From $400K Solo to $1 Million: How Master Arborist Couri Leuschner Grew Botanical Solutions

00:00Dan Leibrandt

Hey everyone and welcome back to Pest Control Success Stories. I'm your host Dan Leibrandt and today I'm with Couri Leuschner who is the CEO and founder of Botanical Solutions. Couri started his company four years ago and has now grown it to over a million dollar business and he has done so through various strategic partnerships through Facebook and through some other lead generation strategies that we're going to talk about. So Couri's a member of the Pest Control Millionaires program. Awesome person and yeah really excited to learn about his story and also what's worked best throughout his journey. So yeah, thanks so much for coming on Couri.

00:39Couri Leuschner

Awesome. Thank you for having me.

00:41Dan Leibrandt

Of course. So Couri, you started your company about four years ago. I think you were in arbor care before that though, right?

00:48Couri Leuschner

Yes, I worked for multiple various tree care companies in my region where I started from being a technician and worked my way up to being a sales arborist, arborist representative, someone who gives out the estimates for lack of better terms.

01:05Dan Leibrandt

Gotcha. Cool. How long were you doing...

01:09Couri Leuschner

I was doing that for about 8 to 10 years I would say before I went full-time with my company.

01:16Dan Leibrandt

Okay, cool. What did you learn during those 8 to 10 years?

01:21Couri Leuschner

I learned a lot of what not to do and then what to do as well. So, it was good to I was getting paid to learn my mistakes. Which was which was pretty good. But just learning the ins and outs, seeing how different companies do it, how to talk to clients, how to do the work. You know, even the back end when I was a manager of a smaller landscape company. So just a lot of just how things work you know how to manage some people. So I worked in almost every different position except for the owner role in my company which helped me I think seamlessly like transition to when I started my company. I didn't have a lot of issues that I see newer guys start with with like in terms of pricing CRM estimates when you have new guys how to train them and all that good stuff. I already hit the ground running with charging high premium prices which helped me get more clients and grow and advertise and get the better equipment, the better trucks and the better training and all that good stuff.

02:30Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So then you started your company about four years ago. What made you start it?

02:39Couri Leuschner

I was just tired of working for people. You know I'm that type of person that oh I could do something better I could do it better than them and I wanted the autonomy and try to I wanted the freedom I guess and just the flexibility even though when you first start you have no flexibility or freedom but you hope that you do at some point and just having the control of your own life it seems like...

03:06Dan Leibrandt

Yeah totally you mentioned that you know at first. Well, you did it for freedom, but you actually had very little freedom starting out. Tell me more about that of like what was the what's the reality of starting it?

03:19Couri Leuschner

Yeah, I definitely didn't hire fast enough. So that was one of the mistakes I learned. One of my favorite years was actually my first year cuz similar to pest control, I don't I almost know nothing about pest control yet. I'm in the group, but you know, it's all outdoor home service businesses. You roughly fertilize a lawn every month and you spray trees once a month. So, when I first started, I would work like 3 weeks and then I would take a week off. And, you know, when you first start and you're running out of your garage, you have low overhead. So, I would like work 3 weeks and then chill for a week, which was awesome. But then you get that anxious feeling. And then my second year full-time was when I really took off and I was working like five, six days a week and it was just brutal. I had no freedom. Yeah. I was making a lot of money and stuff, but missing family events, not hanging out with with my wife, and just the family life went to the wayside. And that's where I should have hired someone. And then I'll never forget my third year, it was April, and I'm working 12-hour days, 14 hour days, and I messaged Jonas.

04:28Couri Leuschner

I said, "Dude, I was listening to his podcast all the time." And there was one section in his podcast. He's like, "Yeah, if you guys if you guys are owners and struggling with stuff, just message me on Facebook. I'll message you." In my head, I'm like, "There's no way this dude who owns like a $10 million company is going to respond to me." I messaged him and he responded to me and we hopped on a call and then and then he advised me to join the group and I joined the group and hired someone pretty fast after that and got a little bit of my life back and now have two guys working for me and life is a little bit better. Just a little bit.

