Preston Peterson on the Alta Merger, Dropping the Ego and What Came After the Exit

00:00 Dan Leibrandt

Hey everyone and welcome back to Pest Control Legends. I'm your host Dan Leibrandt. And today I'm with Preston Peterson. Preston is one of the owners of Alta Pest Control, which is ranked number 26 on the PCT Top 100. He started out selling pest control door to door, built Ardent Pest Control and got on the Inc. 5000 seven years in a row, then merged with Alta in 2022 to create one of the fastest growing companies in the industry. On top of that, Preston has had six exits in pest control and owns multiple successful businesses across different industries. In this episode, we're going to talk about scaling through door-to-door sales, navigating a major merger, and building a company that attracts institutional capital. Now without further ado, Preston, welcome to the show.

00:50 Preston Peterson

Hey, thank you. It's great to be on here with you.

00:50 Dan Leibrandt

Of course, man. We were just talking a little bit before the show. Man, I'm so impressed with what you're doing and yet you seem like such like a calm, chill, humble guy. I am just so avid to learn more from you and listen to you more.

01:06 Preston Peterson

I'm excited to be on here. Like honestly, it's fun to go on these things and to talk about the industry that's blessed my life and help others learn and hopefully get some information or some insights that can help them and help them grow their businesses and have success.

01:23 Dan Leibrandt

Absolutely, cool. So let's start at the beginning of your journey and specifically in Pest Control. So how did this all start? How did you get into Pest Control originally?

01:33 Preston Peterson

So I started, so I went on a mission for our church to Brazil for two years and I came back, it was in August, and I came back and met my wife like the very first day of school and college. So it was like the end of August. We'd been back like a month. And we started dating and you know, I was one of those really successful people where we got married in May and I think I had $200 to my name and I had no car. No phone, no computer. My wife had a $3,000 student loan at 20 % interest. And it was like, I have no clue what we're doing. And I remember we worked at like a call center, like one of those opinion, we would do surveys or something like that. And so I was like, I've got to do sales. I've got to do pest control sales. Because if not, I'm go bankrupt before I even start. Or, you know, if this works out, maybe there's an opportunity, right? So. So I started looking at doing door-to-door sales for Pest Control. I went out my first summer, I think I recruited like 10 or 12 guys my first year. I sold like 240 accounts in two months. So I was like, I was good, I wasn't great. Like there's definitely way better guys than I was. But we did well. And my wife worked two jobs, she worked in the office and then at night she'd work at like a gym and you know, we just kind of were like bootstrapping it, because that's all we had.

03:00 Preston Peterson

So we did that for a year and then the next year we managed for a company. And then the guy I worked for my first year was like, hey, you know, if you come work for, help me out in this branch they had that wasn't doing that great. He was like, you can kind of go and I'll show you kind of the ropes to do your own. So like, perfect, let's do it. So my wife ran the office that summer. We managed the team and we had a good year that year. We, you know, so after three years of door knocking for someone else, we started our own. And I dropped out of college and I remember thinking, if this fails, I can always go back to college. And so we just started it. Had $7,000 and a bunch of credit cards available, I guess. So, and I would go sell at night, service the homes the next morning, change, you know, at a gas station into shorts and go knock doors the rest of night. And our first summer, my wife was pregnant with her first kid and she was on bed rest for 10 weeks. And she literally would run the whole company on a bed from a laptop with a cell phone. And you somehow, you find a way to make it work. You know what saying? But I think it was those moments that helped set us up for being able to handle the moments that came further down the road. And so I'm grateful for those moments. And so if you're going through those moments now, right, if someone's out there and they're just a brand new startup and they're just like, how is this going to work? It will just keep fighting, just keep doing it. I remember the day my daughter was born and I'm having to call my customers like, hey, I can't come to your house right now because my wife's in labor.

04:49 Preston Peterson

You know, and it's just like, they're like, that's awesome. You know, it's like, who's giving you a call? You know, here's the owner doing tech work and having to reschedule stuff. Cause you know, my wife's going into labor right then, but it's like, dude, but those are the memories. You know, those are in all my businesses. I will tell you this, something I do now when I start other businesses is I try to take as many pictures of the beginning so we can look back and see where we have come. Because there's gonna be one day you're gonna look back and be like, man, I remember when it was just me and a truck and going to do service work and I bought all the equipment that morning of and be like, hopefully this stuff works. Hopefully I'm using this right and calling past buddies and stuff and being like, hey, what do I do for this? And so, and you're look back and be like, man, look where we are now. And so don't forget where you came from. As you're growing. So that's the best part of it.

05:51 Dan Leibrandt

Such an awesome story, the term that comes to my mind, which you mentioned before the show, is that you're a 20-year overnight success. That some people may look at you and be like, maybe daddy's money, or he just got lucky. But none of them saw or knew what you were going through. I mean, I'm sure those first few years were really tough, right?

06:14 Preston Peterson

Oh, dude, yeah. So we were really smart and we decided to open the business during the recession. So we opened like in 2008, 2007. And, you know, right when unemployment was going through the roof and home prices were dropping and so, you know, what's smarter than start a business, right? So that's when we started the business. And I remember, like I said, we didn't pay ourselves for a couple of years. You know, and it was like, I had seven grand and we had credit cards, back then credit cards, know, zero percent interest for 12 months. We're like, okay, let's do this, you know? And luckily we had some friends of ours that were able to get us like a line of credit eventually that we could pull on instead of having to use credit cards the whole time. And, but yeah, you know, you just, we just did it. And we're like, if it fails, we can always start over again. We can go back to college and go get a degree. I can go do all that stuff. See, both my parents have, my dad has his doctorate and my mom has her master's and so they were like, you gotta go back to college, don't drop out. So I did, I went back to school, I think it was like seven years later after I had sold a couple of companies and just to get a piece of paper to make them happy. But yeah.

07:31 Dan Leibrandt

I dropped out of school myself. My parents were not happy and same with my mom. She owns a successful therapy practice and she has a master's of course. So she thinks that school is a requirement, but yet for things like, know, so for maybe other guys that are in pest control, young guys, would you say that they should stay in school or should they just drop out and pursue it?

07:53 Preston Peterson

So I don't want to be the guy that tells you what you should do. I think you should think about it with your family, your friends, whoever's important. I will say the thing, I think there's some pros and cons to going to school and getting it done. What I did love was when I went back to school, now I also have a university studies degree, which basically means I don't really have a degree, I guess, but I had a sign of paper saying, I know this will not help me in any kind of. Career when I got my degree. So that's how good my degree is. But it was just a bunch of business classes and I minored in Portuguese because I served in Brazil. So I like, So I have a business and Portuguese minor. But I did really love going back to school and being able to be in classes and entrepreneurial classes and actually being able to apply what I was learning. I think that's one of the problems that we have with school is you learn all this information, it's probably really good information, but by the time you actually can apply it, you forget it all. You know what saying? And so it's like, that's really great. When am I going to reuse it? So that aspect, I really did enjoy it. Like I enjoyed going back because I was running a company still. And so like when I was in my classes and we're learning about all these different things, I'm like, dude, we can actually apply that or we should try this out or this strategy. And so that I think helped. It just depends what you want to do. Down here in Puerto Rico, I've got a lot of friends of mine that are very successful. A lot of them have gone to Harvard and Yale, and they're very successful. A lot of them are not college grads, and they're very successful. Just kind of think of what you want and what you're trying to build and what's best for you.

