Ever wondered how sheer tenacity can turn balloons into a booming business or how an adrenaline junkie leverages his thrill-seeking spirit into entrepreneurial success? That's the story of Cory Hodnett, the dynamic founder of Green Machine Pest Control, who joins us on Grit and Grow to share his riveting journey from parade candy sales to pest control mogul. His anecdotes, from selling cars for fun to sealing homes against scorpions, are as entertaining as they are enlightening, brimming with lessons on the value of grit, charm, and seizing the right opportunities.
Knocking on doors with a smile might not be everyone's idea of a dream job, but for Cory, it was a masterclass in sales and human psychology. Our conversation uncovers the hidden joys and tactics behind each door-to-door encounter, revealing how rejections turned into rewarding customer relationships and teaching opportunities for new recruits. And for those moments when entrepreneurship demands everything, including selling your spouse's car, Cory's stories exemplify the fierce commitment needed to keep the dream thriving, even when you're down to your last $20.
As the episode unfolds, we tackle more than just the entrepreneurial spirit; we dig into the nitty-gritty of keeping Phoenix homes scorpion-free with innovative pest control methods. But it's not all about bugs; we delve into the values that underpin a successful business and life. Cory illustrates how to instill a potent work ethic in children and prepare teens for their own successful ventures, ensuring the next generation is equipped to hustle with heart. So tune in for an episode packed with practical wisdom, infectious laughter, and the kind of stories that stick with you long after the credits roll.
Want to stop your pests dead in their tracks? Call Cory today!
CALL/TEXT: 480-470-5266
https://www.greenmachinepest.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're tuned in to the Grit and Grow podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, thank you everybody for joining us here
once again.
As always, we are your hosts.
I'm Brian, I'm Jay and this isthe Grit and Grow podcast
brought to you by MyCityLenderHome Loans and MyCityOffice
Flexible Coworking Space,excited to bring that online.
We've got a great show today.
(00:25):
We've got Corey Hodnett.
He is founder and CEO of GreenMachine Pest Control and he's
going to tell us today how tofind a home in Phoenix that
doesn't have scorpions.
Jay, I love it.
And man, does Corey have anentrepreneurial story to tell?
He is from Candy Sales atParades.
I read that on your linkedinbio, um, at the beginning, when
(00:46):
you were as a kid, and we wantto dive into that like we can't
hear about that.
How did that you know?
Um to starting a successfulpest control business green
machine pest control.
Um, corey has a business degreefrom byu, hawaii.
That sounds really cool it wasfun did not know that they had a
uh, a campus there in hawaii.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That must have been a good time honestly, the hardest
part about it is getting yourbutt into class.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
How do you get anything done?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's hard to get a degree over there.
It's not academically hard,it's hard to just go to school
when you can see the beach andyou're like I want to be out
there.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Corey is an adrenaline junkie.
I think he's jumped out ofairplanes.
He's done cliff diving.
He told me he was telling meabout that.
Some waterfalls, that soundsamazing.
Oh yeah, he's been in thetrenches and he truly
exemplifies grit, which is whyit's super exciting to have him
on the show today.
Corey, welcome to the show, man.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Welcome to the show.
Yeah, appreciate it, guys.
I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I knew we were going to have a good show when I was
reading his LinkedIn bio and hesaid, quote I've sold everything
I can possibly get my hand on.
I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
No joke, it's awesome , no joke.
Yeah, most recently too, we'vebeen going through cars, and
every time we buy a new car, Iimmediately put it up for sale.
My wife's like you got to stopselling my car, and I'm like I
paid this much for it.
If someone will pay me thatmuch for it, then sure I'll go
get another one.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It's she just doesn't even get excited anymore.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, she's like you gotta stop selling my cars.
Great, I love it.
Yeah, it's fun.
I have a good time well take usback to.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You're a kid and you decide to sell candy at a parade
.
That that and jay canabsolutely identify with this,
because jay's got a great storyabout selling, yeah, candy and
pop concessions.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh, you did concessions, that was it.
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't get ajob at Wendy's, so it was hey,
where were you doing concessionsat?
In my backyard, no way, butlet's hear about yours.
I want to hear about this.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So I grew up in Modesto, california, which is
like in the hood now it's like,yeah, it's super ghetto.
But we used to have this 4th ofJuly parade that just everyone
comes out for, and my parentsdidn't really do the like sit
and watch the parade thing, andI don't know if they just had
ADD or what, but like they werejust like hey, this is a
money-making opportunity, ourfamily's going to go out and pay
some bills.
So we had this wagon, westuffed it full of like drinks
(02:58):
in the in the cooler and then wehad, you know, this thing full
of candy and then they give useach a fanny pack and they're
like stuff the money in thefanny pack and try not to eat
and drink all the stuff, justsell it.
So like Fourth of July paradewas walking up and down selling
stuff, like that's every yearthat is amazing yeah.
Everything was an opportunity.
Growing up, they were alwayslooking for like what can you do
(03:19):
?
Where do you motivation anddrive comes from?
We're broke.
Look at it, I don't know.
I think some of it's like.
You know, people like somepeople, have this like shell
that they live inside and that'swhat keeps them comfortable.
I don't think my parents hadthat.
They're both entrepreneurs.
My dad was in construction.
He, as far as I remember, healways had his own business.
My mom also had her own businessand like they were just very
(03:42):
outgoing people and so I waslike that's what you do, you,
you just go make money out ofout of nowhere, you just find it
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, someone's got it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You just gotta go make it that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So are do your parents?
Are they still bothentrepreneurs or?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
yeah, um, well, they're kind of retired.
I say kind of because, like, mydad still does stuff for people
and they still give him moneyso he doesn't really call it
work anymore.
But yeah, um, but yeah, thatthey've always been all the way
until until taking a break.
Yep, um, yeah, but that was, uh, anytime I wanted something.
They'd be like, well, how areyou going to go pay for it?
(04:16):
How are you going to get it?
So that's kind of where the thecandy I think I called it
Corey's candy backpack Um, loveit, awesome.
Yeah, I was in first grade and Iwas like, I want to, I want to
make some money.
And my mom's like, well, whatare the kids at school like?
And I was like, well, I likecandy.
And she was like, all right,let's go to the store and we'll
buy a big box.
It's full of candy.
And if you mark them up to aand be like, hey, you just want
(04:42):
to buy some candy, yeah, that'stotally it, what do you need?
So I almost got expelled fromschool in first grade because
people kept passing money.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Now did you take it to the next level?
Were you like doing Twinkiesand HoHos and everything?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
No, it didn't get that far because the teacher
kept catching me because she'slike, look, you can sell candy,
but only during recess.
And I was like cool.
But when someone passes youmoney and they say I want a
Snickers or I want like a bighunk bar or whatever it was like
, I'm like I can't turn on thismoney, I better send the kid,
Like you know.
So I'm like digging in mybackpack, I'm like all right,
(05:17):
what do I have in here?
Like hey, give this to Johnny,don't let the teacher see.
You know they were like firstgrade, oh, first grade, yeah,
okay I was, yeah, I and I soldall sorts of stuff, those
boondoggle lanyards and stuff.
I think the other kid wasselling them and I was like, how
much is he selling those?
For eight cents a yard.
I'll do it for seven cents ayard.
(05:38):
And then I I just brought likea backpack full of these
lanyards and was like, yeah,yeah, so, yeah, I did that more
than my homework.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, it was fun, it was fun, what, what has been
your, your favorite?
I don't even know if that's agood way to ask the question.
Like you're, you've, you've gotan incredible entrepreneurial
trail behind you.
Yeah, what, what, what are somestandout moments for you that
that kind of have shaped who youare today as a business owner?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
out moments for you that kind of have shaped who you
are today as a business owner.
Well, so one of them was I usedto make balloon animals at Red
Lobster.
Okay, awesome, kind of a weirdone, but I had a friend in high
school and he was buying hislunch and he pulled out his wad
of cash with a rubber bandaround it.
In California that usuallymeans you do drugs.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So I was like, hey, I thought it was shoes hanging
over the telephone.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, that's where you stand, right by that.
No, he was like you won'tbelieve it if I tell you.
And I was like then, then showme, I want to see what you're
doing.
And he was like all right.
So he brought me to red lobsterand he was like making balloon
animals table to table and hewas raking it in.
And I was like I'm in.
(06:46):
So we made our own littlebusiness.
It was Airheads Anonymous andwe used to.
I used to get phone numbers on$5, $10, $20 bills from girls,
because I'm still in high school, you know.
So, like we, I could show upanytime I want.
We got food from the kitchen,so we had dinner and we'd make
cash.
So it was no taxes.
And the world famous biscuits,yeah, oh dude, oh man, I
probably had thousands of thosethings.
(07:06):
Um, and after two days theymake really good baseballs.
Okay, so, yeah, anotherbusiness.
Yeah, but I would.
I had a.
I had a whole thing mapped out.
I'd be like all right, I'm onFriday, I'm going to take a girl
on a date around.
I'd tell her around nine, belike, I'll take you out at nine
and then, from six till or fivetill eight, I'd go make balloon
animals and make all the cash Iwould want to spend on the date.
And so I just I was ready to goand I was just balling with
(07:28):
this big load of cash, you know.
So it was fun, but I think thatshaped it because I realized
like I can create opportunitythat works in my time and my
level of charisma and effort andcause.
If you go in and you're like aweirdo and you got, you know,
like you're awkward and youapproach a table or you don't
want to approach a table andthen like you're not going to
(07:50):
make money if you don't approacha table, and then if you do
approach the table and you don'thave like the charisma and the
energy, you're not going to getthe tips that you think you're
going to get.
And so like, hey, I want to, Iwant you to come to my table, so
I go over there and he's like Idon't even want a balloon, I
(08:10):
just went out for you a job andI was like okay what is it?
so?
He wanted me to be, like this,service manager for, like,
northern California for Kmart,northern California and Nevada
for Kmart.
I was gonna travel all throughNorthern Nevada and California
going to every Kmart and liketraining their front end
salespeople to be faster, causeI don't know if you've been to a
(08:31):
Kmart but it takes like threeyears to go through checkout.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I grew up next to a Kmart that doesn't exist anymore
, unfortunately, but what do youthink it was that he saw in you
that prompted him to to decidethat you could do that job,
which seems big?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It was especially for high school.
I was still in high school andI'm traveling around Northern
California, so I think it wasjust more that like I had a
process to what I was doing andI got people to like me while
they waited, and I think that'sprobably what it is, and so he
was like I really want you to Ina short period of time you
developed a, a no like and a noone like.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You're not a trust yet, but but at least a no and a
like quickly.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah and I turned.
I could turn something that waslike you know, I'm being
approached for a cold call salewhile I'm eating in a restaurant
, whereas I'm supposed to bewith my family or whatever.
So that's a hard sale and Icould turn it into like just
something super fun and I washaving.
I was having a good time.
That's the thing I've alwaysloved about the work that I do
is I'm always having a good time.
So if I'm not having a goodtime, I'm probably not in the
(09:33):
right space.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Are you, do you gauge which?
