In this special episode, we feature Rusty's keynote speech at the 2024 West Alabama SHRM Conference, where he highlights the journey of Prewett Pest Control in building a clear vision and strong workplace culture. In this episode, listen and discover powerful strategies for cultivating a strong organizational vision and driving a  positive workplace culture. Whether you're a business leader, HR professional, or simply passionate about effective leadership, this episode offers valuable insights into creating a vision-driven, culture-focused environment that leads to lasting success. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."  Follow the Journey👇📈 https://www.facebook.com/prewettpestjourney Watch the PEACO Fest 2023 YouTube video that Rusty shares with the group👇🎥 https://youtu.be/aAfZSOJ6wXQ?si=gwx2yt7fN2dPhO19

The Journey Podcast is alive! It's been 5 months since our last episode so Rusty checks in with a quick update.  Rusty and the team have been busy at Prewett Pest in 2024 as they've brought on new team members including a Marketing & PR Coordinator, HR Director, Director of Sales, 4 new Sales Professionals, and 4 new Service Professionals.  Additionaly, PPC has expanded into a new market with a company aquisition in North Alabama. 

Join Rusty in Part 2 of the 'Recap of 2023' as he reviews the previous year and talks about the kickoff of 2024. 2023 was defined as year of growth and CHANGE! After 14 years of owning and operating an Allstate Insurance agency, Rusty shares the details of selling the business, which was bittersweet, but allowed him to focus on growing the pest business. He also touches on developing new leaders in the organization, utilizing the company's Development Program. Is the program perfect? No. However, it helped to provide a framework for some key people who had a desire to grow professionally within the organization. There was also a big focus on taking the inside sales model to the next level by making it a focus to get better.  Additionally, Rusty touches on collection improvements, lead management, specialization in sales verses service roles, and engaging the outside sales team with bi-weekly book club calls and training. Book Club: Book 1 https://www.ultimatesalesmachine.com/book-1a  Book 2 https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Thinking-Big-David-Schwartz/dp/1785040472  5 STEP SALES PROCESS: "Price is only an issue in the absence of value" "Be the orange!" BASPA 1. Build Rapport 2. Ask Questions 3. Sell Value 4. Propose a Plan 5. Assumptively Close!

Join Rusty in EP 47: Part 1 as he shares another journal entry update and recaps 2023. Prewett Pest started in July 2020 and 3 years later the company crossed over the $3MM mark but not without wins, losses, speed bumps and road blocks. Rusty shares the company's 2023 goals and gives an update on the final results. The good, the bad, and the ugly! Reverse engineering goals has proven a strategic way to break down big goals and allows the team to focus on the daily, weekly and monthly things that help move the company to its 10 year target of being a $25Mm company.

Sit in on PPC's bi-weekly book club call where our team discusses chapters 3&4 of 'The Magic of Thinking Big' by David Schwartz. In previous episodes you may have heard Rusty talking about the PPC Book Club he started in the beginning of 2023 with his sales team. The response and feedback was so good it led us to open up the book club to the entire company for anyone that wanted to participate. We break down each call by chapters and every session someone new leads the call.  This week we discuss chapter 3 (Build Confidence & Destroy Fear) and chapter 4 (How to Think Big).   Book Club is optional for anyone in the company that wants to participate and books selected vary on different topics.  This particular book, 'The Magic of Thinking Big', is a book that Rusty read over 20 years and made a huge impact on his way of thinking and dreaming big things.  We hope you enjoy! Please follow us on facebook at www.facebook.com/prewettpestjourney https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Thinking-Big-David-Schwartz/dp/0671646788 

This week Rusty brings you along to be a part of Prewett Pest's bi-weekly sales huddle.  Rusty started hosting these sales zoom huddles at the beginning of 2023 and every 2 weeks the PPC sales pros get to engage with their peers, share best practices and check in on what's working and what's not. This week Rusty has friend and mentor, Justin Slocum, on as a guest to share his story and how he's performed at a high level as an entrepreneur and sales minded business owner.  Prior to selling his Allstate insurance agencies, Justin was one of the largest Allstate agency owners in the country with $40M in annual premiums and consistently performed in the top 1% of agents countrywide. Join us on this episode and learn about Justin's journey and how it can be applicable to growing a sales organization.

Rusty shares some exciting updates on a project he's been working on since the first of the year, the PPC Playbook! What started off as a "Rock" earlier in the year has evolved into a full blown, ongoing, training and culture building tool. Have you ever created or been trained with an operations manual that documents company procedures?  Have you ever forgotten everything you read a few days/weeks/month's after because it was already outdated??  A playbook is a concept created to document the CORE things that Rusty feels EVERYONE in the company should be trained, coached and constantly refreshed on.  Simple, yet super effective.  You'll definitly want to check out the youtube video where Rusty shows the actual playbook and walks our listeners through each page. Check out the link below! Watch it live:  https://www.youtube.com/@theprewettpestjourney/featured  Follow the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prewettpestjourney  www.prewettpestjourney.com 

Are you looking to hire your next top performer? In today's episode Rusty interviews Kevin Mlynarek, entrepreneur and co-owner of Ideal Traits to discuss the benefits of adding a personality assessment tool to your hiring process. Ideal Traits is a full recruiting software created for small to medium size businesses and is your one stop shop for creating job ads, personality assessments, applicant tracking, and more. Get a first hand look at the new modern features *coming soon* to Ideal Traits, and find out why Rusty has continued to use Ideal Traits for years to find the best candidates for his team. Additional topics include shadowing, zoom interviews, communicating with prospective hires, and MORE. Resources from today's episode:  https://idealtraits.com/ https://www.facebook.com/prewettpestpodcast    

In next week's episode, Rusty will be answering questions from our listeners in our first ever Q&A session. We're excited because the floor is yours! Feel free to submit ANY questions that you have for Rusty. They can be about pest control, entrepreneurship, past episodes or guests - you name it. Submit your questions by messaging us on facebook or emailing Maria at [email protected]. You will have until Wednesday, August 30th to submit your questions. We can't wait to hear from y'all!  https://www.facebook.com/prewettpestpodcast

Today we’re joined with our good friend and co-host Eloise Stewart to give you an update on our entrepreneurial journey from start to scale. The process of establishing Prewett Pest Control began in March of 2020 and at that time there were a lot of unknowns. The world shut down due to a worldwide pandemic and in the early months Rusty began to wonder, was this a good idea? Fast forward 2 years later, PPC has grown into 3 markets, has 22 team members, and 3,500 recurring customers. Listen in as the two discuss how with the right team, processes and resilience, you too can turn challenges into big wins. Topics include: customer experience, branding, onboarding, goal setting, etc. https://www.facebook.com/prewettpestpodcast  

Mickey Thomas serves as Senior VP of Customer Care & Inside Sales at Arrow Exterminators. Last year Arrow Exterminators employed 2,000 team members and brought in $300 million in revenue. Mickey has been a part of the Arrow Exterminators team for almost 15 years and when she started they had 42 service centers. They now have 155…talk about growth. Rusty met Mickey through the Executive Leadership Program for NPMA and today she made the trip to Auburn, Alabama to discuss all things pest control & business. The two discuss career development, culture, customer care, and so much more. Mickey definitely brings high energy in today’s episode, and is our first ever guest to have a 2 part series. You won’t want to miss this! Stay tuned for Part Two.