From UPS to E-Commerce Consulting to Digital Marketing

Wyatt didn't start out in digital marketing. He worked for UPS for almost 10 years. He didn't know it at the time, but he was an entrepreneur. His final role at UPS was being an e-commerce consultant where he got to work with Fortune 500 companies.

That's where everything changed. He started seeing these younger guys in their 20s who had completely monopolized on the Google strategy. They were running pay-per-click and absolutely crushing it.

The first example that blew his mind was a printer cartridge company. This guy was buying printer cartridges overseas, and the key was the serial numbers on these cartridges. He had container loads of what he called OEM printer cartridges competing with the HP market, and he was just raking it in.

Wyatt was like, how in the world are you doing this? That opened his eyes to what was possible with Google. This was almost 20 years ago, so we're talking early days of digital marketing.

The first website Wyatt built was in 1995 for his accountant because he couldn't afford the guy's services. He built a website in exchange for the accountant taking care of his taxes. That's a pretty good trade.

Shortly after leaving UPS, he started his first company, which failed. That's just how it goes. We learn from our failures. Then he went to work for a telecommunications company where he learned some solid sales techniques.

He had a falling out with a business leader there, but the owners of that company let him build CS Design Studios as a business within a business. That's where the CS came from. It took him about a year, and then he realized he was selling the websites, doing the work, marketing, and even doing the billing.

He asked himself, why do I need you? So he went into business with a friend he had helped build a website for, and they co-founded CS Design Studios. Their first client was an energy drink company out of Scottsdale.

This was the fun part. The energy drink company had almost a $100,000 bid from a big marketing firm in Scottsdale. Wyatt and his partner came in at $30,000. They were just really hungry at the time.

This was the Flash era. Wyatt was doing 3D modeling, video loops in websites. He built that one himself and really enjoyed it. "It was really exciting just kind of like what you're going through the exciting first two years of going into business for yourself you got this energy and this drive where it just mat feels really good," Wyatt said.

I completely relate to that. The first couple years of running your own business, there's just this energy that's hard to describe.

The Problem with Being a Generalist

For the first several years, Wyatt became a generalist. He worked with government agencies, college groups, anyone that needed a website. Like most business owners, you'll take any client. You think you can do it, you can learn it, whatever.

But here's the problem. Wyatt didn't have a Josh Nelson in the room telling him to niche down. When he read Josh Nelson's books years later, he was like, where was Josh Nelson and these books a decade or 15 years ago? This would have been ultra helpful.

But he's not going to discount working with as many companies as he has. He learned a ton from working with different types of businesses. The problem was he got burned out doing project after project. Those cycles of RFPs and hourly work just burn people out.

For the last decade though, he's been running what he calls maintenance and ongoing revenue generation. That's way more sustainable than just doing project work.

Breaking Through a Million Dollars in Revenue

One of Wyatt's biggest breakthroughs was breaking through a million dollars in revenue with CS Design Studios. That was huge. They celebrated by running into a movie theater and playing a 15-minute video giving all their team members and clients accolades. It was a really fun moment.

I asked him what the pivotal moment was that drove them from maybe 50K a month to that 80K mark. His answer surprised me. He said he didn't really think of it like that. He went into business to help other people make money and build an online presence using his creativity.

He wasn't watching the 50K to 70K marker. They were looking more at profitability and when it was time to add the next player. Add your next player, add your next player. That was the mindset.

At some point, they set a goal. First it was 750K, then a million. But Wyatt made it clear it's not just about the amount of revenue you're going to drive. It's really about sustainability.

"I think what has drawn me to listening to you and see some that you're doing Danny is you care about the client everything else comes right if you're taking care of the customer and and they're happy great everything else follows," Wyatt said.

That hit home for me. If you're taking care of the customer and they're happy, everything else follows. Obviously we have goals we want to achieve, but the foundation is customer satisfaction.

The Power of Peer Groups and Vistage

Wyatt's mindset has improved dramatically in the last five years, and a lot of that comes from joining Vistage. For those who don't know, Vistage is an organization where some of the top CEOs in the country get together. In Wyatt's group, there's over $500 million represented in business.

They get together every month and do what's called issue processing. You're in a room with a bunch of CEOs processing real issues. When you start doing that, you realize you're not alone. There's a peer group that can really support you.

