I recently sat down with Shawn Riley, co-founder of Tactical Pest Solutions in Oklahoma City, and honestly, his story is one of the best examples I’ve seen of what happens when you combine great service with smart growth strategies. Shawn and his business partner Jacob started from absolute zero in 2013, and today they’re running a $1.5 million company that added over $300,000 in just the past year. But what really stands out about Shawn isn’t the numbers. It’s how he got there and what he’s doing now to take things to the next level.
Shawn’s journey into pest control is pretty unique. Before getting into the industry, he owned a furniture delivery service. Then a friend working at Terminix brought him on as a service manager, managing about 40 people with zero pest control experience. It wasn’t exactly a smooth start.
When he started, it wasn’t exactly smooth. “It wasn’t well received, but it took me about a week to win people over,” Shawn told me. But once he got his footing, he realized this was exactly where he wanted to be. “I’m used to lumping furniture and here I am carrying around a B and G that weighs nothing. This is pretty replicatable.”
But here’s where it gets interesting. Most people climb the ladder in order. Shawn did it backwards. After being a service manager, he became a salesman so he could learn how to sell what they were servicing. Then he asked to become a technician so he could learn how to do it all. He literally worked his way down the chain to understand every piece of the business before starting his own company.
Starting From Absolute Zero
When Shawn and Jacob started Tactical Pest Solutions in 2013, they honored their non-compete and started with zero customers. To make ends meet, they got creative. They did lawn mowing, weed treatment, and pest control all together. The strategy was brilliant in its simplicity. Two or three services, one address, building relationships while building revenue.
Shawn even took a full-time job while Jacob ran the business, just so they could offset salaries without going broke. It was rough and stressful, but their background at Terminix gave them the blueprint for how pest control operations actually worked on the inside.
The first year? About $60,000. The second year maybe hit $120,000. Then things started taking off.
The Power of Community Branding
What happened next is something every local business owner needs to pay attention to. Shawn targeted his hometown, a community of about 8,000 people where he went to high school and where his kids graduated from the same school. He had a huge network of friends and relationships there.
They sponsored little league teams. They supported cheerleaders. They put their name on everything everywhere in their little community. And it worked. “We would have one or two trucks, they thought we had 10. They just saw us everywhere,” Shawn explained. Today, those bright red trucks are impossible to miss.
For years, they grew at 30% annually without spending money on marketing. Just branding, networking, and building relationships. Referrals kept pouring in because people knew them, trusted them, and saw them as part of the community.
When Branding Wasn't Enough
Eventually, Shawn realized they had hit a ceiling. They were growing at 30% doing minimal marketing, maybe some LSAs here and there, but that was it. They tried a few marketing companies but didn’t feel like they were getting what they needed.
That’s when Shawn reached out to Jonas. He’d known Jonas since 2012 and saw what he was building with his company. He watched his TikToks, his YouTube content, saw the success he was having. Shawn told me he thought to himself, if they’re growing at 30% with just branding, what could they do with the right marketing in place?
Jonas connected him with Jake, and funny enough, Jake had actually reached out to Shawn years before. Shawn admits he brushed him off back then, just another marketing email. But this time was different. This time Shawn was ready.
Getting Out of the Truck
When Shawn joined Pest Control Millionaires, the first big shift wasn’t about marketing tactics. It was about getting out of the truck. Him and Jacob were stumbling over each other, both calling the same techs, both running leads, being about 1.2 people instead of two solid people.
So they promoted a service manager to take over that role. It was a big investment, but the knowledge and education from the program gave Shawn the confidence to stay focused instead of panicking and jumping back in the truck. “I have a day plan and then I go run one or two leads. Then I come back, my day is shot, my list is not done,” Shawn explained. “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.”
When Jonas and Jake flew out to Oklahoma to visit the shop and film content, Shawn said it felt like celebrities showed up. But more than that, it validated everything they were doing. Jake could pop out answers for anything off the top of his head. The professionalism and dedication to pest control was obvious.
The Real Value: Knowledge and Community
Shawn shows up to every single weekly call in our program. Every single one. And he’s not just there to check a box. He’s learning, he’s contributing, he’s connecting with other owners.
One of the coolest things that came out of the program for Shawn was connecting with Vicky, another member who recently purchased a pest control company with no experience. She watched Shawn’s podcast with Jonas and reached out to him on Facebook Messenger. They’ve been talking back and forth for months, and she’s actually flying out to Oklahoma to shadow him and learn how he runs his operation.
For Shawn, implementing all the marketing stuff like Facebook ads, ClickFunnels, and GoHighLevel is awesome, but he admits he’s a slow learner when it comes to tech. By the time he gets on something, things have already changed. They’re looking to bring in a marketing person to handle that side more efficiently.
