From Zero to $1.5 Million: How Shawn Riley Built Tactical Pest Solutions Through Relationships and Service

00:00Dan Leibrandt

Hey there, my name is Dan Leibrandt and welcome to the first episode of Pest Control Success Stories, where we interview people in our group and learn what's working for them on growing their pest control company. Today I'm with Shawn Riley, who's the co-founder of Tactical Pest Solutions based in Oklahoma City. And Shawn has grown his company to, or from zero to over $1.5 million a year in just 12 years. And it's actually, I think you've added over 300K in just the past year, which is absolutely insane. We're gonna talk about how you've grown from zero to over a million dollars, how you are a Pest Control Millionaire, and so excited to have you on the show, Shawn.

00:38Shawn Riley

Dan, I appreciate it, man. It's an honor for you to think of me enough to have me on your show. So appreciate that.

00:43Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, no, absolutely. Like I mentioned, you're the first person I reach out to, the first person I'm interviewing here. You're a big deal. Me, Jonas and Jake really like you and we think you're a great guy and you have a lot to add.

00:53Shawn Riley

Super cool. Mean, I'm grateful for you guys and never would thought I would be in this position to be talking on a podcast and talking to you. So say very cool.

01:01Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. So tell me a little bit about your background, Shawn, of like how you got started. So you started the company in 2013. I believe you said you started at Terminix. Just give me like all of your background.

01:13Shawn Riley

So I owned a delivery service, delivering furniture contracting with a local furniture store here. And then just got to a point where one of my friends worked at Terminix, kind of as a big boss. And he put me on as a service manager with zero experience over about 40 people. So that was interesting. So not having a clue, not knowing what to do, but it was. It wasn't well received, but it took me about a week to win people over and then they were all good. And just went from there. Kind of did it backwards. Service manager. Shortly into that role, I knew this is what I really wanted to do. And I knew that this was a pretty legit revenue producing business. This is, I'm used to lumping furniture and here we are. I'm carrying around a B and G that weighs nothing and dragging a hose. Is nothing and this is pretty replicatable. So a few years into service management, I became a salesman so I could learn how to sell what we were servicing. Then after that, I asked to be a technician so I could learn how to do it all. I did it backwards. But after that, then we decided to quit and start our own and started Tactical in 2013 and haven't looked back. We started with zero customers, honored our no compete because Terminix was really good to me and just people wanted to come over and we just didn't. We did lawn care, we mowed and did pest control until we got big enough to just drop the weed, treat yard service and mowing and we're just strictly pest control now.

03:05Dan Leibrandt

Awesome. And what are those first few years of the business look like? Were they tough or was it kind of easy going?

03:12Shawn Riley

You know, it was tough because I actually went and got a full-time job while my business partner, Jacob, he ran the business. And so we kind of, so we can offset salaries and not be, you know, not getting paid. So after work, I would come and help do the things that we needed to do. It rough, yes. Stressful, yes. Hard, probably not. I mean, we had a good background. He was a branch manager at Terminix as service manager. We kind of had the inside track on how Pest Control works on the inside, you know, with your software and how things work. We modeled it after what we learned and hard. It wasn't hard to implement. It was just hard to get new customers and stuff. But we you know, we built a business out of mowing with Pest Control. So it was like, okay, we, you know. Mowing yards, treating yards, or treating pests. There's two customers with one address. And then we added weed control. Now we got three customers, one address. That was pretty replicable until, so then our referral business just took off enough to where we could get rid of our yard and our mowing. So first two years, I mean, maybe $60,000 the first year, maybe 120 the second year. And then after it just kind of just took off after that.

04:43Dan Leibrandt

Hmm. Yeah, talk to me more about...

04:45Shawn Riley

And we.

04:48Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, I was going to ask about the overall journey like across really going from zero to 1.5. Was there any clear points where you grew a ton or maybe you plateaued or lost revenue?