This is way more than just jumping on YouTube and watching videos because there's no connection there. When you're in a room with successful business owners laying out your issues and they're helping you process it, that's completely different.

Wyatt talked about being on what he calls the firing squad. You're up there talking about a real issue, and your emotions are tied in with that. Then you have people challenging you, asking questions, leading you down a path. But they're not trying to elevate themselves. It's not an ego thing at all.

"It's amazing uh what that group has done," Wyatt explained. They bring in speakers every two months, and it just opens your eyes to other horizons.

The recommendation for any pest control owner or digital marketer: get into a peer group. Associate around people that are doing what you're doing. Wyatt likes to associate around people that are doing better than he is because that's how you level up.

It took him a while to feel confident enough to start talking and sharing. He'd be in rooms with hundred-million-dollar companies wondering what value he could bring. But over time, he realized he brings a lot of value.

He's been speaking to $50 million a year pest control companies recently, and he's like, if they had a Wyatt or a Danny, this would be completely different for them. It'd be different for all their families working for them.

Seven Figure Agency and Finding Your Niche

Besides Vistage, Wyatt also joined Seven Figure Agency. For those who don't know, Seven Figure Agency is a group of the top 1% of digital marketing agencies in the United States that are growing. They have the stats behind it to prove it.

Josh Nelson put together a really good program for how to grow your agency. Even if the cost doesn't fit your budget, there are other ways to get coaching and get into real peer groups that will give you valuable insights and tricks to speed up your growth.

Wyatt said he couldn't keep up with everything coming out of Seven Figure Agency. They have so much content coming at you. He thinks it would have been more valuable before he became a multi-million dollar agency, right at that growth point where you've got to do something different.

That's where he looked at Josh's model and realized he had to niche this thing out. But here's the challenge: once you've created this beast of a generalist agency, you don't just hit the easy button and niche down. You're talking about going backwards in time with all these relationships. You can't just drop customers and drop all this revenue to pursue a niche.

For Wyat, it's been a bit of a journey. He'll be a Seven Figure Agency guy again probably next year, but he wanted to make sure he was walking the walk with Swarm. Swarm came out of that realization. It's the hyperfocus on the pest control industry.

He feels like he's got enough time behind him now that he can speak with authority. Not as a know-it-all, but there's some authority there.

How He Accidentally Got Into Pest Control

So why pest control? I had to ask because that's super specific. Wyat laughed and said it was kind of by accident, same as me.

He was in a local peer group of about half a billion dollars worth of business owners. One of the core people there ran Truly Nolan for 30-plus years. His name was Scott Nolan, still a good friend and business partner.

One day, three people from that group approached Wyatt. They said they're starting a pest control company and wanted him to be a partner. They wanted him to get out his checkbook.

He got to watch the pitch deck on how fragmented the pest control industry is. There are like 27,000-plus pest control operators in the United States. The number depends on if you ask AI or PCT, but there are tens of thousands of pest control companies.

A lot of these private equity firms are buying them up, so it could be a really good play for an equity stake. Wyatt was like, okay, I'm going to get out my checkbook.

There were some things they presented that were real differentiators beyond just a brand new brand. He knew there was going to be a ton of work involved. All new people, buying trucks, all that stuff. He cut the check.

They get ready to roll their vehicles out in the field, and COVID hits.

You can imagine as an investment person, you invest into something and everything changed. All of a sudden, everything you had as part of your marketing plan changed. Some of it was digital, but you also had sales techniques like going into service somewhere and canvassing the block with flyers or door hangers.

A lot of people were wondering if they were going to lose their jobs. They were holding onto their pennies. Was it a good time to start a pest control company or any company in general? Some people might say yes, some might say no.

"If I knew that was coming I probably wouldn't have done it," Wyatt said. But he's glad he did because he is where he is right now because of it.

The Challenge of Business Partnerships

This was the first time Wyatt had a chance to be a business partner, and that's a challenge in itself. You want to partner with the right partner, and there's really no way of knowing exactly what you're going to get because people change over time.

That actually happened with one of his first partners. There were things they weren't seeing eye to eye on, so they decided to take separate paths. That's why he ended up buying out his first partner.

