Pest perspectives EP 28 - Kylie and stephen Wright - Right environmental

0:00 Hello and welcome to Pest Perspectives episode 28 again,

0:04 because last week's was cancelled due to Clive having

0:08 technical issues. So we will do the bee removal

0:12 podcast at some point when we get it rescheduled this week.

0:15 I've got on podcast. It's probably came round quite

0:19 quick for a lot of people because they asked them a few

0:21 numbers in advance and a lot of them going well, that came

0:24 around a little bit fast. I kind of get that a lot, but I

0:28 have on Kylie and Stephen Wright from Wright Environmental.

0:34 How are you? How are you both doing?

0:36 Good. Thanks.

0:36 Sean, how are you doing? I'm OK.

0:38 Cheers. You're good, Stephen.

0:41 Yeah, all goodbye. All good.

0:44 Oh good. This side of the case, this is a

0:47 strange set up, so we'll go with it.

0:49 You're just not a you're not a social media.

0:51 No, not Tom. Kind of person.

0:54 Sorry. You're lucky you got him on

0:55 today, Sean, for this. And well then and on time as

0:57 well. A lot of people tell you that

0:59 you got me on time as well, which is?

1:00 Yeah. That's good.

1:03 That is. It's some people social media is

1:06 for and some people it's not. I just have a big gob on social

1:09 media. I'm known it is, but so let's

1:16 start off at the beginning. So whatever order you want to go

1:20 in, how did you both get into pest management in the first

1:23 place? We'll start with you because it

1:26 started with you. Yeah, so I started what, 17

1:29 years ago? We rent to kill.

1:34 So I started off with him. I was there as a technician same

1:39 time as server sofa was over there.

1:41 Oh yeah, it's technical guru side of things.

1:46 I was a foot technician in London, so I was dealing with,

1:49 you know, as you can imagine, everything from, you know,

1:53 cockroaches, mice, bed bugs. I just loved it, loved every

1:57 element of of the job. I I enjoyed the fact that

2:01 nothing was the same. Do you know what I mean by that?

2:03 Everything's different it. Is it is it's I'm I'm I'm a baby

2:10 in the industry compared to you. Then 2020 I entered Oh.

2:15 Really. Yeah, I'm new compared to you

2:17 revenue. Fair play, no?

2:20 That's that's. I, I didn't, I don't know, I

2:23 just kind of fell into, I fell into it.

2:25 I was, I left school, did an apprenticeship as a, as a

2:28 sparky, did that, then kind of come away from that because that

2:33 bored me putting up, you know, doing a plug socket or a light

2:36 switch, nothing changes. It's the same cables behind it

2:39 that you're terminating. All the time it is, yeah.

2:43 And then went into a bit of bar work, which I enjoyed.

2:45 If I'm honest with you, if it paid better, I'd probably still

2:48 be doing it now because I love the conversations with people.

2:51 And a friend of mine worked for Rent to Kill at the time and

2:53 said come and give it a go. And I haven't looked back since.

2:55 So yeah, did did that, was with them for a few years, went into

3:01 sales over there as you do promotion as some people call

3:06 it, sidesteps as some others call it whatever you want to put

3:08 it down as I enjoyed it. Yeah, that's.

3:11 Good then. Then, yeah.

3:13 So I did that for a few years, went to Ecolab.

3:15 Ecolab. Yeah.

3:19 Went over to Ecolab as an accounting executive, was one of

3:22 their top salespeople over there for a number of years before

3:26 deciding to kind of do it ourselves, Don't we really?

3:29 Yeah. I wasn't in the industry before

3:31 I married into the industry. That's what that's what I was

3:36 waiting for you to say. I thought that's what you're

3:38 going to say because it's true it.

3:41 Is true, but I wouldn't say this when I met Steve I was a florist

3:46 so completely different to anything that we do now and I

3:51 don't think the industry gets enough credit for just how

3:54 fascinating it actually is. I'll can I honestly say that

3:57 when you first started to try and get me involved, I was like,

4:02 no, absolutely not. I'm not working with anything

4:05 like that. But now I'm the first person I

4:08 want to know what's going on. I want to, I want to see how we

4:10 get on top of it. I love it.

4:12 I love the industry. I just don't think it gets the

4:14 recognition that it actually deserves for how interesting it

4:17 actually even is. Yeah.

4:18 Million percent. Yeah, it's, it's unfortunate

4:22 that I, I didn't know pest control was a thing when I was

4:25 even at school. I like literally my dad started

4:29 doing pest control and I and I like I used to do it a couple of

4:33 years before boss test seasons. I used to do it within, you

4:37 know, years before I started. And eventually he says, do you

4:41 want to, it was basically I was furloughed from COVID.

4:46 Well, I worked in a factory, terrible place.

4:48 I should have left a long time ago.

4:51 And he says, do you want to come and work for me?

4:54 And I was worried because I wasn't sure whether there's

4:55 going to be enough work and all that.

4:57 But it worked out all right. It did.

4:59 And that's how I got into it because of my dad, because his

5:02 mate told him pest control is quite good.

5:04 So he he did, he built it up as a side job, you know, he had a

5:08 full time job and he did it as a part time job and built it up

5:12 over the over time. And that's how I got into it.

5:15 But I wish I'd known about it when I was younger.

5:18 I didn't know it was a thing, I think.

5:20 It's not, is it? And I think that's one.

5:22 It's still not known. It's not.

5:24 No, it's not. And I think that's one of the

5:25 discussions that we've been having quite a lot recently,

5:27 isn't it? Yeah, Just how we could sort of

5:30 put content out there to actually entice people into the

5:34 industry because I don't feel like, yeah, if you go to

5:37 college, you can, you know, you can train pretty much

5:39 everything. I trained as a florist in

5:40 college and electrician, plumber, you know, all of these

5:44 types of trade. But pest control is just not on

5:47 that radar. I think it should be offered.

5:48 Yeah, 1,000,000%. I mean when we, when we, when I

5:52 talk about the industry, I talk about trade.

5:56 It's a, it's a, it's a well known thing.

5:58 When I introduce myself and I start talking about myself, I go

6:01 right, I'm a sparky by trade, but the reality is I haven't

6:04 touched a fuse board or a plug socket in 20 plus years.

6:10 For me of what we've always spoken about, it's I want to I

6:15 want to help the industry become, you know, something to

6:18 be. It's when you say it like that,

6:19 it's because you're proud of it. You've gone to college, you've

6:21 done those qualifications and I think, you know, this is an

6:25 industry you should be proud of. It's something that, you know,

6:28 it's a really close knit community.

6:30 You know what I mean by that? You can say that to somebody on

6:34 here today and you say it's somebody else in a month's time.

6:37 They all know it. You might be from a different

6:38 part of the the UK, but you'll all know that person and it's

6:42 very close knit in that sense. And it's, it is an industry to

6:45 be proud of. And it should be something that

6:49 is told or, you know, given the ability to be told.

6:53 Yeah, the opportunity. Should be there 100%.

6:59 It definitely does. I mean, I think if they, if they

7:02 tackled it for more of a public health, it's public health feel

7:07 that we might get, it might get represented better, but it it

7:12 doesn't seem to be, it's not an option at college where they go,

7:16 oh, I want to be. Well, my son does because

7:18 obviously, you know, he's 10, but he wants to be in the

7:20 business when he's older. But that's only because of me

7:22 and my dad. That'll be 3 generations if he

7:25 ended up joining within the business.

7:27 But that's only because of me, not because of anything they've

7:31 taught him at school. This, it needs to be that.

7:35 I don't know, the trade bodies are are currently trying to get

7:39 schools talking about it. But it's not, it's not exactly

7:42 easy. It's not because a lot of them,

7:46 they want computer jobs. A lot of them want computer

7:48 jobs. It's hard.

7:51 I mean, I think, I think MPTA is having conversation with with

7:55 RSPH about it, but I don't know what they're doing.

7:59 There is conversations being had about schools.

8:02 There is, but it's not an easy one because it's there's also a

8:10 lot of the problem with schools is, correct me if I'm wrong,

8:13 it'd probably change now, but I believe schools are teaching,

8:17 which is a good thing, but they're teaching kids to work

8:20 for someone else and not to think, oh, I can set up my own

8:25 business, I could do this myself.

8:27 And they should do more of that as well.

8:29 They should. You're probably asking the two

8:33 worst people on their opinions of schooling systems because I

8:37 mean, we homeschool our, our, our free, Yeah, homeschool them.

8:42 I'm not a big fan of the education system in any way

8:44 shape or. Fault, but that's I can tell

8:46 clearly. Yeah, that's probably a

8:48 completely different conversation altogether too,

8:52 but. It's it's not for.

8:55 It's not for any. I think the education system

8:57 really does work for, works with certain people.

9:00 But then I also feel like people that think outside of, not

9:02 outside of a box because I don't want to put them people inside

9:05 of a box. That's not what I meant by that.

9:06 But me and Steve were both probably on a spectrum who were

9:09 diagnosed quite later on in life.

9:11 And I feel like the school didn't present the opportunities

9:14 in which our brain engaged with. Basically, Yeah.

9:16 You are wrong. Yeah, I feel like with the

9:18 schools, I feel like what's missing and I think if they're

9:21 talking about going and doing talks with the schools, it needs

9:24 to have enthusiastic, passionate people.

9:26 I think you can go into any environment and it could be

9:28 anything. And if you're passionate about

9:30 it, that sparks an interest. That's what needs to happen.

9:33 The conversations need to be lively and passionate and coming

9:36 from people in the industry that actually love the job role.

9:40 Because it's not, it's not boring.

9:41 It's it's very interesting to be a part of this industry.

9:44 I'm glad I'm married into it. Yeah, so am I.

9:48 That's nice. It's like, did you hear the

9:51 Beauties and Briefes episode of young lad Faria Moore?

9:56 The. One that's done, the MPTA has

9:59 got a scheme where under under 30, I think it is five

10:05 candidates are put put through their RSPH Level 2 award in pest

10:12 management, that's it. And, and PTA and Syngenta

10:18 Global, they fund it and there's interviews and stuff, but loads

10:23 more reply and it's the most passionate people or the ones

10:27 they feels fitted. But he went on the beauties and

10:29 beasties. And I tell you what, that young

10:32 lad is very passionate. He's he's very passionate.

10:37 He's took his dad's business over basically he's he's got,

10:40 he's got it. It's.

10:42 What sparks the passion when you're talking about from that

10:45 point of view, it doesn't matter what you.

10:47 Listen to it. You'll see what I mean is it's

10:49 honestly I, I was buzzing off it.

10:51 I thought, wow, it's nice to hear younger people, younger

10:54 people because I'm not old, but I'm 40.

10:57 But he's at the younger, very younger end.

11:00 You know, he gets going, Oh, I'm, I'm not, I'm a few years

11:03 off 30. I was like, come on, man, It

11:05 has. I mean, I, I heard, I don't know

11:09 how true it is, but I heard a statistic that the industry

11:12 itself is only made-up of 5% females.

11:14 That just, that blows my mind Like that it's, it's

11:17 predominantly sort of men that are in the industry.

11:19 So it's quite nice to see that I've met a lot of women in the

11:22 industry that absolutely love it and enjoy it.

11:25 I think it is, I think it's a brilliant industry to be a part

11:27 of. I think if you get into it, it's

11:29 a good thing. Oh it's I try and get more

11:32 females on the podcast. I asked you as well.

11:35 It's not always easy. Not everyone wants to go on a

11:37 podcast, you see, because once you're out there, you're out

11:41 there and it can be quite scary. It can.

11:43 But I am trying to get more female within females on the

11:48 podcast within the industry because I believe that although

11:51 they are a small part of the industry, I believe that over

11:56 hopefully over time, there will be more and more women coming in

12:01 because you don't always have to be.

12:04 You don't always have to be a technician.

12:06 You can be, there's loads of roles within pest control.

12:09 There is you can be a field field biology, be all sorts, but

12:15 you can equally be technicians. But you are right.

12:17 Some of them, some of the most technically gifted that I've met

12:22 in the industry, are women. Yes, we are role models.

12:25 So yes, some of them have, and I've always said that. 100%.

12:28 You know, Ecolab, there was, you know, I worked for an amazing

12:32 woman, Elaine Quinn. She was she was amazing with

12:35 with what she did and the things that she taught me over there.

12:37 And I had our team was male, female and, and the the women,

12:42 they, they, they gave it to the men massively.

12:45 And I, I think as well, I don't know if you all agree with this.

12:47 Obviously as a company, we're not just pests, we're, we're the

12:51 construction side of the business and you know, damp and

12:53 disrepair. And that industry is a

12:55 completely different industry to be in.

12:57 It's very male dominated in the central, you know, it's old

13:00 school and whatever else. I think with the pest control

13:03 side of it, the females I've met, I don't feel like that is

13:06 the case. I feel like no one, no one looks

13:08 sort of down the point in any way.

13:10 I think everyone's just what's the word I'm trying to look for,

13:13 Like just very respectful. I feel like anyone I've ever met

13:15 are just very respectful people, which has been the best thing

13:18 about it I think. Yeah, I know.

13:20 It's it's good to hear. Obviously I don't, it's just me

13:23 and my dad. I don't work with any other

13:24 techni. I've never worked for a big firm

13:26 either. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't know.

13:28 And I don't have that. Yeah, exactly.

13:34 I always hear you say a lot of everyone I've always met, I'll

13:36 go, you know, I've worked for this company, I've worked for

13:37 that company, I've had that experience.

