Genius Idea For Saving Trees | Re-Tree with Vidosh & Daniel Miraval
Re-Tree’s goal is to protect the life and integrity of existing mature trees and shrubs. By replacing, replanting, and repurposing the trees and shrubs so they will continue to thrive in a new location.
Dennise Vidosh Founder and CEO of Re-tree.org and the owner/operator of Green Acres Tree Farm, her flagship company and supplier of mature trees to the wholesale market on a national scale. Her mission is to protect the life and integrity of existing mature trees and shrubs by replacing, replanting, and repurposing them so they will continue to thrive in a new location.
Daniel Miraval is an Urban Forest health care professional. 30 years of Green Collar Profession experience. He thought leader and change agent through his role as CEO, co-founder, owner, and managing member of Green Extraction Technologies, LLC an Urban Forestry Tree Care Firm with a heavy focus on Tree Preservation. He offers expert High Volume Production Tree Digging for select growers of the finest quality Nursery Stock who desire to have their material handled by experts in this field and adhere to industry Best Management Practices.
Please listen to these experts, explain the benefit of replanting a tree, and giving it second chance rather than throwing. It is not only good for the environment but also good for your pocket too. Dive in to check out what I mean.
“I realized about the value of time in that those trees Are you replaceable, right? we can't catch up. So, we need to create awareness around the value of our existing mature trees and either move them and not replace them with three small caliper trees, because the benefits of that mature tree are exponential, or develop our properties around them. That makes a lot of sense, right? And create awareness around what we can do to help the environment. Right? these are things we can do. So as contractors become more responsible, right? But also, there's an opportunity for us to learn some new skills and make some more money too. So it's a win-win for all of us.” - Dennise Vidosh
“Education is a big, big component of that, you know, because going down the road of becoming certified arborist gets, opens up doors, for continuing your education, furthering your knowledge and takes you down paths in the green collar profession that you may not even know existed.” - Daniel Miraval
Topics Covered:
2:06 - Daniel tells the story of how he used to work with Dennise ’s dad. Mr. Donn Vidosh
4:45 - How did Dennise and Daniel get reunited was through the internet.
5:04 - Daniel explains what AirSpading is
8:52 - This Idea that Dennise came up with is to save trees and re-plant it to someone else’s lawn is awesome.
9:50 - It is a win-win situation for the homeowners who would like to redecorate their yard and need to remove some trees, they now have an option to sell it instead of throwing it away.
14:38 - It is our Moral obligation to the world to be responsible for all things that we do. Simply replanting trees help not only the environment but also you as a contractor. It’s a win-win.
20:30 - There’s a lot more than just replanting. Maybe you haven’t realized this yet but this could be a good opportunity to start a business like this.
21:07 - You need to invest time in knowing and getting the skill. Learn how-to is the best way to do it. Rather than just, sitting there and waiting for nothing
32:55 - This thing is not only for contractors like me. This is beneficial for everyone. If you’re a homeowner who would like to remove a tree in your yard, and you don’t know what to do with it? Check their app now. You can sell it there. Boom! Hitting two birds at one stone.
38:00 - Something that we can learn from Dennise’s dad is if they don’t believe in your capability and they doubt your ability. Don’t listen to them, just listen and believe in yourself. Set the goal and do it!
Key Takeaways:
“But, what I learned is, you cannot listen to anybody but yourself, right? Everybody's gonna tell you that's impossible. I really be like, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid of doing that? But he did not listen to anybody. And he became one of the second largest landscapers in the country because he didn't listen. He said that's my goal. And I'm doing it and I'm putting my head down and he did it.” - Dennise Vidosh
“But it's not just for me, okay, I'm providing the vehicle for this catalyst, which is to sell this repurpose plant material that I saw an opportunity for all of us to do right? Beyond that. There's so much opportunity there as contractors to be part of this to make add value-added services to your resume and make some money being part of this as a qualified contractor. Right? Whether it be in the transplanting the aftercare programs, the irrigation that's going to be required all the above.” - Dennise Vidosh
“If you're 20 right now, you're going to end up that way too. So keep climbing trees, keep doing what you're doing. If you're doing technical removals or all that kind of stuff, make that your thing your specialty may be. Crane works your specialty but you know when you go home at night, this is where you follow Keith when he does his explanations of how to personally develop, self develop. At the end of the day. Don't turn on Netflix and just zone out start studying and figuring out what the next steps might be. So when you get to be an old guy like me, that's something else that you can migrate and gravitate into. And just don't run away from the green collar profession. But just run to another part of it.” - Daniel Miraval
“The relationship building, you build relationships, so that on your end of what you teach, from the entrepreneurial side, take lessons from her and from me there's all these things relationship building, thinking strategically taking the time to develop mission statements, personal core values, your company's core values can't figure it out you're looking at a blank piece of paper you don't know what to put down? Steal someone else's. Start following them things and you'll realize quickly if those work for you, or if they don't scratch them off, put your own down and in time you'll develop it and before you know it, this is what you turn into. This is what happens this is a byproduct doing that. It's the hard work though you got to do that. It's not easy.” - Daniel Miraval
"Full size, mature tree. So the reason I was talking about the benefit as a landscaper and I was listening right now that we can go on this and I'll get right back to that is because I can go on this app, if I'm looking for a Japanese maple for my customer, maybe I can get it a lot cheaper. Oh, there's somebody who literally in the next town that's getting rid of one and it's being held, I go get it for half the price. I don't know. And I'll feel good about that as well. And I sell that to my client, install it. And then I can also if I have instead of dropping off at the dumpsite and paying for them to grind it up and turn into mulch or something, I can find the app and then I can sell it?" - Keith Kalfas
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The Transcript
(Note: This transcript was created using Otter, an AI transcription software. Please forgive any transcription or grammatical errors. We probably sounded better in real life.)