05:06Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's cool to hear. I know you joined about a year ago, so it's cool to see where you've how far you've come. And so I want to ask it, especially for the people listening, like when do you wish you would have hired your first person?

05:24Couri Leuschner

Probably my second year when I was working those crazy five, six, days a week. You just you got to know your numbers. So for me, it's I always knew my numbers. I knew in my area what I could accomplish. For me it just I didn't know how fast I was going to grow every year and what that was going to look like. And now with the group they teach you how you can manage that growth and what you can expect when you advertise. Before I learned to advertise with you guys, it used to just be having landscapers just referring me and I would just every 100 landscapers I called one of them will start referring me work. It was just a numbers game. And all of a sudden you just hit a magic landscaper that just dumps 50 accounts, 50 lawns for you. So and again my market's a little bit different because I know in other markets people are going to say 50 accounts aren't that big.

06:22Couri Leuschner

My average lawn is almost an acre. In my area, it's about 30,000 square feet. So, you know, 50 30,000 square foot lawns are they're they're pretty big. So, you just never know. But don't be afraid to hire someone. And then when you hire someone, it frees you up so much to start doing the higher leverage activities, advertising, possibly door knocking, just putting putting out yard signs, door hangers, whatever it is, just to bring in more business. So, hire the minute the numbers tell you to...

06:56Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It seems like part of what you're saying is that it's almost intuitive and that like if you're having to work 12 14 hour days every day, probably need to hire.

07:09Couri Leuschner

Most likely. Yes.

07:11Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. Gotcha. And yeah, I'm glad you brought up strategic partnerships. I definitely wanted to talk about that with you. You told me you have like at least 15 strategic partnerships, which for those that don't know, that is maybe other local businesses or home service businesses in the area that you partner with. And then you can kind of send each other back and forth leads. So talk to me about I mean how are you getting these strategic partnerships? Maybe what was your first strategic partnership?

07:40Couri Leuschner

My first strategic partnership was a landscaper I used to work with at a previous landscape company and both of us went our separate ways. He went to do the landscaping and I went to do the lawn fertilization and the plant healthcare or the arbor care side of things. So it magically magically it worked very well and he single-handedly like grew my business the first year him and then his nephew who owns another landscape company. So one good thing with with landscapers is or strategic partnerships is if you do one right then they'll start recommending you to their other landscape buddies. So again, since I just do lawn fert and weed control and plant healthcare, it's very easy for me to find people. It's just landscapers who don't fertilize lawns. And in my area, there's a lot of tree companies that necessarily aren't certified arborist or they just don't do the plant healthcare.

08:33Couri Leuschner

So there are a lot of tree trimmers and tree pruners. So I had a very good niche with them where if they referred me work, I could help them secure permits for tree removals. In our area, you need a certified arborist to say that the tree is dead. So they just were refer me a lot of clients and then I would help them you know procure client permits for tree removals and then I would also help them give them a second opinion if they thought a tree could say up but if they weren't too familiar with that and educating them as well. So it's all just find your niche and just double down and just call as many landscaper, as many strategic partnerships as you can. It's a numbers game. Jake always says go for the high the big whales first, which I agree. And sometimes those are hard and hot those are hard to get a hold of, but you know, even the little chuck in the trucks are good as well. Because sometimes they just have some big account that you that you're not familiar with.

09:32Couri Leuschner

My personal biggest client I got through a landscaper who just doesn't look like he's a professional company at all, but it's some big crazy 8acre estate. And you just would not think that this dude has this account, but you know, they all have one awesome account to have.

09:51Dan Leibrandt

That's awesome. Yeah. So, it sounds like part of this is tapping into other home services that are really similar that that like pair well. So, in your instance, it's like landscapers. Is there anyone else like any other home services that you've partnered with?

10:05Dan Leibrandt

Hey guys, Dan Leibrandt here. Real quick, if you're a pest control owner looking to grow, I have two amazing resources for you. Number one is our free Pest Control Millionaires Facebook group. We have over 4,000 owners just like you in our community and would love for you to be a part of it. Go search Pest Control Millionaires on Facebook and request to join the group. Now, number two is our book, Zip Code Kings. This was authored by me, Jonas Olson, and Jake Sheldon to be the ultimate guide to pest control marketing. We discuss everything from branding and traditional marketing to local SEO and Facebook ads. Go to Amazon and search Zip Code Kings to get your copy today. Now, that being said, let's get back to the show.

