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A
We're currently the fifth largest residential pest control company in the nation.
B
Wow.
A
So we're, we're in 80 plus markets nationwide and we just recently went through a transaction, brought in a private equity partner between our corporate, our salesforce and our day to day remote office employees. We're about, I'd say about 5,000 and.
B
I see a lot of like 22 year old, 27 year old, 24 year olds. A lot of them are talking about making like 100k, 200k, 300k, 100k in a summer. Is that true?
A
We've had multiple reps that have done, done over a million dollars in new.
B
Customer revenue in one summer.
A
Yeah. So they y to go.
B
I'm, I'm going to start working.
A
Yeah. Let's go knock some doors.
B
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Christmas and Hanukkah special edition of the Money Mondays. Right now we are inside of an RV motorhome parked outside of our toy drive, doing 10 cities in 16 days for the world's largest toy drive. You guys can Visit largest toy drive.com but when this episode comes out, sadly, the toy drives are complete and all of my flights and all my miles are completed. But why did I say it's extra special? Because sitting right next to me is literally Buddy the elf. Yes, some people call him Kyle. Yes. He built up a huge sales team and a huge company and massive business. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We'll get to that. But first, it's Christmas week. We got to talk to Buddy dove. So what we're going to do here on the Money Mondays, as you know, we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. But it's really important for you guys that are listening to keep talking about money with your friends, family and followers. We all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. I think it's ridiculous that we don't talk about it because we go to high school, go to college, and we go out there into the world and we don't know about taxes or how to deal with a bank account or balance a budget or like deal with a checkbook. What is a checkbook? Should we take a loan? Should we get, I don't know, should we rent? Should we lease? Should we buy? We don't know these things because no one's allowed to talk about it. Well, the reason this podcast has been in the top 10 for 95 out of our 101 weeks when you listen to this episode is because of you, because you guys are liking commenting, subscribing and sharing. It's very, very important to us. So without further ado, I'm going to bring it over to Kyle, known as Buddy the Elf, to give us a quick 2 minute bio and we get straight to the money.
A
All right, so, yeah, my name is Kyle Nielsen, AKA Buddy, AKA the NBA Elf. And, and I love being an elf. No, no, I, yeah, I dress up like this during the holiday season. Quick version of that is that it started at a Toy Drive almost 12. Yeah, about 12, 13 years ago.
B
When did the movie come out?
A
It's 20, 20 years old now. I think they have the 20th anniversary. I don't, you know, fact check me, whatever, but if I get it wrong, you know, in the comments, call me out. But yeah, it's about 20 years old now. And so about 12 years ago, I threw the elf costume on, wore it to a toy drive sub for my company. And the next year my, my employees were like, you're gonna wear it again. What's going on with that? So I rented the costume again, threw it on, and when we were in the checkout line at Target, one of the Target checkers was like, you were here last year buying toys for all these families. And we talked about how the elf just was so happy. And so I was like, a whole year later I was like, this made a difference. And then so I kind of just started wearing it to the toy toy drives charity events. And then I threw it on an NBA arena and it went viral when Rudy Gobert stole my hat, put it on Donovan Mitchell's head after the game instead of pouring water on him. And then I was like, well, let's just keep the ripple effect growing bigger. When I'm not elf. And around I, I kill bugs. I'm in the pest control industry and I run sales teams for door to door pest control. And we're the, we're currently the fifth largest residential pest control company in the nation.
B
Wow.
A
And we just recently went through a transaction, brought in a private equity partner.
B
Explain what that means.
A
Yeah, so we see I'm going on my 18th year now in the pest control. All the same brand, so different brands, so same ownership group. We originally were part of a franchise called Moxie. Our ownership group sold that franchise off to Terminex, rolled that money in, started a company called Eco first, sold that off after a few years to Terminix again. They bought our customer base. And then we started company called Altera. Altera again. Terminix came in and only Bought our customer base, but bought the brand. And every single year, I mean every single three to four year run, we would build it up more and more. And then back in 2015 we were like, we're done kind of selling customers off. All right, let's build the next one to be the brand that we live and love with. You know, we love, love with, we live, live and love with forever. And so that was Aptiv in 2015 and we're going on our 10th summer. So we're hitting a decade with that brand and it'll be active for, you know, for as long as it goes, which is, which has been fun. And so we built it with the intention of bringing in a private equity partner at some point or having some sort of strategic exit. And after a lot of years and a lot of EBITDA ups and downs and struggles and learning and profitable years and fun, we found a great partner in Citation Capital and they came in and we struck a deal and we're running the next three to five to whatever years it is with them to see what we can do with it.
