In episode 63 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden interviews Jared LaJaunie to discuss entrepreneurship, business growth, and the challenges of running a successful pest control company. They delve into topics like marketing strategies, the importance of networking, and the future plans for Jared's company.
Tune in to gain insightful discussion about business, growth, and the power of taking action in the entrepreneurial world.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:02:34] Discovering New Business Material.
[00:04:36] Hurricane Aftermath and Opportunity.
[00:08:39] Recognition and Business Growth.
[00:11:48] Entrepreneur's Disease.
[00:15:33] The Value of Door Knocking.
[00:19:41] What Keeps the Phone Ringing?
[00:24:23] The Power of Door-to-Door Sales.
[00:28:18] Challenges of the Retail Market.
[00:31:53] Launching a Podcast and More.
[00:33:00] Starting a Podcast Journey.
[00:35:32] What It Takes to be an Entrepreneur.
In this episode, Ken Baden and Jared LaJaunie emphasize the significance of taking action as an entrepreneur, even in the absence of complete knowledge on a subject. Jared stressed that in the initial stages, errors are common, but they serve as valuable lessons for personal growth and development.
Furthermore, Jared's journey exemplifies the importance of focusing on one area at a time to achieve sustainable business growth and success. By honing in on a specific service or market segment, entrepreneurs can optimize resources, streamline operations, and drive profitability, ultimately paving the way for long-term success.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkenbaden
Jared LaJaunie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lajauniejared/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lajaunies/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-lajaunie-3491306b/
WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
LaJaunie’s Pest Control: https://www.lajaunies.com/
Welcome to The Kitchen Table, a podcast about where business is done. So pull up a chair and join your host, Ken Baden.
Intro/Outro
Welcome back to another episode of The Kitchen Table podcast, sort of live. We're in studio anyhow, but we've got my my good friend here from Louisiana, which there was some I'm not even going to try to say it the right way. But how do you say your last name?
Ken Baden
Lejohnny, Lejohnny, Lejohnny. There's no way.
Jared LaJaunie
You'll get it, man. I would have tried, but. Go for it. Lejohnny, I mean, Lejohnny was probably what I was. No, it's not. I'm just trying to sound cool, man. I want to make it seem he's from New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans. Am I right there? New Orleans. You know who I think? Gambit from, uh, I know we're going, we're already starting ADHD right away. This full fledged ADHD, but I think Gambit, whenever I think new Orleans, Nylons, Jared Lajon, I can't do it. And yeah, Lajonny, Lajonny, Lajonny, Lajonny, Lajonny, Lajonny. You'd make it down here. There we go. Well, and, you know, I was flattered, man. I mean, we connected through Messenger, I think. Right. And you just have a show. And I was really excited, man, because you we haven't had that I know of any other Louisiana guests. And so we're kind of starting to check off the states over here, man. We got Fargo. We got just we got a lot of the others, man. But I was really excited that we were going to be able to be able to have someone from the great state of Louisiana on the kitchen table podcast. So you are metaphorically and also virtually pulling up a chair to the kitchen table to discuss business all the way from Louisiana. That was a really, really long way of saying welcome, Jared, to the kitchen table from Louisiana. We're very excited to have you, my friend. Thank you. What? How'd you, how'd you even, I mean, you just stumbled upon it on iTunes or any of those other, like Spotify, something like that, or? Oh, Facebook. Oh, okay.
Ken Baden
All right. Facebook, man. Facebook. Go ahead. I would say I'm, I'm, I'm big into just entrepreneurship and business in general. So I'm always trying to look for material to learn and educate. So, uh, it's crazy how good Facebook knows you. So it feeds me things that I think I would like, and it just puts you right in my feed. And I kind of started checking a lot of stuff. I filtered a BS because you get a lot of BS, but, uh, kind of start looking at your stuff and it's really good, man. It's, it's a meaty, it's, it resonated with me. So I just kind of started following you and really, really liked the material.
