SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey there, Maureen Cherna here, founder of the MindSight Academy, neuro coach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and others' emotions, change behaviors, flourish and exceed expectations. Welcome back to another episode of Lead2 Excel Podcast. I am so thrilled to be with you today. But before we get into that, remember to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to it. Because it will help other people find it and give them the opportunity to understand how they can rewire their own brain to enable them to achieve their goals. So without wasting any more time, grab your cup of coffee or your drink or whatever that might be. Put your feet up and listen in. We are back today with another exciting episode with a special guest, Shell Hatzer. Shell, it's so great to have you on Lead to Excel podcast. Before Shell introduce yourself, I just want those watching on video to look behind Shell. If you look behind Shell, you can guess what we're talking about. If you're listening to this in audio, you've got to wait a few minutes. So, Shell, so great to have you here with us today. It is. We've been planning this for a while. So it's exciting. We're finally, we're finally doing it. We are finally doing it. And at such an exciting time as well of the year, Thanksgiving weekend. So it's so great to be doing this with you. And um, Shell, can you just introduce yourself? I'm just going to introduce you quite quickly and then I'll let you kind of elaborate a bit on what we do. I'm not going to give too much away. Shell runs a consulting company that helps small and mid-sized pest control companies improve their service. Now, Shell, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, it means that those small and mid-sized companies that don't have their own full-time entomologists or full-time technical person, I get to come in and help them troubleshoot tough pest problems. And I help them with training and I help them to see the problems and to give them the resources that they need that maybe the big companies have, but they haven't had yet to provide product recommendations and give them the best tools that they can to help their service. Which, if we improve their service, that means that you, the customer who's hired this pest control company, gets the best service with the fastest results on your pest issues.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Thank you so much. I really got excited when I discovered what you do because my background in microbiology, I kind of go, you know what? I like the microbes, but the pests, that's another thing. Shell, why? How?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

We forgot what and where. No, it's, you know, pest management is really intriguing when you think about it. Um, you know, from your background in microbiology, we know that pests can actually spread harmful bacteria and viruses, especially the flies, the cockroaches, things that we don't want in our houses, we don't want in our restaurants and food service. So when we think of pest management, pest management is really helping people. It's protecting people's homes from things like termites, it's protecting their food supply from those flies, those cockroaches, and it's protecting their health from dangerous insects like mosquitoes that spread numerous diseases that are very deadly across the world. So pest management is there to protect people's homes, their structures, their food, and their health.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah, no, it's such an important role that you're doing. But what got you into how tell tell us, let's go to the beginning. I think I'm even more curious about not even the degree, but what made you actually go into it in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, so I was I was at university. Um I was about halfway through and realizing that I wasn't really happy with what I was doing. And so kind of looked through and decided to try something different. And my very first entomology class, it was just so intriguing to see all the diversity of insects that are out there, the the integral part they play in our ecosystem and the way that they can affect humans. It just that whole ecosystem was incredibly amazing to me. And I just got sucked in. And it was my first entomology class that did it to me.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

I actually can understand that, and I can, you know, I really can because I did a bit of pests, you know, um study entomology, and I just it is fascinating. It's fascinating when you're studying it and looking at them, but not when they come near you at home, though, which is a different thing. But yeah, so what then happened? How talk us through how you, you know, what then happened after graduating, what your career has been like, and what made you then set up a consultancy?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, um, so from my initial university, I did go on and get my graduate degree in entomology and from there worked a few different jobs and kind of kind of got into research, uh, researching stored product pests. So those are the the little beetles and the moths that actively get into our food. They're in those food processing sites, and we don't want them in our cereals or in our biscuits. So, you know, got into the research of looking at how they work and what they're doing and how they get into packaging. And from there, actually, there was a pest control company uh in my area that said, wow, we're really interested in what you do. Would you be interested in coming to work for us and helping our technicians, our company, you know, do better at what we do? Because they worked specifically in pest control for food processing. And to me, that was that was a natural jump to go from research into something that was very similar in the industry side. And from there, I actually got a promotion up to the corporate office and started supporting multiple lines of business, including those homeowners, you know, again, protecting people's homes from termites and getting into vector control with mosquitoes and ticks and really expanding my horizons. And from there, I realized that there were all these small and mid-sized companies that didn't have that resource and didn't have somebody to help them with that guidance, with that knowledge to help them improve to get to their next steps. So decided to strike out on my own and help those companies and help the ones that are still growing with that resource.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah. So who do you work with? Do you work with, is it in a specific location? Or talk us through who your clients are, you know, generally.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Yep, so most of the companies that I work with are in the United States. So I do have a couple international clients that we've done some special projects with. Um, but yeah, most of my pest control companies are in the US, all across the US, which is really neat because I get to see different areas of the country and what problems they're having and creative solutions for one area can overlap with you know what what a different area is doing.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

