Pest Control Legends

Dan Leibrandt
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

Looking to crush it in pest control? Welcome to Pest Control Legends, where we interview the top people in pest control every week. Hosted by Dan Leibrandt, Pest Control Legends is meant to help pest control owners at every stage and every aspect of business. If you're looking to start or grow a pest control company, this podcast is for you! Catch new episodes every other week on Wednesdays at 9am CST. We greatly appreciate any follows, reviews, and comments on the show--would love to hear your thoughts!

  1. 5d ago

    Brian Lunsford: Buying Dad's Pest Control Company and Scaling to PCT Top 100

    On this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Brian Lunsford, owner and CEO of Kingfish Pest Control in Jacksonville, Florida. Brian is a second generation operator who, in 2005, bought his dad's Atlanta pest control company with his brother Brandon when it had only a couple of employees. They grew it into a 100-person PCT Top 100 business and sold it to Terminix in 2019. Brian then started over with Kingfish, alongside a home inspection company and a holiday lighting company called Joy Lights. Brian shares how the Atlanta company got its name out there by running loss-leader deals on Groupon and Angie's List, responding to every review with class, and answering the phones themselves until the chaos forced them to figure out hiring. He explains the spending rule he and his brother used to settle disagreements, why Google Ads is the engine behind Kingfish's growth today, and what five years as an official partner of the Jacksonville Jaguars actually did for the brand, from the "Swat That Kick" chant at the stadium to the bucket list moments on the team plane. He also makes the case that radio and other branding do work, and that owners who judge them by the source codes in their CRM are measuring the wrong thing, since most of that traffic shows up as "Google." The conversation then turns to hiring and culture. Brian explains why a red flag in an interview is almost always right, how every email, text, and meeting builds your culture whether you mean it to or not, and why he puts faith and family ahead of the company. He tells the story of a technician who offered to give up half of his commission to support a coworker going through a serious health situation, and how simplifying his portfolio this year, including shutting down a handyman business and turning a 12-month lighting company into a six-week one, reenergized his whole team. He closes with his message to pest control owners: there is no magic bullet, big results come from small actions repeated over a long period of time, and you are in the right industry. Brian Lunsford, Owner of Kingfish Pest Control: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianlunsford21/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-lunsford/ Website: https://www.kingfishpest.com/ Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:50 Leaving TV to take over his dad's pest control company 3:47 The first year: Groupon, Angie's List, and loss leader deals 7:26 Biggest mistakes: hiring anyone and overspending on radio 10:10 Partnering with his brother and the 2019 Terminix exit 13:06 Do those growth strategies still work today? 16:12 Becoming an official partner of the Jacksonville Jaguars 19:57 How important is branding? 21:26 Does radio actually work? 23:00 "Swat That Kick" and why branding shows up as "Google" 25:00 Trusting your gut in hiring 27:11 Red flags to look for in interviews 29:20 How to build culture 37:24 Faith and leadership 42:25 Simplification: cutting companies to focus on pest control 48:24 Using the realtor channel to drive pest leads 49:54 Lessons from building and selling the first company 54:16 Brian's message to pest control owners 56:36 Where to find Brian #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Brian Lunsford: Buying Dad's Pest Control Company and Scaling to PCT Top 100

  2. Sep 9

    Kyle Turner: Building a 140 Employee Pest Control Company (Without Door Knocking)

