Pest perspectives EP 33 - Micheal- Executive Cleaning - Pest Perspectives

Hello and welcome to Pest Perspectives episode of 33.

Thanks for all the support Recently.

It's been really good. It has the podcast has picked up

steam since I started the podcast back in back in January.

I didn't actually expect the response from the pest control

slash pest, pest management community that I've had and it's

been really good. So thanks everyone that's been

supporting the show. If you could like share and

subscribe. I don't know why I just said

that, but it does help on YouTube.

It does. And if you give us a review on

Spotify, which is our number one platform, we've got like 5

reviews. I know there's 40 of you that

this and regular. So imagine if we could get 40

reviews. Hit that button.

Yeah, thanks everyone. This week we've got on Michael

from Executive Cleaning. Executive Cleaning, There we go.

How you doing, Michael? Good enough?

Close. Enough services is it?

Yeah, pretty much. That's it.

Executive cleaning services. Now this will be the only guest

that doesn't come on the camera. But I've known Michael for a

number of years. I used to do gaming podcasts

with him and I've known him for a long time.

So he didn't want to come on camera because he's in the

office and there's there's all sorts going on, so it's all

good. So how are you doing?

Oh well, it's Tuesday and it's been a long week already.

Long week already. Yeah, but you're a busy guy that

you, aren't you? Yes.

You are. Oh, right.

Obviously you've got a cleaning company now, but do you want to

tell people? Tell people what you do

currently, then we can roll back to how you started out.

Well, currently we do crime scene and trauma hoarding,

foreclosed properties, abandoned properties and all that fun

stuff nobody else wants to touch.

I've seen some of the videos, they really are, but not the

crime scene ones. See the houses, they are quite

quite intense. They are.

Yeah, they it amazes me still to this day how people live the way

they live. Yeah, it's some of it.

I think is is like what some of it's mental health they can't

get about but. Some of it is and some of

there's people just lazy. There is also that they could

just not want to clean. But how some, I mean, I've seen

stuff on shows on TV and stuff in America where these people

have a house and like how they live there because there's mice

and rats running around and they don't bother them.

You don't, no. And the weird part they show us

the shows here they found in the UK like that.

Yeah, there is, There's actually.

There's actually a couple of shows about hoarding in the UK.

Just. You guys, you guys, guys just

talk about it in a different accent, that's all.

Yeah, that's that's probably it. Yeah, yeah.

So how did you start out in business or when you left

school? Like did what, what what did you

want to be when you left school? Did you know I?

Don't like most kids? I want to be the president when

I was growing up. Yeah.

Just kidding. No.

Yeah, I actually wanted to be Rambo, so I joined the military.

But after that I got in my, my wife's family owns the pest

control business and I worked for them for a long time, you

know, did all the fun stuff, your, your roaches and your

termites, your fleas, your rats. And I live on the coast, so rats

and swamps, you know, kind of go together instead of the ocean.

We had some unique stuff here that you probably don't have

there. Go ahead and Vice.

Versa. Tell me.

I'm not sure termites are even an issue where you live.

No, they're not. But if you get if you get

companies in the UK that use AI that don't check.

I've caught a few companies using AI and apparently

according to their marketing it's #1 insect.

In the UK we don't have termites.

Oh wow, that's crazy. But here, here, man, and where I

live, yeah, they will destroy a home quick.

I know if you if. You remember there used to be

cartoons. They're old school.

You see the the little bug flying around and eat chairs and

tables. And it's kind of like that in

the real world, almost. Yeah, I've heard about my

treatments because I know it's, I know it can be a good earner.

It can be. For a company, it can be.

But here, man, it's it gets crazy because there's so many

different species of them. Oh, it's.

Luckily luckily here we've only got 1.

And it's. It's the reticular termese,

which is also known as the Eastern subterranean termite

I've. Heard of that one?

They come from the ground and go up and they're in the ground

everywhere. It's nature's recycling and they

don't know. They don't know your house from

a tree falling in the woods. So if your home's built and not

properly treated, they will just come and start munching.

And dude, I've seen these things take down, you know, a home in a

couple of years. Is it I I presume though in in

America when you get home insurance, it's a you have to

get regular termite inspections and treatments.

Is that correct? Of what is your?

Yeah, I bet that's written in. Oh yeah, and your insurance

doesn't cover it. No.

OK, Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine that doesn't could

come in, come with it. I just mean if you were to have

a claim on it and they'd go well, why did you get treated?

It's in the paperwork. Oh, yeah, I mean, it's insurance

is the same all over the world and it's scam.

But yeah, I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's quite a, an

ordeal. They can pull on you.

And if you put a piece of wood down on the ground here, I

guarantee you leave it in a couple of days there'll be

termites on it and they just form up out of the ground and

they'd find new them a place they love it dark and wet.

And we got a lot of that here on the coast.

Yeah, they'd struggle here as well because most of our houses,

I made that a brick. They'd struggle.

They would. Well, a brick.

There's still a lumber behind that brick.

That's true. They'll also be drywall.

I'd be fair though, in UK houses generally most of that wood is

in the attic. It is most of the houses the

structures are made on bases and it's it's brick and and and

paving whatever. What's it called paving bricks

and I can't think what the breeze blocks it is and it's

break. You don't get a lot of wood in

the actual building as such and windows and that you do

obviously, but it will be the most damage.