09:36 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, I totally agree on the learning element. I think the best way to learn anything is just by doing it. I didn't take like a podcast course on how to start this thing. I just kind of picked up a webcam, started recording, listening to other podcasts, seeing what works, what doesn't. Same thing with business or with anything else.

09:56 Preston Peterson

Yeah, no, it's true.

09:59 Dan Leibrandt

So I wanted to talk about the whole, I guess, tenure of Ardent. So how long did you have Ardent? And talk to me more about that journey before then merging with Alta.

10:10 Preston Peterson

Yeah, so I had built several pest control companies and sold those off before then. And we had had Ardent about 10 years, maybe nine and a half, 10 years. I don't know when we merged. I think they were about the same time as we were. I think we were both celebrating like, we're about to our 10 year, you know, in business anniversary or whatever. So we went, so what the situation was, we were getting approached by a lot of private equity at Ardent. And I had talked to some friends of mine, we had some brokers and stuff. And they were like, dude, if you guys are a little bit bigger, you're going to be able to get a bigger multiple. And so we kind of looked at it and we're like, you know, let's just go see. I had a couple of buddies in the industry I had reached out to say, hey, I knew they were going, you know, not all, I knew other buddies of mine were going to go look to go private equity. And so I reached out to them and I was like, Hey, if we merge, I think we can get a better deal. And it's kind of like a rare situation where one plus one can actually equal three.

11:12 Dan Leibrandt

Mmm, yeah.

11:13 Preston Peterson

And so they were pretty confident they could get their deal at the price they wanted. And so was like, OK, no worries. And so we were at the PCT Top 100 award ceremony. And we had had some of our equity partners that we had given equity to in certain locations that kind of wanted to move on and do their own thing. And so we're like, yeah, that's fine. I had some partners that were looking to get out and we met, I met the brothers, Chris, you know, Mike and Tyler at this PCT Top 100 ceremony. And we're just chatting. Was the first time I met them. And I'm like, dude, there's just something like, something just fits here. Like they were in a lot of close to a lot of the markets that we were in. Like we were in San Antonio and Dallas and they'd be in Austin. You know, we were both in Oklahoma City and I think they were in. We were in Tulsa, we were in like Kansas City and they were in Wichita, like just, you know, lined up really well with our markets and really good guys, like really good guys were talking and we both had different strengths that we kind of brought to the table and so as we're talking, like, you know, and we were looking for someone to merge with because of the situation we're in and it just kind of, every once in while you those moments that just kind of fit, you know, and you're like, maybe there's something more here that we're not seeing. So we're like, let's go explore this. And so we met up, we went up to Dallas at one of my buddy's house, because they're from Austin. And we sat down and we're like, guys, I think there's something here. And so we kind of said, OK, here's the game plan. Right? If we merge, relatively soon we want to go private equity. So the point of this merger is because we want to go private equity. We can bring some strengths to the table.

13:05 Preston Peterson

They can bring some strengths to the table. Like we had a really good inspector program. Our technician program for sales was really, good. They had a really good door to door team. They had a better inside sales team. And so we were like, a lot of this stuff just fits that we can get a lot of synergies off this. And so we go and we just kind of said, okay, let's keep exploring this. And there were some times where we were like, okay, let's do it. And things would cool down a little bit and we're like, yeah, you maybe not. Because the thing is we were both good companies by ourselves. Like it wasn't like there was one company that was needing the other. But we were like, but together we could be really, really good and we could get a really good deal in private equity. And so we ended up getting through and my buddy who's in banking kind of helped work through the whole logistics and all that kind of stuff with it. And so we get the deal done. And I think the plan was to like, two, three years down the road go private equity, we ended up going private equity within like eight or nine months. So like Chris and I were kind of co-CEOs in the beginning, you know, and working things through and it was great. You know, I mean, there's difference of opinion on things, they're, both sides were really good people. And we saw the vision we were trying to accomplish. So there wasn't anything that we couldn't overcome when we knew what the long-term vision was.

14:33 Preston Peterson

And I think that's the biggest thing that hampers most success is people get so caught up in the short-term thing or in their ego or in what they want, and they can't see the bigger picture of what you're trying to accomplish. And so because people can't see the bigger picture long-term, they end up selling short and missing opportunities. And so that was the big thing for us is we were having little, you obstacles or just debates on little things because it's two different companies, when we could always look at what the long-term picture of what we were trying to do it for was, it would help smooth out those little issues that we might've had. So that, it was, it was, I mean, they're really good guys and you know, and our group really liked them. I think they liked us and we were able to help kind of work. Off of each other to find out really good solutions to keep growing the company and building things out. And so then we go private equity and we're like, hey, we can't have two CEOs here, right? And my wife had started a nutrition supplement business. So was like, hey guys, run, Chris is a great CEO. I'm like, dude, you run the CEO. I've done that for 20 years. You run this thing. I'm here for you. I'll do some mergers and acquisitions. And I'm gonna go work on this. Supplement business with my wife and help run that and get that off and get started. And so we had a couple of deals lined up for mergers, but our private equity was just not ready for it. So we were like, OK, great. So at that point, it was like, OK, I'll be on the board. I'm here if you guys need anything from me. I'm here to give input. But we've got great people. When you have great people, you don't need to have all the answers.

16:25 Preston Peterson

And so. I'm involved every once in a while with things and Chris is great about updating and saying, here's what's going on, getting opinion on this or whatever. But the business has been doing amazing. And we've grown, I think we've 3X since we did the deal with the private equity. So it's been awesome. It's been really awesome.

16:46 Dan Leibrandt

That's incredible. You said that the problem with most owners, whether it's Pest Control or any other business, is that one, you mentioned ego, but also I think you had more emphasis on they can't think bigger picture. I mean, why do most people not think bigger picture and how can they?

17:48 Preston Peterson

Yeah. So here's the issue, right? So I remember when PCT Magazine called us up and they were interviewing Chris and I about the merger. And they were like, the guy was like, I've been doing this for 15 years. I've heard of strategic mergers, but I've never seen one where somebody didn't buy somebody out. And he's like, I've never seen one where nobody bought anyone out. And it's like, everyone is literally just combining to make a better company. And if you think about this, there's a lot of private equity in the industry right now, and it has been for a while, but that's their whole playbook, right? Their whole playbook is you go buy a platform company, and then you do a bunch of roll-ups. And private equity is really smart people. They're not going to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars if they don't know what they're doing. And you think about it's like, a lot of these, they don't know how to run the businesses. They're not running the business. It's all of us as operators that are running the business, but they see the bigger picture.

18:58 Preston Peterson

Right? And so think about all your operators that are like, no, I have to do it my way, or I need my name on that logo. And it's like, that's great, but I want to be able to have my influence become bigger. I want to be able to help. Way more people out. I we have four or 500 employees. That's who I want to help out. Instead of being like, no, it's got to be my way. Yeah, now you're small and you can only help two employees out. Right? What kind of influence is that? And so it's, we get caught up in the short near mind inside of things and we can't see the bigger picture of what we're really wanting to accomplish. And so it's, how do you look at that? Because If it's really about influence that you want to make, or if it's really about gaining financial success you want to make, then go do that. But playing bigger makes you be able to have more of that. Staying small doesn't give you what you're wanting. But we all fight to stay small.