    On this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Kyle Turner, founder and CEO of Pro Active Pest Control in Roseville, California. Kyle grew up doing landscaping for his dad and always assumed his own business would be a landscaping company, but after watching a cousin and a friend succeed in pest control, he took a pay cut to become a technician, got his California license before anyone would hire him, and spent two years in the field before launching Proactive in 2014. Twelve years later the company runs multiple locations in California and Arizona with more than 140 employees serving over 30,000 customers. Kyle is honest about how rough the start was. The first six months brought lawsuits, self-doubt, and a plan to sell his handful of accounts back to his old employer and ask for his job back, until one day on one street he sold and serviced ten accounts and the momentum never stopped. He explains why Yelp was the engine of his early growth when there were no ads on the platform, why it is still his second biggest lead source behind Google even though most owners in the industry hate it, and what it actually takes to win Yelp leads when you are competing against four other companies on every message. The second half is about people and culture. Kyle hires on attitude rather than resumes, promotes only from within, and runs the company on one simple question: what would I want if I were the employee? That thinking produced the annual top performers trip to an all-inclusive resort, the spring kickoff, summer picnic, and Christmas party, and a team that hangs out on weekends. He walks through how he stepped out of the day-to-day with just three weekly direct reports, why he still calls his own office most days posing as a customer and as a new lead, why every manager should do a ride-along when they run out of things to train on, and where he lands on profit margins and the Profit First model. Kyle Turner, Founder of Pro Active Pest Control: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-turner-260208b0/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turnerkyle12/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/turner.kyle.7 Website: https://www.beproactivepestcontrol.com/ Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:50 From Landscaping to Getting Licensed Before He Had a Job 03:11 The Brutal First Six Months and the One Street That Changed Everything 05:06 How Yelp Built Proactive Before There Were Ads 06:28 Why Yelp Is Still His Second Biggest Lead Source 10:03 Google LSA and GMB, and Why Door Knocking Stopped 11:23 Why Most Owners Get Stuck at One Technician and Kyle Never Did 14:39 A Players, Hiring on Attitude, and Promoting From Within 20:34 The Top Performers Trip and Building Culture Every Quarter 27:48 Residential vs. Commercial and the Accounts to Avoid 31:07 Scaling Past $1M With Territory, Specialty Services, and Arizona 36:21 Stepping Out of the Day-to-Day With Three Direct Reports 38:41 Secret-Shopping His Own Office and Doing Ride-Alongs 43:45 What a Good Profit Margin Looks Like 44:43 Setting Your Pride Aside 47:42 Kyle's Message to Pest Control Owners 49:02 Where to Find Kyle #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Kyle Turner: Building a 140 Employee Pest Control Company (Without Door Knocking)

  3. Aug 26

    Paul Giannamore: What Your Pest Control Company Is Actually Worth in 2026

    On this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Paul Giannamore, managing director of The Potomac Company. Paul is recognized by institutional investors, Wall Street analysts, and the largest companies in the industry as the top global authority on pest control valuation and M&A. He started his career as a tech banker at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse before moving to the buy side at American Capital, then founded Potomac at 25 years old. He fell into pest control almost by accident when a friend asked him to sit in on due diligence for a deal near his home, and two decades later his firm has advised on hundreds of transactions and more than $10 billion in volume, handling more sell side pest control deals than every other advisor in the world combined. Paul walks through the full history of pest control valuations, from the duopoly era when Terminix and Orkin were the only buyers and companies changed hands at four to five times EBITDA, to the arrival of Rentokil's North American strategy, Anticimex entering the US in 2016, and the flood of private equity that pushed premium assets past 15 times. He explains why revenue multiples are a resultant number that describes a deal rather than drives it, why cash flow is the only thing that actually matters, and why multiple expansion in pest control has flattened in a way it has not in other industries. He breaks down what separates a premium business from a cheap one, including 80% or higher recurring revenue, top line growth at double the rate of inflation, and gross margins in the high 50s to high 60s, and he is blunt about the fact that the 2021 window where anything would sell is closed. The conversation then turns to the part of the job Paul says now takes up most of his time, which has less to do with structuring processes and more to do with preparing owners emotionally for what a sale actually does to them. He explains why selling a company you built is closer to a divorce than a transaction, why the team that feels like family stops feeling that way the moment you are no longer signing the checks, and why he has watched sellers leave millions on the table to protect people who were, from their side, doing a job. He also shares what separates the leaders who scale from the ones who stay stuck, why the owner of a $5 million company can genuinely know more than the CEO of Rollins, and closes with his message for 2026, which is to stop letting your organization arise by accident and start designing it on purpose. Paul Giannamore, Managing Director of The Potomac Company: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulgiannamore/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@POTOMACTV Website: https://potomaccompany.com/ Podcast Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 02:07 - From Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse to Pest Control 06:57 - Why He Went All In on One Industry 10:25 - Why Owners Were Selling for Far Less Than They Should 15:05 - What EBITDA Actually Means 17:31 - Why Bigger Companies Don't Always Get Better Multiples 20:25 - Scarcity Value and the Platform Acquisition Trap 23:19 - Where the Market Is Right Now 25:32 - The 2021 Peak and What Killed It 28:30 - Why High Valuations Cut Both Ways 33:32 - The Biggest Mistake Owners Make 36:20 - The Recurring Revenue Debate, Settled 40:42 - Why M&A Advisory Became Psychology 44:25 - Your Team Is Not Your Family 48:12 - Preparing Yourself for the Divorce 52:30 - What the Biggest Operators Do Differently 57:18 - Paul's Message to Pest Control Owners 1:01:58 - Where to Find Paul #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontrolacquisitions #mergersandacquisitions #acquisitions #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #paulgiannamore #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Paul Giannamore: What Your Pest Control Company Is Actually Worth in 2026