Jared LaJaunie
I appreciate that, man. I mean, I've been doing super long, but it's definitely something I want to get more into, you know, once my business is definitely the most important thing right now, but. I've always wanted to, to me, I love the coaching and I love the consulting. I think that's more exciting. But where we're at in the business, it's like, man, we don't have time for a whole bunch, whole bunch, much else. But I do love doing this because it really gives me an opportunity to connect with folks like you, man. And I mean, that might sound cheesy, but I swear to God, networking, It's the most powerful tool to me in business, period, hands down, hands down, period. Now, I love this call. I've got a connection in Louisiana. You know what I mean?
Yeah, that's right. It's cool, man. Yeah. You put stuff out there like that, it comes back to you.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir, man. So tell me about, you know, it sounds like you're born and raised from Louisiana.
Yeah, you can tell by the way I talk, I'm sure. A little bit. But yeah, born and raised actually in a little town right outside of New Orleans called Thibodeau. About 30, 40 minutes outside of New Orleans. Do business in both towns. But yeah, born and raised, man, a whole life.
How was I can't imagine, but I mean, I guess I should ask, what was it like? Kind of I'm assuming everywhere in Louisiana was affected by Katrina, right? I mean, you were probably like teens, early teens, but. Right. Yeah.
Now, I was a little bit older than that. Yeah. I mean, Katrina was devastating. It devastated everybody. But like every great disaster on the back end, they had a lot of money flowing. The economy boomed with every great disaster comes opportunity. And that was no different. I mean, we kicked butt on the back end of it where there was a lot of opportunity. But yeah, it was devastating. I mean, the whole city was underwater. I mean, absolute devastation. But we've actually had a hurricane since then that was even more devastating. It just didn't hit New Orleans directly, so it didn't get nearly as much press.
Wow. Which one was that? Item. Hurricane item. And so. You probably, so when did you get into, when did your entrepreneurship journey start? I mean, we're just Louisiana heavy right now, but let's get into the actual business of this. Yeah. Yeah.
So I'll do a quick little synopsis on my story. I won't, I won't dominate, but I'll just kind of give you it real quick. So nobody grows up wanting to be a bug guy. At least nobody. I know everybody I knew in the industry, it kind of just, it kind of just happened, right? You become a bug guy. You don't seek to be a bug guy. I mean, it's just the truth, but it's all I've ever done, man. I got married when I was 18, bought my first house, had a kid and I needed a job, had to pay bills, went to a national company, got a job as a termite tech. Went through the ranks, got recruited to run another small company. And then, uh, January 1st, 2008, I, uh, started my own thing, Lejani's Pest Control. So, uh, it's all I've ever done. Uh, it's what we do, man. So I've been a bug guy literally my entire life is what it feels like. Literally, I have been.
That's a long time, man. How, uh. Yeah. I'm assuming you got started by yourself or what's take us through that progression. Yeah. So like I said, January, everything or how, you know, to now, you got it.
So I, I cashed in my 401k from the national company I'd work for. And that was my initial funding to start. And I bought a used truck and all the equipment. And I was by myself. And you know the story, man. I was the salesman. I was the accountant. I was the office manager. I was the technician. And you do that until you just can't handle it anymore to the phone. You can't answer the phone. Then you hire your first employee. And I always say that's when the real fun begins when you hire your first employee. And it's been about 15 years now. We've just scaled from there, man. And we've been blessed. We're running four branches now. We're covering almost all of South Louisiana. We have over 60 plus employees and I've learned a lot in the process. I mean, from going from literally just me starting out to the level that we've achieved, it's challenged me and I've had to personally grow a lot to continue to be able just to do the things that we're doing today. It's been challenging, but rewarding is the best way I can describe it.
60 plus employees. Yeah.
Wow. Yeah. We were, uh, constantly, we're one of the, uh, Inc 500 is fastest growing pest control companies in the, in the country.
I saw that in the, uh, how do you, I mean, that was recently or.