20:01 Dan Leibrandt

Mmm.

20:09 Dan Leibrandt

Explain that last part.

20:10 Preston Peterson

Because we don't want to give up.

20:11 Dan Leibrandt

We all fight to stay small.

20:14 Preston Peterson

Yeah, because we don't want to give up our natural tendencies, right? We don't want to have to like lower our ego sometimes and compromise or listen to someone else's idea that might be better because it might not have our name on that stamp of this idea came from this. Some of my greatest business ideas that I've ever had did not come from me. They came from my employees. They came from my co-owners. At the end, we all benefited by the advice or the idea that they had. And I think sometimes we can't get out of our own way because we want it to be us that stands at the podium or that gets the glory on it when really it doesn't matter. There's no amount of success that you can't have if you're willing to not have all the glory for yourself.

21:04 Dan Leibrandt

So.

21:12 Dan Leibrandt

Okay, so you have to basically completely dissolve your ego and just do whatever's best for the business or what are you optimizing for?

21:22 Preston Peterson

Yeah, mean, ultimately, if you want to look at what's best for the business, it should be what's best for your people. Right. For me, I'm a big proponent of culture. I'm a big proponent of your people. And we could probably do a whole podcast just on that of like, let's really deep dive into your business and say, is this really what's best for your people? Is it really what's best for you? And are they two of the same things? Because most of the time, if it's best for what's best for your people, and it's what's best for the business and it's best for everyone. Right? And so, but if it's just what's best for us individually, normally it doesn't last very long.

22:02 Dan Leibrandt

Mmm, that totally makes sense.

22:05 Preston Peterson

I mean, show me a company that is massively huge that has a single owner.

22:13 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, can't find it.

22:15 Preston Peterson

Like, yeah. I mean, you go even look at like Tesla and stuff like that. How much equity does Elon Musk have? It's not a lot.

22:23 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, maybe 10%.

22:25 Preston Peterson

Yeah. So why do we have people in this industry that are so adamant of, want to have a hundred percent ownership. It's ego. It's not growth. It's not long-term finance. Right. When I started doing partnerships, when I started doing partnerships, and growing it, I grew way faster and I had way more financial success.

22:49 Dan Leibrandt

Hmm. Yeah. What I'm piecing together here is that the beauty of focusing on your people is that everything is downstream from that. Everything follows that. That is like the core pillar foundation. And then once you have that, now everything else now can expand and be its best.

23:08 Preston Peterson

Yeah. And the thing is, as a CEO or as a leader, that's my only focus, is making sure that I'm running the business the correct way, that my people can trust me and that they can have safety and confidence that they can have their livelihood protected. And then I'm making the best decisions for them.

23:31 Dan Leibrandt

Definitely. So, yeah, I'd like to go more specific on culture, because you said you're really big on culture, and we could do a whole show on it. So, I mean, how do you think about and approach culture?

23:50 Preston Peterson

So. When I look at culture, our biggest and greatest asset we have is our people. And so when you look at it, there's a couple of things you have to look at. Is one, I have to protect the business and the culture for my best people. Because sometimes people will be like, well, if you're not doing this, and this, are you really giving it back to your culture? And it's like, we're building the business for people that want to be here. So if we have bad apples that are like, well, this isn't perfect for us and they're not going to help contribute to the culture, that's not who we're working with. Right. We're working with people that want to be here, that want to have success and that want to grow and you reward them, but you show them. Right. So for a couple of things we used to do, we used to have a self-improvement program that every year we would do and for all of our employees, not, know, in door-to-door sales, door-to-door sales companies are really good about having great culture for door-to-door sales reps. The downside is a lot of times people will be like, dude, this is really great culture for the door-to-door sales reps, but there's not a great culture for anyone else. Right? And that's the disconnect that happens a lot of times. And so for us, it's like, well, why does it have to be that way? It should be a really good culture and a great culture for everybody because everyone's a part of the business. Right? And so, you know, we would have self-improvement programs that we would do during the year to help them become a better better husband, a better mother, a better brother, a better sister. Our whole focus is I want people leaving with this business and becoming better every day. So if they leave, they're like, dude, that was the best company I ever worked for. And if it's there with us for 15 years, it's like, dude, I'm never leaving because this is the best, it makes me a better person. Right? So when people come to their work with you, how are they? Are they a better person or are they just getting through the days?

25:49 Preston Peterson

Are they worse? Like, what is it? That's the benefit is, right? You own a company to be able to help influence people for the better. And so we looked at it as owning a pest control company is a way that we can help influence hundreds of people every single day. And so how can we, how do we do that? Right? And do you really care about them? Like that's another thing is a lot of people will talk about culture and you know, it's like when you go and talk to businesses and the business is like, we're the best customer service. And it's like, nobody believes it anymore because everyone says that. And it's like the one time I actually need customer service, you can't ever get it from them, right? So it's like, dude, do we actually stand behind what we say? Right? And then it's like, okay, if you do, then how? Like, what is it that you're doing to show these people that you care? And it's like if they care and if they do believe what you're saying, then people will ask them. They're like, yeah. When we were at Ardent, we always had a thing that we talked about. Three of our technicians had Ardent tattooed on their body, and none of them were owners. And so it's like, that's a culture. That's where people that are like, I'm here and I love it here. We used to do a thing where we would send a care package to all their spouses before the summer started. Because at the end of the day, we know the summers are really hard. And we know that that spouse that's allowing them to come work for us and they might have to work long hours, we want to recognize and say, hey, we see the sacrifice you're going through and allowing your spouse to come to work and to help us better this business. That's not unrecognized. And so we would send them a care package before the summer.

27:46 Preston Peterson

And I can't tell you how many spouses I had that messaged us and said, I've never had anyone care about me and my husband's job. But it's a whole concept, right? If things at home aren't good, how are they going to be able to go out and do a good job when they're in front of your customers?

28:10 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, so good.

28:11 Preston Peterson

And so like when we did incentives, we always made sure that the spouses came. Like I want the spouses to know the benefits of this business. Reward trips, spouses came. I want them to enjoy that too. That might be one of the only times they get a vacation, you know, that year. And so it's like, we want them to enjoy it so that the memories they have are good memories, not, it's always so long and they didn't care about you and you were just another person. And now... You know, I still have technicians from five, 10 years ago that messaged me and asking me questions and being like, Hey, can I pick your brain on this? And I'm like, yeah. Like we would do November challenges where we would go and we had to give up like a bad habit and do a couple of good ones. We have a big group chat and it was so cool to see like we had several people that were like, I'm giving up alcohol or I'm giving up smoking and I've tried for 10 years, but this is the first time I've ever been able to do it. Cause I have a support system around me and it's like, those are the things that you see and you're like, we're making a difference. We're helping these people come better in ways that are way more important than a paycheck or an extra dollar here or there, right?

29:22 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, I'd say that is like the real fulfilling stuff. You can have all the money in the world, but I feel like there's just some intangible value to really helping people out, right?

29:35 Preston Peterson

Yeah, no, 100%. So that's what it's about, right?

29:40 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, there's another point. Okay, yeah. So you're talking about care. I just had a point there, which is, and I'll see if you agree with this. I don't feel like you can manufacture or fake care, because I've honestly never heard that point of, you know, maybe sending a care package to the spouses, having them involved in any way. I think that's genius from a business perspective. But also, I feel like you can't really fake something like that. That has to be genuine. I mean, maybe to make this more tactical, when you're placing and hiring leaders and managers, are you making sure that they're caring people or what kind of people are you looking for?