Like, for example, goingdeciding to to start your own
pest control business?
Did you think you were going tohave a good time?
Is that part of your, your,your genesis for kind of getting
there?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I mean you could see like the money has to be there
and like that kind of stuff, solike you have to have some
acumen built into that.
But like I.
So I had.
I had knocked doors for fouryears selling pest control
already, and then I left theindustry and came back and
knocked another three years andand so I had seven years of door
knocking experience.
And guess what, I had fun doorknocking.
(10:09):
That's not something you hearvery often, but I was having a
great time on people's porcheschatting with them.
I didn't know how to work itwith, like you know, like moms
that are at home, they gotnothing better to do.
You know, if I'm having a badday, I put on some music in my
pocket.
I'm like popping locking, whileyou know, if I'm having a bad
day, I put on some music in mypocket.
I'm like popping lock-in, whileI'm waiting for them to like
(10:29):
answer the door and I'm sittingin their rocking chairs and
they're answering the door andI'm like, hey, what are you
doing?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I'm like, hey, I'm just here to sell you pest
control.
It's cool, like you know, Iimagine you got a lot of snooty
responses as well.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So how did, how did you handle that?
Like what like for yourself,for you this is still much like.
For everyone that's watching orlistening, this is still much
no, but I mean like on the otherside of of a happy person
opening the door, is somebodysaying get the hell, you know,
get off my porch.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
So there was an evolution to it, like at first I
took things way too seriously,okay, right, and like I would
get pissed and I I have aproblem with, so it's probably
part of my personality issue.
But like, so I I mean I had myboss pull me in once and was
like dude, did you take anentire thing of flyers and throw
it inside the back of thisguy's truck?
And I was like sure, did he wasa jerk.
(11:17):
And the guy was like you know,your name and phone number are
stamped on every flyer, Right.
And I was like, oh, he's notgoing to be very happy about the
ones that I threw inside thetruck then and he was like what?
And so like it was hard for me,like not to take things
seriously.
But after I'd done it for a fewyears I was like I just had to
think like that guy probably hada bad day, or that lady was
(11:38):
probably in the middle ofcooking something, something,
and she didn't want to burn itand she just wanted me out of
her hair and so it didn't botherme.
After a while it wasn'tpersonal.
It was just whatever I'm fast,I'm closer to the yeses than
fighting through this dude thatobviously doesn't want to hear
from me.
So I stopped fighting with them.
I was like cool, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Do you have any good stories about initially being
told no at the front door butfinding your way to a yes?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Oh yeah, tons of them .
So front door, but finding yourway to a?
Yes, oh yeah, tons of them.
Um, so, being that I've donedoor knocking for over 10 years
now, um gosh, there's a number.
Just this year I had a ladyanswer the door and she's like
oh gosh, no, I've got a pestcontrol guy.
And I was training a dude andhe was like no problem, see you
later.
And started walking away and Iwas like, don't do that, like
(12:25):
right.
And so I just like, immediatelywhen someone gives me an
objection, I take a casualstance and I just lean against
the wall and I was just likeyou're so smart, like you gotta
have pest control out here.
Who are you using?
And she was like well, it's a,it's this guy, and I just call
him when I need him.
First sign that it was a lie.
And I was like oh okay, thisisn't for sure.
Let's see where this goes, youknow, and so like, next thing is
like well, I haven't called himin two years, though, and I'm
(12:48):
like, oh okay, so you're blowingsmokes, so you're doing it
yourself, yeah.
So I was like so you're notreally doing anything.
She's like no, actually it'sbeen a few years and I just
haven't called anyone and Idon't even know if the guy still
does it, and and and.
Next thing, you know, she'sbringing us in and she's showing
us, like these differentvinegars, that one of them
tastes like chocolate.
She's like I put vinegar on myice cream and I was like no, you
(13:09):
don't.
She's like you got to try thesevinegars and one of them tastes
like chocolate, one of themtastes like lemon or vanilla or
something.
She's having this like You'rehanging out and yeah, we're
hanging out in her living room.
And Before I left she gave me ahug.
Yeah, I got water and drink.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You're in the family now Weird vinegars.
Pest control, business Pestcontrol.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, she signed up for pest control, she even added
on like some warranty stuff andshe's like this is going to be
great.
I'm so excited you guys stoppedby and I'm like see this is
awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So after this whole process and the tasting of the
vinegar and all that, you're inthe family now.
Yeah, uh, did you sit down withyour guy and you're like so
what, what was?
Would you learn from this?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
oh yeah, I do that with everyone.
Okay, yeah, I'm like all right.
So what happened?
Start to finish and then we gothrough it step by step.
What did you observe?
I'm like, hey, when did you?
When did you want to walk away?
That's usually the firstproblem.
When did you want to walk away?
And he was like, well, right,when she said she had someone.
And I was like, yeah, 80% ofpeople in Phoenix have someone.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So are they're going to say that because they don't
want to be talking to you?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
80% legitimately have someone and then other people
are like I just don't want totalk to you.
So I'm just going to tell youthat, because you know it's easy
out I gotta, I gotta talk to myhusband, whatever.
Like, you know, it's like it'sjust a smoke screen, so like,
okay, so so you're going to walkaway from all those.
But that's the thing, being atrue salesman.
You are truly a salesman If,when you get to the point where
you feel awkward for being there, you find a way to push to the
(14:35):
next portion of it.
You will not be a salesman Ifyou walk away the moment you
feel awkward.
You're just an order taker,because you just get to the
point where the customer feltlike, okay, I'm done, and then
you're like yeah, me too.
That's not a salesman.
Salesman knows like oh, we havea problem, I got to fix it, I
can get past that.
Here's the value.
Yeah, like, let's just get pastthis little, this little weird
feeling I got.
Let's just keep going, causeyou know, something good will
(14:55):
come out of it and if I'm chillenough, you won't even notice.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So it's kind of fun.
So what you to transition fromknocking on doors as a salesman
to I'm going to own the wholething and build this thing
myself.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So the hardest part about business I felt at the
time, which I still do feel, islike where am I going to get my
customers?
And right now, in the worldwe're in today, where everyone's
worried that the economy isgoing to shut down and all this
crap, it's like, well, where aremy customers going to come from
.
My business might not stay open,but the hardest part about it
is bringing in the customers andI knew that all I had to do if
(15:31):
I ever got stuck was go knock onsome doors and I could bring in
customers.
So that's kind of what broughtme to it.
I was good at that part and Iknew, after doing it for so many
summers, I could sell four to500 customers in a summer and
that's enough for a business torun.
And I was like all right, Ialways knew I wanted to be an
owner and I didn't want to dothe services.
I wanted to own a business andthat's you know.
(15:53):
I got an international businessdegree because I always wanted
to own the business.
I'd worked in a few businessesso I saw like from the employee
side and then I was like youknow what?
We're going to go, we're goingto go, we're going to go full
out.
There was a tipping point whereI had a guy that had me training
his sales team and he wanted meto join him for a pest control
company and and we just didn't.
We had a conflict of like wherewe wanted the trajectory of the
(16:13):
company to go, which was asuper blessing.
I was glad that he was like hey, by the way, let's let's talk
about this part, cause I didn'teven think about that.
And he was like I don't want toget huge, I just want a route
for me and all my sons.
And I was like, nope, I want toget, I want to get bigger, I
want to have like a wholecompany that I can be proud of
and you know everlasting name,and I don't want to be doing the
services.
And so it was like all right,I'm just it's just time to start
(16:36):
my own.
But the timing of it was kind ofdegree and she was like I'd
done a couple more summers ofknocking and I was like you know
what?
I'm kind of tired.
Do you want to be thebreadwinner?
I just came home one day andwas like do you want to switch?
I'd really like to just takecare of the kids and like relax
(16:56):
and play video games and watchwrestling.
And you want to be thebreadwinner.
And she was like actually, thatsounds really fun.
You want to be the breadwinner.
And she was like actually thatsounds really fun.
And so she's like I want I'mgoing to go back to school and
be an esthetician and so I waslike cool, awesome.
So we had her going to schooland I lasted like two months and
she came home one day and I waslike, hey, I started a pest
control company and she's likeyou did what?
I'm still in school, I'm noteven the breadwinner yet.
(17:18):
Like we didn't even get thatfar and I was like, yeah, I
can't do it.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
So this is not for me , you're really good at this.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I don't cook like I'm struggling to stay organized,
to clean the house all the time,like nobody died today.
So that's my level of successat this moment I can't, I can't.
And she was like that's cool, Iwas thinking about it too.
I want to kind of do my thingon the side.
So it worked out.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, I can identify with that completely.
When I left executiverecruiting which he's also been
in recruiting as well he's somany different things when I
initially left integratedmanagement, I decided I wasn't
going to work for myself at thatpoint and I was going to find
another job.
And so I I decided, okay, I'mgoing to put in my my interview
(18:05):
britches and I'm going to gofind myself a uh, you know, a
job that's got a salary and allthis, and that I'm sitting here
like chuckling.
A week into it and I had startedmy own recruiting business and
I'm like I got it.
I got it.
Thankfully, my wife was, wasalready working and still
working, and so, um, thatafforded me the luxury of taking
a week to decide if I really dowant to have a regular job or,
(18:25):
or you know, own a business andwent that way.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
It's funny when you see it and you're like, hey, I
could do this, and you get thatentrepreneurial spark like in
the uh Michael Gerber's e-myth.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Have you read that book?
No, I have not read that one.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Oh, that's a good book.
It talks about like theentrepreneurial spark where,
like a lot of people and this isprobably related to one of the
reasons why most businesses failis because the entrepreneur
gets like a quick spark andthey're like I could do it, and
then they don't get the.
They don't have like a, theydon't they it and then they
don't get the they don't havelike a they don't, they can't
weather the storm and they don'tpush.
(18:59):
And I'm not.
I have no idea.
You know how the recruitingthing turned out for you.
But most people get that spark.
They get a little bit into itand they go this is hard.
And then the fear of successit's not the fear of failure,
it's the fear of success comesin, and I always thought I don't
have a fear of success.
That's stupid.
Why would you be afraid ofbeing successful?
But what happens is peoplestart to see well, if I get
these accounts or if I sell thismany, I got to do all that work
(19:22):
.
I got to fulfill it.
I got to wrap boxes, I got tohire people, train people, make
manuals, Got to do payroll, Dowhatever it takes.
I got to pay taxes, All thatstuff, and it overwhelms them
and they're like I'm not doingthat, nope, and then they bail
and it's just too much and solike I've never been that way.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's one of the things that I really wanted to
ask you about, too is like, whatdo you think are some of the
like, the key ingredients thatcome into the entrepreneur
spirit to get you through that?
Yeah, like, you've got thespark, for sure, but like what?
What gives you the that desireto grind it out and push through
the really, really tough times?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well, I think for most people it's they don't.
They don't actually look at thefuture very well, um, and if
you look at the future a littlebetter, you'll you'll have more
of a drive to get to at leastthat point, right?
