Kieran Scott With Pestmaster and Patio Patrol

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Kieran Scott with Pest Master and Patio Patrol. Welcome, Kieran.

Kieran Scott: [00:00:44] Hey Leo, thanks for having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about those two brands. How are you serving folks?

Kieran Scott: [00:00:50] Yeah, great. So Test Master is a full service pest control company in the integrated pest management space, predominantly serving government contracts. We’ve been around for 40, 43 years. Founded in 1979 out in California. We’ve got about 45 franchisees across the country actively looking for more franchise partners to join join our team. And then Patio Patrol is a five year old mosquito, flea and tick company that we recently rebranded from what was a company called Fly Pho. And so two years ago, threshold brands purchased made promoting kilts and what was then fly pho. And over the past seven months, we’ve transitioned fly pho into patio patrol with more of a focus on general outdoor pest quality. Outdoor pest solutions is our is our tagline their outdoor pest control company servicing really mosquitos, fleas and ticks.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:43] So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Kieran Scott: [00:01:47] Yeah, so I’ve been in franchising for over a decade. I started out actually as a sandwich artist at a local subway in my hometown. I was 14 and I’ve just really I fell in love with franchising ever since. And so I was with Subway for close to a decade and grew to be a regional manager overseeing 12 restaurants in the Greater Salt Lake City area. I then joined another home services company, Mosquito Joe. At the time it was owned by bus franchise brands. In 2015 was with them for four four and a half years. They sold to Neighborly, at which point I joined the Scent Hound team based in Palm Beach County as director of operations, kind of leading their franchise efforts. I was with them for about three, three, three and a half years, and then recently, just six months ago, became the president of Pest Master and Patio Patrol, the two pest control companies within Threshold Brands.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] So what is it about the kind of the franchise model that attracts you and is so that you’re so passionate about?

Kieran Scott: [00:02:50] Yeah, great question. So I think it’s the opportunity for everyone to own a business, right? And I think that’s where I get really passionate about people that don’t look alike or don’t sound alike, all kind of being able to follow one model or one scalable process. And that’s what refranchising really is. It’s a business in a box or it’s designed to be a business in a box that people can follow and hopefully get a scalable result from. And so that’s where I find passion.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:16] So now since you’ve worked with multiple brands over the years, is there something that you’re looking for that might be different in the franchisee and the brands that you’re working with now?

Kieran Scott: [00:03:28] Yes, I think that we’re really looking to build a diverse group of individuals at Pest Master and Patio Patrol. Right. People that don’t come from all the same backgrounds, all the same stories, because I think that’s where that’s where franchise businesses flourish, is when they have that kind of. Inclusion of other people’s thoughts and experiences in addition to their own. And so so one, we’re looking for franchisees all over the country that come from diverse backgrounds. But second, I think the best quality of a franchisee is one that can follow that process. Right. We’ve spent years refining that process. You know, Pest Master has been around for 43 years. So we have a good scalable solution there. And so for folks to come in and follow that process, I think that we’ve built a pretty good, pretty good system.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:14] Now, you mentioned diversity, and I know that recently you’ve been kind of part of the National Diversity and Wildlife Committees. Can you talk about where you see that as maybe it maybe it’s not where you’d like it to be, but where you see opportunity, where it could be really a game changer for not just your franchises, franchise brands that you represent, but just the franchising as a whole. If they can become more inclusive and make more concerted efforts to, you know, go after a more diverse franchisee.

Kieran Scott: [00:04:53] Yeah. So I think that I currently operate in this intersection between the pest control world, the integrated pest management world, and also the franchise world. And in both of those sectors, franchising itself and also pest control, there’s a need for diversity. And thankfully, both both kind of groups or both both associations have over the past decade, 15 years been really focused on increasing the diversity within within those segments. So pest control has become much more diverse and franchising has become much more much more diverse. But there’s still a long way to go, right? Franchising still has that notion of being, you know, older males selling franchises to other older males, you know, and then same with pest control. It’s very male dominated. And so I think there’s diversity still needed in both. But when you take that and apply it to other franchises, I think that the benefit you get by incorporating other people’s opinions and ideas and histories and experiences just makes your brand that much stronger, right? I think when I look back on my experiences as an immigrant to the US, I certainly have different experiences than someone that was born here. Right? And so I bring a different experience. It’s not any better or any worse than than someone else’s just happens to be different. I think when you blend different experiences and different histories, you just get a better result.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:17] Now is there anything if you were to talk to other leaders of emerging brands, is there anything actionable they could be doing to just do better when it comes to diversity and inclusion?

Kieran Scott: [00:06:31] Yeah, so I think I think a couple of things and doing better. I think, one, when you’re hiring for someone, make sure that you’re challenging your own opinion. Right. I think that too often hiring managers get focused in on hiring people that think like themselves or act like themselves or look like themselves. And that brings about someone that has the same same background and it doesn’t offer that diversity of opinion. So I think, first, challenge your own opinion. Be willing to accept a different answer. And then from a from a very actionable or tactical action. I think making your job posting nationwide or being willing to hire someone nationally or even potentially internationally so that you can incorporate people from other countries as well. At the end of the day, makes your business more diverse, right? When I joined Mosquito Jo, I was out I was out in Utah and I relocated to Virginia Beach at the same time that our director of digital marketing was relocating from Atlanta. And so we both brought different experiences and different histories to Virginia Beach and to Mosquito Jo Brand.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:37] Now, isn’t the challenge when you when you’re part of especially an emerging brand and it’s it’s one thing to at least give lip service to the importance of this. But in reality, when you’re looking to hire, especially at an early stage, that you go to the usual suspects. If I went to ABC University, I’m going to look for ABC University alums or my own kind of circle, or if I was part of this fraternity or sorority, that’s where I’m going to go to first. And then inherently when you do this, you know, hiring early people that are people, you know, or people or that you know, know, you’re inherently going to get people that look like you like it’s. Yeah, that’s right. It takes a lot of kind of you have to really be mindful and purposeful to go elsewhere and say, you know what, I went to this school, but I’m going to go to the historic black colleges to look for my next chief marketing officer, or I’m going to look for the next higher in that department. Like, I just think that it’s a difficult thing to ask an emerging brand, especially where it’s. They’re already at a high risk period where they’re vulnerable and then their first moves are early moves to go into an area that they don’t know or or aren’t familiar with. You’re asking a lot. So is there a way to do this kind of elegantly and effectively?

