From Mowing Lawns to $850K: How Aaron Huskey Built Huskey Turf Solutions by Staying Focused
Table of Contents
I recently sat down with Aaron Huskey, the founder of Huskey Turf Solutions, and his story is a great reminder that sometimes the best move in business isn’t adding more. It’s cutting back. Aaron started over 13 years ago mowing lawns with his cousin after a full-time job wasn’t cutting it anymore. Today, he’s running a thriving lawn care and pest treatment company in Oklahoma, on pace to hit $850,000 this year after doing $640,000 last year. And a big part of that growth came from figuring out what to focus on and what to let go of.
The Side Hustle That Became Everything
Aaron’s story starts pretty simply. He and his wife were both working full-time jobs about 13 years ago when they found out they were expecting. That sudden urge to earn more money kicked in, and Aaron partnered up with one of his cousins. They’d go out after work every day mowing lawns, picking up sticks, trimming trees, whatever they could get their hands on.
It didn’t take long for the side hustle to outgrow the full-time job. They were working sun up to sun down, every day, weekends included. Aaron wasn’t burned out because he doesn’t mind working hard. It was more that he couldn’t grow any further while juggling both. Something had to go.
So they pulled the trigger. Quit the full-time jobs and went all in. His cousin stuck around for a couple of years, and then Aaron just kept going on his own.
Reinvesting Everything
Here’s something that stood out to me about Aaron’s early days. For the first three years, they didn’t make any extra money. Everything went right back into the company. New equipment, a new trailer, all the things you need to build a real operation.
A lot of business owners struggle with this. They want to start paying themselves right away. But Aaron understood that better equipment meant faster jobs, which meant more jobs. “I just wanted to have the nicest equipment to be able to do the nicest job and also move faster so that we could do more work,” he told me. A nice zero turn mower, better weed eaters, better edgers and blowers. It all added up.
Growing up in a small town of about 13,000 people helped too. Aaron knew a fair amount of people, and word spread fast. “It’s like, Aaron Huskey’s mowing now, let’s use him.” Combined with door knocking and referrals, the business grew quickly in those early years.
The Pivot That Changed Everything
Around year five, Aaron started getting into lawn treatments and weed control. At first it was scary. He didn’t understand it. But it didn’t take long to figure out, especially with good people around him to learn from. And once he saw what treatments did to the lawns they were already mowing, it was a no brainer.
“The lawns that were treated were so much prettier, easier to mow and maintain, and those customers were the customers that we wanted,” Aaron explained. So they started treating their own customers’ yards. Then they stopped picking up new mowing jobs unless they were also treating the lawn. And eventually, about three years ago, they dropped mowing altogether.
The reason? Mowing was a nightmare to run as a business. The barrier to entry is so low that anyone with a truck and a mower can start doing it. Employee turnover was brutal because it was tough to price jobs high enough to pay good people good money. And it was constantly pulling Aaron’s attention away from the lawn treatment side, which had higher margins and was easier to train people on.
“Spraying lawns is a lot more duplicatable and easier to train. You can get those guys out there making decent money pretty quick,” he said. Cutting mowing was one of the best decisions Aaron ever made.
What He’d Do Differently Starting Over
When I asked Aaron what he’d do if he started over tomorrow, his answer was clear. He’d skip mowing and landscaping entirely and go straight into lawn treatments or pest control.
And he’d be strategic about where he started. “I would pick a market that’s really dense, that has a medium income. I would start in one neighborhood and I would blow that neighborhood up and I would move to the next neighborhood and blow it up,” he told me. By blow it up, he means door knocking every single door in that neighborhood consistently for a year and trying to get at least 30% of the houses signed up before moving on.
It’s a focused, methodical approach. And it makes sense. Instead of spreading yourself thin across a whole area, you dominate one neighborhood at a time. Build that density, get those referrals flowing, and then expand.
The Pink Trucks
One of the things that immediately stands out about Huskey Turf Solutions is the color. Everything is pink. The trucks, the shirts, all of it. And it’s working.