So when I started my company,um, my pitch to my wife was like
hey, I'm going to sell your carand I'm going to buy a pest
control truck with it and youdrive mine and I'm going to just
(20:19):
drive the four-wheeler as myown.
So I drive a four-wheeler for ayear and a half, like all
through town, hot summers, itfeels like there's just a
hairdryer on your face.
But I was like I'm going tosell your car.
This is how much money is in thebank and, by the way we're
spending it.
We'll run out of it June 30th.
And here's how many accounts Iknow I can sell and here's when
(20:39):
I'm going to hire someone so Ican just keep concentrating on
selling.
And these are all the fees I'llhave to pay and all the
overhead and all that, and thenby July 1st we'll have enough
excess that it'll pay our bills.
So we're going gonna crisscrossand then we'll actually have
money to like live after thatand it'll be fine.
And so I had the plan for thefuture and I was like I just got
to get to that point and we gotto end of June and we had 20
(21:03):
bucks in the bank and my wife'slike this better work and I was
like, don't worry, it will.
I was like, please, god, let itwork.
But I had already done all thelegwork I put in the accounts.
I knew where it was, and thenext month we paid our bills and
we've been good ever since.
But like, and how long ago wasthat?
Oh, that was eight and a halfyears ago.
I did this Tony Robbins thingthat I was in for like a year
(21:26):
and his biggest thing is like nomatter what you're going to do
in life, commit.
First you commit and then youcommit for the reasons that you
want to accomplish it and then,based on that, you will make it
happen.
If you, if you think about itfirst you're like, ah, this
could happen, that wouldn't,that'd be nice.
If you'll never commit, youwon't do it.
That's why most people don't goon the trip of their dreams.
(21:47):
They're too afraid to buy theplane tickets.
Yep, Because once you buy theplane tickets, you're committed.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So what do you think are some of those reasons that
that someone would commit atthis level and I say this level
like any entrepreneur or why,stay committed when you, as you
mentioned earlier, you got downto 20 bucks in your account?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
How do you stay committed when the walls are
like closing in on you, likethat.
So for me it's like the lionsversus sheep, right, like I'm
not going to be a sheep and likedo what I'm told, I'm going to
go after it, because that's whoI am.
And so I think that there is adifference between people that
are meant to be entrepreneursand people that are meant to be
employees, and so I really dofeel that that's the case.
(22:28):
Some people have the grit to gothrough it and make their
business grow and push, andother people are just.
They just want to be told whatto do, because that's their
comfort zone and they don't likeleaving their comfort zone.
That's okay, that's good forthem.
But for me, when I saw like allright, here's what I could be
doing, here's where I could be,like I'm so hungry for that that
(22:49):
my dedication really is like Iwant to provide a life that my
wife has never even dreamed of,and I can't do that as an
employee, and I can't well, atthe employee, at the level that
I was at, and I can't do thatunless I push every day.
And so when people I've hadfriends ask like you know, do
you ever get like really justburned out or just tired of
(23:11):
doing what you're doing orwhatever.
Yeah, that stuff comes.
But, honestly, with every timeI reach a point where I'm like,
all right, I accomplished that.
Or I reach a level where I'mlike, gosh, this is the worst.
There are days where I call mywife.
I'm like, hey, I hate my jobtoday.
I just I just need to say it andget it on my system and then
I'm back on it and then, likethe next day I wake up and I'm
(23:31):
hungry again and I'm like, allright, I'm on a mission, I'm
going to accomplish some stuff,and so, like you have to be at
that level where you you justsay, no matter what, I'm after
it and you just keep going.
Yep, I watched an interviewwith Dr Dre, I think, and they
were launching their label orsomething.
They're getting interviewedabout their label.
Yeah, and they were like how didyou guys get your label off the
(23:53):
ground?
And he's like you know, thegenius thing we did it was we
didn't quit.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
That was the genius thing.
We just kept going.
Every time something got in ourway, we just kept going and we
just were like Brian.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Brian you've you've said this a lot in the years
that that we've known each other.
Brian's always really good he's.
He's bringing in lots ofawesome words to describe what
we do, and likestick-to-itiveness is one of the
words that I always rememberBrian saying like you know, we
just gotta keep showing up Likeand there's been a lot of you
(24:24):
know times and days and weeksand even months, for example,
last year, just alone last yearLike how many days did we wake
up and still, yet still excitedto come in to do this
entrepreneurial business?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
together.
Well, I first off a shout outto my dad, who gave me that one.
That was him.
You know, it's just it's.
It's this idea of the potentialthat's there, what it can
become and, like what Corey wassaying, being able to build a
life that's so much bigger thanmaybe even you can imagine by
(25:01):
being a business owner, being anentrepreneur and building it
yourself, versus going to workfor somebody else.
You're never going to get therethat way, no, no.
You know the joy and thefulfillment that comes from
seeing something grow.
You know, after hitting thewall I don't know how many times
you know like that didn't work,that didn't work, that didn't
work and um you know, it's kindof like the evolution of our
(25:22):
podcast here in our studio.
Like there were so many pointsalong the way.
Jay, I know you'll agree withme that we were like, yeah, it's
not working.
We should just put this away.
Oh, compliance, you knowprevious companies that we
worked for before we started ourown mortgage company um uh, you
know, challenging compliancerequirements and things like
that that sort of stifled thecreativity and it was just so
(25:44):
easy to kind of get down on it.
But you know, we just we justknew that there was something
there and, um, if we didn'tfully put it away it would turn
into something, and it has, andwe're really excited about what
it is today.
Yeah, get to meet people likeyou.
Who, who, who has built anawesome company.
So I mean, tell us let's, let'smove to where Green Machine is
today.
Sure, so tell us about how.
(26:05):
So we're eight years in, right,eight years in, eight years in
how many?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
employees do you have ?
How many trucks do you have outthere?
So I got 16 employees.
I'm running 11 trucks right now.
Okay, um, we just uh.
Yeah, we just hired a couplemore people.
So we're constantly growing.
We grow between 30 and 50percent a year.
This year I'm on it, I'm gonna,I want to grow over 200 are you
still doing any door knocking?
uh, no, I haven't done it.
I did it last year, um, becauseI had a dude that was door
(26:33):
knocking and I was like doingtraining with him, gotcha, um.
But to be honest, like everytime I go out and door knock,
like it just makes me smile, Ikind of miss it that's gonna say
you probably don't want to walkaway from it it's I.
You will never hear people saythat.
Usually they're like, oh gosh,it's door-to-door sales, but
it's so fun for me, but you'reso good at it.
I like face-to-face stuff and Ihave I'm just having a good
(26:53):
time, and so that's how I kindof run life is.
I'm like, all right, I'm goingto go have a good time, like
what are we, what am I doingtoday?
Well, I'm going to go climb inan attic or I'm going to go, you
know, like do some doorknocking or whatever.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
And you've added insulation too, so it's not just
pest control.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
You've expanded your enterprise pest control
insulation, which is dope.
It kills off termites andscorpions and gets wrapped from
the attic, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
never imagine that would be a thing, but it is
apparently yeah, well, let metie that in.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
So you asked about the the hard stuff.
So this insulation machine thatI bought, which we had done
insulation jobs for a couple ofthem or several of them, like a
few years back, and we alwaysrented machinery and always
broke and it sucked and itclogged and it was like it took
four times as long as we thoughtit would because we had to deal
with those problems right.
And so, uh, we were like let's,let's get back into that
because we know that that'ssomething that we could be doing
(27:43):
for people that would help them.
And so I bought a machine and Ispent freaking 10 grand on this
machine.
They ship it to me and itarrives late.
It arrived, it was supposed tocome all at once.
It came on one truck and theguy's like I don't know where
the other pallet is, and I'mlike you got to give me the
other pallet, like it's got thehoses and all the other stuff.
Like, bro, I can't use themachine.
The other pallet doesn't come,doesn't come, and I'm like I got
(28:12):
a this stuff in it but likedoesn't tell us what to do with
any of it.
Oh, and it doesn't have a powercord and I'm like that
shouldn't be a hard thing and solike I can't get a hold of them
because it's after hours andI'm like I gotta get a power
cord.
And so I just went on amazon.
I bought every different powercord I could find and I was like
I'll return the rest of them,it's fine, and I, no joke.
I spent like six hours trying toget the right power cord and
(28:34):
getting told different storiesabout what power can go to this
thing.
I spent tons of time trying tofigure out this one machine
right and I even put Marco Polomy wife and I had my hand on my
head and I was like, babe, Ican't, I'm just freaking out
right now about this stupidmachine.
I'm struggling so bad.
And my branch manager was like,hey, why don't we just go rent
a machine?
And I was like no, that's backto the old way and I'm not doing
(28:56):
that.
I bought this machine.
It's gonna work, it's gonna beamazing.
I love it, and I was I.
Finally, I called anelectrician friend and I was
like hey, you need to come overhere and help me.
And he was like bro, I got you,like.
And so he showed up.
20 minutes later we snipped upthis cord.
That was a great cord, but itjust didn't have the ends we
needed.
He spliced on new ends.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Was it from like a 1970s shop vac or something, or
no?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
no, it was a brand new one.
It was an RV cord it needed acertain amount of watts to be
able to sit through it Like a 30amp.
It was a 30 amp cord, yeah, butit could do 7,500 Watts instead
of the 1,800 that you can getfrom a 10 gauge.
Anyway, not knowledge.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Now we know.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
So he helps me to splice this thing together and
I'm like, bro, I hope this works.
And so we show up to the job.
We've still never used themachine, we still so.
Like all these things kind ofstack right, like the machines
late, it came in differentpalettes, there's no
instructions, no cord.
I get to cast all these hurdlesand even the night before my
guys like we just rent a machineand go back to the old way,
(29:54):
right, we can always walk awayand go get a job.
We can always quit.
And I was like no, not quitting.
And then the next day we get tothe job site and I'm like all
I'm going to do is plug thisthing in and I hope it works.
And, sure enough, plug the, themachine in, plugged it in where
their dryer goes, kicked it on.
We did a whole attic, 16 inchesdeep, in an hour and a half and
I was like we're talking yeah,we did it.
(30:16):
You know, let's sell a bunchmore of these you know, it just
became this whole differentthing and I was, that was like
the moment where you get past it.
You're like, I made it, youknow, and that's how the formula
worked yeah, the formula.
You just worked, you just keepgoing, you just keep going.
Sometimes it sucks, I'm notstopping, we're just going to go
you know.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So, speaking of formula, I'm sure our listeners
are wondering when we're goingto answer the question or when
Corey's going to answer thequestion.
How do you find a house inPhoenix that doesn't have
scorpions?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
They don't exist.
You make them, you make them,you make it, yeah, you make it.
How?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
do you guys do it?
How do you?
What's your, what's your secretsauce?
So, if you can, if you can tellus I can, I can totally tell
you.
Um, the scorpions in Arizona orit's, it's so hit or miss on if
they are in a house or not in ahouse, whatever.
Um, but I'll just tell youabout my house and that's the
total truth about how you reallymake it happen my house.
I bought a house that had beenvacant for six months, which is
totally a bad sign in Phoenix,vacant for six months in a
(31:14):
scorpion neighborhood.
