The Strategic Business Influencer: Gordon Doran on Standing Out in Any Industry

Paige: Hi everyone and welcome back to the Strategic Business Influencer, my new series for leaders who know that in today’s evolving world trust is the greatest competitive advantage. Today’s guest, I’m so excited, uh, to introduce Gordon Doran. So he is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Natran Green Pest Control, Houston and Austin’s original eco-friendly pest service provider.

He also owns Advantage Pro Services, a leading home services company. Gordon launched Natran in 2006 to protect people, pets, and the planet from pests without relying on harsh chemicals – a mission that is still at the heart of the company today. By pairing powerful, botanically-based products with expertly trained professionals, Natran delivers year-round protection for homes and businesses while earning award-winning customer satisfaction.

For Gordon, success is more than just growth. It’s about building healthier communities and helping his team and customers thrive. Now, you all are in for a treat today because Gordon is an incredible entrepreneur and one of my really good friends and I just learn so much from him every time I have the opportunity to sit down with him.

So I’m grateful that we get to share his wisdom with you all today. So Gordon, welcome to the series.

Gordon: Wow. Thanks Paige. I appreciate it. What a nice introduction.

Paige: Absolutely. Well, I, as I mentioned, you have built multiple businesses in successful companies throughout your career. I wanna go back to the very beginning.

So what’s the earliest entrepreneurial venture that you remember starting?

Gordon: Oh, um, well, I have a funny story that’s for you. I. When I was 14 years old, I knew I was motivated and I wanted to make, I wanna get out and make some money and do some things. So I, uh, there was a McDonald’s that was about a mile from my house and I decided I’d walk there.

I knew I was only 14 years old and, um, see if they’d hire me. So I got there and I said, first thing I said is, you know, how do you have to be to work here at McDonald’s? The, the manager said, you have to be 15. I said, perfect. Then I’m, I just said I’m 15. So he gave me an application and um, I filled it out and he hired me.

I was tall. I’m a, I’m six two, so I was a tall kid. And, um, that was my first experience of learning, of, you know, getting out, making things happen. And that just took motivation. First entrepreneurial journey was, uh, in college. I started a company called Cougar’s Apartment Locator at the University of Houston.

And what I did is I did apartment locating for students. I, um, I realized being a student I needed a place to live in an apartment. And there was 30 something thousand other students on campus and it was a commuter school. And, uh, a friend of mine was telling me at UT that he got an apartment through Longhorn apartment locating.

And I thought, wow, what a great idea. I’m going to copycat that idea and start coder’s apartment locating here in the, at the University of Houston. So, got my real estate license over the summer and I was in business putting flyers around campus, all over campus, A little, you could pull the phone number off, uh, gimme a call and I’d find you apartment.

And, uh, so that was a lot of fun. That was my first experience in the ent entrepreneurship world. But I knew at that time that I was gonna do this entrepreneur thing. I was sold.

Paige: Mm-hmm.

Gordon: Yeah.

Paige: Wow. Real estate license and everything. Yeah. Yeah. What, what did you learn from that first venture?

Gordon: I learned a lot.

Well, first what I learned was. I didn’t have to have this brilliant idea to be an entrepreneur, to get, mm-hmm. To start my own business. It was simply seeing what’s already working and copying it. It was just that simple. Like he told me what was happening in Austin and it just is, all right, well, it’s just a matter of putting the energy behind it and doing it.

So I did it. I learned first I learned well at McDonald’s and going through my career is, uh, I learned about care. I learned what it looked like to be a good boss and a bad boss having multiple bosses and McDonald’s and even at Walmart. Um, so that, that struck a chord with me as I knew which one I liked and why I liked them.

And I knew which one I didn’t like and why I didn’t like him. And it was very evident. The one that cared about me and asked about my day and would buy me something, buy me, Hey, why don’t you take a break and eat some fries? Was the one I really wanted to show up for and work hard for. And, um, and I did, and his name is Ruben and I don’t remember the other manager’s name.