They could depend on what houses.

Some houses, obviously some houses are different and they

under the floors they have would like you say it depends if it's

a modern one or it's an old one. Obviously it wouldn't do as

much, it wouldn't do as much damage as it would in an

American home. That's all I mean.

You've got older homes there than we have here too.

We have, we have. That's true.

We have because I've done a recent going back tomorrow to do

Part 2 woodworm treatment boring insect and we're doing the other

half of the floors. The builders are ripping up the

floors and they want we're treat.

We're treating the the last of the last of the beams under the

floors. We are.

Yeah, here we we get, we get wood bores too, the powder post

beetles and all those, the old house bores, all those lovely

bugs. They don't.

In our country, they don't think.

A lot of them don't think of pest control when they think

woodworm. They think of a specialist

company. It does it.

So recently we're trying to get word out that we actually do it.

We do because it's not. It's not a bad job, to be

honest. It's not too difficult.

What do you use there? I use.

What the fuck? What do you use then?

What is it? Here's mainly.

It's mainly Tim Bore. Wood, I'm just trying to run the

product. I'll just look up the product.

Hold on a minute. I didn't use the dye.

Used to be Tim bore and they would use like a lactate blue

dye or a different coloured dye so you knew where you applied

it. We use a product called Wood

Zone Dual Purpose and I'll tell you what it is.

I'll just keep exactly different chemicals.

Wood Zone. But now then again, I'm not been

in the industry for a while so they made something different.

I would have to consult my father-in-law, but I'm pretty

sure that's not really changed much because that mainly effects

older homes here. Oh, I found it.

It's found it, yeah, it's just so it's some water based slow

odour your purpose fungal insecticide kind of fire.

But yeah, it's quite good, quite a good voice.

One we got recommended because we we have done we have done the

proper courses. We went to Palm Thais and done

it a couple of years ago. I can't find the active on the

site at the minute, but I'd imagine it's pretty much the

same as what you what you used to, what you used to use it is

it is off hand I can't find it, but yeah.

Because here, man, everything used to be like Dur's band and

all that fun stuff. Oh, they've changed past control

so much now, yeah. Oh yeah.

Yeah, they just like there's not many new projects like here.

A lot of the good stuff it gets, it's been removed and.

Well, some of the food probably needed to be removed.

Yeah, from what I hear, I was doing a podcast this last, yeah,

last week with, excuse me, you've probably not heard of

her. She's a girl called Gopher girl.

She does go Gophers and moles all year round and she tells me

that we're a come out of state she lives in.

But she said to me she does it the proper way, the trapping is

the humane way to do it. But she says there is people

around her neck of the woods where I couldn't believe this.

I annoyed. I was like damn since that's

been done for years. But honestly, it's been gone a

long time. Here.

Pour. Pour a diesel in the holes and

set it on fire. Wow, that's crazy that is.

But she said that you can buy licence and unlicensed people

get hold of it. But she said then people wonder

why there's dead birds, dogs and cats about.

Yep. I, I, when she said it, oh, you

could see my face as a picture. I couldn't believe she said it.

I was like, damn, that's been gone so long in England.

It's, it's unreal. Because if you breathe that in,

it's not a case of it's like your heart's just if.

That's the stuff I'm thinking of, if your heart just stopped.

Pretty much, yeah. I mean it.

It takes a little time, yeah. Because it's because when we had

it in England, I was told I don't know the reason you

weren't allowed to use respirators when it when you had

it is because you have to smell for almonds.

Because if you you needed to be able to smell for the you need

to just smell for the almonds as you could as a warning sign you

did. That's why the.

Almonds. Yeah, that's it.

But. Well, you know, the funny part

is, yeah, my wife's grandfather, he was the one that started

their company back in the 1960s. And you know the one thing they

you know, the one thing they used to use to get rid of

roaches and stuff. What's?

That. Nicotine it.

Worked man did they nicotine. They they literally dude had

nicotine candles and these things were basically nicotine

like you would put in a cigarette or tobacco and they

would like these things inside people's houses.

So this day, if you insects do not like nicotine, you can.

Literally. The funny part is like we're

talking about termites. Oh, termites, right?

Yeah. The popular thing now are these

bait and monitor stations. They stick in the ground.

I've heard of them. If you've got, if you've got a

technician that installs these things, yeah, he's the smoker.

And if he touches that bait? And he's got.

Nicotine on his fingers. The termites will not go near

that bait at all because nicotine is an is an automatic

insect repellent. So would there be so even if the

guy or lady had gloves on, would they still be able to smell

tobacco if they've been smoking it do you think?

I don't think, I don't think that would work.

It would actually be a direct contact.

Yeah. But yeah, I mean they literally

had nicotine bombs and candles. Wow, I've never heard of that.

There'll be a few people because a lot, I do get a lot of

American. I've got a lot of American

listeners and I'll get a message saying, yeah, I remember that.

I've heard of that. Oh, well, I did not expect you

to say nicotine because never heard of that before.

Or was he interested to learn something new?

Obviously. Yeah, nicotine was a big thing,

dude, back in the day, man, when they were doing them, they would

use nicotine candles. I don't imagine you can.