And I know those because I doit.
And so my wife's, like you knowwhere we're buying a house,
right, and I'm like I own akilling company, like we kill
things for living, right, I owna pest control company.
So, like, we bought the houseand before we even closed on it,
I knew that if I seal off thecinder block wall that goes
(31:35):
around the property, the thescorpions can't go out of the
wall.
Because if I give you a blacklight and say, go find me some
scorpions, you'll go to the wall.
That's the first place.
Yeah, right, um, so I sealed upthe wall and I was like, if I
don't even get the house likesomebody got a gift whatever,
and so I sealed it up and thenwe moved in and we ripped all
the carpets out and then we, youknow, put new stuff in, moved
in, not had one scorpion, and Iwalk out at night barefoot and
take my trash out and myneighbors count scorpions in his
(31:57):
yard and it doesn't bother me abit because I know that if I
seal up that wall and then I mixit with pest control, I've
eliminated.
So it's a I consider it to be abattle.
So there's this battle thathappens between the wall and the
house, and so, like if I justwiped out all the troops at the
wall, only a few of them aregoing to make it into the yard,
where I've got landmineseverywhere because I do pest
(32:18):
control, and they got to make itacross all the different
barriers that I've put up thatare, by the way, kid friendly,
pet friendly, and then if theyever make it to the house,
they're already on their way out.
They're going to die.
So we actually give a guaranteeIf you're on our Scorpion Plus
service, if we seal up your walland you get a scorpion inside
in the first year, we give youyour money back.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That's fantastic, that's phenomenal, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
No scorpions.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
But you know what you're doing, and so there
probably aren't scorpions.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
No, it's a great guarantee, nobody calls us on it
.
No, guarantee, nobody calls uson it.
No, nobody calls us on it.
That's been.
My thing is like when I startedmy company, like everyone has
to kind of have like a premiseof like what they're going to do
differently or whatever, and Ijust I had heard so many people
say well, you can't really getrid of scorpions, you can just
take away their food, which islike the crickets and whatnot.
You just basically chase themoff, yeah there's no food for
them.
They move on.
That's such bs dude.
(33:12):
There's good products out there, but here's the problem.
We get people that start acompany and they go well, here's
my price.
And then come summer time, thethree things that kill a pest
control product is heat,humidity and sunlight.
It breaks down the productslike a banana peel.
Once you've peeled it, okay it.
So it kills out the product andbreaks it down.
Well, they have products thatare more like a gobstopper, that
(33:32):
are micro-encapsulated, thatjust let out little bits of
product at a time and the heatdoesn't affect it, but they're
much more expensive.
So you have to be priced rightto be able to afford the right
products.
You have to do some testing.
Every year I treat like a wholebunch of mason jars, and year I
treat like a whole bunch ofMason jars, and then I go
collect off my neighbor's wallsa bunch of scorpions, throw them
(33:56):
in the jars and see how long ittakes to kill them and which
products work the best.
And then we have our, our wholebasis of service built around
that.
It's like you know they're,they're not going to have a
problem, yeah, yeah, but you cankill scorpions and I don't want
.
I don't want kids to get stung.
That's one of the biggestthings.
It's like people are afraidbecause you don't want to test
your kids' decision-makingskills with a scorpion something
that can kill you.
It's like testing your kids'decision-making skills by
(34:17):
letting them in a room with arattlesnake.
Right, you just don't want thatto be the time.
So kids and then dogs.
So many people in Arizona havea dog.
Cats will investigate by likebatting things around with their
paws and stuff so they don'tget stung, but dogs shove their
(34:39):
nose in it and then right on thenose.
So we make homes pet fruit.
Uh, pet pet safe, kids safe andno stings yeah, awesome
scorpion scorpion whisper yeah,yeah, I love it with confidence
too.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Love it With confidence too.
Love it, just so, uh.
Are you teaching your kids tobe entrepreneurs?
Are you how?
How are you?
How are you, are you raisingyour kids up to be entrepreneurs
?
Speaker 3 (34:58):
A hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (34:58):
That's a great question Okay.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, Um, my kids the same thing as my parents, right
, Like they were like you wantit, Like there's money out there
, you can go get it.
And so daughter asked like shewas talking to us about there's
like a trend on TikTok where youmake that cloud thing in your
room out of like LED lights andstuffing.
And she was like I really wantto do that.
And I was like well, how muchis it going to cost to do it?
(35:21):
And so, like we added up allthe costs together and she's
like oh, it's like 180 bucks forall this stuff.
And I was like cool, so whenare you going to do it?
And she was like well, I don'thave that much money.
And I was like so when are yougoing to do it?
She's like well, I mean,there's my birthday.
And I was like okay, that'sFebruary, six months, right.
And she's like and she's likewell, there's Christmas.
(35:41):
And I was like okay, that'sDecember, four months.
Uh, you're going to wait fourmonths for that.
And she was like well, I guesswe're almost saying it again.
And I was like who has themoney?
And she's like well, I mean,you guys have money.
Do you want to pay for it?
Will you do it?
And I was like nope, sure,won't that?
There has to be something thatyou're willing to do in order to
achieve it.
And she was like well, what amI going to do?
(36:02):
Can I go get a money?
And she's like well, I don'tknow.
And I was like, well, how aboutthis.
The money is out there and youhaven't provided value to anyone
to get it back.
It's your money.
So this is something I love.
That Grant Cardone pitches islike when he was on Undercover
Billionaire.
That's awesome.
He was like and he wasn't beingfull of himself.
(36:24):
He's like the money.
My money is out there, it'sjust not mine yet.
It's just a matter of likelooking at the timeline.
The money is mine, but it's inother people's pockets and I
haven't provided the value toreceive it, to make it mine.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
So I was teaching her this.
What a great mindset.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
That's so good, yeah, so where's my money?
Who's got my money right?
So I was teaching her thisprinciple and she's like all
right, so what if I do choresand I earn the money?
And I was like, great, how much?
How fast do you want to earn it?
And she was like, well, I don'tknow, I could I do like three
chores a day.
And I was like, could you crankthat up?
And she's like, yeah, you wantme to do like 10 chores a day.
(37:07):
And I was like I don't.
And I'd be like, great, that'sworth 15 bucks.
And she's like I mean 15 buckstoday.
And then the next day she didalmost double and I was like she
earned it in like three daysand I was like that's the way to
do it and I had a really cleanhouse.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
So I was pretty happy .
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, so I'm encouraging them to, like you
know, be responsible.
See what you want.
There is never out of reach.
We just have to make a plan forit and go for it and just commit
and so make your plan for itand then just go, and no matter
how much effort, grit and grindyou have to get after it, it'll
be there.
You just have to go and maybeyou'll get a delay and maybe
something you know have someexpenses along the way or
(37:43):
something.
But like you stay committed,you'll achieve it, and so that's
what I'm trying to get for them.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
There you'll achieve it, and so that's what I'm
trying to get for them.
There's a book in your future,and maybe the title can be how
to find a house withoutscorpions, yeah, raising
entrepreneurs, oh yeah yeah,that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah, well, we do.
We do like a youth group atchurch too oh cool and so that's
kind of like a fun thing islike I'm one of the leaders in
the youth group and we didsomething where we brought them
all in and we were teaching themhow to get a job.
So this was kind of fun.
We wanted to instill in themthe ability to be hard workers.
Because one thing that I foundin the blue collar industry is
(38:22):
like, especially after COVID andno offense to anybody watching
but like we would get tons ofpeople apply for a job and then
nobody would answer the phoneand then, out of the people that
would answer, we'd schedulelike seven or eight interviews
because that's all we could getto answer the phone.
All of them got an interviewand maybe one or two showed up,
and out of that one or two, it'slike, well, out of the two
dudes that showed, or one, onelady, one dude, whatever, uh,
(38:45):
who's the best fit?
It wasn't like I have a wholeset of people that are just
hungry for a job and really wantto work hard, and it wasn't
like that and it was like allright, well, I'll try you, and
if you aren't a hard worker,we're just going to cut you and
do it again.
So I, what we started seeingwas like there's a problem in
the in in the world where, like,people are just kind of like
(39:07):
they're quiet, quitting, orwhatever where they don't give
it their all.
And so we said, well, we got todo something, cause if we do
nothing, then we just get whatwe get and you can't expect any
different cause you have no say.
But if we start helping theworld by training people to know
what to expect, to push andwork hard and you know we have
(39:29):
to we have to be part of theanswer.
And so we brought these kids in.
We said, okay, here's what'sgoing to happen.
Like we're going to do it.
We're going to have you guyscome in.
We're going to have a panel ofbusiness owners.
You get to shoot every questionat them about how to get a job,
how to rock the interview, whatyou're expected thing to like
train them on how to really bean awesome employee, and if they
(39:51):
ever wanted to level up to likeowning their own, we'd, we'd do
that too.
And so, like they got thispanel with all these business
owners great experience it wasfun.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
That was really cool.
And what's the age range on the?
They were 12 to 14 year olds.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Yeah, um, and honestly, like the, the,
probably the number one thingthat came out of it was they
were like well, how do I, how doI make more money?
Cause everyone wants to knowthat.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
How do I make more?
Speaker 3 (40:14):
money and for them.
You know, I was just tellingthem, kind of like, what my my
dad taught me when I was youngerwas like nobody like the.
The rate that you get paid whenyou, when you start, that's the
rate that the business iswilling to try you out for.
And if all you do is whatyou're expected, then you're
going to stay at that trial rate.
(40:34):
Yeah, that's what we can affordto risk on you.
And if you work your tail offand show that you're amazing,
then you'll make what you'reworth, right.
So don't consider the rate thatyou get when you first get
hired to be your rate thatyou're worth and so like.
For example, my dad took me tothis job site.
We did construction for nineyears.
I was working with them and wewere going to Safeway in the Bay
(40:57):
Area and on the drive over hewas like all right, I know,
you're making minimum wage,which at the time was like five
bucks an hour.
And he was like you're makingminimum wage, but when we get
there, i'm'm gonna call you thegopher.
(41:17):
You're gonna go for this, gofor that.
You're just everything thatanyone asks you.
You run and I was like dad, it'son a rooftop and like I'm in
shorts and it's hot and he'slike I don't care.
You run and you pick upmaterials.
You pick up bags of cement, youpick up two by fours, you run
across the rooftop with them andyou deliver them and then you
do whatever they need, and andyou, you make it fast.
You have a great attitude.
You smile, you say yes, sir,and you hustle and I was like
you got it.
And so I got on this rooftopand I got my first paycheck and
(41:39):
instead of minimum wage, theywere paying me 15 bucks an hour,
which was three times theamount.
And so that's what I wastelling.
These kids was like that's agreat story.
You get in and you hustle andyou show what you're really
worth and your employer willhave no choice but to level you
up because, holy crap.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Cause now they can't do it without you, yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Yeah, Like dude, I want that around.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Then you're a part of the team, you know?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
And other people see you hustling and they're like
well, that guy makes a lot moremoney it raises the.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, it forces the.
