Show Notes

In Part 2 of 2 with Pest Control Business Coach, Laura Corbin joins Dan and Donnie to discuss tools and methods pest and lawn firms can implement today to ensure office and admin teams support growth as companies scale. She also shares the one step she would take now to control chaos and avoid owner burnout.

This week, in Part 1 of 2 with Pest Control Business Coach, Sheri Spencer Bachman joins Dan and Donnie to discuss achieving your next million dollars in revenue. She covers the challenges firms face at key milestones, including making your first hire, defining your culture and core values and establishing systems and processes to break through to the next level.

Charlie King joins the podcast to discuss his experience building and eventually selling his lawn care company, King Green, to private equity firm Plexus in 2025. He shares challenges and lessons learned throughout his career and the exit process, including working with family, structuring the business, the decision to exit and building a brand.

This week Dan and Donnie welcome Jeff Davenport to discuss his experience selling Official Pest Control in California to Anticimex in 2021. Jeff discusses his experience in the pest control industry and shares insights about the sale process, why it's important to think about what comes next and his current role running Prize Pest Control and providing lead gen services to pest control companies.

David Billingsly joins Dan and Donnie to break down the biggest pest control trends for 2026. As a consultant and PMP Industry Insiders peer group facilitator, David gets behind-the-scenes access to how dozens of companies really operate. Hear his take on the industry’s No. 1 struggle, the push to cut indirect costs and whether pest control could one day become obsolete.

This week, Coalmarch Marketing CEO Jeff Davis joins Dan and Donnie to discuss how pest and lawn businesses should be shifting their marketing strategies in response to AI-driven consumer behavior changes. They cover results of the 2026 Marketing Benchmark Report, how search is evolving and what changes Jeff sees on the horizon.

In this episode, Donnie and Dan sit down with PestSure's COO Todd Burke and Director of Safety Linda Midyett to share what effective safety training looks like in pest companies. They share the results of their cell-free zone distracted driving initiative and cover other strategies to reduce claims, strengthen culture and lower insurance costs, helping owners build safer, more profitable operations.

This week, Voice for Pest's Raymond Kidwell joins Dan and Donnie to discuss X-Rai, a call analytics dashboard for pest control and lawn care businesses. He explains how the platform uses AI to prioritize leads and manage customer interactions based on data from more than 1 million calls per month, and he details its approach to AI agents.

Jeremy Ecker, CEO of Rest Easy Pest Control, joins the podcast to discuss his experience doing 16 M&A deals over 13 years, mostly self-funded and structured with earn-outs. Jeremy shares how he started as a bed bug canine inspection company and eventually pivoted to full-service pest control, and he details the challenges and opportunities of both acquisitions and organic growth.

This week, Dan and Donnie dive into AI updates, including the debut of the Atlas brower and rise of ChatGPT's "agent mode." They demo several examples of what this new technology can do for pest and lawn companies, and they discuss how marketing strategies must adapt as consumers move away from standard Google searches toward AI research and task execution.

This week, Dan and Donnie reflect on PestWorld 2025 and the podcast's 250th episode. They cover the buzz around the show in Orlando, including a rant about vendors who don't support the industry. They also reminisce about why they started the podcast and how it's evolved over five years — and thank their sponsors, guests and listeners for all the support.

On this episode, Dan and Donnie review the new Pest Control Industry Cost Study, produced by PCO Bookkeepers & M&A Specialists. They discuss what's changed since last time PCOB did the cost study; the PCOB Competitive Index, a new composite score to track; and the Big 3 expenses every pest firm must manage for profitability. Tune in for an overview of this comprehensive report.

This week, Dan and Donnie talk to Pest Control Consultants President Chase Goodeill about his approach to M&A at his $11 million firm. He shares his vision for expansion, his financing strategies and his experience doing nine acquisitions since 2019. Tune in to hear about his "whatever it takes to grow" mindset.

This week, Dan and Donnie highlight the concept of tiered pricing and its psychological impact on customer decisions. They explain price anchoring, the decoy effect and how tiered pricing can help customers overcome analysis paralysis and guide them toward the most profitable option. Tune in to learn how to use these strategies in your pest or lawn business.

Applause CEO Taylor Olson joins Dan and Donnie this week. They discuss how he came to found Applause, a platform that provides incentives for hourly service workers through features like customer feedback collection, performance measurement, instant cash rewards and a technician dashboard. Taylor also details the power of automating employee incentives, and he shares tips for implementation.

This week Dan and Donnie host Audrey Hall, president of Eco Serve Pest in New York, who discussed her journey from growing up in the pest control industry to turning a small operation into a thriving company with 27 employees. She shares her development as an entrepreneur, the company's expansion plans and her philosophy for community giving.

On this episode, Dan and Donnie discuss the budgeting process from both a strategic and practical standpoint. They discuss how to get started if you're not already following a budget and which key performance indicators are most important to strong financial performance.

Pest-End COO Courtney Carace joins Dan and Donnie this week to share her company's experience growing from $6.5 million in 2020 to around $15 million today. Courtney shares the structure and philosophy she and her team are employing in pursuit of reaching $30 million by 2030.

Big Blue Bug Solutions CEO Brian Goldman joins Dan and Donnie to share insights on building a unique brand by being bold, proactive and unafraid to stand out and embrace change. He also discusses the benefits of simplifying operations by focusing on core competencies versus diversifying into other service lines.

Effectively managing people is essential when scaling a pest or lawn business. In this episode, Dan and Donnie discuss how to align values, instill accountability and evaluate employees' understanding, motivation and capacity to perform their roles.