13:38 And as you said, everyone sort of like really sort of knows

13:41 each other or knows of someone. And I, I hadn't had that

13:44 experience because obviously everything I've ever learnt,

13:47 yeah, probably give you a big head, but it's what I'm saying.

13:50 Yeah, I mean, the one thing I don't because you always hear

13:53 people moaning about the Nationals, but one thing I do

13:55 hear about rent to kill, it's their training.

13:58 It's amazing. That's the one thing to get

14:00 praised for. I've always said it and it's,

14:03 I'll be honest with you, social media is, is listen, it's not a

14:07 bit of me and I. I.

14:09 Groups and things like that and the amount of times you see it

14:13 like the people slating the likes of friend to kill and

14:16 things like that. Listen everyone's own story is

14:18 their own but the reality none of us would be in this industry

14:21 today if it wasn't for rent to kill in the 1st place.

14:24 And the training that they that they gave when I was there and

14:28 what they still give today is probably improved I should

14:31 imagine hopefully. But it was second to none.

14:34 You couldn't fault them. And the same for Ecolab as well.

14:37 So listen, we all know that everybody has their flaws,

14:40 especially the big companies. But ultimately you can't knock

14:43 that. You can't knock the trainer that

14:45 you get from them well. Yeah, I mean, they can charge

14:48 the high fees they Canon and get it.

14:51 Yeah, if you can get it, you can get it.

14:53 The money. It's if someone's willing to pay

14:56 it, if that's what I'm happy with.

15:00 Yeah, it is. It's but yeah.

15:03 So with what what may was there like a moment where you thought

15:11 I'm going to start my own business at what was what was

15:14 was there a moment when it sparked it or, you know, I've

15:18 had enough, I want to go on my own?

15:19 Or was it something that spurred it on?

15:22 How long we got? We'll try and condense it down.

15:27 I think I think what started it because, as Steve said, when he

15:31 worked over at the big companies, he was, you know, one

15:34 of the top salesman and it was just a conversation one day and

15:37 it and it was just along the lines of, you know, if you can

15:39 earn this money for the big companies, why can't we just

15:42 start this off and start doing this for ourselves?

15:44 You know, people buy into you as a person.

15:46 You know, you go in and you sell something.

15:49 It's because they like who you are and what you present.

15:52 And I think you were so you're so good with people and so

15:55 genuine. It just made sense for us to

15:57 I've, I always worked for myself anyway.

16:01 I was a florist on my own floristry business and it just,

16:04 we just wanted the flexibility, didn't we, around our

16:06 lifestyles. We have five children, so we

16:08 wanted to be able to be, you know, work from home, be more

16:10 present and not miss out on their lives.

16:13 So it just it fitted into a. Yeah, I mean the, the nitty

16:18 gritty part of it is that, so we went through some like everyone

16:23 does, went through some bad times and things like that.

16:25 And we were on our arse at one point and it was we had this, we

16:31 had the the ability to sell the technical side of things.

16:34 I'd come away from the the bigger companies so.

16:37 That isn't, that is a massive factor because although we get

16:40 taught pest control and on all courses, even if you go to a big

16:46 company, if you get taught how to sell, I've never been taught

16:50 how to like properly sell to people.

16:52 I'm still learning to this day. Whereas you've got all that

16:55 training from the bigger companies.

16:58 That's another benefit. If you start yourself, do normal

17:02 pest control courses, they don't teach you how to sell.

17:05 It's just the pest control. But I said to you, wasn't it, I

17:09 did say this. I said I was going to look at

17:10 potentially setting up an Academy at some point to, I

17:13 don't know, some sort of training thing.

17:14 But The thing is, is you don't need to be like, like these

17:20 American sales people, you know, like go out hard sales or

17:23 whatever. People present you with a

17:25 problem and you come at them with a solution and that's it.

17:29 There's no, there's no, I can't stand the sales.

17:32 It's not, it's. Not a forceful site.

17:34 It's not like that. And I think that like what you

17:36 say, like the industry in itself presents enough problems.

17:40 The pets are all there and I feel like, you know, what we

17:44 offer is a solution to that problem.

17:45 So it's not, you know, and it's just, it's been, it's been

17:48 organic, hasn't it? When we started then did we

17:51 think we would be where we are now?

17:52 No, I don't even think we anticipated it growing to the

17:55 scale that it has, but a lot of hard work.

17:57 We've got an amazing team around us and I just think that we're

18:01 just, we stand by our morals and our values.

18:03 I think when it comes to, I think if you take away the side

18:07 of the bigger industry that we don't want is that we're

18:11 personable. So, you know, a lot of

18:14 companies, when they start getting to, like, big scales,

18:17 you can't get in contact with the managing director.

18:19 It's, you know, everyone else at all.

18:21 Yeah, don't. Say that Curt's watching.

18:23 And we, we try, we, we still visit sites, don't we?

18:27 We still keep in contact with our clients that we, I feel like

18:30 we, and we sort of like make sure that that's a thing with

18:32 everyone that works for us. And that's really important to

18:35 us, isn't it? Yeah, it is.

18:37 I think the bigger the, the bigger, the more, the more work

18:40 that we've had come in and the bigger that we've got the yeah

18:44 has become harder to, you know, return those phone calls.

18:48 Sorry Kurt to pick the phone calls.

18:50 Up. Sorry, Kurt.

18:51 It's been really hard to sort of keep up with that.

18:54 Sorry, Kurt, but it's one of those where I I hate letting

18:57 people down. So like genuinely, it's still,

19:00 if it affects me even today, like if I can't get in touch

19:03 with someone, I'll call someone back.

19:04 Sorry, Kurt. It's it's one of those where it

19:07 does affect me because we don't want to be like that.

19:09 We want to be reachable. We've got to be contactable.

19:11 We want to go out. I mean, we still go out and see

19:13 clients. You know, as much as we have got

19:16 such a good team around us, we've got.

19:19 We've got, we've got clients still to this day that have been

19:21 with us since day one. Yeah, our.

19:25 Retention's amazing. Yeah, that is magic for.

19:28 Us it is and they're still there and they'll still call up and

19:32 you know, every once in a while it's nice to go down and see how

19:34 they're getting on with their technician now, whoever that is

19:37 in within the company, it's still nice to go down.

19:40 It's very nostalgic. I went down to a site about 3

19:43 weeks ago. I hadn't been there in five

19:45 years, something like that, and it was just weird to see how

19:49 much it had changed. But the requirement for us being

19:52 there was still exactly the same.

19:53 They still had the same, you know, it's just, it's nice to

19:57 sort of go back. It's really, I can't explain it.

20:00 It's a really weird, surreal feeling.

20:02 It's a proud moment for us, I think.

20:05 That's good, that is. So how many technicians do you

20:09 actually have? Because oh God, are they?

20:15 Are they actually? Whole of the UK now so.

20:18 Are they actually employed by you as well or do you sub sub

20:22 some people they're. Direct employed with us but then

20:26 we are lucky to lean on some really good subcontractors as

20:31 well. Speaking about Kurt Graham there

20:33 over at Propest Manchester and Becky obviously is Good Wife.

20:39 So like they're amazing they help support us as well.

20:42 We've got you know Paul is a Paul Dumaskier technician really

20:48 good guy again up up up north. So we are, we are fortunate

20:52 because The thing is, is that unless us smaller size companies

20:59 support each other in that sense, we, we, we really don't

21:02 face any chance at breaking the, you know, like in the

21:08 Premiership, they've got like the top 6 clubs.

21:11 Yeah, For me it's, it's the top top six say companies in the UK

21:16 or whatever. If we, I, I, my ambition is to

21:18 get us to be, you know, I want to be at the top.

21:21 I want right environmental services to be one of the the

21:24 first names that you look for when it comes to pest control or

21:27 environmental services as a whole.

21:29 Good. And in all.

21:30 Good goal. Yeah, and listen, it's a big

21:32 goal, but. And to not and to not have as a

21:35 company because you want the brand, you want the name, but to

21:39 have us because we actually do a really good job and we actually

21:42 care about what we do. Yeah, million percent so.

21:45 Because you're all over the country, obviously, and you are

21:49 very, very busy. How do you, like I said, how do

21:53 you check the quality of the work that's being done on sites?

21:57 Do you have people that go and look or to keep the brand?

22:00 I'm not saying that kind of thing, obviously, because you're

22:05 not just in a local area, you're like all over.

22:08 So do you have people that check stuff every so often to make

22:12 sure? Yeah.

22:13 So we have, we have obviously operations managers in place.

22:16 We have QA that take place regularly and ourselves we'll

22:20 we'll spot check sites as well, won't we?

22:23 We're also supported by, you know, like so Pelsis are, I

22:28 mean, we do a lot of work with, you know, bigger companies and

22:32 you've got, they've got a really good technical team.

22:33 You've got people like John Stewart over there, Sophie.

22:37 They'll go out and do cheques for us.

22:39 They'll go out and do visits and you know, they're, they're not

22:42 shy to come to us and tell us that we're doing something wrong

22:44 because we don't get everything right.

22:45 So do you know what I mean? Well.

22:47 If you were to say you did, you're lying.

22:50 Everyone, everyone makes mistakes.

22:52 I. Understand that, yeah.

22:53 And. Everyone's human.

22:55 They are exactly. And so we're, we're lucky in

22:59 that sense. We have got a good support

23:00 network around us and we've got a we've got a really good team

23:05 around us. Yeah, definitely, 100%.

23:07 Come on then, give us a give us a clue that how many technicians

23:10 you've got roughly. I can't even put AI, can't even

23:12 put a figure on it. I don't know how many we have.

23:15 That's the question we'll have to come back to you on.

23:17 I prefer. Probably just under, I reckon.

23:21 Probably just under. You're bigger than I thought you

23:23 were. Wow.

23:25 Cheers. But I think again, on the

23:28 technician side of it, that's that's definitely another

23:30 conversation again, I think for another day because it's

23:33 actually a very hard industry to get technicians in.

23:37 This is why this is what I've heard from people on podcasts

23:40 that talk about I think Hugh from Guardian Pest Control was

23:46 saying on the beauties and beasties.

23:47 He interviewed over 60 people and they found one in the end,

23:51 one guy and it's. We found 60 people from in the

23:56 first place. A lot.

23:58 It was something like that, but a lot of them weren't qualified.

24:00 They were just deploying. They weren't the right people.

24:03 It was something like that, Sean.

24:06 If I'm honest with you, so I prefer, I prefer in house

24:10 training, I prefer taking somebody on because if I'm

24:13 honest with you, I've found it so much easier to train somebody

24:18 from scratch. And take.

24:19 Through the process I try and implement the same sort of

24:22 training that I had when I was at Rented Kill.

24:27 I found it so much easier to train somebody from scratch than

24:30 it is to try and untrain somebody from bad habits.

24:34 If that makes. Sense yeah, no, you're.

24:37 Right. And then when we talk about,

24:39 listen, when we talk about as an industry, you know, the lack of

24:43 in terms of the lack of, you know, pest controllers

24:46 qualified, the lack of, you know, or the limited female

24:50 technicians in the industry and the lack of young people coming

24:54 into the industry as a whole. I mean, we've just taken on a 17

24:58 year old technician, foot technician in London training

25:03 and she's been phenomenal. She's come in so, so eager to

25:08 learn. Definitely.

25:11 She's doing very, very well. I think there was something like

25:14 just under 3000 qualified techs in the whole entire UK and they

25:18 predict that in the next 10 years half of them will be

25:20 retired because they're crazy 3. 1000.

25:24 Yeah, there's not qualified I. Thought it was more like 10,000.

25:29 Is it free? Yeah.

25:30 And they and they predict that within 10 years, half of them

25:33 will be retired. So this.

25:35 Is the this is like doomsday? Like, yeah.

25:38 It is because that's like that's that was.

25:40 I'm sure that was published on the on the BBC website.

25:42 I might be. Wrong.

25:43 I think it was 5. I think it was five years.

25:46 Half the industry will be retarded, but the BCA said that.

25:49 Itself though, isn't it to think that because it's been such a

25:52 close knit of pest controllers in industry for such a long

25:56 period of time, I feel like it's only now starting to like really

25:59 like evolve and change and become current.

26:02 So it is a hard industry to employ.

26:06 I would, I would imagine it is. I've never employed anyone.

26:09 So I'm only going off what you both tell me because you know

26:12 that that you've got that experience you have.

26:14 Maybe one day I'll get to that level.

26:16 Maybe. Don't do it, Sean.

26:18 Don't do it. Yeah, but I've got no hair now.

26:22 You've still got hair. This I'm just about keeping hold

26:25 of it as a minute right as well. But it's, I would say that staff

26:32 is it's the hardest part of running, running a business,

26:35 it's the hardest part. You obviously have to offer like

26:40 thing like, you know, to keep good, good staff.

26:44 Do you have to offer like incentives or fun things?

26:48 You a lot of these companies in these, you know, corporate

26:53 offices, they all do fun things to keep their staff happy.

26:55 Do you do things like that? Incentives to keep your you're

26:59 motivated to to keep you Could you could you could technicians

27:03 or I do things like that. I No, I don't think we do.

27:06 I. Think OK, I think what we.

27:08 Created is a healthy environment in which people want to stay

27:12 working for us. That's been the key, isn't it?

27:14 You can, you can offer someone a bonus, you know, every quarter

27:18 and you offer them all incentives in the world.