Aaron used to run a company called A Cut Above Lawn Service with white trucks and green logos. When they rebranded to Huskey Turf Solutions, they wanted to freshen everything up. Aaron’s wife’s favorite color is pink, and he thought, why not? “There’s nobody else in town with pink. Let’s do it.”
The results were immediate. With just two pink trucks on the road, people started calling and saying they saw his trucks everywhere. “How many trucks y’all have? 10? 15 trucks?” Aaron would laugh and tell them they only had two. “We’re just everywhere.”
It’s not just about standing out either. Pink happens to appeal to their target customers, which are mostly women and moms making the purchasing decisions for the household. Kids love pointing out the pink trucks too. Little kids will yell from the back seat, “Look, mommy, pink truck!” That kind of brand recognition is priceless when you’re a small local business.
Facebook Groups Done Right
Aaron joined Pest Control Millionaires about a year ago, and one of the biggest wins from the program has been learning how to actually use Facebook groups for lead generation.
Before the program, they were posting in local groups from the company Facebook page. Two or three posts a week. And it did basically nothing. A couple of friends would like them because they knew Aaron, but that was about it.
Then Jake and Jonas taught them a different approach. Post from a personal profile instead. Keep it simple and not salesy. “Hey, I’m Aaron Huskey. I’m a local lawn care business in the area. We’d love to meet with like-minded people.” No phone number, no hard sell. Just a genuine introduction.
“Man, people hit on that like crazy,” Aaron told me. People would message him directly, he’d point them to the form on his website, and they’d sign up. It’s free, it takes some time, but it works.
The Facebook ads have been even more impressive. In 2024, they sold maybe 10 accounts off Facebook ads. In 2025, they hit 50 to 60. They sold 385 accounts this year compared to 250 the entire year before. And their overall cost per client across all marketing channels came out to about $97. Not bad at all.
Staying in Front of People
Something Aaron said really stuck with me. He was at a gas station about 30 miles from his town, and a stranger recognized him. The guy had seen Aaron jump out of a pink truck wearing a pink shirt and said, “Dude, y’all are blowing it up.”
Aaron played along, acting like he just worked there. But the point is, the consistency was working. They were posting in Facebook groups constantly during their big selling season in March and April, running ads, and showing up everywhere. People didn’t need lawn care right that second, but when they did, Huskey Turf Solutions was going to be the first name they thought of.
“If they need us, when they need us, we’re going to be in front of them. So we should get a good chance,” Aaron said. That’s the whole game. You don’t need everyone to become a customer today. You just need to be the name they remember when the time comes.
Growing Into New Markets
Aaron’s already started pushing into a market just south of him with about 98,000 people. It’s dense, there’s money there, and there’s good competition. He sold about 60 accounts there in the first push, which was enough to keep going.
His strategy is simple. Push out a little more each year. Keep doing the same thing that’s working. Stay in front of people, keep the pink trucks rolling, and let the brand recognition do its thing. They’re also pushing into North Oklahoma City this year.
And hiring? Aaron’s gotten slower and slower to hire and faster and faster to fire. Back in the mowing days, they’d hire on the spot just to fill a truck. Now he’s much more intentional about who he brings on board.
What’s Next
When I asked Aaron about the future, he kept it straightforward. He enjoys what he does, he enjoys growing, and he enjoys hiring and training and employing people. He’s not looking to sell. He just wants to see how big he can make it.
They’re planning to bring on general pest control services in the next year or two, which will add another revenue stream on top of the lawn treatments and perimeter pest services they’re already running. And with the momentum they’ve built, the brand recognition they’ve earned, and the systems they’ve put in place, the sky really is the limit.
Key Takeaways
Aaron’s journey has some really valuable lessons for anyone in this space. If you are weighing turf against pest, Kirk Slack ran both and explains why he sold the lawn care company and rebuilt in pest control. First, reinvest early. Aaron put everything back into the business for the first three years. That foundation is what allowed everything else to grow.
Second, know when to cut something. Mowing was holding Aaron back. The margins were thin, the turnover was brutal, and it was stealing his focus from the higher value side of the business. Letting it go was one of the smartest moves he made.
