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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, AJ Morris, founder of Aspen Tree Service, shares his journey into the arboriculture industry, emphasizing the importance of certification and safety in tree care. He discusses the risks associated with tree work, common malpractice in the industry, and best practices for maintaining healthy trees. AJ also highlights the comprehensive services offered by his company and identifies the target audience for tree care services.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
AJ Morris (00:00)
I would say the number one biggest thing ⁓ as someone that you know owns trees on their property residential or commercial wherever it may be ⁓ is What most of these guys out there that are doing? ⁓ is the biggest thing number one is called lion tailing and So where you know someone says hey, I want my trees trimmed and you know Tree guy whatever long guy shows up and says yeah I can trim your trees and make it look better or you know, whatever andthey go in and they start cutting out what we would call like the inner canopy.
Kristen Knapp (02:07)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with AJ Morris, who is the founder of Aspen Tree Service, functioning out of Dallas, Texas. Thank you for being here, AJ.AJ Morris (02:16)
Thanks.Kristen Knapp (02:16)
Amazing. Well, let’s go to the beginning. How did you get into this business? I know you’re a certified arborist.AJ Morris (02:23)
Yeah, we actually did my first three job when I was in high school. I think my best friend’s mom paid me like 60 bucks and I borrowed a chainsaw from from a buddy’s dad because my my own dad wouldn’t let me borrow a chainsaw. and that’s kind of where it started. So so I did that and then started knocking on doors and and figured it out from there.Kristen Knapp (02:44)
Amazing. What did you love so much about it?AJ Morris (02:46)
It was just more, you know, because before that, you know, I was mowing yards since I was in like seventh grade and figured out really quickly that it’s a much higher skill set and it paid a whole lot more than mowing yards. So I immediately was kind of drawn to that. I was like, OK, this is there’s a bigger opportunity here.Kristen Knapp (03:03)
Yeah, so how did you go about strengthening your skill set and then building your business?AJ Morris (03:08)
Yeah, mean, as like a lot of people, I mean, I really kind of started out actually with my younger brother and I just kind of teamed up on it. And I mean, really, I just say we started out, it was kind of a chuck in a truck situation. We’re not educated, didn’t have, you didn’t know all the safety protocols, didn’t know all the rules. ⁓ But as we kind of slowly progressed and decided like, hey, let’s actually like really make this a thing. ⁓I just got all the resources dug into it and flipped it around to where we operate at the top of the food chain instead of the bottom now.
Kristen Knapp (03:41)
Amazing, yeah, talk to us a little about getting certified and what that entails.AJ Morris (03:46)
Yeah, so it’s pretty simple. In our business, there’s no regulation like in HVAC or being an electrician or anything like that. There’s no…no real requirement necessarily, because anybody can just go out and start a tree business, go print some business cards and buy a chainsaw at Home Depot to be realistic about it. But ⁓ to be certified, ⁓ it really just sets everybody completely apart. ⁓ So it’s really just a matter of there’s one governing entity called the ISA, International Society of Arbor Culture, that ⁓ basically administers a lengthy test. so there’s all types of,
there’s online courses, there’s all different type of resources to go in and get that, but it’s all self-done. ⁓ There’s some classes you can go take and pay for and whatnot, ⁓ but it’s a pretty tough test. It’s not something you can just walk into and get, and you also have to have some prerequisites per their requirements ⁓ of a certain number of years working either in another tree business or as an owner, they wanna see invoices and whatnot.
So and then beyond that there are other certifications and there’s other things within the realm But the main the main thing is the is the certified arborist test
Kristen Knapp (05:50)
Yeah, and that’s interesting to me that kind of anyone can go out and do this and it’s legal.AJ Morris (05:57)
Say it again, you kind of cut out.Kristen Knapp (06:00)
⁓ It’s interesting to me that anyone can go out and do this and it’s actually legal. ⁓AJ Morris (06:05)
Yeah, and what’s surprising is that it’s literally the most dangerous job you can do. So a lot of people don’t realize that.Kristen Knapp (06:16)
Yeah, talk about more of the risks and the dangers.AJ Morris (06:19)
⁓Yeah, so, you know, like I would say most people, if you, if you went out and serve it, and they’re probably going to think that, ⁓ like a tree climber is going to be, you know, the risk is going to be people falling out of trees or whatnot. And realistically, I think I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I do know it’s like the majority of injuries and, and issues that happen are actually called what’s called a struck by means that they got hit by something. So if you just think about like, in the world of trimming trees, you know, you’re taking something heavy that’s way up high in the air.
