37):
ms Arborcare dot com. Started the conversation. You talking about
that biochar body soap and shampoo that is available up
at Game of Trees dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
That's one right now.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You can't beat that. I've got got one opened, one unopened.
I actually have a little tip by the way. What
I do is I put the unopened bar, I set
it in my dresser drawer and it makes uh, there's
a little yeah. It kind of keeps that great hack, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Until it's time to use it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It keeps my clothes smelling nice and fresh as well,
So yeah, you're not gonna go wrong. Also, buy one,
get one if you if you get one and give
one to a friend, or give two to a friend
and get two two for yourself, or get four or
eight or so on.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So I got a funny story. Yeah, I've been passing
out little one O samples down here, and and that's
how I got the big voucher. I asked that to
the CEO of Vertical Supply Group. It worked out well,
but one one guy said, oh, don't leave those in
your pocket in a warm environment. Very get it in
his back pocket. And apparently the heat and humidity of
(10:40):
Saint Thomas, you know, don't you know, just together very well.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Good pro tip on that as well, Kevin. I'll let
you get back to your conference. Thank you for joining
us this morning.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Have fun and uh and I'll be I'll be quite honest,
pretty jealous.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah yeah, gatful environment.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Enjoy your time, my friend. We'll do it all again
in seven days.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Thank you, Sean, take care.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Thanks Kevin again. Their website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's Hams
h a m ms arborcare dot com. News comes your
way next. It's eight thirty two.
A twenty seven thirteen ten wib A and ask the experts.
I mean joined just a moment by Kevin Ham of
hams Arborcare having a little connection issue. He sent me
a picture this morning of his view from where he
is right now down in St.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thomas. Now it's the work vacation, not a fun vacation.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
But the word vacation is in there, which means hopefully
Kevin is having some fun. And again, Ham's Arborcare the
website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's h a m ms Arborcare
dot com. And I do believe we can get Kevin
on if we hit that button.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Kevin, are you with us this morning?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Oh? We keep losing Kevin every time he connects. He's
down at a conference. He literally I called him and
I stepped out for a moment, he said, I stepped
out of the conference, and yeah, he was gonna make
a connection. I think he is with us, and I
here sounds Kevin. Are you Oh my goodness, yes, yes, yes,
how you doing my.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Friend good good down here in Saint Thomas. I'm looking
out on the bay right now.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And for folks that don't know, obviously, there is, there
is some fun.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And obviously, even even if you weren't at a great location,
I know, at a tree care conference, you would have
fun no matter what, no matter where it was.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It could be in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
You'd find out yourself. But there is a reason why
you're down and down in Saint Thomas. What's going on
down there, Kevin?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, it's the Tree Care Industry Association Winner Management Conference.
And so we're down here with much of folks from
the tree care industry, and you know, it's a really
great opportunity to network, you know, and me, I mean
I'm at you know, met people that operate billion dollar companies. Wow,
(01:49):
where would you run into somebody that does that? You know?
And but you come to a conference like this and
you can at work and interact with people. In fact,
we're going to be able to put a voucher out
for our biochar Bodyguard shampoo in the largest supply distribution
(02:09):
company in obriculture really, so like in a month, we'll
have forty thousand vouchers for our soap that will go out.
Oh wow, So that's quite a vertical marketing opportunity that
you know, you where would you run into that, right,
Well you can at the tree Carescasion Winter Management Conference.
(02:32):
So and then we've got a session today we were
talking about, you know, just a little nugget that you get.
His little slogan is tell me something good rather than
asking somebody you know, how you doing today? You know
what you can get when you ask somebody that. Right,
we have a kind of a culture of negativity that
(02:54):
we all live in, and that that idea of saying
tell me something good, you know, is it's probably a
little nugget I'm going to take back to the crew
and start employing. We do a weekly safety meeting where
we talk about uh, you know, near misses or something,
you know something. But what if we start that out
(03:16):
first by telling me something good? Because we have a
whole bunch of good happen every week and we have
clients tell us about that something good. So, yeah, just
some good things like that that come out in environments
like this. And then we're networking with with other companies
that are are like us, you know, but they're doing
(03:37):
things differently, and you get little ideas. It's just a great,
great environment. Plus yes it's in someplace funny.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh yeah, that's it. That's the last you gotta gotta
include that. But Kevin, I know, war yes, yeah, I
know in years past you've had a chance to do
some presentations and some other things. This year, are you
taking anything in as far is uh a little like
specific courses or anything that's really catching your attention this year?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know here it's kind of a general format. Everybody
goes to the same same stuff. I think uh uh
our next uh educational thing that we're going to, the
Wisconsin Arbust Association puts on a great show h later
in February here where we take the entire crew, And
(04:27):
so that's a learning opportunity for for our whole crew.