Third, stay focused on one thing. Aaron’s message to other business owners was blunt and honest. “Stop looking at all the shiny stuff around you that you could make money at. Focus on one thing, do it well, and show up every day and try to be 1% better every day. That’s it. That’s success.”
Fourth, brand recognition compounds over time. The pink trucks, the consistent Facebook presence, the posting in local groups. None of it works overnight. But when you stack it up day after day, month after month, you become the name people think of first.
And finally, be yourself, not your company. The Facebook group strategy didn’t work when Aaron posted from a company page. It worked when he posted as Aaron Huskey, a real person in the community. People connect with people, not logos.
From side hustling lawns with his cousin to running an $850K lawn care and pest treatment business, Aaron’s story is proof that focus, patience, and showing up every single day can build something really special.
Want to connect with Aaron? You can find him on Facebook. Just search Aaron John Huskey and send him a friend request. He’s happy to connect with anyone in the industry. And if you’re looking for the same kind of support and systems that helped Aaron scale so fast, that’s exactly what we’ve built with Pest Control Millionaires.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Huskey Turf Solutions grow their business?
By cutting back, not adding more. Aaron put everything back into the business for the first three years, moved from mowing into lawn treatments and weed control, and eventually dropped mowing altogether to focus on the higher margin treatment side. Pink trucks, posts in local Facebook groups from his personal profile and Facebook ads have him on pace for $850,000 this year, up from $640,000 last year.
What strategies did Huskey Turf Solutions use for customer retention?
The interview was more about winning the right customers than keeping them. Aaron stopped taking mowing jobs unless he was also treating the lawn, because treatment customers were the ones he wanted, and he stays in front of people with pink trucks and constant posts in local Facebook groups so Huskey Turf Solutions is the first name they think of when they need lawn care.
What can pest control companies learn from Huskey Turf Solutions?
Focus. Aaron reinvested early, cut mowing when it held him back, and kept doing what worked until the brand recognition compounded. As he put it, “Stop looking at all the shiny stuff around you that you could make money at. Focus on one thing, do it well, and show up every day and try to be 1% better every day.”
Full transcript
Read every word of the interview
00:00Dan Leibrandt
Hey there, my name is Dan Leibrandt and welcome back to Pest Control Success Stories, where we interview the people crushing it in our Pest Control Millionaires program. Today, I'm joined by Aaron Huskey, the founder of Huskey Turf Solutions. Aaron has built a strong reputation for delivering quality lawn care and pest control services while growing a trusted family oriented brand in his community. In this episode, we'll dive into his entrepreneurial journey, how he's built Huskey Turf Solutions into a thriving local business and the lessons he's learned along the way. So without further ado, Aaron, welcome to the show.
00:29Aaron Huskey
Thank you.
00:31Dan Leibrandt
Absolutely. So Aaron, tell me how did Huskey Turf Solutions first get started? How did that come about?
00:38Aaron Huskey
So was working a full-time job, my wife was working a full-time job, this is roughly 13 years ago, and we got pregnant and I had this sudden urge to earn more money. And so I partnered up with one of my cousins and we would go out every day after work and just mow lawns, pick up sticks, trim trees, you name it. And it turned into such a job that one of them had to go. Either the full-time job had to go or the part-time job had to go. And so we just pulled the trigger and quit our full-time jobs and went head into it. And he stuck with me for a couple of years. And then I just kept going.
01:26Dan Leibrandt
At what point was there that split where you're like, one of them needs to go?
01:32Aaron Huskey
When we were just working like sun up to sundown every day, weekends, everything, I was just like burned out. I wasn't necessarily burned out because I enjoy working. But it was like, I couldn't grow my side hustle any further than what it was without doing something different.
01:54Dan Leibrandt
Hmm, got you. And also, how long have you been in business? I forgot to ask.
02:00Aaron Huskey
It's right around 13 years, yeah.
02:02Dan Leibrandt
Okay, 13 years. So tell me what were those first few years like, or at least, you mentioned while you had had it more as like a side job, but what were the first few years like where you were going all in?
