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Growth gets harder after $5M because effort stops being the constraint and leadership, systems, and financial clarity start to matter more than hustle. Lance Bachmann has built, scaled, and sold multiple companies across home services, technology, and marketing. Today, he partners directly with business owners to help them break through growth plateaus, install real operational structure, and build companies that can scale quickly and profitably. In this episode, we talk about why so many owners get stuck between $5M and $10M, the leadership behaviors that quietly cap growth, and why financial literacy is often the missing link between effort and results. This conversation is for owners who are growing fast, feeling the pressure of complexity, and realizing that working harder isn’t solving the problem anymore. What You Will Learn in This Episode Why growth feels heavier after $5M instead of easierThe leadership mistakes that silently limit scaleWhy most businesses struggle with the same fundamentalsHow fear-based leadership hurts teams and resultsThe difference between revenue growth and operational controlWhy financial literacy creates real freedom for ownersHow personal spending inside the business slows growthWhy clean systems matter more than new tacticsWhat actually changes when a company moves toward eight figuresHow disciplined execution beats complexity every timeMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group. 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most family-owned trade businesses don’t struggle because they lack opportunity. Growth exposes cracks in systems, roles, and communication that were never an issue when the company was smaller. Chris Mazzini is a co-owner of Aspinwall Baystate Plumbing, a 50+ year family plumbing, heating, and HVAC business in Massachusetts. He’s lived the shift from paper calendars and day-to-day decision making to real systems, structure, and scale, without losing the culture that built the company. In this episode, we talk about what actually makes scaling a family business hard, where friction really comes from, and what it takes to modernize operations while keeping trust inside the business and with customers. This conversation is for owners running family or legacy trade businesses who want to grow without breaking the culture that made them successful. What You Will Learn in This Episode Why family businesses hit friction as they scaleHow growth exposes weak systems and unclear rolesWhy money creates the most tension in family companiesThe importance of defining lanes inside the businessWhy scheduling discipline builds customer trustHow reputation compounds over timeWhen ServiceTitan makes sense and what implementation really requiresThe pros and cons of property management workWhy COD work changes technician conversationsHow to scale without losing culture or legacyMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group. 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think their tech problems are about tools. Jenny Benbrook would argue they’re about structure and intention. She’s spent years inside contractor tech stacks, and what consistently creates chaos isn’t bad software, it’s under-utilization, single-point failure risk, and buying tools without a plan. Jenny is the founder of Powerhouse Consulting Group, where she helps HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses actually get ROI from the software they already pay for. Her background spans marketing, data, and field service operations, giving her a clear view into why most contractors only use about 30% of their core systems. In this episode, we dig into the “super user” risk that can cripple a business overnight, shiny object syndrome in contractor tech, and why technology often becomes a silent profit killer. Jenny breaks down how to think about tech like a business plan, not a collection of subscriptions. We also talk about tech budgets, license waste, adoption resistance from technicians, and why explaining the “why” matters more than forcing compliance. Jenny shares how to build an intentional tech roadmap that supports growth instead of creating overwhelm. This conversation is for owners who feel buried in systems, frustrated by software spend, and want technology to actually make the business easier to run. What You Will Learn in This Episode Why most contractors only use ~30% of their softwareThe “super user” risk and how it exposes your businessWhy shiny object syndrome drains profitHow tech quietly becomes a productivity killerWhat a real technology plan looks likeWhy license waste is more common than owners realizeHow much contractors should budget for techWhy adoption fails without explaining the “why”How to reduce resistance from techniciansHow to turn technology into leverage instead of noiseMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group. 