Advertise on podcast: It's Not About the Bugs

“Everyone is canceling.” “Nobody is buying it.” “They’re not performing.” Maybe. But what do the facts actually say? In Episode 10 of It’s Not About the Bugs!, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin break down one of the most useful management disciplines in business: facts over feelings. Feelings can tell you that something needs attention, but leaders still need to investigate, measure and define what is actually happening before making a decision. In this episode, Sheri and Laura cover: • How to tell the difference between an employee venting and a legitimate business problem • Why words like “always,” “never,” “everyone” and “no one” should trigger a data check • Why two cancellations out of 1,000 customers is not the same as “everyone is canceling” • How recorded calls can reveal what is really happening in customer and sales conversations • Why employee feedback should be taken seriously without automatically being accepted as fact • Why managers cannot call someone an underperformer without defining successful performance • How daily, weekly and monthly expectations create measurable accountability • Why outside sales needs guardrails, defined prospecting activity and deadlines • How “Who is your best employee—and why?” can reveal what you should measure • How technology, reporting, GPS and recorded interactions can help leaders verify what is actually happening • Why facts can protect employees just as much as they protect the company • How feelings can identify a symptom while deeper investigation reveals the root problem • Why accountability still needs empathy, respectful communication and strong culture The goal is not to ignore feelings. The goal is to use them as a signal, then bring in enough facts to make a better decision. Need help defining expectations, building accountability or figuring out what your numbers are actually telling you? Visit pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to book a free call. #ItsNotAboutTheBugs #FactsOverFeelings #PestControlBusiness #Leadership #Accountability #KPIs #BusinessManagement

If your business feels like one fire after another, the problem may not be the fires—it may be the way the business is being led. In Episode 9 of It’s Not About the Bugs!, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin talk about the value of coaching, the difference between reactive and proactive leadership, and the PCBC Freedom Journey from chaos to clarity, consistency, capacity and ultimately freedom. In this episode, Sheri and Laura cover: • Why even successful business owners and leaders still need coaching and outside perspective • How employee goals and company goals can support each other • Why reactive leaders can become “firefighters” or even “arsonists” in their own businesses • Why owners often create chaos by micromanaging, changing direction and rolling out ideas too quickly • How to introduce change without destroying your team’s confidence • Why you should test, measure and tweak a new process instead of abandoning it after one bad week • Why frontline feedback matters—but still needs to be validated against the actual numbers • How customer complaints and cancellation counts can look worse simply because the business has grown • What chaos really looks like inside a business, even when nobody is visibly panicking • Why roles, systems and SOPs need to be detailed, searchable and teachable • How AI and documentation tools can make SOP creation and access easier • Why scalable businesses cannot depend on one person for every answer • How consistent accountability protects culture and prevents favoritism • Why your strongest employee should not be carrying three jobs while weaker employees coast • How the right people in the right seats create capacity • Why every owner needs to define what freedom actually means to them Chaos does not disappear because the owner gets better at putting out fires. It disappears when the business becomes clear, repeatable and consistent enough that fewer fires start in the first place. Want help moving your business from chaos to clarity, consistency, capacity and freedom? Visit pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to book a call. #ItsNotAboutTheBugs #PestControlBusiness #Leadership #BusinessSystems #SOPs #Accountability #BusinessGrowth

Before you build the plan for 2027, you have to tell the truth about what is happening in your business right now. In Episode 8 of It’s Not About the Bugs!, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin turn fourth quarter planning into a practical business audit. They talk about what failure can teach you, why your real culture is defined by what you tolerate, and how to use the end of the year to fix the systems, people problems and recurring headaches that keep creating chaos. In this episode, Sheri and Laura cover: • Why “all progress begins by telling the truth” is such a powerful planning principle • How reviewing failures can reveal the breakthroughs they created • Why fear of failure keeps owners and teams from trying new things • What Nick Saban’s approach to process, culture and development can teach business owners • Why culture is what you tolerate—not the words hanging on the wall • Why putting off a hard employee conversation almost always makes it worse • How coaching conversations should happen before formal discipline • Why feedback and expectations need to begin during the interview and onboarding process • How overloading top performers can burn out your best employees • Why every process should be simple, documented and have a backup • How to build a clear vision that your team can actually understand and support • Why year-end reviews should help employees reach personal goals—and give them a chance to review the company too • How to secret-shop your own customer experience • Why recurring busy-season problems should be documented and planned for before they happen again • Why proactive staffing can prevent the same hiring crisis every year Fourth quarter is not downtime. It is your chance to look honestly at 2026, fix what keeps breaking, and build a clearer roadmap for 2027. Need help bringing clarity, consistency and accountability into your business? Visit pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to learn more about Pest Control Business Coach. #ItsNotAboutTheBugs #PestControlBusiness #Q4Planning #CompanyCulture #Leadership #BusinessPlanning #EmployeeRetention

