I recently sat down with Jesse Beltran, the founder of Drop Dead Pest Solutions out of Evansville, Wisconsin, and his story is a great example of what steady, patient growth looks like when you finally stop holding yourself back. Jesse’s been in pest control his whole life, literally, growing up riding along with his dad on service routes as a kid. He started his own company back in 2009 on the side while still doing construction, went full time in 2013, and has built Drop Dead into one of the most trusted names in his area. They’re doing about $400K a year now and growing fast. His story is less about overnight success and more about what happens when you stop being the bottleneck in your own business.
A Family Legacy
Pest control isn’t something Jesse stumbled into. It’s in his blood. His grandpa worked for a pest control company called Wheel Kill for years before retiring and starting his own small operation on the side. His dad was in the industry too. Jesse grew up riding along on service routes as a kid, even back in kindergarten during the summers. One of his dad’s biggest accounts was House on the Rock, one of the biggest attractions in Wisconsin. Jesse loved it.
When his grandpa eventually needed help with his little company, he came to Jesse. At the time Jesse was doing construction, roofing and siding, and his grandpa wanted to help him get off the roof. So Jesse started helping out here and there, a day at a time, learning the basics. After a few years, Jesse approached his grandpa about growing the business together. His grandpa wasn’t interested in that. He liked doing the easy stuff, working three months a year, keeping it simple.
So Jesse started his own company. Drop Dead Pest Solutions opened its doors in 2009, but it was a side hustle at first. Jesse was still doing construction during the day and running pest control jobs until dark.
The Grind of Doing Both
Those early years were brutal. Jesse would put in 10 hours on a construction site and then work until dark doing pest control. His wife was a huge part of making it work. She had a good job and carried a lot of the financial weight so Jesse could chase the business without the pressure of needing it to pay all the bills right away.
Eventually his wife was the one who pushed him to go full time. They had two kids by then, and she told him straight up. “You need to go full time. You need to be home.” Jesse admits he’s not a risk taker by nature. He likes the safe bet. But his wife saw where things were heading before he did, and she gave him the push he needed.
“I would be years ahead if I would have listened to her a little more and took a little bigger risk,” Jesse told me. Going full time changed everything. The business grew fast, mostly through word of mouth in his small town. Within a few years he was back to working dark to dark, just doing it all himself.
Word of Mouth Built the Foundation
Jesse’s growth in the early years was almost entirely organic. He lives in a smaller town, and when you do good work in a place like that, people talk. Neighbors tell neighbors. Someone at the hardware store mentions your name. It snowballs.
“People come up to me and I don’t even know who they are because we do so much work,” Jesse told me. That’s the kind of reputation you can’t buy. It takes years to build, but once it’s there, it does the heavy lifting for you.
The problem was Jesse couldn’t figure out how to translate that local trust into online marketing. He tried throwing money at Google and Facebook without really knowing what he was doing. He tried newspapers, a billboard, even local paper ads. The billboard didn’t bring in a single customer. The newspaper stuff brought in older clients, which was fine, but the return wasn’t there. He was swinging in the dark and he knew it.
How the Program Changed His Marketing
Jesse joined Pest Control Millionaires about a year ago, and the Facebook groups strategy hit him like a truck. He’d never thought about posting in local community groups on Facebook as a marketing tool. He was part of his town’s information group, sure, but he never connected the dots that it could actually drive business.
The first week he implemented what Jake taught him, he doubled his money back and then some. His phone was blowing up with messages from people in those groups wanting pest control. But what really made it explode was the social proof from other people in those groups.
“I had probably 20 people say, yeah, we love Jesse. We do this, hire Drop Dead,” he told me. Twenty people in one group all vouching for him at the same time. That’s not advertising. That’s the digital version of word of mouth, and it’s way more powerful than any ad you can run.
Jake also gave him a step by step template for the posts. Jesse used it as a starting point and made it his own. He posted a family photo at a local restaurant, everyone wearing their Drop Dead shirts. It blew up. “I didn’t think it was gonna do that,” Jesse said. Now whenever business slows down, he hits up some Facebook groups and the phone starts ringing again.
The Facebook ads side was another big turning point. Before the program, Jesse was just guessing. Now he actually knows what he’s doing with his ad spend, and his money is going somewhere that gets results instead of disappearing into the void.
The Dog Treats That Built Loyalty
One of the coolest things about Jesse’s story is how seriously he takes customer service. After Jonas talked about the idea of being a customer service company that happens to kill stuff, Jesse took it to heart. He started asking himself, what can we do to make this experience better than just showing up and spraying?
The answer came from his 12 year old daughter. She came up with the idea of giving dog treats to customers who have pets. She even designed little cards that say “Thank you from Drop Dead” with the company dog on them. Jesse and his daughter spent three or four hours tying ribbons on all of them together.
It sounds small, but it works for a couple of reasons. First, it’s unexpected. Nobody does that. Second, it actually addresses a real concern. When customers call about pest control, the number one question is almost always about their dog. Is it safe for my pets? By showing up with a treat for their dog, Drop Dead is saying, we already thought about that. We already care.
Jesse’s team also tracks details in their software. If a customer has a dog, they put the dog’s name in the notes. If someone went on vacation, they note it so next time they can ask how it was. It takes seconds, but it turns a one-time transaction into a relationship. “When you can create that relationship, you’re gonna have a customer for life,” Jesse told me.