So all across the US. That is amazing, and that's so fascinating. If I was nodding so much when you were saying the different problems that different areas have, and that's so true. So give us an example of what you tend to find. And is it with are you working with the companies that deal with food processing, or is it really pest controlling homes? So, what kind of companies do you work with generally?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Most of the companies I work with, um, they will do some residential, they will do some homes, but the majority of their business is commercial. Um, so anything from restaurants, hotels, hospitality, healthcare, and food processing. And many of those accounts are a little tricky when it comes to pest control because you can imagine trying to do pest control in a hospital. Like how, you know, we can't do too much. So we have to find creative ways to one, putting preventative programs in place to stop pests from even being there, and then finding creative solutions when we do find pests inside there, because we are limited on what we can do. You can imagine we can't just go into a hospital and spray a bunch of pesticides around. That's that doesn't work. Same thing with your food facilities. Nobody, nobody wants a bunch of pesticides in their in their breakfast cereals. So we have to find those ways to again prevent, hopefully, from the start. And when things do get in, we find them quickly. We find them quickly, we have a few more options, and we can keep those populations down and out of your food and out of your home.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Interesting. So, what impact do you feel that what you're doing has had? And if you just kind of give us a bit of examples of you know, companies you've worked with, how you've been able to prevent things, and then I'm gonna come back to some really specific questions.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Awesome. I love specific questions. Um, so I think I've helped these companies again by improving that service to their customers. And what we want to do with any pest issue, you know, like you said, you don't you think insects are fascinating, but you don't want that cockroach in your home. So I get to help these companies specifically with putting preventative plans in place so that those problems hopefully don't happen. Um, so one of my customers uh we're working with a bunch of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. And obviously, we've got an aging population there. We want to make sure that we protect them. And uh one of the issues was flies. And again, we know that flies can physically transmit diseases. They can pick up some E. coli from this infested spot in the kitchen and transfer it over to the other side. So we were able to very quickly, um, thankfully, I will say, uh, hopefully with my help, we were able to very quickly identify what pest it was. And because we could identify it, we found out very quickly where it was coming from, and we were able to pretty much eliminate it, which was a pretty big infestation. We got down to almost nothing within a week. So it's really satisfying when we have a customer who's having a problem, they're frustrated, they know it's an issue, and I get to help my pest control companies go in there and do it quickly and get that resolution fast for their customers.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Well, let me understand this. So you went in and the issue was flies. So, what then cost the infestation of flies or that amount of flies? What was the region of what was the problem?

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, so in this case, it was mostly the drains. Uh, we we know those small flies, you get that buildup of gunky material in the drains, and the fly larvae love living in that. That's a great food source and a habitat. So we were able to identify which particular drains got them cleaned. And just by cleaning those drains and flushing out all that gunky, yucky material that the flies were living and breeding in, again, we pretty much eliminated that problem. We had a couple other little hotspots that we had to deal with, but the drains were the major issue in this one. And because we identified that fly from the start, we knew where to focus on and got to that quick.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Wow, that's interesting. That's interesting. So, Shell, what does your day today work actually look like? Let us, you know, bring us into your day. Oh, you know, because I'm sure every day is different. So kind of let's see what two days look like because I'm sure they're you know so different from each other.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