27:20 But if they don't enjoy coming in day-to-day, then what's the

27:22 point in getting to that point? I think with us, I think with

27:26 we're, we're a very close team and I feel like everyone has so

27:30 much respect for each other and we really do try and create a

27:34 healthy environment to work in. Like we're not into

27:37 micromanaging and you know, like an intense environment.

27:40 It's, I enjoy going to work and I think, yeah, it helps.

27:48 And I think we, we try and create an environment in which

27:51 all of our staff enjoy going to work.

27:52 So and, and looking for that feedback as well.

27:54 If we're going wrong somewhere, you know, we're very open to

27:56 that. If you're not happy, we would

27:57 rather know. Let's have a conversation.

27:59 Just keep that conversation flow going and.

28:01 We do like a nice, nice big Christmas party as well, Sean.

28:04 Yeah, yeah, no, we do. Listen, we in an ideal world, I

28:09 mean when I when I was at with the other companies, I just said

28:12 about a minute ago the incentives were were great.

28:14 I've been able to see Rome, Vienna, Paris, I've been able to

28:18 see loads of places because of, you know, that sort of thing for

28:22 other's sake. And I'd love to be able to get

28:24 into a position where we are able to breathe a little bit and

28:28 maybe do a little bit more of it, if I'm honest, because I

28:31 think that, you know, to, you know, to a good team.

28:36 I mean, look, we touch base with everyone.

28:37 We speak to everyone on a daily basis.

28:39 We try to anyway as much as possible.

28:42 Sorry Kurt, but we we are. Oh OK, comment in the chat, we

28:47 know you're watching. Come on, comment in.

28:50 We try and speak to everyone on a daily basis and you know,

28:53 everyone's happy like we're I. Don't know.

28:56 Yeah. Hopefully, yeah, this is where

28:57 they'll come into the comments now and say no, miserable, but

29:00 it is what it is. We, you know, we try like that's

29:03 and that's that's it really. We try.

29:09 Someone's just commented Nikki, you know this person.

29:14 Or summer BBQ or. Nick why you got to do me like

29:19 that, man. Nick's Nick's My other love

29:23 outside. It'd change the date Nick to a

29:26 different date if it doesn't work for us.

29:28 Nick's I mean, listen, when we talk about teaming and wider

29:31 team, Nick is, Nick is phenomenal.

29:34 So Nick is, we have our offices and Nick, Nick owns and runs

29:38 that, that, that that office block there and he's part of the

29:42 team as well. And, and he helps us run.

29:44 Do you know what I mean? He does help us.

29:45 It's. Just it's community.

29:46 I think it's it's still a little thing.

29:48 I mean, I won't I won't give Nick too much of a big head, but

29:51 you know, like I I I post about this on LinkedIn the other day,

29:54 you know, I'd gone into the office and I wasn't having a

29:55 particularly good morning. And it was I'm quite an upbeat

29:58 person and Nick me that straight away and, you know, didn't have

30:01 to, you know, good morning. And he went and made me a cup of

30:03 coffee, put it on my desk and he was, I hope, you know, that

30:05 makes you feel a little bit better.

30:06 And it's just little, I think it's.

30:08 Just little thing. And he's never done that for me.

30:09 Sean never done that for me at all.

30:13 Never. So we have, we have crazy good

30:17 people. We have good people around.

30:19 Us. We do.

30:23 Oh, dear, Lee. So yeah, no, it's.

30:25 Listen, when you talk about how big we are and things like that,

30:29 it's we, we are as big as we are, but actually we we feel not

30:33 bigger. Do you know what I mean?

30:34 But that we have so many people with.

30:36 Yeah. Because I honestly didn't

30:38 realise how you were all over the UKI knew you'd work with

30:42 Kurt as well, but I didn't, I didn't realise it was you were.

30:51 Here's a question. So you just started off a pest

30:53 control first? Yeah.

30:55 How did you get from there to be into sanitary to clearances, to

31:01 water test all of that? Did you, did it evolve over

31:04 time? Is that kind of how you did it

31:06 slowly? Because I have ADHD and I will

31:12 say yes to pretty much anything. OK, if someone rings you up,

31:16 yeah, we can do that. I'll make it work.

31:18 Pretty much there is a running joke in the office.

31:20 If somebody phones up and asks for a haircut, I will go, yeah,

31:23 no problem. I'll, I'll pick up a pair of

31:25 scissors and start trying to cut hair.

31:29 But I, I, I genuinely, I kind of looked at things that had

31:32 synergies with what we do pest control, you know, dampen mould,

31:35 having, you know, you know, book lice, that sort of thing.

31:40 Everything that comes about as a, as a result of having mould

31:43 issues and things like that. It's a natural interlink,

31:47 interlink between the two, you know, Leptos talking about water

31:52 treatments and things like that, making sure that we, that's

31:55 another thing we were asked from clients, Is it something we do?

31:57 And yes, it is. We put the people through the

32:00 training and, you know, do the relevant training, keep them,

32:03 keep them up skilled, that type of thing.

32:05 And. It's it's for for pest firms.

32:08 I don't. I mean apart from the the big,

32:10 big boys, I don't think many more to me immediately that's a

32:16 small I don't. Know.

32:20 I have no idea. I think we were.

32:22 I don't think many of them do like water treatment.

32:24 It's very different if you ask me.

32:26 Yeah, Yeah, it's, it's. I think, I think a lot of that

32:31 with regards to water treatment, a lot of our work, we do a lot

32:34 of work with local authorities. So we go in and out and do a lot

32:37 of block treatments and a lot of them need to be tested on a on a

32:42 regular basis that water tanks need to be tested.

32:45 We're there. Why not let us test it at the

32:48 same time to kill two birds with one stone?

32:51 Pardon the pun, but it was, you know.

32:53 Clever. You know it.

32:54 Was one of the biggest things as well, like especially with the

32:56 construction side, so many times we would hear, you know,

33:00 electricians gone in to fix electrics or plumbers gone into

33:03 the, you know, boiler work, etcetera.

33:05 And there's a pesticoo and they will not touch it.

33:08 If there's, I don't know, an environmental cleaner needs to

33:11 take place, they will not touch it until that is done.

33:14 And I feel like by offering all of the services, it made it so

33:17 much easier to be able to just tackle that one problem in one

33:20 go rather than having to pause everything to get on top of a

33:24 pest issue, which you know, sometimes can take a length of

33:26 time. We're already in there.

33:28 We're all trained to do the relevant aspects of that job in

33:32 one hit. So it just it, it hopped no, I'm

33:34 down, didn't it? Yeah.

33:37 You know, I think back to jobs that I've done in the past where

33:42 the fire service have needed to go in and I won't go into the

33:46 insurance and outs and why they were going into this property.

33:48 But they needed to try and find someone and they go in because

33:53 there were rats on site and they had to put a window through and

33:57 a pest controller to go in first.

33:58 And oh wow, OK, that's that one back about 10/10/12 years ago

34:04 now. And we were just, we've as we've

34:08 gone up, as we've grown this, we kind of wanted to be a one stop

34:12 shop for that kind of scenario. Do you know what I mean?

34:16 I've got sharks who can do that. I've got an environmental clean.

34:19 I've got a holder who can do that.

34:21 But at the same time, I've got bed bugs and rats who can deal

34:24 with. We can.

34:26 So let us do. And then it gave us a better

34:29 the, it gave us a greater ability to deal with a scenario

34:34 on site. You know what it's like with

34:35 with with pest control, a lot of it's environmental, you know

34:38 what's going on. Yeah.

34:40 You know, how can we get the redenticide or the insecticide

34:43 baits for argument's sake into this cockroach or into this this

34:46 brown rat for argument's sake? And if you've got a property

34:49 that's hoarded or, you know, environmentally dirty, your

34:53 recommendations are to, you know, get a clean done, get it,

34:56 get the cluttered, get it decluttered.

34:59 Whereas we've got the ability, if we've got the client contact

35:02 details and things like that, to be able to have that

35:04 conversation and say this is what you need to do and give

35:07 them the complete package from the outset.

35:11 I'll tell you one thing. You are.

35:12 It's a very good upside. It is because you can say we are

35:17 a passenger, but we can offer the whole package.

35:20 Oh yeah. I'll be honest, I don't think

35:22 there's money that can say that. Yeah.

35:24 I, I, yeah, I mean, listen, it is a, it's a nice position to be

35:28 in, isn't it? And I think The thing is as

35:31 well, we're not just going, OK, you know, we've got some needles

35:35 here, we'll get some, you know, get get any random person in

35:38 everyone shops and you know, we've done the correct training.

35:41 You know, everyone's had that training to be able to go in and

35:45 deal with whatever situation they're thrown into.

35:48 No one's phased in any. I think pest is the centre hub

35:52 of what we do. I think pest is very much the

35:54 heart of what we do. And, and no one that works for

35:57 us is phased by Pest because they've all had training,

36:00 whether that's, you know, like a cleaner or it doesn't matter,

36:03 whoever, they're not fazed by it.

36:06 And I think that's really important as well because the

36:08 amount of times you come up against someone and go, no, I'm

36:10 not going in there. I'm not touching that because

36:11 they're not, you know, it's not their field.

36:13 They're not qualified in it. Like we don't, we don't shy away

36:16 from it. Everyone just gets stuck

36:17 straight in. Didn't they?

36:18 Yeah. I think, I think we've, we've

36:20 got a bit of a rule as well. It's ask somebody to go in and

36:23 do something that works for us that I wouldn't do myself.

36:27 Do you know what I mean? That is exactly what Carl

36:31 Robinson was saying from H&F and Bird Environment.

36:37 Cole, good guy. Yeah, and he actually said that

36:39 that's what his dad drilled into him.

36:41 That's what he drills into his ex, he said.

36:45 That's what he brought up. It's important.

36:47 It's important. You can't.

36:49 You can't expect something from somebody that you you know to go

36:52 and do something you wouldn't do.

36:54 You wouldn't have, you wouldn't have the understanding of it as

36:56 well. And I think that the respect's

36:57 not there. I think sometimes so often,

36:59 especially, you know, I, I was a property valuer for a very long

37:01 time. You come into an industry where

37:04 someone's telling you what to do and telling you to go do it.

37:06 That's never done it before. You don't have that.

37:09 I feel like when you've done it and you can say that you've done

37:12 it, you have an understanding of what it is that they're actually

37:14 coming up again. So then you can go, OK, talk to

37:17 me. What have you got going on there

37:18 and actually relate to to it because you do understand it

37:20 from a, from a like a service level that makes it, it makes it

37:24 makes all the difference 100%. No, it does.

37:28 It does sound that way. It does.

37:30 There's always customers. There's customers that still

37:32 tell you what to do. They don't know what to do, but

37:35 they still tell you they've got to put it there, there and

37:37 there. Yeah.

37:39 Million percent education, Sean, that's all.

37:41 Yeah, just education. It's a lot of customers need

37:45 educating, but you've got to, you can't.

37:48 You can't have word it right, obviously.

37:50 Do you get a lot of people where your you or your staff have to

37:54 deal with delusional parasitosis?

37:58 Do you ever get any cases where it's hard, isn't it, to tell

38:02 them it's there's nothing there? You can't, Yeah.

38:07 It's, it's a difficult one, delusional parasitosis.

38:10 We have to make sure that we've done everything right in the 1st

38:12 place. So have you definitely ruled out

38:14 every, you know, possible pests that could be causing it?

38:18 That is it every environmental Have you looked at what they're

38:21 using? Have they changed it bloody?

38:23 I don't know what they use to wash it.

38:26 I don't do much. It can be that.

38:28 It can be that. Sometimes it can.

38:29 Irritations, yeah, things like that.

38:32 But I think I've had a, I've had, I think in my time about

38:36 two or three occasions. And a lot of times you just have

38:40 to listen. You can't treat anyway.

38:43 A lot of the time I'm lucky. I think I'm fortunate in the

38:46 sense of when I have had it, I've had direct contact with

38:50 their relatives or their next of kin.

38:53 So it was to have that conversation with that person

38:57 than it was to maybe have that conversation.

38:59 I wouldn't want to have that conversation with the person who

39:01 actually was suffering from it because that, yeah, might be,

39:05 it's a it's. A very it's a very delicate

39:07 subject. Yeah, it has.

39:10 To be handled with care. Yeah, definitely.

39:12 Yeah, we did it once where we just charged, you know, just for

39:15 the visit because we came out and we couldn't find anything

39:19 and he kept saying to us, you can see it crawling all over my

39:23 face currently. I was like, no, she rang us up

39:26 calling the charlatans. Ask her.

39:29 I said we're not. We just charged you a cheap

39:32 service fee to come out and if we were charlatans we would have

39:36 charged you the full amount. And some some people do it, but

39:42 they spray water around. Yeah, yeah.

39:44 We don't we don't do that. But that was a few years ago.

39:47 It hasn't happened since. But it is a hard one to know

39:50 what to do because we said to to to a daughter.

39:55 It's hard. It is.

39:57 It is, I think for that sort of thing that as I say, the times

40:01 I've had it and come across it. It's having those honest

40:04 conversations with, you know, hopefully their next of kin or

40:08 their relations, that type of thing to, to bring them into it

40:10 and say, look, explain the process.

40:13 You know what it's like. You've got to explain from, you

40:16 know, Step 1 all the way through to whenever it's this is what

40:19 I've done. This is what I've looked for.

40:20 This is what exactly insect monitors, you know, flea traps,

40:25 if you want to put flea traps down, if you suspect some biting

40:28 you that type of thing. And, you know, if they really

40:30 want to see action, then you can maybe look at a non-toxic, you

40:33 know, monitoring system in the meantime.