B
How many employees are out there in the Aptiv ecosystem?
A
Yeah, about 5,000. 5,000? Yeah. So we're, we're in 80 plus markets nationwide and yeah, between our corporate, our salesforce and our day to day remote office employees, we're about, I'd say about 5,000.
B
So I speak at a lot of solar roofing, pest control, door to door industry type events and I see a lot of like 22 year old, 27 year old, 24 year olds. A lot of them are talking about making like 100k, 200k, 300k, 100k in a summer. Is that true?
A
Yeah, yeah. I mean for every big success story, there's also the guys that go home with nothing because of, you know, their work or their lack thereof typically. But yeah, I mean it's very, very possible for, you know, anybody. I mean we had a 40, 44, 45 year old guy come out this year as a rookie salesman, had never knocked doors before, had worked in the pest control industry for quite a few years and then transitioned off into something different and was like, I know pest control, but I also want to try sales that he came out and made I think 200, like 150, $200,000.
B
In a summer?
A
In a summer, yeah. I mean really to break it down, you make commission off of every sale that you make. A good rep can be putting on eight to 10 new customer accounts a day. Rookie can be putting on like one to two accounts a day. For a rookie to sell two accounts a day, they have to talk to about 60 people to talk to about 60 people on the doors. You can, you're walking door to door to door, knocking on doors, saying, do you need pest control? And it's not as simple as that, but there's art to it. But that they're having to talk, they're having to knock about 150 to 200 doors. So you know the, the fun thing about it or that guess the thing that makes it so hard is that to get to two people to say yes, you have to be rejected 60 plus times.
B
Wow.
A
So most people can't deal with, can't bear it. That. And I tell people when they're, when they're interested in the job and they hear about the success stories and they come in, I say, look like if this job was easy, everybody would do it. If everybody could do it, it wouldn't pay what it pays.
B
Right. Of course.
A
So like you have to take rejection and you have to get, it has to, you know, it has to be like water off the duck's back. Like you just have to be able to roll off that and get through it. And you knock enough doors, eventually door's gonna open.
B
Okay, walk us through it. Just give us the main idea. When that rookie goes out there for the first time, they're gonna go knock on how many doors in one day?
A
Ballpark, a good rookie that actually really wants to see results. 150 to 200 doors in one day? In one day.
B
That's an eight hour day.
A
We start. Yeah, I mean probably closer to 10. So we, we every morning, we get together for a morning meeting, we talk about the sales skills from the day. What were the challenges? We go through the team's goals. We get on the doors by about 10:15, 10:30, we work till about 3:30, 4:00, take a quick lunch break, bathroom break, get out, get back on the doors by 4:30 and work till dark. So in some markets at 8:30, some it's 9:30. We typically don't want people knocking on doors after 10:00 at night, obviously. But yeah, the people that do it really well can schedule other return appointments. So when they catch the husband or wife at home earlier and they're come back and talk to my husband, they schedule those ones into the dark. So that way it gives them a purpose to be there at dark. So when they're knocking on doors, they're knocking on people's doors that are expecting them to Come back by not, you know, not super late. But yeah, no, they're, they're long 10 to 10 plus hour days when you add in the training and the drive time back and forth. And then we train at night, we train in the mornings. Like it's a very intense day to go out there and you know, but again, for a rookie, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21, 22 year old kid in college to come out and make 20, even 30 grand in a summer, that's massive. That's life changing.
B
Wow. Okay, so they're out there, the knocking doors. Let's say they made $100,000 that summer. What do you say to these 24 year olds to not go below the hundred thousand dollars before the next summer?