Intro 0:02
Welcome to the untrapped podcast where we're motivated and inspired about success, small business, and personal development. And now Keith Kalfas.
Keith Kalfas 0:20
What's up, guys? This is Keith Kalfas with the untrapped podcast. We got an awesome show for you. We have my friend back, Daniel Miraval.
Daniel Miraval 0:30
What's up, bro!
Keith Kalfas 0:31
A certified arborist from Chicago, Illinois, and he's brought with him Dennise Vidosh. And this is my first time meeting you Dennise here in the studio. You guys can also, my friend Daniel sent me this video yesterday and Dennise Vidosh grew up in the green industry, but she owns seven nurseries, tree farms. And in this video I saw that you guys are literally using airspace to remove trees and to relocate them and like wait for a second, then I meet you and you're talking about Re-tree So the sustainable development, and Daniel talks about being a proactive steward of the urban environment. And what you're talking about is instead of this is what I'm saying, as a landscaper, we will remove trees will rip out until your garden beds, I throw away beautiful Japanese maples and crabapple trees and things all the time like this little door from Hugo pine and just I don't have any place to put it. And you also have started this website and this app where if somebody wants to throw something, I can get rid of something. It can be rehomed to somebody else. So I hate to say this, but kind of like Uber for trees,
Dennise Vidosh 1:40
Like an eBay, right so it's an A to B transaction. So seller to buy so we're trying to be the vehicle to put those to the buyer in the seller together. So the need and like
Keith Kalfas 1:53
You grew up in nurseries and on tree farms, and Daniel is here I want you to see the story real quick. How you met her again. Because when you were young and working as a landscaper at a tree farm, correct?
Daniel tells the story of how he used to work with Dennise’s dad. Mr. Donn Vidosh
Daniel Miraval 2:06
I was working for her dad Vidosh landscape Center at the Pontiac location or three locations. That was Pontiac was our flagship location. So we were a re-wholesaler to the landscape industry. So you know, a guy like you are you guys out there that pick up plant material at the wholesale centers would come to a place like the Vidosh landscape center. So we had the Pontiac location, which was our flagship main location was about 40 acres. Then we had a location in Sterling Heights off a mound, and then we had a location and farming, I actually worked there, But anyway, here's the story. So her dad was down in the yard one day and he says, "Hey, my wife's gonna be here to pick up six flats of flowers and he gives me a list and there's like five names on these different you know, like inpatients and all this stuff. And her dad Mr. Vidosh. I looked at the industry
Keith Kalfas 2:55
You worked for this guy?
Daniel Miraval 2:57
Yeah, I worked for this guy and I worked for my mentors Wayne like Twenty Years ago, oh, longer than that. So we're talking 1992 because like back 1992, right? I was 20 years old, by so when I was 19 So anyways, Donn comes in, Mr. Vidosh comes in, and he says, "My wife's gonna come she's gonna pick up six flats of flowers" and he gives me a piece of paper and there's five, five different types of flowers on there, right? flat of flowers. I said Mr. Vidosh. So there's only five on there he goes," Oh, yeah my bad." He goes, "Well, you pick up the six one. And if my wife doesn't like it, you're fired."Vidosh And you know, Mr. Vidosh for those of you that watch this and have any connection to this industry and you know about this whole backstory, you're gonna know what kind of man Mr. Vidosh, made a very prominent in, in crushing very big figure in especially not just in Michigan and in lots of parts of the country, but especially in Southeast Michigan.
3:51
He had his hands on a lot of projects like Wayne State University and big golf courses and stuff like that. So anyway, long story short, he says, you know, you're going to pick up the six flat flowers. So here comes this is Vidosh his wife pulls up in this nice Cadillac as I remember opens up the trunk and I said here Mrs. Vidosh and I put all the flowers in the back of the trunk and she said "Supposed to be six" and I'm sitting there like shitting my pants because Mr. Vidosh and "My wife don't like it You're fired."Vidosh And I'm like 20 years old and Mr. Vidosh is an empowering guy and I'm just like kind of terrified and shitting my pants basically and I like how about the Tonys over there? And she's like those look great. Now my well this kid pops her head out the window like sideways like just like I've seen her she's seen me looks at her mom like what are we doing here? Wants to go, right? And I realized that it was her. Like all these years ago she was ten and I was twenty.
Keith Kalfas 4:44
it was Mr. Vidosh's daughter.
How did Dennise and Daniel get reunited was through the internet.
Daniel Miraval 4:45
It was Mr. Vidosh's daughter so how do we get reconnected? The Internet? No, the internet. So I'm going through Instagram. What was it like? Three months ago? And I followed the hashtag for AirSpade. That is AirSpade, no hashtag AirSpade Detroit Michigan I just do an AirSpade in my town
Keith Kalfas 5:03
What is AirSpading so the audience knows?
Daniel explains what AirSpading is
Daniel Miraval 5:04
AirSpade is a pneumatic soil excavation with a tool called an airspace. There are different types of tools with which this particular tool is a tool that I use myself.
Keith Kalfas 5:13
They take this jet power thing and they blow the soil out through just to expose the roots of a tree without hurting a tree.