Yeah, well, you know, with Inc. 500, it feels good and it looks good. But the real truth and I love the organization. I love them. They're great. I've made a lot of people learn a lot, a lot of networking, but, uh, you have to actually take time to apply. And it's like, you're so busy, you know, it's like anything else I'm willing to bet. If most people really took time to apply and look and try to do it, a lot of people would, would do it. So the year that we actually applied. We were, we got, I think, I forget, we were like number 300 or something, but we never did reapply again and take the time to do it. We're just, I love that stuff, but I'm really big, like we're busy working. That's just like a recognition play and it's cool, but it doesn't really, it doesn't help me do more business. Does that make sense? It's really cool to say, but how many times are you going to say it? Okay, we did it. I can say it, check. I don't keep dwelling on it, you know?
No, I get it, man. I it's funny what seems like, man, I want that, you know, and then you get it and you're like, all right, we're really done for it. Let me get back to work. Right. Ring our phones at all. What? You know, what is the bulk of you? Well, first of all, what's the framework of your business? Is it is it, you know, service based like residual, a contract? I'm curious just from a. Yeah.
So we were a home service business. I don't like the word contract. We like to use the word agreement, but in essence, it is a contract. But. It's an agreement, but it's an agreement.
You're laughing because I teach that to my guy. I have a whole section of no, no words and sales and even yeah, sale contract, all that stuff.
Yeah.
So, so that's an agreement that yes, he knows what he's talking about, but go ahead. Sorry.
It's reoccurring. And it's quarterly. We mostly do mostly quarterly pest control services, which is reoccurring. We do that on a subscription model. And then we do termites, which has an annual renewal fee to go out and respect. And then we do wildlife and mosquito. And we have reoccurring models for all those services. And that's our business model. And then we run off the EOS system. The entrepreneur operating system is kind of our backbone and structure of our operating system.
Yeah, we just actually had our last quarterly with our implementer. So we're officially like on our own now. But yeah, we did that last year, too. And honestly, man, I would advise, you know, I was hesitant at first because I'm like, I don't know if we need this right now. But man, there's never a bad time to implement that, because honestly, the earlier the better. If you're like me, true blue visionary, I need it. I need it. So.
That's so funny you say that, because that's what they call me, a visionary, right? And I didn't know I was a visionary until I got EOS, but apparently I am. Right, right. But the first two years of EOS, it was like trying to put me in a box and I felt controlled and I hated it. But I did it. And now I literally tell people, I wish it was I wish I would have done it sooner, because it brought so much congruency and accountability to the organization. It really has helped us to scale and grow. And I realized that it's good. And I'm not getting away from it. But I still hate it, just for the record.
Yeah. Yeah. I get it. I get it. Because we want to do everything right. We don't.
Yeah. I want to do five other businesses. I don't want to be held accountable to actually. That's why I started a business. I don't like being held accountable.
That sucks. I totally get it, man. But that's our thing, right? We got all these ideas and someone who's running through it, the integrator, that's like, yeah. Those ideas are cool, man, but this one and this one might be the only one that makes sense. You're like, ah, damn it. But to your point, I feel the same way, man. Like, man, I know myself well enough now to where we've tried a few things and it's like, well, probably could have done better just to keep focused over here. But you know what?
So I researched your business before I came on here. It's the Potomac
Potomac, but yeah, that's all good.
Potomac. There's a huge group in my industry. That's the Potomac group that does invest in everything. But anyway, I want to look at your, your business, man. And first of all, congratulations, amazing business. But the first thing that jumped out to me, I'll be honest with you, as I said, this is my kindred. So he has what I would call the entrepreneur's disease and it's meant to be flattering. And here's what it is, is I saw you do like seven different things. Well, I said this man, this man could definitely be friends, because I think we all do that. We do so much.