05:01Shawn Riley

So, yeah, we really have never plateaued. In 2014, we purchased a local pest control business. Didn't know what we were doing. Again, Jacob had worked and learned how to do acquisition a little bit. It kind of fell on our lap through our distributor and we purchased that at a really good price, $120,000 business. So that brought on new revenue pretty quick. So that was a big job. It was a weird transition because it's buying somebody else's customers that you really don't understand how they treat. And we only knew one way and it's like, whoa, these people are expecting us to do crazy things. But we ended up hiring that lady to work for us. So it was a good transition. She was able to call all those current customers and it was like it was seamless. And then she was the owner, yeah. And then she came on board and worked for us. And from there, we really targeted my hometown. So my hometown's about 8,000 people. I went to high school here, graduated. My kids went to high school and graduated at the same school. So big friends.

06:03Dan Leibrandt

She was the manager or owner of that one?

06:29Shawn Riley

Network group that all jumped on board and that was a big deal and developed a friendship in the town that we're in now, which is about 12 miles away from my where I live and in my hometown currently and that everybody jumped on board there. So our little bitty community is just the biggest part of our business still, but that's where we really plugged in. We gave, we supported local little leagues. We supported cheerleaders. We just kind of put our name on everything everywhere in our little group. And I think that's where we really was able to have some really good success without marketing, without spending money, with just networking through relationships, building relationships with the community. And we would have one or two trucks, they thought we had 10. They just saw us everywhere. Branding worked.

07:27Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, because your trucks are bright red, right?

07:30Shawn Riley

Right at the time they were white, but it's still, it was white with red logos, but you know, it's kind of the same, but now they're red. But yeah, we just, man, we put, didn't matter. I just went out and put signs everywhere. They would call and say, Hey, you can't put them here. I was like, okay. Then I go put them back out and whatever. We get calls all the time. People like, Hey, I saw your sign. I saw your sign. I saw your truck. I saw your stuff. So I think through working at Terminix and our experience, our branding was what really grew our company early. Our referrals and our branding. Because we didn't have the money to spend on networking, or marketing, I didn't even know what that was.

08:09Dan Leibrandt

He...

08:11Shawn Riley

And so we didn't invest in it, we didn't talk about it, because we didn't have to. Know, it Jacob and I and tech, and we just, we didn't have time to manage any of that or know what that was or have the time to. Like we're doing now, getting the knowledge from other people that are experts in it. I wouldn't have had the time, would have been a waste of money. So anyway, that's where we are. I bought another company, a little bit bigger than the one we had bought before or purchased before. It was a little harder transition because they did services completely different. And so people were conditioned for a certain treatment, which was borderline not following the label. You know, we're the bad guys by following the rules and we didn't really lose a lot, but I wouldn't do that again. I wouldn't go through that. It wouldn't be worth it to purchase that type of a company that doesn't. Somewhat follow our treatment protocol.

09:14Dan Leibrandt

Would you say it's worth it to buy companies? Like, would you say that's a growth strategy that you guys are gonna use in the future?

09:20Shawn Riley

Yeah, 100 % agree because we're wanting to expand into a different market. Like I know Jonas is in Tulsa, but that's always been from day one. We want to go into Tulsa and yes, the only way you're really going to make a big impact fast is to buy, acquire a company. I mean, we can go and we can market and we can do the things, but to be able to afford or make sense of having a technician there all the time, just makes sense to buy a company. And listen,...

09:49Dan Leibrandt

Watcha.

09:50Shawn Riley

My company, my target company is, I can't do what Jonas does. I might have to just probably be a smaller footprint that doesn't want to sell to a big national company. Know, these people are, they're super protective of their customer base and they don't, they don't want it to go to a Terminix or Wilkin or something like that. So they like people like us that are local small town Oklahoma people that want to. I found that.

10:20Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And you mentioned starting out, you guys were doing a lot of things all around brand, that people thought they saw your trucks everywhere and that you were sponsoring the baseball team and such. But did that change? Like, was there ever a level where like the branding isn't enough and now we have to go do more kinds of marketing?

10:39Shawn Riley

So where we were, right, I've known Jonas for a long time. And then I finally just reached out to him and said, Hey, what do we need to do to grow? And then he sent me to Jake. And it was funny because he said, me call my guy, call my guy. And then I reached out and it was Jake. And I was like, Holy crap. I've talked to this guy like four years ago. Like Jake had reached out to me a long time. He's like one of those email guys. I'm like, Hey man, I'm not interested in things though. You know, but anyway, and it was Jake and I was like, dude, I talked to you. You know what? The reason we reached out, we were growing at 30%. Last like the last three years, 30 % doing nothing minimal, maybe some LSAs, know, but that was it. We tried a few marketing companies, didn't feel like we were getting what we needed out of that. Um, so that's when I reached out to Jonas and was like, Hey, I think we're ready to do stuff other than just brand.