You know the.
Yeah, it forces the.
You know the.
The tide to rise, you know yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Well, we need to leave it here.
I know Corey's got to get to uhan activity with his kids.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Right, um, it's been a pleasure, corey, having you on
the show, for sure, thank youguys.
Hearing your story.
Um, just a true entrepreneur.
Yeah, you spending the time.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Appreciate you guys having me and to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
If, if, uh, if you are that 80% that already has a
pest control company, uh,there's going to be links to
Corey and his, his company,green machine down in the uh in
the description.
Um, these guys know whatthey're doing, they stand behind
their product and that's.
That's gotta be worth a listenat least.
So, uh, give them a call, and,and, uh, and, and.
I'm sure he'd love to hear fromyou.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
I'd love it.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Thanks again, corey, appreciateyou guys.
You're tuned in to the Grit and Grow podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, thank you everybody for joining us here
once again.
As always, we are your hosts.
I'm Brian, I'm Jay and this isthe Grit and Grow podcast
brought to you by MyCityLenderHome Loans and MyCityOffice
Flexible Coworking Space,excited to bring that online.
We've got a great show today.
(00:25):
We've got Corey Hodnett.
He is founder and CEO of GreenMachine Pest Control and he's
going to tell us today how tofind a home in Phoenix that
doesn't have scorpions.
Jay, I love it.
And man, does Corey have anentrepreneurial story to tell?
He is from Candy Sales atParades.
I read that on your linkedinbio, um, at the beginning, when
(00:46):
you were as a kid, and we wantto dive into that like we can't
hear about that.
How did that you know?
Um to starting a successfulpest control business green
machine pest control.
Um, corey has a business degreefrom byu, hawaii.
That sounds really cool it wasfun did not know that they had a
uh, a campus there in hawaii.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That must have been a good time honestly, the hardest
part about it is getting yourbutt into class.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
How do you get anything done?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's hard to get a degree over there.
It's not academically hard,it's hard to just go to school
when you can see the beach andyou're like I want to be out
there.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Corey is an adrenaline junkie.
I think he's jumped out ofairplanes.
He's done cliff diving.
He told me he was telling meabout that.
Some waterfalls, that soundsamazing.
Oh yeah, he's been in thetrenches and he truly
exemplifies grit, which is whyit's super exciting to have him
on the show today.
Corey, welcome to the show, man.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Welcome to the show.
Yeah, appreciate it, guys.
I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I knew we were going to have a good show when I was
reading his LinkedIn bio and hesaid, quote I've sold everything
I can possibly get my hand on.
I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
No joke, it's awesome , no joke.
Yeah, most recently too, we'vebeen going through cars, and
every time we buy a new car, Iimmediately put it up for sale.
My wife's like you got to stopselling my car, and I'm like I
paid this much for it.
If someone will pay me thatmuch for it, then sure I'll go
get another one.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It's she just doesn't even get excited anymore.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, she's like you gotta stop selling my cars.
Great, I love it.
Yeah, it's fun.
I have a good time well take usback to.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You're a kid and you decide to sell candy at a parade
.
That that and jay canabsolutely identify with this,
because jay's got a great storyabout selling, yeah, candy and
pop concessions.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh, you did concessions, that was it.
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't get ajob at Wendy's, so it was hey,
where were you doing concessionsat?
In my backyard, no way, butlet's hear about yours.
I want to hear about this.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So I grew up in Modesto, california, which is
like in the hood now it's like,yeah, it's super ghetto.
But we used to have this 4th ofJuly parade that just everyone
comes out for, and my parentsdidn't really do the like sit
and watch the parade thing, andI don't know if they just had
ADD or what, but like they werejust like hey, this is a
money-making opportunity, ourfamily's going to go out and pay
some bills.
So we had this wagon, westuffed it full of like drinks
(02:58):
in the in the cooler and then wehad, you know, this thing full
of candy and then they give useach a fanny pack and they're
like stuff the money in thefanny pack and try not to eat
and drink all the stuff, justsell it.
So like Fourth of July paradewas walking up and down selling
stuff, like that's every yearthat is amazing yeah.
Everything was an opportunity.
Growing up, they were alwayslooking for like what can you do
(03:19):
?
Where do you motivation anddrive comes from?
We're broke.
Look at it, I don't know.
I think some of it's like.
You know, people like somepeople, have this like shell
that they live inside and that'swhat keeps them comfortable.
I don't think my parents hadthat.
They're both entrepreneurs.
My dad was in construction.
He, as far as I remember, healways had his own business.
My mom also had her own businessand like they were just very
(03:42):
outgoing people and so I waslike that's what you do, you,
you just go make money out ofout of nowhere, you just find it
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, someone's got it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You just gotta go make it that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So are do your parents?
Are they still bothentrepreneurs or?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
yeah, um, well, they're kind of retired.
I say kind of because, like, mydad still does stuff for people
and they still give him moneyso he doesn't really call it
work anymore.
But yeah, um, but yeah, thatthey've always been all the way
until until taking a break.
Yep, um, yeah, but that was, uh, anytime I wanted something.
They'd be like, well, how areyou going to go pay for it?
(04:16):
How are you going to get it?
So that's kind of where the thecandy I think I called it
Corey's candy backpack Um, loveit, awesome.
Yeah, I was in first grade and Iwas like, I want to, I want to
make some money.
And my mom's like, well, whatare the kids at school like?
And I was like, well, I likecandy.
And she was like, all right,let's go to the store and we'll
buy a big box.
It's full of candy.
And if you mark them up to aand be like, hey, you just want
(04:42):
to buy some candy, yeah, that'stotally it, what do you need?
So I almost got expelled fromschool in first grade because
people kept passing money.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Now did you take it to the next level?
Were you like doing Twinkiesand HoHos and everything?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
No, it didn't get that far because the teacher
kept catching me because she'slike, look, you can sell candy,
but only during recess.
And I was like cool.
But when someone passes youmoney and they say I want a
Snickers or I want like a bighunk bar or whatever it was like
, I'm like I can't turn on thismoney, I better send the kid,
Like you know.
So I'm like digging in mybackpack, I'm like all right,
(05:17):
what do I have in here?
Like hey, give this to Johnny,don't let the teacher see.
You know they were like firstgrade, oh, first grade, yeah,
okay I was, yeah, I and I soldall sorts of stuff, those
boondoggle lanyards and stuff.
I think the other kid wasselling them and I was like, how
much is he selling those?
For eight cents a yard.
I'll do it for seven cents ayard.
(05:38):
And then I I just brought likea backpack full of these
lanyards and was like, yeah,yeah, so, yeah, I did that more
than my homework.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, it was fun, it was fun, what, what has been
your, your favorite?
I don't even know if that's agood way to ask the question.
Like you're, you've, you've gotan incredible entrepreneurial
trail behind you.
Yeah, what, what, what are somestandout moments for you that
that kind of have shaped who youare today as a business owner?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
out moments for you that kind of have shaped who you
are today as a business owner.
Well, so one of them was I usedto make balloon animals at Red
Lobster.
Okay, awesome, kind of a weirdone, but I had a friend in high
school and he was buying hislunch and he pulled out his wad
of cash with a rubber bandaround it.
In California that usuallymeans you do drugs.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So I was like, hey, I thought it was shoes hanging
over the telephone.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, that's where you stand, right by that.
No, he was like you won'tbelieve it if I tell you.
And I was like then, then showme, I want to see what you're
doing.
And he was like all right.
So he brought me to red lobsterand he was like making balloon
animals table to table and hewas raking it in.
And I was like I'm in.
(06:46):
So we made our own littlebusiness.
It was Airheads Anonymous andwe used to.
I used to get phone numbers on$5, $10, $20 bills from girls,
because I'm still in high school, you know.
So, like we, I could show upanytime I want.
We got food from the kitchen,so we had dinner and we'd make
cash.
So it was no taxes.
And the world famous biscuits,yeah, oh dude, oh man, I
probably had thousands of thosethings.
(07:06):
Um, and after two days theymake really good baseballs.
Okay, so, yeah, anotherbusiness.
Yeah, but I would.
I had a.
I had a whole thing mapped out.
I'd be like all right, I'm onFriday, I'm going to take a girl
on a date around.
I'd tell her around nine, belike, I'll take you out at nine
and then, from six till or fivetill eight, I'd go make balloon
animals and make all the cash Iwould want to spend on the date.
And so I just I was ready to goand I was just balling with
(07:28):
this big load of cash, you know.
So it was fun, but I think thatshaped it because I realized
like I can create opportunitythat works in my time and my
level of charisma and effort andcause.
If you go in and you're like aweirdo and you got, you know,
like you're awkward and youapproach a table or you don't
want to approach a table andthen like you're not going to
(07:50):
make money if you don't approacha table, and then if you do
approach the table and you don'thave like the charisma and the
energy, you're not going to getthe tips that you think you're
going to get.
And so like, hey, I want to, Iwant you to come to my table, so
I go over there and he's like Idon't even want a balloon, I
(08:10):
just went out for you a job andI was like okay what is it?
so?
He wanted me to be, like this,service manager for, like,
northern California for Kmart,northern California and Nevada
for Kmart.
I was gonna travel all throughNorthern Nevada and California
going to every Kmart and liketraining their front end
salespeople to be faster, causeI don't know if you've been to a
(08:31):
Kmart but it takes like threeyears to go through checkout.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I grew up next to a Kmart that doesn't exist anymore
, unfortunately, but what do youthink it was that he saw in you
that prompted him to to decidethat you could do that job,
which seems big?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It was especially for high school.
I was still in high school andI'm traveling around Northern
California, so I think it wasjust more that like I had a
process to what I was doing andI got people to like me while
they waited, and I think that'sprobably what it is, and so he
was like I really want you to Ina short period of time you
developed a, a no like and a noone like.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You're not a trust yet, but but at least a no and a
like quickly.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah and I turned.
I could turn something that waslike you know, I'm being
approached for a cold call salewhile I'm eating in a restaurant
, whereas I'm supposed to bewith my family or whatever.
So that's a hard sale and Icould turn it into like just
something super fun and I washaving.
I was having a good time.
That's the thing I've alwaysloved about the work that I do
is I'm always having a good time.
So if I'm not having a goodtime, I'm probably not in the
(09:33):
right space.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Are you, do you gauge which?
Like, for example, goingdeciding to to start your own
pest control business?
Did you think you were going tohave a good time?
Is that part of your, your,your genesis for kind of getting
there?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I mean you could see like the money has to be there
and like that kind of stuff, solike you have to have some
acumen built into that.
But like I.
So I had.
I had knocked doors for fouryears selling pest control
already, and then I left theindustry and came back and
knocked another three years andand so I had seven years of door
knocking experience.
And guess what, I had fun doorknocking.
(10:09):
That's not something you hearvery often, but I was having a
great time on people's porcheschatting with them.
I didn't know how to work itwith, like you know, like moms
that are at home, they gotnothing better to do.
You know, if I'm having a badday, I put on some music in my
pocket.
I'm like popping locking, whileyou know, if I'm having a bad
day, I put on some music in mypocket.