A
Buy real estate. Make sure you set up your tax strategy right. So you create your, your llc. Get, you know, don't get, don't get paid as a sole proprietor. Create a structure with that. Invest your money and be smart. Obviously it's, you know, you can go buy yourself a nice car, you can buy yourself, you know, something to reward yourself for the hard work. But don't just blow it like it's, it's tough to not want to burn through it. And what I see some, some people do in the industry is that they're, they're not from a leadership standpoint, they're not educating their sales force on the tax burdens and they're not really kids aren't realizing that taxes aren't coming out of my paychecks. And then at the end of the year they, Uncle Sam's like, hey, Uncle Sam's knocking on their door. And what that sometimes happens if a company doesn't train and educate the reps properly, then that rep is now left with a pretty big tax burden and their company's not gonna throw, throw them a bonus or something. So what happens is they start shopping themselves around and they look for a signing bonus from somewhere. But then that rep perpetually ends up just jumping from company to company to company and they never build anything from themselves. And so we've taking a really smart approach. Like I do a call in my, in my partnership and I read in my region at the company called Wealth Wednesdays and we bring people on, talk about crypto, talk about real estate, talk about branding, talk about tax strategy, talk about all those things to these, these younger kids to give them opportunities to learn how to be smart with what they do. But I mean I think, I think real estate's an amazing one for them to get into at A young age.
B
That's super cool. All right, so they made 100,000, they started investing, and now it's time for year two. How do you keep them motivated during the quiet times? They're not knocking on doors in like December in the snow. Right. How do you keep them motivated in between?
A
Yeah, I mean, luckily we have markets nationwide, like there's no snow on the ground in Miami, you know, Phoenix, Arizona, Tucson, Vegas, St. George, a lot of Texas. So there's a lot of markets where they can go knock doors.
B
They can work 12 months year round.
A
If they want to. I prefer like the compartmentalization kind of approach. A lot of them are students. A lot of them are still going to school for something, whether it's doctor, dentist, lawyer. They're like really trying to, you know, build something in the future. But I think that if you, if you think about it, you have your four to five month summer where you go knock doors and then you have, if they've done really well, like say they Produced, you know, 125 or $150,000 in new customer revenue, that's kind of our benchmark at the company for them to come back and be like a manager, leader, recruiter. Then they spend September through January recruiting and building their team, their own team for the next year where then they can be the leader of that team. They get an override stack and, you know, bonuses for recruiting and running a good team so that then they get their own income off their own sales. Plus they can pull in another 150, 200 grand from running a good successful team in their org. So they spend that next chunk of months building that team, recruiting and building. And then they spend January through April or March training that team and training them and getting, getting them ready. So it's almost like you have like, like any high competitive sports team. You have your, you're in season. Like there's not a lot of time to make a lot of changes. Once you're in the NBA season, like, you can maybe make a trade here and there. The time to rebuild is kind of in the off season. So then you, you build your team, you train your team, you put your team out there and see if you did it right. You build your team, you train your team, you put your team out there, you build your team, you train your team, you put your team out there. And so I prefer like the compart where it kind of builds it into blocks and, and once you get to like the management level where you're, you're these 150 plus thousand. You know, in a year. New customer revenue leaders, you're making enough in the off season or in that one summer to kind of live off that money. And then, and that kind of gets you through. And the way that we, I mean the way that we pay our kind of our back ends and our bonus structures out is they're kind of getting checks in the off season monthly anyways. And so there's not this big draw to go and do a blitz here. Be gone for a week, come back for two weeks. Be gone for a week, come back for two weeks. Like, I would much rather they build their salespeople.
B
Tell us a fun story. Is there anybody that's gone and done like $500,000 in a summer?
A
So we had, we've had multiple reps that have done, done over a million dollars in new customer revenue in one summer. Yeah, so they, and what they're.
B
So yeah, I'm gonna start working.
A
Yeah, let's go knock some doors. No, so, so yeah, I mean, so there's a few that come to mind. But, but Auber. So Auber Les Bronce, Jake west and Ryan Smith were three of our million dollar guys this year. And the crazy thing on that is on our comp scale is, you know, because the company makes their money year two, year three. And so you. We want to bank on the fact that we're putting on good accounts and that they stick and that we're. Our service is there where it needs to be and we're there. But Ryan Smith, for example, put on a million. Over a million dollars in new customer revenue. His commission, chunk of that for the first year is 80% commission. So he'll probably have 15, 10 to 15% of those customers cancel. So he's gonna make 700. About 700 grand.