40:36 Then when you've got, you know, you can see that there's

40:39 definitely nothing there, then that's when you can have a

40:40 conversation. And it's never nice.

40:43 But I mean, we, we dealt with one four years ago, I think it

40:47 was council property or council block with a private tenant in

40:54 there. And you know, this, this lady

40:56 was adamant that she had an issue in there.

41:00 And despite us going back in and doing inspections, putting

41:04 insect monitors down, that type of thing and doing full

41:06 inspections, it was nothing there.

41:09 And another company went in about a week later and did the

41:12 treatment for the sake of treatment.

41:14 And, you know, she was exposed to chemicals she didn't need to

41:18 be exposed to at the end of the day, so.

41:21 There's nothing. There are people out there that

41:23 will do that all Some of them will just spray water.

41:28 Yeah. Very well.

41:31 Unfortunately, that does not help the situation, does it?

41:33 No, of course you've reinforced it.

41:37 You start treating with with products and you start, you

41:40 know, those people are the reasons that we're going to

41:43 start losing products. We're going to start losing you

41:45 know, HSE and looking at the, you know, identicized at the

41:49 minute the SGS I've. Seen that?

41:51 Yeah. I haven't replied to it yet, but

41:54 I will. Yeah, I.

41:56 Mean what's your? Point on.

42:00 Wow, on that side of it with the HSA.

42:03 Scott have a good think about it to be honest, because you've got

42:05 to be careful what you wish for as well.

42:08 You have so a degree because it's like there isn't many

42:13 alternatives to anti anticoagulants.

42:16 There's there's that cilantro and the other one Harmony X and

42:23 that's am I, am I wrong? Is that it?

42:26 No, that's, that's pretty much it obviously other than your

42:29 physical break backs and you know.

42:31 Yeah. Global to now non existent you

42:35 know. Yeah.

42:37 I mean, it's basically asking you what what the alternatives

42:40 are. But they know what the

42:41 alternatives are. So why are they asking us?

42:44 I don't understand. I just want you to say it.

42:47 They do. So they'd have to make them

42:49 products for everything. Then they'd have to make that a

42:52 new norm. I mean, then maybe someone can

42:54 educate us on that bit then, because I was looking at that

42:57 and I was, I was looking at filling it in and it's, you

43:00 know, what's the alternatives for this?

43:01 What would you do in this situation?

43:03 And it's it almost feels like they're kind of pushing you into

43:06 a corner to give them the answers so that when they take

43:09 it away, they can go. Well, you told us you knew how

43:10 to deal with this out. So once you'd lost it.

43:12 Yeah. It's.

43:14 I did click through and I clicked out of it.

43:16 I was like, I didn't think like this one, you know, because the

43:19 alternatives that are literally what's left.

43:23 So I think the products would have to be relabeled too.

43:27 In that sense, they would. But I think stop selling it to

43:31 the general public and let the people that are fully trained

43:34 and and lessons if you like, actually handle products in the

43:38 first place. I'll tell you that is right, but

43:41 I should tell you something now. Never going to happen.

43:44 No, of course it's not. HSA have actually said it.

43:46 They said they do not want to the the the reason they said was

43:50 because because I listened to the crew podcast when they had

43:53 the the new chair on beatties and B sticks and he actually

43:58 said cruise mandate. Cruise mandate is for

44:02 professionals, gamekeepers, farmers and whatnot.

44:05 And they said to HSE back point out blank told them we are not

44:10 banning products for the general market because we want people

44:15 who can't afford pest control to be able to try of methods

44:20 themselves. And that that was their

44:21 reasoning. So I can't see it happening, but

44:25 who knows? But that's but that's what they

44:28 said that they're not interested in taking the products off the

44:31 market. That's what you tell on that

44:34 podcast, that that was information they got given.

44:39 What can you do? Who knows, who knows, it

44:44 probably cost somebody a lot of money somewhere to to you know,

44:48 there's a lot of lost sales for them.

44:49 I should imagine if you remove all of that from the market from

44:52 for the general public to lose and listen, we're kind of as a

44:56 result kind of feeling the repercussions of that a little

44:59 bit. You know, people misusing glue

45:02 balls because they were readily available at the 99 P store just

45:04 down the road on the corner leaving it, you know, I just.

45:09 I actually, I've never actually used them, but we've we had them

45:14 and I only ever used them in extreme circumstances to prove

45:17 to a customer there was nothing in your attic.

45:20 This is before the ban, obviously.

45:22 I never ever got anything on them.

45:25 I never, I never used them, but I understand probably in London

45:29 you got an outbreak in the kitchen.

45:31 They'll be amazing. They would, they were, they

45:34 were. I've never done them.

45:35 Yeah, they were a great bit. They were a great tool to have

45:39 last result obviously. Yeah, I could never.

45:41 I never want a tool to be removed, but it's not been

45:44 removed. But it really hasn't it.

45:46 So it's a block really. Yeah, it is.

45:50 And what do you replace it with? You know, like what?

45:52 What have they given us as a replacement for it?

45:54 I I don't know. I'm asking this.

45:56 It's rhetorical. Really.

45:57 I don't. No, no, there is.

45:59 There isn't really anything right.

46:03 You do was nest in your company do was nest.

46:04 So you're not into that or? We do, we do treat was nest.

46:10 But we've had a relatively quiet year this year, haven't we?

46:13 Yeah, it's not the predominant amount of work that we we, we

46:16 cover, but we do do them. Everyone's trying to do them.

46:19 We've done a few, but it's not, it's not, it's not been a.

46:24 No, it's not been. A huge management put it this

46:25 way, the last time I treated the worst nest I was able to use

46:28 Ficam D at the time, so that's going back sometime.

46:31 I can't, I mean, it's only last year.

46:33 Come on. Was it like Cam D was was was

46:36 only was only stuck off the market in January, January this

46:40 year. Oh.

46:41 Wow, fair play. Well, it was a lot longer than

46:43 last year that I. Treated.

46:44 Put it that way. Only because I don't like them.

46:47 I've never. Treated them.

46:51 I don't. I've done over 400 nest this

46:55 year. Wow.

46:56 Wow, that's. Interesting.

46:58 Yeah, yeah, not bad. What?

47:02 Was the biggest one. I think there's a lot of nest to

47:10 go back. It's weird because you know how

47:13 they always say that what's nest start off in like April, May?

47:18 I don't think it's true. Some do, some don't.

47:21 I've treated. I've treated nest recently, we

47:25 have hit the nest and now it's worked probably 15/20/20 round

47:30 the hole. So I think some are starting at

47:33 different times of year as well. But I would say the biggest was

47:36 probably 500 or more and that was like heck, it's straight

47:41 away. I haven't failed yet actually

47:46 this year. It's always, it's always well,

47:50 no, there was one. There was one actually, I had to

47:52 go back to there was, but so far I haven't.

47:57 I don't, I'll be honest, I don't count.

47:59 It may have been 300. I shouldn't really count the

48:02 number, but I don't. It just just feels like a lot to

48:06 me. It does.

48:08 It does some. Some people though, some people

48:12 just make it. Make a business out of treat

48:14 loss lists. Oh, don't.

48:15 Get they'll, they'll focus on it.

48:18 They'll they'll do the season, they'll finish, they'll go and

48:21 enjoy their their winter and everything like that and they'll

48:23 they'll get ready to go again. I know a couple of people like

48:25 it that just treat what's nests and stop.

48:29 Don't do anything else. So listen, they've got to be

48:31 doing what they call. Yeah, they call them.

48:35 Go on. I'm joking, people.

48:43 I'm joking, but what's it called?

48:49 Yeah, Jason Mcphee's watching and he's put, I think Harman,

48:54 excellent. Cilantro hasn't been tested

48:56 enough in a real situation. It's all right testing it on

48:59 farms, on large rodent infestations, but what about in

49:03 a domestic situation? Are pets about?

49:06 So I think, I think. It's the point I listen, you can

49:11 it's, it's really as much as we talk about pest control when and

49:17 things being used in different situations, scenarios.

49:20 We, we cover the UK. So we, we go from dealing with,

49:23 you know, your commercial properties in, in London to

49:27 residential properties in, you know, in the middle of nowhere.

49:30 And they're two different ball games.

49:32 They're two different together and cilantro.

49:38 I have used cilantro. I've got a bucket in the stalls.

49:42 I haven't yet used it. Have you not?

49:45 I need to give it a go. I do.

49:47 It's I've used it in in what your man was just asking there

49:51 and I didn't find much success with it.

49:54 I didn't find much, I didn't find it very successful in any

49:57 And that's when it first came to market.

49:59 And that's not me. Listen, I might have been using

50:01 it wrong at the time. It's going back a few years now.

50:03 But you know, I followed the instructions on the label, put

50:08 down what I needed to put down, and I didn't really find any.

50:12 But I didn't find any benefit from it personally.

50:14 But that's my own personal experience with it and I don't

50:19 know, everyone's different. I suppose every scenario is

50:21 different as well, or every situation you go into.

50:25 But yeah, they use it a lot on farms, a lot on.

50:27 Farms, they do. Really successfully as well.

50:33 That's what I hear often, Pride on a farm.

50:36 I haven't really got any farms. I've got 1.

50:37 Problem. Be interested.

50:38 Be interesting to hear from somebody who actually uses it on

50:40 a regular basis. There are a lot of people claim

50:43 it's amazing and then it, yeah, I've seen a lot of people say it

50:47 works amazingly and they use it a lot.

50:50 And but some people say the opposite, like like you,

50:55 obviously. But yeah, I think.

50:58 There's always a lot of people you normally get the product

51:01 they like and they stick with it if they can.

51:04 If it works, they keep using it. They do, but it depends what

51:08 situation you mean as to what you what you can use.

51:11 Yeah, exactly. It does.

51:13 Really. It's knowing what product to use

51:16 in a certain situation. We've just done our Level 3 in

51:21 pest management award. You know, we haven't passed yet.

51:25 We've just done the initial part of the training.

51:28 Oh, OK. With Jon Stewart was the trainer

51:32 over there. Awesome.

51:34 Technically, like awesome. I learned a lot.

51:37 We did. We learnt a lot.

51:38 I mean, it's been 15 years. I passed my Level 2 in 2010.

51:43 Level 3 is a proper step up though, isn't it?

51:46 It really is. Yeah, listen, the the reports

51:49 are I'm looking forward to, but it's, it's more, it's more about

51:54 the environment. It's making you more aware and

51:56 consciously aware of, you know, the impact that we're having as

52:00 an industry on the environment and, and you know, what we can

52:04 do to alleviate the risks of us. Yeah, haven't having a bad

52:07 impact just for the choices. You know, you said just there

52:10 like somebody will pick a product that they're used to

52:14 using and they'll just use it and they'll use it and use it.

52:17 And actually, when was the last time if you if you're doing

52:20 that, when was the last time you stopped?

52:21 And when actually I'm not getting any results here, I'm

52:25 just feeding the problem more. Oh, I, I, I've had to do that

52:28 where you change, change it up and then it has worked.

52:32 Because if it don't work, there's no point.

52:34 Keep going. There's nothing's happened.

52:36 If it's happened, there's no problem.

52:37 Yeah, I've had to change it up and then it's worked.

52:40 Sometimes I find the grain the grain form of the same one work

52:46 just the same, but they don't want the block, they want the

52:49 grain version. More palatable, isn't it?

52:51 You know it depends on. I think sometimes having

52:55 conversations as well, like when you're on sites that you've been

52:57 at for a while and you're not sort of getting anywhere, it's

53:00 having, you can never know enough.

53:04 I think what I've taken from Level 3 is that you just this

53:06 you, you just learn and learn and learn and there's just so

53:09 much that you can take in that you didn't know or just see in

53:12 it a different way. And Level 3 was definitely a.

53:15 It was definitely a level up from.

53:17 Level 2. We took a lot from it didn't.

53:19 We yeah, I loved it. It was.

53:21 It's well worth doing. Maybe one day I will, but the

53:25 the the new Level 3 come in. But you would be ranked up to

53:29 level 4. Yeah.

53:31 Because the new Level 3 is just level 2.

53:34 Really. Oh, really?

53:36 That's what it sounds like to me.

53:38 It's yeah, the new Level 3 is, they're trying to get the new

53:43 standard to be everyone that has Level 3, but it's not the one

53:47 you're doing, not that that will be level 4, level 4, level 5.

53:54 So I have a question on that then, Sean, what what's Level 1?

54:00 I'll be honest, we. All talk about We all talk about

54:03 level 2, Level 2 award and things like.

54:05 That all I all I did for my qualifications I did during the

54:10 lockdown. I've done hill germs, basic

54:14 rodent and insect control and I don't know what level that's

54:19 classed as. Is that level 1?

54:21 I don't know what it is. I don't.

54:23 And then a few years later I did my level, my actual better say

54:27 it RSPH level 2IN awarding pest management because it gets

54:32 confused. But then also you've got this

54:34 RSPH level 2 in safe, safe identicides, which causes a lot

54:40 of the problems. That's why they want Level 3.

54:44 I do. I'm not entirely sure of of how

54:48 it's going to work, but they're working it all out.

54:50 But I do know that the one you're doing under the new

54:54 framework would be redeemed at level 4A Fair play.

54:57 Oh, it's. All right.

54:59 There. Yeah, it's all right.