I'm like popping lock-in, whileI'm waiting for them to like
(10:29):
answer the door and I'm sittingin their rocking chairs and
they're answering the door andI'm like, hey, what are you
doing?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I'm like, hey, I'm just here to sell you pest
control.
It's cool, like you know, Iimagine you got a lot of snooty
responses as well.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So how did, how did you handle that?
Like what like for yourself,for you this is still much like.
For everyone that's watching orlistening, this is still much
no, but I mean like on the otherside of of a happy person
opening the door, is somebodysaying get the hell, you know,
get off my porch.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
So there was an evolution to it, like at first I
took things way too seriously,okay, right, and like I would
get pissed and I I have aproblem with, so it's probably
part of my personality issue.
But like, so I I mean I had myboss pull me in once and was
like dude, did you take anentire thing of flyers and throw
it inside the back of thisguy's truck?
And I was like sure, did he wasa jerk.
(11:17):
And the guy was like you know,your name and phone number are
stamped on every flyer, Right.
And I was like, oh, he's notgoing to be very happy about the
ones that I threw inside thetruck then and he was like what?
And so like it was hard for me,like not to take things
seriously.
But after I'd done it for a fewyears I was like I just had to
think like that guy probably hada bad day, or that lady was
(11:38):
probably in the middle ofcooking something, something,
and she didn't want to burn itand she just wanted me out of
her hair and so it didn't botherme.
After a while it wasn'tpersonal.
It was just whatever I'm fast,I'm closer to the yeses than
fighting through this dude thatobviously doesn't want to hear
from me.
So I stopped fighting with them.
I was like cool, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Do you have any good stories about initially being
told no at the front door butfinding your way to a yes?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Oh yeah, tons of them .
So front door, but finding yourway to a?
Yes, oh yeah, tons of them.
Um, so, being that I've donedoor knocking for over 10 years
now, um gosh, there's a number.
Just this year I had a ladyanswer the door and she's like
oh gosh, no, I've got a pestcontrol guy.
And I was training a dude andhe was like no problem, see you
later.
And started walking away and Iwas like, don't do that, like
(12:25):
right.
And so I just like, immediatelywhen someone gives me an
objection, I take a casualstance and I just lean against
the wall and I was just likeyou're so smart, like you gotta
have pest control out here.
Who are you using?
And she was like well, it's a,it's this guy, and I just call
him when I need him.
First sign that it was a lie.
And I was like oh okay, thisisn't for sure.
Let's see where this goes, youknow, and so like, next thing is
like well, I haven't called himin two years, though, and I'm
(12:48):
like, oh okay, so you're blowingsmokes, so you're doing it
yourself, yeah.
So I was like so you're notreally doing anything.
She's like no, actually it'sbeen a few years and I just
haven't called anyone and Idon't even know if the guy still
does it, and and and.
Next thing, you know, she'sbringing us in and she's showing
us, like these differentvinegars, that one of them
tastes like chocolate.
She's like I put vinegar on myice cream and I was like no, you
(13:09):
don't.
She's like you got to try thesevinegars and one of them tastes
like chocolate, one of themtastes like lemon or vanilla or
something.
She's having this like You'rehanging out and yeah, we're
hanging out in her living room.
And Before I left she gave me ahug.
Yeah, I got water and drink.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You're in the family now Weird vinegars.
Pest control, business Pestcontrol.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, she signed up for pest control, she even added
on like some warranty stuff andshe's like this is going to be
great.
I'm so excited you guys stoppedby and I'm like see this is
awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So after this whole process and the tasting of the
vinegar and all that, you're inthe family now.
Yeah, uh, did you sit down withyour guy and you're like so
what, what was?
Would you learn from this?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
oh yeah, I do that with everyone.
Okay, yeah, I'm like all right.
So what happened?
Start to finish and then we gothrough it step by step.
What did you observe?
I'm like, hey, when did you?
When did you want to walk away?
That's usually the firstproblem.
When did you want to walk away?
And he was like, well, right,when she said she had someone.
And I was like, yeah, 80% ofpeople in Phoenix have someone.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So are they're going to say that because they don't
want to be talking to you?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
80% legitimately have someone and then other people
are like I just don't want totalk to you.
So I'm just going to tell youthat, because you know it's easy
out I gotta, I gotta talk to myhusband, whatever.
Like, you know, it's like it'sjust a smoke screen, so like,
okay, so so you're going to walkaway from all those.
But that's the thing, being atrue salesman.
You are truly a salesman If,when you get to the point where
you feel awkward for being there, you find a way to push to the
(14:35):
next portion of it.
You will not be a salesman Ifyou walk away the moment you
feel awkward.
You're just an order taker,because you just get to the
point where the customer feltlike, okay, I'm done, and then
you're like yeah, me too.
That's not a salesman.
Salesman knows like oh, we havea problem, I got to fix it, I
can get past that.
Here's the value.
Yeah, like, let's just get pastthis little, this little weird
feeling I got.
Let's just keep going, causeyou know, something good will
(14:55):
come out of it and if I'm chillenough, you won't even notice.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So it's kind of fun.
So what you to transition fromknocking on doors as a salesman
to I'm going to own the wholething and build this thing
myself.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So the hardest part about business I felt at the
time, which I still do feel, islike where am I going to get my
customers?
And right now, in the worldwe're in today, where everyone's
worried that the economy isgoing to shut down and all this
crap, it's like, well, where aremy customers going to come from
.
My business might not stay open,but the hardest part about it
is bringing in the customers andI knew that all I had to do if
(15:31):
I ever got stuck was go knock onsome doors and I could bring in
customers.
So that's kind of what broughtme to it.
I was good at that part and Iknew, after doing it for so many
summers, I could sell four to500 customers in a summer and
that's enough for a business torun.
And I was like all right, Ialways knew I wanted to be an
owner and I didn't want to dothe services.
I wanted to own a business andthat's you know.
(15:53):
I got an international businessdegree because I always wanted
to own the business.
I'd worked in a few businessesso I saw like from the employee
side and then I was like youknow what?
We're going to go, we're goingto go, we're going to go full
out.
There was a tipping point whereI had a guy that had me training
his sales team and he wanted meto join him for a pest control
company and and we just didn't.
We had a conflict of like wherewe wanted the trajectory of the
(16:13):
company to go, which was asuper blessing.
I was glad that he was like hey, by the way, let's let's talk
about this part, cause I didn'teven think about that.
And he was like I don't want toget huge, I just want a route
for me and all my sons.
And I was like, nope, I want toget, I want to get bigger, I
want to have like a wholecompany that I can be proud of
and you know everlasting name,and I don't want to be doing the
services.
And so it was like all right,I'm just it's just time to start
(16:36):
my own.
But the timing of it was kind ofdegree and she was like I'd
done a couple more summers ofknocking and I was like you know
what?
I'm kind of tired.
Do you want to be thebreadwinner?
I just came home one day andwas like do you want to switch?
I'd really like to just takecare of the kids and like relax
(16:56):
and play video games and watchwrestling.
And you want to be thebreadwinner.
And she was like actually, thatsounds really fun.
You want to be the breadwinner.
And she was like actually thatsounds really fun.
And so she's like I want I'mgoing to go back to school and
be an esthetician and so I waslike cool, awesome.
So we had her going to schooland I lasted like two months and
she came home one day and I waslike, hey, I started a pest
control company and she's likeyou did what?
I'm still in school, I'm noteven the breadwinner yet.
(17:18):
Like we didn't even get thatfar and I was like, yeah, I
can't do it.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
So this is not for me , you're really good at this.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I don't cook like I'm struggling to stay organized,
to clean the house all the time,like nobody died today.
So that's my level of successat this moment I can't, I can't.
And she was like that's cool, Iwas thinking about it too.
I want to kind of do my thingon the side.
So it worked out.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, I can identify with that completely.
When I left executiverecruiting which he's also been
in recruiting as well he's somany different things when I
initially left integratedmanagement, I decided I wasn't
going to work for myself at thatpoint and I was going to find
another job.
And so I I decided, okay, I'mgoing to put in my my interview
(18:05):
britches and I'm going to gofind myself a uh, you know, a
job that's got a salary and allthis, and that I'm sitting here
like chuckling.
A week into it and I had startedmy own recruiting business and
I'm like I got it.
I got it.
Thankfully, my wife was, wasalready working and still
working, and so, um, thatafforded me the luxury of taking
a week to decide if I really dowant to have a regular job or,
(18:25):
or you know, own a business andwent that way.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
It's funny when you see it and you're like, hey, I
could do this, and you get thatentrepreneurial spark like in
the uh Michael Gerber's e-myth.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Have you read that book?
No, I have not read that one.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Oh, that's a good book.
It talks about like theentrepreneurial spark where,
like a lot of people and this isprobably related to one of the
reasons why most businesses failis because the entrepreneur
gets like a quick spark andthey're like I could do it, and
then they don't get the.
They don't have like a, theydon't they it and then they
don't get the they don't havelike a they don't, they can't
weather the storm and they don'tpush.
(18:59):
And I'm not.
I have no idea.
You know how the recruitingthing turned out for you.
But most people get that spark.
They get a little bit into itand they go this is hard.
And then the fear of successit's not the fear of failure,
it's the fear of success comesin, and I always thought I don't
have a fear of success.
That's stupid.
Why would you be afraid ofbeing successful?
But what happens is peoplestart to see well, if I get
these accounts or if I sell thismany, I got to do all that work
(19:22):
.
I got to fulfill it.
I got to wrap boxes, I got tohire people, train people, make
manuals, Got to do payroll, Dowhatever it takes.
I got to pay taxes, All thatstuff, and it overwhelms them
and they're like I'm not doingthat, nope, and then they bail
and it's just too much and solike I've never been that way.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's one of the things that I really wanted to
ask you about, too is like, whatdo you think are some of the
like, the key ingredients thatcome into the entrepreneur
spirit to get you through that?
Yeah, like, you've got thespark, for sure, but like what?
What gives you the that desireto grind it out and push through
the really, really tough times?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well, I think for most people it's they don't.
They don't actually look at thefuture very well, um, and if
you look at the future a littlebetter, you'll you'll have more
of a drive to get to at leastthat point, right?
So when I started my company,um, my pitch to my wife was like
hey, I'm going to sell your carand I'm going to buy a pest
control truck with it and youdrive mine and I'm going to just
(20:19):
drive the four-wheeler as myown.
So I drive a four-wheeler for ayear and a half, like all
through town, hot summers, itfeels like there's just a
hairdryer on your face.
But I was like I'm going tosell your car.
This is how much money is in thebank and, by the way we're
spending it.
We'll run out of it June 30th.
And here's how many accounts Iknow I can sell and here's when
(20:39):
I'm going to hire someone so Ican just keep concentrating on
selling.
And these are all the fees I'llhave to pay and all the
overhead and all that, and thenby July 1st we'll have enough
excess that it'll pay our bills.
So we're going gonna crisscrossand then we'll actually have
money to like live after thatand it'll be fine.