Daniel Miraval 5:19
So I follow the hashtag. And then I started recently who's in my town because I'm you know, I'm from Detroit and I live in Chicago but from Detroit, I'm like, who's using an AirSpade in my town? I don't know about it, right? Like I'm like the guy in the Midwest versus everybody else but I come across her whole thing of what she's doing. And she's not using the AirSpade tool the way I use it. Like I'm trying to save one tree at a time for the most part at individuals homes and the do some homeowner stuff and construction damage remediation from and things like that. And a little bit of moving trees around like in South Carolina, but she's doing this as a thing. But anyway, I realize who she is, and we just got reconnected and it's like oh my God, You're doing this thing and you have this whole other platform that you have. She tells me about this app that she has. Or it's like an eBay retreat. And I'm just like so blown away because you know, I'm all fired up about getting this industry like you use the term archaic, it really is. And we're trying to get more people into this profession. This is the green collar professions are treating it like a profession that will be recognized profession is extremely important. And it's like bringing technology into all this bring breathing Fresh Life into this industry using these different technologies. AirSpade s not new this technology has been on for 30 years, and all the PhDs all the brains that have been studying all this stuff for 25 years and saying do this and nobody really does it because nobody understands it.
Keith Kalfas 6:42
You sent me this video that she had produced or made and it was amazing. What do I type in, so if the guys type in to see this?
Dennise Vidosh 6:51
Keith Kalfas 6:53
Dennise Vidosh 6:54
Yes.
Keith Kalfas 6:55
And in the video, you're like putting your hands along with these spruce trees and you're talking about how much you care about the environment.
Dennise Vidosh 7:02
It basically tells this origination story of Re-Tree. So, Daniel, I think you would agree with me. I grew up with a real innovator pioneer in the landscape industry. So I had a really great example.
Daniel Miraval 7:19
Almost definitely.
Dennise Vidosh 7:20
And I don't think since he has been that our industry much has changed. There are a few people that are recognizing the need for change. And I think we all have an opportunity as contractors as landscape contractors to see a real, the real needs, right? educate ourselves and be real professionals. So I came up with this concept from both the contractor experience side of my father, he was also involved in the creative development of this app, but the contracting side and seeing the opportunity to repurpose really unique, sustainable material on job sites that's existing. And then on this as a supplier, there has been an extreme shortage of inventory in our industry. So we're filling that void and that need as well. So we're, it's a double benefit for our industry, right? And then we're repurposing this material that's replaceable. So trees can't be manufactured. We can't, you know, re-manufacture, that tree that we're cutting down, we can't replace. So this is an opportunity for all of us to recognize the value of mature trees on our job sites, and repurpose them and make money doing it and feel good doing it. So
This Idea that Dennise came up with is to save trees and re-plant it to someone else’s lawn is awesome.
Keith Kalfas 8:52
So as a landscaper, either myself I can find other people that are quote-unquote getting rid of These shrubs too? Do these shrubs do?
Dennise Vidosh 9:01
Anything, any material. Right now we're focusing on you know, really need mature trees, but I think as the inventory gets larger. And the space between those jobs the need that the buyers and the sellers get shorter
Keith Kalfas 9:18
plant material trees, shrubs. So
Dennise Vidosh 9:21
Yeah, I mean, why would somebody take down home in your neighborhood right? And redeveloping that space and they don't need their beautiful boxwood in trees that they have their existing why we repurpose them, right?
Keith Kalfas 9:33
Yeah, and I feel bad. Sometimes we do landscape jobs. And you know, I just don't have it in my budget to start planting all these in my backyard and then reusing them. It's just not part of I go to the dump and I throw them away, and I feel bad when I leave and I'm like, literally throwing away a whole row of boxwoods or a beautiful Japanese maple tree
It is a win-win situation for the homeowners who would like to redecorate their yard and need to remove some trees, they now have an option to sell it instead of throwing it away.
Dennise Vidosh 9:50
Cost money for the homeowner and you take it down, why wouldn't you repurpose that material and sell it?
Daniel Miraval 9:57
So as the negative impacts of the environment at all I mean, so when we're talking about moving trees, you're talking about moving mature, large caliper material. So let's say, you know, 10-inch trees and up. And that just happens to be when a tree really starts producing those quantitative benefits, carbon sequestration. And all this, all the benefits that trees give up is when they get to that six, eight, ten plus inch sizes are more important. So just
Keith Kalfas 10:24
Full size, mature tree. So the reason I was talking about the benefit as a landscaper and I was listening right now that we can go on this and I'll get right back to that is because I can go on this app, if I'm looking for a Japanese maple for my customer, maybe I can get it a lot cheaper. Oh, there's somebody who literally in the next town that's getting rid of one and it's being held, I go get it for half the price. I don't know. And I'll feel good about that as well. And I sell that to my client, install it. And then I can also if I have instead of dropping off at the dumpsite and paying for them to grind it up and turn into mulch or something, I can find the app and then I can sell it?
Dennise Vidosh 10:56
Yes.
Keith Kalfas 10:57
And then I can make money off of that and just have this little whole side hustle, but now that's easy because I can put that in my dump trailer anything up to maybe ten, twelve, sixteen feet. But when you're talking about it, did you say a 10-inch caliper tree? We were talking about tree spade actually going in? and spading that tree. How are we gonna move ---
Dennise Vidosh 11:16
We can use the AirSpade, this you know, technology that Daniel had mentioned, to move those trees.
Keith Kalfas 11:24
Their root?
Dennise Vidosh 11:25
Their root, so it weighs less. Oh, so it is about a third of the weight.
Keith Kalfas 11:29
I saw that in the video. So if you guys go look it up, Re-tree.org. And look at the videos. They're taking AirSpade and removing all the dirt. So all that's left is this huge mass of roots. Okay.