30:23 Preston Peterson

Yeah. So that's the best part about it, right? Is when you have your standard of the company and you have your, your mission statement and your core values, if you're, if you have people that are leaders that don't believe in those, they can't be your leaders. Right? You're not going to go to battle with people that don't believe the same way you do. And so when we go there and we're like, Hey, who's our leadership? It's. Do they actually believe these core values? Because if you bring and elevate leaders that don't believe in your core values, then you don't believe in...

31:02 Dan Leibrandt

Mm, got it. Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. I wanted to ask you, kind of pivot here, I wanted to talk about something we were talking about a little bit before the show is bootstrapping versus getting capital. So you started your business from the ground up. You said you had like $7,000 for Ardent. But now you said that you would...

31:30 Dan Leibrandt

Prefer to take capital if you started over, but can you talk about like the difference between the two and what's best?

31:34 Preston Peterson

Yeah, I think if I were to do it all over again, yeah, would raise cash, go to acquisitions, build it out very quickly. But I will tell you, I think you have to look at where you are in the process. And I think what I've seen sometimes is you'll find people that are just beginning the process that want to do it that way, but they haven't learned what they need to learn in the journey to be there. And a lot of times it backfires on them. And I've seen a lot of companies that don't make it or... End up selling for pennies on a dollar just to get out of it. And then they have this horrible experience of what the pest control industry is or even home service industries or whatever. And I look back at our first 10 years, and I'd build a company three, four years and sell them. We built again another one, sold them. But every time we did it, we learned how to become that person that could handle a business that was a $5 million business. A 20 million dollar business, you don't know all those kind of things. Because you have to be a different individual at each one of those phases. And if you haven't gone through that beginning phase, sometimes you don't know what it's like when you get to the bigger phases and then it of exposes you. And I think that's the thing is you've got to go through the process. Where I've seen people that have not had success or have had issues It's when they normally are trying to skip or shortcut the process.

33:21 Preston Peterson

And they want to get the results without having to become the person they need to become and to understand what's needed to get that result.

33:32 Dan Leibrandt

So you said you have to become a different person. How have you become a different person across your journey?

33:40 Preston Peterson

On you know, I think in the beginning, when I first started, it was like this excitement and it's like, oh, this is awesome, you know? And then you get humbled real quick. You get humbled real quick. You know, everyone thinks they're going to be the next hundred million or five hundred million dollar company. And it's like, if I can just get to a million, I'm happy. If I can just get to, you know, if I can just get a payroll this week, I'm happy, you know? And so I think it's one of those things where you get humbled. And you've got to find out, you're going to hit a point, and I had several of these points in my business career where it's like, make or break. It's like, are you going to do what it takes to break through this point, or is this going to be the one that takes you out? And if you're not willing to sacrifice and give everything you have, then it's like, you're not going to get there. You're going to give up. Before you get to the gold, right? And there's a great story in Think and Grow Rich about that. You know, the three feet from gold, where the guy was three feet from the greatest gold mine that was ever discovered because he quit early, right? And so it's like, you have to find those things and break through those moments. The other thing is you have to be able to handle success. And this is something that a lot of people don't talk about. Maybe you get some success. Maybe you're doing really, really well. Can you handle success to where it's not going to corrupt you or pollute you or make you forget who you are supposed to become? And a saying that my wife and I have is, you know, we're blessed so that we can be a blessing. And we look at the things that we've been given and the Lord has blessed us so much. But it's how can we bless other people's lives with that? And help others. And sometimes it's not even financial, right? Sometimes it's just, you know, there's a lot of businesses that I'll just get on and just listen to them and say, okay, here's what I would do in this situation and mentoring them and consulting them and just helping out. Right. I mean, when we live in Puerto Rico, there's the top 1 % of every industry here. And, you know, we'll just sit down with people and just say, hey, tell us about this, you know, or maybe I can connect them to somebody in my network that can help them out. Right. And it's just, you just help where you can. And that's the biggest thing is, at the end of the day...

36:12 Preston Peterson

What's the point of the business? Right? If I make a hundred million dollars, or if I make a million dollars, or make a hundred thousand, can I look in the mirror and still say I'm the person that God wanted me to be? And can I look in the mirror and say, I've been able to help other people along the way? If I make lots of money and I can't look in the mirror and say those two things, then it was better I didn't even do the business.

36:40 Dan Leibrandt

Mm, totally agree, yeah.

36:41 Preston Peterson

Because yeah.

36:43 Dan Leibrandt

I love that point on those of us who are blessed are kind of here to bless others, because many people are not fortunate in this life, and some people are very fortunate. Like, I feel very blessed, you're very blessed, and I feel like it would be a waste to just use that for yourself and just indulge in yourself. But I wanna ask there, mean, have you had any trouble with that? You mentioned the term handling success. Have you ever had trouble handling success?

37:14 Preston Peterson

Yeah, yeah, you know, it's interesting because... Here in Puerto Rico, a lot of people have a similar story. And I'm actually glad you asked this question, because it's a good thing to talk about. People talk about how to get success or having success. They don't talk about the other side of it as what do you do when you get success, right? So we had sold part of Alta to private, a minority stake to private equity. We got a small paycheck. And my wife has a very successful nutrition business that we run. And so I moved to Puerto Rico and you start making all this money, but it's like, okay, now what do we do? Right. And so. I guess it wouldn't be real vulnerable. I'll open up a little more on this because, you know, I was running in the pest control and then I was helping out with the nutrition for a couple of years. We moved to Puerto Rico and I kind of stepped away from the nutrition for a little bit. And it's one of those moments of most of the time with business owners, their identity is tied to the business. Right. And so, you know, I went from, I've got hundreds of employees that, you know, care about my opinion or think about what I say or actually my influence actually means something because the decisions I make can determine lots of people's livelihoods to I'm not in any business at all. And I'm not, do I still bring much value? Every CEO is going to go, this is my reconnecting, I'm not sure if my internet's great right now.

38:58 Dan Leibrandt

I can still hear you.

39:00 Preston Peterson

Okay, then we'll keep going. So anyway, so you go through this almost like midlife crisis or like mental crisis of confidence of like, you know, and once you've had one or two really successful businesses, you sit there and be like, okay, yeah, but do I really know what I'm doing? Right? And this is where we see it go both ways. So we'll see people that have had success in a business and maybe had a good exit and they either go over the top confident and they think, oh, I can do any business. I'm so smart. And down here in Puerto Rico, you hear about them all the time, right? People that have lost so much money investing in businesses of these people that supposedly had a lot of success, but then they had these failures. And they're like, what? I thought you were super smart. And it's like, well, where do you one hit wonder kind of thing. And then you have the other ones that we call it like where it's imposter syndrome, right? Where we're like, OK, am I really that smart? Do I really know what I'm doing or was that just a fluke? You know? And so a lot of us go through that, right? I went through that. I've gone through that several times. And it's just like, you know, and I've had four or five businesses that have had a lot of success, but we all go through it. And then it's how do you get out of it? Right? And so the problem is once you have success, it's how do you find that purpose again? How do you feel like you're bringing value again? And so there was a period of time where I'm sitting here and I'm like, I was the most depressed that I've ever been in my... And I was making way more money than I had ever made ever in my life. But you felt like your purpose and your meaning and your confidence was just like, dude, it was gone. Cause it's like, what am I doing with my life? You know, we're not made to be idle. We're made to be, you know, especially for me, I just love business. My mind doesn't stop. So I'm midnight. I'm telling my wife about business ideas and her business and stuff. And she's like, I'm going to bed. Talking to me. You know? So I think.