55:00 I don't know whether they'll they'll have an upgrade pass to

55:04 just do it, but I believe that's it Sounds like level 2 is

55:08 basically Level 3. It does because it's because

55:12 over industries, apparently electricians, etcetera, their

55:16 main qualifications are more like Level 3.

55:19 They are, but they do the job. And ours are level 2.

55:24 But I'm not an expert, but that's what I believe it to be.

55:27 Please tell me if I tell me if I'm wrong after you probably

55:30 will anyway. It'll be interesting to know

55:36 though. I mean it's.

55:37 I'm not on the committees or anything, nothing to do with it.

55:40 Loads of people are sorting that out.

55:42 They are. We've just joined that.

55:45 I mean, did you say he was meant to have Clive Stewart on the

55:47 other day? I.

55:48 Was. Yeah, yeah.

55:51 Yeah. So Clive's part on that, we're

55:53 on the special interest group, the Be Wise committee for the

55:56 big yeah, clives on there really clued up so.

55:59 It is. Logging on to that when you when

56:01 you jump on with him. Eventually it was because he had

56:04 no the Internet was terrible where he was.

56:06 He wasn't he was meant to be at home, but when he he got there

56:10 was a delay in traffic and when he got to the site, when he saw

56:14 where the out. It was a trap trap programme

56:16 where you trap him out and then you take.

56:19 Him away. Yeah, he said the bees were

56:22 already out. It's too late.

56:23 So we had to go back at night. So that's what happened.

56:26 He had no Internet. No, it really was really cleared

56:30 up. You'll enjoy.

56:30 That when you're around. With him so passionate about

56:32 bees. Yeah, you are.

56:34 Everyone is, everyone is there. A little bee there.

56:38 Oh, nice. But there.

56:40 Yeah, but everyone is, but the vast majority, the general

56:43 public don't know differently. What's for the bee?

56:47 Oh, no, we've got no end of calls.

56:48 We don't got got got a wasp swarm at the house.

56:50 No, you've got a bee swarm. And and being in the pest

56:53 control industry, you're almost looked upon like you don't

56:56 actually want to help when it comes to bees, but that's you

56:59 couldn't it couldn't be any far removed from have our viewpoint

57:03 on. We don't, we don't do bees.

57:05 We just recommend that we've got a guy called Elliot and we we

57:08 pass the work on to him. He's done all the, he's done his

57:11 courses for Clive. He has, but like when they go,

57:15 I've got a wasp nest. Where is it?

57:17 It's in the chimney. You've got bees.

57:20 You've got bees. Oh, yeah.

57:24 I've only found it once where it wasn't within the crack of a

57:27 chimney at the bottom end and it was actually a wasp nest.

57:31 It wasn't bees. Yeah, very rare.

57:34 It's a tiny chimney and it was a wasp nest.

57:37 But it was at the crack of. It wasn't really in the chimney.

57:40 It was a wasp nest that but that was it.

57:44 It was, but they're. Crazy.

57:46 But they're but yeah, so so with have you got any advice to

57:53 people that wanted to start a pest control business or stay a

57:57 look in in pest control? If you've got a neat voice for

58:01 people that were wanting to maybe take the jump in start

58:05 themselves or any kind of advice, don't do it my.

58:10 Advice on it would be yeah, I think you're pretty similar, but

58:13 you'll have your say as well on it.

58:15 I think my advice to anybody that starts up their own

58:18 business, whether it's pest control or any business, is

58:21 expect that it will get hard, but having that willpower to go

58:27 through it anyway, You know, I feel like you, we call it

58:30 growing pains, don't we? Like you feel like you get to a

58:33 point where you you have to you're growing.

58:36 So it gets uncomfortable, it gets uncomfortable.

58:38 I think it's having the. Resilience.

58:41 Yeah, that's the word I was looking for, the resilience.

58:43 Keep going. To if.

58:44 If you're going to go for it, go for it.

58:47 Don't start if you've not got the mentality that you're going

58:49 to go all in to begin with. You know, like, as in keep

58:54 going. That's my advice.

58:57 Yeah, keep going. It's good advice.

59:01 I think I think with us in particular, because we obviously

59:03 are a couple, you know, married, I think.

59:07 Yeah, just. I don't know why I'm

59:08 highlighting that Everyone knows what.

59:12 No, I think for us, like when Steve has them moments where

59:15 he's like, oh, just, you know, I don't know if I've got this in

59:17 me anymore. I'm like, yes, we have, let's

59:19 go. And then if I have it, then

59:20 you're that, you know, we have that shrimp.

59:23 Any trouble really, don't we? Support, support and and do you

59:26 know what? Like, yes, we're lucky.

59:28 We are a couple and married. You know, I spoke about Kurt and

59:35 Becky. Sure, but your logo at the

59:37 bottom married. Married.

59:39 Yeah, I know. Tell me about it.

59:42 But, you know, they're, you know, Kurt, Becky, they have

59:44 each other to support on the things like that.

59:46 But even if you are not a couple are married, you know, like, and

59:50 you're going for it like lean on other people.

59:53 Lean on somebody like yourself, Sean, lean on people like us.

59:57 Becky kept like because you can't do it alone.

59:59 You can't do it like it would be, listen, you can't you can't

1:00:02 say that you wouldn't be able to like somebody out there might be

1:00:05 able to do it. But at the end of the day,

1:00:07 you're going to get better and you're going to get through it a

1:00:10 lot better if you lean on people.

1:00:12 Now, whether that's just for an ER to.

1:00:16 Shoot off or vent off a little bit of frustration at times.

1:00:19 Or, you know, like, run ideas past people, speak, talk to

1:00:23 people. That's what I do.

1:00:24 I speak to a lot of people that are so low off.

1:00:27 I think I speak to loads of people that you'll laugh.

1:00:30 I've obviously never met you to hopefully do one day.

1:00:33 Yeah, a lot. A lot of people that like Jason

1:00:37 McPhee in the chat, I speak to him regular, speak to Kurt

1:00:40 regular. Yeah, I speak to Andrew.

1:00:42 I speak to loads of people that I've not met many of them, but a

1:00:46 lot of them work by themselves. Yeah, I work with my dad.

1:00:50 So I'm kind of lucky in that sense.

1:00:51 But with with my, with a lot of people, they're, they're one man

1:00:58 companies or work by themselves and they are lonely.

1:01:01 So we do vent. We do, we talk about stuff and

1:01:04 it does help. It does it does it.

1:01:06 Should and, and I think it's listen, even if you work for the

1:01:09 bigger company. So Sean, you're out as a

1:01:11 technician, you've got your state of service, you go out,

1:01:14 you do your contracts, you do your routines, you do your job

1:01:17 work, but you're on your own. And it's always nice to be able

1:01:21 to lean on your mates, your friends, your family, you know,

1:01:25 to sort of get you through because it's, it is a lonely job

1:01:28 at times. You're out on your own, you

1:01:30 know. So having conversations with

1:01:34 people and being open minded as well when it comes, when you're

1:01:37 talking about growing as a company, like nobody knows

1:01:39 everything there is to know about.

1:01:41 Nobody here knows everything there is to know about pest

1:01:44 control. And anybody that says they do is

1:01:49 a liar, says, you know, similar to what you said earlier, but be

1:01:52 open minded, don't be narrow minded and think right, this is

1:01:56 the way I'm going to do it. And that's it.

1:01:57 Like be open minded, have conversations and actually take

1:02:00 the advice and utilise it on site, utilise that information

1:02:04 and, you know, trying to. Yeah.

1:02:07 How many times have we had conversations recently when I

1:02:11 was on the training, I was speaking with John Stewart and

1:02:13 he come out with some things and literally come away implemented

1:02:18 that with some of the guys on some of their sites they're

1:02:20 having issues with and we've had different results a week later,

1:02:23 you know? Excellent.

1:02:24 Yeah, it's not. It's not being shy as well.

1:02:26 I think with us, we've tried to like, like drum it in as well,

1:02:30 you know, with all of the technicians and the management

1:02:32 side of it. That is, if you're on site and

1:02:34 you're working with something that you, what they necessarily

1:02:37 see, like a technician that's on site and it's one of their sites

1:02:39 continuously is being able to pick up the phone and say,

1:02:42 right, I'm here, but I'm banging my head up against the brick

1:02:44 wall right now because I'm not like, you know, I'm not too

1:02:47 sure. I'm not, I'm not getting on top

1:02:49 of this problem. I, I need a little bit of

1:02:50 support on that. Then having that.

1:02:52 So we, you know, we can send a management team out or we can go

1:02:55 in and have a look at it and go, OK, show us what you're seeing

1:02:57 because someone might just see something, it's different.

1:03:00 You know, it could just be one thing because when you're

1:03:02 looking at something continuously over and over and

1:03:04 over again, sometimes you do what's that word I'm looking

1:03:06 for? Like almost like brain block.

1:03:08 Don't you like, how am I going to get what we're going to do

1:03:11 next? So I think it's important.

1:03:13 Tunnel vision, you get very tunnel vision, You'll go into

1:03:16 sight, you know, the areas you need to check, where you should

1:03:19 check and things like that. Technician, I was guilty of it

1:03:22 as well you know and the thing I love about what we do now is is

1:03:26 like we do get called into the problematic sites, you know

1:03:29 places that are having issues and I love getting my teeth sunk

1:03:32 into those ones. I love going and ripping up

1:03:35 flooring and taking off taking you know I love it love getting

1:03:39 involved in that sort of thing. Root cause analysis, having a

1:03:41 look at why the problem's there in the 1st place.

1:03:43 And a lot of it's complex, you know, commercial properties

1:03:47 within a big shopping centre for other than the sake, you know,

1:03:50 and love getting my teeth sunk into that sort of thing.

1:03:53 And that's, that's generally why I love the industry.

1:03:56 You know, it's different. It keeps your mind busy as

1:03:59 somebody who's on the, on the spectrum, like for me, it's,

1:04:03 it's brilliant. I'm sitting there getting

1:04:04 twitchy. I mean, I mean, I'll be honest,

1:04:07 I'm not, you know, but I've never been clever at school.

1:04:11 But I was never alive. I would say now in in pest

1:04:17 control, I'm very good at learning stuff.

1:04:20 I am at school. I was, I put it this way, I

1:04:23 didn't do really any GCSEs because I didn't think I'd

1:04:26 passed in little certificates. But you probably you probably

1:04:29 label that a name now if you were in a school, but it wasn't

1:04:32 like that. But then but I would because I

1:04:35 obviously I did my level 2 twice.

1:04:37 I passed my rodents. I failed the Part 2 and Part 3,

1:04:41 not by much. It went went again the second

1:04:45 time and I passed. I passed it all then, but they

1:04:49 got me. That time was cockroaches.

1:04:53 You know why go on. Up till a couple of weeks ago,

1:04:57 I've never done cockroaches ever.

1:04:59 No way. You don't get them in my area at

1:05:02 all and I don't. I we're doing a cockroach job in

1:05:06 my town now. I can't tell you why they're

1:05:09 there. I don't know.

1:05:11 We don't have them. It was fun.

1:05:15 It was, it was fun. It was.

1:05:16 It was fun. It was fun to do it.

1:05:19 Yeah, it was. But I now know based off the

1:05:22 course how to do them. Yeah.

1:05:25 Before that I've never done cockroaches.

1:05:27 That's more we don't go into Leicester, DC or I'm out in

1:05:31 Oakham, Rutland and that's more of a city thing.

1:05:34 We don't really deal with in the main city because we won't be

1:05:37 able to compete with the prices there because because there's so

1:05:41 many companies in Leicester we wouldn't be worth us doing.

1:05:44 Yeah, so if ever you want to deal with some cockroaches, let

1:05:48 me know. We'll arrange a day out.

1:05:49 You can come down and and spend the day with one of our.

1:05:51 Guys, rain, rain on me. I've heard of them.

1:05:54 I've heard of that. My my American.

1:05:56 I've got there's an American podcast listening to and a

1:05:59 friend with Jenny and she and she does cockroaches and she

1:06:04 couldn't get over the fact I don't do them regularly.

1:06:06 He says they are going to send you a video next time.

1:06:09 I'm doing the job with them raining all over me.

1:06:11 You don't get over it. But but yeah, you'll.

1:06:17 Have to somebody get a video you'll have to send that across

1:06:19 so we can see that as well because we we were talking to

1:06:23 was it today yesterday was talking about cockroaches

1:06:25 dealing with them. We actually quite enjoy dealing

1:06:27 with with them weirdly because they're, you know.

1:06:32 I have a least favourite pet and not a pet, a least favourite

1:06:36 pest that I'd avoid. I just I can pretty much work

1:06:40 with everything pest related, but I'm just not a lover of

1:06:42 rats. I'm not don't.

1:06:46 Often see them though to be fair.

1:06:48 Not a lover of rats? Listen, I'll do whatever I need

1:06:51 to do when I'm out and you know my professional hats on and I'm

1:06:55 in that environment. But rats are just not my

1:06:57 favourite thing, although I had a pet rat when I was a child.

1:07:02 What's your favourite Peston? What's your favourite Peston?

1:07:05 I love bed bugs. Bed bugs, bed bugs and.

1:07:08 Cockroaches, I think, fascinate me the most.

1:07:10 You bring them home with you. No, never.

1:07:13 Touchwood. Touchwood.

1:07:16 Yeah, Never. My favourite, probably.

1:07:18 Probably my children, to be fair.

1:07:20 I think my least favourite actually, I don't like rats, but

1:07:23 I think my least favourite is fleas.

1:07:24 I'm not a lover of fleas either, They just yeah.