02:15Aaron Huskey
Just knocking doors and picking up jobs lots of referrals obviously because you're doing most of the work yourself And it was it was wild yeah, and to be honest with you We didn't make any extra money From that for the first like three years like everything got put back into the company by a new equipment new trailer just you know all the different things that you do when you're growing but it was a lot of fun and my wife says that I got a part-time job because we got married. So go ahead.
02:35Dan Leibrandt
Mmm.
02:51Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, but no, it seems like you actually made the right choice there because I've talked with Jake and Jonas extensively on this. And they said that a huge problem that they see with the pest control owners that we talked to is that they're not reinvesting enough. So what made you reinvest so much?
03:10Aaron Huskey
I think that I knew, well, I figured that better equipment would get us done with our jobs faster so we could add more jobs. You know, and so a nice zero turn mower, better weed eaters that would, we could go move faster, you know, better edgers and blowers and all this stuff. I just, I just wanted to have the nicest equipment to be able to do the nicest job and also move faster so that we could do more work. So that was the goal at the time.
03:42Dan Leibrandt
Okay, so it was mainly for equipment and how were you getting customers at that time?
03:47Aaron Huskey
Knocking doors, lots of referrals. I grew up in a small town, roughly 13,000 people here. We still live here. And I knew a fair amount of people here. So, you know, the word spread pretty quick whenever somebody new comes on the scene for mowing, per se, you know. It's like, you know, Aaron Huskey's mowing now, let's use him. So it grew really fast. Like you can grow mowing super fast usually.
04:14Dan Leibrandt
Hmm. Okay. And also just to understand your service split, were you guys at your, I assume you're mostly lawn and then pests and weed and such.
04:22Aaron Huskey
Yeah, and we're not doing any general pests at the moment. We're supposed to bring that on here in a year or two. So right now we're doing lawns. We have one service called Total Lawn Insects. So we'll treat the entire lawn three times a year for ticks and other problem bugs that you don't want in your yard. And then like a perimeter pest outside of the house is all we're doing for pests right now.
04:50Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. And has that evolved over time or have you kind of stuck with that?
04:53Aaron Huskey
Those treatments, yeah, I think they have evolved a little bit just figuring out what works and what we can and can't sell and what the customers want, you know, kind of all combined together.
05:07Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah. So you've been in it for about 13 years now, I think you said 12, 13. What would you do if you were starting over tomorrow? Like you said that you have a small town and you kind of had that network, but for maybe people that haven't even gotten started, what would you say to them? What should they do?
05:23Aaron Huskey
Obviously I started in mowing and landscaping and tree work and stuff like that. I would never start there again. I would definitely start, yeah, I would definitely start in lawn treatments right away, even though when I started getting into lawn treatments, it was a big scary thing that I didn't understand. And it didn't take very long to understand it and figure it out. It was fairly simple, fairly quickly, you know.
05:31Dan Leibrandt
Hmm, really?
05:50Aaron Huskey
Had a lot of good people around me to ask questions to and learn from. So that moved really fast. But yeah, I would definitely start in lawn treatments or pest control. And I would probably pick a market that's really dense, that has a medium income. And I would start in one neighborhood and I would blow that neighborhood up and I would move to the next neighborhood and blow it up.
06:15Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, okay, cool. When you say blow it up, what do you mean? Like, what does that entail?
06:21Aaron Huskey
Try to sell every house in the neighborhood at least at least get 30 %...
06:24Dan Leibrandt
And how do you do that? I said, how do you guys go about doing that?
06:29Aaron Huskey
We don't technically do that model at the moment, but if I was to start over, that's what I would do. I would door knock every door in that neighborhood consistently for a year and try to get at least 30 % of the houses in that neighborhood before I move to the next neighborhood.
06:43Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. So you guys, said that door knocking is kind of one of your original lead generation strategies. How has that evolved over time? Are you guys still doing it?
06:52Aaron Huskey
So when you're desperate and you're hungry, you'll do anything for money. And once the leads start flowing in without door knocking, everybody, well, most everybody quits door knocking. And so I will say that I haven't done a whole lot of door knocking since. We did some, I did some for lawn care treatments and there's, I don't know, it's tough and you probably know, you've probably done it plenty yourself. So it's tough and it's the hard thing to do, but it's the fastest, I think it's the fastest way to grow.