40:57 Preston Peterson

98 % of my fights with my wife are about business. You know, that's how it is.

41:02 Dan Leibrandt

It's funny.

41:04 Preston Peterson

But so that's the thing. And so it's like, OK, so a lot of people will come down here and get all this money from an exit or something. And then they just blow it on stupid stuff. Right? For me, it was like day trading, losing money in that. Other people, sports betting, this kind of stuff here and there. And guys are like, oh, I got this new inside deal on this one project. And so almost everyone has a similar story where it's like, you're successful. You have money. And you think you're smart. And you're like, oh, let's put it in the next best thing. And you know what I've realized is my most successful ventures and deals that I've done has always been things that I've involved with. And I can tell you almost everybody, yeah, there's one, once in a while there'll be a deal here, something like that, the guy's invested in it takes off. But most of the guys here will say when they've invested in... Private equity deals or startups or whatever, they're like, if I'm not actually involved, I would take back all my investments and just say, hey, give me my money back and we'll call it good. Because it's just, you want to bet on yourself. And it goes back to, are you trying to cheat the process? And I think that's what it is, right? You think about all these things where, there's a couple guys that might hit it. You know, crypto and all this kind of, dude, we've got a couple of crypto billionaires here. And it's like, but then they try to go do other stuff and it's like, people understand that they know that industry. They've put years and years and years of discovering and developing in that industry. You know, it's just like pest control. Like most of us that are at the top or most of, know, kind of like what I was saying before, you know, I'm a 20 year overnight success. It was 20 years of me going through and grinding and building and making mistakes before we got that exit that was a really good exit. And that's the problem is people, if you're trying to skip the process, if you're trying to skip the journey to get the result, the odds are you're not going to get the result.

43:22 Dan Leibrandt

Hmm. So you can't skip the journey.

43:23 Preston Peterson

And so you can't, you just, you know, just embrace the person you need to become to be able to handle that success. And so, I mean, it's, yeah, I mean, all over the time here, have so many guys have the same story where they're like, I invest in this thing and it's supposed to be 10 X in two years. And, know, it's just hype. And it's like, dude, you got to build a business. You got to just put in the work, you know, trust in yourself.

43:31 Dan Leibrandt

Got it.

43:50 Dan Leibrandt

Definitely. I appreciate you getting vulnerable there. And I want to ask you if it's all right. You said, you know, it was the most depressed you've ever been in your life. It was really tough. How'd you get out of that?

44:03 Preston Peterson

Okay, so this is, I'm actually glad you asked that question. Wow, I might get a little emotional with it. So I actually was called to be one of our seminary teachers for our youth program down here in Puerto Rico. When you lose confidence and when you lose kind of just hope and you're just like, dude, I just don't feel like I have a purpose. Working with the youth in our church down here. So I teach, there's three of us teachers down here, and we have early morning seminary at 6:20 in the morning. And there's probably 30 kids that come to the seminary. And so I teach two days on and then two to four days off. And honestly, it was the youth. It was seeing them and seeing how they cared and they wanted to hear and they wanted to know, and then seeing the struggles they go through and seeing how you can make a difference in their lives is what impacted my life. And I'm grateful for it, right? At the end of the day, it's God. And it's, don't see the other side of the story. And so whenever we're in depression or in a tough spot, and on Jonas's podcast and other podcasts, I've shared the kind of the moment with, in my businesses, where there are specific moments. Where it literally was God's hand that made up the difference. And what we thought was the trial or the issue in the business that was going to put us under turned out to be the biggest blessing. And I think it's the same thing if we're ever going through those hard moments, right? Where we just feel like we're losing hope or we feel like we're not worth that much or we don't feel like we're valuable in any aspect, right? Business, with our spouses, with our family, with our kids in society, whatever it is, we don't know the other side of it.

46:29 Preston Peterson

And looking back now, trust me, I lost a lot of money doing day trading. Don't do that. But I look back at it now and I'm like, dude, there's been at least 10 or 15 people that I'm able to sit down with and say, hey, let's talk through this. Like, what are you going through? And being able to be able to help other people so they don't have to make the same mistakes, right? Or that they can see trials that they go through and to be like, maybe this is your blessing.

47:00 Preston Peterson

You know, and so it was the moment that I was able to just say, I'm done wanting to do any of these things, right? Like it was a bunch of, well, how much time we got? I don't want to take too much time, but we'll go a little deeper.

47:17 Dan Leibrandt

No, no, let's keep going. I've got as much time as you have.

47:20 Preston Peterson

Okay, so we had, we were really, my wife and I were really big into vision boards. Okay, and so we had had a vision board of things that we wanted in our lives. And what's interesting is because when we moved to Puerto Rico, it completed the last thing I had on my vision board, and that was have a beach home, right? And so we go, and this is something I wanna really stress with you guys. Anyone that's listening. Is how many times we hear in the scriptures asking you shall receive, knock and it should be open on you.

47:58 Dan Leibrandt

Mmm, yeah.

48:00 Preston Peterson

Right? And it's like, but are we really asking? Are we really knocking? And so when I sat there and I was depressed and I was like, well, you know, I like, can't go do another pest control company because I own part of Alta and those kinds of things. I'm like, but I know how to do that. I'm really good at that, but I can't, you know? And then it was like, well, I know how to do influencers and product-based businesses, but I can't really do that because I couldn't compete with my wife's business. You know, so I was looking at everything I couldn't do, right? And it was more of like, well, what I'm really good at or the low hanging fruit that'd be easy for me to just come in and do, I wasn't really able to do. But instead it was like, okay, and I was praying and saying, Lord, help me, you know, show me what you want me to do. But it's like, If I'm just saying, hey, Lord, will you do the work and just tell me, you know, that's the problem. And so for like six months, I'm like, why have I not written down a new vision board? And part of the problem was, like, dude, everything I want, I could go do. If I want to go on a trip with my family here, we can go do it. If I want, you know, we were very, very blessed financially, but mentally I'm just like struggling. I'm like, dude, Lord, I'm asking for help, but I don't feel like I'm getting it. And really the bottom line was I didn't really want it. I wasn't willing to do the basic principle of saying, hey, what do you want, Preston? Tell me and then go make a plan up and then come to me. So finally, after I stopped being an idiot, I was like, OK, I'm making another vision board, you know, and in on that vision board. So this was in December. I made my goals up and.

49:48 Preston Peterson

One of my goals on there was to say, okay, I want to have equity in two more businesses. At that time, I think I had three companies that I owned and I had no clue what I was going to do. I had no clue what kind of businesses these would be. And literally within a week of writing down my vision board and really praying and really saying, okay, and stripping myself of these stupid things, right? Distractions that we have of like day trading, all this other stuff. It's like, okay, I'm gonna get rid of all of those things. I'm just gonna focus on what I can control. And I'm gonna focus on giving back to the youth in the church. I work at our temple once a week here in San Juan. And I'm like, I'm gonna work with you, Lord. And in response, can you help me as I show you what I'm willing to do and put forth effort, can you help me to know what I should do if these are the right things or not? Right? A lot of times we'll just say, Lord show us, but we don't want to put the effort in.