1:07:27 I love bed bugs. I love a bed bug case.

1:07:29 I love just yeah. All right.

1:07:35 Yeah, probably bed bugs and yeah, probably bed bugs for me

1:07:40 too. Mice.

1:07:41 Yeah, listen, I just enjoy it. It's different.

1:07:44 It's it's different. Yeah, definitely.

1:07:46 What about you then? My.

1:07:49 Favourite sports? Yeah, you.

1:07:53 See enough of them. Yeah, I know.

1:07:55 Yeah, pretty. It's gone quite quiet, but on on

1:07:59 Monday with these six wast nests did.

1:08:02 You really? Yeah, not done any since.

1:08:05 I've not done any any nests since though.

1:08:06 How? Much do you charge for wast

1:08:08 nests then, Sean? How much do you think I charge?

1:08:12 I have no idea. I have no idea, but I hear it's

1:08:14 a big topic for debate in a minute, isn't it?

1:08:17 Too cheap, Too expensive. £100 was fat, fair play.

1:08:23 We put it up. We we, we had it at £80 plus VAT

1:08:26 for years, so it's due an increase so we did it.

1:08:31 Because. You might you potentially need

1:08:33 to return if it fails, there's more chance of failing now

1:08:36 because of a different product, but there.

1:08:39 But that's what we do. But there was a beauties and

1:08:42 Beasties podcast if you want to watch it.

1:08:44 They were on about that. That's the old topic.

1:08:47 That was oh. Really.

1:08:49 Yeah, there was a whole, it was on must nest prices, but it

1:08:53 didn't manage to get somebody on.

1:08:55 That was at the real low end, unfortunately.

1:08:58 They appeared in the chat but they wouldn't come on.

1:09:01 They wouldn't, They wouldn't. So if you need to think, you

1:09:04 need to go on Facebook and look at the chat at the same time.

1:09:07 Yeah, you lost me. At Facebook you get.

1:09:10 What you get, what you pay for at the end of the day, if you

1:09:13 want a decent service, then people will pay, you know, the

1:09:15 right price. And I think I think you're about

1:09:17 right with it. I think it's it's fair fall,

1:09:19 fall it. In yeah, I mean, I mean, I know

1:09:21 there's big companies that charge because we, we do a Golf

1:09:24 Club and I don't do the Golf Club, a big national does it,

1:09:30 but we do their lost nest in the summer.

1:09:33 Yeah, we do because they charge about £400 a nest and we don't.

1:09:36 Wow. It is what it is for them,

1:09:40 isn't? It but obviously obviously for

1:09:42 commercial that was a domestic price.

1:09:44 We charge a little bit more for commercial.

1:09:47 Commercial we do more so only a little bit more but we do but we

1:09:51 have tried to get this Golf Club off off we have tried to get

1:09:55 this Golf Club and the laugh the actual blokes that you know pay

1:09:59 for them also say lovers they think we're great.

1:10:01 We haven't managed to convince the probably higher ups to get

1:10:05 us in. Yeah, they haven't.

1:10:07 But one day we'll get there. Give us.

1:10:11 Give us, listen, give us a shout, drop us a message and

1:10:14 I'll see if I can help you out with that.

1:10:16 Like from from your point of view, because I know you were

1:10:18 saying before about the South side of it.

1:10:20 It's probably just about trying to identify, you know, why.

1:10:23 What is it that you need to sort of, you know, what do you need

1:10:27 to say to them to and who you need to speak to and who you

1:10:28 need to speak to getting in front of the right person.

1:10:31 It is great. Yeah.

1:10:32 But I've heard, I've heard a certain company where if you

1:10:35 tell them you're leaving, you've got a better deal.

1:10:37 They sent out a sales Rep and they basically do do what you

1:10:41 want and then they stay with them.

1:10:43 Yeah, that as well. Termination Termination team so.

1:10:48 That's what I've heard. Yeah, listen, I'll be honest

1:10:51 with you mate, but if customers, if we've ever had a customer

1:10:56 turn around and say that they want to leave, you know, for me,

1:11:00 that opens the door for a conversation.

1:11:01 You know, why, what's what's happened?

1:11:03 Because we must have got something wrong.

1:11:04 If you want to leave, we must have something wrong.

1:11:07 You know, what is it? A lot of the times somebody

1:11:10 complaining and wanting to leave for me is is a, is another

1:11:15 opportunity to get in there in front of in front of them and

1:11:17 say, you know, we must be missing something If you want to

1:11:20 leave us. You know, I can stomach if it is

1:11:23 based on price, because you know, like somebody else has

1:11:27 come in and they want to do this and it's based on price and I

1:11:30 can't in any way than than fair enough.

1:11:32 But if it's because of an issue or, you know, we're, we're not,

1:11:36 you know, there's a problem that you need help with, then we, we

1:11:39 can help you with it. You know, we can, we can deal

1:11:41 with that. So I always look at a, a

1:11:43 complaint or a termination thing as a, as an opportunity to go in

1:11:46 and look at getting another Sal, you know, like up and you know,

1:11:50 what is it? You know what are we doing

1:11:51 wrong? Yeah, 100%.

1:11:54 Even as a person, in anything that you sort of buy into as a

1:11:57 as a person, I would much rather work with somebody that is

1:12:01 willing to fix a problem or acknowledge that the problem

1:12:03 needs to be fixed and help you with that.

1:12:05 Then someone that's just not interested at all and doesn't,

1:12:07 you know, doesn't care, I think. Because sometimes you've got to

1:12:11 let people you know, rectify a situation.

1:12:16 And if, if you can, sometimes the person, the client isn't

1:12:22 willing to let you, they're just like, I want to know.

1:12:25 That's it. But but a lot of times you can

1:12:28 rectify it. You can.

1:12:30 Yeah, 100 percent, 100%. And if you've built up that

1:12:33 relationship with them, then they should let you.

1:12:35 To be fair, they should. They will normally work with you

1:12:37 to. Yeah, it should be.

1:12:38 It should be a working relationship.

1:12:40 If you've got, if you've got a good working relationship with

1:12:42 your customers and your clients, then you're you're halfway

1:12:45 there. Yeah, million percent.

1:12:46 You know, somebody has to pick up the phone and saying, Kylie,

1:12:48 you know, what is going on over here, I need help.

1:12:50 And me going, OK, talk to me, what's happening?

1:12:52 And, you know, it's better than someone not being able to reach

1:12:55 you or not being, you know, not getting the answers they want to

1:12:57 the frustrations they're experiencing.

1:12:59 So it's good. Yeah.

1:13:01 Yeah. We try our best.

1:13:03 Yeah. Well, you're doing a good job so

1:13:07 far from what I can see. Thank you.

1:13:09 Thank you. Thank you.

1:13:10 It's a lot. I think not seeing any advance

1:13:12 in my area yet. Listen, never unmarks.

1:13:15 Don't worry about that, Sean. Never marks.

1:13:17 Oh, no, no. It's it's one of those where.

1:13:23 Yeah, no. No, generally I'll be unmarked.

1:13:26 Really unmarked. Oh, so you go for that discreet

1:13:29 route? Yeah, 1,000,000% I think.

1:13:31 I mean our, I mean our van's got a big wasp on it, you see.

1:13:35 You've got a what? Sorry.

1:13:37 A big what cartoon? Have have you ever seen my logo

1:13:40 on the on my LinkedIn? Yeah, well, there's a big

1:13:43 cartoon wasp on the van as. You see, I love that we we had.

1:13:48 Batted in, the big rat on the line.

1:13:49 Graphics, we had all of the graphics on on our, on our

1:13:52 vehicles before now we, you know, we a lot of our clients

1:13:58 don't want, want the advertisement there, you know.

1:14:02 The obviousness of what it is that you're coming.

1:14:04 For especially if you're dealing with residential, have you got,

1:14:07 you know, I was speaking to somebody the other day and they

1:14:09 were saying that one of the big companies had, you know, the

1:14:12 technician on site in his van and surveyor met up with him in

1:14:15 his van, bought a new technician with him and then someone else

1:14:18 came to pick something up. So he ended up with three or

1:14:20 four vehicles outside this one residential property and the

1:14:24 owner sitting there going, you know, well, nice and discreet

1:14:27 guys, nice and discreet. So it works, you know, it works

1:14:31 both ways. You know, we miss out on the

1:14:33 advertisement, I suppose, because getting the name out

1:14:36 there. But we've, we've never really

1:14:38 been like that. We it's been word of mouth and

1:14:40 it's organic. It's a cheaper van wise.

1:14:42 You start to get wrapped, do you?

1:14:44 No, exactly. Cuts that out as well.

1:14:46 It does and. Most of them they don't clean

1:14:49 either, so it's we, don't they. Bless them, yeah.

1:14:54 But, but no, it's I, I, I did once recently, I did a job and

1:14:59 there was. You're not allowed to tell

1:15:01 anyone what you're doing, are you?

1:15:03 Yeah. She just said, oh, I think it's,

1:15:04 she says, oh, I think it's irresponsible.

1:15:06 You're not telling me. I just said it's nothing for you

1:15:10 to. I was doing a flea job.

1:15:12 I just said it's nothing for you to worry about.

1:15:14 I need to get my house. It wasn't connected.

1:15:16 It's like literally like 2 doors down.

1:15:20 I said it's not. Yeah, I know.

1:15:22 I said I can't tell you it's not allowed to, but I'm telling you

1:15:26 now. It's nothing to worry about.

1:15:28 And then in the end she was like, OK, I said, but I said

1:15:31 it's nothing to worry about. It's not rats.

1:15:33 If you think that's what all right.

1:15:35 I was worried it was rats. It's not rats.

1:15:38 But I said I can't tell you. I said I'm not allowed to.

1:15:43 Did you ask her if she had a problem with rats or anything

1:15:45 at? All I didn't ask her, but I told

1:15:49 the class. Oh, she's always asking you.

1:15:50 Well, no, absolutely. But I don't like, I don't like

1:15:56 saying it. Sometimes it's just on a wasp

1:15:58 nest. Yeah, even though it's not true.

1:16:02 Yeah, most people talk about that, but I generally try not to

1:16:05 text. I try not to say anything.

1:16:07 Yeah, just yeah, I suppose it closes conversation down as

1:16:11 Carly just said there it's see I look at that and I go or have a

1:16:16 conversation with with. And your van, your vans wouldn't

1:16:19 know because they wouldn't know you're a pest control.

1:16:21 No, exactly. Nobody would ask.

1:16:25 You could be a builder for all they know.

1:16:26 Or a plumber. Exactly.

1:16:30 It can have the opposite effect because you could go into a

1:16:32 property that's, you know, it could be a block of flats, could

1:16:34 be anything that's got a rodent issue, say, and someone sees you

1:16:36 then and they've got a pest control problem.

1:16:38 They've got you there and then, haven't they?

1:16:40 They can go, Oh, you know, we've had that before.

1:16:42 We're going you. Oh, we need, I need you to come

1:16:45 and have a look at. I went and did a property once

1:16:48 and another lady, Scottish lady come out and she had an issue

1:16:51 and her property and asked me to take a look at it whilst I was

1:16:53 there and then because she knew that I was pest control.

1:16:56 So that's nice. It has it's yeah, it.

1:16:59 Was a nice one, wasn't it, that one.

1:17:01 Yeah, about that, yeah. I've been slacked down before.

1:17:06 Yeah, no it. Is good.

1:17:07 You do, you do wasp, I said yeah, big wasp on the van.

1:17:10 You know what best for it. Two years ago though, it was.

1:17:15 But yeah, we do do Wasps. And people do, they do take the

1:17:20 numbers down as well. Like we've had it ourselves

1:17:22 everywhere and we've needed something at home or whatever

1:17:24 else, you know, you see someone's got a vehicle and it's

1:17:26 got the logo on it. It's easy to just take it

1:17:28 nowadays with your smartphones. It's easy to just take a boat

1:17:30 quickly, isn't it? I'm going to ring them later.

1:17:32 You know, it definitely has its, IT has its pros and it's cons, I

1:17:38 think. Yeah, million percent vehicles,

1:17:40 again, each to their own. You know it works for some

1:17:42 people, it doesn't work for others, and you just got to find

1:17:45 what works for you at the end of.

1:17:46 The day we had a smart car, didn't we?

1:17:48 It was logoed up for you. It was like.

1:17:50 Didn't have air con. It was like.

1:17:52 A greenhouse during the summer you had to drive along both

1:17:56 windows. Wide open, but probably open.

1:17:58 At the same time all over it. Pests right all over it at the

1:18:01 time, that was such a good car to.

1:18:03 Drive and the amount of people that would say, oh, we see your

1:18:06 Smart car there all day, We see your Smart car there all day.

1:18:08 It was conference because. It sounds it stands out, isn't

1:18:11 it? Because it obviously it was

1:18:12 wrapped completely. But yeah, but now we're all,

1:18:15 we're all discreet now, aren't we?

1:18:16 Yeah, just white bands. Nothing like in the states.

1:18:18 You've ever been to the States, John saying saying the pest

1:18:21 controls over there. They have to have pick up

1:18:25 trucks, don't they as well? Don't know what Yeah.

1:18:27 So they they have some, they wrap them.

1:18:29 Yeah. Huge, huge, huge things going

1:18:32 like, I mean, we, we was in New York a few, few years back.

1:18:36 And do you remember the cockroach?

1:18:37 Giant cockroach on the roof, like a big, huge model of it.

1:18:41 Just Yeah, just you could see it.