in a lot of cases and getting it down to the ground so there by its own nature is a very you know is a dangerous thing and you see most ⁓ it’s really interesting I always you know I’ve copied a lot of these videos that you see like on you know Facebook where you know people are advertising their company like hey I’m XYZ tree company you know use us and they have videos of their guys literally on a job site or in trees with no helmets on
And it’s like, of all things, and the most dangerous thing where you have heavy objects coming down and you’ve got guys running around a job site with no helmets on, I tell customers all the time, say, if a crew shows up with no helmets on, fire them, like send them home. They can’t even follow the most basic safety protocol. So, see it every day.
Kristen Knapp (07:22)
Yeah.Yeah, they’re not prepared.
Wow, yeah,
I mean that’s scary. You’re risking your life every day.
And a big part about your business where you really want to educate people that, you know, you don’t want to just go with any person because not only, you know, the safety issues and all that, there people just do a lot of malpractice within your industry, correct?
AJ Morris (07:52)
Oop, lost you there. Go ahead.Kristen Knapp (07:53)
Did you hear me on that one? Okay.I know a big part of your business is educating people because there’s a lot of, know, even regardless of the safety issues, there’s a lot of malpractice within your industry with people just taking chainsaws and going out there, right?
It looks like you’re frozen.
AJ Morris (08:11)
I think it just caught back up. So yeah, you’re asking about ⁓ the whole malpractice situation Yeah, and I’ve got I’ve got so much I can say about that and so you can kind of you know guide me where you want to on that but like the biggest thing that we see out there is you can just drive it, know, and I don’t know about other, know other regions in the US but in the Dallas area it is it’s a huge problem because you have so many competing, you know, I’d say there’s really kind of like three different things you haveKristen Knapp (08:12)
Okay, there you are. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. Right.AJ Morris (08:38)
You have us, know, ISA, know, certified arborists that are, you know, I would say we’re, you know, we’re educated in, you know, and tree biology and proper pruning practices and safety and all of those things. And then you’ve got the, you’ve got lawn guys who just because they’re out mowing the yards and they’re like, Hey, we have a chainsaw, we have a pole saw, we can trim your trees while we’re here. So they capture, you know, part of the market where homeowners are just like, Oh, my lawn guy, he’ll take care of my trees. And by the way, which are, you know, the most valuable thing.in the yard, ⁓ far more valuable than the grass and they’re just having whoever, know, do whatever to them. then the third is going to be your general, you know, tree guys, which I would say are, you know, you’re uncertifieds. And there’s some out there that are really good. ⁓ I would say, you know, I would argue probably very few, but as a consumer, like knowing the difference between those three and going like, I have a very valuable tree, like what would it cost to
Kristen Knapp (09:16)
Yeah.AJ Morris (09:37)
replace this tree versus a lot of people don’t think about that they think about their grass like I want my grass to grow better well you can buy saw it and put saw it in for you know pennies compared to like say you’ve got a 40 50 foot oak tree you can’t replace that ⁓ there’s just no way to do that and you’re gonna just let whoever do whatever to itKristen Knapp (09:40)
Yeah.Bye.
AJ Morris (09:59)
It’s just, it’s a big problem. There’s all, and we just see, you know, I wish I could, I guess click over and show you pictures of it. But, but as far as what, people are doing.Kristen Knapp (10:05)
Yeah,are some of the mistakes that people make?
