Jake Sheldon on Reviews, Referrals, and Pest Control Growth
Table of Contents
- Get reviews fast in a new market
- Don’t sell the service. Sell the warranty.
- Know your lifetime value, then go win the customer
- Use “clover knocking” to grow off your own customers
- Make your prizes something people can hold
- The little touches keep people for years
- Spend enough on ads or don’t bother
- Extra money: refer customers to solar
- Save on staff with virtual assistants
- The mindset that ties it all together
Jake Sheldon is a cofounder of Pest Control Millionaires, and he owns a virtual staffing company called Next Gen Virtual Staffing. He has helped hundreds of pest control companies grow online, and he has owned pest control companies himself. He shared a lot, so here’s what stood out. (When he came back on, he walked through the marketing system behind his companies.)
Want more on marketing? See how Jasmine Almeter turns Facebook into local pest leads, and catch every episode on the PCM Podcast.
Get reviews fast in a new market
This one surprised me. When Jake opens in a new market, stacking up reviews is the first thing he goes after, because reviews build trust on Google, and the faster you rank, the faster the phone rings.
When we recorded this in 2023, his plan was to give away free services to get there. As Jake put it, “I will do services for free until I get to 50 reviews. I’ll go knock on 50 houses, I’m gonna get 50 reviews.” He said he can do that in less than a week, and then he keeps going until he hits 100.
One thing I’d change today. Google’s rules don’t allow giving anything in exchange for a review, and a free service counts, so a profile built that way can lose those reviews. Go after the same speed the allowed way. Knock the doors, do great work and ask every customer for a review before you leave the house, and pay your techs a bonus for the reviews they earn instead of paying the customer.
He also said to post real photos on your Google profile every week. Not stock images, because Google can tell and it does not like them. Keep your name, address, and phone the same everywhere, and add your Q&A. He said to clear your calls and add photos often, and you almost always see more calls right after.
Don’t sell the service. Sell the warranty.
Jake started in cold markets like Omaha and Kansas City, where winter is hard. Bugs slow down, and people want to cancel.
His fix was to pre-frame the sale up front. He told people they were paying for a year-round plan and a warranty. If they saw a bug between visits, he came out for free.
That is how the best door knockers sell too. They do not sell one service, they sell the whole experience. When you frame it that way, the cold season stops scaring people off.
He also fought the winter dip with pre-season mosquito sales and bed bug ads. That is a smart way to keep money coming in when business is slow.
Know your lifetime value, then go win the customer
This was the core of the whole talk, because Jake does not care about making money on the first visit.
He told me, “I’m not going after the initial money. I’ll even lose money on the beginning if I know that I can get that customer forever.” The math is simple, he said: “The guys who make millions are the guys who know their LTV, their lifetime value customer.”
He gave a great example. One guy will not get out of bed for less than $250, while another guy down the street charges $39 for the initial. That cheap guy has 50,000 accounts and gets the customer forever, and the expensive guy gets nothing.
His first year running ads for a client backs this up. They put about $36,000 into the ad budget, and that client landed 736 new pest control accounts.
Use “clover knocking” to grow off your own customers
I loved this trick. After you service a home, talk to the customer and thank them, then ask if their neighbors might want pest control too.
Most people say yes, so then you ask for the neighbors’ names. Now you walk over with a warm intro and say the neighbor sent you. You shake their hand and let them know you will be working in the area soon.
You are not a stranger now, you are a referral. Jake said you can put on 500 accounts in a few months doing this.
Make your prizes something people can hold
Jake shared a retention idea that flips how most guys do referrals. Most companies give a $50 credit for a referral, and Jake used to do that too. Then a successful owner told him to stop, and the reason stuck with me.
As Jake explained it, “People want something tangible when they give you something. If they’re going to give you something, give them something back. Don’t just put a credit. They’re not going to see the credit. You can’t touch a credit.”
So Jake switched to cash and Amazon gift cards. It is the same money, but it feels different, and his referral and retention rates both went up.
He pairs this with a gift giveaway, where customers earn a ticket each time they send a referral that signs up. More referrals means more tickets. He pulls a name and gives away a prize like a phone. Then he films it and texts the whole list, and now everyone wants in.
The little touches keep people for years
Two stories here made me smile. One owner asks each customer their favorite song. The next visit, he plays it on a small speaker on his belt while he works. Another writes down the dog’s name, then asks about the dog by name on the next visit, and the customer cannot believe he remembered.
That is how you charge a little more and keep people happy. Small stuff, big payoff.
Spend enough on ads or don’t bother
A lot of owners waste ad money, and Jake explained why. Facebook runs on an auction, and you are not just bidding against other pest control companies. You are bidding against dentists, chiropractors, and everyone else. As Jake said, “If you don’t spend enough money, Facebook doesn’t want to show your ad to those eyeballs.”
His floor is $600 a month if you run it yourself, because spend less and you are throwing it away. He would rather test with $3,000 over a month or two.
He also said to know your demographic. For his markets, the buyer is often a woman age 30 to 55. Then give a strong offer, because everyone runs $50 off and that will not cut it. And use a bold image, because people scroll in a trance and a bright red or yellow image snaps them out of it.
If you are new and have time, Jake says learn ads yourself on YouTube, since it is cheaper than hiring out.
Extra money: refer customers to solar
Here is one most owners miss: if you have a big customer list, you can earn from solar. Jake said most solar companies pay $250 to $1,000 per referral that closes. You partner up, share a tracking tool, and send them customers. He knows owners with a few thousand customers who made hundreds of thousands of dollars this way.
Save on staff with virtual assistants
Jake’s newest push is offshore staffing, and he uses virtual assistants for his own companies, mostly out of Mexico. He pays around $5 an hour for someone to post in local Facebook groups all day.
I tried this myself, and it changed our Tuesdays. My payroll used to eat four to five hours for two of my top, well-paid people. We brought on one assistant to handle it, and now they just check her work before it runs. It is the same job for way less cost, and the team’s mood on Tuesdays got a lot better too.
The mindset that ties it all together
The best advice came near the end, when Jake said every business breaks. Things go wrong that cannot go wrong, and the winners just adjust.
As Jake put it, “The guys that I talk to are making millions and millions of dollars. They have the same exact problems that you have had. They just figured out how to get past that.”
So stop blaming your circumstance. A dog ate a bait station, or a customer canceled, but it happens to everyone. Solve the problem and move on. That, plus knowing your lifetime value, is most of the game.
Full transcript
Every word of the episode, from the video captions
All right, welcome back to the show. Today is actually episode 48. We're closing in on a year. Another special guest today. Super excited about this one. I think most people in the pest control probably know who you are. You're pretty active online, but for those who don't, we got Jake Sheldon. Here. Jake runs a marketing company called Marketing Local.
He's a co-owner of that and a co-owner of What's your new company's name in Texas?
Yeah. Virtual staffing hub Gotcha Cool So Virtual Staffing hub. And we'll talk about that, too. It's going to be lot a lot of cool things. Like I said, I think most people know who you are. But again, there's an introduction. Welcome to the show and thanks for being here, appreciate it, guys, thanks for thanks for having me, yeah, I think.
Man, I think I've seen your name for the past two, three, maybe four years online. And then I think we finally got connected really well within the last a year or two and started chatting back and forth on the phone. Learning what you're doing, learning what we're doing, and then we end up working together this year on some pretty cool things.