11:38Shawn Riley

Because if we're growing at 30 % branding, then what can we do if we have the correct marketing in place? And I saw Jonas's stuff, you know, I'm friends with Brandon Peterman and then Jonas, you know, we've talked since 2012, Jonas and I, that's kind of crazy, but. Yeah, but that's why I reached out to him because, you know, he's super successful and he's doing it right. You see all his TikToks and his YouTube and stuff. And it's like, okay, this is where we need to be. This is where, and that's why, and then this is why I'm sitting in front of you today.

12:13Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. Yeah, so if people aren't familiar, Shawn, you're mentioning the Pest Control Millionaires Program, which has kind of evolved over the years, but, so you joined a little bit ago and what has changed since? Like what have you guys implemented or what are you doing differently?

12:30Shawn Riley

So for me personally, like I have a role here, Jacob has a role. But what we were finding out is that we were about one and a half people. We were stumbling over each other, right? I would call the techs, he would call the techs. I would do this, he would do this. We would go together in a truck to go do one job instead of being efficient and being two solid people. We were really about 1.2 people being lazy and stuff. I wanted, I wanted to get people in place to get us out of the business. Right. I wanted out of the truck and I know I've seen a lot of cliche statements like you have to get out of the truck. And that really resonated with me hardcore because I have a day plan and then I go one run one or two leads. And then I come back, my day shot, my list is not done. And then I don't want to do it. I'll do it tomorrow and then something else will come up or a tech is sick and I have to go run around. So we have to get beyond this. There's like whatever it takes. So we promoted a service manager. So he's kind of taken our role away and now Jacob and I are in the office most of the time. And so we, think by joining Pest Control Millionaires with this. Just the networking, listening to you guys, talking to Jonas, that knowledge and education is like really, it gives me the confidence to stay focused on what we need to do versus like panic mode. No, I'm going to go back out. I can't afford to hire this guy. So I think it's just for me, the biggest part of it, implementing all of the marketing stuff, the Facebook ads, Clicki, the GoHighLevel through NextGen.

14:26Shawn Riley

All of that stuff is awesome. And I would, but I'm a slow learner when it comes to the tech stuff. And by the time I get on it, you've already said, well, that's no good. It's changed, know, whatever, jump on this, jump on that. So anyway, that stuff is super cool. We're looking to probably get a marketing person in here to try to take on that task so they can be better efficient at it. But it's more just man, plugging into. The knowledge in this group on Thursday nights and just your individual podcast and your individual education platform. That's what is the most valuable to me. And I think all this marketing stuff is just going to fall into place because it's just by default and we're working on it. And then one day I'm to wake up, it's all going to click and it's going to be like, you know, we'll do this interview again in five years. You know, and it'll be completely different. So it's revived my whole outlook on pest control. Because I was in it from a driver's seat as a tech or as a manager. It's all I knew. So all of the things that you guys do and talk about is like, I'm in a kindergarten class trying to learn. I never thought I was going to be here in this situation. It's just always, Hey, we made $1.5 million, dude. We're doing great. And.

15:40Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, what?

15:50Shawn Riley

You know, here we are and I feel like I'm starting at day one. We really invest in our people. We do four day work weeks, multiple holidays. We take the whole week of Christmas off into the new years. We have nice trucks. We, so, you know, our overhead's a little bit higher than most. We bought a building. We don't rent. That's kicking our butt, but like just, I want, I'm in it for the long run. I'm not in it for the... Short term, you so I think we have a good base and we're performing well and we still have our struggles but it's, I don't know, I'm just really re-energized because of the three of you guys and then the group that's in there, the people that come on, the new people and listening to the talk, there's so much information, little gold nuggets all over the place when we talk as a group, it's so cool.

