My Education From Ward Combs II of Presto-X

If there is one thing and one thing only that I can attribute my success in this industry to, it is not the equipment, it is not a certain bait, it is not my marketing prowess or my business plan. No, my success is due to my constant pursuit of education.

The pursuit of that education has led me to listen to multiple lectures from the great Dr. Robert Corrigan. The desire to know as much as I can drove me to leech information as a trainee and subordinate of Dr. Mohamed El Damir. My passion for this industry was ignited by Ward Combs II and that flame was fed for many years by Todd Leyse. 

These four great men, though humble in their execution and likely unaware of their ultimate impact, are the cardinal directions on the compass that Huntsman Wildlife navigates by. For the next six weeks I will highlight their impact on me personally and how their legacy, without them likely knowing, has life inside Huntsman Wildlife.

My career in this industry started like many others before me. I was looking for a job, nothing more, just a way to pay my bills and have some money left over at the end of the week to take a pretty girl to dinner. 

Presto-X was a pest control company based out of Omaha Nebraska that at the time had a modest commercial pest control route established in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area and they were looking for a technician. 

I found an advertisement in the local shopper and had emailed a resume to Pretso-X earlier in the day. The corporate office called almost mid day the same day and asked if I was able to make it to an interview as it was the last day the interviewing manager would be in our area. They gave me the address to a small municipal airport that was 55 minutes away. I hurriedly changed into a white dress shirt and khakis and made my way to that airport. I had no time to research the company or do any background work, it was an impulsive moment, which in hindsight, was a glimpse of what was to come.

I was driving a 15 year old Ford Explorer that has no working air conditioner and the only window that worked was the passenger rear. It was 97 degrees that day in Minneapolis. When I arrived at the airport I was greeted by an unassuming older gentleman, who told me to relax and take a breath. As if my mood was not frantic enough, I am sure the sweat soaked dress shirt and dripping brow were enough to cause alarm.  For the next hour the gentleman asked me about my life. Not my work experience, not my qualifications, but about ME. 

Where did I grow up? What did I enjoy in school? My thoughts on my time in the Army. My aspirations, my hobbies. After the hour was done he stood up, thanked me for his time and said “I don't actually make the final decision, that is up to the hiring manager, I am just the manager who does the first interviews. I will let the hiring manager know my thoughts and they will call you if they want to talk with you again”  He handed me a business card that simply stated “Ward Combs - Manager - Presto-X”.

I drove back in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic for an hour and a half to my apartment, slightly dejected. Why waste my time with all of these personal questions? Why didn't this old man ask about my experiences, my abilities? How is this guy a manager if he can not even successfully perform a comprehensive job interview?

When I got back to my apartment one of my roommates asked how the interview went and I am sure I mumbled some profane comment regarding it being a giant waste of my time.

I spent the night forgetting about that moment and decided to put it behind me and seek employment elsewhere. 

The next morning I received another phone call from Omaha stating the hiring manager would like to meet me for a second interview that afternoon and told me the manager would be waiting for me in a hotel lobby a couple cities over. The interview was in 6 hours.

At this point I was thoroughly confused, so I decided to use the powers of a late 2000s internet and find out more about this peculiar company that holds its job interviews in small airports and hotel lobbies. As soon as I typed in “Presto-X” into Yahoo (Google was not as big back then) I almost fell out of my chair. The man I so quickly dismissed as a feeble old man who has no interviewing capabilities was none other than the CEO of the company, the son of its founder, and a well respected leader in the pest management industry.

I brought this new found information up to the manager performing the second interview and he laughed, though I am not as sure of the exact phrasing, he had stated something around the lines of “Ward likes to know the PEOPLE who work for him. He wants to know their personality is going to be a good fit. From there he depends on members of his management team to train, lead, and form these new employees into the best technicians they are capable of being through ongoing education, training, and experiences.”

I will spare the remaining details for sake of brevity and just say that I was hired and trained as a commercial technician within Presto-X. Presto-X had a core belief stemming from the words of its founder, Ward Comb II’s father, “the most successful organizations were made up of the most technically competent personnel.”  Education, training, and experience were the key to the success of Presto-X employees. It allowed not only for proficiency in our duties, but was rewarded with higher compensation rates, bonuses, and title upgrades. 

My route consisted mainly of food production facilities, packaging plants, large factories and warehouses, distribution centers, and grocery stores. I quickly determined that the more I learned about my new job, the better I was at solving the problems, and more importantly, the bigger my paychecks were.

Side Note: That was ultimately the demise of my Presto-X career, and the topic of a future post on this blog, but to put it bluntly, I got greedy and made stupid and hurtful mistakes due to being impulsive in my decisions. (see, I told you impulsive actions were the connective threads of this six part series)

Within my first year of employment, I was certified in three states as an applicator with multiple specialties in fumigation, mosquito work, right of way, turf and ornamental, and vertebrate pest (also known as nuisance wildlife), and had certifications from multiple third party organizations influential in the pest management industry such as Copesan, AIB, Quality Pro and many others.

I attended seminars and state conferences with zeal as they were a literal data dump of decades of experience and knowledge from some of the brightest minds and experts in the industry. I was feverish in learning the latest technologies in regards to the growing US bed bug reintroduction, effective baiting techniques for cockroaches, small fly control in food production and restaurants, and more.  

It was at these conferences that I learned the name Dr. Robert Corrigan, the industry titan and final word on rodent control in our industry for the past few decades.

But that story is for next week.

Till Next Time… See Ya Folks.