So why don't you just kind of just tell us your background, how you got into this past control industry where you started at and then kind of walk us through your journey to we're at today, and then we'll go from there.
Yeah, for sure. So I got into the pest control industry a little different, I guess you could say, than most. So I started out in the marketing world, I kind of gotten that quite young, 14, 15 years old, you know, kind of building websites messing around with Google. Things like that started a marketing agency pretty young, so that went pretty well.
Moved to Omaha, Nebraska, was. I'm from Kearney, Nebraska, a little teeny town, no one, no one's ever heard of it, but. Moved to the big city right of Omaha. Nebraska, was running a marketing agency at the time. And I got introduced to a guy that there who owned a pest control company.
Man, I had never done anything with pest control, never even heard of it, didn't know pest control companies made money, right?
And he's like, he was a young guy, right? He's 29 years old, was already multi-millionaire, he's like, Hey, man, I've never ran anything online, never done. Ads don't know anything about Google, don't know anything about Facebook. But I have a really good door knocking team.
And so he had been quite successful with that, and he's like, Hey, I'd love to bring you on. Do some sales for me and then also run my ads. I was like, Okay, well, yeah, let's do it. And that first year, we put about $36,000 into his budget with the online growth, and he came out with 736 general pest control clients. Nice, so it went super super well.
Safe to say we became really good friends from that. And he's like, Man, he's like, this is crazy, this is going to change industry. He's like everyone door knocks right now. It's like the thing to do. It's been the thing to do for a long time. And obviously you all know, like door knocking is still a great way, but it's hard, it's hard, right?
And so he actually offered me equity in another company. He was starting in Kansas City. So that's actually how I got introduced to the pest control industry, and that's actually how I became an owner. It's kind of in the right place, right time scenario.
So I was like, Well, if I'm going to own a pest control company, you better know what I'm talking about. So learned as much as I could about the pest control industry, got my licenses started doing, servicing. Just try to figure out as much as I could. Right?
Started going to like conferences like, I'm sure you've been to like PestWorld and things like that and. It's pretty cool. Met met a bunch of buddies there at PestWorld. And they're like, Man, Jake, like, what are you guys doing to grow online?
And, you know, like, How are you guys putting so many accounts on, like through Facebook and Google and things like that?
I was like, Well, I've been doing marketing for a while. I could do it for you if you' want, and so fast forward. Quite a few years now, we help. I mean, we've helped hundreds of companies with their online marketing, whether it be website, build building, Facebook ads, Google Ads, SEO, whatever it may be.
So that's, I guess, how my name has gone throughout the industry. Just because we've helped a lot of other pest control owners with their marketing, so been an owner of a pest control company. And also been an owner of marketing company.
And here recently, how we like started shifting also to the virtual assistant staffing. Is we even for our own pest control company and for our marketing company?
We've been using virtual assistance and found out. They're just as professional and really not just as good as an American employee would, but for a lot. You know, it's a lot more affordable. And I just like, had this revelation, I was like, Oh my gosh, I could have my whole team basically staffed out of either. Mexico, Philippines Some of these areas, and it's going to save me so much on my employee cost per year.
We, of course, still have some Americans on our team, right, but most of our staff is offshore. And so a lot of my pest control clients that I work with, a lot of buddies that I've built, just relationships over years and years. They're like, Jake, Hey, like, you know, who are you using for, like your office staff?
I can't find anyone to work. No one wants to work anymore, especially like Since Co. And I was like, Well, I staff. Out of Mexico. And they're like, Oh, no way like, that's working for you. I was like, Well, yeah, and so started directing people that way. And so we started a company called Virtual Staffing Hub, where we help people find staff in offshore, whether Mexico or the Philippines, mainly Mexico. That's where we found it the best to be, and we staff pest control companies with really, really good virtual assistance. Of course we have like trainings and sops and things like that, but it's been crazy.
It has been extremely popular quite recently, probably seen a lot of my posts and stuff. But it has been very, very popular in the pest control industry so far. Just because I think a lot of people don't really even quite know about it yet.
Yeah, and I can kind of chime in there a little bit. So we as company, grows and gets bigger and bigger. Payroll tends to be just one of those things that just take a long time to do. I have two of my top people that working on payroll for, you know, which seems to be four to five hours per day. Both of them and they're, they're both making really good salaries.
And but it's was just one of those things on Tuesday that they trying to figure out the commissions for the sales guys, the door knocking guys, then like the salary for the just the payroll in general, right?
And so I like, Okay, well, how can we solve this problem? So I reached out to Jake, I think you reach out to me, you're like, Hey, like, are you looking for anything like this?
I'm like, You know what? I wonder if we could make that work, so it's probably been a month, maybe two months, since we brought her on. And that's literally all she does with our payroll and few odds and ends things here pretty inexpensive.
But man, did it change the girls attitudes on Tuesdays like they like they just they meet with her?
Obviously they go over the payroll, they make sure everything looks correctly before they process it. But like I said, I had two of my more highly paid office people working on that task where now I have. It's just subra out, it's been fantastic, so thank you for that. So anyone who's listening that thinks like, Hey, how could you utilize this person?
That's a great way that we found to utilize it, absolutely, and I'm going rewind a little bit. So you're living in Nebraska, right, but you, but you started a company in Kansas City. Yep, yep, and that's what's called that was called Pest works. Casey Yeah, cool. So what first thing is why Kansas City?
And second, how did you operate living in a state? Yeah, so I actually ended up having to move to Kansas City from Nebraska. Started off trying to, you know, trying to do it in a different state. And I was like, Hey, you know what, I'm going to go f in, move to Kansas City and.
Live live there for a few years, got it operational and then made the move to Texas. But yeah, we were in Texas or we were in Kansas City for a few years. But yeah, the reason why we chose Kansas City is because Omaha was a really, really good market. When we first started there and then tons and tons of door knocking companies came in. That kind of heard about this like little honeysuckle of Omaha, right?
And I mean, just got filled with door knocking companies really, really quickly. She like, Hey, what's what's another city?
That's similar to Omaha? Similar demographics, right? And has, you know, enough buggy population, right?
So we're like, Hey, Kansas City would probably be really good. So did a bunch of market research like, Man. I think Kansas City would be a great spot. So we chose the OA. Area of Kansas City, just a little suburb there and. It ended up being a really good spot for us, really. Buggy area. I mean, there's a lot of a lot of companies there, but there wasn't a lot of people doing online marketing.
When we first started there, so we did, we did quite well, cool. And then from there, did you sell off your equity in that region?
That's when you moved to Dallas or to Texas, yeah, in Austin, Texas, so around that time frame, they love Austin Austin's fun. Yeah, it's a really fun city, It's nice. I think it's rainy street, right?
Yeah, yep, got rainy the back bridge. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty cool stuff. There's a lot of fun stuff you can do here. It's kind of the cost of living super high, right, super high, super super high. It's like California prices.
So then you're telling me, like, just me processing things through my head. So Omaha tends like bunch of door knocking companies come in kind of ruin, not ruin that business, but make it tough. Now you're in Austin, Texas, where it seems like every door knocking company in the country is there too.