10:45Couri Leuschner

Yeah. My three biggest ones are landscapers, irrigation companies. Obviously, that's for like the lawn fertilization side. And then for the plant health care side is just the general tree care companies, the ones that do the pruning and the removals. So those are the top three. I'm not really calling gutter guys or lands or roofers or HVAC people or plumbers. You know, I have some of them that are friends that own companies and they'll give me like one one person a year on their like new installs and stuff like that, but it's mostly just finding the proper ones and you going from there.

11:19Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. So, you explained how you got the first one. It was kind of a friend. You guys were already connected and split off. How have you gotten these other ones?

11:30Couri Leuschner

The other ones are it's either when I'm just driving around town and I see a landscaper and I think it's the owner or whatever, I'll just get out of my truck if I have time and just say, "Hey, look, you know, I do the lawn fertilization. Do you do it?" "No." "Oh, I'm looking for someone." Great. All right. Well, I don't do the landscaping, so let's just refer each other. And then the other is fortunately and unfortunately in my area in New York you're not allowed to fertilize between the end of November through the beginning of March. So and we're also effectively shut down for 3 months. So I don't have a lot going on for 3 months. So I just call I try to call about a thousand landscapers a winter. And then you'll it's just a numbers game. And then you know you'll get a lot you'll you'll call people and then they'll call you back like 3 weeks later and you know that that's not going to be a good partnership cuz in the middle of the winter if they're waiting 3 weeks to call you back you ain't going to hear from them during the season.

12:28Couri Leuschner

So you just call I just try to call as many as possible and hopefully you get like three to five good ones that throughout the year will refer you work.

12:37Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, totally. Yeah, you're you're right. Just like anything in marketing, it's a it's a numbers game. I'm curious like have you found anything that works best to close these people or how do you convince them that this is something that they should do?

12:54Couri Leuschner

So I try to tell them especially with the tree guys hey if I'm on your property then the bigger companies in my area like the SavATrees the Daveys and the Bartletts or there are some other smaller midsize like you know eight figure companies that do the tree work and the plant healthcare. So, I tell them, "Hey, look, if I'm on the property, then they're not on the property taking the pruning and the removals." And also, when you're on a spray program, you're there like three to six times a year and I'm checking on the properties and then I'll even then I'll when I see something that needs to be pruned or removed, I'll tell the client to call you and effectively I'm selling for you. With the landscapers, it's more of, hey, if you are doing the landscaping, the bush trimming, the mulching, the gardening, and I'm just out fertilizing the lawn, no one else is on the property taking work from each other, and effectively, we can help each other out on the property. The clients like it when they think we're all working together. We're all on group texts and stuff like that. So, it's a win-win for everyone. Also this year I'm using Clicki which is that pay partnership and that helps as well.

14:07Couri Leuschner

Because in the beginning of my career in my business during that one week off that I was you know in between rounds I would just call up those landscapers or text them again as reminders. Hey are there any properties you want to take a look at? That's obviously super you know time consuming but when you first start you have more time than money. Now I just have Clicki send out weekly text reminders which is awesome cuz it's more frequent and some of the landscapers just like to get paid instead.

14:41Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, totally. Yeah. I think how most people approach strategic partnerships. It's kind of just like a vague handshake agreement. But what you're saying is you're using Clicki here so when someone sends you a lead, they get paid for it. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. How how much? Well, I guess I guess since you're in like tree care, it's a little bit higher ticket, but what are you paying for these leads?

15:06Couri Leuschner

I will give $200 for each closed lead for for the landscapers and to my clients as well.

15:16Dan Leibrandt

Dang. See, and that totally makes sense from their perspective now. They have a ton of incentive to send you as much business as possible.

15:25Couri Leuschner

Yeah, it work. Yeah, it works.

15:28Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. Awesome. Cool. And then I also wanted to touch on you guys being positioned as more premium or even just doing more premium stuff like I you told me before the call that you guys have some really like high-level high-class clients. How do you deal with those? How do you make sure that you keep those big ticket clients that probably expect a really good premium service?

