Trent Chapman
Snapshot:
Industry / Sector: Trades / Technical
Career Type: Business Owner
Education Pathway: *TBC
Mid Coast Connection: Born & raised on the Mid Coast
The Blurb:
Trent Chapman is the owner of Local Pest Experts and a driven small business leader passionate about authentic leadership. With years of hands-on experience, Trent has learned that the heart of effective leadership lies in treating every team member as an individual.
His approach is grounded in the belief that small businesses play a vital role in their communities—not only economically but also by creating opportunities and fostering a sense of belonging.
-
Many of our Human Library participants are happy to continue sharing their insights beyond these videos. Whether it’s a chat over email, a phone call, or even a visit to your school or group, they may be open to offering further advice and perspective.
Every person’s availability is different, so we’ll work with you to find the best way to connect.
Click the link below to get in touch — we’d love to help you
-
Current Role: Business owner at Local Pest Experts
Key Skills: Leadership, team development, people-first management
Professional Insights:
Leadership is most effective when it’s adaptive and responsive to individuals
Built a resilient team capable of operating independently in times of challenge
Credits personal mentors and lived experience over theory alone
Advice to Younger Self: “Be patient. Timelines are often arbitrary—just stay focused and course correct as needed.”
Reflection: Would likely have dismissed the advice as youthful urgency overtook patience, but now sees its value
-
“Every single person has a different need… they’ll need something different from you.”
“Seeing the business continue to do what it does without a leader at the helm really goes to show the team development is going how it should.”
“Small businesses provide an opportunity for the local economy to focus where it should be.”
“Timelines you’ve set, you’ve constructed yourself for no real reason… as long as you’ve got the end goal in mind, you will get there.”
-
[0:10] Intro
Hi, my name's Hailey. Welcome to the Human Library video series. In this video series, we interview people from the local community and hear their stories.
Today, I met with Trent Chapman, the owner of Local Pest Experts. He talks all about his experience running a small business and how important leadership is. I really liked how Trent talked about how he treats every person as an individual rather than a number when he's leading his team.
[0:40] What does your professional life look like at the moment?
Professional life in small business is pretty hard to explain—fairly chaotic. Every day presents a fairly new challenge and you sort of have to fit into and respond to every challenge that comes at you. It's not like you have a whole team around you necessarily, that has a dedicated role that can fit every challenge that comes your way.
[1:00] Can you describe a skill that has helped you get to where you are in your professional life?
I think, importantly, leadership. As a young person, I always sort of a natural leader as far as I could always take a team and meet a goal. But creating a team over a long term, or being a leader for the longer term, with longer term goals in mind, is very difficult. It's really hard.
I read lots of books. I've done a lot of study on how to become or be a good leader, but the thing you learn with lots of experience in leadership is that it's far too nuanced to learn, apart from anything hands-on.
Every single person has a different need that they need to get from you, or from their employment, or from whatever you're trying to achieve. So it's just being able to learn to respond to every nuanced person and individual in the team, so that you can get to the goal that everyone's trying to get to.
[2:08] Can you tell us about a specific time where you've had to use leadership to reach a goal?
Leadership is probably a hard one for a specific time. January 2024 was a really tough one for our team. We came back out of Christmas (and the lead up to Christmas is always really difficult) and we'd come back one team member down; they'd lost their license.
It was just really cool to see all the work that had been done prior to that, and all the leadership, all the experience in building the team, to see the team be able to respond. I'd virtually dropped out of business operations and back on to the tools full time, and to see the business continue to do what it does without a leader at the helm that really goes to show that the leadership for the team and the team development is going exactly how it should be.
[3:00] Is this skill something that you learned on the job, or did someone teach it to you?
I think a combination across many fields. Again reading lots of books, listening to lots of podcasts - I've been fortunate enough to have many, many mentors. Family business, I obviously had my parents. For a long time we were part of a bigger group of companies, so I managed to pick up a lot of mentors through there.
Lots of clients and lots of local business owners who are able to give advice that you can't necessarily read out of a book. I think trying to read from a book, you get one very narrow perspective, but when you talk to people who have led big teams, they always push you towards trying to figure out what that nuanced difference is. You can get a lot of value out of that.
[3:52] What do you love about your professional life at the moment?
If you’d asked me two months ago, just before Christmas, I'd have literally explained my job to be a fairly fake job compared to what I was used to over the last seven or eight years. It's been a fairly big slug - lots of big hours and a lot of hard work.
But we're starting to get a bit momentum, and my job became whatever I wanted to do on that day. Right now it's falling back into a bit of chaos, but again small business highs and lows. I think the thing that I like most is being able to - again after we got through January - look back at it and see the entire team functioning as it should be.
All the individuals that stood out to really make sure things kept moving as they should be without me being directly involved.
[4:45] Why is running a small business important to you?
I think in small businesses, we fit a really important part of the business ecosystem. Naturally large businesses are very important as well, but small businesses provide an opportunity for the local economy to really focus where it should be.
A lot of sporting clubs wouldn't operate without the funding from small businesses. A lot of small cafes and other small businesses in that ecosystem wouldn't be able to operate without that sort of circular economy. But also really importantly, the people within a business get a lot more focus and attention, and a lot more opportunity than they necessarily would in a large business because they're seen as a person and not a number.
So I think that's where small business fits and we're obviously a growing business, and you know one day we might be at the larger end. But I'd like to think that we'll always be able to keep that focus on people and make sure that we're really developing the team over everything else.
[5:56] What's one piece of advice you would give to your younger self when first starting out?
I think patience is probably the one and I'm sure people told me patience was important, but I was always really focused on achieving. Worked really hard, long hours and set deadlines, set goals, all that sort of stuff. All very important to do, and absolutely no regret in doing any of them. And I wouldn't advise not to because it's really important - you need to set those goals so that you can achieve them. But importantly as well, just have a bit of patience around the outcomes. Generally the timelines that you've set you've constructed that yourself for no real reason, apart from the fact that you want to achieve, and achieve quickly.
But as long as you've got that focus, and the goal, and the intent you will get there. You'll get there eventually. I think it was Wade Death from Jack ‘N Co said that Apollo 11 was off course for 90% of its journey. So as long as you've got the end goal in mind and you can course correct, don't stress too much about meeting the exact deadline you set for yourself for no apparent reason.
[7:07] What do you think it would have meant for your younger self to hear this advice?
I probably would have said that, it was just some old dude who didn't understand, because I have stuff to do and a timeline to do it in. So I'm sure, like I said, that I was told that advice at some stage by someone. But I suppose it's through lived experience that you really get to understand what is meant by that.
Please note: All content is correct at the time of recording.