How you been, a How what? I got two questions out of that. How have you been able to keep those pest control or those door companies at bay in Austin, so I actually don't have a pest control company here. Austin Y So.
Since we went to KC. Started that company there, that one grew well. That's kind of when I don't even like to call it this, but my Internet fameish in the pest control industry, right?
Like we became kind of like a household name in the pest control industry. Our agency, like, blew up. And I really couldn't focus on as much as I' like to. We were getting like 20 calls a day like I was like, Holy Cow, this is a lot.
And so that's when I decided I was like, Okay, I either got to like, Choose one or the other right now. And so I chose the marketing route until I could get it, like processed out, which we're about there. And then I'm going to, you know, go hard in the pest control industry again. But there's a comeback, there's a comeback coming back, that's cool, excited to see that. Will it be in Austin or you going to go somewhere else?
No, I'm going to go somewhere else undisclosed. As of now, I like it. That's cool. Okay, so back to let's go back to Omaha, real quick. Did you guys have a way to keep those door knocking door knockers at bay, or was it?
Were you just fighting left and right? And then what happened in the winter, like, what did you guys do with their winter services?
When the snow came? Yeah, so it was really similar, even like in Kansas City. It didn't like snow quite as bad and it wasn't as cold in Kansas City, even though it was like three hours away. Yeah, but in Omaha, I mean, really, all you could do was like rodent exclusion jobs. Maybe spray around the eaves, windows, use Web out, like on the eaves for a lot of spiders you. That was like one of the toughest parts of Omaha, but we like to. We really like pre-framed the sale, whether it be on the phone or even door knocking. That was super important to preframe the sale like, Hey, we're giving you this discount on the initial, and then we're going to do this service.
At the time we were doing Quarterly U, now for our company, we do just monthly billing. It's a lot easier to sell that way, but at the time we're doing quarterly and we really, really had to pre-frame the sale.
There, just because it does get so cold. You have to sell them on the year round service and you have to sell them very, very highly on, Hey, this is a war warranty service. Meaning if you see any bugs in between, especially the buggy season, we'll come out for free and get rid of it for you. So there weren't like paying for. Like each service, you had to pre-frame it in the way that they were actually paying for the warranty of the service, right?
And so that's how we sold so well, is Cuz. And that's what a lot of like door knockers know that are really good. They're not selling like per service, they're selling the all-around experience and the warranty of the service.
And so that's how we able to get past that, even. In those cold markets, I mean, I've even sold in warm markets, too, for other companies. I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is so easy, yeah, Florida companies, I'm like, Man, you guys get bugs year round. I don't even have a pre-frame sale, right?
That's one of the challenge of a cold market, but then that's kind of what makes the cold market good. Because a lot of people don't want to go there because their attention rates just always a little bit lower, right?
But with that winter service in your experience, how many people would push that off spring and what?
What did you guys do then, to try to combat that, too? Cuz Just. It's another common thing in the industry. Yep, yep, usually had like 15% push back rates on that. And then we. We love to do pre-season mosquito sales, so we' be like, Hey, you know right now, if you actually sign up for our mosquito service right now, and this could be like Thanksgiving Christmas time frame. Even like January, we would do it four times before the actual mosquito control.
Season started. We would do pre-season email, text and call all campaigns. Yeah, to get people to actually sign up. For Services CUZ. Obviously, of course, revenue is going to drop a little bit during the winter season. It just the natural occurrence of the way things are. And so we would try to make up that revenue in the cold season with preseason mosquito control sales, which is awesome. Yeah, and we ran heavy heavy bed bug ads, too. In the in the winter kind of make up some of that revenue, too, so bed bug jobs are. TCH didn't like those, but you know, they're they're good for revenue, they are for sure. And did you guys do any sort of wildlife bats or anything like that, or just exclusion work, just foundation exclusions for M. Yeah, Yep, no, no, no, nothing like that.
We didn't even do termites either. Is there AOT? Is there heavy termite pressure in Kansas City or?
Or Nebraska? Yeah, yeah, there there is, but not a ton. We just wanted to be super super good at one or two things right. We didn't want to try to do a bunch of different things and it was way easier for our our door knockers at the time. And also, you know, me and my business partners on the phone selling because we ran a lot of Facebook ads, Google ads, things like that.
So much more systemized to just sell general pest control mosquito control. We didn't have to learn anything else, didn't have to do anything else like, that's all we sold and we could scale it. That was important to us. I know every company's a little different, but for us that it that was the best.
And still I, in my opinion, it's still the. Best way for for me and the way I work. And that's the same thing with us, too, like we're we. We do very little commercial work by 95% residential, all quarterly past build monthly, same way. But we still have that, like in the winter, you know, like people just call in. We get so much snow up here like they just no matter how much you pre-fame the value they like. Yeah, no, it doesn't make sense stuff, right?
And obviously most and most of the time we're going to be on the inside, you know, doing the work on the inside and then they're not going to be home, so they'll just reschedule it, so just kind of pain in the butt.
But again, I'm not going to lose a customer over one service, I'll just push it off till the spring. We try to again, we try to minimize that as much as possibly can. And then from there, so you transitioned, moved to Austin. Working on the agencies now, was that like where you just got so much call volume from your social posts?
People were asking about you, they said, Hey, I should just create something here. Yeah, so a lot of people were just reaching out. Of course, past control owners, they're like, Hey, you know, my buddy told me about you. Or, hey, I saw your post on social media, or, you know, Hey, I saw your ad on social media. And, you know, I really need some more leads, stuff like that, right?
So we were getting hit up left and right. You know, obviously around this time frame of year, September right now. So the whole pest control industry as a whole kind of slows down, and that's where we can kind of regroup. You know, take a vacation, you know, even for like, our agency side of things right, because we work with pest control owners so.
Everyone kind of, you know, even for us it slows down a little bit too, which is which is nice. So a little catch, a little breather. But yeah, it especially around that time frame, when we first got into industry like it felt like everyone in their dog was like hitting us up. CUZ Very, very few people were running like Google ads, Facebook ads. It was like, so new quite a few years ago, so it was, it was crazy rush, just like all at once. And now the pressure is on.
Yep, right, so if you were just to like, say, let's just say you're going to start a new market like you are right in the next year or two and you're going online?
What are the first things that you're going to do online to start building that reputation of yourself?
And then what ads are you going to run? Not specific ads, but what platforms?
Yeah, so I actually even like, made like a little video about this, too. But first things first, do you have like a Do you have a link that you can send us to put in this?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Y. It's like a thousand accounts in 18 months is the video right?
And? So the first thing you definitely want to do is have a Google my business page. Like, you have to have it like, if you don't have it, like, What are you doing?
You got to have a Google my business page, yeah, and my recommendation is whether if you do it and learn SEO, or if you pay someone to do it, you have to get some local GMB SEO going. Like the quicker you get ranked in your local area, the better. Like, get as many reviews as possible, too.
Like, I'm not even joking, like, I'll even tell you a secret. When I go to my next location, I'm gonna get as many reviews as possible. I will do services for free until I get to 50 reviews like I'll go knock on 50 houses, I'm gonna. Get 50 reviews. I'll say, Hey, I'm going to do your service for free today, and all I ask for return is a review.
