Cleveland Dixon Jr.

Cleveland Dixon Jr., owner of Holiday Termite & Pest Control, Springfield, Va., always knew managing a business would be a challenge, but he didn’t know precisely how challenging until he “hit the wall” one afternoon in the spring of 2022 when the stress became overwhelming, resulting in a personal epiphany.

At that moment, Dixon realized he wouldn’t be good to anyone — family, customers, friends, industry colleagues — unless he made himself a priority moving forward.

So, he did something that is difficult for anyone, but particularly a hard-charging entrepreneur raised at the knee of a U.S. Army sergeant major. He took a critical look at his life and decided to ask for help, devoting a portion of every day to self-care as a business strategy. The results have been impressive, but before we get too far ahead of our story, let’s start at the very beginning.

Child Of The South

Cleveland Dixon Jr. was born in New Bern, N.C., the birthplace of Pepsi and the setting for Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling novel The Notebook, just a 50-minute drive from the Atlantic Coast. But his story doesn’t end there. In fact, it’s just a minor footnote in a life that has taken this successful entrepreneur to far-flung corners of the globe.

“My grandparents on my mother’s side lived in Mesic, N.C. (population 200) and my grandparents on my father’s side lived in Queens, N.Y., so my parents made sure I spent time visiting both sets of grandparents during the summer,” Dixon recalls. “They were two totally different experiences.”

Shuttling between a largely rural, bucolic region of “The Tar Heel State” to a bustling metropolis of 2.3 million people would be a daunting experience for anyone, much less a child, but Dixon proved up to the task, embracing the opportunity to meet new people and enjoy new experiences, two skills that would serve him well later in life as he and his siblings followed their Vietnam War-era father to deployments in Germany and Korea.

“Growing up in one place wasn’t part of my experience as a military brat,” Dixon says, although he spent most of his time as a teenager in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

Life at home was what you would expect in a household headed by a military veteran. “I was always taught there are no excuses. You play the hand you’re dealt,” he says.

Dixon also was well-schooled in the Army’s core values, which engendered a deep sense of loyalty, duty, service and respect among Dixon and his three siblings, two of whom followed in their father’s footsteps by joining the military.

“Respect for everyone was something that was certainly pushed in our family, particularly when it comes to your elders,” Dixon says. “We also were taught to look for opportunities to serve wherever and whenever we could,” a core value embodied by his mother, Lorraine, who worked as a nurse’s aide for many years.

And when the Dixon family wasn’t extending a helping hand to others, they were expected to stay busy. After all, idle hands are the devil’s workshop. “Fortunately, military bases provide a lot of activities,” Dixon recalls with a laugh. “We all had our own individual pursuits that kept us from getting into trouble.”

Budding Entrepreneur

One of those “individual pursuits” was a burgeoning desire to become an entrepreneur. “Even as a young person, I would always find ways to make money, everything from washing cars to cutting grass to recycling newspapers,” Dixon recalls. “At the time, I didn’t have a full understanding of all the boxes that needed to be checked to be a successful entrepreneur, but I knew I didn’t want to spend my life working for someone else.”

So, upon graduating from high school, Dixon headed off to George Mason University to pursue a degree in business but dropped out after only 18 months. “I had a hard time keeping up with my fellow students (due to undiagnosed ADHD) and I left school to start my own business, although exactly what type of business that would be, I had no idea!”

Without the requisite knowledge or sufficient capital to make his entrepreneurial dreams come true, at least for the time being, Dixon did the next best thing and responded to a help wanted ad in a local newspaper for a service technician position. “I thought to myself, ‘What better way to meet people than to be in their homes providing a service?’” More than a quarter century later, it proved to be a prescient decision, launching Dixon on a career that would become his life’s work.

Taking The Plunge

Not surprisingly, that career begins and ends with Holiday Termite & Pest Control, where Dixon got his start in 1992. “For much of the time I worked there, I was the only employee,” he recalls. “I did everything from general pest control to termite inspections to WDI reports.”

While the company was profitable and Dixon grew professionally, the previous owner didn’t see the value of participating in trade associations, resulting in a very limited view of the industry. “A lot of what I learned was self-taught,” Dixon says.

After a decade of learning the ropes and honing his customer service skills, Dixon decided to take matters into his own hands and approach the owner — who was considering retirement — about selling the business to him.

When his longtime boss agreed to the purchase, closing the sale in October of 2002, Dixon found himself on the precipice of a “steep learning curve” that required long hours and prompted more than a few sleepless nights.

Predictably, Dixon suffered numerous missteps in those early days, most notably investing in Yellow Pages advertising at the dawn of the digital age and failing to leverage technology to enhance business efficiencies, both of which negatively impacted the bottom line of his company.

But Dixon learned from those experiences, becoming a better businessperson in the process. “Whatever your shortcomings, you can’t run away from them being an entrepreneur,” he observes. “They’re exposed quickly when you own your own business, so you better learn from your mistakes quickly, otherwise you are less likely to survive.”

Customers And Friends

Looking back, Dixon says those early years were “difficult” with everything falling on his shoulders until he was able to drive enough revenue to recruit a team committed to his “customer-first” culture.

It was during one of those service calls two decades ago that Dixon met Wendy and Mervyn Levy, a working couple that would not only become valued customers, but trusted mentors and friends. “They know a lot about my business and my personal history,” he fondly says.

As young parents with two small children, the Levy’s originally called Holiday to address a yellowjacket infestation in their home, and Dixon was the service technician tasked with solving the problem. “Our daughter was four and our son was two at the time,” Wendy recalls.

