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Some of the best conversations in arboriculture happen away from the meeting room. They happen on site, next to the chipper, over a brew.
That idea is where Chipper Chat started.
Hosted by Simon Rotheram, founder and Managing Director of Beechwood Trees & Landscapes, Chipper Chat is a new podcast built around honest conversations with people from across the arb industry.
With over 28 years in arboriculture, Simon has seen plenty of change, challenges and different sides of the industry. Rather than creating something overly polished or formal, we wanted Chipper Chat to feel like the conversations people in arb are already having.
The difference is that now we’re putting a microphone in front of them.
Conversations that go beyond the job
Arboriculture is a technical industry, but the people behind it are just as important.
Chipper Chat won’t only be about machinery, climbing or tree work. We want to talk about careers, businesses, mistakes, difficult periods, changing attitudes and the experiences that shape people throughout their time in the industry.
Some of the first teaser clips give a good idea of where those conversations can go.
“The masculine man is a myth.”
“I sacked you.”
“We didn’t have any work.”
They’re very different statements, but that is exactly the point.
There isn’t one set topic that every conversation needs to follow. Sometimes a discussion about arboriculture naturally becomes a conversation about running a business, managing people, mentalities within the industry or the difficult decisions that happen behind the scenes.
We want to leave room for those conversations.
Starting with someone who has seen Beechwood change
Our first Chipper Chat guest is Luke Curran, who has worked at Beechwood for 20 years.
Simon and Luke have both experienced the industry across a long period of change, which gave them plenty to talk about.
The conversation looks back at how things have changed, the highs and lows of working in arboriculture and what it really takes to build a career as an arborist.
It also gets into some of the moments people might not normally hear about publicly, including periods when there wasn’t enough work and even Simon telling Luke: “I sacked you.”
Those are the parts of the story we don’t want to edit out.
A career or a business rarely develops in a straight line, and Chipper Chat is an opportunity to talk about what happened between the milestones as well as celebrating them.
Different guests, different perspectives
One of the biggest things we want Chipper Chat to bring to the industry is different points of view.
Each episode will feature a different guest, giving people from different areas of arboriculture the chance to talk about their own experiences.
No two careers in arb look exactly the same. People enter the industry differently, learn from different people and face different challenges.
By bringing those experiences together, we want the podcast to give people something they can relate to, learn from or even disagree with.
It doesn’t have to be a room full of people saying the same thing.
The interesting conversations usually happen when they don’t.
Passing experience on
Arboriculture is an industry where a huge amount of knowledge is passed from person to person.
You can complete training and gain qualifications, but there is also a lot to learn from the people who have already spent years doing the job.
That is another part of what we want Chipper Chat to capture.
Stories about how somebody started, mistakes they made, lessons they learnt or how they dealt with a difficult period might help somebody earlier in their own career.
It also gives experienced people in the industry somewhere to share knowledge that might otherwise never be recorded.
Keeping it real
Most importantly, we don't want Chipper Chat to feel like another corporate podcast.
It should feel like sitting down with people from the industry and hearing the conversation you would normally have once the cameras were turned off.
There will be serious topics, funny stories, disagreements and probably a few moments we never expected when we pressed record.
That is what we want it to be.
**Honest conversations, different points of view and plenty of insight into the people, businesses and ideas