But the real value? It’s the Thursday night calls. It’s Jonas’s podcast. It’s the education platform. It’s the networking and knowledge sharing. “It’s revived my whole outlook on pest control,” Shawn said. “I was in it from a driver’s seat as a tech or as a manager. All of the things that you guys do and talk about, I’m in a kindergarten class trying to learn. I never thought I was going to be here. It’s always been, hey, we made $1.5 million, dude, we’re doing great. And here we are and I feel like I’m starting at day one.”
A Customer Service Company That Happens to Do Pest Control
Here’s what really sets Shawn apart and what he’s teaching people like Vicky when they visit. His entire philosophy can be summed up in one sentence. “We’re a customer service company who happens to do pest control,” he told me.
Every pest control company has access to the same products. Terminix, Orkin, the local guy down the street, they can all get Termidor HE for termite treatments. They can all get the same equipment. So where’s the difference? It’s in the service and the relationships.
They over communicate with customers. They call, they text ahead to let them know the tech is on the way, they text after to confirm the service is done, they knock on doors when they arrive and when they leave. Their office manager Sunny has built relationships where customers specifically ask for her to call them back.
But it goes deeper than that. Shawn trains his techs to be relational. If there’s a nice sports car in the driveway, talk about it. If there’s a softball bat in the garage, connect on that. Shawn’s daughter played softball, so anytime he saw equipment, he’d dig into that conversation. “When you’re relational, you piqued their interest and now they’re not even worried about pest control, they’re just connecting to you,” he explained.
And here’s the kicker. Shawn said that even a 10-year customer will cancel after two bad services. But they won’t cancel Caleb, one of his techs. They don’t cancel the person they know and trust. They’ll cancel a faceless company, but not the 20-year-old tech who does a great job and they’ve built a relationship with.
One of their former techs? Customers went to his wedding showers and gave him baby gifts. He came back to the shop with a truck full of presents. That’s the level of relationship Shawn has built into the culture at Tactical.
Learning the Business Side
One thing that surprised Shawn when working with Jonas was discovering just how solid his numbers actually were. He knew his deposits and his monthly costs, but understanding EBITDA, tech value, and how to read a P&L? That came later. “It’s a little embarrassing to be 12 years in and you’re still learning how to read a P&L,” Shawn admitted. But Jonas looked at their numbers and told them they were sitting on a gold mine and didn’t even know it.
They’ve since plugged into an advanced bookkeeper through Fraction who sends monthly reports with everything scaled out, all their numbers, all their operating costs. Learning to manage the business from a business perspective instead of just running services and depositing checks has been huge.
If Shawn could do anything different, it would be learning the actual business terminology and how revenue versus outflow works much earlier. How to make the money work better. But hey, better late than never.
What's Next
Shawn’s goal is to hit $3 million in five years. It’s ambitious, especially since having a business partner means they need to get to $3 million to have the same cash flow a solo owner would have at $1.5 million. But all their numbers are in line, and Jonas confirmed they’re on the right path.
The next step is getting the right people in place. Shawn still runs all the leads, and he’s ready to hand that over to someone who can properly present their product and close deals. That’s going to be hard to let go of, but it’s necessary.
They’re also looking at expansion into Tulsa, which likely means acquiring a company there to make a big impact fast instead of starting from scratch again. Shawn knows from experience that buying companies can accelerate growth, though he’s learned some lessons about making sure the acquisition has similar treatment protocols.
And through it all, Shawn stays humble and keeps learning. He shows up to every call. He helps other owners. He stays focused on service and relationships while building the marketing machine around it.
Key Takeaways
Shawn’s journey offers some powerful lessons for anyone building a pest control company. First, community branding and relationships can carry you incredibly far. He grew at 30% annually for years without traditional marketing, just by being visible and valuable in his community.
Second, there comes a point where you need to level up your strategy. What got you to $1.5 million won’t necessarily get you to $3 million. Shawn recognized that and sought out the knowledge and support he needed through Pest Control Millionaires.
Third, getting out of the truck is critical. You can’t scale if you’re still running every lead and jumping in to cover sick techs. Hire the right people, train them well, and trust the process.
Fourth, customer service and relationships are your competitive advantage. Every company has access to the same products. Your differentiation is how you make people feel and the connections you build.
And finally, stay humble and keep learning. Whether it’s understanding your P&L, implementing new marketing strategies, or learning from other owners in a community, the willingness to admit what you don’t know and go learn it is what separates good companies from great ones.
Shawn put it perfectly when he shared his message for other pest control owners. “Just honor your craft, honor pest control. Really just have some pride and honor in what you do when you service. You’re a guest at everybody’s home. That will carry you through everything. If you don’t, this business will bury you. It’ll make you miserable.”
From zero to $1.5 million, from furniture delivery to pest control entrepreneur, from working in the truck to building a team and scaling toward $3 million. Shawn’s story is proof that with the right mindset, the right support, and a commitment to service, you can build something special in this industry.
Want to connect with Shawn? You can find him on Facebook and LinkedIn. And if you’re looking for the same kind of support and community that helped him take his business to the next level, that’s exactly what we’ve built with Pest Control Millionaires.