Well, maybe we should just focus on one or two things, you know, the face, the website says all, you know, and we have to get them to change that. But we did actually right now we're just doing roofing. But we did we did bathrooms, we did solar we did and I did I wanted to. You know, I learned a hard lesson last year, man. We took we took L's in both solar and bathrooms. We had to clip both. And now we just we exclusively do roofing with the accession of siding. That's pretty much it, man, and gutters, things that would come with a roofing project if we're able to get it in the model that we do it, which is typically insurance based, but and then your exterior model. for remodeling, I mean, for a retail rather, excuse me, which is a whole different deal, right? Like that's, we're getting leads. Somebody might look at the website and call in. That's usually window siding, roofing doors, like the stuff on the outside, you can get quick install in a day and keep it moving. And you have different sales reps for each of that. So it looks like a lot, but it's really just all exteriors. I don't even do that right now, man. It's just, cause that's a whole different model. So while the website still has that, we do need to tweak that but you know those guys we paid somebody it's like the fourth person we paid to do that and it's like you know you try to get them to like change something it's funny you bring that up because we just took headshots today it's like man we want to add like a I meet the team and it's like something about, it says PCR home or something like, when did you, who told you to say that? You know what I mean? Like, that's not a few DBAs. That is not one of them, you know, but anyhow, I appreciate you taking it.
We could probably swap our stories for hours on, on marketing roles over the years. I'm sure we both have our roles on them. I've decided to pretty much bring it in house at this point. Personally, I've been so frustrated with it over the years.
Dude, you and me both, man. And I think the only thing that I've ever really been able to count on is just boots on the ground. And I know that's like, everybody hates that, but that's the way, cause it's people. I think I get people more than I do other stuff. You know what I mean? Like this PPA or pay per lead or pay per click or blah, blah, blah. I get people and I understand, hey, go knock that door for that roof. And this is how you find that roof. There you go. You know what I mean? And not for you.
Exclusive. So it's funny you say that because, first of all, I'm a proponent of all the digital advertising. I am. I've had success with it. I believe in it. But I know this also to be a fact. If you look at the fastest growing home services companies in the country, whether it be pest control, solar, roofing, you go down the line. The fastest growing ones are door knocking companies, period, because people buy from people they trust and like, and nothing will ever be going to get the business yourself. That's the hardest way to the hardest way to get the business, however, is to get it and or not.
Yeah, that's just a paradox, man. But but someone like myself and you're a rose is laughing every year like that guy. You and you and that guy need to be buddies. But. You're right, man. I mean, it's but when when you learn to do it, I think it's the I think it's the most valuable because it seems like so daunting and so. I don't know, foreign to some of these new guys that have never done it, or they're just like, so tell me about these. And it's just like, it's not that crazy a concept. Sure, there's things I can teach you, like, you know, stepping away from the door and the psychology of stepping down. So not overbearing over somebody or whatever, like, it's really not that complicated. People just don't want to do it. That's where I want to do it.
You know, it's uncomfortable. It forces you outside your comfort zone and people want to be comfortable. But the blessings and the good things lie in the hard stuff. That's something.
Yeah. Yeah. A lot easier to fork over your cash and say, all right, well, give me these leads and I'll call them. And it's like, well, you go higher, a whole bunch of, and then, and then it's, you know, that good luck with who and how you get them in and how you retain them. I mean, that's a whole nother mile. That's a whole nother conversation, but I couldn't agree more, man. And like you said, um, We really did last year. We still ended up 20% up year over year, but that should have been way, way more. And we could have got our butts kicked, but, you know, I wanted to try to, you know, how it is, man, you know, that visionary, what do they call it? serial entrepreneurism, you know what I mean? Like, and you think the one thing I've got two other businesses that I've had to say, okay, hold on. And this ain't even, oh, by the way, the podcast. So I'm, I definitely had to learn a lot of lessons last year between coaching, coaches, podcasts, two other businesses. And, oh, you know, we've got our own independent all these different divisions within the company. And this year it's been like reduced to just roofing. In fact, one model of roofing, which drives me nuts because I want so badly, so badly to bring back retail. And I will, but I'm trying so hard to be like, all right, first things first, let's do everything we need to and be perfect here with this one thing. And we can look at retail, which is still roofing, but it's a very different model. But until we have all the bases and places and hires and things and everything completely done here and we're, we're close, but God, it's taken everything in me to just, but EOS has helped a whole lot with that. Different and stuff has helped with that. And just, and getting the right people around me have helped with that. People that are not afraid to say like, Hey, look, man, I don't know, you know, that also have, some equity in the game, and that's all. EOS has helped me a lot with that too, man. EOS is a great tool, it really is. I'm not always happy about it, but in the end, I'm happy we did it, 100%. Yeah, I agree.
