Griffin Thomas owns Preferred Pest Management down in the Dallas area. We had never met before this, but I had been following him online and just sent him a message. We went back and forth, and I knew he would be great on the show. He runs a YouTube channel, he is building a real business, and he thinks hard about marketing and AI.
A few things stuck with me after we hung up.
This conversation is part of the PCM Podcast. If marketing is your thing too, see how Jasmine Almeter turns Facebook into local pest leads.
Griffin did not grow up planning to do this. His grandfather ran a one-man pest business in Missouri for 30 or 40 years. But Griffin stayed away from the family business on purpose, because he told me he is a low-risk guy. When he sees the same thing happen over and over, he goes with it. He does not try to recreate the wheel.
He moved to Dallas, tried trading stocks, and worked a garage door job he hated. Then he found a Terminex posting paying 50k a year for a tech. That number got his attention. He started at Mosquito Joe, and then moved to Terminex for about three years.
Here is the part I loved. He used those years as paid training. Big companies make you wear every hat. He also saw the route numbers. Some accounts were 150 to 250 dollars a quarter. He did the math in his head and thought, I could do this myself. That is how most people get into this trade: they run the route, see the money, and leave.
Best known beats best
My mentor in Plano taught me this years ago. It is not the best product that wins. It is the best known product that wins. He has hundreds of trucks in one metro, and he still meets people who never heard of him.
Griffin lives this too. He made a video on it, and the thumbnail says best known beats best. He pushes brand recognition even on channels that do not bring leads right away. Most sales take many touches. Someone thinks they have ants, then the rain stops and the ants leave. Three months later it comes back. If you are not in their head, they will not call you.
He moved fast and bet on cheap leads
Griffin got started in a hurry. He got fired four days before his license test. He laughed about it. As Griffin put it, “I just know this is happening for a reason.” He passed all three tests on Halloween 2020. That same weekend he and his wife built the website and the Google profile. They slept about six hours all weekend.
He started with around 8k from selling a car. He jumped on Google Local Services Ads early, before the big players caught on. Leads were 20 to 30 dollars back then. His time was worth nothing yet, so he took every lead he could. His first job was an 85 dollar pest and rodent start, 40 minutes from his house. That early bet paid off. Google Local brought him close to 70 percent of his first-year customers.
But the real move is reviews. He says to get your first 10 to 50 reviews fast across Google, Yelp, and Facebook. Then organic leads start coming in and your cost per lead drops. Do not just watch your ad cost. Watch the whole picture.
One more edge in our trade is urgency. Someone with bed bugs or wildlife needs help now. We both agreed the first person to answer the phone usually wins.
Yelp is a maybe, and it depends on your market
Griffin ramped Yelp back up for a few weeks. He said only about 10 to 20 percent of the leads felt real. A lot looked fake, with no photo and zero reviews on the profile. But the real ones converted well, maybe even better than Google Local.
Different markets favor different platforms. Some owners swear by Facebook, and some swear by Thumbtack. Test it on a small budget before you spend big.
Your first hire is harder than you expect
Going from a one-man show to a team is a real jump. Griffin hired a tech and an admin close together. Customers noticed the new tech right away. They picked at tiny things, like one bit of web left on a corner.
He did not make a big announcement about it, and he treated it like a price increase. He did slip the new tech into the pre-service notices so people were not blindsided. After a few months, the noise faded.
Don’t switch software to save a few bucks
This one hit home for me. Griffin uses Gorilla Desk and stuck with it. He looked at moving off QuickBooks to save money, then decided against it. His line says it all. As Griffin told me, “is it worth saving $300 to $400 a year or can we just go sell another contract today?”
Switching means moving all your data and payment methods. It means learning a new system and rebuilding your automations. The pain of switching beats the pain you already know. Go sell another deal instead.
AI is the biggest edge young owners have
Griffin is all in on custom GPTs. He built a Gorilla Desk helper for his admin. He built a version of himself she can ask questions when he is busy. He built a pest ID tool for the field. Snap a photo of a bug, and it tells you what it is and how to treat it.
He saw a guy charging 2k per GPT and did the math on what he had built. As Griffin said, “that’s like $40,000 worth of GPTs sitting there.”
The skill is not the tool. It is talking to it. As Griffin put it, “all you have to do is know how to communicate.” He treats it like a person. He even asks it what context it still needs to do a better job. I do the same. I talk to it out loud while I drive for hours.
He had a sharp point about why this matters now. As Griffin said, “we might live in the laziest generation of all time.” Then he flipped it. The tech plus the laziness makes it easier to win than ever.
Document everything and give it away
Griffin has been on YouTube about ten years. He started by filming everything he did in business. His rule is simple. If something took him hours to figure out, he makes a video so the next person saves that time. He believes it comes back around.
His break came by accident. He posted a rough update video with the washing machine going in the background. The title was about how he grew his pest control business to six figures in one year. A month later he had new subscribers and almost a thousand views. He had found a niche nobody was filling.
His advice for filming leaves no excuse. As Griffin said, “just pull out your phone. It doesn’t have to be a $1,000 camera.” The phone cameras are good enough now, so learn a little editing and people will watch.
He is honest about the money too. YouTube does not pay much, and you will not get rich off it. The real play is community and trust. Give away so much free value that people come ask to pay you for more.
Build a roadmap so good people grow with you
Griffin’s number two came in with a lawn and ornamental certification he did not have. Instead of playing chicken, they talked it out. They agreed on a percentage and some goals. Both sides won. Griffin knew the stakes. The guy told him straight that if the deal was a no, he would have gone and started his own.
I think the same way. If a tech is reading books and showing up to learn on his own, that is the guy you want to grow with. Give him a clear path. Nothing kills good people faster than a dead-end job.
Griffin is not even 30, and he is just getting going. I can’t wait to see what he does over the next few years. We will have to do another one of these next year and get an update.