  4. Aug 19

    Brandon Sizemore: The CPA Who Left Accounting and Built a $7M Pest Control Company

    On this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Brandon Sizemore, owner of Mint Pest Control. Brandon is a licensed CPA who spent 12 years in accounting before walking away to start a pest control business in 2020. He pulled the equity out of his home, took a line of credit, and bet everything on it. Six years later, Mint is a $7 million company with four locations growing through door to door, inside sales, SEO, and one of the most recognizable brands in the industry. Brandon walks through the journey, starting with the three weeks he spent knocking doors in college and deciding door to door was not for him. He explains why he chased a partnership after being rejected several times, why failed partnerships and cash flow are the two biggest risks to a young business, and what it was like launching in the first weeks of COVID with cops called on his reps daily and a 15 person sales team cut in half. He also makes the case that his growth came far more from focus and effort than from capital. The back half gets into what the CPA lens actually gives him. Brandon explains why benchmarking your gross margin against another company is usually meaningless, why the real work sits in the leading indicators rather than the KPIs everyone already tracks, and how he thinks about door to door acquisition costs. He breaks down why the branding investment behind the mint truck was worth the risk, closes with the PRIME framework Mint uses to hire, and makes the point that what this industry really sells is trust. Brandon Sizemore, Owner of Mint Pest Control: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-sizemore-cpa-a6a3173a/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.s.sizemore Website: https://mintpest.com/ Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:46 - From CPA to Pest Control 05:30 - Betting the House on the Business 10:33 - Why Focus Beats Funding 15:58 - Why He Chose a Business Partner 22:49 - How a CPA Looks at a Pest Control Business 29:00 - The Numbers Most Owners Get Wrong 35:05 - Getting to the First Million During COVID 40:15 - Why the Mint Truck Works 43:41 - Making the Numbers Work on Door to Door 54:33 - Hiring and the PRIME Framework 59:48 - Brandon's Message to Pest Control Owners #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Brandon Sizemore: The CPA Who Left Accounting and Built a $7M Pest Control Company

  5. Jul 29

    Jeff Stafford: 40 Years in Commercial Pest Control (Airports, Stadiums, and Bed Bug Dogs)

    On this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Jeff Stafford, president of Innovative Pest Solutions. Jeff has been in the industry over 40 years, starting in the field the day after his 18th birthday. In 1994 he launched Bird Solutions International, which has handled some of the largest bird jobs in the country including 1.2 million square feet of netting at SeaTac Airport, the San Onofre nuclear plant, Pearl Harbor, and Petco Park. He ran the same specialist playbook again with Bed Bug Solutions, then rolled everything into Innovative Pest Solutions, a family run company serving Southern California that grows about 30% a year. Jeff explains why niching down is the single thing that blew his company up, from choosing bird control when almost nobody was doing it to naming a division Bed Bug Solutions so it would stand out next to quotes from Orkin and Terminix. That division outproduced his entire pest control company within three months. He also makes the case for commercial over residential, and gets candid about selling his first company out of panic in 1999 and why debt is the biggest thing he warns new owners about. The back half goes tactical. Jeff breaks down his ten dog canine program and warns that most companies who buy a detection dog end up with a $15,000 pet. He walks through the $750,000 West LA VA contract and the phorid fly investigation behind more than 90 canceled surgeries. He closes on how his partner wins entire property management portfolios by asking for all of them up front, and why industry consolidation has created more opportunity for small and mid sized companies than ever. Jeff Stafford, Founder of Innovative Pest Solutions: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-stafford-48b624/ Website: innovativepestsolutions.com  Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:12 Growing Up in the Industry and Learning From Bob Keith 05:31 Starting With $1,500 and Betting on Bird Control 07:07 Why Commercial Is a Necessity and Selling Out of Panic in 1999 10:52 Splitting Bird Solutions Out and What It Did to the Books 15:15 Don't Make Decisions Out of Fear, and the Case Against Debt 18:21 The Numbers Jeff Tracks and Paying to Keep Good People 21:41 How Niching Down Blew Up Innovative Pest Solutions 24:41 Why the Name Bed Bug Solutions Beat Orkin and Terminix 27:49 Rocket Growth, Miguel Garcia, and Pivoting Through COVID 32:16 Ten Detection Dogs and Why Most Companies End Up With a $20,000 Pet 39:28 Inside the $750K West LA VA Contract and the Phorid Fly Mystery 47:29 Winning Big Accounts, Multifamily, and Building Real Relationships 54:07 Jeff's Message to Pest Control Owners 58:03 Where to Find Jeff #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #jeffstafford #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Jeff Stafford: 40 Years in Commercial Pest Control (Airports, Stadiums, and Bed Bug Dogs)