1:18:43 No. What was the name of It's like

1:18:44 exterminator. No, sorry, I said it wrong.

1:18:47 They're all called exterminators, don't they?

1:18:49 Yeah, they are Pest exterminator.

1:18:51 I'm pretty sure it's like. It's different over there.

1:18:54 It's different like how pest control works over there,

1:18:56 because if someone, if someone says they've got ants, you can

1:18:59 just just spray. You can do what you like.

1:19:02 Yeah. Whereas here you've got a proof

1:19:04 it's actually a problem. One actually cares.

1:19:07 Like over here, we always feel like we're everyone's pest.

1:19:10 But in some states, so if you're in, you're in California and now

1:19:14 you this proper in certain states, like you can't just do

1:19:17 that because over there there's, there's fines.

1:19:20 You can incur fines and be taken to court.

1:19:23 They're using the wrong chemicals.

1:19:25 Yeah, it's quite serious in like California and the states of New

1:19:30 York and stuff. If you've, if you've used the

1:19:32 wrong chemical, there's been a mistake.

1:19:34 They actually have people that can pull you over in your van to

1:19:37 check your van and check what work you've done, like the pest

1:19:41 control, police as such, and you could end up with fines.

1:19:45 It doesn't happen very often, but you can.

1:19:48 It's what officers that do it, not police officers.

1:19:51 But you won't get it in. It's licenced over there.

1:19:55 You say it's licenced. You can lose a licence do.

1:20:00 You think it should be over here?

1:20:03 No, I don't. Everyone says yes, but you got

1:20:06 to be careful what you wish for in a way.

1:20:08 Yeah. It's like when, when, if it if

1:20:10 it was to happen, you'd have to have all the products removed

1:20:15 from the domestic market. I reckon then it'd be worth it.

1:20:18 But a lot of people for licencing, I'm not, I'm not

1:20:24 because I do know. Although yeah, it may, it may be

1:20:27 better in some way, it may shoot you in the foot as well because

1:20:32 companies won't be able to afford to do it.

1:20:35 As such a smaller like 1-2 people companies who probably

1:20:40 struggle with it because they have to do their entity to pest

1:20:45 control, very different. Some of them you have to get so

1:20:49 many qualifications to even do the job.

1:20:52 It's they can't just lie here. They can't set a firm up.

1:20:56 But in the UK you can go and do your basic rodenticide course

1:20:59 and you could go and advertise the next day when you got it.

1:21:03 But in America it's so different.

1:21:05 You've got to be in business, you've got to get your business

1:21:08 licence, you've got to get all this done.

1:21:09 The other qualifications and the licences.

1:21:13 It's not as simple in America it's not, but they do, they do

1:21:18 spray when they haven't got problems, exterior sprays, it

1:21:23 all depending on what, what state you live in.

1:21:26 You can tell I've speaking to a lot of Americans.

1:21:28 You see, I'm not an expert on it, but they do tell me.

1:21:33 They have told me on the podcast before, but it's but they can't

1:21:39 get over the fact when I tell them I can't spray outside for

1:21:41 ants or any any kind of things around the exterior building.

1:21:45 But you can't say no. We have to read the label.

1:21:48 We use the correct products. We can't just spray.

1:21:51 And they were like, oh, we can, you can, but we can't.

1:21:58 I don't really see ants as a problem unless they're in

1:22:00 someone's house because they're not technically a pest.

1:22:03 We're, we're, we're in their place, aren't we?

1:22:05 We're in there. Bless them.

1:22:10 Yeah, no, but it's, it's, it's interesting how pest control

1:22:15 from around the world is different.

1:22:17 Some countries don't care about health and safety whatsoever.

1:22:21 They don't. Probably.

1:22:23 You're probably more Africa, countries like that, they're

1:22:27 very different over there. It's probably education and what

1:22:32 products cost and stuff. And you've got like some parts

1:22:36 of America where you can do what you like and other parts where

1:22:40 you can you have to do. But you can always follow the

1:22:44 label, shouldn't you? Just saying that some states are

1:22:46 super strict. Yeah, but I don't know.

1:22:51 I don't know whether that's a bad thing, to be fair, you know,

1:22:54 I don't know whether it's a bad thing.

1:22:55 I don't think so, no. I would say going back to that

1:22:58 subject earlier on around what you give as advice to somebody

1:23:02 that's going to start prepare to have no social life for a long

1:23:07 period of time. Yeah.

1:23:12 Yeah, because you work 24/7, 7 days a week, you are always

1:23:17 working. Yeah, it doesn't stop.

1:23:24 Yeah, it's worth it. We love the industry that we're

1:23:27 in and we're creating the life that we want in the in the

1:23:31 interim. So we can't really thought it

1:23:34 and we're still together, still married, so can't be happy.

1:23:37 Yeah, I would thought my message, my message to work in

1:23:40 the business. Eventually, when I finally take

1:23:42 over properly to a degree I would.

1:23:47 People say, how do you, how are you married?

1:23:49 How do you have five children? How do you work together as well

1:23:52 every single day of the week. And I think you've just got a,

1:23:54 you've got a really. Like five children you do very

1:23:57 well then within the company and five children I've only got,

1:24:00 we've got 211 on the beach. We have but five.

1:24:03 Well done. Yeah, three of them are

1:24:06 homeschooled as well. So it is never, ever a dull

1:24:08 moment, is it? It's just constant.

1:24:10 Go, go, go. We've got TV's installed in

1:24:11 every room now, Sean. What's the toilet?

1:24:18 Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's it's listen it yeah, I

1:24:22 wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change it.

1:24:24 Yes, it's hard, yes, it's hard, but you just got to keep going

1:24:27 are. You are you planning to in the

1:24:30 future, would you like your kids to take over the business or are

1:24:34 you looking to like exit? I don't think they.

1:24:36 Can give us a chart choice. If I'm honest with you, I think

1:24:39 they're already planning our exit, already planning our exit

1:24:42 in the business as we speak. No.

1:24:44 SO the second from oldest has already been told that he's

1:24:50 going to be level 2 trained, getting through all of his

1:24:53 qualifications because he he's the one that's in between not

1:24:56 knowing what he wants to do. The older one wants to be an

1:24:59 architect. This one wants to be a dancer,

1:25:02 and Harrison, bless him, hasn't got a clue what he wants to do.

1:25:04 So I said that's fine. You know, we're going to bring

1:25:06 you into the industry. If you're saying it, you're

1:25:08 saying it great, because I think I think it's amazing.

1:25:10 But if you don't, it goes on something else that's different.

1:25:13 But they'll always have something behind them to be

1:25:16 involved in. I would personally, I'd love

1:25:18 nothing more than for them to be involved in the family business.

1:25:20 Yeah, same. It would be good.

1:25:22 It will because I know a lot of a lot of firms at the minute are

1:25:25 selling. They are a lot of them.

1:25:27 They are, as we say, I've seen it.

1:25:30 I'm not, I'm not a fan of the people selling the businesses,

1:25:33 but that's me. But if they're happy to do it

1:25:36 and it's up to them, it's, there's been a lot of businesses

1:25:39 though sold recently we've. Got no plans to sell our

1:25:43 business. Which makes it better for people

1:25:45 like you and I, Sean, because the, the more businesses that

1:25:49 are sold into these bigger franchise, bigger, bigger corps,

1:25:53 the, the more competition, the less competition there is for,

1:25:55 for, for us. You know what I mean?

1:25:57 They're all. A lot of them are keeping them

1:25:58 separate though, aren't they? They're like the group owns it,

1:26:02 but they're keeping them under the same brands they had before

1:26:05 and not merging them as well. I've noticed they've stopped

1:26:11 doing it. They were just gobbling them up

1:26:13 and now a lot of them are keeping them by themselves.

1:26:17 Like you've got the pest control partnership where they acquire

1:26:20 the company, but the people that are running the company before

1:26:24 still run the company and they leave them alone.

1:26:26 That's the way if there's any help they want and then leave

1:26:29 them to their own devices just to run the term.

1:26:32 Mad isn't. It we're not, we're on

1:26:35 admission. Yeah.

1:26:36 We're on admission. We're not I.

1:26:37 Bet you I bet you have emails every day asking if you want to

1:26:40 send it. We have emails too and I don't

1:26:43 think you just don't reply. Did you say your dad set set it

1:26:48 up? Was it your dad that started?

1:26:50 It how long? How long was he in it?

1:26:54 My dad started up pest control and he's he.

1:26:57 He wasn't actually working in pest control he just literally

1:27:00 his mate said pest control is a good job to have.

1:27:03 So the best probably over 10 years ago.

1:27:06 Oh, fair. Play but.

1:27:09 It was a side job to start with alongside his normal job until

1:27:13 he built it up a bit and then then he took it to his full time

1:27:17 job and he then he asked me if I wanted to start and I'd only

1:27:21 just become very social media and LinkedIn, etcetera.

1:27:24 In the last two years. All that I was, I didn't didn't

1:27:29 go on Facebook groups or anything.

1:27:31 I was very because it all used to be negative, but a lot of

1:27:34 people now are a lot more positive on groups.

1:27:37 Not everyone but a lot. I've had to tell people of

1:27:42 course you're on a pest control training group.

1:27:45 Help the person, don't laugh at them 100%.

1:27:49 It's a big thing for us. I think what I love about

1:27:51 LinkedIn the most is that it is it cuts out all of that, that

1:27:55 you know that like you say that negative stuff that you would

1:27:57 see on Facebook and your instagrams and faces like that.

1:28:00 And you know, it's very business focused as well.

1:28:02 LinkedIn but like when I see people, you know, exposing other

1:28:06 companies for their wrongdoings on sites and, you know, not

1:28:09 putting this right and that right.

1:28:12 You're about the ones that promote their business, but they

1:28:14 show you crappy boxes. Yeah, without the logo.

1:28:17 I don't like that. Yeah, we're not.

1:28:19 We're. Not it makes the whole industry

1:28:21 look bad, but they think it's great.

1:28:22 It really does. And I think you're, you're,

1:28:24 you're so right. You know, I was the other day

1:28:26 where someone had put something up in it and it wasn't, it

1:28:29 wasn't correct. That bait being secured in this,

1:28:32 yeah, no. Yeah, and it and I, I sort of, I

1:28:34 didn't want to, but I did sort of write an oppose and it was

1:28:37 just a little nervous to say like, you know, hey, Hun, have a

1:28:39 look at this. Like, you know, it wasn't I

1:28:41 don't like it when people actually attack people on posts

1:28:44 and really and show their wrongdoings to, you know, make

1:28:47 themselves look better. I don't think that's the.

1:28:50 I don't think that should be done, to be honest.

1:28:51 But sometimes with these old boxes and that right, this is

1:28:54 what people ain't getting. You don't know if that client's

1:28:59 telling you the 100% truth. He might have not paid the bill

1:29:02 in six months and that's why they've not come back.

1:29:05 And you're in a state and you don't know.

1:29:07 They could say, oh, well, we pay all this money and then don't

1:29:10 turn up. You haven't got the full story.

1:29:13 But some people just believe them.

1:29:16 You should believe the client, but sometimes you haven't got

1:29:18 all the information. But they might, They might have,

1:29:22 you know, said we don't want you anymore and not have pest

1:29:24 control in a year, a year or so. But all the boxes are there

1:29:26 Milky, you know, cobwebs everywhere.

1:29:29 But they're saying, Oh no, the pest control just don't just

1:29:31 doesn't turn up. There is context that people

1:29:35 couldn't believe always 100% believe it because it happens.

1:29:39 It does. Yeah, 1,000,000%.

1:29:41 I agree, I agree 100%. It's just not.

1:29:43 I just don't think it's right to try and knock someone else down

1:29:46 to bring yourself up. I just don't think that's the

1:29:48 way. I don't think that's a done

1:29:49 thing. I haven't seen it so much

1:29:51 recently on LinkedIn but I there was a point where there was

1:29:54 loads of it happening. It was quite annoying.

1:29:58 Unless I'm just not saying their posts.

1:30:00 Maybe it's that, I don't know. Because I think sometimes if you

1:30:03 get fixated on a post, you start to create a bit of an algorithm

1:30:06 for you. See more post content like that.

1:30:09 I don't tend to find something like that, so I don't really see

1:30:11 much of it. I think that's the reason, isn't

1:30:13 it? Because, you know, it's a little

1:30:14 bit tricky, the Internet. I don't get to go on it much.

1:30:19 Steve's not a big, he's not a big social media person.

1:30:22 No, no, I'm, I'm on everything. I'm on TikTok.

1:30:25 Come on. I do all the gym stuff now, all

1:30:28 that's on there. You're doing well with that,

1:30:30 though initial I've. Seen 8-9 stone that I think.

1:30:35 Congratulations. Actually, I'm actually like a

1:30:37 brand influencer for Wake World, so I get a lot of free

1:30:42 supplements and stuff like that. Oh nice.

1:30:47 Well. I got I got an article put in

1:30:49 the MPTA newsletter. It's about basically linking

1:30:56 health and fitness and mobility to pest control, doing our jobs

1:31:01 better. And because I broke my knee

1:31:03 twice, that's why I lost all this weight.

1:31:05 And both have been pest control. Both actually not one of them

1:31:10 was on a job. We fell in the garden, Lucky my

1:31:12 dad was there. And the second time I broke, I

1:31:15 broke. I broke my knee again at the

1:31:17 bottom of my garden. So it can't happen again.

1:31:21 So that's what made me switch in my brain.