Kieran Scott: [00:09:02] I think what I’ve seen be successful both both as an employee and as the employer is to use those third party recruiting agencies. I know that they cost money. I know that sometimes there’s a big fee involved. But they really take that notion of hiring someone like yourself out of it. Right. Because that that hiring agency is not worried about what you look like or where you went to college. They’re more concerned about where that candidate brings their experience from. And is that candidate the best fit for your business? And so when I’ve used so I’ve actually I’ve been recruited by recruiting firms three or four, four times successfully, and that’s brought me all over the country. And then similarly, when I’ve hired other individuals, I’ve also used them and I’ve found great success. And one example is a pest master. We just brought on a PhD entomologist, our first PhD entomologist, and she happens to be a female immigrant. And so we weren’t necessarily out there looking for a female immigrant, PhD entomologist. Right. Which I think is a very small subset of the PhD entomologists out in the world. But we were looking for the best candidate possible. And by opening up our horizons to looking outside of Reno, Nevada, where our headquarters is, we found someone in Orlando who worked for a competitor that happened to be female, that happened to be a PhD entomologist and happened to be an immigrant, but was the absolute best fit for our business. And so I don’t necessarily think that you have to go out and kind of identify the quality that you’re looking for. Right. You don’t have to go out and say, I’m going to go hire an African-American or I’m going to go hire a member of the LGBTQ community. But I think expanding the horizon beyond your immediate doorstep very easily just brings new opinions to the table.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:52] And then you find that by going to these third party recruiters that you are able to do that, or they’re able to do that because that’s just built into how they operate.

Kieran Scott: [00:11:02] Yeah, they’re going to search nationwide because they they ultimately get paid for providing you the service of finding the best candidate. Right. And and there’s oftentimes back end guarantees that if that candidate doesn’t work out for so long, then they have to provide another service for you to rehire that position, which they don’t want to do. And so they’re incentivized to find you the best candidate possible, which often is a nationwide search. And I think that’s where the diversity comes from.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:29] Now, you mentioned that you’ve had success being recruited. Can you share maybe things you’ve done to help make yourself more findable by those third parties? There are things that maybe there’s great candidates out there that are, you know, from underserved markets, that they’re just not doing a great job of making themselves visible to these searches. Is there are things that they could be doing to make themselves more visible to recruiters like you described?

Kieran Scott: [00:11:57] Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think from a from an employee perspective, one one having a great LinkedIn profile is key. You know, recruiters spend all day surfing people’s LinkedIn profiles. Right. And they and they get really attracted to the profiles that have a picture and have a headline and have experiences listed out. And those are often those are often the profiles that they contact. In addition to that being posting regularly, right? Having content on your page so that people can show that you provide value, whether it’s provide value to your own organization or provide comments and value to other people’s organizations. I think that providing values another thing that recruiters look for. And the third one is getting involved. Right. And so I’m involved with the International Franchise Association. I’m also involved in the National Pest Management Association. I’m an alumni of Georgetown University’s franchise management program. And so just being involved in your network and being involved in kind of your community, of your career, right? So my career is in is in franchising and so I’m involved in those I think makes a big difference.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:05] And that’s great advice for young people, especially instead of just kind of sitting there passively waiting to be chosen. You can be doing things right now to make yourself more, more visible and more sought after by leaning into these things. If you know that you want to be in a certain industry, join the associations of that industry. Take leadership positions if possible. Volunteer There’s things you can be doing and talking about and posting and and sharing your knowledge and what you’ve learned from these things. It makes you more visible. It makes you more hirable.

Kieran Scott: [00:13:39] Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Getting getting involved early as soon as you can make that decision is is definitely key.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:46] So now what do you need more of? How can we help? What are you looking to do in terms of growth? Are you. Is the world your oyster at this point? And you’re looking for franchisees for the two brands you described anywhere, or are you focusing on certain regions? How can we help you?

Kieran Scott: [00:14:03] Yes. So, yes, so there’s tons of whitespace and in both of our brands across the United States for new franchisees to join, I think it’s a really great time for franchisees to join both brands. We’re rebranding master with a new visual identity, the first new visual identity for in 43 years. And so that’s going to be an exciting thing for new franchisees to come in to. But yeah, we’re actively recruiting new franchisees. We are obviously looking for the financial qualification to be there, but also that diversity of mindset to also be there and kind of willingness to to learn and adapt as we grow. But yeah, we have we have pretty ambitious growth goals on the master side. 25 new units this year on the patio side, patio patrol side, ten new units this year, which more than doubles the system as it stands today. And I think now’s a great time to get into pest control.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:54] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, what is the coordinates to get a hold of you, somebody on your team and learn more about the opportunities?

Kieran Scott: [00:15:01] Yes. So to get ahold of me best found on LinkedIn. So just LinkedIn. Kieran Scott, CFP. Or you can email me k scott at threshold brands dot com. To learn more about Pest Master, you can visit our website Pest Master Franchised Patio Patrol is franchised out Patio Patrol dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:18] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Kieran Scott: [00:15:23] Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.