Some of the best business ideas, friendships, resources and support systems in pest control are sitting outside your own company.In Episode 7 of It’s Not About the Bugs!, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin talk about why industry involvement has played such a major role in their careers; from state associations and NPMA events to Academy, PestWorld, peer groups, vendor relationships and friendships with people who were technically their competitors.In this episode, Sheri and Laura cover:• Why Sheri originally questioned going to meetings with her competitors, and what changed her mind• How industry events can create relationships that last for years• Why Academy can be an easier entry point for people who are uncomfortable networking• Why state associations matter for CEUs, safety, compliance and changing regulations• How direct competitors can still become trusted resources and friends• Why the pest control industry shares ideas so openly, and why execution is still the hard part• How to avoid coming home from a conference with 30 ideas and implementing none of them• Why owners and leaders need a sounding board when it gets lonely at the top• Why the credibility of the people giving you business advice matters• What small companies can teach large companies, and vice versa• How peer groups, magazines, webinars, vendors and industry organizations can help you work smarter instead of harderThey also preview PestWorld week, the cowboy boots, the PCBC booth and, yes, Rick on a stick.If you have been trying to figure everything out alone, this episode is your reminder that there are people, resources and relationships across the industry that can help you grow faster and make better decisions.Visit pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to learn more about Pest Control Business Coach and the resources available to owners and leaders.#ItsNotAboutTheBugs #PestControl #PestControlBusiness #PestWorld #Networking #Leadership #BusinessGrowth

Fourth quarter is not the time to coast — it is the time to finish the year strong and build the roadmap for what comes next. In Episode 6 of It’s Not About the Bugs!, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin talk about why Q4 becomes “busy season” for owners and leadership teams even when the service season begins to slow down. This is the time to look honestly at what worked, what did not, what needs to change, and what your business needs in place before 2027 begins. In this episode, Sheri and Laura cover: • Why Q4 is the time to review what worked and what did not • How to work backward from a revenue or business goal and build the roadmap to reach it • Why employees need to understand the company’s goals and how their role affects them • The 100 Pennies exercise and what it teaches teams about where revenue actually goes • Why CSRs, technicians, salespeople and leaders all affect the same company goals • Why growth is not always the right goal — sometimes the goal is rebuilding the foundation • How customer retention, hiring plans and staffing capacity affect growth • The real cost of a bad hire • Why delegation and clear expectations matter when setting bigger goals • Why the owner should become the “weakest link” instead of the person the entire business depends on • How taking time away from the business can expose missing systems and create a clearer bird’s-eye view • Why owners and leadership teams need protected time to work ON the business, not only IN it If you want to finish 2026 with intention and head into 2027 with a clearer plan, this episode is your reminder to start now. Need help setting the vision, goals, systems and accountability behind your plan? Visit pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to book a free call. #ItsNotAboutTheBugs #PestControlBusiness #BusinessPlanning #Leadership #Q4Planning #PestControl

Episode 5 of It’s Not About the Bugs! is all about turning accountability into something your team can actually see, understand, and act on. Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin break down why KPIs — key performance indicators — are more than numbers on a dashboard. They give owners, leaders, and employees a measurable definition of success, make coaching less personal, and help you spot problems before the end of the month or year. In this episode, they cover: • What a KPI actually is and why every role needs measurable expectations • Why a P&L alone is not enough to manage day-to-day performance • The sales activities you should measure beyond total sales dollars • How numbers create a facts-over-feelings approach to accountability • How to decide which KPIs matter — and which ones are just noise • Why weekly service and sales meetings need protected time • How dashboards help leaders solve problems without constant owner involvement • Why you should roll out KPIs one at a time and keep departments focused on 3–5 meaningful measures • How realistic targets keep teams motivated instead of setting them up to fail If you are tired of managing by assumption and want a clearer roadmap for your business, this episode gives you a practical place to start. Need help building the right KPIs and accountability systems for your pest control company? Visit pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to book a free call.