Mm. But, um. I would run through a brick wall. That guy cared about me, and that was important, and he showed it, and I wanted to, I didn’t wanna let him down.

Paige: Yeah. Yeah. I swear McDonald’s produces some of the best entrepreneurs that are out there today. I see that as a common thread.

Gordon: Yeah. I, I, you know, I constantly run into people that have, have worked at McDonald’s.

It’s it, you’re, it’s so true.

Paige: Yeah. Yeah. And I know you’ve done some, you know, door to door sales businesses in your time as well. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I, I do think that’s where you probably learn a lot, just getting out there with the service and product.

Gordon: Yeah, I have. Yeah. So that’s, that’s exactly right.

Again, it was the copycat idea. I didn’t need to have the brilliant idea. I. Washing windows is low overhead. So that’s where it started with the door to door for me. It was just a matter of, uh, being brave enough to do it. And that was all in my mind. That was this idea that people are gonna hate me and slam the door on my face.

And what are you doing on my lawn? I mean, I, I’ve knocked doors for a large portion of my career and that’s just not true. Folks are wonderful. My philosophy was is, and the way that I looked at it and I positioned it, is I better knock on this door and let these folks know that I can wash their windows because they might hire a contractor that’s just not gonna treat ’em right and do a good job for them.

So I can, I change my thought process on it as I’m out here helping people avoiding a costly mistake with dealing with the contractor or somebody else washing their windows who is gonna do a shoddy job and just not take care of ’em. So, reframing it was a game changer for me. So I was able to go door to door and once I had one customer, just let the neighbors know, Hey, well I’m out here today, love to help you out.

Which window cleaning Mrs. Johnson down the street is a great customer of mine. If I could be of any help, I’d love to give you a free estimate. And, uh, it took off. But it was all about reframing and repositioning. The story that we tell ourselves. Mm-hmm. And my story could have easily, easily been, been.

Everybody’s going to be annoyed and mad and that I’m on their front lawn, and it just wasn’t true. I mean, in the 12 years I knocked doors, I less than a handful of times someone said, Hey, you shouldn’t be here. It’s just it didn’t happen. What people will do is just not open the door if they don’t want to.

So that’s what I found.

Paige: I love that though. And I love that the mindset shift is, is what you’re talking about there. And I wanna dive into the sales side of it a bit because service businesses. Really live and die on trust. And a lot of that starts in that first interaction during that sell, and then of course continues based on the level of service.

I’m curious how you’ve built long-term loyalty with customers and industries where oftentimes for you, you know, they’re just shopping for the cheapest option. So how do you sell that value? Because with Narin, you know, you’re, you’re not all the time the cheapest option out there.

Gordon: No, not at all. No.

And it starts internally. So that message starts our, so our purpose and our passion, and my passion for doing this, like you mentioned earlier in my introduction is, is I wanted to make a difference. I wanna do something impactful in the community. I just didn’t want to do something that would deliver a paycheck.

I wanted to do something that really struck a chord with me that I knew that I could leave and saying, Hey, look, I, I’ve really helped out here in the community. But that started with the employees and that started once we started building this thing is. You know, our purpose, our passion, is about helping people live the best people, planet and pet for pet friendly lifestyle.

They can. Mm-hmm. Uh, we just happen to kill bugs. And then taking that to the folks that we hire, that same philosophy is I wanted them to know that they have a safe place to come where we’re gonna, we wanna position them. If you’re gonna do pest control, we wanna make sure that you’re positioned where you’re not using toxic products and things that we’re concerned about for your family.

So position that with our staff and understand that, look, you’re here. We care about you. This is our philosophy. There’s no go get the stuff out of the back. This is how we do things here, and we do it for you first and your families. And that allows us to deliver for our customers and their families. But yeah, it’s totally, we push that and we communicate that we care about that within our four walls because nothing happens if the belief isn’t within our own core belief system.

