Academy Trained

COMPANY BIO

In 2019, two lifelong friends, Phil Rogacki and Jared Abrojena, sat down and asked themselves one life-changing question: “How do we fix this industry we love?” Between the two of them, they had decades of experience—Phil as a Certified Arborist and business leader, and Jared as a World Champion Arborist who built his family’s tree care business from the ground up. They had seen it all: the triumphs, the struggles, and the moments that could make or break a worker. They knew the industry was full of opportunity, but it was also broken. And if things didn’t change soon, people would keep getting hurt—or worse.

“The way things were done, it was like rolling the dice with people’s lives,” Phil recalled. “We knew we had to do better—for the workers, for the companies, and for the entire industry.”

Tree care had long relied on an outdated system. New workers with zero experience would show up, knock on the right door at the right time, and if they got hired, they were handed a company t-shirt, a hard hat, and a rake. From there, they were thrown into the field, expected to learn on the fly. The lucky ones might catch a few tips from a foreman—if he wasn’t 40 feet up a tree, halfway through his own job. The rest were left to figure it out on their own. Most never lasted. They would quit, frustrated and exhausted, often before they even had the chance to learn the ropes.

“We watched good people walk away from the industry because no one took the time to train them properly,” Jared said. “The way we were doing things just wasn’t working—and it was dangerous.”

Jared and Phil had already seen what could happen when workers received the right training. Over the course of three years, they helped a small family-owned tree care company, founded in 1982, grow from 30 employees to over 350. The transformation was incredible, but they knew that helping just one company wasn’t enough.

In the fall of 2019, Phil and Jared held the very first Academy Trained class. They invited 25 participants from nine different companies—a mix of seasoned professionals and total newcomers who had never held a chainsaw in their lives. Over the course of five grueling days, they would push these participants to learn, grow, and transform.

“This wasn’t going to be your typical training class,” Jared said. “We wanted it to be hands-on, real-world, and immersive. This was about learning by doing.”

From 6 AM to 10 PM every day, participants climbed trees, ran bucket trucks, practiced rigging, and mastered the art of precision cutting. The weather was a blend of cold nights and sunny days, but the participants never stopped. They were hungry to learn, knowing that every new skill could make them better, safer, and more effective in the field.

“I’ve used chainsaws my whole life,” one participant admitted. “But today, I learned a way that works so much better. It felt like learning everything again—only the right way this time.”

Mistakes weren’t just allowed—they were welcomed. If someone struggled with a skill, the trainers were right there beside them, grabbing another rope, harness, or saw and walking them through it again. “Fail here, in this safe space, so you don’t fail out there,” a trainer told them. “In the real world, failure can cost lives.”

Between sessions, participants sat down together for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sharing stories, swapping tips, and building friendships that would last a lifetime.