He was a little hesitant to become a partner in a field he didn't really know. He didn't think he had marketed a pest control company before and didn't realize how hard it was going to be. He had done other home service companies, so it wasn't too foreign.

He went into business with somebody who ran a very large pest control organization internationally and nationally. That person was a nice mentor. All Wyatt had to do was cut a check and take care of the marketing.

What was nice is he learned the pest control industry from people who had done it for decades and were very successful at it. One of the folks now running their pest control company was an executive vice president who ran 65 branches for Truly Nolan. What a wealth of knowledge and information.

By the way, that guy's going to be one of the coaches on a mastermind Wyatt's starting in November. They're bringing in some of the top pest control owners in the country to form this mastermind.

Making High-Level Connections

I asked Wyatt how he made these connections initially and put himself out there. His answer was perfect.

He was meeting with a friend who had a steel metal building company. Wyatt was trying to pitch him on digital marketing, but the guy was set. Most of his contracts came from RFPs. But he told Wyatt he was in a group you have to qualify to be in, and he pitched Wyatt on that group.

That was the $500 million plus group of local business owners. Wyatt really quickly became the MVP by doing exactly what we're talking about: connect with people and help them. He ended up having more clients out of that group than anybody else in the group.

The first one was a real challenge. The guy was a war hero who owned a manufacturing company. He graduated from West Point. Wyatt joked that this is probably the guy who irons his underwear. He got shot in the leg with a 50 caliber bullet. This guy was intense and all business.

Wyatt had to win him over. He helped him during COVID when his business completely shifted because the majority was restaurant business. He became very dependent on his website, and that's when Wyatt helped him the most. The guy never forgot it.

The first time he made a million on his e-commerce site, he was so thankful. It helped him sustain during COVID. Now it has flipped because people are going to restaurants again, and he's supplying big chains like Fox Restaurants and PF Chang's.

That was a win, and Wyatt thinks it's because he was open to talking to a friend, didn't get upset that he didn't win his business initially, and by the way, he ended up winning three of his businesses.

How to Win Over High-Level People

I had to ask Wyatt how you win over someone like that. How do you make all these connections and business opportunities?

His answer was simple but profound: be yourself. A lot of people when they're selling think about themselves. If you just flip that script to how can I help you, it will come to you.

Before he got on our podcast, he was talking to a large pest control company. He did the research. On the front of his proposal was an article written in PCT about that company. He had to go digging for it. That's on the front of his proposal with notes from their meeting.

The proposal was adjusted to what they said they needed to accomplish, not some boxed template. That's how they realize you're not out to line your pockets. You're there to help them get where they want to go.

"Unfortunately in in larger entities the Salesforce becomes that where they stop caring and they're just thinking about their commission or they're just thinking about their next sale," Wyatt explained.

He told me about that manufacturer he helped. That story is so good because those are the connections that matter. He sees my content and that's why he's drawn to me. He knows I care about the client.

Before the podcast was over, he said he was going to give me a couple ideas. I was all ears.

The Non-Negotiable Pre-Qualifiers

Wyatt laid out his pre-qualifiers for working with a pest control company. These are non-negotiable.

First, they've got to have a growth mindset. You'll run into pest control operators that are one-truck operations and they're fine with that. They're content with that. That's fine, but the only reason they stayed there is they didn't have a growth mindset. Not everybody wants to grow a business. But if you don't want to grow, Wyatt's not your guy.

Second, and this is the big one: reputation. If somebody's a two-star and they've got over 100 reviews, no way. Red flag.

Wyatt told me a true story. This is a company doing about $2 million when he walked in. At the beginning of the reputation game when Google started adding stars, they were at a 2.2. He sat down with the owner and said, "Look this is going to destroy your business do you want to grow this thing or you want to get destroyed because you got to turn this around."

What this told him is they don't care about their reputation. The first thing they had to solve was the reputation. If their reputation is garbage, they have to change it as an organization.

Wyatt's not spending his time trying to teach people about turning that around anymore because we're in a different era. When somebody searches your business, they're going to see your stars. Wyatt calls it a five-star culture.

Now granted, when you're a big pest control operator doing 10 million plus, you're probably not going to be five stars anymore. That's almost impossible to retain the bigger you grow. But when you're at that sub level, you can do it.