And, and that’s what we hire and that’s what we communicate. And. That’s why folks work here. When I look around my team and my leadership team, they’re not here because they want to kill bugs. They weren’t here because they wanna make a difference and they understand our mission and our purpose and, uh, ’cause they have options.

They’re not here because they have to be. They’re here because they wanna be. And that’s what makes it fun. So that’s how we show up for our customers. And why, um. No, we’re not, we’re not the cheapest, but, uh, we’re gonna be there and we’re gonna take care of the problem. We’re gonna care. And that’s, at the end of the day, is what people want.

Look, we’ve all dealt with contractors. We all mm-hmm. I get I get this all the time and how horrible contractors are, and, and no one wants to deal with that. It’s, we’re building trust and that’s, that’s what it is, is we’re building trust with our, in the community and with the folks we work with.

Paige: And I love that you talk about inward, what that means.

I mean, y’all are walking the walk and you have to be able to do that before you can. Exude that trust with others. And so I think that is absolutely so key. And you know, I know pest control and home services in general just can feel like a commodity really from the outside. You know? I see the, the trucks driving around all over town with different branding.

What has been your approach to making sure that NARIN stands out? Because if you go to your website, if you see y’all driving around, if they see you out in the community. It’s just such a different brand than a lot of the other pest control services and companies out there. And so I’m, I’m curious, what was that approach for you while you were building that so that people really understood the value?

Gordon: Yeah, absolutely. It’s utilizing, uh, being green, being a hundred percent committed to green to our mission of low impact, minimal risk products, green products. Fit for exempt food grade products. They’re extremely effective. And then hiring the folks that are passionate about it to beat the drum and to be part of it.

But, uh, that’s our message. And, uh, it’s everywhere. I mean, it’s on our trucks, it’s on our website. Mm-hmm. It’s, you see it on our face. It’s what makes it fun is delivering on that promise that we will show up, we will take care of your problem, and we’re gonna do it based on our value system. And, uh, and stay true to it.

And that green approach, that green thumb approach has been our differentiator and that that’s why folks will reach out to us initially with a lot of questions. Does it really work? Is it gonna, there’s a tons of questions we get around our, our branding and what we do, and just,

Paige: yeah,

Gordon: folks wanna make sure, because there’s a lot of, and just day and age, there’s so much whitewashing.

Mm-hmm. And, um, labeling that looks to be something but is really something else. So we do get a tremendous amount of questions and uh, it just makes it fun to be able to be truthful and deliver on what we say we are and who we are.

Paige: Absolutely. And I will say, you know, most pest control companies I see around town have like a bug as their logo or, you know, part of their marketing and your brand, your logo makes me smile.

You know, it’s, it’s completely different. And I don’t know how you would describe it, Gordon, it’s kind of like a, a smiley face, flower situation. Yeah. But it’s, it’s so fun’s and, and so I’m curious, why didn’t you go the traditional, you know, bug route?

Gordon: Yeah, back to our core. Our core purpose. It’s not about bugs with us, it’s about people, the planet and the environment.

And what better way to to show that is with a flower. So it’s very unique in pest control. You see our truck instead of any of those creatures, you see a flower going by and we get that lot. It’s funny ’cause kids will call and, and or parents will call and say, my daughter’s like, Hey look, there’s that smile, there’s that flower truck again.

And they recognize the kids, recognize the truck and it’ll be pointed out to their mom. And so it’s fun. We keep ta we have stickers and tattoos that we give out to the kids and they really, of our flower, they really enjoy that.

Paige: Oh, that’s, so it’s a cute logo

Gordon: and we get that a lot. It is fun. Yeah, it’s,

Paige: uh, so I wanna talk a little bit more about, you know, you just being an entrepreneur.

So as a serial entrepreneur, I am sure you have been through a lot of highs and lows when it comes to building companies. What is one lesson from your early ventures that has really shaped the way that you show up today?