Can you get nicotine candles now?

I don't think it's. Or, I guess, you know, you're

just a chain smoker. You were good.

Oh, yeah, You're just going smoking.

Keep. Just keep smoking.

Yeah, I'll tell the customer. Do you smoke?

Just keep smoking, Yeah? Make sure those walls are nice

and yellow. Yeah, exactly.

Hello, Jason. Ask pest control.

Thanks for popping in, mate. Hope you're well.

But yeah, no nicotine on termites.

That's yeah. Approaches.

And roaches. I did my first.

I did my first Roach Roach job recently.

Never ever done roaches. It's not a thing in that that

happens in my region. Really.

You did German roaches. In the big city, in Leicester,

yes, but we don't work in, we don't go that far.

It's not worth our while. But we had somebody that had

roaches. I had to literally look, look

into how I learned it, obviously, but put it into

practise. But we did it.

But it's not a thing we have in our in our local area.

So don't ask me how they got there.

Don't know. Oh.

My God, dude, roaches. I know, I know because I've got

friends and they tell me about, oh, can't believe you've not

done it. I'll send you a video next time.

I've had them raining on me. That's, that's, that's, that's

what I've been told. I've been in homes that just, I

mean, it looks like a waterfall. You move a refrigerator all over

it, open up a box of food, they crawl out of it.

I mean, it's just and the funny part, dude, these things,

they're they're you can freeze one and you can take it out, let

him fall and he'll pick up and run.

They have glycerin. They have glycerin in their

stream, in their body, and they will literally jump up and run

when they defrost. And it's just crazy, man.

How, how? And they're survivors, you know,

they, they, they can shit, they can survive a nuclear blast.

Yeah, I mean, we did, we did, we, we do have obviously roaches

country. I've got some friends that have

done some and they make videos. I've made some big, big cases.

They have. And yeah, he, he, but me

personally only ever done one. And the whole time I've done

pest control. So officially started in 2020

and that's the first job we've ever had in my, in where I live,

because we, it's not a thing you, you get really.

I, I can't explain how, how they got there, to be honest.

I I have no answers unless they came in, unless they snuck into

some food and where the people move from I don't don't know.

I've seen them in restaurants. I know, I know.

In the cities, it's common to restaurants.

We did a restaurant years and years and years ago.

Yeah, it was a Chinese restaurant.

Yeah. And literally they were just,

they were all over the buffet table.

They were falling out of the drink machines.

And the guy looks at me and goes, you want that drink?

And I'm like, no, thank you. I am more than good.

I give you want some food to take back?

Nope, Nope, Nope. I'm good.

Nope, Nope. No chance.

I mean, they must have been. They must have been shut down

shortly. No, they weren't shut down for a

while. Oh, I tell you, I bet if it was

nowadays they would be. They're a bit more strict now,

aren't they? Oh, are they?

I don't like. They are, they're not.

But I mean, it's just like they're, they just love

restaurants and they get all of that equipment and it can be

such a nuisance to get rid of them.

Oh, it can. It's like the fridges go in the

back and it's so warm, isn't it? There's constant food, but yeah,

man, we've had had them just everywhere and you know, they're

in the lights, in the seats, the buffet, the drink dispensers.

It's. Just it's just terrible thinking

of that. You need to sort that out.

You really need to like I just put it down and then you need to

like basically open every application and you're doing all

of the all of the kitchen equipment, don't you?

Yep, to see if you can get all of them, you've got to.

Take everything apart. Yeah, you have.

So you've done a lot of roaches anytime as well then?

Yep, and that's why it's really hard for me to eat at

restaurants. And do not blame you because I

hear something about obviously I don't know the smell because

I've only done one job. But some people tell me,

especially my American friends, that they can smell Roach smell.

You can't and. If they walk into a restaurant,

they walk out again if it's somewhere they're going to.

You can smell if there's enough of them there, you can, you can,

you can smell them. They put off a distinct odour

there. There's no doubt about it.

But I think one of the worst things, well, one of the

funniest things I've ever seen. We we did a uniform company.

And, and what they did, you know, they took in uniforms and,

you know, different stuff and they would wash it, clean it and

all that stuff, right? And send it back out.

It was like a rental place. Well, the guy called up, he

called our office and more in pricing.

So I go out, give him a price. And this is a big, this is a big

building dude. It was like, I'd say at least a

good 80,000 square feet. This wasn't a small building and

you had all this dirty laundry and all this stuff in there.

And so there was constant food. And they said they had a major

rat problem. And I mean, you could literally

stand on the floor, look up and see rats running the ledges.

So I just, I just threw out a number, you know, because I

really didn't want to do it and I told you about what.

The number where you you, you say it and double it and and put

more on. I hope that they say no.

Yeah, and I think the price is like 9 grand, and that was a

long time ago. And so he agreed.

So I told him I was like, well, you know, we have to make sure

that nobody's here, so we'll have to be able to come in on

the weekend and do it, Which he set it up for that following

Saturday. And I took three other guys with

me. We went out, we put out baits,

we put out traps, and they literally were carrying dead

rats out in 5 gallon buckets. That many of them.

Yes, and dude, they were just every trap, you know, had had

rats in it and I mean they were literally carrying them out in

buckets. That's how bad that's worth.