Reputation is everything. We know it's tied into Google. It's tied into how you're being served up in proximity search. It's giving those signals. They're real reviews coming back, so reputation is number one.

I completely agree with this. I'll give all the advice in the world to people that don't have a good reputation, but I just can't take them on. There's only so much SEO I can do. I actually made a post a few days ago about not wanting to take on a client because I couldn't get them results. They had such a small area and were only doing wildlife at the time.

If I know I can't get you results, the same way if you have a terrible reputation, there's only so much SEO you can do. People are going to see that bad reputation and be turned off.

Reputation isn't even something to strive for. I think that's a standard. Really, just about every single pest control company I see is at least 4.5 plus stars. If you're below four stars, you seriously need to get on your game.

Wyatt agreed 100%. He quoted Gary Vaynerchuk who said it perfectly: you can't out-market a bad service. You can spend a lot of money, but you're not going to out-market that bad reputation.

He also looks at Better Business Bureau. The most respected and trusted review still comes from them. If they're like a C or a D, he tells them they need to fix this first. Go down there, meet with those guys, work out their issue. He doesn't care if it was three years ago. Go make that right.

And then there's Yelp. If you've got a bad score there, that's fun to turn around because of how that algorithm works. Once you get on that poor list on Yelp, it's very hard to become accepted. You might be able to get a bunch of good reviews, but they get pushed down or hidden.

That's why you have to get it right from the beginning. You have to be in that giving mentality. You have to do whatever it takes to make your customers happy. Even though you think pest control is just a standard service, you still have to go above and beyond for your customer.

The Number One Customer Acquisition Channel

I asked Wyatt what he's seen as the number one customer acquisition channel for pest control right now. What's working best?

His answer: local service ads. Absolute must. If you don't have a Danny or a Wyatt or somebody in that space helping you on your SEO, local service ads are low-hanging fruit.

But here's the catch. This ties right in with your reviews. If your reviews aren't good, you're not getting any play on LSA.

Right here in Tucson, they had 400 pest control companies competing. You think you're going to get any play on LSA when you're coming out of the gate with bad reviews? No way.

That's where the Google Business Profile play comes in. That's what Wyatt did with the first pest control company he was a partial owner in. They made it a race to 100 reviews. If you're a new pest control company or you're sub-100 reviews, get to that 100 reviews as quick as possible.

I've talked to experts in the space, and several people who have been doing this for 20 years have told me you get a boost at 10 reviews and you get a boost at 100 reviews. Do whatever you can. If you're at three reviews, get to that 10 review mark. Once you're at 10, 30, 40, 50, get to that 100 review mark.

It's not even so much for SEO. I think it's more the psychological component. When you see 100 stars versus 70 or 80, it might not seem like much more, but it's a lot more psychologically.

Wyatt agreed. We do it on Amazon. If you've never heard of somebody, you're going to use that review as hearsay. That's what reviews are for this generation.

What About Facebook Ads?

I had to ask about other channels. What about Facebook ads, Google ads, Yelp ads?

Wyatt said Facebook is its own animal. He knows some people in Seven Figure Agency who are really good at Facebook ads, but that channel is volatile. It goes up, it goes down. Facebook loves to keep it that way.

Don't expect huge returns on home service companies with Facebook. The ads might be a brand awareness thing so you get that brand memory, but don't expect miracles in the Facebook ads arena.

He sees a lot of players who love to go in there and say they can give you 10X or 15X returns. That wouldn't be a first go-to channel for him.

I completely agree. I'm not a fan of Facebook ads. The leads are very low quality. What we're looking for in pest control is someone who actually needs the service. Someone might fill out a form on Facebook and then end up not being interested. They're like, oh, I was just kind of thinking about a pest control company, the offer seemed kind of good.

Whereas if someone's searching pest control near me or pest control Tucson, they clearly want pest control. They're just going to choose a company. Which one is it going to be?

I personally love all Google platforms. Google ads, local service ads, website, Google Business Profile. I love keeping it on Google. That's my preferred method, and that's what I'm staying on.

I think to a certain extent, you can only go so far with that. Maybe 5 to 10 million a year. Then you have to start doing other kinds of marketing like going really hard on social media marketing, going hard on Facebook ads, offline marketing.