You guys do door-to-door, I'm assuming, because you're- So, you know, I started when I was working for that national company. One of the things I did for a season is doorknock with some of my good, good brothers from Utah. The Mormons, baby! Yeah, I gotta love them, and I do love them, by the way. So I had a background and experience in doorknocking, and I personally was very successful in it. So when I first started my business, I did it just the way I was taught to do it, you know, with the map and the grid and the follow. I mean, I did it and it really helped me start my business. But I've been able to achieve the growth and profit, which is more important than the growth. That's a whole nother, I can go on a whole nother tangent with that. But I haven't done door knocking on a scale in my company, just because I know how difficult it is. I just haven't taken the time to train it. And quite, I didn't want to take the profit hit, but it is in my back pocket. If I ever don't hit my growth and profit margins at the level that I would like, I am willing to possibly pull that trigger one day.
Does that make sense? It does make total sense right now. Is it just what keeps the phone ringing? And this is just remember, you know, our, our, our, you know, for the sake of the listener, right? Like what keeps your phone ringing? Is it the line? Excuse me. I'll let you answer.
So that's the Holy grail question, right? How do I get business? And when I started business, I thought the hardest thing was going to be to get customers. And it's not. It's managing people is the hardest thing for the record. But there's no one silver bullet. Everybody looks for that one answer, how I get customers. There is no one answer, right? It doesn't exist. But you asked me that question. So I'll tell you, most of our business does come from digital advertising right now. But if I had to count on just digital advertising alone, it would not be enough. So we have a huge customer referral program. We have traditional billboards, we're SEO, we're GLS, we're Google ads, we're running ads on Hulu. We're doing guerrilla marketing with yard signs. We're doing door hangers. I do encourage my outside salesmen to doorknock, but not like, not on, they do doorknock, but when I say doorknock, they're doing it in their free time, like a cloverleafing of doorknock. If they go to a customer, they'll knock the four doors around them. I'm not running a whole doorknocking campaign, if that makes sense. So we're doing everything, man. And at different times for different seasons, we're doing everything you can think of. And over the past, we've done so much, TV, radio, I mean, you name it. And I really feel like it takes everything coming together, working together to get the results that's necessary.
I couldn't agree more. we've just been so gun shy. Cause you know, in my, my peers have always looked at it whenever we I've come up with a couple of guys that were really good marketing. I was always in sales. We always worked together and he always had this really Sean's his name. And he always had this saying when it came to marketing is like, you know, you gotta have your, your main course, your entree, and then you got your side dishes. And he always looked at those like paid lead services, like the Quinn streets. And so, and they're great, But, you know, you spend a thousand bucks, here's 100 plus names and you got to call each and every one of them over and over. And good luck if the numbers even connected or not. And you got three phones to call on three times an hour, every hour of the day. I don't I can't do that. I'm good at it, but.
Marketing is hard and door knocking is hard.
Choose your heart. Well, my point was, I've gotten to the point now where it's just like, all right, what is our budget and what can we spend money on? Right. And I'll be curious if you don't mind sharing with us just for the sake, or you don't have to tell us necessarily where it is, but you could tell us if you would be so kind, like what's your ideal, like, Hey, I'm trying to stay under 10% or what you've got set for marketing.
We spend at least, we vary the number, but we have worked into our budgets every year automatically. We spend 10% of our revenue in marketing every year. And if we want faster growth, if we expand to a new market and we want faster growth in a market, I have bumped it up in the past as high as 15 or 20%, depending on what I was trying to accomplish. and what hybrid or seed and what market I'm going into. But typically every year, no matter what, 10% of my revenues go on into marketing automatically.