A bunch of those people are going to sign up for my service regardless, but I'm going to get 50 reviews in less than a week boom like you got 50 reviews, you're already moving up in ranks. I'm going to do that until I get 100 reviews, I'll do it for free if I have to, right. Like, people don't realize like how important that is. To build up your credibility on Google as quickly as possible, you need reviews fast.
And so that's what we're going to do. Like I said, I will lose money if I have to in order to get those reviews that it's so important. Next thing I do is I'm going to run. Paid Facebook ads.
And I'm going to do some sort of offer on that initial. So I can get people in the door and a lot of people a really good offer to make them click. Yep, like anything that I can do to get as many people through the door as possible.
From talking to quite literally, thousands of pest control owners, I find a lot of guys that, you know, have been in industry. A while are like, Hey, like, I'm not going to go out there for anything less than 250 bucks, or, like my, I'm worth way more than that. And D. D. I'm like, Hey, man, that's like, totally fine.
But, you know, I just talked to a guy who has 50,000 accounts, you know, down the street who's going to do it for?
39 bucks for the initial. So he can get that person on his service forever. Yep, right, and that's what it's about in the pest control industry. Is that reoccurring money?
That's the guys who make millions are the guys who know their LTV, their lifetime value customer. Yep, and so that's all I'm going after is I'm not going after the initial money. I'll even lose money on the beginning.
If I know that, I can get that customer forever. As long as I provide them a great service and have great customer attention, which we have do tons of things to keep people on. I just throte that down, so we'll come back to that. Yeah, well, we'll, we'll do whatever it takes to get that that customer. It's like people just don't understand how important it is to get people through the door. So if you can get volume through the door, you will make money quick. Yep, so that would be my first two recommendations, and then I would post on Facebook groups as well, like, go into local Facebook groups. Introduce yourself to the area.
I hire virtual assistants to do this for me. Five bucks an hour and they go in there and post all day, every day. For me on LinkedIn, Nextdoor or Facebook Instagram. They do this for me all day, every day, five bucks an hour.
And, you know, we put on accounts, so sure makes it super worth it. Yeah, that'd be another thing, and that would, in my opinion, those are like the top three things that you could do right away going into the market.
And then once you start building customers up, you know the door knocking world. We call it Clover knocking. Yep, so this would be my next step, so I would go up to all the customer customers that we just serviced.
Thank them for their business, it's really important, of course, just be personal, thank them for their business, say, hey. Do you think any of your neighbors might be interested in pest control as well?
Oh yeah, yeah, they might. Awesome, awesome, okay, do you mind? If I go over and talk to them 99% of the time, they're going to say, Yeah, sure, they're going to look at you. Weird. Yeah, awesome. Do you mind giving me their names?
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, so you get their names right. You get this neighbor's name, you get that neighbor's name and you get the two neighbors across the street's name. Now you have all the neighbors names, you go over there, talk to him, knock on the door, say, Hey, my name's JK. You know, Sandy, Yeah, and they're like, Oh okay, awesome, hey, Sandy actually told me to come talk to you. My name is Jake.
I'm with, you know, ABC Pest whatever company you're with. And she told me to come over, talk to you. We're actually going to be here here in just a few weeks again to do her pest control. And since I'm going to be walking around here, my tech's going to be walking around here. We don't want to be strangers, just some random people walk around the lawn. I don't want you calling the cops on me, so just let you know when I introduce myself my name's Jake, go up to him, shake their hand.
Just want to introduce myself. Let you know that we're here. If you want while we're here, we could take care of your pest control super cheap. And then just pause, Yeah, that's it, yeah, for sure. You'd be like, It's amazing how many accounts you can put on, because first of all, you got a recommendation.
That neighbor literally said You could go talk to him, and so now you have a referral, right?
You have a referral, and then now you're talking to the neighbor. And you know their name, you know their first name, and you know, if they have a spouse, you know their name. And so, like you know the neighbor's name, you know their name, and then you're just introducing yourself. You're not being like, Weird, you're not being like Spammy, you're literally just coming over over there. Even if they're not interested, be like, Hey, no worries.
Happy just to meet you, Cuz, we're going to be walking around here anyway. That way, you at least know who we are and you walk out right, and maybe in the future they see you guys in the yard. They remember that interaction, they're like, Hey, that you know that Jake Guy was really nice, you know, maybe we should call him for our best control. We've had that happen before, so that would be what I would do right away.
You could put 500 accounts on and just a few months like Boom, boom, boom, like Quick. So and yeah, I don't know if I gave away too much information, but I love it and then I'm gonna. Go back and ask questions.
So Google my business, you can get 50 reviews, maybe 100 any other tips around Google, my business. That'll help the listeners without giving away the secret sauce. Yeah, yeah, no, a big thing is you're gonna want to post pictures, too?
Google's algorithm really, really likes pictures every Tuesday, every Tuesday, baby and don't do stock images. I see a lot of pest controllers like Put stock images up there. Google's really sensitive about that. You want to do like actual pictures of, like your business, right?
Don't do any stock images, but, yeah, post consistently, Google likes consistency. That's going to be really important, have just have all the things that you need, have have a website, have your addresses match. Like everything needs to match trying to think of anything else's tips. As far as that goes, have your Q&A on there, frequently ask questions.
You need to have all that stuff on there because all that stuff matters to Google's algorithm. A lot of people think it's just like, you know, a person sitting there like saying, Oh, you're going to be ranked today. It's like, that's not how it works, it's an algorithm, and as long as you follow Google's algorithm, you can rank up quickly. It's funny, like the people who do really good at Google, my business that are constantly clearing out.
You know, like the calls, they're adding the pictures. And as soon as it's almost like. As soon as you add the picture, and as soon as you clear calls, you'll see more calls come in. It's just funny how you see that spike, it's pretty cool.
And then going on to Facebook, Facebook ads, anything, anything around that that you'd like to touch on that, you know, could help people out. Yeah, yeah, so a big thing, too, is you want to like, Know your your target market when running a Facebook ad. So that's going to be really important. You just don't want to like target everyone like. So for us, I know my ideal customer is typically a female around anywhere from like 30 to 55.
That's like where most of our calls come from. Yeah, is that? So I would, I mean, every market's a little different. I mean, I've ran ads in, like, literally hundreds of different places, and every market's a little different. When it comes to demographic.
Like, I know parts of Florida that we run ads in, that is like the opposite of the people who call us. It's usually like men who are anywhere from like, 45 to 70 that call right, and they're they're snowbirds and they. They live in a different state and they come down and live in, you know, live in parts of Florida for a couple months. So it kind of just depends on where you live.
But for us, I know that's our demographic, what we like to hit. So know your demographic and then number two have a great offer and a great image. Your offer has to be great. Because everyone in their dog offers $50 off or $100 off your, your buyers won't care about that. They want something like great, so you have to stick out outside of the competition so that offer is going to be important. Then, of course, like you have to have a good ad image. Cuz. People are in a hypnotic rhythm when they're scrolling through social media, so you need to break that. You need, like, disrupt their hypnotic rhythm and so disruptor like a good image, like something with like a bright cherry red or yellow yellows greens. Those are colors that like, break your subconscious and you can disrupt people, so you need to have a really good image too.
Super important, super smart. I love that as far as the lead quality from each.