15:54Couri Leuschner

Well, it's funny because my biggest clients I've never met in my life. It's like their third or fourth house. Or it's their weekend home and stuff like that. So, you just want to you just want to make sure that the work is done and you're communicating with whoever the point of contact is. So, one thing that I do that I stole from another when I was a manager of a landscaper is since I'm not doing the work now, I come once a month to all of my clients properties and I do a property inspection. And since it's not pest control, it's a little bit more cumbersome. I'm looking at the trees, shrubs, and lawns and other stuff. And at the end of the day, I'll write up a little report to my clients saying, "Hey, today I comment came out, took a look, and oh, everything's looking good." or, oh, I noticed this tree should be pruned. Call this guy. Or, hey, the landscaper should do this. So, the clients love that customer service. I always joke we're we're in the customer service business. We I just so happen to do arbor care and lawn care.

16:56Couri Leuschner

But that just that extra attention to detail where I think nowadays, you know, most companies are lacking that in every field. Just that customer service of hey I came out to your property the owner came out to your property or your account manager came out to your property and stopped by did a property inspection and this is everything's looking good or hey you know the lawn has disease and we should treat it so that is what separates me from what I think my competitors are cuz when I used to work for my competitors no one was doing that they only call when there's an issue so most of my the higher and clients, they want people to be proactive instead of reactive and they love that initiative.

17:43Dan Leibrandt

That totally makes sense. Yeah, that that is really good that you for for people that don't know I forgive me if I get the phrase wrong. Are you a master what is the term?

17:57Couri Leuschner

No, it's okay. So, I'm a board certified master arborist. So there's certified arborists and then only 2% of all certified arborists become a board certified master arborist. So I was lucky enough to have some good mentors in my career that taught me quite a bit and then I took the test and I passed it. So a lot of clients like that too. And that helps you out as well, just having that knowledge of definitely being able to preserve the trees cuz people are willing to invest a lot to keep their trees healthy and safe for a property because trees tremendously enhance the value of their properties. I think one of my favorite quotes of all time is the Charlie Munger quote. He's like, "You want to like triple your ROI, plant a tree on your property." Something like that. I'm paraphrasing.

18:48Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. So, what I was going to mention there is like you being a board certified master arborist, you coming out to their house like once a month is super valuable then I mean you have the certification that almost no one has like and what I want to ask around that is like do people care about that and generally and like this could be for pest control as well like do you think people care about like certifications like that or would you It's overrated...

19:23Couri Leuschner

For the most part. Some clients, to be totally transparent, might most clients don't care about the certification. They just want competency. You know, so obviously being a board certified master arborist gives me that competency. I try not to like flex it as much, but it's when sometimes when clients say, "Hey, are you qualified for this?" I've had other certified arborists come out. I say, "Oh, no, that's good. Great. It's great that you're dealing with certified arborists. I'm actually a board certified master arborist. No, I'll drop that little bomb in there. But all in all, I would say about like 10 a handful of times, 10 to 20 times a year, people will go on the like the ISA, which is the International Society of Arboriculture website and they will go down because it's all public record. They'll go down to find the local arborist and then they say, if you go to the website, it would say, "Hey, Couri Leuschner, master arborist." And then they call me, they say, "Hey, I went to the ISA website.

20:21Couri Leuschner

I didn't realize that they were master arborist. I want you to personally come out to my property." And what's nice with that is that I then get to charge a consultation fee. So I say, "Hey, look, it's x amount for me to come out." So it protects me because we all know in this industry there's tire kickers and that's annoying. So I'll come out be, "Hey, it's x amount for me to come out. Assess it. If you sign up for stuff, I waive the fee, but at least then I'm protecting my time." and costs on that. So it's a it's a great certification to have. If any arborists are looking, I would just say get it cuz why not? And it definitely, you know, separates you. And then helps with like public government bids and all of that good stuff, too.

21:06Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, totally. And I want to go back to premium clients. So, we talked about like how you're servicing them, but how do you get them to begin with?