07:36Dan Leibrandt
Okay, so that's the way to start, but as you continue to grow, obviously, then it shouldn't be you as the owner knocking on doors, Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay, so now talk to me about what's going on after that. We talked about the first few years. When did you start to feel like you gained momentum?
07:56Aaron Huskey
Probably year four five, I felt like we were doing pretty good. Had, let's see, we had two motor trucks and one kind of a light landscaping, kind of a bed maintenance truck. And then... I had just started weed inferred and so I was running the weed inferred part. So it started off really slow obviously and then it started gaining momentum. About, I think it was three years ago, we actually got rid of the rest of our mowing and everything else and we're just focused strictly on lawn care. No, no, it's all treatment.
08:37Dan Leibrandt
Okay, you guys don't do any mowing anymore. Why is that?
08:42Aaron Huskey
The turnover in employees because it's tough to price those jobs well enough to pay good guys good money because the barrier to entry is so low on mowing that you know anybody in a truck and a mower can go start mowing. Yeah they can't compete with what we were doing but you know, this guy can get it done for $35 instead of $65, then it kind of makes sense. Yeah, so that and then it was, yeah, was a high turnover at employees, constantly training new employees, and it was just a lot to handle. And spray in lawns is a lot more duplicatable and easier to train. Get those guys out there making decent money pretty quick.
09:37Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, awesome. Something else I wanted to mention is, it seems like you guys are growing pretty fast recently. I believe you said you did 640 last year and you're set to do 850 this year. And I want to ask you first about hiring. Like what have you learned about hiring and how has that changed throughout your growth?
11:05Aaron Huskey
Yeah, we have been slower and slower to hire and faster and faster to fire and. Back when we were mowing, we would hire on the spot just about just to get a guy in there on the truck to go take care of these jobs. And that's another thing with mowing is like so much of our time and energy was spent with this reoccurring mowing of weekly mowing. And so I saw that it was taking my attention away from the weed control part, which I enjoyed and there was higher margins there and I was focused back on the mowing and I was like, man, I got to get rid of this distraction because it's just slowing us down from focusing on what I want to do in the future.
11:50Dan Leibrandt
Hmm. And also you may have mentioned this, but did you guys start out doing pest control or when was that implemented?
11:56Aaron Huskey
No, was year five, I think we picked, we started picking up a few lawns and passed, Yeah.
12:04Dan Leibrandt
Okay, and why do you guys start implementing POST?
12:08Aaron Huskey
Say that again.
12:10Dan Leibrandt
Yeah. Why did you start offering pest control services?
12:13Aaron Huskey
It was mostly treating the lawns because we realized that the lawns that were treated that we were mowing were so much prettier, easier to mow and maintain and those customers were the customers that we wanted and we're like, hey, let's start treating our own customers yards. And eventually it got to where we wouldn't pick up a lawn for mowing. Unless we triggered the lawn as well. And then it got to where we're not picking up any more mowing and then it's like okay let's start getting rid of the mowing. Yeah, yeah.
12:46Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. That makes sense. Then we're, and I kind of just want to understand your model here. Are you upselling people to pest control? Are you doing it in one package together?
12:57Aaron Huskey
So we're trying to sell our initial, let's say, seven step package of weed control and fertilization. And then we do try to sell them on the total lawn insect, the... Sorry.
13:18Dan Leibrandt
No, no, you're good.
13:19Aaron Huskey
Wouldn't cut all that out, right? The perimeter pest, upselling on the perimeter pest, total lawn insect. And soil conditioner and things like that. And then so we also treat trees for bagworms and webworms and things like that. And so slowly but surely once they get on as a customer with the initial program of seven step weed control and fertilization, we'll start sending out emails and talking about different things, different times of the year. Be like, hey, this is coming up. We offer this program that can help with that or this treatment that can help with that. And then we try to put them on auto renew and just keep doing it the next year and the next year and the next year for them.
14:04Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. How did you come up with those seven steps?