And so I had the plan for thefuture and I was like I just got
to get to that point and we gotto end of June and we had 20
(21:03):
bucks in the bank and my wife'slike this better work and I was
like, don't worry, it will.
I was like, please, god, let itwork.
But I had already done all thelegwork I put in the accounts.
I knew where it was, and thenext month we paid our bills and
we've been good ever since.
But like, and how long ago wasthat?
Oh, that was eight and a halfyears ago.
I did this Tony Robbins thingthat I was in for like a year
(21:26):
and his biggest thing is like nomatter what you're going to do
in life, commit.
First you commit and then youcommit for the reasons that you
want to accomplish it and then,based on that, you will make it
happen.
If you, if you think about itfirst you're like, ah, this
could happen, that wouldn't,that'd be nice.
If you'll never commit, youwon't do it.
That's why most people don't goon the trip of their dreams.
(21:47):
They're too afraid to buy theplane tickets.
Yep, Because once you buy theplane tickets, you're committed.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So what do you think are some of those reasons that
that someone would commit atthis level and I say this level
like any entrepreneur or why,stay committed when you, as you
mentioned earlier, you got downto 20 bucks in your account?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
How do you stay committed when the walls are
like closing in on you, likethat.
So for me it's like the lionsversus sheep, right, like I'm
not going to be a sheep and likedo what I'm told, I'm going to
go after it, because that's whoI am.
And so I think that there is adifference between people that
are meant to be entrepreneursand people that are meant to be
employees, and so I really dofeel that that's the case.
(22:28):
Some people have the grit to gothrough it and make their
business grow and push, andother people are just.
They just want to be told whatto do, because that's their
comfort zone and they don't likeleaving their comfort zone.
That's okay, that's good forthem.
But for me, when I saw like allright, here's what I could be
doing, here's where I could be,like I'm so hungry for that that
(22:49):
my dedication really is like Iwant to provide a life that my
wife has never even dreamed of,and I can't do that as an
employee, and I can't well, atthe employee, at the level that
I was at, and I can't do thatunless I push every day.
And so when people I've hadfriends ask like you know, do
you ever get like really justburned out or just tired of
(23:11):
doing what you're doing orwhatever.
Yeah, that stuff comes.
But, honestly, with every timeI reach a point where I'm like,
all right, I accomplished that.
Or I reach a level where I'mlike, gosh, this is the worst.
There are days where I call mywife.
I'm like, hey, I hate my jobtoday.
I just I just need to say it andget it on my system and then
I'm back on it and then, likethe next day I wake up and I'm
(23:31):
hungry again and I'm like, allright, I'm on a mission, I'm
going to accomplish some stuff,and so, like you have to be at
that level where you you justsay, no matter what, I'm after
it and you just keep going.
Yep, I watched an interviewwith Dr Dre, I think, and they
were launching their label orsomething.
They're getting interviewedabout their label.
Yeah, and they were like how didyou guys get your label off the
(23:53):
ground?
And he's like you know, thegenius thing we did it was we
didn't quit.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
That was the genius thing.
We just kept going.
Every time something got in ourway, we just kept going and we
just were like Brian.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Brian you've you've said this a lot in the years
that that we've known each other.
Brian's always really good he's.
He's bringing in lots ofawesome words to describe what
we do, and likestick-to-itiveness is one of the
words that I always rememberBrian saying like you know, we
just gotta keep showing up Likeand there's been a lot of you
(24:24):
know times and days and weeksand even months, for example,
last year, just alone last yearLike how many days did we wake
up and still, yet still excitedto come in to do this
entrepreneurial business?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
together.
Well, I first off a shout outto my dad, who gave me that one.
That was him.
You know, it's just it's.
It's this idea of the potentialthat's there, what it can
become and, like what Corey wassaying, being able to build a
life that's so much bigger thanmaybe even you can imagine by
(25:01):
being a business owner, being anentrepreneur and building it
yourself, versus going to workfor somebody else.
You're never going to get therethat way, no, no.
You know the joy and thefulfillment that comes from
seeing something grow.
You know, after hitting thewall I don't know how many times
you know like that didn't work,that didn't work, that didn't
work and um you know, it's kindof like the evolution of our
(25:22):
podcast here in our studio.
Like there were so many pointsalong the way.
Jay, I know you'll agree withme that we were like, yeah, it's
not working.
We should just put this away.
Oh, compliance, you knowprevious companies that we
worked for before we started ourown mortgage company um uh, you
know, challenging compliancerequirements and things like
that that sort of stifled thecreativity and it was just so
(25:44):
easy to kind of get down on it.
But you know, we just we justknew that there was something
there and, um, if we didn'tfully put it away it would turn
into something, and it has, andwe're really excited about what
it is today.
Yeah, get to meet people likeyou.
Who, who, who has built anawesome company.
So I mean, tell us let's, let'smove to where Green Machine is
today.
Sure, so tell us about how.
(26:05):
So we're eight years in, right,eight years in, eight years in
how many?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
employees do you have ?
How many trucks do you have outthere?
So I got 16 employees.
I'm running 11 trucks right now.
Okay, um, we just uh.
Yeah, we just hired a couplemore people.
So we're constantly growing.
We grow between 30 and 50percent a year.
This year I'm on it, I'm gonna,I want to grow over 200 are you
still doing any door knocking?
uh, no, I haven't done it.
I did it last year, um, becauseI had a dude that was door
(26:33):
knocking and I was like doingtraining with him, gotcha, um.
But to be honest, like everytime I go out and door knock,
like it just makes me smile, Ikind of miss it that's gonna say
you probably don't want to walkaway from it it's I.
You will never hear people saythat.
Usually they're like, oh gosh,it's door-to-door sales, but
it's so fun for me, but you'reso good at it.
I like face-to-face stuff and Ihave I'm just having a good
(26:53):
time, and so that's how I kindof run life is.
I'm like, all right, I'm goingto go have a good time, like
what are we, what am I doingtoday?
Well, I'm going to go climb inan attic or I'm going to go, you
know, like do some doorknocking or whatever.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
And you've added insulation too, so it's not just
pest control.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
You've expanded your enterprise pest control
insulation, which is dope.
It kills off termites andscorpions and gets wrapped from
the attic, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
never imagine that would be a thing, but it is
apparently yeah, well, let metie that in.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
So you asked about the the hard stuff.
So this insulation machine thatI bought, which we had done
insulation jobs for a couple ofthem or several of them, like a
few years back, and we alwaysrented machinery and always
broke and it sucked and itclogged and it was like it took
four times as long as we thoughtit would because we had to deal
with those problems right.
And so, uh, we were like let's,let's get back into that
because we know that that'ssomething that we could be doing
(27:43):
for people that would help them.
And so I bought a machine and Ispent freaking 10 grand on this
machine.
They ship it to me and itarrives late.
It arrived, it was supposed tocome all at once.
It came on one truck and theguy's like I don't know where
the other pallet is, and I'mlike you got to give me the
other pallet, like it's got thehoses and all the other stuff.
Like, bro, I can't use themachine.
The other pallet doesn't come,doesn't come, and I'm like I got
(28:12):
a this stuff in it but likedoesn't tell us what to do with
any of it.
Oh, and it doesn't have a powercord and I'm like that
shouldn't be a hard thing and solike I can't get a hold of them
because it's after hours andI'm like I gotta get a power
cord.
And so I just went on amazon.
I bought every different powercord I could find and I was like
I'll return the rest of them,it's fine, and I, no joke.
I spent like six hours trying toget the right power cord and
(28:34):
getting told different storiesabout what power can go to this
thing.
I spent tons of time trying tofigure out this one machine
right and I even put Marco Polomy wife and I had my hand on my
head and I was like, babe, Ican't, I'm just freaking out
right now about this stupidmachine.
I'm struggling so bad.
And my branch manager was like,hey, why don't we just go rent
a machine?
And I was like no, that's backto the old way and I'm not doing
(28:56):
that.
I bought this machine.
It's gonna work, it's gonna beamazing.
I love it, and I was I.
Finally, I called anelectrician friend and I was
like hey, you need to come overhere and help me.
And he was like bro, I got you,like.
And so he showed up.
20 minutes later we snipped upthis cord.
That was a great cord, but itjust didn't have the ends we
needed.
He spliced on new ends.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Was it from like a 1970s shop vac or something, or
no?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
no, it was a brand new one.
It was an RV cord it needed acertain amount of watts to be
able to sit through it Like a 30amp.
It was a 30 amp cord, yeah, butit could do 7,500 Watts instead
of the 1,800 that you can getfrom a 10 gauge.
Anyway, not knowledge.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Now we know.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
So he helps me to splice this thing together and
I'm like, bro, I hope this works.
And so we show up to the job.
We've still never used themachine, we still so.
Like all these things kind ofstack right, like the machines
late, it came in differentpalettes, there's no
instructions, no cord.
I get to cast all these hurdlesand even the night before my
guys like we just rent a machineand go back to the old way,
(29:54):
right, we can always walk awayand go get a job.
We can always quit.
And I was like no, not quitting.
And then the next day we get tothe job site and I'm like all
I'm going to do is plug thisthing in and I hope it works.
And, sure enough, plug the, themachine in, plugged it in where
their dryer goes, kicked it on.
We did a whole attic, 16 inchesdeep, in an hour and a half and
I was like we're talking yeah,we did it.
(30:16):
You know, let's sell a bunchmore of these you know, it just
became this whole differentthing and I was, that was like
the moment where you get past it.
You're like, I made it, youknow, and that's how the formula
worked yeah, the formula.
You just worked, you just keepgoing, you just keep going.
Sometimes it sucks, I'm notstopping, we're just going to go
you know.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So, speaking of formula, I'm sure our listeners
are wondering when we're goingto answer the question or when
Corey's going to answer thequestion.
How do you find a house inPhoenix that doesn't have
scorpions?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
They don't exist.
You make them, you make them,you make it, yeah, you make it.
How?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
do you guys do it?
How do you?
What's your, what's your secretsauce?
So, if you can, if you can tellus I can, I can totally tell
you.
Um, the scorpions in Arizona orit's, it's so hit or miss on if
they are in a house or not in ahouse, whatever.
Um, but I'll just tell youabout my house and that's the
total truth about how you reallymake it happen my house.
I bought a house that had beenvacant for six months, which is
totally a bad sign in Phoenix,vacant for six months in a
(31:14):
scorpion neighborhood.
And I know those because I doit.
And so my wife's, like you knowwhere we're buying a house,
right, and I'm like I own akilling company, like we kill
things for living, right, I owna pest control company.
So, like, we bought the houseand before we even closed on it,
I knew that if I seal off thecinder block wall that goes
(31:35):
around the property, the thescorpions can't go out of the
wall.
Because if I give you a blacklight and say, go find me some
scorpions, you'll go to the wall.
That's the first place.
Yeah, right, um, so I sealed upthe wall and I was like, if I
don't even get the house likesomebody got a gift whatever,
and so I sealed it up and thenwe moved in and we ripped all
the carpets out and then we, youknow, put new stuff in, moved
in, not had one scorpion, and Iwalk out at night barefoot and
take my trash out and myneighbors count scorpions in his
(31:57):
yard and it doesn't bother me abit because I know that if I
seal up that wall and then I mixit with pest control, I've
eliminated.