B
In the summer.
A
In a summer. How old is Ryan? Ryan, don't hate me. Ryan. If you get this wrong, he's like late 20s, early 30s, but yeah, no, he's. Murphy's making.
B
Give me your camera. You're gonna go work through the door.
A
Hey, I might actually get Murphy on the doors this summer.
B
Why not?
A
No, but I got, I got 700,000.
B
Reason you should try it out.
A
Yeah, right. No, but I mean, and that's. And it took him. Honestly, it takes those guys. I mean O'Bear did it in like 4,4ish months. 4, like 4 months because he is, he's in school and, and he's, you know, in town on a, or in, in the US on a student visa and has to like, remember that scene.
B
In Wolf of Wall Street? He's like, you show me a check for $74,000, I quit my job right now. Jonah Hill called his boss and quit his job.
A
Yeah, yeah, but, but I mean, it takes, I mean for, for those guys, that's, it's, it's an unheard of industry. But it's, it's difficult. Like the, the mental drain that you have out there and like the solitude, you feel like it's. There's no one out there watching you. There's no one out there watching the clock. There's no one out there. What, you know, did a clock in. Did he clock out? Like. Yeah, you really, really do. You really do. Like, the, the only person watching you is yourself.
B
Wow. Did they ever go on pairs or that's just for training?
A
Yeah, I mean, I think those are the, those are the Mormon missionaries. No, but. No, no, but which. There is some overlap. A lot of the LDS Mormon missionaries come out and do really, really good at this job, but because they've knocked doors for free for two years. But no, they, we, we typically put them in like a car partnership or a car group, and they head out and they park the car and they kind of each go their own way and then they kind of meet back up and, and things. But I mean, we've done stuff with our software to be more sophisticated than most of our other competitors. So we, we have actually like pre scored and pre qualified most of the homes across the US Based on a look like model, based on what customers we've put on that have stuck with us based on which ones we've put on that didn't. And we almost recommend areas in certain homes to sell and reps can still sell kind of anything they want. But the houses have kind of a color coding on them that if you sell this one, it'll most likely retain. If you sell this one, it most likely won't. So choose wisely. And they do make a higher commission on the ones that are. The higher likelihood of retention too.
B
I have a story I never talked about before. So a friend of mine, Carrie Levine, he started a company called Mo Pro back in the days and he came to me and he's like a brother to me, like a close friend. He's like, I want you to join the board of the company. And he's like, yeah, I just raised like $9 million. And we've got all these different things going on and all these big brands and he had all these pretty brands. And I said, no he said, what do you mean, no? I said, well, you don't. You don't sell anything yet. He's like, no, this, this. It was like a lot of amazing deals, and he's got raised like 9 million at the time or so. And I said, no, it's like, if you want, I'll build you a sales team, and if I hit that number, then we'll work it out. But I need to get to $5 million in one year to hit the number. So he was already gonna give me a piece for free. I decided to create myself a job just because it was fun and I love him. And he had a great concept, which was, we'll go to your restaurant or your nightclub or your salon or your whatever business, clothing store, furniture store, sports card store, whatever, and we'll build you a website, all your social media accounts, and a decked out video of your business for five grand. But you pay over two years, just 200 bucks a month. And so it's two year contract, 200 bucks a month. So me and Jessica, we went and hired 40 reps and we made them wear nurses outfits and doctor's outfits. Nurses for the girls, doctors for the boys. And they would just wear like the. What's that thing called?
A
Like the stethoscope.
B
And we did what's called a digital checkup. And it was easy. All I did was train them to look at someone's website before you walked into their business and just find three mistakes. Oh, the address is wrong. Oh, the website doesn't do this. Oh, the phone number is wrong. Oh, when you click on this button, it doesn't work. Just find three basic mistakes. Which every website had because many years ago, right. This is before Wix.com and those type of things, Squarespace. And so I built this team of 40. We started going to conventions and trade shows. The lawyer convention, the doctor convention, where we knew they had money. And we just. All these girls and boys were wearing doctors and nurses outfits. And people would walk by the booth like, what's going on? Like, oh, let's give you a digital checkup real quick. And we would write six figures a show in orders because it's $5,000 a pop with no money up front. It's 200 bucks a month. So. But on the off times, on the weekdays, I'd make these reps go to like strip malls and just walk into the stores, go to a high rise and just walk into locations.