14:08Aaron Huskey
It's kind of a combination of talking to guys around here and, just trial and error over a few years. Yep. And kind of what, would work, what I thought would work best for, I guess, the lawns that we take care of here in Oklahoma. Yeah.
14:30Dan Leibrandt
Okay, interesting. You kind of just, I don't know, maybe listening to podcasts or talking to other people in the industry.
14:36Aaron Huskey
A lot of guys here in Oklahoma that I did talk to as I was learning it, they're still doing five and six. Some guys are doing seven, eight, nine, 10 apps, you know. We're up north in Fescue lawns. I think it's real common to go between like four and six apps, you know, kind of depending on what you're running, if you're adding fungicide or if you're adding grub treatments or things like that. So yeah, down here in Oklahoma, we try to run it up a little bit.
15:09Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Also, I noticed you guys have your color pink, or at least you're wearing the pink shirt there. What made you guys choose pink?
15:19Aaron Huskey
So when we rebranded, we were called a Cut Above Lawn Service. We wanted to kind of focus more on lawn treatments. We're like, hey, let's rebrand. Let's just freshen everything up. My wife's favorite color is pink. I was like, hey, how cool would that be if we had pink trucks running around wearing pink shirts? Like, we're going to stand out. There's nobody else in town with pink. I was like, let's do it. So we just pulled the trigger on it.
15:45Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, was that before or after seeing Jonas' stuff? Because I know he's like really big on the pink.
15:49Aaron Huskey
It was it was after and yeah, I don't get me wrong a Little jealous of Jonas's colors. It good. I was like, hey, you know that so yeah, but yeah, so...
16:01Dan Leibrandt
No, just because when it comes to going against the competition, almost no one is doing pink, right? Everyone's usually using green or maybe there's an orange here there, but I mean, no one is using pink. And also, which I forgot about this aspect, that you're trying to attract to moms usually, right? Is that your case too, that most of your clients are women that are buying?
16:29Aaron Huskey
Yeah, lot of times you're dealing with the wife or the female. And they dig it. They come out and take pictures of our trucks and all driving through the parking lots. The little kids are like, look, mommy, pink truck. That's pretty cool.
16:43Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, no, anything that stands out. Yeah, and talk to me more about the rebrand. Like what is the effect of that been and especially moving to pink, has that helped?
16:56Aaron Huskey
Yeah, I think it's helped a lot because we had white trucks with a big set of scissors on the side of it because we were a cut above and then what was it? A little bit of grass blades between the scissors and it just said a cut above and green on the front doors of the trucks. And we thought it was pretty cool at the time, you know, we're like, cool but everyone else looks the same you know but yeah once we went pink it's just like and we only had like two trucks that were pink at the time and you know when we rebranded and people were like dude I see your trucks everywhere how many trucks y'all have 10 15 trucks and I'm like yeah we got two trucks we're just everywhere yeah it was yeah, it was really neat. Yeah, everybody's texting us, calling us like, hey, I saw your trucks in Oklahoma City. I saw your trucks over here. I saw your trucks over there. Let's hand out.
17:44Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, well that's the goal, right?
17:57Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, no, and I think that's one of the ways to dominate your area, right? You know, not just the door knocking, but if your trucks are parked all around, you know, I listened to a good amount of Tommy Mello, I'm sure you know him. And one of the things he said is that they will literally just park their trucks in super busy parking lots, like a Costco or a Walmart or whatever. If they're not using them, they'll just park it in those busy lots and it works well.
18:24Aaron Huskey
Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know how many phone calls we've gotten. I saw your truck over here, I saw your truck over there. I need you guys to come, you know, treat my lawn or whatever it is. So, it's pretty cool.
18:36Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. And I wanted to touch on some other lead gen stuff and also related to the program. So you joined the Pest Control Millionaires program about a year ago, you said kind of last fall. And you mentioned Facebook groups and Facebook ads were working really well. Can you talk about those and what the effect has been?