So it's a I consider it to be abattle.
So there's this battle thathappens between the wall and the
house, and so, like if I justwiped out all the troops at the
wall, only a few of them aregoing to make it into the yard,
where I've got landmineseverywhere because I do pest
(32:18):
control, and they got to make itacross all the different
barriers that I've put up thatare, by the way, kid friendly,
pet friendly, and then if theyever make it to the house,
they're already on their way out.
They're going to die.
So we actually give a guaranteeIf you're on our Scorpion Plus
service, if we seal up your walland you get a scorpion inside
in the first year, we give youyour money back.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That's fantastic, that's phenomenal, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
No scorpions.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
But you know what you're doing, and so there
probably aren't scorpions.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
No, it's a great guarantee, nobody calls us on it
.
No, guarantee, nobody calls uson it.
No, nobody calls us on it.
That's been.
My thing is like when I startedmy company, like everyone has
to kind of have like a premiseof like what they're going to do
differently or whatever, and Ijust I had heard so many people
say well, you can't really getrid of scorpions, you can just
take away their food, which islike the crickets and whatnot.
You just basically chase themoff, yeah there's no food for
them.
They move on.
That's such bs dude.
(33:12):
There's good products out there, but here's the problem.
We get people that start acompany and they go well, here's
my price.
And then come summer time, thethree things that kill a pest
control product is heat,humidity and sunlight.
It breaks down the productslike a banana peel.
Once you've peeled it, okay it.
So it kills out the product andbreaks it down.
Well, they have products thatare more like a gobstopper, that
(33:32):
are micro-encapsulated, thatjust let out little bits of
product at a time and the heatdoesn't affect it, but they're
much more expensive.
So you have to be priced rightto be able to afford the right
products.
You have to do some testing.
Every year I treat like a wholebunch of mason jars, and year I
treat like a whole bunch ofMason jars, and then I go
collect off my neighbor's wallsa bunch of scorpions, throw them
(33:56):
in the jars and see how long ittakes to kill them and which
products work the best.
And then we have our, our wholebasis of service built around
that.
It's like you know they're,they're not going to have a
problem, yeah, yeah, but you cankill scorpions and I don't want
.
I don't want kids to get stung.
That's one of the biggestthings.
It's like people are afraidbecause you don't want to test
your kids' decision-makingskills with a scorpion something
that can kill you.
It's like testing your kids'decision-making skills by
(34:17):
letting them in a room with arattlesnake.
Right, you just don't want thatto be the time.
So kids and then dogs.
So many people in Arizona havea dog.
Cats will investigate by likebatting things around with their
paws and stuff so they don'tget stung, but dogs shove their
(34:39):
nose in it and then right on thenose.
So we make homes pet fruit.
Uh, pet pet safe, kids safe andno stings yeah, awesome
scorpion scorpion whisper yeah,yeah, I love it with confidence
too.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Love it With confidence too.
Love it, just so, uh.
Are you teaching your kids tobe entrepreneurs?
Are you how?
How are you?
How are you, are you raisingyour kids up to be entrepreneurs
?
Speaker 3 (34:58):
A hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (34:58):
That's a great question Okay.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, Um, my kids the same thing as my parents, right
, Like they were like you wantit, Like there's money out there
, you can go get it.
And so daughter asked like shewas talking to us about there's
like a trend on TikTok where youmake that cloud thing in your
room out of like LED lights andstuffing.
And she was like I really wantto do that.
And I was like well, how muchis it going to cost to do it?
(35:21):
And so, like we added up allthe costs together and she's
like oh, it's like 180 bucks forall this stuff.
And I was like cool, so whenare you going to do it?
And she was like well, I don'thave that much money.
And I was like so when are yougoing to do it?
She's like well, I mean,there's my birthday.
And I was like okay, that'sFebruary, six months, right.
And she's like and she's likewell, there's Christmas.
(35:41):
And I was like okay, that'sDecember, four months.
Uh, you're going to wait fourmonths for that.
And she was like well, I guesswe're almost saying it again.
And I was like who has themoney?
And she's like well, I mean,you guys have money.
Do you want to pay for it?
Will you do it?
And I was like nope, sure,won't that?
There has to be something thatyou're willing to do in order to
achieve it.
And she was like well, what amI going to do?
(36:02):
Can I go get a money?
And she's like well, I don'tknow.
And I was like, well, how aboutthis.
The money is out there and youhaven't provided value to anyone
to get it back.
It's your money.
So this is something I love.
That Grant Cardone pitches islike when he was on Undercover
Billionaire.
That's awesome.
He was like and he wasn't beingfull of himself.
(36:24):
He's like the money.
My money is out there, it'sjust not mine yet.
It's just a matter of likelooking at the timeline.
The money is mine, but it's inother people's pockets and I
haven't provided the value toreceive it, to make it mine.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
So I was teaching her this.
What a great mindset.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
That's so good, yeah, so where's my money?
Who's got my money right?
So I was teaching her thisprinciple and she's like all
right, so what if I do choresand I earn the money?
And I was like, great, how much?
How fast do you want to earn it?
And she was like, well, I don'tknow, I could I do like three
chores a day.
And I was like, could you crankthat up?
And she's like, yeah, you wantme to do like 10 chores a day.
(37:07):
And I was like I don't.
And I'd be like, great, that'sworth 15 bucks.
And she's like I mean 15 buckstoday.
And then the next day she didalmost double and I was like she
earned it in like three daysand I was like that's the way to
do it and I had a really cleanhouse.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
So I was pretty happy .
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, so I'm encouraging them to, like you
know, be responsible.
See what you want.
There is never out of reach.
We just have to make a plan forit and go for it and just commit
and so make your plan for itand then just go, and no matter
how much effort, grit and grindyou have to get after it, it'll
be there.
You just have to go and maybeyou'll get a delay and maybe
something you know have someexpenses along the way or
(37:43):
something.
But like you stay committed,you'll achieve it, and so that's
what I'm trying to get for them.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
There you'll achieve it, and so that's what I'm
trying to get for them.
There's a book in your future,and maybe the title can be how
to find a house withoutscorpions, yeah, raising
entrepreneurs, oh yeah yeah,that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah, well, we do.
We do like a youth group atchurch too oh cool and so that's
kind of like a fun thing islike I'm one of the leaders in
the youth group and we didsomething where we brought them
all in and we were teaching themhow to get a job.
So this was kind of fun.
We wanted to instill in themthe ability to be hard workers.
Because one thing that I foundin the blue collar industry is
(38:22):
like, especially after COVID andno offense to anybody watching
but like we would get tons ofpeople apply for a job and then
nobody would answer the phoneand then, out of the people that
would answer, we'd schedulelike seven or eight interviews
because that's all we could getto answer the phone.
All of them got an interviewand maybe one or two showed up,
and out of that one or two, it'slike, well, out of the two
dudes that showed, or one, onelady, one dude, whatever, uh,
(38:45):
who's the best fit?
It wasn't like I have a wholeset of people that are just
hungry for a job and really wantto work hard, and it wasn't
like that and it was like allright, well, I'll try you, and
if you aren't a hard worker,we're just going to cut you and
do it again.
So I, what we started seeingwas like there's a problem in
the in in the world where, like,people are just kind of like
(39:07):
they're quiet, quitting, orwhatever where they don't give
it their all.
And so we said, well, we got todo something, cause if we do
nothing, then we just get whatwe get and you can't expect any
different cause you have no say.
But if we start helping theworld by training people to know
what to expect, to push andwork hard and you know we have
(39:29):
to we have to be part of theanswer.
And so we brought these kids in.
We said, okay, here's what'sgoing to happen.
Like we're going to do it.
We're going to have you guyscome in.
We're going to have a panel ofbusiness owners.
You get to shoot every questionat them about how to get a job,
how to rock the interview, whatyou're expected thing to like
train them on how to really bean awesome employee, and if they
(39:51):
ever wanted to level up to likeowning their own, we'd, we'd do
that too.
And so, like they got thispanel with all these business
owners great experience it wasfun.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
That was really cool.
And what's the age range on the?
They were 12 to 14 year olds.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Yeah, um, and honestly, like the, the,
probably the number one thingthat came out of it was they
were like well, how do I, how doI make more money?
Cause everyone wants to knowthat.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
How do I make more?
Speaker 3 (40:14):
money and for them.
You know, I was just tellingthem, kind of like, what my my
dad taught me when I was youngerwas like nobody like the.
The rate that you get paid whenyou, when you start, that's the
rate that the business iswilling to try you out for.
And if all you do is whatyou're expected, then you're
going to stay at that trial rate.
(40:34):
Yeah, that's what we can affordto risk on you.
And if you work your tail offand show that you're amazing,
then you'll make what you'reworth, right.
So don't consider the rate thatyou get when you first get
hired to be your rate thatyou're worth and so like.
For example, my dad took me tothis job site.
We did construction for nineyears.
I was working with them and wewere going to Safeway in the Bay
(40:57):
Area and on the drive over hewas like all right, I know,
you're making minimum wage,which at the time was like five
bucks an hour.
And he was like you're makingminimum wage, but when we get
there, i'm'm gonna call you thegopher.
(41:17):
You're gonna go for this, gofor that.
You're just everything thatanyone asks you.
You run and I was like dad, it'son a rooftop and like I'm in
shorts and it's hot and he'slike I don't care.
You run and you pick upmaterials.
You pick up bags of cement, youpick up two by fours, you run
across the rooftop with them andyou deliver them and then you
do whatever they need, and andyou, you make it fast.
You have a great attitude.
You smile, you say yes, sir,and you hustle and I was like
you got it.
And so I got on this rooftopand I got my first paycheck and
(41:39):
instead of minimum wage, theywere paying me 15 bucks an hour,
which was three times theamount.
And so that's what I wastelling.
These kids was like that's agreat story.
You get in and you hustle andyou show what you're really
worth and your employer willhave no choice but to level you
up because, holy crap.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Cause now they can't do it without you, yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Yeah, Like dude, I want that around.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Then you're a part of the team, you know?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
And other people see you hustling and they're like
well, that guy makes a lot moremoney it raises the.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, it forces the.
You know the.
Yeah, it forces the.
You know the.
The tide to rise, you know yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Well, we need to leave it here.
I know Corey's got to get to uhan activity with his kids.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Right, um, it's been a pleasure, corey, having you on
the show, for sure, thank youguys.
Hearing your story.
Um, just a true entrepreneur.
Yeah, you spending the time.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Appreciate you guys having me and to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
If, if, uh, if you are that 80% that already has a
pest control company, uh,there's going to be links to
Corey and his, his company,green machine down in the uh in
the description.
Um, these guys know whatthey're doing, they stand behind
their product and that's.
That's gotta be worth a listenat least.
So, uh, give them a call, and,and, uh, and, and.
I'm sure he'd love to hear fromyou.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
I'd love it.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Thanks again, corey, appreciateyou guys.
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