  6. Jul 15

    John Speed: Building a $13M Pest Control Company From Scratch (in Hawaii)

    In this episode, Dan sits down with John Speed, owner and president of Kilauea Pest Control. John founded Kilauea in 2002 with his wife Jennifer and built it from the ground up into one of the largest pest control companies in the country, projected to do $13 million this year with a team of more than 100 across Oahu, Maui, and Molokai. Kilauea is the only local Hawaii based company ever ranked on the PCT Top 100. John shares what it takes to build a pest control company in Hawaii, from the brutal cost of living to why recruiting operators from the mainland almost never sticks. He walks through his unconventional journey, taking 11 years to hit his first million while optimizing for surfing and lifestyle, then scaling from $1 million to $13 million in the 11 years since. He also breaks down the terror barrier concept, why the scariest bets on people and acquisitions are usually the ones that build the business, and the story of spending his first $20,000 windfall to recruit his termite manager back from the mainland. Tactical takeaways include lessons from 7 pest control acquisitions over two decades plus 3 pool route acquisitions last year, why timing and relationships matter more than anything in buying companies, including one deal 15 years in the making, what he learned inside Alex Hormozi's workshops and the three plays their team gave him, why Google reviews are still Kilauea's best lead source, how he's expanding into pools and other recurring route based home services, and his message that success is whatever you and your family decide it is. John Speed, Founder of Kilauea Pest Control: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnspeed808 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfspeed/ Website: https://kilaueapest.com/ Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:19 From Texas to Hawaii and Into Pest Control 04:24 Starting Kilauea in 2002 08:34 Building a Company in Hawaii vs the Mainland 14:33 The Surfing Years: Lifestyle Over Growth 18:23 The Shift to Going All In on Business 22:26 Expanding Into Pools and Other Home Services 28:48 11 Years to $1M, Then $1M to $13M 30:37 The Terror Barrier and a $20,000 Bet 39:12 Takeaways From the PCT Top 100 47:44 Inside Alex Hormozi's Workshops 52:54 The $35,000 Takeaways for Kilauea 58:18 Family First: The Business Is Not the End 59:49 Lessons From 10 Acquisitions 1:06:16 Google Reviews as the Best Lead Source 1:07:25 Final Message to Pest Control Owners #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    John Speed: Building a $13M Pest Control Company From Scratch (in Hawaii)

  7. Jul 8

    Ryan Tate: The Relationships Strategy Driving 95% of Revenue for Rogue Pest Solutions

    In this episode, Dan sits down with Ryan Tate, owner of Rogue Pest Solutions out of Huntsville, Alabama. Ryan has spent nearly two decades in pest control, working his way up from technician to branch management before helping build Wayne's into a $28 million regional company ahead of its exit in 2019. Today he runs Rogue alongside his four partners, and since joining in mid 2023 the company has grown from around $1.5 million and 14 employees into a multi-state operation with 34 employees. Ryan breaks down the culture, strategy, and execution framework he learned from his mentors at Wayne's, why strategy is the biggest gap in the pest control industry, and the builder relationship model that drives 95 percent of Rogue's growth. He explains why people only buy pest control for two reasons: they see bugs or they move. Chasing the movers through new construction termite work puts Rogue in a blue ocean while everyone else fights over the same Google leads. Tactical takeaways include how Ryan builds partnerships with builders doing 150 to 2,000 homes a year, why bullets stop working past $1 million and how to find a cannonball lead source that actually scales, what he learned consulting for pest control companies stuck between $1 million and $3 million, how his faith shapes the way he leads and why he sees the business as an impact building tool, and how Rogue structures a five-partner team where each partner runs his own market and owns one company-wide role, plus his rule that a ten year partnership requires knowing someone for ten years. Ryan Tate, Cofounder of Rogue Pest Solutions: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.tate.651111/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-tate-a-c-e-80206b258 Website: https://www.roguepest.com/ Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:36 How Ryan Got Into Pest Control 02:25 Lessons From Wayne's: Culture, Strategy, and Execution 07:10 Leading With Why and Inspiring People 11:45 First Principles and Strategic Thinking 16:25 Thinking Like a Businessman and Getting Out of the Truck 22:16 The Story Behind Rogue Pest Solutions 24:59 People Buy When They See Bugs or When They Move 28:38 Building Relationships With Builders 33:31 What Builder Partnerships Look Like in Practice 38:00 Consulting Lessons: Nobody Is Coming to Save You 41:21 Bullets vs Cannonballs and Scalable Lead Flow 47:44 Navigating a Five-Partner Business 53:24 How the Partners Divide Their Roles 57:20 Final Message to Pest Control Owners #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Ryan Tate: The Relationships Strategy Driving 95% of Revenue for Rogue Pest Solutions