18:56Aaron Huskey
Yeah, mean, so traditionally we were posting in groups, but it was from our company Facebook page. We would make posts on there, you know, you make two a week, three a week, whatever. And we were just taking those and posting them in groups and they did little to nothing. A couple of friends would like them, you know, cause they know us. And then when we changed it up and did it the way Jake and Jonas taught us to do it and posting from our personal groups as, hey, I'm Aaron Huskey. You know, I'm a local lawn care guy, whatever it is, you know, and just kind of post that. Man, people hit on that like crazy. Cause you're not being salesy. You're just, you're just saying, Hey, I'm out here. You know, I'm here. I'd love to meet with you guys or something like that. And those do really well and those are free. I mean, they take time, but those do really well. Yeah. And then the Facebook ads, we were trying a little bit of this, a little bit of that with the Facebook ads. We didn't know what we were doing and got little to no traction. Think in 24, we sold probably like, 10 accounts off of Facebook ads and then I think 25 we hit like 50 or 60 accounts off Facebook ads. So I'd say what they taught us definitely works.
20:22Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, awesome. What was your cost per lead? You know what was it? Fairly cheap or was it decent?
20:28Aaron Huskey
So to be frank and honest with you, I didn't track it per like Facebook and Google and I didn't break it up last year. Was just wild. We sold more accounts than we'd ever sold. Our selling season is real short. It's like two months, like March and April. And so we bring on like 80 % of our new accounts in March and April. And we've sold 385 accounts this year, where all season last year, we only sold like 250. So, you know, it's not a huge number, but it's bigger than we've ever dealt with. And so I just track the overall ad spend for marketing. And I think we came out to like $97 per client.
21:13Dan Leibrandt
No, that's not bad at all.
21:15Aaron Huskey
Yeah, yeah, so it was really good. So we will, moving forward next season on that big sales season, we're gonna track everything really well individually so we can dial it in. But yeah, the Facebook, I think the Facebook per client was, if I remember right, around 100 bucks, so not terrible, per client. Yeah.
21:42Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, that's fairly standard. And I also wanted to ask, that's kind of interesting, why are all your clients coming in March and April? Is there any reason?
21:53Aaron Huskey
So we have a heavy weed season for broadleaf weeds and that happens here in March and April. And so we'll get like henbit and chickweed and just a whole slew of freaking nasty weeds just popping all at once. And so that's just how it's always been here in Oklahoma. Yeah, you'll just, you'll get a ton of phone calls just back to back to back in those two months. Yeah. And then.
22:24Dan Leibrandt
Interesting. Okay. And yeah, I was gonna talk a little bit more about the Facebook group stuff. So yeah, no, that's something Jake recommends. He totally loves just it's almost like, I mean, it's literally free money. And that's interesting. Okay, so you guys were doing it before, was there anything else that changed besides just switching from a company profile to a personal profile?
22:49Aaron Huskey
Is there anything that changed from switching from a company?
22:51Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, like so you said you were trying Facebook groups before and yeah, it wasn't working before, but then it started working. Was it just that you're posting on a personal profile versus a company page or what changed?
23:03Aaron Huskey
I think it's the way we, the post that we made that, you know, obviously Jake and Jonas helped us, you know, gave us some templates for that and kind of like laid it out like, Hey, this is how you want to put together a post from your personal and start sharing it on groups. And it's just a really, it's not a salesy post at all. It's just saying, Hey, I'm Aaron Huskey. We're local lawn care business in the area. We'd love to meet with like-minded people, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, you know. And it might say something about hit us up if you need us or something like that but I don't even think it says that. Don't think it has, it doesn't have a phone number for the company or anything like that. So what they'll end up doing is they'll message me directly and I'll say hey you know fill out this form on my website and they always go and fill out the form and boom sign them up.
23:53Dan Leibrandt
Hmm, and does it seem like people convert right away or is it kind of, is there some lag time?
24:00Aaron Huskey
I think it's pretty quick, yeah. Yeah, for those particular leads, is that what you're saying?
24:09Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, like the first time they see your Facebook post, are they gonna, or they're posts within, your posts within the group, are they gonna become a customer right away or does it take maybe a few months or so?