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think their growth problems are tactical. Laura Kelly would argue they’re psychological. She’s helped hundreds of contractors grow 30% year over year, and what consistently holds owners back isn’t effort or opportunity, it’s owner dependency, unexamined rules, and decisions that aren’t aligned with the life they actually want. Laura is the co-founder of Clover Growth Partners, where she works with HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses to drive revenue, profit, and quality of life at the same time. Her background in psychology shapes how she approaches growth, leadership, and performance, focusing on systems that reduce burnout, increase accountability, and create momentum without chaos. In this episode, we dig into why knowing your numbers isn’t enough if you’re not acting on them early, how daily scorecards force better decisions, and why missing goals repeatedly creates cultural damage. Laura explains her DP Report framework, why teams should see the scoreboard, and how leaders should pivot quickly instead of hoping the month fixes itself. We also get into the real reason owners stay stuck in the field, how unconscious rules and identity traps keep them there, and why defining a “rich life” is the first step to breaking owner dependency. Laura shares how values and rules shape behavior, why most people make fulfillment harder than it needs to be, and how changing the rules can change everything. This conversation is for owners who are growing but feel more trapped than free, want better performance without burnout, and are ready to build a business that supports their life instead of competing with it. What You Will Learn in This Episode Why growth problems are often psychological, not tacticalWhy knowing your numbers without action still leads to missed goalsHow daily scorecards force faster, better decisionsWhy missing targets repeatedly damages cultureThe real reason owners struggle to get out of the fieldHow unconscious rules keep owners stuckWhat defining a “rich life” actually meansHow values and rules shape leadership behaviorWhy venting kills performance and resolution builds itHow to build systems that grow the business without burning you outMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think their systems problem is a software problem. Bernie Ollila will tell you the real issue is messy data, unclear ownership, and buying tools before knowing what you’re trying to fix. Bernie is Head of Partnerships and a partner at Titan Pro Technologies, a ServiceTitan consulting firm that works with growing HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses to clean up operations, pricing, and reporting. He spends his days inside real contractor accounts, seeing exactly where data breaks down and how those breakdowns quietly crush margins. In this episode, Bernie explains why ServiceTitan isn’t for everyone, and why rushing into it without clarity often makes problems worse. He breaks down the most common onboarding mistakes, why contractors buy features they never use, and how “garbage in, garbage out” data leads to bad pricing, bad decisions, and internal finger-pointing. A big focus of the conversation is the pricebook. Bernie walks through why the pricebook is the engine of the business, why it must be treated as a living system, and why someone in accounting usually ends up owning it. He also explains why trying to keep pricing “perfect” can be just as damaging as never updating it at all. This is a practical conversation for owners who feel stuck between growth and tech overwhelm, and want systems that support profit instead of complicating it. What You Will Learn in This Episode Who ServiceTitan is actually built for, and who should waitThe most common ServiceTitan onboarding mistakes contractors makeWhy buying too many features can be worse than buying too fewHow messy data quietly destroys marginsWhy the pricebook is the engine of the businessWhy the pricebook is never “done”Who should own the pricebook and why it’s rarely the ownerThe danger of obsessing over perfect pricingHow clean data eliminates internal blame and confusionWhy building systems that can scale matters even if you never plan to sellMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think marketing problems are solved by buying more leads. Kevin LeSage will tell you the real issue is knowing what actually turns into revenue. Kevin is the founder of SearchLight Digital, a data and attribution platform used by thousands of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies to track what marketing really produces. His story starts in a very familiar place, cleaning copper pipes in his dad’s plumbing business. That early exposure shaped how he views marketing today, not as clicks or impressions, but as jobs booked and dollars earned. Before launching SearchLight, Kevin spent years in the automotive world analyzing massive advertising budgets at companies like Dealer.com and Autotrader. He watched how data could either reveal the truth or be manipulated to tell a comfortable story. When he came back to home services, he saw the same problem everywhere. Contractors were spending heavily on marketing but couldn’t answer a simple question, how much revenue did that money actually produce? In this conversation, Kevin breaks down where contractors are leaking revenue, why cost per lead is one of the most misleading metrics in the industry, and how booking rate and follow-up matter far more than cheap clicks. He explains how marketing and operations often point fingers at each other, and how clean data ends those arguments fast. What You Will Learn in This Episode How cleaning pipes in his dad’s plumbing business shaped Kevin’s approach to marketingWhy most contractors can’t tie marketing spend to real revenueWhere the biggest revenue leaks actually happen in home service businessesWhy estimate follow-up matters more than buying more leadsHow booking rate became the true north star metricWhy cost per lead creates bad decisions and false confidenceThe difference between bookable leads and wasted leadsHow data removes emotion and finger-pointing between teamsWhy marketing can work even when the business is still brokenHow small monthly improvements compound into major growthWhat separates five-million-dollar shops from ten-million-dollar shopsWhy