Gordon: Um. I, uh, I’ve been labeled, uh, earlier in my career I was labeled the disappointed dad.

I, um, I wanted us to win. I wanted us to grow whatever business I was and make a difference and badly to the point where I, it got mised as, selfishness behavior potentially. Mm-hmm. Or that I wanted me to win and not us to win. And I want everything to happen super fast. I’ve always thought that it, everything just, it’s gonna happen overnight.

And so all that just would, uh, would lead me to feel or look and express disappointment. And I’ve learned that, um, over my career, that the journey is what makes this whole thing. Enjoyable. So smelling the roses and celebrating success with the team and slowing down has really helped me appreciate and show appreciation to the folks around me that work with me, and that’s been a game changer for our culture and our team and our growth.

Is giving back and saying, thank you, showing up. I have a 12 pack of chips that showed up to the office that I came across. I thought were fantastic for the team on Friday, sitting in their office and getting out in the trenches. I like to get out and corona the house once a month with the team. Mm-hmm.

And, uh, just show up and be with them and it, it’s been a game changer. So slowing down, pumping the brakes and slowing down my expectations. I actually sped us up being present and being in the now and not expecting everything to happen overnight. And so that’s really been a, something I’ve learned over my career is it’s gonna happen and it’s gonna actually happen slower.

If, um, the way that I was approaching folks because I wasn’t being that caring boss, I came across too abrasive. And even though I cared it, they just weren’t seeing it. And it, and it was, uh, something I learned in my career to, to step back and appreciate, to replace expectations with appreciations. I learned from a, a good friend of ours, Andis.

I love that. Love

Paige: that. Yes. We, andis, Andis we’re definitely gonna have on here. So I love that. And, you know, I think that that’s so important and, and when you, it’s such a hard lesson, right? It, it’s such a hard thing to recognize and put into practice. But I also think when you mean, when you say slowing down, you don’t.

Mean, slow down the successes, but your perspective throughout it and how you’re approaching it and the way you’re, you’re acting through that or your, what your action looks like through that. Is that correct?

Gordon: Yeah, absolutely. It was more the way that I was showing up. I was showing up as in hurry up everybody and that didn’t make things move faster.

What makes things move faster is showing up and carrying and asking qualifying questions and setting deadlines. My anger was a, was got in the way of my ability to communicate well with the team. And, you know, folks don’t wanna work for a guy who shows up angry and disappointed. They wanna work for somebody like Reuben back at McDonald’s.

Paige: Yeah. Who asked,

Gordon: how are you, how are you doing today? Well, this is what we’re gonna do today. Can you help me out? And we all win together.

Paige: Yeah,

Gordon: absolutely.

Paige: I love that. Another

Gordon: thing that comes to mind, another, another thing that comes to mind that have bad things. I’ve realized that bad things are going to happen when you’re in business.

Uh, there’s gonna be surprises that happen and when they happen. Early on in my career, I thought it was over. It was the end. We’re in a lawsuit because we get an offender bender. Um, well that’s why you have insurance for, so. Understanding that those bad things are gonna happen. And when they happen with the newer folks on my team, it’s easier for me to say, there it is.

We’ll get through this and we’ll just keep moving forward, whatever it is, because they’re gonna happen. And, um, it’s, it helped them through those situations with things happen along the way because it’s just part of business. Yeah. It just doesn’t rocket ship. There’s things that happen along the way, so that’s been helpful.

Paige: That’s right, and everybody’s always gonna look to you as the leader and, and what your actions are in those moments. For sure. Yeah,

Gordon: absolutely.

Paige: I, you know, another thing I wanna share about you, Gordon, that I know is, is you spend time, you, you don’t have a lot of extra time, but you spend time coaching other entrepreneurs.

Why is that important to you? On top of, you know, your full-time responsibilities with your businesses?