Well, it's yeah, it's worth that 9 grand, isn't it?

Oh yeah, and I mean, good thing we didn't charge by the rat.

We could have made more. Oh, you could have done, yeah.

But it was just, it's crazy man. People don't realise how bad

stuff can get. And then did you look around to

see if the building obviously I'm guessing there was some what

was in the building I'm getting in, what did you recommend any

proofing on top of that then? Oh yeah, we had to do that

because it was a metal building. Where did you go?

You know another 9 grand? Would you go another 9 grand

please? And you know, they can chew

through anybody. They can.

They can you near well, steel mesh is quite hard to get

through, but if there's enough of them, they can.

But steel mesh is generally what we use here.

Steel meshes. However, yeah, here we've got,

we've got these Norway rats and a couple other versions.

Oh, no, yeah, no. They they, they can gnaw through

anything dude. Anything.

No, we've got Norway rats. We have.

But I'm just saying that the best ways, it's still wire,

they're still wool, still mesh, same thing, still a mixture.

But they could always find a way, a different a different

way. And if they wanted to gnaw the

way through, they just do it all together, don't they?

Yep, they'll find a way if they want him bad enough.

They will, yeah. The Norway rats is what is what

we have really. We do have black rats, but we do

they're very they're very rare. They're more like in London when

the Docklands when the where the harbours and that are very rare

now. But the UK is basically

basically a Norway rat for rats. It's really that's.

Why we get them? Because we're so close to this

water. Yeah, that's probably why why

you can get black rats then it is.

But yeah, that's our most that's our most common rat is the

Norway rat. It is.

So you didn't want? To live in Norway.

No, that's true. Closer to it than I am.

They're everywhere. They're honestly they were.

They are. I think they're nearly in every

country in the world. I might be wrong.

They're everywhere. The Norway rat.

I believe. I might.

I might be wrong, no doubt somebody will tell me if I'm

wrong, but I bet they're probably in most countries they

are. I'm pretty.

Sure, they're in most. They are.

They breed like they breed like rabbits.

They do, but probably. They're probably not in Norway

though, ironically. Probably not.

I think they started off, Although they're called the

Norway, right? I think they started off, they

reckon, in Africa well. I mean like the little roaches.

They're they're called German roaches.

Yeah. Because why?

They take over everything. Whoever named it that, that's

the excuse, I was told. Yeah, I mean, I always thought

they'd started in from Norway, but someone told me that the,

the, the the Norway route is actually stuck, they reckon

started off in Africa, but they say everything, they say

everything about Africa, don't they?

Well, I mean, think of the ubiotic plague.

Yeah, yeah. It's caused by the police,

wasn't it on on the that? Wasn't in Africa either.

No, no, the The thing is they all, they all blame the rats and

years later they've done load the research and you found out

it was the fleas on the rats. Yep.

It it wasn't the actual rats, it was just what was on the rats.

Thank God I hate fleas. Did you do a lot of flea work

when you used to do pest control then?

We used to gifts. Yeah, because we get sand fleas.

And. They fleas love sand, they love

pine straw, and people here use pine straw around the outside of

their house. So yeah dude.

Oh my God I hate. Flea.

So was that. So was that the recommendation?

Get rid of all your pine straw. They had new treatments.

Yeah, a lot of the fleas here come off.

A lot of them come off. Dogs and cats they do.

Yes, and I've had them so bad that I've literally walked

outside and sprained myself down with a water hose.

I believe that I've not had a case that bad but hopefully get

more into doing fleas but I don't do that many flea jobs.

They do them but I'm just on the back compared to everything

else. Don't.

I don't get a lot of flea work, but so how long did you stay in

the field for when you were when you were doing it?

But did you did you end up running the office, the company

for your dad? You did.

Yes, so I was the one that went out to talk to everybody and all

that fun stuff too. So you were the sell, so you

were the selling guy. Right, well, and and a

technician too. And a technician, I mean, hang

on. Sorry, Jason's just saying he

was told by his instructor that the bloke who named the the

Norway rat that he did not like the Norwegians.

That was that must be a joke on the part.

That's why they named it that. Well, I I was always told the

German Roach, they named that after World War 2 because Jeremy

is trying to take over the world.

Yeah, because if you ever notice these bugs, names are weird.

They are, but they've all got laughing names, haven't they?

All of them have got a Latin, so it's meant to be.

So it's universal across the world and.

It's such a, it's such a weird thing in the entire world,

everything's names. But even rats though Ratis Nov

Ratius Nov Vegas. I'm booked through in IT.

Sounds like a wrestler. Yeah, well, I'm saying it wrong,

so everyone I know I've said it wrong.

Don't worry. Ratius Norvegius.

Oh, it's something like that. There's a way of saying it, but

they've all got like, they've all got like Latin names now.

It's like a universal language is meant to be so everyone

around the world can understand what it is.

But yeah, so you, so you, you went out selling.

Did that come naturally to you? Selling pest control or just

selling in general? Are you good at it?

Kind of, yeah. Yeah, you just solve that

problem and you tell them how much it costs and that was it.

Oh no, dude, a lot of times I do the work too.

So yeah, you got to remember they were, they were family

owned business. Yeah, so.