And that's just something that we we do. I mean,
obviously it's an expense as a company, but it's it's
a three day event that that really builds continuity within
our crew. The crew feels the value. It's a good
break from the routine and they're learning stuff about you know,
(04:51):
what we do. And uh so that's that's a big
thing we're doing here in a few.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Weeks with the with the obviously with the invention and
sharing that sharing information and going to those courses. I
think sometimes people forget obviously, I think we see reports
the type of work that you guys do can be
very dangerous, and understanding safety protocols and best practices and
(05:16):
sharing that information these are these things are really big deals,
and I think a lot of times we forget that
that even a limb that to to to the naked eye,
to me, to the lapers, and I see a tree
limb and I go, oh, that can't be that heavy.
They are. They are massively heavy. They're u an organic thing.
That means that they're not you know, it's it's not
like you're grabbing a steel bar that's measured to length
(05:39):
and you know exactly what to get. You've got to
you've got to have a lot of training, a lot
of understanding about about physics, about the biology of the tree,
the species of the tree, to really make that as
safe as possible and make sure that that that type
of work is done properly.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know, John, a twelve pound limb following twenty five
is a five hundred foot pound force that's lethal And
we had a speaker. He's actually from Wisconsin originally. He's
spent a long career in one of the largest tree
care companies in America over a billion dollar company and
(06:18):
he was the chief safety officer. And he opened his
talk he nineteen occasions where he had to disclose to
family members the death of an employee nineteen times. I mean,
that's like PTSD kind of experienced. And to open his
(06:43):
talk like that, and then he was sharing about how
a lot of the metrics that they used, like OSHA
and everybody uses all this time, have been wrong. And
it was really cuttied and stuff about how to look
at safety and how to you know, ensure your culture
(07:05):
is on the right track mentally as we approach this
very very dangerous work. Incidents have gone down, but fatalities
have not reduced at the same rate. And so that's
kind of interesting and sobering at the same time. And
(07:27):
so you know, yeah, we are in that industry. Someone
dies virtually about every three days in treecre you know,
so as you're hiring a tree care company, you know,
most people are thinking, you know, price. A ton of
times we are competing on price, and we lose a
(07:48):
contract because of price. You know, understand that we are
a company that is is you know, objectively looking at
what we're the conditions we're working and we are actively
you know, trying to create the best culture two to
safely deliver this service to our clients. And and so
(08:10):
that you know, you want to think about that as
you're uh investigating tree companies. And Madison is a blessed community.
We have a lot of good tree companies. If I
might even uh, you know, give some treatise to some
of my competitors. But as a consumer, you want to
you want to think about, uh, that safety factor when
(08:34):
you're hiring a company.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I know, obviously you spend a lot of time and
a lot of resources on training and education. You also
spend at Ham's Arborcare a lot when it comes to
the proper tools and the importance of having the proper
equipment for doing those jobs. You mentioned some of the
other other arborists uh here in the area. I know,
for folks that don't know, I will occasionally send Kevin
pictures of other arborists working, and Kevin will give me
(08:59):
feedback and often times you'll you'll point out, You're like, oh, yeah,
those guys, they do great work.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
We you know, we have these great relationships.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Obviously, when you talk about the type of industry that
you're in, I'm going to guess that birds of a
feather those who do good work, quality work. You guys,
probably I shouldn't say probably.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I know this.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You guys are all very supportive of the of the
work that you do. And when it comes to choosing
somebody to do work on your trees, and of course
to be working on your property, you want to make
sure that you're hiring the best. You're firing people that
actually have that experience, that education, that make that investment
in their teams and their equipment. That's a great thing
about working with Kevin Hamm and the folks at Ham's
Arborcare the website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's h a m
(09:37):
ms Arborcare dot com. Started the conversation. You talking about
that biochar body soap and shampoo that is available up
at Game of Trees dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
That's one right now.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You can't beat that. I've got got one opened, one unopened.
I actually have a little tip by the way. What
I do is I put the unopened bar, I set
it in my dresser drawer and it makes uh, there's
a little yeah. It kind of keeps that great hack, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Until it's time to use it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It keeps my clothes smelling nice and fresh as well,
So yeah, you're not gonna go wrong. Also, buy one,
get one if you if you get one and give
one to a friend, or give two to a friend
and get two two for yourself, or get four or
eight or so on.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So I got a funny story. Yeah, I've been passing
out little one O samples down here, and and that's
how I got the big voucher. I asked that to
the CEO of Vertical Supply Group. It worked out well,
but one one guy said, oh, don't leave those in
your pocket in a warm environment. Very get it in
his back pocket. And apparently the heat and humidity of
(10:40):
Saint Thomas, you know, don't you know, just together very well.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Good pro tip on that as well, Kevin. I'll let
you get back to your conference. Thank you for joining
us this morning.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Have fun and uh and I'll be I'll be quite honest,
pretty jealous.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah yeah, gatful environment.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Enjoy your time, my friend. We'll do it all again
in seven days.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Thank you, Sean, take care.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Thanks Kevin again. Their website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's Hams
h a m ms arborcare dot com. News comes your
way next. It's eight thirty two.
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