A
I'm so glad you said malls at the end of that. Sorry, just, just.
B
And so all of a sudden they go in and get all these different accounts and they're just racking up, paid them a good commission, they're making good money. And I blinked my eyes and we did $5.4 million in sales, which is 1100 accounts, crazy grand each like that. In four months, my friend Kerry raises $17 million. After that, 70 million. $70 million more after that, bada bing, bada boom. He lives in Hawaii, building a bunch of fancy houses in Hawaii and has a bunch of kids now. I say that story because I want to see sales. That's why I get so excited asking questions about sales. There's a famous line that Mark Cuban said, sales cures all.
A
Yep.
B
When you bring sales into your business, it makes your staff excited, obviously. Your investors, business partners, the media, your vendors, your clients, every single person, the press, future potential staff, you want to hire your competitors. Everyone has inertia and energy because of the fact you got more sales. And not enough companies have someone that every single day just picks up the phone or does text message or emails and social media just to get sales. Just adding a few accounts a day will literally change the core of your business and everyone involved, from your household to your office, to people that don't know who you are, to people talking about you and rumors about you, all of it's impacted by you creating sales. When I see so many people try to pitch me on deals or pitch me on businesses or pitch me on companies that don't have sales. And so if you're listening out there, if you have a business or you want to make some extra money, get into the sales space. Because if you don't know what to do, sell someone else's stuff.
A
Yep.
B
Right. A trusted brand like Aptif, which has been around for all these years and zillions of dollars in sales, sell that you want to sell something in the info product space, sell it for a household name that you trust, in a brand that you like, that you learn from, sell for them you'd like. I used to sell Cutco knives.
A
Yep.
B
Right. I was selling Cutco knives when I was 15 years old.
A
The best set of knives I own.
B
I still own them. They're fantastic. Anyways, the point of it is if you don't know what your next thing is or you need to make extra cash, the sales industry, whether you're going to go door to door for a company like Apptiv, whether you want to sell something for a brand or product or service that you trust, sales cures all. And you going out There. And doing that will literally generate real cash flow. And it'll help you learn, it'll help you figure out what you want to do next. It'll allow you to bring in cash along the way. Okay, third topic, charity. Why should people in their business or in their household have a charity component to their world?
A
I mean, I think it's, to me, it's very grounding. I mean, I didn't come from money either. Like, I'm one of six kids. My dad worked as a, owned his own plumbing company and then, you know, that wasn't working as well as he would have liked it to work. And so he worked as a, as a, got a job as a foreman and you know, worked our way up through like a plumbing company and stuff. But being a plumber making, you know, a six figure income with six kids in California even back in the 90s, didn't really go, you know, very far and things. And so like we, we grew up. If I wanted to play baseball, you know, I had to sell chocolates door to door. If I wanted to go to scout camp and I had to sell pancake breakfast tickets. And you know, and so I didn't really, if I wanted a pair of shoes and a backpack for the next year, that wasn't the hand me down ones for my older brothers. I had to go out there and drum up money and things. And so for me, I think that everybody has, whether it was a longer period of time in their lives or a smaller period of time in lives, or at least the fear of not having. Everyone can relate to that. And I think that it's important to give back. And yes, donate with your dollars, but more than that, give with your time and your energy. And if you don't have dollars to donate, you don't have to donate with your dollars. You can give honestly, as simple as a smile or a hug or going to a shelter and serving up meals like at charity. I honestly think that charity is as good for, for businesses and for the economy as sales is. Like. Charity also cures all. If you're in a bad mood or you're, you're dealing with your own sorrow and your own grief, go serve somewhere. Go give. And like, it is so, like, it's funny like, because I throw an elf costume on for I wear this more then I wear my normal clothes from Thanksgiving to Christmas every single year. And, and putting this on, like, I can't be like an angry elf. Like, you know, like I put this on and like, I have to smile. But what I've realized is that, like, this really. This elf thing is really just an outward expression of. Of a feeling that I feel inside that the world needs more love, needs more smiles, needs more goodness, needs more grace, needs more empathy, needs more forgiveness. Like, I want people to feel that through me. And, and yes, sometimes that is with dollars, sometimes that's with, you know, a plate of cookies to your neighbor's house, sometimes with. With donating some. Some old clothes you don't use anymore. But the two years too long thing that you do, like, I think that, that, I mean, I honestly, I think that that to give is to live. Like, if I'm not giving, I don't feel alive.