50:50 Preston Peterson

So I literally go out and I'm like, okay, I'm writing it down. Here's my plan. Don't know what businesses we're going to do. The next week I get a guy who used to work for me, texts me and says, Hey, I've got this business. You know, anyone that wants to invest in it. And I'm like, yeah, maybe I put a connection to him, but I was like, what about this other business? He had just started a garage door business. I said, dude, it's going really well. We just figured it out. And all of a sudden, like, dude, I think we could scale this thing. And so we talk and all of a sudden things work out. We get a deal, we partner up and we're on pace to grow that business by 8x this year. So that was in January, we did that deal. February, another opportunity came to me out of the blue. I sent a message to some guy. He's like, dude, let's talk, works out. We're now invested in that. And now I've got a third business that we're actually working with that will launch here probably next week. We'll get all the documents set up to launch. And so it's just a confirmation of like, literally the Lord wants to bless us more than we ever imagined.

52:02 Preston Peterson

It's just a matter of us of asking and going and doing it, you know? And putting the effort, right? It says like asking to receive knock and it should be open to, well knocking is an action verb. You know, knocking isn't like just say, hey, tell me and give me this. It's you actually have to put forth effort. And I think sometimes when we have a change in scenery or an environment or we're doing something that's different, you know, we moved down to Puerto Rico and it was always, I can't be involved as much because yeah, there's so much great networking here, but they're not active businesses or whatever. It's like, no, we find whatever excuse we want to find, you know, and buy into that. Right. And it's just like, they're all lies. We have a saying in our family, right? Excuses are just lies that we choose to believe.

52:51 Preston Peterson

And so it's like, that's, so it goes back to every aspect of it. You go back to the business aspect, you go back to where you are in your journey. And it's like, I had all these exits and all this success. And really it was like, dude, it's not about the result. The results are pressing. Having lots of money doesn't.

53:16 Preston Peterson

It's really the journey and the purpose and the building and creating and helping people become better. That's the part that's awesome. That's the part that's fun. And unfortunately, when we're in that part, we forget it. Right? When we're in that part, we're like, dude, these struggles suck. I don't know if I'm going to be to make payroll. Don't know if I got to go work 12, 15 hours a day, you know? And now I'm golfing every day and I'm like, dude, this sucks. And people are like, dude, you live on a resort. You live on a resort golfing every day and you're gonna tell me your life is bad? And I'm like, yeah, I'm more depressed than I've ever been in my life.

53:43 Dan Leibrandt

Hahaha...

53:53 Preston Peterson

And so it's, you know, and so now just recently, you know, four or five months ago, it's like, got out of this rut. It's just like a wave of things that have hit. And I'm like, dude, I'm, working 12, 15 hours again. And I'm like, dude, this is the best thing ever. Like, but it's just, we have to get there. The Lord's willing to bless us with whatever we want if we're willing to do our part. But we've got to look in the mirror and say, am I going to do my part?

54:16 Dan Leibrandt

Hmm. Dude, that was- yeah, I was gonna say, dude, that was awesome. Thank you for sharing that. That was really powerful. And you're totally right. I've been doing my best to get in the Bible more recently. Was reading the widow's parable yesterday talking about how a widow was persistently pursuing an unjust judge trying to get an opinion. And God's saying, well, even the unjust judge relented. How much more than will I answer your prayers if you are you know, consistently asking. And same way with all the different verses, ask and you shall receive and all of those. So you're totally right. And I think like you properly pointed out, most people don't know what they actually want and they're not asking for it either. And then they're not willing to work for it either. So I mean, of course God's not giving it to you because you don't have those three things. Maybe there's other things involved, but it seems like you kind of figured that out.

55:22 Preston Peterson

I don't know if I figure anything out, to be honest.

55:25 Dan Leibrandt

You...

55:25 Preston Peterson

I think the more success, the more I feel like I don't know what I'm doing anymore. But I think that's the best part, right, is I don't have to. I don't have to know, because if I know to turn to God, that's all I have to know. And it's like, if I'm doing what he wants me to do. And I think the problem too is we get caught up in the results that we want or the measurement of what we want it to be measured by. And we forget that it's like, why? You know, I was talking to my wife. You know, if you, if you had asked us, we were sitting here the other day and we're like, so she started this nutrition company and we always joke around, right? Because it took me 20 years and she's been able to do what I didn't for, you know? And so it's like, but if you had asked us when we first got married and first started our business, what would be our dream result or situation? It'd have been 10 times smaller than what and like, I didn't even know like communities that we live in existed when I was a kid or even when I was first married, you know, until we moved out here, I didn't know it, you know, and it's just like God's plan is 10 times better than we could have ever imagined. And, you know, so the problem is we're trying to measure the plan and the result based on what we want without even knowing what the master hasn't planned for us.

57:03 Dan Leibrandt

Amen. We make plans and God laughs.

57:06 Preston Peterson

Yeah, no, it's true. It's true. So, but yeah, so if that, it goes, but it goes back to the whole thing, right? It's like, why are we in business? If it's just for money, that's pretty shallow. You know, if it's just to make money, it's not going to be satisfying. You know, but when you can look back and see what you've been able, and who you've been able to come along the way, and who you've been able to help, and what you've been able to help them become along the way, that's what will last.

57:41 Dan Leibrandt

Totally agree. And that goes back to the Bible too. Love God and love your neighbor. It seems like that's kind of what you've been emphasizing here is that when you felt the most purposeful and the most fulfilled is when you're serving God, you have a connection with God, and you're serving people and have a connection with people.

58:00 Preston Peterson

Yeah, it's true. Basically that's lasting. Whatever you want. Whatever...

58:03 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. One other point I wanted to touch on before we wrap up here.

58:08 Preston Peterson

You want.

58:10 Dan Leibrandt

So just to tie off, because you've mentioned Puerto Rico several times. I'm really fascinated by this because you have a really unique perspective here. Obviously, you're in a very unique position. So, I mean, what is it like being in Puerto Rico and around, you know, there's like six or seven billionaires you said around and all these guys have like $100 million net worth. Does that change the way you think or maybe how do all of these other people think? How does that change you?

58:37 Preston Peterson

It does, it changes the way you think. And I think it goes back to the whole idea of, like, if you want to be successful, have your fourth, your four closest people be successful and you'll be the fifth, right? And so it's like, the environment you're in will dictate the direction you go. And so I look at business differently now. Whereas, and it's more of, even when we went private equity, right? I mean, for most businesses and most pest control operators, being able to raise five, $10 million is not even a question, right? Like that's not an option, you know? Being able to go out there and say, I'm gonna go do 10 acquisitions or three acquisitions this year, that's not an option. And so your mindset is, okay, I have to be stuck in this box. And this is the only playbook that there is when really there's lots of other playbooks. But we just don't think about those, right? I mean, one of the things that happened too is, I mean, we had an opportunity where we thought we were gonna lose our business. We had a deal that was supposed to go through three days before the deal closes that the big company backed out. Mean, they're top eight biggest businesses in pest control and they backed out three days before. And we were like, we're going to lose it because we needed money to pay our back ends and we didn't have the money. And so we ended up making these changes, which was we went completely remote. We got rid of all of our brick and mortar and did everything remotely. And at that time, nobody was doing that. Like first thing you do when you do pest control is, OK, go get an office. You go, you know, hire some technicians, you know, and it's like, dude, you bootstrap it. But we're like, we're going to go.