Daniel Miraval 11:42
Yeah, so that's really helpful on a site where there may be some construction going on some expansion on that site. And you want to, you want to move the trees from one location to another location site. Much like the university itself.
Keith Kalfas 11:56
So, if they're building say a complex or shopping center. Instead of just killing all the trees,
Daniel Miraval 12:01
Or just expanding the footprint of the building overall, just growing, space is growing. So a corporate campus has an ability now, to use this technology to move the
Dennise Vidosh 12:13
But not just on the sales side, right? We offer services to transplant those trees within our area, right?
Daniel Miraval 12:20
With aftercare services with plant health care related services that need to go along with this afterward. There's, there's monitoring the trees, retreating the trees,
Dennise Vidosh 12:29
But there's an opportunity for these contractors to learn a new skill. So we can do, we are going to offer training on the AirSpade technology so that you can become the contractor qualified on our app to move those trees
Daniel Miraval 12:44
Right. So Dennise and I are starting production of building out this system, to where we can start to train other contractors if they want to inhabit the space.
Keith Kalfas 12:55
You can shoot video footage and then put it inside of an app where people can become subscribing members and then they can go through all the training modules directly on their smartphones after work at night.
Dennise Vidosh 13:05
That's the goal. But to learn a new skill that people will pay for, right? To set yourself apart right? From the rest of the team here in Detroit.
Daniel Miraval 13:18
Or the country.
Dennise Vidosh 13:19
The country.
Keith Kalfas 13:20
So when did you first realize this like you have you care so much about Mother Earth, I could tell that you really care about trees and you have this deeper connection or when did this first happened and hit you?
Dennise Vidosh 13:33
So my dad planted a tree farm when I was two years old. Down Highland Michigan, and he planted 100,000 trees there. And so he took me out there one weekend and showed me all the trees that he planted for my future education,
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Keith returns right after this short break.
Keith Kalfas 13:55
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And once again, here's your host, Keith Kalfas.
It is our Moral obligation to the world to be responsible for all things that we do. Simply replanting trees help not only the environment but also you as a contractor. It’s a win-win.
Dennise Vidosh 14:38
Wow. First of all, I was small. I was a little I didn't. But I was like I really loved the feeling. And so I recently went back to that place about three or four years ago, and the trees are over 30 feet tall now. And I realized about the value of time in that those trees Are you replaceable, right? we can't catch up. So, we need to create awareness around the value of our existing mature trees and either move them and not replace them with three small caliper trees, because the benefits of that mature tree are exponential, or develop our properties around them. That makes a lot of sense, right? And create awareness around what we can do to help the environment. Right? these are things we can do. So as contractors become more responsible, right? But also, there's an opportunity for us to learn some new skills and make some more money too. So it's a win-win for all of us.
Daniel Miraval 15:50
And there are, these different technologies to do that. So I'm getting ready to get involved in something that's going to use ground-penetrating radar and some other type of stuff. That will help identify tree roots decay, decay, and trees. This is something that's in production right now. That'll be happening very soon. And we'll be able to use that in conjunction with all this as well.
Keith Kalfas 16:12
The underlying tone that I'm getting from this is about being responsible.
Dennise Vidosh 16:16
Right
Yeah.
Keith Kalfas 16:18
I like that.
Daniel Miraval 16:18
You can responsibly develop properties. So that's kind of what she's talking about. I mean, look like in the Midwest, or I used Chicago's example, the suburbs. undeveloped land is pretty much non-existent. So there's a house sitting on it. So let's say like in a neighborhood like yours, someone would buy your house to demo it. To build a house that was three times the value of this house. They want a lot. They don't want the house they want to build a McMansion, but you know, maybe you have a 15-inch oak tree in front. And there's some commercial development where they want to, they lost some big trees because of the development of the trees weren't salvageable, because maybe they weren't in good health. So through this app, you could put now this tree in the front yard instead of cutting it down to make room for this new house. It can be moved, and someone else can use it.
Dennise Vidosh 17:11
So I took Daniel this morning to look at a corporate campus that seriously considered a big company in Detroit, that seriously considering moving at over 300 of their five to 20-inch caliper trees on their site, and not cutting them down and being responsible developers. So it's about reprogramming what we're used to doing as contractors and developers in the carbon impact. There are huge corporations in Detroit and its carbon impact by moving those trees is going to be better than Apple, right when Apple has been developing their corporate campuses. So it's a big deal. And they're going to be a pioneer here in Detroit. So they're going to be an example for all of us, and there's going to be a lot of work. So, I think we need to develop our skills
Daniel Miraval 17:59
The Detroit business with global ties.
Keith Kalfas 18:02
How can a guy who specializes in climbing trees and cutting down and putting them through the chipper look at this and say, "Hmmm? How can I start adding this to my services?"
Dennise Vidosh 18:12
That's a good question. We talked about this last night. Actually,
Daniel Miraval 18:15
Yeah, education is a big, big component of that, you know, because going down the road of becoming certified arborist gets, opens up doors, for continuing your education, furthering your knowledge and takes you down paths in the green collar profession that you may not even know existed. You know, it's been a very surreal last 10 days. So, last week, I went to Gulf Shores Alabama, and I partook in the municipal forestry Institute, which is part of the Society of municipal arborists, which is funded in part by Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the United States for service and Society Minnesota Abors and it was 114 hours of intensive training about leadership, communication within urban forestry, knowing that when I got done with that I was going to come and see Dennise, and how this like all tied in together. But when I started working for her dad 30 years ago, I didn't know any of this existed that this world was out there.
Keith Kalfas 19:22
I'm just finding out about it right now.