That that is the best part of my day, is that no two days are alike. I'm always dealing with a slightly different problem. I'm dealing with a different customer, I'm dealing with a different training. Um, so day to day, um, I'm doing a lot of troubleshooting. I'm getting questions in of, you know, we found this problem. What's what's the best way to deal with it? What should we be looking for first? Because you can imagine, again, I'll go to um say a hotel. If you have a problem in a hotel, say it's cockroaches, where do you start looking? That hotel is huge, you know, but by knowing what it is and by by the history of what's going on, a lot of times we can focus in very quickly if we have a little information. So I get to help them with, okay, start looking here, start thinking about treating this. Um, we we do product recommendations of what's going to be the best product to treat this past right now in this situation. Um, I have a lot of identification. I get a lot of pictures, uh, whether that's by text or email. So I get to, I always say that it's my favorite game of the day, playing the game of what's this bug? And you know, by doing that though, we get to figure out what it's after, what its food source is, and how to deal with it. Um, and I also do a lot of training. Education is very important because if if my clients have the knowledge to deal with these things, they can deal with them faster and I've helped them in that way. So that continued training of new research that's coming out, new products, new ways, new ideas, even is really important.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Thank you very much. So, in terms of um products, for example, are there any, you know, how does that work? What kind of products do you tend to use? And I'm thinking of, you know, pet and pests that you tend to find at home, um rats and cockroaches, and yeah, you know, so what kind of products would you recommend for things like that?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

See, that's the interesting thing because depending on what pest it is and where you are, it's going to differ. And, you know, it may even come down to between your house and your neighbor's house. And we may use two different products there depending on what's going on. I think one of the great things about the pest management industry is that we don't use a lot of products. Um, products are always the last step that we get to. So we're always looking at what's the food source and can we clean up that food source and minimize that food source? How are they, how are they getting in? Can we seal off that area so that we keep them on the outside? And once we do that, then we're left with, oh, we just have a little bit and maybe we can put a little bit of spray down in this area. One of the great products that we have to treat any most pests is actually baits. And we can use very, very small placements of bait very close to where they are. They get the bait, they take it back, they share it with all their little friends, and basically let the bait do the work for us. So it's great that we're able to use a very small amount of product because we're looking at the whole system and we're troubleshooting the entire system and not just saying we're gonna put this down, it's gonna solve your problems.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Do you know what? I think that's what I really love about what you do. It's you I love research. And in a way, what you're doing is research, it's kind of really looking and finding the root source and dealing with the root source as opposed to dealing with the problem. And yeah, that I love that. That makes sense. So, what do you enjoy most about what you do?

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Oh, it's the it's the problem solving. It's when I get that problem of that pest that for one reason or another, they just haven't been able to solve the problem. And they've tried this and they've tried this and they've tried this. So, what are we left with? What can we do? How can we get creative and solve this problem for our customers to make them happy, to keep them safe? So it's it's that troubleshooting aspect and that problem-solving aspect of putting the pieces together, sometimes when you don't have all the pieces, but still managing to get that picture and still managing to get that solution at the end. That's my favorite part.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, I can imagine. So tell us about any, you know, the exciting, different, unique pests that you found and where you found them, not necessarily too much detail, but kind of, you know, generally where you can, where you found them. I'm just so curious. And again, I'm excited because I'm at a distance and you know the insects are not in front of me. But it would really be interesting to know the different unique pests that you've come across.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Yeah, I so I'll change that around a little bit. So most of the pests that I encounter are are fairly common, I'll say, but the situations that I find them in, that's what's fun. So I'll give you two examples. One, one's a home and one's a one's a business. Uh so the first one's a home, and we had a clothes moss issue. And the clothes moss, you know, get into wools and and any type of animal type fibers, and they'll chew it up and they'll do a bunch of damage. And this was in a homeowner's closet, and they had started getting it under control, but they just couldn't, they're like, we still have this little bit left, and it's been months. What? So we had monitors out, so we knew that the problem over time had sort of come up in the closet. It had sort of started low, but now it was where we were finding the moths were pretty high. Turns out they had these recessed lights, and there was enough cloth fiber and dust inside the lights that that's where the last little population of closed moths was. Nowhere that you would think to expect it. So that was my first one. My second one, we'll talk rats. So I got to work with a very large art museum in the United States, and they were having a problem with rats. This was a very old building, and so a kitchen actually connected through this weird open back wall that the rats were running from the kitchen through some very sensitive art areas um uh with uh textiles and paper and stuff that you do not want pest anywhere near. And it was like this hidden wall that we couldn't quite get to. And to inspect those areas and actually be behind the scenes in this amazing museum was so cool. But we we actually found the point that they were exiting the kitchen into this back wall. We sealed off that point, we kept them on the kitchen side and dealt with them in the kitchen there. So that was a lot of fun being in that amazing museum. And again, limited resources. We couldn't do anything in these art areas because of all this sensitive art. So we had to deal with the past in a little bit different way, which was fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