Where would you rather get leads from, man? I would rather get a lot more leads from Google, yeah, to be transparent. Google leads are way higher quality, but they're a lot more expensive, yep. Of course, if they're coming from your Google my business, that's why that's my number one recommendation so cheap.
It's like it's the best people who aren't doing it like they're, they have no idea what they're missing out. It's almost like you hate to even say it on here. But it's like they have to get on here and there's so much work out there like you. You can't have that mindset where, Oh yeah, the limited beliefs. There's so much work, there's so many bugs everywhere, right, right?
But you brought up another good point during all that you. You talked about retention rates and, you know, like, especially with winter and, you know, door knockers and all that. What are some good, good ideas for companies use for to better their retention?
I hear this all the time, yeah, I actually have a video on this too. We're just gonna link all this in there. So keep in mind, all the stuff I'm sharing with you has just been learned over time and talking to like control owners.
This is, I do not take credit for, like any of this. I have like, there's been a lot of guys that I've talked to her like, 10,000 times smarter than I am. And they've just gave me a lot of great insight. So all the things I'm about to say my clients, if you're watching, I do not take credit for anything.
So one of the things that we do is we do like gift giveaway strategies. I got this from a very, very successful pest control owner. And, yeah, I'll just tell you guys, so he does like gift giveaways, right?
We started doing gift giveaways, too, but so what you do is you send. Out a text to all your clients. You say, Hey, we're doing this awesome gift giveaway. It's going to be, it's going to be huge. Here's like the prize you're going to win, right?
And this could be a phone, a computer, a whatever. But this guy got so big he was giving away cars, and so he's okay, we're doing this big gift giveaway. All you have to do to enter is you have to send us a referral that signs up for our yearly pest control program.
It's only stipulation they have to sign up, right? Someone signs up on your referral, you get this little card, however, you want to do it. I've taught this to quite a few people and everyone does it a little different, but you get a little red ticket. That ticket goes in a huge bucket, you throw their name in the bucket. The more people they refer, the more tickets they get. So you know, you could do it a multiple. I've had people do it all different ways. Y But you know, if they refer five people, they get 500 bucks automatically or 1,000 bucks automatically. Everyone does it different, we do 1,000 if they refer five people, because at that point you're kind of like a sales rep. Absolutely, and.
They're also going to get 20 entries into the gift giveaway, so you times their entries, the more people they refer. Yeah, we. The last time we did it, we did like an iPhone 12 or 13, whatever it was. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to give away anything like gigantic, and it cost like 600 bucks or what at the time, or 800. Whatever it was doesn't matter, right, right?
And you know, you get two people and it's worth it right. So, yeah, you throw it into a big bucket. They pull it out and like, however, you want to do it. Some people do it monthly, I have some client to do it quarterly, have some clients who only do it yearly.
Pull out the name. You say, Oh hey, you know, John, doe one, you know, w the phone, one, the computer, whatever that may be. You go out to their house, you film it, you give them the phone, whatever it may be.
I've seen people give away cars, you give them the car, you take a video of it, and then you send that text blast out to everyone in your customer list. Say, Hey, John, Doe, just want a iPhone, make sure that next time.
When we do this, you know, gift giveaway strategy that you send us a referral to, and you can be entered to win. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, of course, you put a notice down there that even if they don't win the gift giveaway, they're still going to get something for referring someone.
So you always want to give them some sort of incentive to refer regardless. And I see most guys will do this. This is a retention secret, too, is they'll be like, Hey, we'll just give you a $50 credit on your next service, which that's just fine. That's actually what I used to do, but I had really, really successful pet control. And say, Hey, he's like, Jake, don't do that, man, I was like, Why he's like, Man, your retention rat will skyrocket. If you do this, I was like, Okay, what is it?
He's like, Well, send out a text to all your customers. Tell them that they have a chance to win 500 bucks. I was like, Okay, well, like, what do you mean by that?
He's like, People want something tangible when they give you something. If they're going to give you something, give them something back. Don't just put a credit, they're not going to see the credit. It's not tangible, it's not, you can't touch it. You can't touch a credit he's like, but you can touch an Amazon card or you can touch money.
It's like a promise you'll get way more. I know it's even if it's the same amount of money, it's going to be way different subconsciously to people. I was like, HM, okay?
Whatever, yeah, I'll try. It tried it out and our like, our referral rates went up and our retention rates went up. I was like, Holy Cow, that's crazy, yeah, so we just started giving people Amazon gift cards or like actual cash, yeah, and again, when they give us more referrals, like if they give us five referrals, we give them a higher amount.
So if they gave us one, we'll give them 50 bucks, but if they give us five, we'll give them a 100. Or sometimes we'll even do like sweepstakes, where we'll do a thousand right. And like people like, Holy Cow, like a thousand bucks, you know, that's a big deal for just referring five customers, right?
And that costs quite a bit for us. But it's super worth it. Because now people just saw you give away a thousand bucks for referring next time they're, you know, talking to their neighbor about pest control, you better believe they're going to refer you. Yeah, right, when, yep, so that's another one.
I have like a ton more and I'll give you one more. Another one This actually came from recently Pest control Company. He asks the customer for their favorite song that like, Hey, like, what's your favorite song?
It'll ask him like, just when he's doing the first service kind of nonchalantly, right?
And then the next time he goes out. He has like this little boom box that hooks to his belt, and then he plays their favorite song while he's servicing the home. And it's such, it's little things like that that go a long way, even even if you can capture the dog's name.
Yeah, and you're back in the first service, you go back to the second service and you have it in your notes like, Oh, hey, how you know how, how's Dolly doing today?
Like, they're like, Wait, you remember my dog, it's the little. Touches like that where you can charge a little bit more money and keep your attention high. Yep, exactly, and it. It can be hard to teach that. But if you can automate the process like where it's routine, every time, like you're gonna, you're doing good things.
Yes, 100% agree. And for all of you guys that don't know or don't follow Jake online. He is actually in a wheelchair right now doing this podcast. He got cast on his arm and a cast on his leg.
Yeah, so what happened? Dude, like I? I kind of know the story, but I need to know, like what really happened. I know you playing basketball. Yeah, man, it was crazy. So I played basketball like my whole life and was just playing some pickup basketball and was waiting for everyone. Kind of in between pickup games, we already played four that day and I have an ankle that I like. Sprained a bunch of times in high school and stuff. And so it's not like, 100% ever.
And just went up for a layup in between the Games and my ankle, just like gave out. And then because my ankle gave out, I was in the air and. Well, I guess my knee gave out first, so my ankle gave out. Then it, like my knee, hyperextended about a foot and a half the other way.
And then I tried to catch my fall with my arm, and then my arm, just like, totally snapped. And then I was like, Oh, well, what do I do now?
Cuz, I was like, L. I thought my knee was just dis dislocated, so like everyone like picked me up and I was like, Oh, that's broken. And so went to. The hospital was fine, got the surgeries in a week.
And then I was just kind of laying around, obviously couldn't couldn't walk or do anything. And have a family history of, like blood clots in my family. So I was just like sitting in my and my leg or. My leg was hurting and then all of a sudden, like a couple hours later, my chest started hurting and I was like, Oh my gosh, I was like, my chest really hurts, and then all a sudden I couldn't like, breathe.