Daniel Miraval 19:24
Right. And you've been doing this for a long time, too. It's really important that you guys out there, look for this. It's out there. The biggest nightmare for me is that you're in the green collar industry profession and you leave because you don't like the space you inhabit. There are so many different parts. Maybe you're a tech person that gravitates towards that. And right now, you're watching this video and you're doing greenhouse production. You're sticking cuttings, and you're like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. But you're a tech-savvy person. Hither up. She may need you on the development side.
Keith Kalfas 19:57
Where can people find you? Except for Re-tree.org?
Dennise Vidosh 20:01
My contact information is on re-tree.org
Keith Kalfas 20:07
What about IG? Instagram?
Dennise Vidosh 20:09
The IG. Oh, Yeah Re__tree__. Yes.
Keith Kalfas 20:18
All right, sweet.
Dennise Vidosh 20:18
So, I was gonna say something about what you were talking about that, you know, I think why people like you said, but I'm in the tree removal business. How would I capitalize on this?
There’s a lot more than just replanting. Maybe you haven’t realized this yet but this could be a good opportunity to start a business like this.
Keith Kalfas 20:30
This is a selfish thing. Horrible thing to admit.
Dennise Vidosh 20:32
But I get it. We've talked about this last night and so many people are afraid of what we're doing with innovation, like oh my gosh, we're going to lose business. That's not the case. Trees are always going to need to be removed. But again, teach yourself a new skill come to our training and you will have the opportunity to make money doing it. Right? Trees are always going to need to be removed because of disease, because of storms that are not going away ever. But we need to
Keith Kalfas 20:43
Yeah I know I know people tend to think oh, we know what's gonna happen tomorrow? No,
Dennise Vidosh 21:07
But our skillset, right? You're only gonna make more money if you become more skillful.
You need to invest time in knowing and getting the skill. Learn how-to is the best way to do it. Rather than just, sitting there and waiting for nothing
Daniel Miraval 21:13
I can't tell you how many conferences I go to and you know, I go do a ton of them. And I sit at a table at lunch with guys who are like the same age as me or older. And all they've ever done is climb trees. And like, I don't know how many more conferences I go to keep getting my CEUs because my knees just can't do it anymore. Might you know, I've been climbing since I was 20? I've been climbing trees and so no for 30 years. If you're 20 right now, you're going to end up that way too. So keep climbing trees, keep doing what you're doing. If you're doing technical removals or all that kind of stuff, make that your thing your specialty may be. Crane works your specialty but you know when you go home at night, this is where you follow Keith when he does his explanations of how to personally develop, self develop. At the end of the day. Don't turn on Netflix and just zone out start studying and figuring out what the next steps might be. So when you get to be an old guy like me, that's something else that you can migrate and gravitate into. And just don't run away from the green collar profession. But just run to another part of it.
Dennise Vidosh 22:10
See your jobs is an opportunity to come up with something on your own. That's innovative, right? I saw an opportunity because I did this over and over again, right? My dad and I did an over and over cutting down these trees. There's all this type of opportunity out there, but we see you know, we see it from these jobs from different perspectives. So come up with your own idea, you know, be innovative make, you know, change our industry.
Daniel Miraval 22:36
And we know for sure, for sure that the next 10 to 20 years that this will be the most important thing out of all industries and professions, anything to do with managing green spaces, trees, planting trees, caring for trees, looking for new technologies to sequester carbon through to all this kind of stuff to talk about stormwater management, we're just talking about stormwater management always 13 million trees, ash trees have been lost in the city Chicago. Take 20 billion with a B gallon of annual stormwater nowhere to go. And if you live around the Great Lakes region, you know that the lake levels are rising like one to three feet. Then we have these big storm events a road entire beaches like
Keith Kalfas 23:17
Trees are like a huge water reservoir?
Daniel Miraval 23:19
Oh my god, they take up tons of water. Yeah, now the water has nowhere to go.
Keith Kalfas 23:22
That's what you were telling me like a customer will get a bunch of big trees removed in the backyard and I know their basements flooding?
Daniel Miraval 23:27
And I'm telling them I'm like, you don't want to move that. Why do you want I don't like the leaf litter. I'm like, "Dude, you're not gonna like the water litter." There's a big bill that's gonna come with that. I'm like, just keep the tree and hire someone to rake up the leaves call Keith. He'll come and rake up the leaves.
Dennise Vidosh 23:40
But you know, the more media awareness around the value of trees is gonna drive our customers to demand us to do this.
Daniel Miraval 23:48
That's right. And the answer is why not plant a million trees.
Dennise Vidosh 23:51
Why are you moving it? Why are you putting it down?
Daniel Miraval 23:54
Dennise, what do you think about his initiative?
Dennise Vidosh 23:56
Get ahead of the game and learn how to do it.
Keith Kalfas 23:58
So when people are gonna be saying when they get aware of this.
Dennise Vidosh 24:02
The customer is gonna be like, "Why aren't you. Why are you telling me I should move this tree?"
Daniel Miraval 24:08
Why don't you give me options?
Dennise Vidosh 24:09
So I suggested before they said
Keith Kalfas 24:11
I think was Aldous Huxley said nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
Dennise Vidosh 24:15
Right? No. Yes, it's true. I read a book all about this, that it's all about timing right? We are on the cusp of environmental awareness and it being of utmost importance to everybody in the world. Right? So be before that happened.
Daniel Miraval 24:33
And I don't know about everybody else. But I know that you and I for sure, but we've been building up for this moment.
Dennise Vidosh 24:38
We are doing our best to be the teachers and the delivers of this message before it becomes viral.
