The FBS Podcast

This episode tackles the real plague of decision fatigue.  Decision fatigue, defined as the erosion of judgment after a long run of choices, is a significant challenge for owners of small, capital-intensive rural businesses, such as those in forestry, wood products, and farming. Listeners probably know this already, so the important part of this episode involves telling you what to do about it.  S...

This episode is on Google NotebookLM Uses for forest businesses. It showcases how this AI-powered tool is can be a great help for various enterprises like logging firms, consulting foresters, local sawmills, and maple syrup producers. It shows how the Audio Overview feature , can enables field personnel, such as consulting forester Gert at to listen to technical updates and research summaries duri...

Tune into the latest episode of the FPBS podcast to explore the Wood Manufacturing Assistance Team (WMAT) program, a unique partnership between the USDA Forest Service and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, designed to offer no-cost technical support to small wood product manufacturers. Discover how this initiative helps businesses like sawmills, biomass processors, and wood pellet p...

In this episode we explore implications of the newly signed OneBig Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 for forest-based small businesses.  This act significantly overhauls federal taxpolicy, primarily benefiting sole proprietors and pass-through entities in the logging, forestry, and sawmilling sectors through several key provisions. Theseinclude a permanent increase in the Qualified Business Income (QBI)...

We chose ten timeless work principles for Austin Cary's Manual for Northern Woodsmen for this episode. They off offer practical and behavioral guidance applicable across various professions. These work advice items emphasize balancing accuracy with practicality over perfection, developing consistent and methodical routines, and adapting methods and expectations to the realities of the working...

Stewart Edward White's The Blazed Trail is a century-old forest business novel, set in northern Michigan. The story follows the challenges of a young man trying to establish himself during this region's peak logging era. What can an old book of this type teach us about working in todays world? Plenty, according to our hosts. Listen in to learn more.

Can working lands businesses operationalize their "Personal Legends" in the same sense that Paulo Coelho describes in his novel The alchemist? . This discussions goes beyond superficial affirmation, delving into structural questions like "Why are you doing this?" and "What does 'success' actually mean in your case?". Good peers wills share and critique each ot...

In this episode our hosts discuss different approaches to determining what prices to charge for products and services. Hourly and lump sum approaches are discussed, along with the traditional cost plus approach. The focus is on helping small businesses charge rates that are profitable by capturing a fair level of consumer surplous.

This new episode in the FBS Podcast Climate Adaptation Series focuses on open-top culverts. Our hosts review a Forest Service publication on these open-top culverts, explaining how to make and install them. They discuss situations in which these culverts solve surface water run-off challenges on forest roads.

Forest Business School alumni met recently to discuss advice they would give to their younger selves. This is a recurring topic that we like to revisit from time to time as more people join our ranks. Listen in to learn what these folks wish they had done earlier.

This is the complete audiobook version of Timber Tempo: Project Flow in Forestry, provided here as a special bonus for FBS Podcast listeners and subscribers.

This episode discusses Eliyahu Goldratt's classic business novel, The Goal. We explain the continuous improvement process and talk about how forest-based businesses are learning to put this theory into practice in their work.

What is you could go back in time and give advice to younger version of yourself? What would it be? In this episode we discuss advice that was suggested by a cross section of Forest Business School enrollees in the 6-month Essentials program. Here is your chance to learn from their successes and mistakes.

PATH (Planning and Analysis in Timber Harvesting) 2.1 is a free Microsoft Excel-based tool created by Steven Bick to assist logging businesses with financial analysis and decision-making. It uses throughput accounting to offer a systems-based approach to cost benchmarking, moving beyond individual equipment analysis.  This episode discusses how to use PATH and tells you where you can get a copy.

In this episode we explore Annie Duke's idea that life and work are more like poker than chess. Every decision is a series of bets and success is a function of the quality of our decisions, plus luck. This game theory approach to work has many benefits.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, has said that "in the long run, prioritization beats efficiency." Tune in an listen as our hosts discuss why this is true, with example from a recent Forest Business School discussion. As an added bonus, they incorporate a timeless banger from Moby Dick in explaining why this is the case.

In this FBS podcast episode, we spotlight the free, mobile-friendly VT Woods App ( www.vtwoods.xyz ), an AI-driven resource for Vermont’s forest products sector. This app was created by Steve Bick as a deliverable under USDA Forest Service Landscape Scale Restoration Grant project to help Vermont's forest products supply chain adapt to climate change. Learn how this free app can help you.

If your business is setup as and LLC you might have the option of having it considered to be an S Corporation by the IRS for tax purposes. This can lead to significant savings in self-employment taxes. This episode explore the ins and outs of S Corp taxation, tells you how to switch an LLC to this option and discussed the responsibilities that come with doing this.

This is the final episode in the FBS Climate Adaptation series. The discussion covers all of the topics in the previous 13 episodes, including adaptation strategies for landowners, forester, loggers and mills, guidelines for extreme weather and soft ground conditions, useful apps for AMPs, soil conditions and Vermont forestry, and more.

This episode explore how climate change is just one of a range of threats to logging capacity in the region. Risk mitigation and climate impacts on equipment investments by loggers are discussed.

This episode was originally a presentation at the 2024 New England Society of American Foresters annual meeting. Steve Bick of the Forest Business school will talk about the results of a recent climate adaptation needs assessment in Vermont's forest products supply chain and explain how Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) can be used to help get work done in the face of unpredictable seas...

This episde explains the Value Added Producer Grants offered by USDA Rural Development. These grants are often overlooked by people in the forest products world because they wrongly assume they are only for farmers. This podcast explains eligibility and the application process and provides some examples of how loggers, some sawmillers and even timberland owners can apply.

This episode discussed SoilWeb, a user-friendly, mobile-compatible online tool that provides access to the USDA-NRCS soil survey database. Developed by the California Soil Resource Lab at UC Davis, SoilWeb offers an interactive Google Maps interface to explore soil data, making it valuable for foresters, loggers, and land managers. You can access SoilWeb for free at https://casoilresource.lawr.ucd...

This episode explores the recent USFS publication Climate Change Impacts on Northern Forest Operations and discusses in the context of the recent adaptation needs assessment conducted for Vermont's forest products supply chain. This guide echoes much of the guidance on this topic that the Forest Business School has been developing and circulating for years.

The Vermont AMP App is a free resources for loggers, foresters and other members of Vermont's forestry community. Produced by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, this app is a great way to reference these acceptable management practices in the field. This episode describes the app, tells you where to get it and explore ways to put it to use on active timber harvesting sites.