1:00:31 Preston Peterson

And it saved us huge. I financially helped us out and we actually made our back end payments and it was a huge blessing and it was another one of those blessings from God where it's like, hey, I need you to do it a different way. And if I don't make you go through this trial, you're not, you know, I'm too stubborn pressed and the person is too stubborn to not listen. So let me give you a trial. So you're forced to listen kind of thing, you know? And well, all of a sudden we do it this way. Well, we're now opening up offices all across the country. With no, basically no office space, all remote and COVID hits. And all these companies are having to go remote and be like, my goodness, what do we do? And we're like, dude, we've been doing this for four years. This is nothing. You know, it's just like you look at it and there's just these little blessings and little things that come about and you're like, wow, I didn't realize that that would have been such a key component to this. So. So, but the thing is so you around all these people that are successful, you just look and you just learn, you just think outside the box, you know, and your, your knowledge expands on how to operate to think bigger, just like when we did the merger with Alta, like everybody in the industry was like, my goodness, how did you guys do this? And we just looked at it and like, dude, it's not that complicated. Both parties could see.

1:02:00 Preston Peterson

The better opportunity long-term together than we did separate. So why would we not do this? And so it's just, it's just expanding your horizons. The problem is us as humans and natural men and women get in our own way of holding us back from being able to get bigger outcomes because of our pride and natural man. So, I mean, that's the problem is, I look at like pest control industry, one of the best industries in the world. There are so many, like I love how so many people are willing to help each other out. And help any company and competitors and be like, let's do it. But I will say we are very prideful and very stubborn. Not many of us are saying, okay, I'm willing to let my ego drop. I'll help teach you how to do it, but heaven forbid you tell me how to run my business my way. Right? And that's the big thing is that they're like, I don't want to go to big bad private equity because they're going to come in and force me to do all this stuff. Well, it's like, maybe they know some stuff that we don't. Right? Maybe they have some key things that they know. But we have a lot of that, right? We have a lot of that where it's like, well, I can never do that because I want to do it my way. It's like, OK, your way is going to hold you back from hitting bigger multiples. That's fine. You know, if that's what you want, for me, I can make a bigger difference when I have more money in the bank, when I have more employees that I can employ, when I can grow a business that has a more bigger influence nationwide. I can help more people. That doesn't mean it's the only way to do it. Just for me, that's the best way I can do it.

1:03:39 Dan Leibrandt

Definitely, yeah, you're right. There is a lot of pride in this industry. I've noticed a distinct separation of, instance, people in our marketing program. It's with me, Jake, and Jonas, and obviously Jonas is the big shot. He's doing like $10 million a year and he's growing super fast. And I've seen that people that are willing to lay their ego aside and just listen to him and basically copy what he's saying because they know that he knows better. Mean, there's something that he knows that they don't know, just like, I'm sure you know many things that I don't know and many things that the listeners don't know. With growing a pest control business, why would I try to figure it out on my own or think I know better than someone like you, Preston? Obviously I don't, and obviously most other people don't.

1:04:31 Preston Peterson

You know, but think that's the best part, right? It's like, I have some strengths, but I don't know all the answers, right? Like, and that's, like I said before in the beginning, like some of our greatest benefits we had in our business were not my ideas. It was me listening to my employees who, and I think this is the problem, is we have a lot of people that are CEOs or owners of companies that think they have to know all the answers. And the truth is exact opposite. You don't have to know all the answers, you have to know who to rely on, where to get the answer. Right? As a leader of the business, I don't have to have to know all the answers, but I have to be able to trust my people and be able to know the information around me to say, okay, what is the best solution from all the information that I get? And when we go and say, I'm the only one that can bring the information to the table, that's the problem. Right?

1:05:28 Dan Leibrandt

Got it.

1:05:29 Preston Peterson

If I've got to make a big decision in my company about our products or customer experience or my employee experience, I want to go and talk to people that are on the ground level that see it every day, that know what it's like to do this and this, right? Or to know what they're going through. Because if I'm not there and seeing it and experience it for me personally, and that's the problem is when you get so big, it's harder to see that, right? And so you've got to really depend on your people. But the hard part is when you have success, sometimes our egos get bigger. And so we think, oh, we've had success and we think it's because of ourselves. And so we don't listen to as many people around us. Well, it should be the exact opposite. The more success you have, you're getting further, right? Obviously, you know, we're 60 to 75 million dollar company or whatever now. I think it'll come out soon. And I'm not running routes every day.

1:06:30 Preston Peterson

So what do I know what it's like for my technicians? So if I'm trying to say, this is what's best for my technicians, but I don't ask my technicians, what kind of information am I really getting? Right? So I need to go to my managers and some technicians and say, hey, help me get what you're seeing on the ground, guys, so I can make a best decision for you guys within the parameters of what we need to get. But what happens is we get very confident in ourselves. We think, well, here's the best. Financial thing on paper that should make sense, but we take out the people or our best or most important asset and we don't include them in the process and then guess what? Now we're making decisions that aren't what's best for our people and now our people don't have good, you know, environments or aren't happy and then we lose our people and say okay well congratulations we just lost the most important thing. And this is why we hear the scary stories, right, of private equity or the big, big, big companies, because it's like, they don't care about their people. And maybe part of that is true because they're just looking at the dollars and cents, but the dollars and cents, when it's aligned with the people, will give you a better outcome. I mean, I can think about four or five things in this industry that it's like, we could solve this problem, we'd make way more money and solving that problem means we just gotta trust our people.

1:07:52 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, definitely. And okay, so first you have to, I guess really first you have to have trustworthy people and then you have to be willing to trust them.

1:08:04 Preston Peterson

Yeah, so if you think about it, you have your core values, right? You have to build the company that you want, that you can be proud of. And if you have the right core values, right, and you really believe that your people are important, this is where it gets a little tricky. Because what happens is people will manipulate that to whatever they want, right? If you're saying your technicians are important, but then you're not giving all these benefits and all this stuff to your technicians. And it's like, well, do you not care about us? And the bottom line is, no, I do care about you. But because I care about you have to make sure that this business can survive and that financially we're doing what's right by the business. And then I can help teach you the skills to improve you as a person to be able to earn more money here. So for example, we used to push technician sales a lot and we used to talk about all the time with my technicians of like, guys, I want you making more money. I am limited on how much I can pay technicians on an hourly or on a production-based business. That doesn't mean I'm limited how much I can pay you. The difference is I can pay you more if I can teach you how to sell. I can pay you more if I can teach you how to get reviews. I can pay you more if I can teach you how to keep our customers. And so when they look at it's, you don't care about me because you're only paying X amount. When, but when you're really looking at it and saying, no, I want you to become a leader. I want you to be able to make way more. And when you teach them and say, look, I want you to make more money. I will sit down and show you our whole door to door sales program. I will teach you how to make sales.