I was like, severe pain, like severe severe pain, and like I like, couldn't breathe. And then all of a sudden, like my body, like, started seizing. And then my girlfriend comes out and like she calls the Er er, comes ambulance the whole N yards. And then I get to the hospital, they put me on oxygen. They're like, Yeah, your lung collapse, you have a bunch of blood clots in your lungs.
And I was like, Wow, that is crazy, so I was sitting there for like, two almost 3 days, seizing just because the. Like, my lung was like failing, trying to like, Get it back up. But yeah, man, it was just not what I expected from a layup. Yeah, that was pretty wild. I remember I text you during that process and didn't hear back from me, didn't think nothing of it. All sudden, your girlfriend expect like, Hey, Jake's in the hospital, but he'd love to do the podcast like, I'm like, You just get better. We'll work on this later on.
She didn't even ask me, she didn't even like, Tell me about it, and she was like, She's like, Hey, you know, someone text you and said to be on a podcast. I just said, Yes, I like cool. Yeah, I'm glad to see her like getting healthier, like, When can you get out of your cast and stuff like that?
So they're not like 100%, for sure, because I'm on blood thinners, so like, everything's just healing a lot slower. I still have, like, a lot of swelling. That, like, should have gone away by now, but I mean, I should be walking here in a few weeks.
They're like, Hey, you're young and healthy enough, like you should like, you know, but being, but being an entrepreneur and you're you're used to go on a 100 all the time, literally. Like, I know how you operate Cuz, I operate the same way you do, but mentally that's got be tough on you. I can only imagine, Yeah, how's that been going, man?
I is like, mentally, it's been tougher than I thought it was ever going to be. Just Cuz, like you said, I'm always go, go, go. Especially when it first happened, like it was. It was different just because I was so sleepy all the time. You know, I was on like pain, meds and all sorts of stuff, and like, just like, sleeping. And then, like, I was like, Oh my gosh, like, not getting stuff done, you know?
But like I couldn't like, physically, stay awake long enough to actually do anything significant. Luckily, I have an amazing team that has has really helped and really shown up. And, you know, kind of took a lot of the work I was doing. So that has been awesome.
Team really, really showed up so, but yeah, mentally it's been different, you know, a lot of the guys watching the show. Pest control owners. I feel a lot of us are like the same kind of creatures that we're all just. You know, go, go, go, go, let's call Conquer the world.
And then when you know you can't walk, you're like, Oh, crap, this is a different type of life, you know, so, yeah, it's got to be tough. I remember 12 years ago I fell through a roof kind of the same thing as I got lucky. I fell feet first, my ankle snapped sideways. Like, 90 degrees, like something you see on TV that you shouldn't see kind of probably what happened to you. Yeah, and I look down, my ankle stuck and I'm like, Whoa, that's not good.
I mean, nothing broke. It's just dislocated and tore everything, which was worse. They snapped her, they popped her back into place like that night. They p me out and stuff like that. Yeah, but I couldn't walk for 6 months.
After the first year, they said I had two options. I could either live with the pain or I could get my ankle fused and never run again. And I'm 20, 6, 27. At the time, I'm like, I was playing baseball, like, I just had a baby like, I can't not run.
So I decided to deal with a pain. Well, this is not a lie. For the first year of that, I got up every single morning, had to crawl to the bathroom. Wow, just until, like it like would warm up almost.
Oh wow, and it sucked. I'm not going. To lie, but like, looking back like it's the best decision ever made, does it get sore today?
Absolutely does there arthritis? Absolutely, but I can still run, I can still play like I just. I wasn't about it, so I'm glad I took that route, kind of got off a little soap box there. But what's the what's the future look like for you like?
You have a lot going on? I think, was it a month ago, we talked about solar, like, can we touch on that a little bit?
Yeah, yeah, so what you going on there, yeah, with, like the virtual assistance that has obviously been very popular in the pest control industry. Yeah, but because we have all the contacts right like our lists are usually so big.
Yeah, and a lot of the pest control guys, especially the big door knocking companies. A lot of them are also starting to sell solar too. And so they're like, Hey, you know, do you think the virtual assistance could you know, do some calling for solar?
I'm like, all my solar data, it's like, Yeah, for sure, and that has, like, gone really well for them too. So now we've been getting referrals and a lot of solar people reaching out too. So, yeah, like Cuz, you know, solar and pest control are similar and not the same. Obviously business, but As far as like, gaining customers wise, you know, door knocking is very heavily done in both.
And so, you know, kind of the same kind of breed of people, too, go-getters people who like, Want to conquer the world, man, it's like it's the same type. So, yeah, Solar's been been big in the virtual assistant side of things, too. Yeah, so if someone wanted to say, Hey, like, I have a huge customer list, like, sounds like we could probably pull this off. With solar, what would you recommend they do?
Oh, 100% partner with a solar company, CUZ, most solar companies will give anywhere from like 250 to 1,000 bucks per referral. If that, if that person, of course, does, yeah, go through a solar, it makes sense for their home.
Of course, not every home. It makes sense to go solar, but there are quite a few homes out there that it does make sense. And most solar companies like offer free evaluations, and so the homeowner can just check to see if it makes sense for them.
But, yeah, pest control owners can make a ton of extra money just for sending the solar company a customer list. You can track it. I can even show them how it. There's a system. Called Lead Engine 360 or a lot of people call GoHighLevel. You just blast all the customers in there y. And then that way you both can see, so it's transparent.
But I know, like guys who have a few thousand customers have made, like hundreds of thousands of dollars, referring customers to solar companies. That's awesome. Do you use GoHighLevel a lot?
Yeah, main Yeah, yeah, it's the best best software out there, for sure. I love it well, but like in the next three to five years, like, what does the future look like for Jake?
You have a lot going on, but like, what does it look like? Yeah, so big thing is I. I truly think we're going to disrupt the market with the virtual assistant side of things I like. My goal is to have 500 pest control companies getting virtual staffing from us. Sweet.
I think we really can do it. Just CU I. There's not a lot of pest control companies utilizing ver viral assistance yet. And I'm biased. But I truly think we have the best virtual assistance out there.
We have tons that come through our pipeline, and that's definitely. My main goal is to get 500 virtual agents working for pest control companies. Cool, like I said, I think we're going to disrupt the market. I think it's very needed because there's a lot of Americans that don't want to work anymore, and office staff is so expensive anymore.
That this is going to change the industry and help a lot of people save a lot of money on employee costs. And then, secondly, I want to grow a very, very large pest control company in the next 5 years. Like to be somewhere around like 30 to 35,000 accounts, and I think we can do it. Got a big, big plan, got some big hitters that I'm going to be partnering with, but I can't say too much about that quite yet, for sure. Well, we're excited to hear it for sure.
Kind of switching gears a little bit again, like when we talk about ads been just starting out like brand new company. They don't. Maybe maybe have a little bit of an nest egg. You know, saved to get rolling, but what would you say is a good budget to start out with?
Yeah, so I would say, if you're going to run Facebook ads and you're going to do it yourself, I would say I wouldn't spend anything. Less than 600 bucks a month. You're going to waste your money if you spend anything less than that.
Facebook has what it's called a threshold. And especially if you're going to run lead ads or a conversion ad, which those are the ones that work the best. If you spend anything less than a threshold, you're going to be placed really low on the auction.