The Power of Offline Marketing

I asked Wyatt about offline marketing because I think people overlook it. What are his pest control companies doing with offline marketing?

He thinks offline marketing is a good option. There are a lot of other channels than just digital, and getting those things right first matters.

He told me about a call he made last week where the pest control owner said they pulled the decals off their trucks. Wyatt was like, what? If somebody was just going into business, that's the first thing you do. You wrap your vehicle and make sure you find the best wrap. Don't go cheap. If all you can afford is magnets, go magnets, but go big on your wrap.

That's what people see. You're driving around. It's a billboard. It's part of that top-of-mind awareness. If it looks good and they see all the buying signals, they might call you right there while you're driving around. It happens.

Here are some other offline channels that work really well:

Being visible in the community. Do some frisbees. People are at the park. Give away some frisbees, give away some fly swatters. Start going out. Get a thousand pens and give your pens away to every business. They look at that pen and see your logo. Easy, not expensive.

For sub-million dollar business owners, this is tried and true stuff from Wyatt's peers and mentors.

Here's a cool suggestion he got from a mentor who does Super Bowl commercials: When you go out and do service for a new customer, ask them if they can put a sign in their yard for the first month. Then it comes down. Everybody in the neighborhood knows they're getting serviced by your pest control company.

That's so good. You give your customer an incentive, and it's not going to be there indefinitely, but you at least get some visibility from people driving by seeing that they're using you.

A lot of it is just brand exposure. The more you see something, the more you like it. That's one of the reasons I like doing the podcast. People are seeing me in the clips, I'm posting on social media. If you keep seeing me, you're naturally going to like me more unless it's a terrible post or terrible podcast.

But from the broadest perspective possible, what can we do in any way, shape, or form to get our brand in front of other people? Frisbees, pens, signs in yards. I think that's actually genius advice.

Wyatt wouldn't tell me to do that if he didn't see it work for others in home services. It doesn't have to apply just to pest control. If you're not going to use a frisbee, you're going to use a pen. You're going to use a fly swatter. If you're at a dog park, you'll probably use a frisbee. Those are low-hanging fruit showing goodwill in the community.

But the wrap on the vehicle is critical. They're going to go through all of that in their mastermind groups as offline channels that carry big impact. Getting involved in a peer group is so important.

My Main Takeaway

The biggest thing I learned from Wyatt is that reputation management isn't optional anymore. It's the foundation. If you're below four stars, you need to fix that before you do anything else. You can't out-market a bad service, and in today's world, people check reviews instantly. If your reputation is garbage, nothing else matters. Fix that first.

The second takeaway is the power of peer groups. Wyatt's success came from getting around people who were doing what he's doing and people who were doing better than him. Whether it's Vistage, Seven Figure Agency, or a local business group, being in a room with successful people processing real issues is completely different than just watching YouTube videos. There's a human connection that accelerates your growth.

The third insight is about how to win over high-level people. Wyatt's approach is simple: be yourself and flip the script from thinking about yourself to thinking about how you can help them. Do the research. Customize your proposal. Show them you're not trying to line your pockets but genuinely help them get where they want to go. That's how you build long-term relationships and win business.

The fourth thing that struck me is the accidental path to niching down. Wyatt became a generalist for years before realizing he needed to niche. But once you've built a beast of a generalist agency, you can't just hit the easy button and drop all your clients. It's a journey. For anyone starting out, niche down early. For those already running a generalist agency, start slowly transitioning like Wyatt did with Swarm.

The fifth lesson is about offline marketing. We get so caught up in digital that we forget the power of vehicle wraps, pens, frisbees, yard signs, and just being visible in the community. These are low-cost, high-impact ways to get your brand in front of people. The more they see you, the more they like you. Don't overlook the simple stuff that works.

If you want to learn more from Wyatt, you can find him on LinkedIn at Wyatt Chambers. If you're a pest control company, check out Swarm Pest Control Marketing. He's also starting a mastermind in November for top pest control owners, so keep an eye out for that. Wyatt's got a ton of wisdom from running multiple agencies and co-owning four pest control companies, and he's genuinely passionate about helping pest control owners grow.