16:44Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, no, I personally learned something new every single call. It's awesome. And like you said, the information is there. It's kind of more of the action layer, which it might be, you have to get out of the truck a little bit more and now you have to spend more time on the marketing stuff. And maybe that's just consuming the videos. Maybe that's implementing whatever that is. But something else I wanted to mention too. Well, first off, I really respect you because you show up to every single weekly call. I've been on every single one. I think the whole 2025, actually I've even missed a few just traveling and such. But you're on every single call, which is just awesome. Like Jonas tells me often privately, he's like, all the guys that come on these weekly calls, these are the ones that are really about it. Like these are the guys that actually care, they're gonna do whatever it takes. And you're one of them, one of kind of our core group here. And also something I wanna mention regarding the group is so cool, you were mentioning a little bit before this call, that you've connected with one of the members. I believe it's Vicky, right?

17:47Shawn Riley

Vicky,...

17:48Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah. Tell me about that. I think this is just so cool. She's like gonna come out to your shop and learn from you. What is she gonna do?

17:56Shawn Riley

Super cool. Like she, did the podcast with Jonas on one of his deals, which was, it was kind of goofy. I was kind of making a joke with Jonas. Said, one day I'll be big enough to be on your podcast. You know, when he's like, dude, sign it up. And like two weeks later I'm on the podcast and I have no idea. I'm not a very camera friendly person. You know, I kind of lock up and get stage fright, but you know, it's what it is. And then I did it. And then like, people started calling me like Brandon called me, but he's my friend. He's like, and then I showed it to my texts and reluctantly and other people. Then some woman reached out to me on a Facebook, what is it? The messenger.

18:43Shawn Riley

Right. And she said, you know, Hey, my name is Vicky and I watched your podcast with Jonas and you know, it really resonated with what I need right now. And so she had recently just purchased a pest control company and no experience. So I don't know. And then we just kind of talked and we've kind of talked back and forth for a couple of months and kind of kiddingly told her she needs to come out here and see how we do it. And she said, okay, and it's crazy. So I think it's super cool. And I tell her this all the time, but it's not just her. I think women in pest control are so cool. Like it's such a male dominated market, but women are probably, they're more geared to do proper pest control than men are. It's, they're more alien oriented. They relate to people better. They're customer service driven. Think they're less imposing when you knock on the door. Like my business partner, six foot five. With a big beard, you're knocking the door and it's like, Whoa, dude, like back up. And know, and you've...

19:50Dan Leibrandt

Haha...

19:54Shawn Riley

Got, you got a woman come to the door and it's just all of it. And I think it's admirable for somebody to never be in pest control to, you know, take, the nerve to step up to a pretty difficult industry. There's a lot of knowledge you have to know. And, you know, as a marketing guy, you know, the pest control marketing, but as an owner and a technician, there's so much to know.

20:19Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, no.

20:19Shawn Riley

You know, to do proper treatment and proper chemical application and still keep people safe and make people feel good about applying pesticide on their home, you know? So.

20:30Dan Leibrandt

Mm-hmm, yeah, no, totally. No, you're right, it's totally male-dominated. No, it's great to see women like Vicky come into the space. Usually we're servicing moms, so the women can relate immediately to the moms. Whereas the guy, like you said, it might be like a six-foot-five guy with a beard. It's just, I don't really want you to round...

20:40Shawn Riley

Yeah, very cool.

20:51Shawn Riley

A little bit like.

20:52Dan Leibrandt

My kids. Can you just spray around the house?

20:55Shawn Riley

Well, and like, you know, we try to be super transparent. We don't do a lot of interior spaces, but like, you know, hey, mom's at home or daughter's at home that's 18 or 20, and then some guys coming in their house. It's like, I take a lot of pride in our relationship with our customers because they leave us keys. Leave us alarm codes, door codes, do whatever. And so, but it just takes two seconds to run that. Reputation and then nobody wants you in their home. Anyway, we it's hard to find women that want to be in pest control. So that's difficult. But if I can just be a small know, influence or small help to her or to anyone in this group grow just by offering my little gold nuggets, then to me that's what it's all about.