AJ Morris (10:45)
I would say the number one biggest thing ⁓ as someone that you know owns trees on their property residential or commercial wherever it may be ⁓ is What most of these guys out there that are doing? ⁓ is the biggest thing number one is called lion tailing and So where you know someone says hey, I want my trees trimmed and you know Tree guy whatever long guy shows up and says yeah I can trim your trees and make it look better or you know, whatever andthey go in and they start cutting out what we would call like the inner canopy.
you know, so you’ve got a tree and you know, this whole canopy and there’s, there’s layers inside of it of branches and foliage and whatnot. And the bottom line is they basically cut off way too much foliage. In many cases, they’ll make improper cuts, which I know I don’t have a visual for you on that, but, where and, know, how you cut the branch matters to reduce wound to the tree because every time you cut something,
the tree that tree has to go in and it basically starts you know sealing up that wound and then
But as far as like the bad pruning practices really, you know, they’ll strip branches. Like if you drive through a neighborhood and you see a tree where the whole inside of it is open and you see bare branches all the way to the end and then there’s just canopy on the very end and there’s nothing inside the middle of the tree. mean, you can, anybody can go in and just Google or YouTube lion tailing and you’ll pull that up. And I mean, you can be educated on it in five minutes on the internet, but yet this is happening every single day. Guys are just going out
they’re just ripping trees apart and again cutting off too much foliage. hopefully that is a good explanation without showing pictures of it.
Kristen Knapp (12:32)
Yeah, absolutely. And what are the long-term effects of something like that?AJ Morris (12:36)
Yeah, that’s a good question. basically, line tailing, like when you remove all of those branches out to the very tip, it actually weakens the branch because everywhere there’s a branch union, those layers of wood actually kind of stack onto each other and actually make branches stronger. so there’s a variety of different things. That’s kind of the big one is branch strength and then…And then really just the fact that they’re a lot of time in season. You you’re usually doing this. These people are doing these type of practices, ⁓ spring, summer, fall, when the trees are not dormant. So.
You remember from school, photosynthesis, ⁓ that’s how the trees photosynthesizes with leaves. So if you cut tons and tons and tons of foliage off, foliage is your friend, is the tree’s friend. If they cut so much of that off, they’re reducing what you would call, not being super technical, the photosynthetic ability of the tree instead of being selective about what they’re doing. And then next thing you know, you’ve got a gigantic brush pile and this scalped open looking tree.
and the homeowner goes, that looks really nice. And it’s like, no, your tree guy just botched your tree and caused damage.
Kristen Knapp (13:53)
Yeah, and that’s long term damage. That’s a really good thing for people to know. I’m curious with your company, let’s go back, how often are you supposed to maintain your trees? What would you recommend?AJ Morris (14:06)
Yeah, that’s a good question. I ⁓ mean, we typically, and every business is going to vary to a degree, but in terms of pruning, of course, if you’re removing a tree, you know, that’s not tree health care, you’re just removing something. But in terms of pruning and carrying, you know, proper pruning, ⁓ we typically don’t touch our customers’ trees more than once about every other year. And generally, what’s on that work order,like removing dead wood, ⁓ you know, if we may need to raise canopies off of houses, roofs, garages, you power line issues, whatever, things that it actually needs and instead of just ripping the middle of the tree out.
Kristen Knapp (14:52)
Yeah, that’s interesting. it doesn’t need, you know, the maintenance is kind of spread out a little bit. And I know that you guys with your company, you’re not just doing tree trimming. Can you talk about some of the other services that you do?AJ Morris (15:46)
Let’s do there.Kristen Knapp (15:47)
Okay, and I know with your company you’re not just doing tree trimming, you have other services as well, so I’d love for you to go into those.AJ Morris (15:55)
Yeah, yeah, so that’s what we would call ourselves like a full full service, you know tree care business ⁓ It’s not just not just cutting trees. We have a whole nother side of things where we’re you know, dealing with diagnostics of You know and prevention for you know insects ⁓ diseaseknow, fungus, different things that can affect trees. And of course, in different areas, you know, like, you know, down here, I have different species than somebody that’s, you know, on the East or West Coast and whatnot. And there’s a little overlap, but. ⁓
But as far as fertilizing all these different things to go in and a lot of times where people think my tree is sick or my tree is dying and it’s really, it just needs help. It needs some type of application. And where one of our arborists will go in and look at it and say, oh, that’s X condition and.
you know, hey, we do or don’t have a remedy for that and say we’ve got the remedy then say, hey, maybe, you know, X, Y, or Z remedy and then we go apply it. And of course, you know, you can’t guarantee anything because in most cases, just because, you know, you can’t control soil conditions or if somebody pours, you know, the neighbor poisons your tree or does, you know, something stupid like that. But so, but, in, you know, many, many, many cases where, yeah, we can revive stuff.