That is so fascinating. In fact, that reminds me when I had um a business. If this is going back a few years ago, and the building was next to there was a restaurant. Well, there was a building that had been neglected for quite a few years, and then suddenly it was being turned into a restaurant. So they started the construction work, and I think they must have disturbed the rats because exactly they literally just came up. I think we were their neighbors, so they kind of went, okay, you know what? We're going here. So we suddenly had started having this problem with rats, but I think what got me was they went in between walls, and that was the bit that I never it really threw me because I'm going, how do we get between the wall to get these rats? And eventually we had to get people lambs to come. I don't know what they did eventually, but that wasn't fun. And the worst was that some of them were dying between these walls, so the smell was then coming through. Oh gosh, it was a nightmare. So, yeah, talking about walls and rats, that brings back some not very pleasant memories. Right. Okay, you talked about education, and I think this is an important one in terms of what you do. So if you just go into a bit more detail about the training that you give organizations, because this could be anywhere, not just in the US, it could be UK, it could be Africa, it could be anywhere. What kind of training do you actually give?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, it's all across the board. So uh two days ago, I actually gave a four-hour training focusing on the food industry, specifically sanitation and pest management. And this was, I had people from all over the world. I think we had Singapore and Thailand. Uh uh, I think it was uh Botswana may have been on, companies in the US. So really intensive focus training. Uh many of the pest control companies I work with, we do shorter, you know, 30 minute trainings just on one specific topic every month. So we'll focus in on cockroaches, and then we'll focus in on small flies, and then we'll focus on rats to do something really intensive in about 30 minutes. And the great part about my job is because to your point, it is sort of research based, I keep up with. All of the current research that's out there on these pests so that we can incorporate some of those things into making our service better. So I've done full day trainings for uh healthcare industry, I've done you know, everything down to little short 15-minute trainings that we just we dive in really deep on one particular past and give people the information that they need. So all across the board, anything that's an urban past, from cockroaches and ants and rats, termites, uh, whatever it is, if it if it affects your structure, if it affects your food, or if it affects your health, like those mosquitoes and ticks, I do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Wow. Let's talk about some specifics before we bring this to a close. People that are listening, and because we've got listeners from every all over the world, some of them might be struggling with cockroaches. What can they do? Or what should they be looking for? Sorry, what should they be looking for? What should they do? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