I mean, that's as consistent as it gets, man. I love that answer. I mean, that's where everybody's trying to be, but that's a very honest answer and saying like, I could be going into a new market just like, and my overhead is probably going, my direct overhead is gonna be higher as well because it's brand, everything's gonna be more when you're brand new, right? I mean, that's just all there is to it. So, but I love it. The reason I brought that up is we're currently coming up with our like, look, what's that budget look like? All right, like, because frankly, one of my mentors built exits sold and his ad spend was, but it's boots on the ground. His whole, it's just like you said, the Mormon boys in solar, right? Like all intents and purposes, their budget was pretty much zero. Why? Cause they're a true blue door to door model. That's it. That's all there was to it. Like maybe they put something, I mean, I don't know what, if they did anything else I'd ever saw, man.
I love door-to-door. Two of my favorite door-to-door stories I always tell my guys is we wouldn't have the light bulb if it wasn't for a door-to-door salesman, right? People were so scared of electricity that we almost didn't have it because people were fearful of it when electricity came out. It took a salesman going to each person's house and knocking on their door and selling the light bulb or we wouldn't have electricity. In my very own industry, Otto Arkin, who started Arkin Pest Control, started off going door to door, knocking doors, selling rat poison. It's the oldest form of sales. It's still the fastest form to grow, and it's still the most effective form of sales when done right. But it's become such a big thing. It's got so expensive to do. I always challenge this. You may be growing really fast with door knocking, and I don't know what you're doing, so I'm not directing this to you in any way, but let me see your profit, man. And I do think that it's harder to have the growth with door knocking and maintain, you know, we shoot for 20, 25% profit margin, right? That's very hard to do initially with a door knocking campaign. At least that's been my experience in my industry. I'm not as familiar with your industry.
Yeah. And ours is actually because you're going to take that out directly. But I mean, then you better be closing at a certain you know what I mean? It all it all hinges on the entire system working together. Right. It's an ecosystem. Yeah. This is all you got to have a sales system that's able to at the very least, you need to be closing at no lower than like, let's say, 40 percent and then 30 percent. Your lead to issue rate is going to be somewhere like I get 10, you know, 10 leads. you know, realistically, hopefully six, seven go out and that's three sales, right? Like, um, And ultimately that's still, I mean, due to one year, we had 2% ad spend with a canvas band that I have. That's one year, never recreated it, never did it again. Been trying to chase lightning in a bottle, but.
That's really awesome. That's incredible.
One year ever. Don't, don't, I mean, I'm a, trust me, I've been trying, but it's, that took so much of me working with the guys and running that band myself. I'd never been able to recreate that, but. And the retail side, if you run an effective sales system with it, it's freaking awesome.
Yeah, so I wanted to ask you, you said that earlier you wanted to go into retail, and I apologize, I didn't quite understand, you want to get to retailing, what exactly?
Yeah, so retail and insurance restoration are two very different models, at least you asked me, in terms of roofing, right? You got retail, which is, and both are door knocking, but one is a set-or-closer model, probably I mean, solar does both, right? And then the other one is I'm the door to door guy. I'm canvassing and I'm setting and I'm closing.
So, so I see when you say retail, you want to sell direct to consumer. And right now your main business is in the insurance restoration.
Yeah. So we're, we're relying on the middleman, which is the insurance company to deal with all this stuff and prolongs everything. It's a pain in the ass.
I know that's a good business and I love it, but I have the disease, right? One of my businesses I had for a while was TheraPure. It was the restoration company. We didn't do roofing, but we did fire, water, mold. I loved it. It did great, but it pulled my focus from my main company. But the reason my heart goes out to you is I know a little bit about it. And dealing with these insurance companies is like, I know the, I know it's a great industry. You're helping a lot of people and the profit margin is great. And, and you got to wait six months for your money. Yeah. And these insurance companies are like, I like what the. I don't, they're difficult. And I know you probably know much more about it than me, but dealing with the insurance companies, there's gotta be like a punishment from, from, from Hades or something.