Are they still family owned or they've been taken over?

Oh no, they're still family owned.

Get in there. It's like I'll run it.

No, you don't. You don't need to now, do you?

You're too busy. And now anyway.

Yeah. And he's, you know, her uncle

owns another one, you know, so there's two, there's two

different locations and they've been owning them since the 60s.

It's nice because I'll be honest, all I hear in America is

so and so's bought them. So and so's bought these, these,

these and these. It's the land of acquisitions.

It is America. Dude, that's that's everywhere.

Quite easy right? The the targets in the UK now

the the big, the big investment companies that have been like

buying up companies left and right in the UK.

They do that here too, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't a it wasn't a

thing though a long time. And recently they've took

interest in like trying to buy loads of like meat, small to

medium sized companies up and maybe big ones.

They've had Orkin come in and offer to buy them.

It's some of I think. Terminix too.

It's all the Orkin are in the UK, but they don't go under

Orkin, they go under like they've got different names, but

it says an Orkin company. Yeah, Terminix does that here.

They're not, they're they're gone here.

Terminix got obviously in America, Terminix rent to kill

or rent to kill Terminix and what it's called, that's what

it's called now, isn't it? But in the UK, rent to kill had

Terminix and then the UK, Yeah. Do you remember the CMA with

the, we're trying to block the Activision deal?

Well, yeah. Just remember CMA, remember all

that when we were talking about it years ago, Well, they told

them that basically it was and it was anti competitive or

whatever, whatever law it was and they weren't allowed to own

it in the UK. So I think they sold it to a

company called Virgo and it's not a company no more.

They just, you know, pushed it into their company, so-called

the technicians and it's made it part of their company.

So the name isn't actually a thing you can like use anymore

in the UK. Yeah, dude, everything they

owned by corporations now. It is yours isn't knowing father

in law's, ain't I? I like businesses staying

independent, aren't they? It's hard to do nowadays most

but everything is. They try to buy up everybody.

A day. A day so suppose that gave you a

lot of experience for move. So with did you, did you do like

as another question as well, did you do like servicing contracts

where you did like food facilities and food places and

on a monthly basis you'd like as well as domestics, you did that

as well, Yeah. Yeah, did the did a lot of

places for the city, Yeah, the boxing centre, the police

departments, the mayor's office. Oh, wow, nice.

I mean, to get places like that, that's quite official, that is.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

How many technicians did he have in?

I imagine he's a lot bigger now. I.

Think then he's like 1818. I'm not sure how many he's got

now, to be honest with you. I don't have what?

I say that's fair enough. That is but but no, it's.

I think it's, I think Uncle Jim's got like 40 or 50.

Yeah. All right.

That's a good number. We've got two men but that we're

a small time but because. He just opened up another place

in in Myrtle Beach. I think he's.

Got I think there's actually, I think he's got two locations

himself. Is he OK?

OK, so it's well it's, it's a good achievement to get more,

more than one location. It is more stress, you're going

to say. More stress, more taxes, more

insurance. Yeah.

Yeah, sometimes bigger is not better.

That's very because if you look at a lot of these big companies

and then when you look into the actual finances, you think, oh,

they're making loans and they've got millions.

Then you find out they're not actually making the percentage

actual profit they make actual make.

It's not a lot margins, yes. And you think, oh, there are so

many million, they must be loaded.

And you look at and then you look and the percentage of on

how much they make is not actually as much as you think it

is. Oh, yeah, Just let my poor

father-in-law do. I mean, you got to buy trucks.

You got to buy equipment. That's true.

You know, those termite rigs, those aren't given away.

The chemical sparks money. The insurance is outrageous, so

yeah. They will be.

It's like, it's like. Saying Brit.

Saying Brit a new vans 35,000 at Woods Yeah, yeah.

How much is that then? Shit dude, you'd be lucky to buy

one here for less than 60 or 70. 60 Remember, there's a, there's

a, there's a there's a difference in what?

60 I'm just yeah, I know there's.

A currency difference, but not sure how much that affects it.

Oh no, it's still more, but that's 43 grand.

So yeah, obviously you can still get a new van here for 43 grand.

Depends what you want. It is.

Because here trucks now starting around 60 and up.

Yeah, because you have more. You pick up trucks, don't you?

Yep. So we use more like vans, like

Peugeot partners. We we use more vans, but there

is some pest controls do use pickups but there's not many.

The big thing in my records have pickup trucks in pest control.

I don't know why because. Well, if you do a termite dream,

would you got to have some place to put that tank?

OK, that. Tank inside a van?

Yeah, that's like 200 gallons. That explains it.

That does. That explains it.

So, so obviously when was it when you thought I'm going to

leave and make my own company? Because obviously with you

working for your father or in pest control, you selling you,

running you, you're getting a new job learning all this

information. You know you're learning.

Is that what gave you the confidence to try and make your

own company knowledge? What really started it was

watching the Royal Hoarders. I think.

I, I remember watching the first episode of that show and I'm

sitting back going, hmm, that shit looks fun.

And I went in and out of homes that looked just like it, you

know, working for him. So we decided, you know, one day

my wife and I get talking about it back and forth.

We got into it a little bit on the side and, you know, got a

little more involved on the side we were doing on the weekends

and late in the evening. And eventually we were

comfortable enough for, like, you got to take the plunge at

some point. Yeah.

