Owned and Operated - A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast

In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Patrick Dichter, owner of AppleTree Business Services, to break down what “good accounting” actually looks like inside a growing home service business — and why financial clarity becomes a competitive advantage as you scale.

John opens up about a hard truth: he didn’t get his first clean month-end close until last year, and it made almost a decade of decision-making harder than it needed t...

In this episode, John Wilson is on-site in Chicago with Aizik Zimerman, owner of J.Blanton Plumbing, to break down how one of the fastest-growing plumbing companies in the country built a sewer and drain growth engine. Since buying the $6M Jay Blanton business at the end of 2022, Aizik has scaled it to ~$25M this year and a $30M run rate — and nearly half that growth is coming from sewers. They unpack the investments, the operation...

In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Daryna Kulya, co-founder of Quo (formerly OpenPhone), to unpack one of the most underappreciated growth levers in home services: how you communicate as you scale. What starts as “one tech, one phone, one truck” quickly becomes a bottleneck once you’re trying to hire CSRs, build a call center, and stop missing leads. Daryna shares the real story behind Quo’s rebrand, why they’re building f...

In this episode, John Wilson and Brandon Niro are joined by Zac Dearing from Mantel for a fast-paced, trivia-style breakdown of what homeowners actually want when buying HVAC and home services in 2025. Mantel just surveyed 500+ homeowners nationwide, and instead of guessing in the dark like most of the industry, we put real customer data on the board. John and Brandon compete to predict homeowner behavior — how many contractors peo...

In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Richard Dunbar of FieldPulse to dig into one of the most important — and often overlooked — levers for scaling a home service company: modernizing your operational platform. Whether you’re running HVAC, plumbing, electrical, restoration, or any specialty trade, the shift from legacy tools to a true field service management system (FSM) is one of the highest-ROI moves you can make. Richard...

In this episode, John Wilson and guest Rich Jordan dig into one of the scariest (and most valuable) moves you can make in home service: rebranding multiple companies into a single brand.

Rich runs three acquired companies across New Hampshire and New Jersey…and he’s in the middle of rolling them all into one new identity: High Ground Service Pros. They walk through why he’s willingly tearing down a strong local brand (Sanford), what...

In this episode, John Wilson and co-host Jack Carr unpack one of the biggest transitions in home service — going from owner to operator. What does it really take to scale beyond yourself? We dive deep into building layers of leadership, knowing when to delegate, hiring vs. promoting internally, and what the first real leadership hire should look like.
From service managers and field supers to accountability systems and EOS, th...

In this episode, John Wilson and co-host Jack Carr break down how home-service companies can actually future-proof in 2025: flattening org charts, using AI to nuke overhead, building adaptable teams, and keeping a balance sheet that can take a 30% punch. We get into real numbers (gross margin, overhead targets, EBITDA), how to think about “risk on” vs. “risk off,” and why the middle of the market gets squeezed when big operato...

In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Brandon Schlicter—better known as Investment Joy—to unpack how a viral laundromat video turned into a portfolio of laundromats, car washes, rentals, and now a fast-scaling commercial roofing company. Brandon shares the mindset shift from small plays to bigger bets, why he assumes success (and plans for failure), and how social media distribution can attract capital, deal flow, and talent.

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 In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Jamie from Modernize to unpack how a consumer-obsessed mindset is reshaping home services—from the first inquiry to the final install. They dig into why “experience always wins,” how answer engine optimization (AE/O) is changing search, and what a true platform approach looks like when lead gen, reputation, financing, and programmatic all work together.
You’ll hear how Modernize is ...

In this follow-up to our Premier Home Pros deep dive, John Wilson sits back down with AJ and Noah to unpack how they turned six greenfield locations into a nationwide engine doing $170 M+ run-rate—without outside debt. They break down the playbook for market launches, recruiting, and leadership restructuring that turned chaos into scale.

Hear how they rebuilt their org for hypergrowth—cutting the VP layer, adding regional pods, prom...

In this special re-release of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with AJ and Noah of Premier Home Pros to unpack how they went from a dining-room-table idea to $15M in year one, $86M in year two, and a national rollout—without taking on debt. They break down the sales system, affiliate-led demand gen, installer model, and the ops math behind a ~46-day greenfield payback. If you’re scaling a home service business, this is the...

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Should you stay sector-agnostic in ETA (entrepreneurship through acquisition) or plant a flag with a clear buy box brokers, CPAs, and attorneys can remember? After a month sidelined by a home flood, searcher Chris Barr returns to his acquisition entrepreneurship journey—refining a small-business acquisition thesis around B2B services, GovCon janitorial contracts, and Florida/Palm Beach deal sou...

John sits down with Harmony Brownwood, CEO & founder of GreenWorks Inspections & Engineering, to unpack how she grew from zero connections in 2009 to one of the largest independently owned inspection companies in the U.S.—now operating across six states with 11 locations, 2,500–3,000 services a month, and a runway from ~$15M toward $20M in annual revenue. Harmony shares the mindset work that kept her going for 16 months wit...

John sits down with Zac Dearing (Mantel) to break down how top HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies are moving from “proposal tools” to true shopping experiences that help homeowners buy with confidence—and help teams close more, faster. They dig into hard data from Mantel’s platform and homeowner survey: why Tuesdays are the biggest sales day, how response time and proposal view time (“eyeball time”) predict closes, and why a ...

John sits down with Christian Rattin, CEO of Five Star Home Services, to unpack how he helped transform a single-family HVAC shop into a $40M+ multi-market powerhouse across Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati.

From growing through chaos to professionalizing with purpose, Christian shares Five Star’s evolution — blending faith, strategy, and servant leadership to build a home service company that gives back millions. They go deep on: t...

John sits down with Tyler Griffin (Swift Pro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing) to unpack how he launched a fast-growing HVAC + Plumbing startup in one of the most competitive markets in America: Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia. From selling his previous exterior business to private equity, taking a six-month reset, and then sprinting from zero to multi-million in year one, Tyler shares the gritty playbook—reviews over revenue ear...

John sits down with Micah Findley (HomeField) to talk about building a national brand in one of the most overlooked trades: The Septic Pumping Business. From pricing thousand-gallon pumps to dump fees, grease traps, and service agreements, this is the real playbook for scaling a modern Septic Pumping operation.

They unpack the entire stack—how a Septic Truck Business goes beyond “just pumping” into repairs, installs, commercial work...

Welcome to Entry & Exit — the new Owned and Operated series for builders in the security & life-safety world. Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble share how they grew Alarm Masters from under $2M to ~3× revenue, including +50% RMR growth in Year 1.

From recurring revenue (RMR) to acquisitions and organic growth, this episode breaks down what it really takes to scale a security business — and eventually position i...