21:16Couri Leuschner

So, this is where you know, in my area, there's very extremely wealthy people, people that are worth hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. As as much as I love Facebook ads, you know, Bill Gates ain't going on Facebook to find his arborist. So, that is all of my big accounts came from strategic partnerships where I'm very blessed to work with a very big-time landscape company. They do about 40 million a year just in this area. And they partnered with other landscape architects that design these big crazy 5 million 10 $30 million projects and then they bring me on to do the aftercare. So they'll plant I work I worked on a property where just the plants were $5 million worth of plants. And that didn't include the labor. So then they brought me on to take care of the investment. So again, that owner isn't going on Facebook to find his arborist. He's deal he's he or she is going to work with the landscape architect and the landscaper and then bring me in. So definitely in the beginning when you don't have again the money, just cold call the landscapers and try to get the best landscapers in the area. And again, this one in my opinion, they're the top one in the area.

22:36Couri Leuschner

And then they like to work with me because they know I'm competent. I call back right away, which is another big thing. I show up as fast as I can and they know that it's going to be taken care of. The plants, their investment on the property, it's going to go well.

22:53Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. No, that's a really good point. And I think this demonstrates like I've been talking to several pest control people in the commercial space and it's the same thing with commercial where it's this big property and it's like the way I think of it is like the higher the ticket the more trust is required. So like you said Facebook ads is pretty low trust or same same with door-to-door sales. Like anyone could go knock on your door and try to sell you something. Like Bill Gates is probably not going to fall for a door to door guy knocking on his door. But when let's say like a Bill Gates is already working with someone who he really trusts and that person recommends someone, that's how you get that business. It seems like the way to get these these big clients, whether it's these big residential properties or really any commercial properties, it's through relationships like you built.

23:47Couri Leuschner

Yeah, I yeah, I agree with that.

23:50Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, totally. And I also wanted to jump into Facebook. So, Couri, I know you get a good amount of leads from Facebook as well. So, yeah, let let's jump into groups first. You mentioned that you have kind of a unique strategy around Facebook group. So, what are you doing there?

24:07Couri Leuschner

Yeah. So, this I learned from you guys and it so in the be in the Pest Control Millionaire group, you guys just recommend posting your business in a friendly way, not in like the annoying way of, hey, just buy for me. It's, hey, you know, my name's Dan and I own a local pest control company. I service these areas. In my, and I know all Facebook groups are kind of the same, but in my market, they'll kick you out very fast if you start advertising. So, I stole something from like Gary Vaynerchuk, where it's just the jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, right hook. So, every, week I post a tree tip of the week. So, I do a tree Talking Trees Tuesdays and Turf Tip Thursdays. And, so I get to post in these groups eight times a month, which is a lot more than just the one time a month if they allow you to post in the business.

25:01Couri Leuschner

And it's all just giving out information. So what I do is the week when I'm doing my property inspections, I'm writing notes. Hey, these lawns have dollar spot or the trees are getting anthracnose or whatever. I dump all my notes into Claude. And then they will Claude will organize it and then I say, "Hey, based off of my notes from last week, it's, you know, today's Tuesday. What are the top three things on the properties that I'm seeing? Is it spotted lanternfly, beech leaf disease or anthracnose? Whatever those annoying things are. And then Claude will be, hey, these are the top three. Then I choose which one that I think people are looking for. And then I just have it write me a copy and I'll edit it a little bit. And then I just post it in all the groups. So I'm in about around a hundred groups now. And it takes time to build them, you know, to get into the groups. And I almost have a cult-like following now.

25:56Couri Leuschner

Where last year when I started doing it, I mentioned that one of my wins was one week I forgot to post. I think I was on vacation or it was just something busy and people were reaching out to me like on my personal Facebook like hey you okay you post this week and I go over to your post like everything good. So and then it came to the point too where when people are looking for an arborist or a lawn guy in those groups people are saying hey you got to call Couri. I don't even hire Couri, but this guy knows what he's doing. So, that's a great organic way to do it because when you post in that stuff, it's forever, right? As much as I love paying Meta for Facebook ads, those are just digital billboards that once you cut the spend, the ad goes away. So I love that just giving, giving, giving. And then, you know, you just build that that brand awareness and stuff. And also, there was another win.