Gordon: Yeah. Well, it’s important to me. It’s the same, my same personal mission is to make an a different impact, and if I can help somebody avoid the mistakes that I made mm-hmm. Take some shortcuts along the way.

I, I always say the best way to learn from someone’s mistake is by learning from someone else’s mistake, not your own. Skip over it. Yeah. So if I could get out there and make a difference in another entrepreneur’s life and avoid them from some of the headaches and mistakes that I’ve made along the way.

Oh man, that just warms my heart and gives me such a, a great feeling of gratification. So, and it really helps them out. I’m passionate about, I’m passionate about making a difference and, and that’s just another way for me to show it and help out in the community.

Paige: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for doing that.

And, you know, I, I wanna know from you, just in your, the coaching that you’ve done, what are some of the most common challenges you see entrepreneurs facing right now?

Gordon: Yeah, so what I find is a lot of them, they don’t, the the folks I’m coaching, the biggest impact that I’ve had is simply just explain the rules of the game from the p and l standpoint.

Mm-hmm. What I find is a lot of folks will make decisions based on just gut and not reflect on their p and l and understand the rules and the it has and the team that I’ve been coaching over the years, I constantly lot. Concerns about I’m, I’m not profitable, I’m not making money. I don’t know if I can stay in business.

And what we do is we sit down and we start with the p and l and we define what the gross margin must be, what their sales and marketing percentage of income must be, and what their general and admin percentage of income must be. And we figure out where they’re at. And once we set the rules of the game and they start playing within those rules by the end of the year.

It’s amazing to see how successful these guys have been. They’ve just really turn their businesses around. So starting with the fundamentals of how to play the game and having those tough decisions to get the game and to get back into the game requires, um, sometimes it’s family members that are having, you have to have conversations with.

Paige: Mm-hmm.

Gordon: That, uh, could be very challenging.

Paige: Yeah. And do you see entrepreneurs at times maybe getting in their own way of success? And how do you talk them through that?

Gordon: Yeah that’s a great question. Typically they do. It’s, that’s a challenge. We’re, we’re, uh, being an, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re typically very strong-willed and motivated.

Um. The best way that I do that is just starting with the rules of the game and let them see it themselves. And stepping back. I like, what I like to do is start with the rules of the game, the p and l, and have them build their org chart of what supports the rules of the game. The rules of the game.

’cause once they have the org chart of what that looks like, and then the last step, we started putting the SOPs together for each position, the org chart. It starts coming to fruition. They start seeing what this thing looks like and you know, I can show them and tell them what it looks like, but a lot of these folks need to see it and do it and touch it themselves.

Being an entrepreneur, I noticed that myself. I’ll take what I wanna hear. And not what? I don’t, so

Paige: isn’t that the truth? Yeah. But as you talked about, you know, you were with your disappointed dad and having to shift away from that and you know, shift your approach, you know, I think that was you recognizing getting in the, getting in your own way.

And it’s hard because that change has to be within you, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, as we look at, you know, service-based businesses, home service businesses over the next five to 10 years, you know, you’re always on the forefront. So what do you see in terms of opportunities for these businesses?

Gordon: Yeah, well. AI is gonna be very impactful in our, in every industry. We’re already seeing the impact it’s having. I’m very excited of what it’s gonna do in our industry. I’m foreseeing our, the future of our industry, having super humans. Mike, I don’t see us needing to lay off and whatnot, but what I do foresee is our current staff having the opportunity to move a lot faster so as to be able to do a lot more with the support of ai.

Um, I’m very excited about what I’m seeing as far as how AI is gonna impact my office support team and what they’re able to do as far as pulling customer’s information in open spots on the schedule and, um, where we can place a customer and making it a lot easier for a customer to get, put questions they have answered and service quickly.

So I foresee, uh, our, a huge shift in the way that we do things all the. Tasky stuff inside our office, being able to be supported by AI to really expedite our ability to perform even out in the field. We’re looking at robots now that can go underneath the house and check for holes, um, with remote control devices and cameras instead of us crawling the house that are fantastic to be pretty fantastic.