building fast and failing fast beats waiting for perfectMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think marketing is about getting more leads. Dave Carroll will tell you it’s really about focus, discipline, and doing fewer things better than everyone else. Dave is the founder of Dope Marketing, a software and print platform built for home service businesses that want better jobs, not just more volume. His path wasn’t linear. Dave grew up around drugs and crime, went to prison in his early twenties, and came out with no safety net, no resume, and no margin for error. After prison, Dave started a window cleaning company, then stumbled into software without knowing how to spell it. He sold his first product to 400 customers in 90 days and learned that systems scale faster than hustle. Over the next decade, he built, broke, and rebuilt businesses, learning hard lessons through failed products, lawsuits, and operational chaos. What he ultimately discovered is simple but uncomfortable for most owners. Growth doesn’t come from going wider. It comes from going deeper. In this conversation, Dave breaks down why neighborhoods matter more than zip codes, why sending more mail to fewer people works better than blasting thousands of homes, and how clean data changes everything. He also shares how systems, self-awareness, and communication allowed him to step out of the day-to-day while scaling Dope Marketing to over 100 employees. This episode is part grit story, part marketing reality check, and part leadership lesson for business owners who want predictable growth without chasing shiny tactics. What You Will Learn in This Episode How Dave went from prison to running an eight-figure businessWhy most home service marketing fails before it ever worksThe difference between going wide and going deep in local marketingWhy neighborhoods outperform zip codes every timeHow sending more mail to fewer people increases trust and conversionWhat clean CRM data unlocks for marketing decisionsWhy branding matters before customers are ready to buyHow seven to eleven brand touches show up in real lifeWhy relying on one platform creates hidden riskHow systems replace hustle as a company growsWhy managing by facts instead of feelings changes everythingWhat “to have control is to give up all control” really meansMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think growth is about getting more leads. Tyler Griffin will tell you growth is really about what breaks next. Tyler is the founder of SwiftPro, a residential HVAC and plumbing company in Northern Virginia that scaled fast in its first year. He didn’t start with a perfectly built operation, a polished brand, or deep industry roots. He started from scratch after a tough private equity experience, with personal capital on the line, no reputation, and no margin for error. Within weeks of launching, SwiftPro was shut down by Google and effectively disappeared online. Instead of panicking or cutting corners, Tyler rebuilt with a simple rule, never rely on one platform, one system, or one answer. That decision shaped everything that followed, from marketing diversification and review strategy to hiring philosophy and systems. In this conversation, Tyler walks through what actually happens when a business grows faster than its infrastructure. Cash gets tight. Systems lag. Hiring gets messy. Marketing channels fail. The work is not about perfection, it is about fixing the next bottleneck and getting incrementally better every day. This episode is an honest look at scaling a home service business without pretending the chaos is optional. What You Will Learn in This Episode Why fast growth exposes problems instead of solving themWhat happens when Google shuts down your business in the first monthWhy relying on a single lead source is one of the biggest risks for young companiesHow SwiftPro diversified marketing to survive platform volatilityWhat it really takes to hire A players when nothing is polished yetWhy overselling the company to recruits creates long term painHow honest expectations attract better people and repel the wrong onesThe role brand plays in trust, recruiting, and competing against PE backed shopsHow to build a review engine by celebrating wins publicly and consistentlyWhy systems like ServiceTitan are painful early but powerful long termHow incremental improvement beats chasing perfect systemsWhat “Go for Wow” actually means in business, leadership, and lifeMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think they have a “people problem.” Kelly Rowlett Presgrave will tell you most of them have a speed, math, and standards problem. Kelly is the founder of Work With Your Handz, a recruiting company that hires everyone from apprentices to the C-suite for home and commercial service companies. She didn’t come out of HR. She spent nearly 30 years married to a second-generation owner who grew a plumbing company from 10 techs to 170 employees, added HVAC and electrical, and eventually exited. From that front-row seat she saw what growth really takes, how much vacancies quietly cost, and how the wrong people can wreck trust and culture. After hearing contractor after contractor at Pantheon say, “I could grow if I could just find the people,” she decided to build the recruiting firm she wished her husband had. With a finance background and a deep feel for the trades, Kelly and her team now help companies tighten time-to-hire, quantify the cost of empty trucks, and find candidates who actually fit their culture, not just the job posting. This episode is a practical look at recruiting in the trades from someone who has lived both the family-business