B
Buddy the Elf. Where can people find you across social media?
A
Yeah, so at the Great Elbow primary one.
B
Okay, wait, you gotta explain that. What is the Great Elbow?
A
So, yeah, so it's. It's a nickname. I was told I had an elbow on my face a lot of years ago, and I didn't let it really bother me. And then kind of my circle of friends was like, hey, elbow this, elbow that, the elbow that. And. And so, yeah, so instead of letting somebody, you know, make fun of my big side profile nose that I eventually grew into, now it became the Great Elbow. And back when I started my Instagram account, it was when it was made for just, you know, hey, my friends and family are going to see my pictures, and that was it. And then, you know, fast forward to me getting, you know, selling sneakers to NBA players and like, a few shout outs from. From some. Some big influences on my birthdays and stuff that kind of have amassed a little bit of a following. And like, I mean, one of my. One of my buddies on the jazz, like, he knows my name's Kyle, but he calls me Elbow. Like, like, so, like, if I was to change at this point, right, It's. I don't want to get lost in the, you know, in the. The ether with that. And so I'm kind of stuck with the Great Elbow on that one for at least the. The foreseeable future.
B
Got it.
A
So, yeah, my nose is that. And I think Mark. Mark Berbiglia has like, a comedy bit from, like, back in the early 2000s about a nose on his face and stuff, too. So elbow on his face. But then. And then also the NBA Elf is kind of what I'm leaning into around the charity side. And I won't. It won't just be like, I'm active on it during the Christmas months. I'm going to be pumping content into that throughout the rest of the year as well. So those are my two. And then obviously LinkedIn, Twitter, all that kind of stuff.
B
Awesome. And they can check you out. Utah Jazz or where else?
A
So I mean, I honestly I want to hit up a lot of, I mean any sports arena anywhere. So if anyone has any type of event or arena based thing or just some sort of charity event that they want an elf to show up to, that's awesome. I'm, I'm happy to be here.
B
While running a big ass company.
A
Yes.
B
Okay, as you guys know, the Money Mondays, uh, it's very important for you to have these discussions with your friends, family and followers. We need you to go out there. You can visit us at the money Mondays.com we started expanding. Now we have our elevator funding dot com. We're doing business loans, we have elevator mortgage, which is elevatormortgage.com is live now. And all these things, all these different moving parts help fund everything here. That's why I've been running this for over a hundred episodes with no ads. I've just been doing this because I really want you guys to have these discussions. And the way you can help us is liking commenting, subscribing all those obvious things, sharing the content, having your friends, having your families, having your followers, having your staff, having people in your circle listen to these episodes and share it with their friends so we can have an open discussion about money. Because it's truly important to know about it, talk about it since it is part of our daily lives. I appreciate you, Kyle. Known as the great Elbow, known as Buddy the Elf.
A
Here we go.
B
Check out us on themoneymondays.com and we'll see you guys next Monday.
Podcast Summary: The Money Mondays – Episode 101: Door-to-Door Salesman Made $700K in One Summer w/ Kyle Nielsen 🎄
Release Date: December 23, 2024
Host: Dan Fleyshman
Guest: Kyle Nielsen (also known as Buddy the Elf)
In the holiday-themed premiere of The Money Mondays, host Dan Fleyshman welcomes listeners to a special Christmas and Hanukkah edition. Filmed inside an RV motorhome parked outside a toy drive event, this episode sets the tone for the season by blending business insights with festive charity efforts. Dan introduces the guest, Kyle Nielsen, affectionately known as Buddy the Elf, who shares his remarkable journey in door-to-door sales.