21:52Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, no, that's what we're doing here too. I'm sure people have already taken something from this podcast here. And related to her coming out to your shop, like for someone that's like her, I believe she comes from the M&A space and she bought this pest control company. For someone like her that maybe they're stepping into the space from another industry or maybe they're just getting into it, when you do the shop tour and how your techs operate and everything, like what do you hope to teach her and what would someone like her learn?

22:22Shawn Riley

So for me, and this is what I relate to my technicians, it may sound corny or may sound silly, but I said, we're a customer service company who happens to do pest control. That's it. Like every pest control company has same opportunity to use the same product. There's nothing proprietary that I do. Don't, I mean, we have web polls. Everybody can get those. Have, you know, Termidor HE is what we use for our termite treatments. Everybody can have access to that. So where I'm different is we just are a customer service company that pretends to be a pest company. And so, go ahead.

23:05Dan Leibrandt

And do you have any? Yeah. I was gonna say like any nuggets there around like what can you do to ensure there's great customer service?

23:16Shawn Riley

We just communicate everything. It's like we call them. We make personal, we will send a text if they don't respond then we call. So we always have personal touch. I know that as you get bigger, it's harder to do that into whatever, but our people are used to hearing our human voice and they relate to my office manager. Her name is Sunny. Sunny, call me? Yeah, Sunny's gonna call you. And then we... Do text ahead so we let the technicians text and let them know we're on their way. And then we'll do a text behind saying, just letting you know we finished up, we knock on the doors, we knock on the door when we leave. We over communicate and it's, I don't know if there's such a thing as over communicating, but that would be my, one of my gold nuggets is just communicate and just to do what you say.

24:13Dan Leibrandt

Awesome, love that.

24:13Shawn Riley

You're going to do, you know, it's just, and being relational, talk to the customer. If you have, if they have a nice sports car in the driveway, like dude, that's a sweet car, you know? And then at that point you dig into what they like. And then it really doesn't matter what you do pest control wise after that, cause you already dug into the things that they're interested in. I, when you're relational, you can kind of see that my daughter played softball. So anytime I saw a bat in the garage or a helmet, It was cool because I could relate to all of that. Then you piqued their interest and now they're not even worried about pest control, they're just connecting to you.

24:52Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, just what I'm thinking about there is like, relationships are invaluable. Like think about some of the closest people you have in your life of, I don't know, that might even be Jonas or your parents or your kids or your wife. Like those relationships are invaluable. So I don't know, maybe you can't have the same relationship with a customer as your wife, but still that, like you can create an invaluable relationship there, right?

25:00Shawn Riley

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

25:14Shawn Riley

No, you can't because like it wouldn't be nothing like, you know, family, but it's like, can be so different than any other service industry relationship. You can make it relational and still be professional. Right. So I go to services sometimes now just in there, like, where you been? I haven't seen you in five years. You know, this is crazy. And they still, we talk and like, it's just, it's, I don't know. I think that's the biggest thing. And I think that's the biggest. We're paid back tenfold with that, with our referrals. And I think that's why we've grown at 30 % because we are so culture driven here at my company that if a tech doesn't fit in and then he, I mean, they just can't work here because I can't have somebody making that toxic and ruining what these customers, because I don't care if I have a 10 year customer, two services bad, they'll cancel.

26:13Dan Leibrandt

Mm, dang. That's actually a nugget right there.

26:13Shawn Riley

I just will. I mean, they just will. And they'll, yeah, they will. So they will lose you, especially me. They won't cancel. And I tell, but if you're, if my technician never gets relational and they don't know their name, if my customer doesn't know my tech's name, then they'll cancel Tactical, but they, it's hard to cancel Shawn, you know?

26:40Dan Leibrandt

Mmm.

26:40Shawn Riley

So that's Nope. Know your name. And then it's easy because I don't know this Tactical, I guess comes by and treats. But if you have Caleb is one of my guys, you don't cancel Caleb, right? Cause they love Caleb like, my gosh, it don't matter what he does or not. They would feel bad if they canceled him, but nobody feels bad to cancel your business. That's right.

27:01Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, it's easy. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's easy to fire a company. It's not easy to fire Shawn.