The first thing we have to decide is it is it one of those indoor cockroaches that's really a pastor, or is it one of those outside cockroaches that may just be accidentally getting in? Yes, there's differences. Absolutely. So there are thousands of species of cockroaches out there, and most of them are just outside cockroaches doing their thing. They're good decomposers. They take all that leaf litter and vegetation and they break it down into good soil for new stuff to build. We're concerned about those two or three species that get into homes and they'll reproduce or restaurants or wherever it is. So the first thing we have to do is figure out is is it coming from the outside? And maybe all we need to do is seal the bottom of that door where they're sneaking in underneath. But if it's an inside one that they're inside and breeding inside, we have to think, what are they feeding on? Where's their food source? Because all living things need food, water, and shelter. So our insect pests don't need a whole lot of water, but sometimes they need some moisture. Cockroaches need a little bit of moisture. So where are those warm, wet places with food? And in somebody's home, a lot of times that's behind the refrigerator where something's dropped. It's underneath the dishwasher or the oven where it's nice and warm. And you know, maybe you don't pull out that dishwasher too often to clean underneath it. So look for those food sources, look for what they're after. And a lot of times, if we can clean up that food source, we can clean up a lot of that population before we even need to treat for it. So getting that food source down, and that also makes our treatments more effective. If they don't have the food, think of it if you're hungry, you're stressed out, you're you're not a very happy person because you just want to go get some more food. So you're wandering around more trying to find that food. Same thing with our with our insect pests like cocropus. If they don't have a good food source, they're not going to be thinking about looking for a friend and reproducing and growing quickly. They're going to slow that population growth. So sanitation goes a long way in affecting our house population. So I would say in a home, the first thing you want to do is look for that food source, eliminate that food source, and then see what we can do about treating some small targeted areas.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Right. Okay, that's great advice. In fact, that would be the same thing for the rats as well. Yeah, wouldn't it? Because I think my question with the rats, though, is if you see the occasional rats in your home or business or you know, what should you do? In fact, from what you said, I think I can answer the question a bit in terms of looking for the source. How did they get in? Looking at the species, I don't have a clue. All I know is that some are small, some are big, some are chunky, so what should we be doing?

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, so you've got it exactly right, you know, trying to troubleshoot where they might be coming from. Um, and rats like cockroaches, they like it dark, you know. So we have to kind of search out those darker areas, those hidden areas where they may be. And just like cockroaches, they're mostly nocturnal. So a lot of times, if we can go out at night, if we can start inspecting when it's a little bit darker, they're much more active. So we can see them, we can see where they're coming from. And in a lot of cases, what we want to do is we want to put those traps and those bait stations right in their pathway. Think of it, if if you're hungry and you're out looking for food, you know, if you've got a good food source right next to you, if you have if you have that pizza sitting right on the table, are you going to go out of your way and go all the way down to the three rooms down to find something else? No, you're going to eat that pizza, it's right there. Same thing with the rats. Their food source is probably close by. So if we get those traps right in their pathway, right where they're running, we can eliminate them pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Yeah, that's cool. Thank you very much for that. Thank you so much. I feel I've learned so much and can't believe I'm here talking about this. But but Shell, I really truly admire what you do. And it's so important. It's not, it's not my cup of tea, but really when I think about it, people say to me, But how can you be a microbiologist studying micro, you know, microbes? Same thing, isn't it? Yeah. But yeah. But honestly, tell I want you to kind of talk to our listeners, especially organizations all over the world, what how you how they can reach you, how they can work with you, what you can do for them, and you know, any other advice or what, you know, basically what you offer to help them.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Sure. So if you're a pest management company, I offer monthly packages that uh provide training and provide technical support, um, all that stuff that you may need on a regular basis. And for the larger industry, especially healthcare, hospitality, and anything dealing with food, food processing, food service, I work with those companies to help them improve their pest management plans, put preventative means in place so that we don't have these issues. And when we do, they're easier to solve. So I'm on LinkedIn. You can find me at Shell Hartzer. I think I am probably the only Shell Hartzer on LinkedIn. Uh, you can get me by email. I am ShellHartzer360 at gmail.com, and my website is shellhartser.com. So you can find me somehow at Shell Hartzer.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Shell Hartzer, thank you so much. It's really a joy and pleasure to have you on Lead2XL podcast. One thing I'll say, listeners, is every time Shell speaks about what she does, you see the passion. And I'm sure you can hear the passion in her voice. She really cares about what she does. So if you know any organizations that would benefit from Shell, Shell is great at what she does. She really is. Get in touch. She can help you get rid of those pests, at least solve the problem. And you know, I just love her approach to doing it. So, Shell, thank you so much for coming on to Lead to Excel podcast. And um, it's really been a pleasure having and chatting with you today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

This has been so much fun. Thank you. We'll do it again.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Okay, three things before we finish today. Have you subscribed to this podcast? If you haven't, make sure you click that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast. Because once you subscribe, you will not miss an episode. And as usual, if you have a topic you would love me to speak about or bring a guest on, do let me know by leaving a review. Finally, do have a fantastic week and remember that you are limitless. So I look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Bye for now.