Meet Jason Coultas | Arborist and passionate collaborator!

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jason Coultas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
This is really a great question. I believe if we are going to be effective in the long run we have to have a heart to serve others in our work. Money just isn’t enough to keep those fires burning. For me, I have seen so much impact when I set my heart to serving others. The opposite is true when comparing that to when I “win” a deal or sell something but don’t feel that I am adding much value.

My desire to impact my community is rooted in a life of watching, learning and being inspired by others who work from a servant mindset. I am also informed by watching with great disappointment those who put profits over people. I believe we are all more accurate in the direction of our lives if we point towards those who are modeling the type of leaders that we desire to be.

In the industry that we are working in there are many areas of expertise. Landscape design and build, irrigation, drainage, tree and landscape maintenance to name a few. In most of these areas there are a few experts and many who attempt to serve in all of these areas. What we see is a lot of low quality work being performed. The lack of specialization leads to mediocre performance. We are working to create a culture that focuses on specializing in specific areas of technical knowledge, allowing different people in the organization to excel where they are most passionate. We believe that this allows the community to benefit from a higher quality product. We also feel that it allows us to promote our brand as leaders in our industry operating out of a depth of knowledge and experience. Think of this in contrast to those who “can do it all” but have little depth of knowledge in any of the areas that they are serving in an effort to capture all available revenue.

We feel that our work will lift up the quality expectations of our community. We also believe that by being transparent in our processes and focusing on providing knowledge along with all of our services, we can restore a sense of confidence in the experience that we create for our clients. Think about how you felt when working with an expert that not only knew and understood the technical elements needed to serve you well, but also had the heart to hear you and understand what you care about as a person. This human touch, the servant relationship with the clients, mixed with great professionalism creates a deeper customer service experience that cannot be duplicated by a fast paced, one size fits all business model.

Another area that we are always focused on in helping our community is by modeling a collaboration culture. I am currently blogging about this as a passion project. We want to show the marketplace that if we call focus on helping our team win, our vendors win and along with the clients winning we can create a better business model than we see in most adversarial sales models that are designed to get money from the customers.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a young man, I lived in a survival mindset. The challenges of life left me with a belief that I would only make it if I fought for what I needed. I did not have good direction for my career but I sensed that I was meant to serve. After making many different career changes, I fell into the field of horticulture. A passion sparked for me there and I ran into this field with new zeal.

My natural giftings began to flourish in horticulture. From the science of growing things, managing projects and directing teams, and working to learn and understand what the client expectations and needs were. In all of this, I still had a propensity to fight when I felt things were difficult.

I was hired for an account management position in 2011. It was here that I really began to grow into a leader in my work. With great people around me coaching me, I learned and developed skills to partner with clients, coach the team and pursue the best interest of the company.

My greatest joy in my work happens when I hit a true state of flow in partnership. I write about these things in my blog called Collaboration Culture. This is a passion project for me to share things that I have learned in time as I have moved out of survival mode and into partnership mode. Collaborating is an art and skill that grows out of a true desire to create synergy with others. Seeking for others to win in the framework of our own work leads to a kind of collaboration that cannot be produced in an environment where the individual parts are seeking their own benefit.

I believe I am just at the beginning of my journey. I have a whole lifetime of growth in front of me. My greatest hope is that others can be challenged to grow in the midst of my own journey as well as directly benefiting from my work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visiting for a week, I would likely take them to Atlanta for a day. I would show them around things of interest to them as I don’t have a big connection to the city. From there I would go north to the mountains. We would visit waterfalls. We would stop at small country stores with every imaginable flavor of pepper jellies. We would tube down the river in Helen. We would hike the gorge in Tallulah and the rim hike at Cloudland Canyon.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My life is a journey of discovery and growth. I started off very broken and incomplete. Growing up without a father and my mother working two jobs to keep food in our mouths and a roof over our head, I was mostly on my own. It was not until I was into my adult years, when my youthful passion failed to hold up to life’s real challenges that I really began accepting input and coaching from others.

I would be in a gutter or a prison cell if it were not for the intentional effort of others pushing me to be who God made me to be. From youth leaders in church, co-workers who saw good in me, professors in school that believed in me, and on and on my story goes of others who cared enough to help mold me. My list would be exhaustive if I attempted to tell the story of my mentors and coaches. But my biggest fan and my biggest advocate is my wife of 23 years. Liberty Coultas has stood by my side and believed in me when most others would have given up.

My life and my desire to serve others is a reflection of the Grace of God that flows from Him, through others and into me. Like a tree planted by a stream, drinking of the goodness that flows without restraint.

I am reminded of the book that had the most impact on me in my early years. Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennen Manning was a bright light for me when I believed that God was not interested in the broken hearted and broken souls like me. There is no dark place that Grace cannot reach.

It is my hope that as we grow our business, we can create a source of Grace that flows down to those that need to grow and develop as I did and still do.

Website: huckleberryent.com

Instagram: instagram.com/huckleberryenterprises

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-coultas-isa-certified-arborist-traq-gclp-3a22b92a/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087327993009

Other: Collaboration-Culture.com instagram.com/collaboration-culture