27:10Shawn Riley

Well, when you know, Caleb's 20 years old, he's working real hard, he's a good, and they see the value in that, in that person. And then he does a good job and whatever. If like, hey, they might call me and say, hey, Caleb's seemed a little off. Is he okay? They'll call and check on him. And it's like, it's so cool to me. But we had a guy that they went to wedding showers and gave baby gifts to. He came back with a pest control truck full of gifts and it's like crazy. But to me that's our, that's probably our whole culture and our, how we, why we're successful. Think it's just because we build relationships and as we get...

27:46Dan Leibrandt

That's so awesome.

27:56Dan Leibrandt

Yeah. No, I love that.

27:58Shawn Riley

Bigger, it gets harder, right? You got to manage more people. And as I'm not in the field, my service manager is he's awesome and he's super relational with customers, but you still get some kind of a disconnect from. You know, the longer the cord goes, the less you don't get the full power at the end of it. So we, I just want to make sure we always stay plugged into that.

28:20Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. Was a little confused earlier in their call because you were like, well, we've just grown basically doing nothing. I'm like, obviously you've done something because a lot of people wish they were at where you're at, but it seems pretty clear that you guys are doing a phenomenal service and now are starting to implement some of these other things.

28:37Shawn Riley

Well, that's the same thing. Jonas said, dude, you didn't do nothing, right? So I, my nothing is in reference to like advertising and spending money on marketing and stuff. But no, we've done a lot as far as just the personal branding and the relationship building. So.

28:52Dan Leibrandt

For sure. I've got two more questions for you, Shawn, if you've got time. So one is, I know Jonas and Jake actually flew out to you. I was supposed to be there, but I couldn't make it. I forget where I was, but they flew out to you in Oklahoma and they spent at least like a few days with you. Can you talk about how that was? What did you learn, if anything?

29:16Shawn Riley

Yeah, it was super cool. Mean, they, you know, Jonas came in. It's like when you, again, I met him over the phone in like 2012 and first time I meet him is 12 years later, right? So that was, like I already knew him, but seeing him was really cool. And getting to see Jake, that was like, I had like celebrities in my shop. That's what it felt like. And just listening to them talk, we went and filmed, we went and did things. They, you know, followed my texts around and. Did some photo shoots and stuff like that. I don't know. For me, it was just... Really the professional side of how they approached it. Jonas is real low key, super cool. But man, is just a, he pops out answers for everything like off the top of his head. It's like, no, you do this and here's how you do this. And this is why you do this. And even when he doesn't know, he's like, well, this is, it's just, he's, he is definitely, I don't know. But like he has a lot of good answers right off the cuff and they're not like fake answers or whatever. He really is dug in and like I have so much respect for him as far as his dedication to this to pest control. Super cool.

30:45Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, me too. And I think he has a really unique perspective too, because it's not just with his company, but he's interviewed so many people in Pest Control now. He's interviewed like over 150 people on his podcast, you included. So I think also having that context of all those different people, he just, I mean, there's just so much to know. And if you've interviewed all the guys doing $1 million a year and 5 million and 20 million, it's like, there's just so much to know. And I feel like,...

30:57Shawn Riley

That's crazy.

31:14Dan Leibrandt

It's almost not even enough just to pull from your experience, but when you know all the other people, then you can pull from their experience too.

31:21Shawn Riley

Yeah. And that's what like just the podcasts are super valuable because we go through, you know, annual CEU training and like, it's super cool to me. Like, Dr. Bob Davis, he's like the doctor at BASF that does Termidor, right? He does the research and all that. And when he puts up a clip on the screen and says, this is how you do it. And I'm like, this is exactly how we do it. Like a hundred percent how it's supposed to be done by the label. This is how we do it. No exceptions. And to validate that in front of you, some guy that is high level at Termidor and it's like, that's cool. So when you hear people talk on Jonas's podcast and they're, and they're saying the same things that you're doing. So that's what I've noticed on a bunch of the stuff, even though it's different, you might have different. Vocabulary or different things. It's if you get down to the nuts and bolts, everybody that's successful, even at entry level building a business or you've made it to the top, all the nuts and bolts are almost all the same. And hearing them repeat that at a $30 million business. And they're like, here's what we did. Here's what we grew work. I'm my journey right now. I'm on the right timeline at the right revenue. Jonas says, hey, you should hire a service manager between 1.2 and $1.5 million. And I said, we just did that. It's the exact timeline. Like it just falls into place. If you, I think if you're correctly or somewhat correctly trying to scale your business and we're following that path, sometimes it seems like we're never going to get there. But like, I think just by default, by doing certain things, you get there.

