We’re looking forward to introducing you to Ben Fisher. Check out our conversation below.
Ben, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I wake up, do a meditation in my “sauna” for 25 minutes, stretch for 15, walk the dog for 20-30, make a smoothie, whole oat groats breakfast, load up and hit the road.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Ben Fisher, a Certified Arborist and the founder of LB Holistic Tree. My journey to this field wasn’t a straight line; it was a homecoming.
For a decade, I worked in corporate offices, feeling like a square peg in a round hole. As a high-energy person, sitting still was a constant challenge and the work lacked the meaning I needed.
Everything changed the day I stepped outside to work for my friends at Earth Steward Ecology doing native landscaping and Ty Teissere, doing Arboriculture. I’ll never forget climbing a small tree on an early job and being shocked to find it was already lunchtime. For the first time in my career, I had found ‘flow.’
That discovery reconnected me to my childhood in San Francisco. Growing up, the only two places I truly felt safe were at a close friend’s home and at the top of the Coast Redwood tree in my backyard. I eventually realized that my ‘office’ was always meant to be in the canopy.
What makes LB Holistic Tree special is the unique technical range we bring to every job. I started with the surgical, high-detail world of fruit tree pruning, honing my skills in the orchards of Route 1 Farms in Santa Cruz. Today, I balance that precision with the extreme engineering required to work on the largest trees on Earth. I currently collect cones from and am a volunteer researcher in the canopies of Giant Sequoias for the Ancient Forest Society and the National Parks Service, and I’ve been honored to teach climbing for Cal-Fire, New Mexico Highlands University, and the Western Chapter of the ISA.
Our brand is built on the philosophy of Preservation. We don’t just trim trees; we provide structural engineering, such as cabling, bracing, and surgical pruning, to preserve the legacy trees of the South Bay, Palos Verdes, and Rolling Hills.
After years of fighting imposter syndrome, I finally felt I had arrived when I was asked to present at the ISA’s annual conference.
Today, I am focused on giving my absolute best to every job to preserve as many trees as possible.
Beyond the field, I’m working on amplifying my work through tree advocacy at the city and state levels, mentoring new arborists, and leading walks with elementary students to inspire the next generation to love and care for our urban forest.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
I grew up as a city kid. As such, I learned to bite first, or to at least keep an eye out and look like I might bite. I’m still working on shedding that outer layer, but as I do my work to shed it, I keep having these moments of thinking “I’m actually a really nice guy.” Honestly, as a kid I thought that was a weakness and envied the shortest fuses I saw around me.
I guess my Dad is the first one who told me that I’ve always been one. He said that as a little kid I would always want to hold his hand to cross the street and that I’ve always been “A sweet boy.”
When I told my closest friend from college that I was becoming a nicer, more considerate person he kinda looked at me sideways and told me “You’ve always been a great person.”
And I guess as long as I’m shining on myself here, my partner of 19 years, Mica, has always seen the light in me and been tremendously patient with me as I try to be better. She can vouch to that being an ongoing process.
I can still have a short fuse, and you won’t catch me with earphones in walking around Long Beach, but I’m glad to say that I am genuinely doing my best to only bite when I need to and to consume things which feed the right part of me.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Well I think the problem here is that most people don’t define success themselves. They define it by how others see them. So in my case that’s what I did.
I chased the money for a decade until my mom passed away when I was 27. She was my safe space.
When she passed, a little bit of her heart entered mine and my heart became too big and too loud to not listen to.
I had spent a whole lifetime pushing and grinding to get more and now none of that mattered. It took five more years of fighting every morning, every step, every time I had to open the door to the office, every minute that ticked by.
But eventually I listened and owned up to Corporate Office Work being fine for some people and a terrible fit for me.
From there it took me another five or six years to build up my business to the point I was sure that wasn’t a mistake, but today I’m so happy I had the privilege to listen to my heart “before this [became] something worse” in the words of a healthcare practitioner I saw at the time.
I really thought something was wrong with me. I had been very successful in a traditional sense, but I hadn’t set my own goals.
I may not be able to reach them, but I won’t have anyone else setting my goals for me again. No one can pop my dream bubbles or clip my wings now. These days I want to Preserve Trees, Inspire Others, Be Silent In Nature, Love and Spend Time with Those I Love.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Justice and Truth. Injustice is infuriating to me and one of my 2026 Goals is to Let Them Be.
In the over-stimulating world of today, my wellbeing is most effectively guarded by limiting unnecessary digital stimulation, increasing time with loved ones and not trying to make people see what I see. Love melts even the coldest ice.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Unfortunately, both of my parents have passed. This is how I live.
If I had one year left I would stop working and travel around being with loved ones.
I don’t have enough money to do that for ten years. So if it was ten years I would do what I’m doing now until I had enough money to do what I listed above for the rest of my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lbholistictree.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lbholistictree/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-fisher-93974213
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lb-holistic-tree-long-beach-2
- Other: For more information on the Sequoia work please check out https://ancientforestsociety.org/
Image Credits
Dean Walker, Cassidy Hart, Raquel Falco, Trent Johns.