Drones flying over homes to see holes and entry points. So there’s a lot of things happening where we’ll be able to get out there, identify situations quickly, and support the customer in getting those things fixed faster. So that’s really exciting without having to beef up our, our staff, these folks that we currently have, we’ll have more opportunities to succeed and win within our company.

So, totally looking forward to it. The next five to 10 years, it’s gonna be fun.

Paige: Yeah, absolutely. And I love that. I love your outlook on, you know, making your team super humans, because I think that’s such a great way for everybody to think about it versus having a fear-based approach to what AI can do. Um, so I appreciate you sharing that because I think that rings true to a lot of businesses as well.

Now there are two questions, Gordon, that I love to ask every entrepreneur and I can’t wait to hear your answers. So the first one is, who are you in addition to being a CEO? Oh,

Gordon: well, that’s a good question. I’m a very, very loyal friend. I’m a father, I’m a husband. I got, uh. I’m goofy. I’m a very playful, goofy guy.

That was my nickname in, in high school, was goofy ’cause I just like to be silly all the time. I love getting out and dancing. I love music. But yeah, I really, really enjoy time with the family and the kids. I have a, my son is 18 and he’s in college and my daughter’s 20 in college. So whenever I can get them to play with me.

And do something that’s, uh, that really lights me up. And that’s where I wanna spend most of my time, is play with my kids. But, you know, they’re at the age of now, they don’t want dad around anymore and they’re all running off and hanging out with friends and doing the college stuff. But, um, yeah, and I, you know, I’m passionate about work.

I’m, yeah, in my fifties now, and I know that I’ll, my son, it’s funny, my son came to me and he said, dad, I don’t know if I wanna be an entrepreneur. You’re working all the time. You’re always working. He said, and I said, son. This is me playing. This isn’t work. What you see as work, I see us play. I’m so happy.

I’m on my computer and working on projects and doing things. This is really fun. So my perception and the way that I see work is, I mean, it’s just who I am. It’s, it is my toy, it is my hobby, it’s my playground too. So

Paige: that’s powerful. And I bet once he finds that thing that ignites him, he’ll feel the same way.

Absolutely. The second question I have for you is, what is the impact that you wanna have at the end of every single day?

Gordon: Um, that’s a good question. Uh, that’s a really good question. I definitely wanna feel like I, I showed up for my team and they feel supported by me. That’s important. I wanna be, I wanna, I want the environment and the folks that touch me to smile.

My goal is to touch 500,000 people by the time I die and put a smile on their face. So it’s more about the folks that come in contact with me throughout the day is how I lead them and how

Paige: I, yeah,

Gordon: and that that’s the way I like to lead each day. So I.

Paige: I love that with the smile, and I’m sure anybody listening to this will be smiling at the end of it.

So I appreciate you sharing just so much wisdom with us, Gordon. Uh, if anybody is interested in learning about Narin or you or any of your other businesses, where can they find you?

Gordon: Well, the best way is to shoot me an email.

Paige: You are gonna give out your email?

Gordon: Yeah.

Paige: This is gold y’all.

Gordon: Alright. They can shoot an email over to natran.com. That’s N-A-T-R-A-N.com. Cool. Our website. Yeah, you can, you can see me on there and you can certainly reach me through if you call the office and they’ll forward you to my direct live, but anybody would like to personally reach out to me so.

Paige: I love it.

Email and a direct line. Best guest ever. Yeah. Well, thank you so much Gordon and y’all make sure to check out Natran, they are amazing. They will make you smile, Gordon will make you smile and we just appreciate everything that you’ve shared and that you’re willing to share so many stories and things that you’ve been through on your entrepreneurial journey.

I know anybody listening will gain so much value from this conversation. So thank you so much for being on this show, and we’ll see y’all next time.