26:50Couri Leuschner

I didn't send it to you guys this year as well. Someone from another arborist company. I don't want to mention their name. They started posting forestry Forestry Friday posts. He started totally stealing my stuff. He hasn't been consistent with it. He only posted like three times and I'm not seeing him post anymore. But even now people are stealing from me, which I guess you know what's the saying like imitation is the best form of flattery, right? So that was cool that I saw someone else posting like that and it was just you just have to be consistent, right? So, I haven't figured out a way for AI to do it yet because I know Meta is super weird about that. Even me yesterday, it was, you know, today's Friday, so yesterday I was doing the turf tip and when I just copy paste, I go so fast that Meta thinks it's AI. So, they put me on a cool down timer for like 30 minutes.

27:43Couri Leuschner

So, now I have to wait. So, I only got through like 80 groups and then all a sudden they're like, "Hey, you're posting too much." So, I had to wait to post. But that if you if in the beginning for you guys that like again who have more time than money, just leverage those Facebook groups because it costs nothing to post in it. So even if it's like a bug of the week or whatever for pest control companies or whatever, just post that stuff because eventually you'll start building a brand and it will just start taking off.

28:14Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, that's so good. One aspect that I want to touch on real quick there or just mention is that you're in a hundred groups. I feel like some people are just in maybe like three or five local groups and they think that's enough. But you're saying you're in a 100 groups and you're posting every single week in each of them. And another point that I really like there is that like you said, it's not salesy at all. It's really just trust building and like helping people out. Maybe someone wants to, you know, fix up their trees or their weeds or whatever might be in their lawn and they see your tips and they see it's genuinely helpful. And also, like we talked about before the call, I think it's important that you making these posts, a lot of people when they're writing stuff with AI will just say, "Hey, generate me a post on I don't like a type of tree." And what you're doing here is actually from your expert notes throughout the week and now you're having Claude strategically make you a post based on your like actual experience and expertise.

29:25Dan Leibrandt

So I think that's really key too. So I think you're doing this in a really smart way whereas most people will just try to pitch their stuff or they'll do something else. And also that this is repeatable that you do this forever. I think that's so funny that people will even reach out to you and saying like, "Hey, where where have you been?" It's funny because I don't think most would think like, "Oh, you know, no one cares about my tree tip of the week." But people actually do, right? Oh,...

29:55Couri Leuschner

They love it. I have this one lady, I've never met her, but she's every it's consistent. And I almost get nervous when she doesn't respond to me. It's in one of the local towns. And when I post it, she's always like, "Thanks, Couri, for your tip. It makes it makes my week. It makes my week." so like when she doesn't respond, I get nervous. And I want to reach out to her like, "Hey, you okay? You know, you going to respond to my post?" But it's definitely one of the more fun fun things to do to engage in that that community and be that local expert. I forgot there's someone on the pest control group. I don't know if it was Mat Rogers, but he calls it Five Mile Famous, right? So you just got to be famous within the 5 mile radius of your area. So definitely that helps. And yeah, you know, in terms of like you said, three to five groups that I don't think that's enough. I'm blessed enough to service an entire county. And so there's like something like 30 or 40 zip codes in that one county.

30:53Couri Leuschner

And then there's whatever the Mount Kisco local moms and then there's Mount Kisco newswire and then there's Mount Kisco happening. So it's not just the mom groups. You just got to go and just take your time at night or whatever and just go on and find all the local Facebook groups and just join them and just start, you know, giving out content or education for free. Cuz we all get annoyed. I get annoyed when I just see constant advertisements in those groups...

31:20Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, totally. And also for for more context here, how like how many leads and sales are you getting from doing this?

31:31Couri Leuschner

I could pull it up real quick, but I would probably say just doing this, I probably got like 40 to 50 clients this year doing that. And again, in certain markets, that's not a lot, but my average client spends about three grand with me. So, you know, you're talking six figures for just taking 30 minutes or an hour a week to post in local Facebook groups. And that's still me doing it. You can hire a virtual assistant to do it. You can like this year I didn't leverage that. Next year I'm definitely leveraging buying back my time more. But you know for you know an hour a week you know to get that I that return I would say is pretty good ROI I would say. Oh...