So we jumped in, and all those years later, here we are.

So how do you first like get like, how did you first get your

work? How did you get your name out

there to like get work? Did you like, is this long

before Google Ads existed? Is this?

You, it's a process, dude. It's a yeah, I used YouTube.

YouTube. That was back when YouTube was

first starting and I would post videos on YouTube, Facebook, any

place I could put video. Well, you couldn't do videos on

Facebook then, but YouTube was a good way.

We advertised. I was, I remember doing it from

my phone and every video was like the worst.

I mean, they just look terrible and people.

Love that. He would still never get the

point across. And, you know, we did that, you

know, for a while and it was just funny.

And sorry, I'm trying to respond to this guy real quick, but

yeah. No worries.

Yeah, YouTube was that was that bad way.

Yeah, YouTube first it wasn't even monetized then, was it?

It's not. Right.

And there wasn't. There's not a lot of people that

does this. You know, it's not everybody

wants to get dirty. And so, you know, we started

doing them for Realtors. And then, you know, the Realtors

started calling us more and more.

Then we did a few for the county and it just kind of snowballed.

And you just, you make different connections and then you

realise, wait a minute, the government has all these

foreclosed properties and the government sends all these out

to one of the lenders to service companies to hire

subcontractors. And once you start getting your

name out with some of these, you know, service companies, you can

pretty much, you know, you have to stand by your name.

And once you do that, then you start getting calls.

And I mean, there were times, man, we were doing like 20

properties a week or more. You must, you must have, you

must have scaled up and have quite a few people.

Are you talking about you? Are you talking about yourself

during 20 a week? That'd be incredible.

Yeah, that was just me and my wife and her.

Friend, really I knew we. And we would take our kids.

Wow. Yeah, and but now.

But now I'm in North Carolina. Yeah, South Carolina, Texas,

Virginia and Maryland. Five places How do you keep

control of all your people? It's it's a process.

Yeah. It is a big process and actually

after after having that little heart surgery in August.

Remember. Yeah.

I think I'm about ready to downsize some, so I think I'm

going to downscale a little bit. I'm getting old and you know, I

just want to kick back a little bit, dude.

And try to enjoy life a little bit because I've, you know, I've

worked so freaking much. I'm not really, I really don't

have much, you know, you know what I'm saying?

It just, yeah. I was no, I do know what you're

saying and. Now I just want to kind of, you

know, enjoy a little bit, you know, and I already came close

to dying twice in the last few years.

So you. Did Yeah, because I think, I

think, I think after the first time, he says.

Wife says I've got to stay in the office more.

Yep, and. It's a good, it's a good point

because. It's just like, you know, you,

you learn what's important and what's not.

So it, it, I mean, everything has, you know, has, you know,

every, everybody's for everything.

I know people say, well, you know, they'll work till they die

and that's great. But you know, I learned real

quick, you don't know when that day is coming.

Yeah. And nobody's going to look.

Nobody's going to look at your your grave and go, yeah, Sean

was a great guy. He worked six days a week.

Bless his heart. I do not work six days a week,

but I know he's. I know what.

You're saying. But yeah, I mean, nobody wants

to remember that about you, you know what I'm saying?

They wouldn't remember good things about you, you know?

Yeah, you're right. You don't.

We should go. It don't help you.

And, and I don't believe there's an afterlife.

So I mean, once you're done, you're done.

You are. You don't, you don't get a, it's

not like Call of Duty, dude. You don't get a respawn.

Yeah, you don't. I mean, I've never brought this

up on the podcast, but my brother-in-law passed away a

month or two ago now and he was on his motorbike and he was

only, well be 45, 45, yeah, I can't remember roughly about

that age. And I think it was 48 and it was

riding his motorbike, having a good time, sensibly, properly,

on the correct side of the road. Somebody decided to in the car,

decided to overtake a lorry and yeah, killed him.

Died on, died on impact. He did.

So you never know where. I'm sorry.

To hear that. Yeah, no, it's it's all right.

It's a bit crap though, isn't it?

But he's like got a little boy that just started school this

year. It's it's his little double.

I see him at school picking my kids up and he's like his

little. It was his world mate world.

Honestly, it was, but he did have life insurance in place

because he knew that it would happen one day.

But you just never because I went from a safety standpoint,

the police actually says he had everything.

If he was to roll, he probably would have been all right

because he hit on impact. He had, oh, he had harnesses,

everything, everything you could buy, he had you had dash cams,

everything because he hit well, he hit the car on impact.

So that's what did it. But you know, I know I didn't

walk for charity over August, 50 miles for Trev, for the air

ambulance, because the Air Ambulance are a charity in the

UK that when people need airlifting to hospital, they,

they take him to charity. They landed for him but they

couldn't help him. He was already dead, but they

didn't know that. So I did a charity walk and

raise £720.00. But that was nice.

That helps them out a bit. It does help in other people.

It does. But you just.

You're right. Well, you're right, Michael.

You don't know what where life's going to be.

Yeah. What's going to happen.

So you know. Yeah, I learned.

I learned real quick. Yeah, I learned real quick.

Yeah, you definitely did. Yeah.