33:14Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, so.

33:14Shawn Riley

So listening to the podcast that you guys put on it's really cool to hear validation from the future, my future, but they're present, you know.

33:24Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. So what are the next steps for you, Shawn? What are you gonna do in the next year or two?

33:30Shawn Riley

Well, our goal was to get to 3 million in five years. So, you know, I think we can get there. We just, and we just have to keep plugging in. We're slow on the, I have a 30 day plan that I'm on like day two on and it's day 30 just because, but I think I've done a bunch of stuff that I don't even know that I know is on the list. We're just out of order. But we'll get there. We just have to take some steps to get some. What do you want the proper people in here to do what needs to be done and stay more out. Like I run all the leads. So I'm ready to hand that over to somebody that can, is capable of, you know, properly presenting our product to a customer and getting it sold better than I do. So, and that's going to be hard to do. So that's why it's a little. Right.

34:21Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. No, it's not easy, but you still have to try to enjoy the journey. And that's super ambitious to hit five mil.

34:27Shawn Riley

Yeah, no. Yeah. And that's what 3 million in five years. And then maybe after that, just really ramp it up even more. Cause I think we'll be able to do so. And the downside of where we're at, I have a business partner, right? One point, Jonas is like 1.5 gets you really where you start making some, you know, cashflow and you get some stuff in. Like for us, we got to get to 3 million because there's two of us for that start happening.

34:54Dan Leibrandt

Okay, I mistakenly said five million, meant three million.

34:58Shawn Riley

Yeah, you're good. Like 3 million gets us where we're starting to get our proper cashflow or, but we're all of our numbers are really good. I don't know if Jonas has talked to you about that. Sorry. The sun setting right here.

35:09Dan Leibrandt

Now you're good.

35:10Shawn Riley

But all our numbers were great and I don't need, he was asking for numbers that I had no idea what to tell him. And he looked them up and he was like, this is crazy. You know, you guys are like setting on a gold mine and don't even know it. So, and this is where I.

35:25Dan Leibrandt

But talk a little bit more about that, because I'm sure that could be helpful.

35:29Shawn Riley

Yeah, like for me, I'm a service guy. That's all I know, right? Not all. I mean, we, know what my deposits are. Know what my, our outgoing is all of our monthly stuff are built, all the things that, you know, just operating costs or salary, all that stuff, but like to understand where it all comes into play and what is our EBITDA and all the things. And they were all in line with where they're supposed to be. Our tech value, all the things that we needed to know, I don't know. I'm out running services. I just know that we're doing okay. And the numbers when Jonas has shown us how to, I mean, it's a little embarrassing to be 12 years in and you're still learning how to read a P&L and stuff. We had an accountant that was local that was, she's our bookkeeper and stuff. I think did the best that she could with what we had, but we really plugged into an advanced bookkeeper. Fraction, I don't know if you know them, but Fraction is, it's like they send in a report every month and it's all scaled, it's everything, it gives you all your numbers, all your operating costs, it's so cool to see. So learning to dig into how to run your business is a big deal. Like we were way behind on that, but. I think that's crucial early. Wish I would have learned it earlier and maybe learn to manage my business from a business perspective and not as a, you know, as an opera, not even an owner, you know, just as I'm out doing work and deposit the checks and I write myself a paycheck. That's about all I, you know, pay the bills and hopefully there's enough money in the account. And so I'm kind of downplaying how simple that was, but we, a lot more involved. Jacob was a branch manager, knows how to do all that. I'm being a little hard on ourselves, but really digging into all this stuff is really where I want to be. So I think if you were going to ask me what I would do different, it would be digging into learning the actual business terminology and learning how all of the revenue versus outflow goes, you know.

37:51Shawn Riley

Learning how to make my money work better.

37:55Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, no, it seems like the key is to stay humble and just to keep learning. It seems like that's kind of what I've gotten from that.

