Step Out on That Limb
Co-owner // C&C Tree Service and Agent // Mid South Realty
Should Dos Equis decide to introduce a female counterpart to its iconic “Most Interesting Man in the World” advertising campaign, which captivated American television viewers from 2006 to 2018, a worthy candidate could be found in central Arkansas.
Debbie Shamlin is a veritable vocational hat rack. She worked as a registered nurse for more than 30 years before going into business with her husband and son to launch a tree services company, and following a 2020 breast cancer diagnosis that led to a double mastectomy, Shamlin said her “insides were not settled.” The subsequent soul searching culminated in her real estate license.
Her current ventures — Little Rock’s C&C Tree Service, for which she partners with her husband, “third-generation timber guy” Chuck, and son, Chase, and Mid South Realty — satisfy her desire to help people.
“I know that’s what I was put here for,” she said. “I still help people just in a different manner.”
Shamlin said her battle with cancer gave her the resolve to take a leap of faith and “step out on that limb.” She and Chuck helped launch C&C to establish Chase. Debbie does all the billing and invoicing and even provides quotes and estimates when needed.
It is a fitting venture, she said — Chase is a fourth-generation tree man, after all — and, so far, a successful one. C&C’s focus is residential, but its client list includes Baptist Health and all of the health care system’s central Arkansas properties.
In addition to tree services, C&C offers limb removal, land clearing, storm clean-up, gravel spreading, driveway installation brush hogging and skid steer mulching — whatever is needed to transform a property.
The tree service business sometimes dovetails nicely with Shamlin’s other hustle, that of real estate agent. She became a million-dollar producer her first year, selling and listing properties from Benton to Sherwood.
“It definitely can go hand in hand,” Shamlin said of her latest two ventures. “There is opportunity quite often. I always let [clients] know up front that this is my son’s business and he’s available to provide an estimate.”
For Shamlin, whether she is caring for a patient in a hospital or clinic setting, providing an estimate for a tree removal, or selling clients a dream home, it all boils down to people and relationships.
“I miss my patients. I miss the ability to make a difference in their health,” she said, “but everything I do still comes down to helping people.”
Shamlin cut her nursing teeth at the old St. Vincent Doctors Hospital in Little Rock. Her nursing experience entails OB-GYN, women’s and children’s care, and a stint at Baptist Health’s psychiatric hospital, formerly Southwest Hospital in Little Rock. She also worked as a nurse for a home infusion company.
She does not, however, miss the red tape of health care or going toe to toe with insurance companies.
“I do not miss the shape our health care system is in,” she said.
Shamlin said regardless of which hat she has worn throughout her career, she always benefited from a network of friends and colleagues that helped her advance along the way.
“Interacting with a strong network of people who all enhance each other has really helped develop me into who I am and even who my children are,” she said. “I just love to help people. I know that’s what I was out here for.”