Keith Kalfas 24:45
Do you believe that you were born for this like spiritually, this is your mandate here on this planet is to help educate other humans?
Dennise Vidosh 24:53
It feels like it. They say when you're on your path that you have What do you call it? passion? I can't remember the word when you remember like you dreamt it? What does that cause?
Keith and Daniel 25:05
Déjà vu??
Dennise Vidosh 25:06
Yes. When you are on the path you're supposed to be on. You have that a lot.
Keith Kalfas 25:10
There's this famous and I'm not too into psychics or anything was this famous psychic on national television. She's been on television for like 30 years. She has a whole bunch of books. Who is she? I don't know. She's she said that she's like, that's what Déjà vu means. When when you're on the path that you're supposed to be on. I don't remember if I heard that on TV or something.
Dennise Vidosh 25:31
But a lot of great energy and great contacts are coming of it, right? People are attracted to it. They want to be involved in that movement. So like Daniel and I met because of that and--
Daniel Miraval 25:43
You and I met because of it
Dennise Vidosh 25:44
Pioneering like this whole it's a different initiative.
Daniel Miraval 25:50
You're a great communicator, you know, you'll go down in the history books. As the person that brought this message to the world.
Keith Kalfas 25:57
I actually believe that 100% of Riley's mission is to
Daniel Miraval 26:01
You're an orator of a share of knowledge.
Keith Kalfas 26:04
The Carson effect?
Daniel Miraval 26:05
And I'm a storyteller, you're a storyteller.
Dennise Vidosh 26:08
The transmitter. A big idea. And this is a big one.
Keith Kalfas 26:16
So when did it first come to the re-tree idea as we did it? Was it just boom while you were sitting there and it just hit you like a ton of bricks like, Oh my god,
Dennise Vidosh 26:24
No, my dad and I spent a lot of time together because we work together on job sites. So he was doing a lot of installations with me. He was consulting for me in his retirement. So we would have like, dates, work dates, and we would scratch our ideas down on legal pads. And so we were like developing this in our mind, like, Oh my gosh, this could actually work out and like apps and technologies. This is probably like we started thinking about this five, five years ago? So apps weren't as popular as they are now like the digital marketplace. Everything I see now is read this read that apps. Do you notice that? So we were you know, that was five years ago that we came up with this idea. But we took the time to develop the idea of how it would work.
Daniel Miraval 27:13
And you did that through vision, mission state, strategic planning?
Dennise Vidosh 27:17
Practice. It's like what I do every day I see it every day it was organic. Now, like I came out of the woodwork and I have no experience in the landscape industry or supply industry. And I just became a tech company. I have a history and knowledge and foundation in this business. So I have an understanding from all different aspects. And so my passion, right? and then my passion for the environment, my passion for the trees, and what I do. And I also have an amazing network customer network that I can deliver this message to and be a teacher of this technology in training and innovation. So that's a relationship
Daniel Miraval 27:54
The relationship building, you build relationships, so that on your end of what you teach, from the entrepreneurial side, take lessons from her and from me there's all these things relationship building, thinking strategically taking the time to develop mission statements, personal core values, your company's core values can't figure it out you're looking at a blank piece of paper you don't know what to put down? Steal someone else's. Start following them things and you'll realize quickly if those work for you, or if they don't scratch them off, put your own down and in time you'll develop it and before you know it, this is what you turn into. This is what happens this is a byproduct doing that. It's the hard work though you got to do that. It's not easy.
Keith Kalfas 28:30
I love it, repurposing trees. Again, I'm I just got up and they looked at me funny. We got some cameras rolling here. Check it out on Keith Kalfas YouTube channel or The Untrapped Podcast YouTube channel. If you're listening to this right now and you want to watch the video, you want to see this. You can see it just type Untrapped Podcast on YouTube. So there's this kind of statistic that it takes the amount of time it takes a product or an idea to hit 10% market exposure is the same amount of time it takes to go from 10% all the way up to nine years. Hundred percent, you know what I mean? Like, it's so hard to get to that 10% rate. And then once it takes off, it just duplicates. How long until people can start to see this. And it's on their radar, you know, I'm talking about? Where it's like accessible in their city where they can actually.
Dennise Vidosh 29:15
So we're piloting this in Detroit because this is where I'm from. And I know the contractors in the area, and I'm piloting this idea in Detroit, but I foresee this being a digital marketplace that we can use on a national scale within the next three years. So we're going to create a SaaS model right now. It's a web app. So the SAS model is an app, you can download, like off of iTunes, right? Or the App Store. So that obviously takes a tremendous amount of money to do. So, but I have some, really, you know, I have people that really believe in me, on the investment side of this business are going to help support that mission. So that is my goal. And so anybody that wants to use this and start using this and provide feedback in our, in our industry, I would love to hear that too.
Daniel Miraval 30:12
Motor City is all about innovation. And we're bringing that back. We're being a part of that, right? The Motor City, Detroit is up on the coma, and it has been for a while. And we just want to use all of this type of stuff as another platform to add our contribution to the come up. You know, Detroit's going through a lot of these cycles where it's, you know, it's gone up but didn't work going up. It didn't work. This time. It's been probably the longest time I think in history where it's really, you know, successful sustainable growth, man, I mean, let's kick it back in overdrive won't be like that.
Dennise Vidosh 30:42
And not just for Daniel is in the tree care business. And I know, probably a lot of your listeners are as well. So I'm specifically talking about using this for tree transplanting, but it's not only one avenue, there's so many other opportunities to provide service is within your companies for tree care. So learning this technology going through the training, right that we're going to eventually provide in Detroit will let, you know, you can then offer those services is it kind of charge for it? Wait for a second, but be better than your competition.