38:05Shawn Riley

Yeah, for sure. What that mean. Don't I don't put myself out there and as as cool as Jonas is as whatever I. I think he's a pretty humble guy and like I think he's cool. I mean, I know he likes to pose and there's gym pictures and stuff, but that's part of a program that he's doing. That's not like just because I mean that's accountability to him and. Man, if you know his story, it's not mine to tell for him, but like it's so cool and I have a. Of respect for what he's doing and stuff. And I really do think he's, he answers my phone call every time I call if he's not on a plane or on a podcast, but it's so cool that he's successful and he's very reachable. And I mean, he came out to my place. We talked about it. I thought that was the coolest thing. Just our little business, our little business.

38:51Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, yeah, no, he definitely is super humble.

38:54Shawn Riley

Yeah. And Jake, you know,...

38:56Dan Leibrandt

Even almost like more than humble. He was like, feel like a nobody doing $10 million a year. I'm like, what? How is that even possible?

39:03Shawn Riley

Yeah. Well, and the cool thing for me is he is just an open book for anybody. So like what this, what he's doing, what you and Jake are doing, like, I don't think people understand and maybe they do. Mean, it's just how, how much that is worth to people. And he's just spewing it out, I love it. So we like, his TikTok videos. He's showing you how to do treatments. Hey, go to the tractor supply and get this and you can do this. But if you don't want to do it, call it like it's just he's it's like he's just born to give information out. So it's cool. It's so cool. Yeah.

39:46Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, no, I've seen that too. Yeah, well, we've actually got the weekly call here in a few minutes, but I'd like to ask you one final question, Shawn, which is for the pest control owners or maybe even just pest control techs out there, what is your message to them? What do you, like in your heart of hearts, what do you wanna tell them? What do you think they need to know?

39:57Shawn Riley

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

40:16Shawn Riley

Man, just honor, honor your craft, honor pest control. Like it's easy to get out there and just pull the trigger on, put on your B and G or your backpack or your JD9 and just go around and just, man, really just have some honor in what you do at people's homes. And you're a guest at everybody's home, whether you think it or not, but as soon as you get out of that truck, you're a representation of the company you work for. And you're a guest at that customer's home, man, just have some pride and honor in what you do when you service that. I think that will carry you through everything. And if you don't, this business will bury you. It'll make you miserable.

41:01Dan Leibrandt

Hmm. That's, yeah. No, that's an awesome message. Feel like everyone kind of needs to hear that. Some people are a little bit too ambitious and they don't care too much about their customers. And it seems like you're on the other end of the spectrum. Like, no, we need to care as much as possible about our customers. We need to take pride in our craft. And I personally really respect that.

41:22Shawn Riley

That's cool, Dan. I appreciate that.

41:25Dan Leibrandt

Of course. Well, it's been great having you on the show, Shawn. Where can people connect with you online if they want to find you on social media?

41:32Shawn Riley

Well, mean, Facebook, we have a way of our business page and then my page is you can request me as a friend. Some of the group have already requested me, you know, five or six people. And I have a LinkedIn. I don't really know how to use it right yet, but I've looked at it a few. I'm friends with you on it and stuff. So I get some messages there, but that's really the three places right now. So it would be cool.

42:01Dan Leibrandt

Awesome, cool. Yeah, go connect with.

42:05Shawn Riley

Go ahead.

42:05Dan Leibrandt

Or yeah, I was gonna say go connect with Shawn on Facebook and LinkedIn. Both those links will be in the description. Thanks so much for coming on the show, Shawn. It's been really great. And it's been great to learn more about your story.

42:15Shawn Riley

Dan, I respect you so much. Like you've helped me and like you're super, it's just a cool place to be. And I hope this group goes to a bunch of awesome like-minded business owners that really, really, I think fix a pest control industry that is growing in the right direction. And you guys are a part of it. So thanks for having me on with that.

42:37Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, no, thank you for that. We wanna, yeah, yeah, we wanna grow and elevate the industry as much as possible. Yeah, no, really excited for all the things to come. And yeah, looking forward to seeing you on the call in one minute. It looks like we're about to hop on. Yeah, okay, cool. See you, Shawn, bye.

42:53Shawn Riley

All right, Dan. Thanks buddy. All right. See you later...