Yeah, when they told my wife, you know, I wouldn't make it

through the night. Yeah, yeah, I I lost about 8

days of my life because I don't know what happened.

Yeah, I remember you saying, oh, you, you put it on there, you're

social. You did.

Yeah, I mean, you never know, dude.

It makes you look. It makes you think of things

differently. It does.

It does. It's like, what's that way?

What? I didn't die, but when I broke

my knee to what, the second time, that's what made me snap

out of this. I must get fit.

I'm still getting there, losing weight, but that's what made.

Made is changing my brain. I can't keep breaking my leg,

you know? I knew I knew I was too big

because I'm nearly 30 stone. You're going to say, What's

that? Actually I looked it up one time

before but I don't remember the weight thing.

Yeah, the American. Yeah, you.

Got about a pound using the metric system and.

That's quite difficult. So that was I was nearly 420 lbs

so that was bad. So I'm down.

I probably lost not God's sake 9.

I'll put it back 9. They're probably a lot of yeah,

about 126 lbs. So not bad.

That's not bad. I'm still going, but it's.

Really good. I I do enjoy the weightlifting,

as you've seen my dad lifts on, on, on X Twitter, whatever you

call it. But yeah, it makes you think

about life, doesn't it? It does.

I know I didn't nearly die. It just broken my leg twice.

I can't have it happen again. I just can't.

I would get really depressed if I broke my leg again because

I've come so far. I have can't do it again.

But with some, obviously when you've got these different

areas, have you got like a manager that runs that state and

he runs operations? So you you pay him a nice wage

and then they run things for you?

Do you get like daily updates? Yeah.

We, we have a software that we use.

So the crew in the field, the moment they log in on their

phone, they take photos. They show us everything before,

during and after. As soon as they take the photos,

they're sent to me in real time. That's.

Good. So as soon as they're submitted

to me, we go through them all and we send everything over to

the client and send the invoice. So technology does make it a

little easier. Yeah.

So with regards regards to that, do you, if you get the wrong

feeling about a certain client, do you demand payment upfront?

How does that work? Do you sometimes say, I'm not so

sure. Do you?

Do you sometimes require payment upfront or?

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had a few.

Dude. We tell them you're going to be

us now, then we'll start. That's fair.

I just wondered now because I'd imagine you sometimes get that,

don't you? Do you have issues with with

Realtors? We call them estate agents.

We taking 6 to 8 weeks to pay you you you don't we.

We've had that too. But the catch is most of them

now is we go directly to their client who they're selling the

bucket board. So part of it, you know, they

the money comes from the client. So you get it faster basically.

Yep. That's good.

Then that's a good way to do it. That is.

Yeah. That kind of, it kind of

explains how you do the operations through digital,

because we use a digital system, you can take photos and

everything like that. Oh.

Yeah, I was driving, Yeah. There's no way I could drive

that distance every day. No.

Do you ever, do you ever, have you ever been to any of your

locations that ain't in your area?

Have you ever been out? Oh yeah, not recently, but yeah,

yeah, I used to go out and do it all.

Yeah, I used to love going out in new houses, dude.

Yeah. Did you, what's it called?

Have you got like in each area? Is it just like have you got

like a premises in each area or is it just people that go and do

the cleans or have you got like a premises in each area to keep

all your kit or? We we have different people in

different areas, yeah. Like in Texas I've got 5

contractors, in Virginia I've got 4.

Sorry what? What what I meant was, have you

got like a little premises where all the kit you need is stored

in that area? No, no, no.

That's it to them, dude. There's subcontractors.

Oh, subcontractors, right. I get it.

The sub. Sub, right.

I get it now, yeah. They buy their own stuff.

OK, that's fair. So with your with obviously

you've got your van on the thumbnail one the van on is that

is that, do you use that in your location or do they?

That is, that is mine, yes. Do they have that van or they

just try to pin normal van? No, no, no.

No, no, that that was actually that was.

That's a funny story behind that My son in law's dad is a fire.

OK. They were selling these at an

auction. Yeah, the city.

The city was auctioning them off and I bought 1 because I, I told

my wife and she thought it was funny.

I was like, I want, I want to buy one of those.

And she's like, why would you buy that?

But the funny part, that particular 1, you see it's, it

was an older model. It used to be used in Charlotte,

NC at the Motor Speedway. OK, They used to use it at

NASCAR track, which doesn't mean anything to me because I'm

Southern, but I don't drink and I hate NASCAR.

Is that was a selling point for the guy at the city because he's

like, Oh well, you know, so and so have been in this ambulance.

Didn't care. We got it.

And as you can see, it doesn't say ambulance on it.

I've got a friend of mine, Steve, who does auto wrapping

and all this stuff. He does decals and wraps and

everything you want with a vehicle, he can do it.

I took it straight to him and this thing was a diesel, which I

mean, you can't kill it. And it's you can see how big it

is. It's all set up, had the Gurney

and everything in there and took it to Steve and said, I want you

to, to do this. I said, you come up with it, you

do it. I'm dropping it off.

And as you can see, that's what he did, man.

He, he put, he put us in our name on the side, the phone

number, all that stuff. I mean, he did all the work on

it. I don't even remember what he he

charged me. But dude, you talk about

advertising, especially with the lights and everything underneath

it. I.