It's like a lot of people don't know is Facebook runs off an auction? So you're not just auctioning against, you know, pest control companies you're auctioning against. Like chiropractors, dentists anywhere on their dog, right?
They're all everyone show up on the feed. Yep, yep, everyone's paying for those eyeballs, and so. If you don't spend enough money, Facebook doesn't want to show your ad to those eyeballs, right?
So you need to spend a certain amount in order for even be worth it. I just talked to a lot of pest control guys who only spend like two 300 bucks and like, Ah, it didn't work. I'm like, Well, just didn't spend enough money. It's not, it's not going to work. If you don't spend enough money. I wouldn't recommend anything less than like 600 bucks to give it like a true, true trial.
I know might seem like a lot to some people, but I at least spend $3,000 for even if it's a month or two months, you need to spend a little bit of money to first test and then get your name out there. Because it's the best thing as far as branding, but also you can generate leads if you do the ads properly, do you recommend them doing themselves or hiring someone to do it for them?
Yeah, there. There's a lot of like, great tools out there to learn to do it themselves. I mean, pretty much anything's on YouTube anymore, for sure, so there's like a lot of great places you can. You can check out on YouTube to learn it yourself.
But there's also a lot of great companies that can do ads ads for them, too, you know, but they're, of course, going to charge a fee. So I feel like you're a brand new company, and you have the time to learn it and watch some YouTube videos. And you're, you know, you like that stuff, that's definitely the route I would take. It's going to. It's going to be a lot cheaper than hiring a company to do it for you. For sure. I'm interested.
Who is Jake? In high school? If you and I are softs in high school and buddies like who are are you in high school, in high school?
Gosh, I mean, I played sports. My whole life doesn't surprise me, like, just like that competitive drive, Yeah, I was, yeah, I was really big into sports. Me and my friends were all kind of nerdy. I guess you could say, Yeah, kind of a different type of crowd. We were like, Iess, just the nerdy jocks, I guess you could say, I mean, as you can see, like I like Star Wars and, yeah, know, I computer stuff and automation.
And you know, I was, Yeah, that's cool. Guess you could say, I'm just kind of like a nerdy jock, if you will. Yeah, it made me curious of, like, Cuz. I remember you said in the beginning of the podcast that you were like, 14 or 15 years old when you got when you got into marketing. Like, how did that come about?
Like, Yeah, I just like, I guess I'm, yeah, just the typical like millennial kid like just. I've always wanted to make money my entire life. I remember asking my mom when I was like, seven years old, I went to. My buddy Austin's house and his dad was a surgeon, and they had this big old fancy house.
I went back to my mom, I like, Mom, I was like, Austin's house is so cool, like, How do I get a house like that?
What she like, Well, she's like, You're gonna. Have to do something to make a lot of money. She's like Austin's dad's a surgeon, he makes a lot of money. I was like, Oh, and that's kind of like when a light bulb went off my head. When I was really young, I like, Okay, so I started like thinking about money in that way, you know, doing lemonade stands and all sorts of like, stuff, you know, and then, you know, as a little teenager, right?
You're just looking up stuff, you're like, how to make money online, you know how to learn, you know, stuff like that, right?
And so kind of got into that stuff really, really young. I'm still fairly young. 29, about to be 30, so, you know, still fairly young, but you know, this was. This was, you know, 14, 15 years ago. I was searching this stuff up and I was like, I was like, W, you know, I could actually make money doing online stuff. This is cool, so that's how I kind of started out. That's pretty cool. What did your parents do?
So my parents did the same thing their entire life, so my mom is about ready to retire. She works at City Hall and she started when she was 21. I believe 20 or 21, and then my dad, same thing he started.
He was a like a park director for the City Parks. He started like, Yeah, like somewhere around. And they're both in their 60s. My dad's like 65, my mom's 63, so my dad just retired last year, my mom's about to retire. So they so when you, when you went to go on your entrepreneurial journey, like, what were their thoughts?
Oh, I thought I was crazy, thought it was crazy. Yeah, thought I was crazy. Yeah, because I was doing marketing when I was in college, I went for electrical engineering and industrial distribution and. They wanted me to get like, you know, like a nice engineering job, and I was like, Ah, like, I'm already making money online.
Like I. I could just do this like, No, no, you should. You should get a good job and, you know, go be an engineer, that's what we want you to do. Type of thing and right like, No, I think I'm gonna.
I think I'm going to start like a marketing agency. I really think I could do this and started making some good money with that. And were they supportive then, or were they kind of pushing back on you?
No, still kind of pushing back. And especially when I got into like the pest control industry, I was like, Hey, I think I'm going to really, really go after this pest control. Stuff, they're like, What are you thinking?
There's no money in bugs? Yeah, they thought it was crazy. They've never heard of any, like, got have a 401k, a retirement health insurance, right, right, right?
They're like pest control, like, What the heck is that like? Why pest control?
And I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna, do ads for him, and I mean, I'm even learn how to door knock. They're like door knock, people door knock still, like, thought I was crazy. Yeah, and that, at what point in the journey do you think that they like, Okay, he's on to something. And what would they say now?
Oh yeah, I mean, they're super supportive now, yeah, super super supportive now, honestly, really like about six months in to owning the pest control company. Like my I like for sure, remember me and my mom having that conversation. She's like, Wow, Jake, like I'm really proud of you, like, I'm so glad you didn't listen to me, like, makes me feel nice. Thank you, love that. I love hearing the story.
What do you like? I always ask this to everyone because I just make them put it like their life into perspective for a moment. What are you most proud of to this point in your life?
Most proud of, Man. It's hard to like with people, people like us, our goals are so big, it's hard to remember those small wins. And to be thankful. So I like to ask the question to make you like, Really think on it, Yeah, Cuz, I mean, I know you're a lot like I am too is like, You always feel like you could do more. You always feel like you could be ahead.
But at the same time, always, you know, always really grateful, always tried to live life being grateful. And I've been dealt some good cards in my life too. You know, not everyone has like the same, I guess, opportunities, and I had a great family. And y, Yeah, you know.
Man, most proud of that's tough. I mean, man, really. I think just starting the marketing agency and like, and not to sound like cliche or anything. But we've helped a lot of people make a substantial amount of money. And it's not just like it's not me like making money. But like when I have a guy that comes to me, like, Hey, Jake, like you changed my life?
I put on a thousand accounts this last year, like you guys are awesome. Thank you so much like that's more special to me than me. Making money I like. I'm sure it sounds like cliche to a lot of people all because I love watching others win. I love it. Yeah, sh like, it's so satisfying, like, because, like once you make a certain amount of money, at least like, for me, it was this way.
You like kind of reevaluate your life, you're like, Okay, made some money now, now, like, what do I want like out of my life, like, How do I want to like Impact the world?
And I'm a believing man, too. So like, I'm like, All right, how do like I serve God at, like, you know, the next level?
How do I like impact other people's lives in like a positive way and? That has been like, I guess the thing I've been proud of, it's like, not necessarily like my own success, but like, again, I know it sounds cliche, but like helping others succeed is like it's so much more satisfying than even like your own success.
Yeah, I love that, and I'm gonna go back to the very beginning of the podcast. Before we even started, you asked me what my end game was, and I'm like, I don't know, like everything's going good now, I'm in a good spot, I've made my money like it's fun. Yes, I could sell and retire now, but that's just not what I want to do, like I'm on a big things. So what's your end game?