1:31:23 April 2024 went to the gym after the surgery when I could and

1:31:28 I've never looked back since that.

1:31:30 I love training. It's like a bit of an addiction

1:31:32 going going going to the gym. Don't get me wrong in now I am

1:31:36 quite I'm one of the you know, the weight wise.

1:31:39 I'm you know, for lifting weight.

1:31:41 I'm I'm on dead lift him. I'm on the bigger side of the

1:31:44 gym now. But but because I'm careful

1:31:49 though, when I do it, but I do I do really enjoy it.

1:31:53 But yeah, I've got an article put it.

1:31:54 I don't know if you've seen it, I did the MPJ news player the

1:31:57 other. Day.

1:31:58 Actually, I did. Say I'm going to try and get see

1:32:02 if I can get an article or something put in there that's a

1:32:06 mag, See if they're out something about me in there.

1:32:09 It might help. I'm not APT, but it might hit

1:32:13 someone that ate APT or you know, mega mega fit to explain

1:32:18 why they did it and why it helps the job because it it really

1:32:22 helps. It does.

1:32:23 I'm still not where I want to be, but I'm I'm progressing.

1:32:27 I am. Yeah.

1:32:29 It's not easy to flip that mindset.

1:32:31 It's not easy. But my mindset changed

1:32:34 everything. It changed the way I thought

1:32:37 about pest control. It changed everything.

1:32:40 My outlook on life, Everything changed with that.

1:32:44 I haven't haven't changed since. Good.

1:32:48 For you. But yeah, it's, it's been good.

1:32:51 It has. You look like a guy who

1:32:54 deadlifts. Yeah.

1:32:56 You're joking. You are joking.

1:32:59 Years ago maybe I've got. Listen I I sweat just looking at

1:33:03 a set of stairs. Yeah.

1:33:05 Yeah, no, it's not. I used to enjoy it, but it's

1:33:08 that's that's probably one of the hardest things about growing

1:33:12 any sort of business, whether it's having.

1:33:15 A time, yeah, having. A time like for me it's we've

1:33:19 got a big family, we work constantly and and it's then

1:33:23 I'm. Going back out to work.

1:33:24 Tonight, yeah, going back out tonight and.

1:33:27 Oh. Yeah, yeah, another, another

1:33:30 problematic one. I'm going to go and have a look

1:33:32 at that. But it's, you know, having the

1:33:34 time before we jump in on to this, having some time with the

1:33:37 kids after we finish work, having some time with the

1:33:40 kiddies, getting them tucked up into bed.

1:33:42 I'm actually surprised if not I've made an appearance if I'm

1:33:45 honest with you mate. Yeah.

1:33:47 They've done really well, bless them, but it's, it's finding

1:33:50 that balance. I you hear it all the time, work

1:33:53 life balance, but it's, it's more complicated than that,

1:33:56 isn't it? I do, I do have one actually.

1:33:59 But if our business, the plan is, but it's new rebrand and

1:34:03 everything, I'm hoping to get the business bigger.

1:34:07 That's such another more work rolling.

1:34:11 So I do, I do pick my kids up from school generally most of

1:34:16 the time. But if the business gets where I

1:34:18 want it to be, it may not be able to as much.

1:34:21 Yeah, it's, it's difficult. I mean, we, I mean, you said,

1:34:27 what's it you said to Flo this morning?

1:34:29 You know, if my boss lets me, I'll come home and, you know,

1:34:32 finish early and I'll come and see you and you'll say, oh, wait

1:34:34 a minute, I am the boss. I will come up with early and I

1:34:38 will come and sit down with you. We didn't get that.

1:34:42 We didn't get home early. We finished later because it was

1:34:44 another busy day. And you know, so yeah, it's

1:34:50 that's the most difficult part of it.

1:34:52 That's the most difficult part. Of.

1:34:56 It yeah, time. Definitely.

1:34:59 But it's been a good conversation, I think.

1:35:01 Hey, is there anything else you wanted to mention?

1:35:03 Do you know if you covered what you wanted to say or?

1:35:06 You were covered in, didn't we? But often tangents left, right

1:35:10 and centre, so I apologise. I don't mind it.

1:35:12 Our people don't mind it. It's a bit of it's all, it's all

1:35:15 fun. It is.

1:35:16 It's a it's a good conversation. But yeah, thanks.

1:35:19 Thanks for agreeing to come on. No, thank you for.

1:35:22 Having us, I think it's, I think it's been really good.

1:35:24 I think a lot of people will enjoy it.

1:35:26 They will, yeah, I reckon. Yeah.

1:35:30 I usually do so a lot of people listen.

1:35:34 There's like 4 people watching now but most of the views and

1:35:38 downloads come after, a couple like days after and stuff.

1:35:42 But it does do quite well. It's growing.

1:35:44 It's growing. Afterwards is it?

1:35:47 It will be. I will, I will.

1:35:49 I will put it up on Apple. Spotify it is.

1:35:53 Yeah. It will be on Apple podcast as

1:35:56 well. That is not the dominant

1:35:57 platform for me anymore. It's Spotify, yeah.

1:36:01 Because Apple years ago used to be the Apple podcast was the de

1:36:05 facto podcast app. Yeah.

1:36:10 But now, since Spotify put loads of money into video podcasting

1:36:14 and paying, paying all these top influencers and all podcasters,

1:36:20 statistically, it's now Spotify that are #1 In terms of

1:36:23 podcasts, some sites say it's to Apple, but we look into a lot of

1:36:28 the stats. It's Spotify podcast.

1:36:32 They invested a lot into video. They backed on video, you see?

1:36:35 Yeah. Do you get you got an iPhone do

1:36:38 do the podcast play videos on there.

1:36:42 Do you know what I? You.

1:36:43 You wouldn't know, would you? No, I wouldn't.

1:36:46 I wouldn't ask me to write an e-mail or put something

1:36:49 together, a word or something like that. 365 I'm fine on it.

1:36:52 But when it goes social, I just don't do it.

1:36:55 I just don't, unfortunately. Oh, but it looks a bit.

1:36:58 You don't need to. You're growing your business.

1:37:00 You're doing well without social.

1:37:02 Yeah. You do a little bit on socials,

1:37:05 don't you? You do.

1:37:07 Yeah, I post quite a bit of content on.

1:37:09 Kylie does on LinkedIn. Yeah, Kylie does and.

1:37:12 Of course, try and keep up with me then.

1:37:15 Yeah, just yeah, I don't. I tried.

1:37:17 I'll say what I'm saying. Let's put a little post on there

1:37:20 or you know what I've been doing that day.

1:37:22 But you, you're not a huge you're too busy.

1:37:26 Yeah, yeah. This I probably should be a

1:37:28 little bit more vocal on there. You know, there are things that

1:37:31 are going on in the industry that I don't agree with and

1:37:33 there are. Things you don't need to, you

1:37:34 don't need to, you don't need to say what you want, but you've

1:37:37 got to, you've always got to be prepared.

1:37:40 Be prepared for some kind of negative because obviously I had

1:37:44 a post that exploded on LinkedIn when I told people my opinion on

1:37:48 companies shouldn't really be put in on their pest control

1:37:53 brand accounts and socials dead animals and that got a lot of

1:37:59 traction. Was it?

1:38:01 Was it positive? A lot of mostly good, but a lot

1:38:04 of people said that you should be able to put whatever you want

1:38:07 up. No, but if, but if I put that on

1:38:10 my all my socials, I'm telling you now I live in Brookland.

1:38:15 I would lose a lot of work. They wouldn't if I put that all

1:38:19 I get sick already off some people or you know, put my mole

1:38:24 posts up. But I don't post moles.

1:38:26 Actually, they're not moles. I'm always nice.

1:38:29 I reply, I reply, but calling this is great.

1:38:32 It's one guy. It's one guy I do well on next

1:38:35 door app and he always tells me how beneficial Wasps are and

1:38:40 they are. I agree with him, but I always

1:38:42 put thank you. It's always appreciated and

1:38:44 great to hear from you. Because when he moans, the

1:38:47 traction on the post skyrockets. I always thank him.

1:38:52 I do I. Do I'm I'm not personally for

1:38:56 it. I think it's very distasteful to

1:38:58 put it up. No one needs to see it.

1:38:59 We know what we do. We know we know what we remove.

1:39:03 We don't need. I don't think anyone needs to

1:39:05 see that. I don't think I don't you just

1:39:07 you just I don't think it's needed it.

1:39:10 Needed in any. Way I've I've never liked it

1:39:12 personally. And I never I.

1:39:14 Think when you don't post it, no one's none the wires up.

1:39:17 I think when you don't post it, you open it up to exactly that.

1:39:20 You're either going to get negative or you're going to get

1:39:23 positive. I just think if it's not there

1:39:24 in the first instance, then it can't.

1:39:27 It can't 'cause anything. It must have, but you know,

1:39:29 people must have more to talk about and be able to show than a

1:39:33 dead rodent. Yeah, I don't.

1:39:35 It's not a thing, not a thing, not a thing I do really.

1:39:39 I, I, my missus makes these graphics on she's not, I just

1:39:44 tell her what to do and she does it on canvas.

1:39:46 And I've put a lot of them up and they, they do all right.

1:39:49 And boss nest when I've, when I've, when I've got a big boss

1:39:53 nest, I do videos like that sometimes, but it's usually just

1:39:57 them going in and out the hole before I before I do the nest.

1:40:01 But they, they do all right. But I mean, it's more

1:40:05 interesting. I think if I'm on TikTok, I'll

1:40:07 always, you know, go for like a bee hive, remove a bee hive

1:40:09 removal. And I find things like that

1:40:11 fascinating to watch. They do well.

1:40:13 Yeah, exactly how what they doing and it's so I think it's

1:40:15 therapeutic to actually watch things like that.

1:40:18 Be careful Tiktok doomscroll 3 hours later, yes.

1:40:23 You know it. Yeah, it is addictive.

1:40:26 It can be, yes. But anyway, it's been a great

1:40:29 chat to have you both on. Thank you for having us.

1:40:33 All right, thanks for coming on. It's been great.

1:40:36 Everyone's happy now They've had a podcast, they had a week off

1:40:38 last week because it went wrong. But this this week we've had a

1:40:42 great podcast. But so one minute 40, so British

1:40:48 Pest register, when I do it, there will be 1.5 CPD points

1:40:53 available for this podcast. Once I work, I'll go back

1:40:56 through and work out the learning points.

1:40:59 And you can also do it on the Bpcas registered.

1:41:03 That's the registered CPD diary, self register basis prompt.

1:41:09 If anyone wants them, just DM me and I'll send you the all all my

1:41:13 codes. You're only allowed to apply for

1:41:16 six codes for basis prompt and they've given me 10 for this

1:41:20 year. Yeah, 10, but you can only use

1:41:24 6. Yeah, a bit weird.

1:41:29 I got approved by basis. I didn't think I was going to

1:41:32 because I've not got a degree in something, but I did.

1:41:35 So it just shows me that they do.

1:41:38 They did accept my podcast. I didn't think they would, but

1:41:41 I've done well to get to get accepted.

1:41:44 I did. It was abused and basically

1:41:46 started me off short and said you want to become a CPD

1:41:49 provider on the British pest registered because that's his

1:41:54 scheme and it rolls. And then I asked the BPCA

1:41:57 because I didn't realise how their system works.

1:42:01 He goes, Oh no, just tell people to register your points and tell

1:42:03 them to put into it what they learned and they can get points

1:42:06 straight away. So I didn't know because I'm

1:42:09 not, I'm MPTA member, works different obviously and a board

1:42:13 member as well. So that's interesting.

1:42:16 That is learning all that, yeah. I need to know, I've got quite a

1:42:21 lot of super new points this year.

1:42:22 Yeah, you have pressure. I've got 46 at the minute.

1:42:26 Same as me. Stop.

1:42:27 That's how many. Oh yeah, 46. 46.1 I think or

1:42:30 something. But I've got, I've got, Have you

1:42:33 got this book? No.

1:42:37 Veritas, Veritas Veritas. It's a crossword book.

1:42:43 Hold on them. Hold on a minute.

1:42:45 I'll just turn off my virtual screen.

1:42:47 Hold on a minute. Right there we go right that's

1:42:53 that 12 lbs and you get crosswords and this book here is

1:43:04 12 CPD points we're. Going to get that.

1:43:07 Yeah, 100%. That is, but they're on the back

1:43:10 release. Another 1 ended this year

1:43:13 apparently. That's 12 CPD points.

1:43:16 You know, you asked if we do anything fun with any of our

1:43:18 team, like they're going and them this week, Yeah.

1:43:21 Oh no, you're being dated saying we want a copy of that book.

1:43:27 Yeah, there you go, curtesy Shoppler.

1:43:30 You're welcome. I think a referral link.

1:43:33 Yeah, let's put it in, put it in there.

1:43:36 But yeah, but anyway, very. Much thank.

1:43:38 You. Yeah.

1:43:39 Thanks for coming on. And I'll speak to you soon, but

1:43:43 I'll let you get on me a night. But because you're not finished

1:43:46 yet, you're going back out. You are.

1:43:49 You are so right. Thanks.

1:43:52 Thanks for coming on. No.

1:43:53 Thank you for having us, Sean. Hi, thanks for coming on and

1:43:57 I'll speak to everyone soon. But thanks partly.

1:44:00 And Steve, you're welcome. Mate.

1:44:02 All right then. Thank you.

1:44:03 See you later. Cheers.

1:44:05 Bye bye.