  8. Jul 1

    Tony Carder: Building a $24M Pest Control Company and Starting Over

    On this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Tony Carder, owner of TruNorth Pest Control. Tony got his start at Active Pest Control, the company his father founded in 1985, working termite jobs as a teenager before steadily moving up through sales and into leadership. He bought the business outright in 2006 when it was doing roughly $4.4 million a year, scaled it into a 15 branch operation generating $24 million annually, and sold it in 2019 after 34 years in the industry. Now he is back at it, building TruNorth from scratch alongside his two kids, Cody and Kaylee. Tony breaks down exactly how he scaled Active from $4.4 million to $24 million, including the acquisition playbook he used to turn a $300,000 route into a million-dollar branch within 12 months by cross-selling termite, pest, and mosquito services to an existing customer base. He explains the relationship-first marketing model that still drives his growth today, why TruNorth spends around $30,000 a month building relationships with realtors, and the 24 month timeline it takes for a new location to gain real traction. He also makes the case for door hangers and yard signs as the cheapest advertising in the business, explains why he does not run a door knocking operation, and shares how his 26 year old son took a brand new branch from $3,100 in its first month to nearly a million dollars a year. The conversation goes well beyond tactics into what Tony actually optimizes for, starting with his decision to walk away from a $24 million company to build a family business where his children earn their place the same way he did. He opens up about putting Christ first, why he believes every principle of business traces back to scripture, and how customer service really comes down to answering the phone and getting there fast. Tony also shares his approach to building wealth through real estate and consistent saving, why he tithes religiously, and closes with the message he keeps coming back to: take care of your people, because your own two hands can only do so much. Tony Carder, Founder of TruNorth Pest Control: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tony.carder.716186 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-carder-695a9564/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/successbeforebreakfast/ Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends: Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/    Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt    Website: https://danleibrandt.com Pest Control Legends Platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends  Podcast Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 01:27 - Growing Up in the Family Pest Control Business 03:25 - Should You Go to College? 06:24 - Taking Over and Buying Active Pest Control 09:21 - Scaling From $4M to $24M 11:06 - The $30K a Month Realtor Strategy 15:26 - Getting Out of the Truck and Into Relationships 25:21 - The Acquisition Playbook: $300K to $1M 28:45 - Door Hangers, Yard Signs, and No Door Knocking 31:00 - Putting Christ First and Finding Faith 34:48 - Why Every Home Service Is the Same Business 40:03 - Momentum and Living Off the Crumbs 47:24 - Setting Expectations and Rewarding Your People 52:45 - Growing From $15M to $24M in Three Years 57:44 - Selling the Company and the Legacy Conversation 01:01:37 - Lessons and Mentors That Shaped Him 01:04:42 - Building Wealth Through Real Estate and Tithing 01:10:57 - Final Message to Pest Control Owners #pestcontrolmarketing #pestcontrolbusiness #pestcontroladvertising #pestcontrolleads #pestcontrolads #pestcontrollegends #danleibrandt #pestcontrolowner #pestcontrolpodcast

    Tony Carder: Building a $24M Pest Control Company and Starting Over
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About

Looking to crush it in pest control? Welcome to Pest Control Legends, where we interview the top people in pest control every week. Hosted by Dan Leibrandt, Pest Control Legends is meant to help pest control owners at every stage and every aspect of business. If you're looking to start or grow a pest control company, this podcast is for you! Catch new episodes every other week on Wednesdays at 9am CST. We greatly appreciate any follows, reviews, and comments on the show--would love to hear your thoughts!

Information

  • Creator
    Dan Leibrandt
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Dan Leibrandt
  • Show Website
    Pest Control Legends