Can definitely see you coming, yeah.

Well, and all the lights still work on the top.

The the sirens disconnect, but the lights still work.

And ironically, we were. This is a Christmas parade that

we were in. Oh, that would have got a lot of

attention then that would have. Oh, it did driving through, you

know, with the lights flashing, the lights underneath it and

best advertising you can ask for.

And it definitely, it definitely got attention, dude, trust me.

Oh, I definitely would. I bet a lot of people got the

phones out, didn't they? Oh yeah, we had.

We had quite a few calls from it.

It was very cold that night, too.

Oh my God, it was freezing. That's what you want is it's eye

catcher. It's like our van.

We've got a big cartoon wasp bond that everyone thinks is a

bee. It's blood.

You know Disney. Yeah.

When they made Winnie the Pooh. I hate Disney.

Yeah, but what I'm saying is they made their bee bright

yellow like a wasp. So everyone thinks that's what a

wasp, a bee looks like. He's not a wasp.

I get a lot of calls where people say, oh, I've got bees

and now I've got wasp. What's going on?

They're on the side of my house in a big clump.

They're they're honey bees. I said I've got a guy I

recommend for that. I ask.

But when we get honey bee removals, I've got a guy who

does it, Elliott from EM Pest Control, nice lad.

And I recommend him and he he he does, he does them all it does.

Did you actually do bee removal? As in you removed the bees as in

from another location? Or are you talking about I

killed the bees or? Now it depends on where they

were. I had done removals and I had

actually had to kill them. Try not to kill.

Them. Sometimes I would get calls.

They would be in people's walls. I had one.

They were in the ceiling. Yeah, dude, I had one that had a

bee bee comb taller than me. Wow.

And that was, that's six feet. They've been in there for a long

time, but it's kind of crazy, dude.

I used to love doing them, man. They were always entertaining

and I only got stung once. You've done very well because I

know people that do beat removal and they've been stung a lot

more than once. Now yellow jackets, Oh my God, I

don't know if you even have them there.

Yeah, we don't call them. Got a jacket so we called them

Wasps. But yellow jackets, you know,

they're territorial and they're mean.

I had a had a helper with me one day.

They're on a golf course. Yeah.

Oh, was it ground nest? Yes.

Yeah, they're they're usually worse.

They put a trash can over the nest, so you know they were mad,

right? And it was like 100° outside.

I'm putting my suit on and my helper kicks the trash can.

I got covered. He took off running.

Did he run in a straight line? Because.

Oh dude, I got started about 50-60 times.

Was this obviously when you were putting your suit on?

So you weren't you weren't ready?

Right. Idiot did he did you have words

after or did he hospital? I just looked at him funny.

Did he know what he done? Oh yeah, he knew what he did.

You'll get it next time you say I have to kick, get it.

I'll get it back. Yeah, and I did with the snake.

Snake. Yeah.

We don't do them. We don't?

Well, yeah, I don't touch snakes.

Yeah. No chance.

Yeah. So what do you do with that?

Just move them or. Nah, threw it.

On him. You threw a snake on him.

OK, that's one way. Again, just.

Oh, OK. It's just, it's just, yeah, it

was hard. It's just a black snake.

Yeah, I know. But yeah, it's not a it's not a

thing. We, we do really.

I don't, I don't even think, well, we're not even allowed to.

It's not, I don't think we're, we, we, we have to call.

I don't call anyone. If someone rings for a snake,

they say it's not So we deal with.

But I went to a gentleman's house a few years ago and he

says to me, just want to warn you, young man, I says what's

up? You know what your pamper bait

boxes are? Says, yeah, just where we stood

here the other day, a massive snake came out there.

I said, you're joking. He says, no, I've lived there 50

years. I've never seen it.

Thanks for telling me. I was so cautious.

It was unreal. I was like, I'm moving if this

snake comes. But it there was gone.

There was there was no snake and the job was finished anyway.

I said he's probably eating the rest of the rats too.

Sean, I hate to do this to you, dude, but I'm going to have to.

I'm going to have to to jump. But no worries, No worries,

Mike, Michael, it's been a fun one.

Thanks for having a chat. I'm sure some people have

learned learned some bits. But yeah, thanks mate.

I really appreciate you giving up your time.

I'll see you again. Nice talk.

Yeah, definitely not a gaming one, but it's different one,

but. Yeah, thanks for it.

Doesn't matter. But yeah, thanks.

Thanks, Michael from Executive Cleaning.

That's. It.

There we go right? Take care mate and I appreciate

that. Thanks everyone for watching

and. If you're in North Carolina and

you shoot yourself, don't call me.

Don't. Do you want to shout out your

business or not? Don't.

Obey me. All right, well, thank you for

having me on, dude. And I can't see your chat but

thanks for whoever is watching and listening and all that good

stuff. And I am out of here sadly.

I wish I didn't have to go, but I don't have a choice.

No worries. You're a pretty man.

All right. And thank you, mate.

Thanks. Cheers.

Bye. Bye.

Bye. Thanks everyone.

And we'll see you next week. I think we've got.

Let's have a look next week. We have, well, right next week

we have and I'll see you all next week.

I will just cut it because I can't find who we've got next

week. But thanks everyone.

Tonight's Episode