You're a much better market probably for it too. I mean, our market's just very unique, excuse me, but I mean, if I had my way, yeah, I would only do retail. But I mean, really it was the market itself that just got so saturated by these insurance folks that I was like, you know, that's really why PCR started. We had two companies and I was like, look, We're doing nothing but retail here. Let me go and see what insurance is all about. Figure it all out. And we did and we did pretty well and we're still doing really well. I mean, yeah, honestly, but I cannot wait to. bring back in, it's just, it's a difficult time for retail, especially in our market, anywhere, anywhere. And what I mean by that is to really sell a roof at the margin you want. And I've been trained to sell it at a really good margin and I can train other people to sell it there. But when you have what's considered a first look and financing at 680 and anything below that is now subprime. that's wild. You know what I mean? Like what has happened, but that's just the volatility of the market currently, man. So it's nice to have that. I think there's a really good model in between, you know, where it's like, well, look, we get anything bought. That's wonderful. Then we can add in, but you're still putting yourself at the mercy of the insurance companies. And to your point, man, I'd much rather knock a door with a canvasser, sell it that next day or the same day and put it on the following week, keep it moving, you know? And so Yeah. And get paid that week. Get paid that week. Amazing. Financing, they pay for it literally a day later or cash on cash on. Yeah, man. Yeah.
I already can tell you something. I already know you are going to do that. Promise you. Oh, yes. Just for meeting with you and talking to you. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I already know that you are going to do that and do it very well. I'm already 100 percent positive of it.
I appreciate it, brother. That's most of my background. It's just, you know, to your point, as far as like jumping here, jumping there, it's such a different model that. When we jumped into insurance, full disclosure, I didn't understand how involved it was. Once I did, it just took everything. Like, all right, this is it. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it right. We just full-fledged.
It's very, it's a very difficult industry, man. You can't be, I don't want to, but you have to be very smart to deal in that world. Like you have to be highly intelligent and willing to deal with a lot of BS. But if you can, if you can learn that skill and do it, as you know, there's a lot of opportunity there, but it's just very, very painful opportunities, right?
Yes, 100% man. I'm looking forward to doing both and really having that. To me, that's the perfect blend, but I've seen so many of my mentors and peers try it. What it usually looks like is way heavy retail with a little bit of insurance or way heavy insurance, a little bit of retail. I'd be happy with the latter, but if we could do both at a real high level, which I think we can, I'd be really happy with that too. But what about you? Tell us about you know, what the future for you, for your company and what that looks like. You know, what's your, do you have a five year plan? What's your growth plan here coming up for you and yours?
Yeah, so we definitely have a growth plan, man. We have what we call our BHAG, our big hairy audacious goal that we have set. And that goal is 25 million in revenue for us. And we're on track to do it. And we're excited to do it. And I have no doubt that we will do it. And we're doing that through digital marketing and acquisition. Matter of fact, we just closed on an acquisition today. And so we're going to keep rocking man and just doing it. We're eventually going to grow into Mississippi and become a multi-regional company, you know? And that's the plan, man. And I'm not in a day-to-day anymore of it. I have a whole leadership team. I just attend meetings. I'm not in a day-to-day. So for me personally, I'm looking to do what you're doing right here. I'm going to be launching a podcast. I'm writing a book. I'm doing consulting with some of my peers for free, which I'm loving, but that's a whole nother conversation.
Awesome, man. That's how you do it. That's amazing. Same thing, man. That's awesome.
Yeah. So that's what I'm doing, man. And I don't know what the future will hold. I'm a big Cody Sanchez fan, so I haven't done it, but I'm looking at possibly running her model where you buy foreign businesses and roll them up and looking at that kind of stuff. I don't know if you're familiar with Cody, but I love her concept and what that's doing.
I've looked at the concept myself, specifically for roofing, I think, which is just rolling up smaller, like, hey, you used to do eight million, now you're doing two. Why don't I come in and roll you up? Yeah, in a clever way. That's fortuitous to both myself and themselves. I get it. Yeah. And we're considering something like that. But that's that's awesome. What's the podcast going to be called, by the way?
I know you already know that at mainstream mobile.
I knew you already had a name. You got it all set up or just the name?
You know, so I've done some small stuff, but it really sucks, man. Right now, I just did like just me talking on camera. It really isn't great. But I have some interviews with some pest control guys that I've done. But I have a VA just like you that's helping me and I'm working through the process. I'm hoping by the end of this month to actually get it get it launched.