1:09:58 Preston Peterson

And if you want, I mean, I've gone out with technicians and knocked doors with them and taught them how to knock doors so they can make more money. So the difference is some will say, give me the handout, right? You're weaker employee. And those are the ones that will actually corrupt your culture. And so it's no, I am building a culture for people that want to be here, that want to have success and that. Want to grow as a person. You can't work with people that don't want to grow. And so it's, and I think that's where people misconstrue things is, well, if you don't just give me what I want, then you don't really care about me. When really it's no, if I do care about you, I will show you how to get what you want.

1:10:47 Dan Leibrandt

Mmm.

1:10:48 Preston Peterson

And so it's, I mean, we had a technician that she sold 300, $400,000 in a year in rodents for us. She made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a technician. And you know what? Those were the happiest checks I've ever paid. And we brought her up in the leadership and we had a great relationship with her and her husband. I still talk to her to this day and they've they left and went and worked somewhere else and we still talked and you know, and they moved to another place and I was like, okay, that's fine. Like it's, people aren't bad people because things happen and they have, you they don't want with you forever, right? I think the hard part is when people look at it and say, if I don't make money off of you did me wrong. No, if you really care about someone, if something happens, you help them still. It's not a, man, now I don't make money off it. So now it's the relationship's done. Well, if that was a part of the relationship, then the relationship was wrong. I still talk to several old partners that I have all the time, and I still give them help on things that they're doing in their lives or businesses they're starting. And I have no benefit from it. But it's because we work together and we cared about each other and we helped each other. That's it's not just a me and how I benefit only relationship. And so, but those are the things when you have the culture and when you show people how they can get what they want, that's where it makes sense. Right. But when you, when you go and you bring your culture down to the lowest employee and the level of effort they're willing to put in, what ends up happening is you start losing your best talent. Your best talent employees start going where they are with people that will help them grow and push them to become better.

1:12:41 Preston Peterson

When you have people that want to stay the exact same and not grow and not become better, they will pull people down. And so that's where it has to come down to your leadership of saying, look, I'm all about listening to my employees on opinions and on business. And I'm very transparent with them on things because I want them to be part of the process. And so, but that's where it becomes fun. There's nothing better than when you hire technicians and you see them buying their first house, right? Or when they buy a nice car or when they're to go on a family trip. Like that's when it's exciting to say, look, you are improving your quality of life and we are simply the vehicle that's helping you do that. But it's them doing the extra effort to get there. But when you have somebody that says, I want to stay the same person that I am, and I'm going to complain and be frustrated if I don't get this and that, and you don't give me more, but I don't want to do any of the effort and I don't want to have to become better. That's not, that's not someone that can help your culture. Right. And so by keeping those types of people around, you're doing a disservice to your culture and to your people.

1:13:53 Dan Leibrandt

That is so good. I feel like everyone needs to rewind that and listen to that back. It's so critical to building a large company that's sustainable. It reminds me of something that Tommy Mello said. I'm sure you're probably familiar with him.

1:14:09 Preston Peterson

Yeah, time is good going.

1:14:10 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, he said, paraphrasing, that everyone's dream should fit within your dream. So you as the business owner should probably have this pretty big dream. This big goal for the company, maybe I don't know. Maybe it's a few million. Maybe it's, you know, multiple eight figures, whatever it is. But people like you're saying need to be able to grow within your company and especially as you said to those really high achievers, those really talented people, if they you know, that that is like the ultimate goal to get them in your company. But if you can't keep those people because they can't grow and they aren't given a path to have something that's their dream, then you're probably gonna lose them.

1:14:56 Preston Peterson

Yeah, so there's three things that happen in your business continually, right? One is your business is outgrowing its people or your people are outgrowing its business. Or the third one is you are growing your people and your business together. But one of those three things is happening continually in your business. And so you've got to look and see which one it is and analyze your business to say, okay, if it's the business is outgrowing our people, how do we get our people to be able to grow with the business? If it's our people are growing and they're outgrowing the business, then we're going to lose those people or we got to figure out how to get the business up to the speed with them. And so it's like you do those two things because then if you can get both the business and the people growing together, that's when you can have a lot of fun and have a lot of success.

1:15:50 Dan Leibrandt

Definitely. Well, cool. Preston, I really appreciate your time here. This has been an awesome podcast. It has been really great. And I've got one final question for you before we go. And that is, what is your message to the pest control owners out there? What do you want to tell them? What do you think they need to know?

1:16:10 Preston Peterson

Hmm. Depends on the day you ask me. But I think, mean, for me right now, right, it's enjoy the journey, right? Have fun with it. You know, I'm looking at starting this new company and there's part of it that's tough because it's like, this is gonna be a stretch for me of like really, this new venture I'm looking into, it's gonna be a really big, like either we do amazing, amazing, or it's gonna be like, it's gonna be a grind. And when you've had a lot of success and you're like, I don't need to go do it. What keeps me up at night is I'm like, okay, there's a little bit of my pride of saying like, you I've never had to, you know, we've had a lot of successes and we're batting really well right now. And it's like, dude, I don't need to, why am I going to challenge myself? But then I was like, you know what, we're just going to have fun with it. Let's just have fun. And if it works out great, it's a product, you know, we think guys need and we think it can be great, but I'm just so. So my whole thing is enjoy the journey. You know, enjoy what you're doing, find happiness in it. Because looking back, you're going to get the success and that'll be great. But you don't want to be, you don't want to get there and be like, I've lost who I should have been. Right?

1:17:37 Preston Peterson

When you get to that final result, you want to be like, dude, I'm so much better of a person and I can go into society and help. Others become better because of what I've become and who I've learned to be in that process. So go and do it that way because there's nothing worse than if you get the result but you lost who you're supposed to be in the process.

1:18:02 Dan Leibrandt

Have fun and enjoy the journey. Such a powerful message. Preston, thank you so much for coming on. And this has been so awesome. This has been one of my favorite podcasts that I've done. So again, I just really appreciate your time. And also I wanted to ask, where can people connect with you and find you online?

1:18:21 Preston Peterson

Yeah, I'm pretty basic. Like Facebook, Instagram, DM me. Like I'm glad to help anyone that has questions or thoughts. I mean, I've like four or five people I'm just talking to this week, I think, just to be like, hey, what can we do to help you? You know, it's not, for me, I think what you guys are doing is amazing. There's a couple of other guys in the industry and I'm like, dude, it's just awesome. It's awesome to see people helping each other out and just kind of, you know, because there's so much out there. We all can win together. You know, it's some of my best friends are some of my biggest competitors. And I'm like, you know what, dude, there's so much success out there. It's like, we don't have to be competitors and we can have fun. We're going to lose accounts to them. They're going to lose accounts to us. But at the end of the day, it's like, we're all doing it for the same thing and we're all having fun doing it. But yeah, message me if anyone wants questions or DM, just message me and whatever I can do to help. I'm here to help. So.

1:19:14 Dan Leibrandt

Sweet. So make sure you guys go follow Preston on Facebook and Instagram. Both those links will be in the description and anything else you'd like to plug or promote.

1:19:22 Preston Peterson

Now, honestly, I just have fun coming out here and talking to you guys and keeping pulse on the industry and what's going on and how we can help better the industry.

1:19:33 Dan Leibrandt

Absolutely. Well Preston, it has been truly an honor. Thanks for coming on and hope we stay in touch.

1:19:40 Preston Peterson

Okay, sounds good. Thanks, Dan. Yeah.

1:19:41 Dan Leibrandt

Yeah, see ya.