Kyle Nielsen, also known as Buddy the Elf, is a dynamic entrepreneur and the driving force behind one of the nation's top residential pest control companies. With a decade of experience leading Aptiv, the fifth largest residential pest control company in the United States, Kyle has built a sales empire that boasts over 5,000 employees across 80+ markets nationwide.
Notable Quote:
“We’re currently the fifth largest residential pest control company in the nation.” [00:00]
Kyle delves into his entrepreneurial journey, detailing the evolution of his pest control business. Starting with franchises like Moxie and Eco First, Kyle and his team sold their customer bases to Terminix multiple times before establishing Aptiv in 2015. This strategic move focused on building a sustainable brand with the intention of partnering with private equity to scale further.
Notable Quote:
“We built Aptiv with the intention of bringing in a private equity partner at some point or having some sort of strategic exit.” [03:51]
Kyle shares the secrets behind his sales team's impressive performance, highlighting the rigorous training and disciplined approach required to achieve high revenue figures.
Kyle emphasizes the importance of persistence and mastering the art of rejection. Successful sales representatives often need to knock on 150 to 200 doors to secure just two accounts per day, underscoring the high rejection rate inherent in this business.
Notable Quote:
“To get to two people to say yes, you have to be rejected 60 plus times.” [07:06]
Kyle explains that resilience is crucial. "If this job was easy, everybody would do it. If everybody could do it, it wouldn't pay what it pays," he states, highlighting the exclusivity and profitability of successful door-to-door sales.
Notable Quote:
“If this job was easy, everybody would do it. If everybody could do it, it wouldn't pay what it pays.” [07:19]
Rigorous training schedules are fundamental. Sales reps start their day with morning meetings, engage in continuous training, and maintain a structured schedule that includes extensive door-knocking hours. This disciplined regimen ensures that even rookies can achieve substantial earnings over the summer.
Notable Quote:
“They are out there knocking doors that are expecting them to come back by not super late.” [07:47]
Dan inquires about maintaining motivation during off-peak seasons. Kyle explains that the nationwide presence of Aptiv allows sales reps to work year-round in warmer markets. Additionally, the company encourages compartmentalization, where successful reps transition into management roles, recruiting and training new teams during slower months.
Notable Quote:
“I prefer the compartmentalization kind of approach... Building their salespeople.” [10:59]
Kyle proudly shares stories of top-performing sales reps who have exceeded the million-dollar mark in new customer revenue within a single summer. Names like Auber Les Bronce, Jake West, and Ryan Smith are highlighted as exemplary figures who achieved extraordinary success through dedication and strategic selling.
Notable Quote:
“We had multiple reps that have done over a million dollars in new customer revenue in one summer.” [13:11]
Dan shares an inspiring story about building a successful sales team for a friend's company, emphasizing Mark Cuban’s famous adage: “Sales cures all.” He underscores the transformative power of sales in energizing a business, attracting investors, and driving overall growth.
Notable Quote:
“When you bring sales into your business, it makes your staff excited... Sales cures all.” [19:23]
Beyond sales, Kyle highlights the significance of charity and giving back. Drawing from his personal experiences growing up in a financially constrained household, he believes that philanthropy grounds individuals and businesses alike. Kyle advocates for donating time, energy, and resources, not just money, to foster a more empathetic and supportive community.
Notable Quote:
“I think that charity is as good for businesses and for the economy as sales are.” [21:20]
Dan and Kyle wrap up the episode by reinforcing the core themes of making money, smart investing, and giving back. They encourage listeners to engage in open discussions about money, share their successes, and contribute to charitable causes. Kyle’s dual identity as Kyle Nielsen and Buddy the Elf serves as a reminder of the balance between achieving business success and fostering community goodwill.
Notable Quote:
“If I'm not giving, I don't feel alive.” [23:55]
Episode 101 of The Money Mondays offers a compelling blend of entrepreneurial wisdom, sales strategies, and philanthropic insights. Kyle Nielsen’s journey from knocking doors to building a nationwide pest control empire serves as an inspiring blueprint for aspiring sales professionals and business leaders alike. The episode not only highlights the financial rewards of perseverance in sales but also underscores the importance of giving back to the community, making it a must-listen for anyone seeking to elevate their financial and personal growth.
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