32:15Dan Leibrandt

Yeah totally. And especially for people that are just starting out because people and people come to me and they're like oh you know like should I start doing SEO and I have to build like a huge website and everything. I'm like, "No, actually like start with the free stuff where you get immediate returns and then get into the more complex stuff like SEO and branding and all of that." so totally agree. And I also want to ask you've kind of already mentioned it. I did want to talk about the Pest Control Millionaires program. So you joined I think like about a year ago. Could you tell me just like a little bit about it? What's been your experience and anything you got out of it?

32:53Couri Leuschner

Yeah, it was the best investment I ever made with my business. So, you know, it's a group of awesome studs as Jonas likes to say and they just teach you from all aspects of the business from the marketing which for me was my weakest point and then delegating and just building SOPs. So, they just teach you all aspects of the business. It's not just marketing. And just have access to, you know, you Jake and Jonas is just alone that's definitely worth the price of admission, not alone just all the other content that they give you.

33:30Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, I appreciate that. And yeah, I have so much respect for you because for a long time I think for I mean at least 6 months plus you were on every single weekly call and I feel like most people like the program is a kind of thing where you get what you put into it. So, you were putting in a ton and I think the results have shown like so cuz I want to get clear on like how fast you've grown. You started four years ago. What revenue were you at like last year and the year before that?

34:05Couri Leuschner

So, before I joined, I was doing 400,000. My last year in business when I was totally by myself was 400. And then so that was the end of 2024. So 2025 was when I joined. And I didn't again that was my learning phase because it was the middle of the season when I joined. I only had one technician. So that last year I ended around 700K and a lot I grew a lot there through the Facebook ads and that was the only lever that I really pulled last year with you guys. And then so this year I'm going to close around a million with two guys working for me. And that was more this year I levered down on Facebook and I didn't and my biggest mistake this year was I didn't spend enough I didn't spend enough on advertising and I should have. But it was a great investment. I would do it again if I had to. But yeah, I grew. I'm pretty happy with my growth.

35:07Couri Leuschner

There's always more, you know, and there's always more I can grow. And I mean, you know, you don't want to compare yourself. It's just that I've always worked for massive companies. I worked for a company that did $1.5 billion a year. So, I'm always you know, when I compare myself to them, I'm always like, "Oh, I'm such a small fish, you know, and stuff like that." But, and then in my area, there's some great great companies, great competition, which which I love. But it's just such a unique market. But I'm definitely happy with it. And next year I'm hoping to hit like 2.5 to three because I definitely now have the systems in place for that, the funnels for the leads and how to organize it all and all of that cuz this year to be I guess vulnerable and transparent, I definitely did not utilize the Meta leads as best as I could in terms of speed to lead with that. I was only using GoHighLevel to send out auto texts and then when I had time I would call them.

36:03Couri Leuschner

But now I actually have a call center that calls them every day for five days. Next year I'm going to train up a VA just to do that because it's a it's a safer it's a cheaper cost. And then I have more control of it. So definitely having systems in place to catch all the leads too. That is super important that that's something I failed on this year that I'm going to tweak for next...

36:33Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, totally. No, man. I think you're still growing super fast like 400 to 700 to a million. Mo most people wish for that growth that most people...

36:42Couri Leuschner

But you compare yourself to Jonas, you know, and you never I mean Jonas is a beast of its own, but Jonas is growing millions a year, right? So then you look at yourself and you're like, "Oh, okay."

36:52Dan Leibrandt

True, true. Well, there's always room for growth. I did want to touch on what you were talking about there, and I appreciate you being vulnerable. You're talking about like how you have to get better on speed to lead. For people that don't know, why is speed to lead important?

