We recently connected with Bryce Tufts and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bryce, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Most of the time I do not consider myself the brightest of the bunch. I’ve heard many people with great, brilliant ideas that I wish I had come up with! But most of the time I notice that they are held back by an inability to execute on those ideas, which is a real shame.

The idea that my business partner, Spencer Fish, and I had was to create a tree company that broke the mold of what was expected in the industry, set at a very low bar. We wanted not only service to be incredible, but also the entire experience around choosing a service! This meant memorable branding, marketing focused on fun, and a friendly atmosphere.

To start, we purchased the tree service that Spencer’s dad had started with him 10 years prior that had no web presence and was declining in work and revenue. We started from the ground up and asked ourselves what a tree company that stood out from the others would look like.

We talked through how to make a company that fit the customers needs instead of printing the coolest logo we could think of on the side of trucks! From the start I loved the name Tree Fish and how it represented a fun, clean, and professional company.

Over the next few months Spencer worked out a deal to purchase all of the ratty old tree equipment from his father while I got started on the branding elements and website. I designed the logo to be clean and simple yet subtly fun and different from every other company we had seen. I chose bright and memorable colors, designed a 3D modeled fish mascot with a big grin, and worked on infusing all of our messaging with funny quips and jokes.

After a year, I left my job as an Art Director and moved back to Grand Rapids to learn the trade of tree cutting after we had lost all of our employees during the pandemic. After a couple of months Spencer’s dad retired as a pilot and joined the two of us and we had a three person crew making noise around the city.

While Spencer worked to upgrade our equipment and systems to be hyper efficient and top of the line, I worked on our marketing strategy.

I started by trying a little bit of everything and then seeing what worked! I want to make sure that every single time a potential customer engaged with the business it was a fun and different experience than anything else in the market. This meant joke videos, a fun website with renders of our mascot goofing around, and messaging that made them laugh all wrapped around a customer experience that was simply better than what any other company was providing.

We shot ads that were focused on making people laugh instead of selling tree work, we purchased stickers of our mascot to hand out to the kids that watched us drop trees, and we posted videos of our work day today with funny captions to engage with the community.

While people were beginning to get to know tree fish as a brand, I also worked hard making sure that our foundational marketing assets such as our Google MyBusiness and reviews, marketing campaigns, and SEO strategies were on track. We quickly became a top ranking and top rated company in the area, backing up our promise that we deserved to be considered by the customer.

Now Tree Fish is known as the “fun” company around town, we’ve doubled revenue every year, gained some wonderful employees, and our excellent customer service and clean job sites have catapulted us into the same bracket as the multimillion dollar companies that have been around for decades!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Like most things, I didn’t get into the tree business on purpose. I had tried other businesses before but none of them had the right opportunity to succeed. Tree Fish was the first time I came across an opportunity that had the elements of success aligned.

What I have always been interested in is taking commodity goods or services that are by themselves normal and expected in the market and making the experience around those goods and services the reason people engage. I do believe the Tree Fish is the best tree service in the area, but many people would choose others over Tree Fish if it wasn’t for the emotional connection that we build with them.

The Tree Fish brand stands for being a fun experience where most are stressful. Choosing a tree company is a chore, and choosing wrong could lead to disaster, so it makes for a worrisome time! Anytime someone engages with Tree Fish they should have a big smile on their face because that’s the community that I want to live in, one where people work to make each other smile.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Building our reputation in the market has been one of the key foundational elements to Tree Fish’s success. When we started I had the belief that the company should focus on building an experience that is memorable and customer focused rather than selling. Too many times in the marketing world ideas that have the potential to really meet a customer where they are and give them an experience that builds an emotional connection that lasts a lifetime are sidelined in favor of quick gimmicks to try to make sales.

Tree Fish is the smile someone cracks before responding to the question “Do you know any good tree services in the area?”

How’d you meet your business partner?

Meeting my business partner is the single reason for Tree Fish’s success, it took both of us playing off of each other’s strengths to make it happen. Spencer and I grew up with each other and spent our time working on projects or I would go off and do all the prettying up with big ideas and Spencer would figure out how to face reality and make it happen.

Having a dynamic like this has also made me confront my shortcomings and learn how to be better. When I get too caught up in an idea that isn’t realistic I have someone to remind me of reality and make sure everything we do has purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yourtreefish.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamtreefish/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourTreeFish
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryce-tufts-140a9812b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqZV6isD6Ip8nJcIRQF_BEw
• Other: https://brycetufts.com

Image Credits

All taken or owned by me