24:19Aaron Huskey
No, yeah, it takes time, yeah. And I think that's the main key is just over and over and over, just staying in front of them. And we did a lot of it, that post in those Facebook groups in March and April. Dude, I got people that I don't know running into me 30 miles away going, dude, that company that you work for, they're just blowing my newsfeed up. And I was like, yeah, they must be spending some money on marketing. You know, I act like I just worked there. And like I had so many people that are like, dude, you work for a Huskey Turf? Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, man, my newsfeed is always blown up with you guys. And so I'm like, okay, well it's definitely working. We're staying in front of them. So if they need us, when they need us, we're going to be in front of them. So we should get a good chance.
25:13Dan Leibrandt
Mmm. No, that's awesome. I love that. Do people not connect the dots? Mean, they have to know your last name is Huskey, right?
25:20Aaron Huskey
Well, I mean these are people that I don't know and I'm just like walking into a gas station, know 30 miles away and They're they see me. They see me jump out of a pink truck and pink shirt on they're like, Dude, y'all are blowing it up Yeah, that's crazy...
25:34Dan Leibrandt
Dang. Wow, no, so that means you're doing something right. I mean, if everyone knows you, I mean, I'd assume that not everyone needs, you know, weed control, lawn care, pest control right away, but it sounds like you're the guy if they ever need it.
25:51Aaron Huskey
Yeah, I mean, we're trying to be. There's a market just south of us that's only 15 minutes from us. And it's like 98,000 people. It's pretty dense and a lot of money there and a lot of competition and good competition. Guys that do an excellent job, run excellent companies. And so it's tough, it's a tough market to sell in, especially because we're typically right at the highest point roughly on pricing. But man, just being in front of those people all the time and everything, it's definitely made a huge difference down there.
26:31Dan Leibrandt
Hmm. So what's going to be your strategy when you expand to those other locations like that one you said?
26:37Aaron Huskey
Yeah, so we're already down there. We're already down there and we're pushing into North Oklahoma City this year. We did and I think we only sold like 60 accounts in a smaller area, but it was a good enough push to keep going. Every year we'll just push out just a little more and just kind of do the same thing.
27:00Dan Leibrandt
Awesome, And what does the future look like for Huskey Turf Solution? What do you have in mind? What is the goal?
27:09Aaron Huskey
I don't know, I enjoy what we do, I enjoy growing, I enjoy hiring and training and employing people. I don't have anything in mind to sell out at any point. I just want to see how big we can make it go.
27:25Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, And I've got one more question for you here. I wanted to ask you, for other pest control or lawn care owners, what would be your message to them? What do you want to tell them? What do you think they need to know?
27:41Aaron Huskey
Like my size or smaller type guys...
27:44Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah. It could be anything. Could be mindset. It could be, yeah.
27:50Aaron Huskey
Just stop looking at all the shiny stuff around you that you could make money at. Focus on one thing, do it well, and show up every day and try to be 1 % better every day. That's it. That's success. In my eyes.
28:05Dan Leibrandt
Mm. Love that. Awesome. No, 100%. Just be 1 % better every day. Amen. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Aaron. This has been a blast. If people want to, you know, be friends with you online, social media, where you at?
28:18Aaron Huskey
Sure. I'm on Facebook mostly. Yeah, you can reach me there. Aaron John Huskey on Facebook. Hit me up. I'll add you as a friend. Message me. I'll message you back. If you want my number, I'll message you my number. We'll call. We'll talk on the phone.
28:36Dan Leibrandt
Awesome, cool. So definitely go send a friend request to Aaron. We'll also link his company and anything else you'd like to plug or promote.
28:45Aaron Huskey
Just thank you, Jake, Jonas, and obviously you, Dan now, coming on and look forward to that new book coming out that you guys kind of put together, all three of you. I can't wait to get that in my hands and just run through that real quick. And love what you guys are doing and I hope more people will put some trust in you guys and let you guys help out.
29:10Dan Leibrandt
Absolutely, man. I appreciate that. Well, cool. It's been great talking with you, Aaron. And yeah, I hope we stay in touch.
29:15Aaron Huskey
Yep, alright, thanks Dan.
29:17Dan Leibrandt
Course.