They’re working on something similar for kids too. Stickers, small toys with the Drop Dead name on them. The idea is the same. Make people feel like more than just an account number.
Finally Hiring and Letting Go
Hiring was the hardest thing Jesse had to do, and he put it off for way too long. His first hire was actually pretty easy. A buddy he’d worked with in construction years ago had told him, “If you ever need someone, let me know.” When Jesse finally texted him, the guy was in immediately. No interview needed. Jesse already knew him, already trusted him, and the guy loved doing both pest control and animal control. It was a perfect fit and he’s still there today.
But the bigger hire, the one that changed everything, was his office manager. And that turned out to be his wife.
Jesse was handling everything himself. Phone calls, emails, scheduling, billing, on top of being in the field. Jonas laid it out for him in the program. Once you hit three techs, hire an office manager. Jesse’s wife had been wanting a career change anyway, and the timing was perfect. She took over the office side and within the first week she was shocked.
“I didn’t realize everything you did for phone calls and emails,” she told Jesse after her first week. “Your phone doesn’t stop ringing. It doesn’t stop going from texts, emails. It just goes on.” Jesse had been carrying all of that weight by himself for years. Once it was off his plate, the business started moving faster than it ever had.
Jonas also gave Jesse a roadmap for scaling. Three techs, then an office manager. Five to seven techs, then a service manager. Nine or ten techs, then you can start thinking about branching out. Having that structure laid out in front of him made the whole thing feel less scary.
Wildlife on the Side
Drop Dead does about 75% pest control and 25% wildlife removal. Raccoons, bats, the usual suspects. Jesse loves the wildlife side because it scratches that outdoorsy itch. Outsmarting raccoons, trapping them, removing babies from attics in the spring. It’s fun work and it pays well, especially bat exclusions, which not a lot of companies in his area even offer.
But Jesse is starting to pull back on wildlife a little. The problem is it’s mostly one-time work. Someone calls about a raccoon, you get them out, you do the exclusion, and that’s it. They’re not going to call you again for pest control just because you removed a raccoon. Pest control, on the other hand, is recurring. Mice in the winter, bugs in the summer, wasps in between. That’s the bread and butter of a sustainable business.
Jesse still wants to keep wildlife in the mix to fill gaps in the schedule, but he’s going to be more selective about it going forward. No more driving out to outlying areas for one-off jobs. Focus on what builds the business long term.
What's Next for Drop Dead
Jesse and his wife sat down recently and mapped out a real growth plan. The old approach was slow and steady. Pay off a truck, wait two years, get another truck. Low overhead, low risk. But as Jonas pointed out, low risk is low reward.
The new plan is to hire two guys next March. One tech will handle the normal growth coming in from Facebook, Google, and word of mouth. The other tech will cover a door to door sales team that Jesse is putting together. The year after that, two more guys. Once he gets to the point where the trucks need upgrading, he’ll do that too.
The long-term goal is nine or ten technicians. After that, Jesse isn’t sure if he wants to branch out into other states or keep it local. He’s thought about passing the business to his kids someday if they want it, but he’s not pushing them either way. “If they want to take it over, great. If you don’t, that’s great too,” he told me.
The point is, Jesse finally has a roadmap. He’s not swinging in the dark anymore, and he’s not letting his own fear of risk hold the business back.
Key Takeaways
Jesse’s story is a masterclass in what happens when you finally get out of your own way. First, delegate early, even when it scares you. Jesse was the bottleneck in his own business for years because he refused to hire. Once he let go, everything accelerated. The office manager hire alone was worth more than years of him trying to do it all himself.
Second, word of mouth is powerful, but you have to amplify it. Jesse built his reputation the old fashioned way, by doing great work in a small town. The program just showed him how to take that existing trust and turn it into leads through Facebook groups. The social proof from real customers in those groups did more than any ad ever could.
Third, customer service is your real product. Jesse learned from Jonas that killing bugs is table stakes. Every pest control company does that. What sets you apart is how you make people feel. The dog treats, remembering the dog’s name, asking about vacations. None of it costs much. All of it builds loyalty that lasts a lifetime.
Fourth, figure out where you want to be and work backwards. Jesse spent years not knowing where he was going. Once he set a clear goal and mapped out the steps to get there, everything got simpler. Short-term goals, long-term vision, and a plan in between.
And finally, take bigger risks than feel comfortable. Jesse is the first to admit he’s not a risk taker. His wife had to push him to go full time. Jonas had to convince him to hire. Every big move he made felt scary, and every single one of them paid off. The safe bet might feel good in the moment, but it’s what was holding him back for years.
From riding along with his dad as a kid to building a $400K pest control company with a clear path to scaling even bigger, Jesse’s story is proof that you don’t have to be a natural risk taker to build something great. Sometimes you just have to stop letting fear make your decisions for you.
Want to connect with Jesse? You can find Drop Dead Pest Solutions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Everything is under Drop Dead Pest. You can also reach him directly at 608-898-2501 or email him at ddpestsolutions@gmail.com. He loves talking business and connecting with other owners in the industry. And if you’re looking for the kind of clear roadmap that helped Jesse finally stop being the bottleneck and start growing, that’s exactly what we’ve built with Pest Control Millionaires.
