Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Eickman.
Hi Matthew, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My parents moved my brothers and I into a home in Brooklyn Park when I was 8 years old. At that point, I didn’t know that would impact my future. I married my neighbor, Monica, after college. Monica and I have been together for 16 years now. Her father, Mike, founded Abra Kadabra in 2002. This gave me an opportunity to see the company I now own grow from its early beginnings.
My parents did everything they could to set My siblings and I up for success. As the parents of 4 boys that had 6 year age difference between the oldest and youngest, our parents had an incredible amount of intent behind how they raised us. Our parents’ goal for my brothers and I was to give us the lessons necessary for my brothers and I to grow into respectful young men who other people enjoyed being around. The focus they had on developing us as young men didn’t stop at the EQ level. They also had a significant amount of focus on developing our IQ. The financial sacrifice my parents made to send us all to Maranatha set me up for an extreme amount of success in the area of Academia. Everything I have accomplished, I owe to my parents and the sacrifices they made for my brothers and I. My parents are amazing role models and to this day, I still look up to them.
Fast forward to college, I attended Hamline University in St. Paul and joined the baseball program as a pitcher. This experience helped me understand how to fall in love with a journey/ a process, rather than the destination/product. I fell in love with working hard and connecting with my teammates. My original plan for college was to become a Doctor, but that definitely didn’t play out. . As a baseball player, I tore a ligament in my arm and ended up redshirting at my sophomore year. At that point, it caused depression, but I learned to be happy within myself rather than getting happiness from something external, like baseball. This event created the opportunity for me to move into the journey I’m on now. This extra year that redshirting provided me, also created an opportunity for me to work in my soon-to-be father-in-law’s Pest Control company.
I started helping him in my free time before baseball practice and I fell in love with 2 things. Through that process:
1. Connecting with customers – customer service is something I didn’t have a lot of experience with, but I realized that my parents really set me up to be successful when in sales and customer service.
2. I love building businesses- I became addicted to building businesses. I realized I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I was born and bred to do this. I was just distracted by the idea of becoming a doctor because I was sold that vision as a young man.
2014- Started full time with Abra Kadabra
2015- Married my now wife, Monica and moved to the lake Minnetonka area.
2016 Added Mosquito control services
2017- I took over ownership of Abra Kadabra —> Abra Kadabra was just me and my father-in-law, at Abra.
2018- Added green/ organic pest control
2018- added Wildlife services and animal prevention
Fast forward to now, we have 22 families who have committed to the vision that to Abra Kadabra has for the future. I am incredibly grateful to be in the position I am in. These 22 families are what inspire me. Pest control changed my life by creating massive opportunities for me and my family. My passion is to build leaders and to create opportunities for people around me in the pest and wildlife industry. Focusing on people is part of the ethos of our company. We strive to bring as much value as humanly possible to the people we interact with.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I never allow myself to believe the road is smooth. I believe falling into this belief creates complacency in an organization. I pull a page out of Michael Jordan’s playbook and I literally play mind games with myself to fuel the fire deep down inside me to keep moving the needle forward in my personal life and in my business. I never allow myself to become comfortable because I believe when you’re uncomfortable, you put yourself in a position to grow. If you’re always comfortable, you’re not progressing. Stress is not always bad. There are 2 kinds of stress.:
1. Distress is stress that negatively affects you.
2. Eustress is stress that has a positive effect on you. Eustress is what energizes us and motivates us to make a change.
When you’re uncomfortable, you put yourself in a position to change. It may be negative progress, it may be positive, but being outside your comfort zone creates OPPORTUNITY! I try to live in this area, but I’m never content.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
What should we know? We protect the peace of mind for homeowners and business owners by providing pest and wildlife solutions.
We are a customer service company that provides a one stop shop for anything from mosquito/tick prevention to raccoon removal and attic remediation. (And everything in between)
Connecting with community, utilizing the power that we have as a business to positively impact the members of the community we serve.
We are a world-class pest company & wildlife company. Other competitors don’t provide their customers with both options. It’s usually one or the other. We are the unicorn that exists in the industry.. we Found our customers need more than just pest control, so we learned what we needed to serve our customers at a higher level.
We believe in protecting our customer’s peace of mind, their time, and their investments. Life is too short to spend time thinking about Pests and wildlife. We believe in a proactive approach that allows our customers to spend time doing the things that really matter to them, like going to their son’s baseball game or going out on the boat with the family.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Bad luck is only bad if you look at it from a micro view. I choose to always zoom out and look in the macro view and have realized that what seems like bad luck in the micro, is really good luck in the macro bc it created a new door for me to open and a new journey to start on.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.abrakadabraenvironmental.com
- Instagram: Abra_kadabraenviro
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbraKadabraEnvironmentalServices
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCzvPeOgKnlaSF4e48nfu-mw
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/DvBQ2U9UHub
Image Credits
PestDaily