roller coaster and the day-to-day grind of filling hard-to-hire roles. What You Will Learn in This Episode Why time-to-hire is the “speed to lead” of staffingHow to calculate the real cost of vacancies, from empty comfort advisor seats to missing plumbersWhy “there are no techs in my area” is usually a math, effort, and focus problemHow smaller shops can match private equity hiring speed without blowing up cultureKelly’s interview “recipe” for techs, CSRs, and sales roles in home servicesHow to spot attitude, humility, and coachability in a 30-minute conversationRed flags that tell you a candidate will blame, drain energy, and hurt your teamHow to use intelligence, energy, and integrity as a simple hiring filterWhere branding, reputation, and community presence really matter in recruitingWhy a culture of accountability will cost you some people, and why that’s often exactly what you needMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most home service owners think their revenue problem comes from not enough leads. Ryan Shank has spent years proving it usually comes from the way technicians are paid, motivated, and measured. As founder of ShareWillow, he’s helped hundreds of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies redesign their pay systems so techs think like owners, reduce callbacks, lift average tickets, and stop leaving money on the table. Ryan built and sold a tech company while getting sober, lived through brutal litigation, and rebuilt himself in a way that made him obsessed with incentives, behavior, and what really moves people. Today he works with some of the biggest names in the trades, using data from thousands of plans to show companies how to grow revenue without adding more trucks. In this episode, Ryan breaks down why hourly pay kills performance, why callbacks are the silent profit drain in every shop, and how a simple incentive structure can add an extra ten thousand dollars a month per technician. He explains how to build pay plans techs actually understand, how to integrate them with ServiceTitan, and why clarity, visibility, and small wins matter more than complex compensation formulas. It’s a clear, practical look at performance pay, labor efficiency, and the hidden levers that turn a 3 million dollar shop into a 10 million dollar one, delivered by someone who’s lived both the founder grind and the home service trenches. What You Will Learn in This Episode • Why hourly pay creates stagnation, confusion, and lost revenue  • How incentive-based pay gets techs thinking like owners  • The real cost of callbacks and how reducing them adds huge profit  • How performance pay can add 10k per month per technician  • Why visibility and simple dashboards outperform complex comp plans  • How to build KPI-driven incentives that don’t create sales pressure  • Why most incentive plans fail and how to fix them  • How ServiceTitan data powers accurate, real-time payouts  • When to roll out performance pay across your whole company  • How small tweaks in pay systems create predictable, scalable growth More From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most contractors think they lose jobs on price. Brigham Dickinson has spent decades proving they lose them on connection, tone, and the first sixty seconds of the call. As founder of Power Selling Pros, he’s trained thousands of CSRs and technicians to book more, charge more, and lose less by doing the simple things owners overlook. He built his company from the ground up, weathered personal and financial storms, and learned that people don’t want information first, they want to be understood. Brigham turned that insight into a framework that helps service businesses raise conversion, lift average ticket, reduce callbacks, and create the kind of customer experience private equity circles talk about but rarely execute. In this episode, Brigham breaks down why validation beats persuasion, why most sales problems are actually emotional needs left unmet, and how a few small changes can add hundreds of thousands to a five to ten million dollar shop. He explains the 8 steps that create a wow experience, why trust beats price every time, and how customer centricity becomes the most reliable margin driver in a crowded market. It’s a clear, practical look at call booking, pricing confidence, and what really drives growth, delivered by someone who’s coached the biggest names in home services and lived every lesson he teaches. What You Will Learn in This Episode • Why most companies don’t have a pricing problem, they have a connection problem  • How validation in the first minute of the call drives booking and trust  • Brigham’s 8-step framework for wow experiences that lift margins  • How to increase call conversion without spending more on marketing  • Why emotional needs matter more than scripts in customer communication  • How a 10 percent bump in conversion adds massive dollars to a mid-size shop  • When to raise prices, and how to help CSRs defend them with confidence  • The hidden cost of callbacks, and how technicians can avoid them  • Why customer centricity is your strongest moat in a PE-heavy industry  • How to turn small, repeatable behaviors into predictable profit More From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most contractors think growth just means more trucks, more techs, and more jobs. Steve Carroll knows the real risk is building a big revenue number on a weak foundation. As co-founder and CEO of Kelso Industries, he’s helped turn a near-bankrupt first acquisition into a billion-dollar MEP+ platform by protecting payroll, understanding cash, and building around the right partners