IMPACT
ISAAC CAMACHO I n t e r v i e w
b y
J u l i e n
V i a l l e t
ISAAC CAMACHO is the Director at Accurate Termite and Pest Control, which was recently named Southern California’s top termite and pest company. Isaac joined the company back in 2006 when he first was just a doorto-door sales member for their team in the Summer. He quickly fell in love with California and the couple who ran the company and joined full time upon graduating from BYU in 2009. Since taking over as Director, Isaac has brought many innovative strategies to the table and transformed the termite and pest control industry. When the new strain of COVID reached California, his company was the first one to get regulations passed at the State level to allow pest control professionals to spear-head COVID-19 specific large-scale disinfections in community spaces. Can you first tell us more about yourself and how you got involved with “Accurate Termite and Pest Control”? In 2005, I had just returned home after a 2-year proselytizing mission in New York City. I had no money and no car, but I did have an acceptance letter to start school at BYU that fall. I made it to school in the fall with just enough money for one semester, knowing I had to do something to afford my studies beyond that semester. I heard about student teams that would do door-to-door sales during summer breaks and that each rep earned enough for about a year or more of schooling. The sales team I ended up signing up with went to sell pest control services door-to-door for Accurate Termite and Pest Control. Once in California, I fell in love with the area and the Donnelly family--the company owners and operators. The Donnelly’s have a one-ofa-kind charm that stems from genuine interest and kindness towards everyone and especially their employees. Jim, company president, readily lent his surfboard to two of my sales colleagues when they expressed interest in learning to surf. They ended up destroying the
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board when they both tried to surf on it at once. Jim very graciously accepted their tail-in-between-legs mea culpa and did not take their offer to pay it back through their sales commissions. Surfboards are not cheap, and this experience cemented in me that the Donnellys are truly good-natured, down to earth people who value people and relationships more than money or things. After graduating from college, I returned to Accurate to offer my sales and marketing consulting services with the firm that I was a partner in. Working with everyone at Accurate always felt like working with family. Eventually, I had a conversation with Jim to work out a way that would bring me into Accurate permanently. What is your mission on a daily basis and what does a typical day look like for you? I have one daily goal, and that is progress. I try to make sure I am working on something that moves something forward, so I’m not just checking off to-do-list boxes every day. Whether that’s improving a sales protocol, implementing process automation, or solving
ENTREPRENEUR MINDSET FALL 2020
a problem, I try to do something every day to change the way we do business indefinitely. Granted, these are mostly small changes, but I get a real sense of accomplishment when I look back at the previous year and see how all the little tweaks and changes have added up to a more efficient, precise, and productive overall operating procedure. Over time, the summation of all big and small changes is a more robust organization that can handle more growth. On a typical day, I start with at least a 30-minute workout of some kind before I head to work all the way downstairs to my home office. I try to set my week every Monday to mix activity types from high-priority to-dos, progress-related projects, and personal checkins with co-workers or clients every day. For the most part, my workdays consist of a blend of those activities. After work, I play the role of Zombie Dad in a comedic melodrama that plays in my house. My character fumbles through attempts to help raise three little monsters that I can’t seem to help make even more monster-like.