Keith Kalfas 31:05
The Soviet like you said like eBay now I'm thinking of like Facebook marketplace and Craigslist and all the places where people transact items between each other. Like if I want to buy a, I don't know, chainsaw or something, I can actually look up on Facebook marketplace and see if someone's selling monitors versus buying new and you'll have this whole interactive place with categories. Well, the reason I'm bringing that up is because you're seeing right now just trees, but landscapers and all these people, it'll blow up and take on a life of its own where people will start adding value to the system. It'll become completely organic.
Dennise Vidosh 31:49
The whole process. Everything involved in moving a tree, providing the proper care aftercare, dirt. You know, when you're planting the tree like it's going to provide the full marketplace for that and people can get involved, right?
Keith Kalfas 32:06
Marketplace
Daniel Miraval 32:06
Pre-development, the pre-development responsibility. I mean, there's just
Keith Kalfas 32:13
My brains tickled. This is great.
Dennise Vidosh 32:16
It's great. It's like ---
Daniel Miraval 32:17
Wonder twin powers activate.
Dennise Vidosh 32:20
But it's not just for me, okay, I'm providing the vehicle for this catalyst, which is to sell this repurpose plant material that I saw an opportunity for all of us to do right? Beyond that. There's so much opportunity there as contractors to be part of this to make add value-added services to your resume and make some money being part of this as a qualified contractor. Right? Whether it be in the transplanting the aftercare programs, the irrigation that's going to be required all the above.
This thing is not only for contractors like me. This is beneficial for everyone. If you’re a homeowner who would like to remove a tree in your yard, and you don’t know what to do with it? Check their app now. You can sell it there. Boom! Hitting two birds at one stone.
Keith Kalfas 32:55
So just like a small business owner, he checks his apps check his QuickBooks You know, it's a Gallup I check these 5-6-7 things every day, they're gonna hop on the app and check out if there's any. Thing going on any leads anything that they can, or they're going to be posting to it themselves. It's going to be a whole new
Daniel Miraval 33:13
And this data is very multidimensional.
Keith Kalfas 33:16
That's dope dude. It's a whole another Avenue. Totally.
Daniel Miraval 33:20
That's literally not being tapped into right now.
Dennise Vidosh 33:23
And it feels good. Right?
Daniel Miraval 33:27
Oh my God once this is real, and it's happening everywhere, people are gonna be like, How come? This wasn't happening? Like a hundred years ago?
Dennise Vidosh 33:33
Get all the time. People are like, why didn't somebody do this already? Like, it makes sense. Like the eraser, you know, like on the pencil, or the post-it note? Yeah. Why didn't we think of this?
Keith Kalfas 33:47
Oh, my God, it's so obvious now that you're talking about it. Just because of the doubling of information and the word technology has created all these avenues for new industries to just emerging and pop up. There's this amazing book by Peter Diamandis called he talks about, give me a second here. So you had like a stud finder and a wall. But now your phone can do it. Right? Your phone can do everything. The word is when something dissolves. A dematerializing. You can dematerialize a bunch of things because now it's just combined in your phone. And I'll find I found that yeah if I think about I'll bring it up the books insane. And it's bringing it up in my mind because like you literally couldn't do this just 20 years ago.
Dennise Vidosh 34:26
Because we didn't have the technology, technology, so this creates instant awareness. Anybody can go
Keith Kalfas 34:32
That's called exponential organizations. That's the name of the book
Dennise Vidosh 34:36
That's good.
Keith Kalfas 34:36
Does that make sense?
Dennise Vidosh 34:37
Yep. But also on here like beyond that. I would like to if you're looking for something on this, you're looking in the sustainable route like I want to get repurposed. I want to get a tree I know what I'm looking for. I'm going to try to get it to repurpose first. I also want to do like a shoot-off if you're not if you don't find what you're looking for. I am a supplier, right? If you're not finding what you're looking for, you can go to a place like a landscape hub, right? And there you find everything, right? So you can just look for it really becomes a complete marketplace.
Keith Kalfas 35:11
Oh my god so people like all of our animals we have five their rescue animals. We rescue our animals and some people are taking it to the extreme Like what? You bought a puppy from the puppy store. You didn't buy a rescue? So like what you didn't rescue a tree? You didn't get a rehome a tree?
Daniel Miraval 35:32
It's not cool to go to a puppy mill now just like they've made it not cool to smoke cigarettes.
Keith Kalfas 35:36
You still smoke?
Daniel Miraval 35:38
Right? Like who does that?
Dennise Vidosh 35:42
You know, the way we are learning about the environment and awareness of trees with the things the devastation that's happening with the trees and the Amazon and all of these things we've become very aware of, of how much they really sustain our environment. Right?
Daniel Miraval 35:59
And you know who this would be a big thing to? The big corporations that have to end up buying carbon credits, they there will be a monetary benefit, a huge monetary benefit for a large corporation that has to offset their carbon and by carbon credits, I'm sure there will be a credit available if you're maintaining.
Keith Kalfas 36:21
This goes all the way to the top.
Daniel Miraval 36:22
Yeah, the built environment on your corporate campus. I can't tell you I mean, we both see it I'm sure you see it do commercial campuses where there's just no tree care whatsoever, very minimal at best. These places have a fiduciary responsibility now to maintain and take care of their own little microcosm and it's an opportunity it's an opportunity
Dennise Vidosh 36:43
Where like we were saying this yesterday this is interesting because he's like, oh, the more he knows learns about it, the more he sees it, the more he listening to us, but he couldn't he didn't understand it. If we didn't explain it. So
Keith Kalfas 36:54
It's connecting all the dots.