37:07Couri Leuschner

Well, there's like a lot of I'm going to I'm going to butcher the stats, but it's something like within five minutes if you don't call the lead the it goes down like 70% or something like that. And so it's mostly the Facebook leads because the Facebook is the disruptive marketing and even when I call them, you know, a lot of them will be like, "Oh, my best one was it was it was on the weekend and I just happened to be by my phone." And you get a thousand notifications when the Facebook lead comes in and, the guy's like, "Oh, I accidentally but my finger slipped." And I'm like, "No, dude. Your finger couldn't slip to click get offer, put in your info, put in your phone number and your zip code." but again the speed to lead it just in today's market you know with Amazon and stuff you I mean you know I service New York City you could get stuff delivered to your house in two hours with Amazon now so they expect things to happen very fast so it's on top of their mind right then and there and so strike when the skillet's hot and even in my with pest control it's more of an emergency right hey I have ants in my house I want to get it out even though I don't do that type of work but tree work.

38:18Couri Leuschner

You know, hey, the tree fell down on my house. When storms come, it's usually the first person to respond. We'll get we'll get the job. So, today nowadays speeds everything. And that's something I definitely this year didn't implement enough with other stuff with with systems and stuff. That sense of urgency that I got to get better on as well.

38:39Dan Leibrandt

Gotcha. So especially for Facebook because it's disruptive like you said and I also want to ask you what is the vision for your company? Where do you want to take this?

38:51Couri Leuschner

So for me and this is a mindset thing. I just like to I just like my market. I don't right now want to grow to other markets but in my area I know that my company can hit like 20 to $30 million in just the market that I that I that I play. I know that because I've worked for companies that do that. So, I think having a $20 million lo just one location that does 20 million is pretty cool. Maybe branch out to some other states. You know, but right now just, I know I have to change my mindset. Maybe that's something I talked to Jonas about. But, just, you know, I like the growth that I have. I It's slow and controlled growth. And again, that's a mindset thing that I have to do. Just grow fast and when it breaks, fix it. But you know, if I grow 50 to 60% every year, I'm pretty happy with that.

39:41Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. I think you will hit it, man. I You're You're growing fast, you're smart, you're hardworking, so I think you'll get it.

39:49Couri Leuschner

Awesome. Thanks.

39:50Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. And last question for you, Couri, before we wrap up is what is your message for the other owners out there? What do you want to tell them? What do you think they need to know?

40:00Couri Leuschner

Definitely don't be afraid to try new track everything. That's important. Know what works, what know what knows know when to stop doing stuff that doesn't work. So for example, in my area, like I've tried three different mailer companies, none of them got me the results that I wanted. So having systems in place, hire or be early to hire, get out of the truck as fast as possible. Again, that was a massive mistake for me because no matter what you do, you can have a technician who's better than you. And I have some lawns that look almost better than like with my some of my technicians do it than I do, but the clients are always just going to find an issue with everything when the owner is not doing the work. So, don't be afraid to grow fast and hire just hire solid hire solid team players.

40:58Dan Leibrandt

Well, thanks so much for coming on the show, Couri. This has been great. It's been good reconnecting with you. I know it's been a bit since we talked. Where where can people find you online and connect with you?

41:09Couri Leuschner

Yeah, you can go on my website. It's I believe that's it. And you can find me on social media as well. During the winter I do a lot more posting. I need to do that more. But it's all just Botanical Solutions NY. I think that's like my Instagram, the Facebook, the TikTok, the Twitter, all that good jazz...

41:31Dan Leibrandt

Sweet. And are you on Facebook or LinkedIn or anything?

41:35Couri Leuschner

Yes. Yeah. So, my LinkedIn is just my name. I think it's just Couri Leuschner. I spell a little weird. But yeah, you know, we're in that day and age where we have to be content creators now, too.

41:46Dan Leibrandt

No, I'm not I'm not saying to be a content creator. I'm just saying that maybe if someone like if this show resonates with someone that they can reach out. Oh,...

41:53Couri Leuschner

Yeah. Absolutely. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, so feel free to reach out to me and shoot me a message if you if you guys have any questions with joining this program. More than happy to help.

42:04Dan Leibrandt

Awesome. Cool. Well, great. All those links will be in the description. This has been great having you on the show, Couri, and yeah, I hope we stay in touch.

42:13Couri Leuschner

Awesome. Thanks, Dan.

42:14Dan Leibrandt

Of course.

42:16Dan Leibrandt

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