Interview Transcript Extract – How High Potentials Drive Their Own Career – Peter Sortwell

• Company Name: Arborwell
• Name: Peter Sortwell
• Title: CEO & Founder
• Website: https://www.arborwell.com/
• Founded: 2001
• Headquarters: Hayward, CA
• Locations: Seattle, WA, Sacramento, CA, Oakland, CA, San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA, San Diego, CA
• Number of locations: 6
• Headcount: 51-200
• Interview Date: 2/19/20

Peter Sortwell recalls a former employee who he helped develop at Arborwell.  Arborwell hired Kimberly Taylor fresh out of college, from University of California, Davis.  She was a Communications major and was very bright.

Peter took Kimberly under his wing: they attended association meetings together, he introduced her to vendors in the industry, he sent her to a marketing class at Berkeley for outside development.  She took well to the guidance and Peter recognized that she was very comfortable speaking in public.

“So whenever they asked me to speak at these association meetings we went to, I’d poke her and have her get up and speak. And she got she got really, really comfortable with that and it just fit her personality really well.”

She ended up being on the Board of Commercial Real Estate Women and was so productive there, she ended up being President of the association for the Silicon Valley Chapter.

“And she got so good at all this that she ended up knowing my customers better than I did. So then we said, ‘look, you’re so good knowing all of our customers, you get along with them all so well, we’re going to take you out of Marketing and put you into Sales.’”

She opened a lot of doors for the company.  For example, when they opened up their Seattle office and went to a Commercial Real Estate Women meeting there, because of Kimberly’s stature of President of the Silicon Valley chapter, they were able to sit at the head table with the president there. And they were introduced to every offender in that department, and they got to know the buyers there very well quickly.

Kimberly left Arborwell in 2018 after being with Arborwell for 11 years.  Her parting was very good on both ends.  They were happy that she was off and trying something new.

“And it was a happy ending for everybody. We were sad when she was leaving, but we were happy for her to go out try something new. She said I’ve only worked for you. And I’ve never worked for anyone else. I have to go try some other things.”

Peter feels the energy he put into developing Kimberly paid off well.

“She did wonders for the company because she ended up being sort of the spokesperson of the company. And she was out there in the marketplace and socializing with lots of people. She was just a great networker. Like I said, she could open up a door wherever we went, because she just had that type of personality.”

Another example of someone Peter developed within the company is Arborwell’s current President, Andy Lavelle.  Andy came into the company in 2005 as Operations Manager.  When Peter was growing the company, he realized it was quickly becoming beyond his reach and he needed some help in the field and operations.

Andy was a person he had worked with years ago.  He had a landscape background, not a tree background, which are completely different. And first he refused the offer because he said he was not qualified as he was not a certified arborist.  Peter insisted he didn’t need a certified arborist; he needed someone that could manage the people.

When Andy came in for his first interview and was asked where he saw himself in the future with the company, his response shocked Peter.

“He says, ‘I want your job. I want to be president of the company.’”

“Although I liked the answer. I was shocked. And I said, that’s a pretty good answer. Because, I need somebody someday to take my position. And he trained himself in the field to know all the actual technology of climbing trees and everything that the people he was overseeing did and got his certification as a certified arborist. He’s a brilliant guy. And I don’t know there’s anything I did besides mentor him on what to do next. He was really good in the field.”

Peter promoted Andy to Chief Operating Officer.  He recognized that Andy was great in the field, but needed to interact with customers more.  So together, Peter and Andy dedicated the next few weeks to visiting their top customers.

“I think that those kinds of steps helped Andy to become more of a full-fledged president of the company when it was time to promote him to President.”

Andy was promoted to President of Arborwell in 2013.

“Andy was very determined. You know, he was clearly the person that wanted that position. So it was, it was pretty obvious it was going to get in that direction. Because he was doing everything I asked of him and doing it consistently. I think consistency is one of those things you see in a person that’s going to be successful, whether it’s, ‘I’m going to be at the Santa Clara office every Tuesday, at seven o’clock in the morning, and then I’m going to San Jose and I’ll be there every morning at 11 o’clock.’ And he did that.”

“I really took note of that and realize that that’s really a great success trait of a person that sticks to the consistency of what he tells people he’s going to do.”

Peter recognizes he is a person that gets things done through others and calls himself a “professional delegator.”

“The key to delegation is just follow through, right. You know, I give a task, let’s follow up, how did task go? Did it go? Did it not work? But obviously, I’m very much hands off. I’m not a micromanager and I think those kinds of people gravitate to our company as opposed to micromanagement companies.”

Peter also recognizes this style doesn’t work for everyone.  He says his weakness is putting too much trust in people to follow through and perform independently, noting that some people just cannot function in that environment.

He recalls one person that came to work for him from a competitor.  His previous company was the type that would plan his day – telling when where to go and when.  When he came to work at Arborwell, he came into the office, waiting for instruction.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ He goes, ‘I’m waiting for you to tell me what to do.’ I said, ‘I hired you to go sell. So get out there and sell.’ He goes, ‘well where would you like me to go?’

“I said, ‘Wait a minute. What are you talking about?’ He told me the structure, which I didn’t realize when I hired him, that he had been working under. I said, ‘It doesn’t work that way here. You need to just go out and do your thing. I’m not going to tell you where to go, when to go.’”

He stayed with company for only about 6 months.