Man, you're only 29. I got 10 years. Your seniors, what does that look like?
Oh, man. To be honest, I haven't like thought of, like, the end end Game Cu. And I've talked to my parents, my girlfriend, everyone about this, like I think I'm addicted to like the pursuit. Yep, like Warren Buffett, right?
Like he's 9 some years old still doing it. Yeah, like. And my mentor told me because he had a really big exit. Yeah, really big. And obviously he's good for the rest of his life. And I was like, When's enough enough?
And he looked at me, he goes, I don't know, there always more levels. I'm like, This is never going to end for me either. I just know, No, no, I don't think I'll ever stop. I think I'll of course, like, take later on, I'll, you know, take more vacations, and, you know, there's always like, time to recuperate. And but like, I don't know if I'll ever stop, I don't know if there's, like, necessarily an endgame.
Just because, like, I really, really like, truly, enjoy the pursuit. I think that's what makes me happy. Is like the pursuit of, Yeah, again, like not making money, but just like the purs suit of like. Getting better, I guess you could say, and like helping others, whether it be like, you know?
Helping them with their bugs or helping them find a virtual assistant, or, you know, helping them put more customers on. Like, no matter what business is like, it's just so much more satisfying than than like your own success. You know, just for sure.
I always ask this question, too. Two books if you're a reader that you would recommend that everyone should listen to. Oh gosh, thinking, grow rich by Napoleon Hill. Like changed my life when I was like, 18, have you ever watched a movie?
I haven't No, so they just made a movie within like the last year, year and a half. You can find it on Amazon, you can find it usually on Facebook, too. It's pretty cool, it's short, it's like 45 minutes, it's just, it's cool. You should look at it.
Okay, and then book number two, Oh. I mean, just has like a life deal. Not necessarily it's like a business book, but a book that actually, like, truly Changed My Life was a book called On Guard by William L. Craig.
It's more of like a religious book. The reason why this changed my life is because I was going through like a time frame. That, like, I wasn't for sure what my beliefs were. And then I read this book by William L. Craig. It's he. His ministry is called Reasonable Faith basically gives you like reasonable faith of why you should believe in what you believe and that book like. I was like, Whoa interesting, I wrote it down, changed, changed my path forever like, and it like definitely makes my day-to-day way different from that.
Interesting. So were your parents religious when you? Were growing up. Yeah, yep, grew up in a Christian household and okay, you know, and then kind of went through some I, we and stuff. And I was like, Was there like something in the back of your mind?
That was like calling you like? That sounds super weird, but like I've went through that face too, like there's just a higher power calling you. And I like, I feel like I always have someone that's watching out for me at a higher calling, too.
But did you have that feeling? Or like, there's just something there that I got to go find and search for?
TH% Yes, so weird, right? Yeah, 100%, yeah, like. And but like even like before that, like, I was always like I was kind of going through some doubts. I'm my gosh, like Am. I just believing in this just because my parents told me to believe in it. Or like, Do I actually believe in it?
Like, Why do I believe in it? Yeah, went through that, and then, like Cuz, going through that stage, I was like, I know I'm here for some sort of purpose, like, just like you said some sort of like higher calling. I feel like something is like calling out to me, but like, I don't know if it's just like my internal brain, or if, like, it's actually something right.
And but like, even from, like, a young age, I'm sure a lot of the people watching this as entrepreneurs you like, Know, you're destined to do something like, for sure, big, like, big, like, there's you don't know why, and like you talk to other people.
And like, it's like the I don't know, it's almost, I feel like you're almost born with it or something strange. It's the weirdest thing, like, I'm like, Man, I'm like, I was destined to do something big and I'm like, Do you feel that way?
And like H, No, no, I'm like, Man, that's weird. But then I go to like PestWorld, or it's like, you know, a conference and stuff meet other people like, Yeah, yeah, I feel I totally feel that way like, Oh, these are my people, you know, yeah. Do you do go to any like marketing conferences, too?
Or you just mostly stick to the pest control side? Yeah, yeah, I've been to quite a few marketing conferences as well, any good ones. Yeah, I mean, like Funnel Hacking Live like that. ClickFunnels Holds is always Russ Brunson. Yeah, yeah, Russell Brunson's a man, he is the man.
That one's really good. And then I've just been to, like a lot of, like private masterminds, too cool. Yeah, just always networking and meet new people. The Russell Brunson go like, go all the way back to the Dan Kennedy world.
Yeah, like the old school, Dan Kennedy like it's so powerful. Yeah, it's good, it's good stuff. So for all those people who want to learn about marketing, like, just start with those books like so much knowledge. So good, yeah, Dan Kennedy and Russell Brunson, Yeah, if you're looking to learn marketing, those are the guys. Oh, and Alex Hormozi's really good now. Yeah, he's, he's such a baller, he just Tru is any.
Any last few tips could be around anything like maybe something that maybe a mentor told you grow like, as you're like, coming up or anything that you've like, failed that you could, that you learned a lot from that you could, you know, relate to the listeners.
Yeah, yeah, I guess. I mean, one of the biggest things just like, as far as like business goes, is like, if you own a business as you know, like everything's going to go wrong, that can't go wrong, typically.
And so if you can handle those things that go wrong, well, and you just can adjust. Like you're going to be okay. Like, just figure out how you're going to overcome the scenario. Because I just, I talk to a lot of guys who are like, Oh man, I had this happen, and this is why I'm not where I want to be.
I'm like, Man, you're you're like, I just want to tell them like you're blaming your circumstance. Like the guys that I talk to are making millions and millions of dollars, they're like they have the same exact problems. That you have had, they just figured out how to get past that.
And so, like, you don't look at your daily problems as problems. CUZ Dude, bad stuff happens all the time. Like customers like, you know, canceling, or, you know, they're like, Hey, my dog ate a. You know?
RT Paain Station. Whatever happens right, so it happens all the time. It's like you just, you can't look at that stuff. And just like, Oh, you know, everything's bad happen. And just like, figure out how you can get past that problem and how you're going to handle it. That was like some of the best advice I received. And then it's another simple one is Just know the lifetime value for customer. Yeah, you know, the lifetime value of your customer. You'll make a lot of money, no matter what business you're in, could be best control. It could be, I don't know, selling keyboards, selling forks. What I don't right, doesn't matter what it is. If you know the lifetime value of your customer, you can make a lot of money, just figure out how to bring those customers in. Super awesome.
I'll just, I'll touch on that. A little bit, too is like finding like a group or a coach that has been through those same problems that can solve it with. I mean, like, Do says, it's a dumb tax, right?
Like it's just something you pick up the phone call that they've been through 100 times and they literally solve in 30 minute phone call. Oh, cool, moving on. And then, just like realizing that there's other people out there like us, that all have the same problems.
Yes, like we're all going through this together. No matter what level at we're at, we're gonna still have challenges, right?
So I love that. Yep, cool man. Well, like I said, it's been over an hour already, told you I won't keep you too long. But again, I appreciate you being here. I look forward to, Yeah, I look forward to seeing you win the next few years I've been. I love watching your journey, so again, thanks for showing up.
Yeah, no, I appreciate you guys having me cool. I'll talk at you soon. Awesome thanks guys.
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