Following that brief encounter, they didn’t give much thought to the personable service technician who had resolved their problem, until six years later upon moving into a new home they experienced an ant infestation, ringing up Holiday a second time.

When Dixon showed up at their door so many years later, but this time as the owner of the business, they struck up a relationship with the fledgling entrepreneur.

“From that point we became friends,” she says. “Our children are 32 and 30 now. That’s how long we’ve known him. My kids call him Mr. Cleveland to this day.”

Wendy says what makes Dixon such a special person is he “injects positive energy” into all his relationships, both business and personal. “If he sees a need, he fills it, and oftentimes you may never know it because he does it so quietly.”

For instance, when Levy’s daughter purchased a condo in the Washington, D.C., area, Dixon started treating the unit immediately after the transaction closed. “He never said a word or sent an invoice,” Wendy says. “That’s who he is as a person.”

“The thing I admire most about Cleveland is his passion, which is evident in everything he does,” adds Nicole Vickery, office manager at Holiday. “Whether it be researching new products, new treatment methods or developing new protocols, his passion for this business, and for our customers is beyond admirable.”

“My dad is always striving to make a difference in the community, with his employees and with his family,” adds Reani Lewis, Dixon’s 29-year-old daughter who works as a regional operations manager for Amazon. “He has done that consistently throughout his life. If there is a task to be accomplished, he’s going to do everything he can to make it a success.”

Colleague Kudos

And it’s not just family, friends and staff who sing the praises of Cleveland Dixon Jr. His industry colleagues also speak reverently about his industry contributions, including Jason Payne, chairman and CEO of Payne Pest Management, Temecula, Calif., and Jim Steed, owner of Neighborly Pest Management, Roseville, Calif.

“For me, when I’m at these national events and see somebody who gets such a high level of respect from their peers like Cleveland does, that speaks volumes about who he is as a person,” Payne observes. “Everybody knows him, and everybody respects him. Those are the kind of people I want to surround myself with.”

Payne also appreciates Dixon’s willingness to share a contrary opinion when discussing consequential industry issues. “There have been times in certain meetings where he has shared a different opinion than the majority, which takes courage,” he says. “Cleveland would share his point of view not in a combative way, but from a fact-based perspective. I’ve always respected him for that unique ability.”

Steed shares Payne’s affection and admiration for Dixon. As one of the founders of the Black Ownership Matters (BOM) organization, he has been impressed with Dixon’s tireless commitment to advancing the careers of marginalized members of the industry.

“For two decades, in one form or another, Cleveland has always been advocating as part of groups or as an individual on behalf of minority businesses,” Steed says. “The more I got to know about his personal history, the more I grew to admire him.”

And regardless of the slow pace of change or periodic setbacks, including the dissolution of the Minorities in Pest Management group a number of years ago, Dixon never gave up or stopped working to advance the cause. “Despite all the adversity and discouraging moments he’s experienced during his career, he found the strength to move forward,” Steed observes. “That’s why I believe if you’re looking for the Mount Rushmore of minority leadership in our industry, I think you’ve got to carve Cleveland Dixon on that mountain.”

Hitting The Wall

Despite raising the profile of Holiday Termite & Pest Control and growing its customer base, too often in recent years Dixon felt like he was spinning his wheels, taking one step forward and two steps back, both personally and professionally.

“I’ve always had trouble goal setting and employee recruitment is a struggle to this day,” he says. “Too often I’ve only focused on the task at hand, which isn’t the most strategic way of operating a business.”

But there also seemed to be something else at work, something he couldn’t put his finger on that was preventing him from fully achieving his goals and aspirations. That’s when he decided to get off his one-man desert island and tap into the expertise of others, including a business coach, industry colleagues and a therapist.

“During one of my visits to the therapist, she asked if I had ever been tested for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I said I had not. After I got tested and it was confirmed I had ADHD, it all made sense. I’ve always had a hard time with routine tasks,” he recalls. “My mind is always moving faster than being in the present.”

Whenever Dixon encountered a roadblock or experienced a business or personal setback, he would hear his parents’ voices in the back of his head that failure was not an option. “I couldn’t fail so I would find unique ways of coping to overcome any challenges in order to succeed, and that usually took the form of working harder,” he says. “Today, I look at my ADHD diagnosis as a superpower. I realized you can’t be good at everything, so you need to outsource some of the things you’re not good at and maximize the skills you do possess. Once I did that, my work and personal life improved.”

Steed, for one, is pleased Dixon has persevered, while achieving greater work-life balance in the process. “He’s been so dedicated to so many different causes that require a high level of commitment and come with their own set of unique challenges.

“The negative experiences he’s had are not like business losses,” Steed adds. “They challenge your soul. Such experiences can break the human spirit. I often tell him he’s freaking superhuman! He’s survived what a lot of people couldn’t survive, and he’s remained a positive force in the industry when others would have become bitter.”

And the last word goes to the person who arguably knows Dixon best, his daughter Reani: “I’m extremely proud of my father. He cares a lot about the people and causes important to him, maybe a little too much. Over time, he recognized that ‘I’m going 100 miles per hour and giving everything to those around me, but perhaps it’s time to pour some of that into myself.’ I think recognizing that has made him stronger. I may be a little biased, but I’ve never seen him encounter an obstacle he hasn’t been able to overcome, no matter how big or small. I feel like my dad is invincible.”