But as you know, the process is, man, I can help any way I can help. I'd be happy to send you over whatever equipment or anything like that that I've used to make it. I started it. Way too over, like we do, like we always do. You know what I mean? I bought all the fancy equipment, all the already know, but couldn't figure out any of it. Young kid. I was completely dependent on this young kid. That's a good buddy of mine and more like a little brother. But I'm like, what is. And we still have that equipment is still sitting. In fact, I'll ship it to you, man. You can you can have it. Well, cheaper shit that like was so much easier. And I'm like, you got to be kidding me. That's it. You need a mic. You need this. And boom. Right. Like we built this. But. Uh, I have a feeling I might be able to save you a few headaches, man. So, but I'm looking forward to what you got.
It's awesome, man. I love your background, your whole setup. I mean, you, you, you're killing it. So keep doing what you're doing, man. You're doing great.
I appreciate that brother. And look, I'll have to, you'll have to have me on your podcast, man. If you're allowed nine pest guy can come on. Uh, I would love it.
So I'm not, I'm not keeping it just to pass control. Can I'm doing a. pool guys, HVAC guys, I'm home service. I'm doing restaurant guys. I have a bunch of stuff lined up. My heartbeat is entrepreneurship in general, right? I just happen to do pest control guys. It's just who's in my circle immediately, but I hope to interview hopefully a lot of entrepreneurs in different fields is the hope.
I think that's so much more of America than people realize. And I love it, man. I mean, the kitchen table started as a door to door because that's what we teach our guys. Get to the table, get to the kitchen table. That's where business is done. And then it turned into just entrepreneurship, business, personal, professional development. And I love it, man. And honestly, I'm sure just like myself, you could sit here and talk to folks like myself all day. Could you imagine, like, getting paid for something like this? I don't. But man, that would be that's that's a goal. Right.
Yeah, I love it. You know, the biggest step is just taking the courage, man. You're busy. You're running a business. But I can tell you had a passion. You want to help people. And you just took action, not even knowing what you were doing. And you are helping people. And that's what it's about, man. And that's what we do as entrepreneurs. We don't even know. People are always worried about the how am I going to do it? Just start doing it. You'll figure out the how.
Most, uh, what do they say your why is going to be bigger than your how I've heard that a couple of times, but most people get so caught up in how they never even get to it. You know what I mean? They just procrastination is. just forever. And I think that's what makes the difference between an entrepreneur and not, right, is that we're action takers. That's the biggest thing is we're just going to just do it. You want to know what it takes to be an entrepreneur, take action quick and don't be afraid to be wrong because you're probably going to be wrong more often in the beginning than not, but you'll learn lessons and then you'll be more or less often, whatever the adverse, you get what I'm saying, right? But yes, sir. My brother, thank you so much for coming on, man. Where can we find you on social media, your business? Shout out everywhere we can find you. So the listeners can check you out, man, and follow what you got.
Yeah, man. Thank you so much. Facebook is Lijani's Pest Control, Jared Lijani on Facebook. And hopefully soon, man, if I can get my VA stuff together, which is. is Main Street Mogul on YouTube at Main Street Mogul. And I try to do the podcast and I'm super excited. I have like 11 subscribers, so I mean, I'm killing it out here. Oh, yeah, dude, that's awesome.
Not not maybe, but you're going to do it. And it's L.A. J.A.U.N.I.E. because I know he's from New Orleans and that's probably really easy to spell for him. But us East Coast folks, that's how you say L.A. J.A.U.N.I.E. You got it, man.
Ken, thank you so much. I can't thank you enough for allowing me to come on your platform and share my story. And I really love what you're doing, man. And just thank you sincerely so much.
I really do appreciate it. Oh, man. Thank you so much for reaching out, for coming on. And we'll have to do it again, man. And I will absolutely look forward to being on your podcast, hopefully one of the first episodes, man. And we'll make this thing happen.
It's just done, dude. It'll happen.
Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you.
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