Accountability gets a bad reputation when it feels personal, inconsistent, or confrontational.In Episode 4, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin continue their conversation on building a culture of accountability by breaking down how clear core values, documented systems, repeatable training, and consistent coaching make accountability easier for everyone.They discuss how to evaluate whether employees truly “get it,” why unclear SOPs create performance problems, how hands-on training beats “sit here and watch me,” why leaders must follow the same standards they expect from their teams, and how a facts-over-feelings approach can take emotion out of difficult conversations.They also explain how strong documentation can free leaders from being the go-to person for every question and give employees the tools to solve problems on their own.If your team constantly asks the same questions, follows different versions of the same process, or struggles with accountability, this episode will help you build more clarity, and more freedom, into your business.🎙️ It’s Not About the Bugs! from Pest Control Business Coach#ItsNotAboutTheBugs #PestControlBusinessCoach #Accountability #Leadership #CompanyCulture

Accountability gets blamed for making employees leave. Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin have seen the opposite: when expectations are clear, feedback is consistent, and leaders follow the same standards, good people are more likely to stay and perform. In Episode 3 of It’s Not About the Bugs!, Sheri and Laura continue the culture conversation with a practical look at accountability - why letting small issues slide creates resentment, how to correct problems without turning every conversation into a confrontation, why praise matters just as much as correction, and how SOPs, training, and clear ownership create guardrails for the team. They also dig into inconsistent standards between departments, leadership responsibility, and why a self-managing company starts with owners and leaders holding themselves accountable first. 🎙️ It’s Not About the Bugs! from Pest Control Business Coach #ItsNotAboutTheBugs #PestControlBusinessCoach #Accountability #Leadership #CompanyCulture

Your core values shouldn't just look good on a poster. They should shape how you hire, coach, recognize, promote, and sometimes fire, your people. In this episode, Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin talk about the lessons they learned building the culture at Spencer Pest, including what happened when Sheri realized two struggling branches didn't have a performance problem, they had a culture problem. They dig into how to create core values employees can actually remember, define what those values look like in everyday behavior, use them during coaching and recognition, and build a team that eventually begins protecting the culture itself. You'll also hear why recognition matters just as much as accountability, how small acts of appreciation can dramatically affect employees, why tolerating the wrong person can damage the rest of the team, and the story of the day Sheri fired 23 employees at once. If your core values are currently just words on the wall, this one's for you. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the bugs. It’s about the business. 🎙️ New episodes of It’s Not About the Bugs! are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Subscribe or follow so you don’t miss what’s next. Learn more about Pest Control Business Coach: pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com

Meet Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin, the mother-daughter team behind Pest Control Business Coach and It’s Not About the Bugs! In this first episode, Sheri and Laura share how they each found their way into the pest control industry, the roles they’ve held along the way, the lessons they learned while growing and leading a pest control company, and why coaching became such an important part of their work. They also talk about the difference between mentoring and coaching, building the right team, understanding how people naturally work, setting bigger goals, learning to delegate, and creating a business that doesn’t depend on the owner for everything. Most importantly, they explain why this podcast exists: because there are plenty of resources about killing bugs—but running a successful pest control company is about a whole lot more than that. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the bugs. It’s about the business. 🎙️ New episodes of It’s Not About the Bugs! are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Subscribe or follow so you don’t miss what’s next. Learn more about Pest Control Business Coach: pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com

Join Sheri Spencer Bachman and Laura Corbin as they talk about what it really takes to build a stronger pest control business, from leadership and systems to people, profitability, and growth.Follow the show now, and we’ll see you September 4.