Dennise Vidosh 36:56
What you don't know, you don't know. So we want to get into In front of people, because I don't think people are aware that this opportunity exists, right. That this technology exists the opportunity also to provide these services, right? And for them to be value-added in your company, right?
Keith Kalfas 37:14
Well, another compelling thing is when you talk, like I already know you're doing this, this train is moving like this isn't something like -
Dennise Vidosh 37:20
Oh, yeah, I've never been a procrastinator.
Daniel Miraval 37:24
Like it's moving so fast. I'm trying to jump on I already dislocated my shoulder grabbing thing. When she grabbed me with the other arms to come on, you can get on the train.
Dennise Vidosh 37:30
That's one thing. I think I told you this last night that that's one thing that I learned from my father is that he got up every day. And he had a goal. And he started his business with a truck, like a story and with the truck in a lawnmower in two shovels. He got up every day and said, I'm going to have one of the largest landscape companies in the country. And everybody said, Yeah, everybody told him he was crazy. And he was nuts,
Daniel Miraval 37:58
but he had a vision and he was focus.
Something that we can learn from Dennise’s dad is if they don’t believe in your capability and they doubt your ability. Don’t listen to them, just listen and believe in yourself. Set the goal and do it!
Dennise Vidosh 38:00
But, what I learned is, you cannot listen to anybody but yourself, right? Everybody's gonna tell you that's impossible. I really be like, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid of doing that? But he did not listen to anybody. And he became one of the second largest landscapers in the country because he didn't listen. He said that's my goal. And I'm doing it and I'm putting my head down and he did it.
Daniel Miraval 38:24
So it's creating a legacy.
Dennise Vidosh 38:26
I feel that was my teacher, and I'm going in that direction, and no one's gonna stop me. But I want everybody to come with me. All of these guys in our industry, we can all capitalize on this, we can all make some money. So come and be part of it.
Daniel Miraval 38:39
Big opportunity for women in agriculture to in the green gala provision, big opportunity for the women in our industry. Step up. It's your time, step up. Surround yourself with those who champion you. I'm most definitely did. This is not a boys-only club anymore. This is not the good old boys’ culture that those days are gone. Those old white-haired dudes that think like that. That is,
Keith Kalfas 39:03
Oh, the old white hair dudes?
Daniel Miraval 39:06
You know, the boys club, the good old boys’ network?
Keith Kalfas 39:09
That good tree people do not work because what it is,
Dennise Vidosh 39:11
There's an opportunity for everybody to get to move forward and be better is the point, right? So either be about it or listen to everybody else
Daniel Miraval 39:21
Right. Or you could talk about it to be about it. You can't do both.
Keith Kalfas 39:25
I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about a bonus round I should create. I want to create a bonus round or like a list of three questions that I asked but I'm just like engulf in everything you guys are saying right now it's like, okay, so you're talking about three years. But can people get on right now if they're in Detroit and use it? Is it usable?
Dennise Vidosh 39:43
Yes
Keith Kalfas 39:44
Okay, because I want to hop on do you have to create an account?
Dennise Vidosh 39:47
Well, you contact us there's something on there, you're at the top I don't know if you could see this? But at the top, you can upload, you know, your tree so and describe it all the information. You can do that digitally.
Keith Kalfas 40:00
Alright, so I'm clicking upload a tree right now if you guys want to see this, you got to come to the YouTube channel
Dennise Vidosh 40:04
And then you choose from your phone right? You okay? Oh, it's so easy. And then internally we approve that tree. Right? If it's, we see that it's healthy and it's marketable, we will approve that tree. And then for a small fee, we will put that tree in our catalog, right? For it's a six-month minimum, or until the tree sells. So --
Keith Kalfas 40:26
Nice. And I'm looking at the catalog right here you see some Crimson kings, ginkgo, Biloba tree, there's already trees on here, and people can come in and buy these right now?
Dennise Vidosh 40:37
Yep. So there's some really unique stuff already. But I want to drive demand by really getting some solid inventory here. And then I think, the more we talk about it, especially in our industry, but also to our clients, the more this is going to thrive and the more we're going to thrive as a service society. Right? So-
Keith Kalfas 41:01
That's dope. Yeah, super dope.
Dennise Vidosh 41:04
Thank you.
Keith Kalfas 41:06
So again, naming all off your Instagram, your Facebook, YouTube. So anybody can find you anywhere from their phone and they can go and they can follow you. And they can learn more and follow along. And when this becomes available in their city, and where can they go to learn more and hop on this?
Dennise Vidosh 41:20
About us and how it works is actually on the app, you can go in there and explains really well, in detail about how this whole app works. I have a YouTube channel. So if you just look up, ReTree, all of our videos are on that channel. And then our Instagram handle is at re__tree__. So
Keith Kalfas 41:46
All right, cool. And I'll make an Instagram post here in the studio and I will tag you in it. And I'm gonna do an Instagram Live right now. Anything else? Any final thoughts? I think that was good. I think we covered a lot
Dennise Vidosh 41:57
You've got a lot of good stuff. You have a lot of good content.
Keith Kalfas 42:00
Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Yeah, so you can check out the Untrapped Podcast on any major platform. Go to Apple podcasts. If you liked this and the other episodes, please feel free to leave us a well worded positive Five-star review. We are now number 35 in the nation. Number 35 in the entrepreneur category. Thank you so much. And check me out at keithkalfas.com. Later, guys