Kristen Knapp (17:09)
Thanks.AJ Morris (17:16)
and or get it on a corrective path. And some. No, no, go ahead.Kristen Knapp (17:17)
Yeah.Yeah, that’s awesome and I’m even… keep going.
I’m curious, trees are just so different than flowers and plants and all that, where that takes very considerate maintenance. What are your tips for keeping healthy trees?
AJ Morris (17:35)
Say it again.Kristen Knapp (17:36)
What are your tips for keeping healthy trees?AJ Morris (17:39)
Yeah, a couple of things, ⁓ you know, is, ⁓ you know, really people can, with the power of the internet, you can look up so much information so fast, ⁓ you know, is really looking up, you know, your species of tree, specifically, because different trees require different things. So for example, like,You know, like if someone has a magnolia tree, ⁓ you know, and you know what you want to make sure that’s in, you know, in a spot where it’s not going to get flooded. Same thing with a pine where those don’t want excessive water ⁓ or ⁓ you want to make sure that around the base of the tree ⁓ there’s, know, where you’ve got the trunk and the trunk flares on all trees. It flares. It’s called the root flare. That flare needs to be exposed. ⁓
That’s another big problem is all the landscape, I don’t want to say all of the landscapers, many, many landscapers, like they’ll build these rings and decorative things around trees and put a bunch of dirt in it and build the dirt up above the root flare. And that actually causes problems in and of itself. So I would say, yeah, making sure no matter what species of tree that people can make sure that that root flare is exposed. You need to be able to see it.
and don’t cover it up with dirt, don’t cover it up with mulch and bury it. Get that, that’s probably one of the biggest things. Like when we go look at a tree, one of the first things we do, you look at the tree and you look at the canopy and then we look down and we wanna see what’s at the base, what’s going on down there, that type of thing. So there’s a couple of things that are real good for people to know.
Kristen Knapp (19:12)
Do you?Do you guys ever plant trees yourself?
AJ Morris (19:15)
Yeah, great question. ⁓ We as a business, ⁓ know, most of the time, you know, those are tree farms and landscapers. I’ve kind of built my business around more, you know, you know, the pruning removal and plant health care. We do from time to time. But generally, we refer that out. And just because it’s aIt’s kind of whole different thing. you know, my trucks are equipped and set up for, you know, like, or I got kind of just education on this, like ⁓ a crew truck for doing tree work is completely set up, set up completely different where a landscaping crew is a lot more like set up for doing planting and whatnot. So we don’t really do much of that ⁓ from time to time we will, but generally we refer that out to like a sister company that we work with.
Kristen Knapp (20:04)
Nice, yeah, so it’s great for people to have even this education, because I think a lot of people don’t even know where to go with this kind of stuff.AJ Morris (20:11)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.Kristen Knapp (20:14)
Yeah, so talk about kind of the people that you work with. I’m sure you work with homeowners, investors, all of that. Who’s your ideal customer?AJ Morris (20:23)
Yeah, really, you know, residential or commercial. Of course, we’ve got a lot of ⁓ property managers, ⁓ HOAs that we work with and really just, you know, anybody that owns or is, you know, a manager of a property that has generally mature trees, a bunch of baby brand new trees. There’s not a whole lot we can do with those. And of course, you’re not, you know, you’re not cutting much off of them. ⁓ But yeah, really anybody that owns or controls or, you know, maintains mature trees.Kristen Knapp (20:55)
Amazing. Well, tell everybody where to find you.AJ Morris (20:58)
Yeah, any Google search ⁓ Aspen Tree Service in Dallas, there are others that are in other states, but we are specifically to the Dallas area. ⁓ aspen-tree-service.com is our website, and you can pretty much find us on most all the platforms.Kristen Knapp (21:17)
Incredible. Well, I think people learned a lot from this episode. You kind of definitely educated on a topic that I think people don’t know enough about. So thank you so much for being here, AJ.AJ Morris (21:28)
Yeah, no problem. Thanks a lot.Kristen Knapp (21:30)
Awesome. everybody please check out Aspen Tree Services, check out AJ, and thank you for listening. We’ll see you back next time.