instead of quick exits. He started in a small Oregon town, worked with his hands, then climbed the corporate ladder at Walmart, where he helped scale a division from 15 million to 250 million in three years. That season taught him how urgency, data, and buy-in from thousands of people can move a company faster than anyone thinks possible, and how those same principles translate to a 5–10 million dollar trade business. In this episode, Steve walks through being “a hundred hours from bankruptcy,” why having cash in the bank can trick you into thinking you’re winning, and how WIP, job costing, and collections are the real dashboard for survival. He shares how he kept his team confident when the numbers were scary, why he’d rather lose sleep than miss payroll, and how that crisis turned into the foundation of a billion-dollar company. Steve also breaks down Kelso’s partnership model, why they’d rather keep great owners in the game than buy them out and watch them disappear, and what makes a business repeatable and scalable in the eyes of a serious buyer. From childhood friendship as a partnership test case, to building a national MEP+ flywheel across the full life cycle of a building, he shows what it really takes to grow without burning everything down along the way. What You Will Learn in This Episode How Steve grew a Walmart division from 15M to 250M in three years using urgency, data, and clear goalsWhy thinking bigger starts with a 1-year and 3-year vision that still fits your current realityWhat really happened when his first HVAC acquisition was “a hundred hours from bankruptcy”The practical playbook for surviving a cash crunch: AR, vendors, inventory, and your bankWhy missing payroll is the line you can’t cross if you want to keep your best peopleHow WIP and job costing quietly make or break 5–10M trade businessesHow Steve and his childhood friend built a durable partnership with clear lanes and mutual respectWhy Kelso prefers partnerships over buyouts, and how they structure deals to keep owners investedWhat makes a company “repeatable and scalable” and more valuable to serious buyersHow Kelso’s MEP+ flywheel uses construction, service, and retrofit to create long-term, national growthMore From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too!  To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, M 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most contractors think they have a marketing problem. James Hatfield knows it’s usually a speed and trust problem. As president of LiveSwitch, he helps service companies win more jobs by getting face to face faster, qualifying on video, and turning “free estimates” into efficient, high-confidence closes. He grew up blue collar, built a painting and power-washing company, then went to business school to make the numbers plain English. That path, ladders to tech, led him to build tools that help owners sell quicker, train better, and keep more margin. In this episode, James breaks down race to the face, why you often lose on speed only, and how virtual estimates can match or beat in-person close rates while cutting the cost of truck rolls [think a few hundred to six hundred dollars per visit]. He shows how QR codes on equipment claim the next call before Google does, how recording your work becomes training and process, and why the real AI race is the race for your data. It’s a candid look at how speed, clarity, and captured knowledge create predictable profit, and why confidence in your numbers, in plain English, is the edge that scales. What You Will Learn in This Episode • Why speed wins more jobs than reputation, and how to race to the face  • How virtual estimates close at the same rate as in-person while saving truck roll costs  • The real cost of “free estimates,” and when to pre-qualify on video first  • How QR codes on installed equipment lock in repeat calls to you, not Google  • How to turn recorded walkthroughs into training, SOPs, and higher exit value  • Simple ways to make your financials plain English so you can act fast  • The 5 percent rule James uses to create room for retention and hospitality  • When to augment staff globally for sales and back office without hurting service  • How to integrate live video with your current CRM for one-click workflows  • Why building a personal board helps you grow beyond day-to-day firefighting More From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too!  To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most contractors think they have a sales problem. Danielle Putnam knows it’s usually a pricing problem. As the CEO of The New Flat Rate, Danielle has helped service companies across the U.S., Canada, and Australia add billions in revenue by turning guesswork into systems that sell for you. She grew up in the trades, handing out flyers for her dad’s company at seven years old, and later built a business that changed how contractors price, present, and profit. Her five-option menu system replaces pressure with psychology, helping technicians sell more without ever “selling.” In this episode, Danielle breaks down why most pricing models quietly kill profit, how to fix your billable hour, and what happens when you finally charge what your work is worth. She also shares lessons from running a family business, introducing EOS, and turning chaos into confidence through structure and accountability. It’s a candid look at how clear pricing creates predictable profit—and why confidence in your numbers is the real competitive edge. What You Will Learn in This Episode • Why most contractors price themselves broke without realizing it  • How the five-option menu system increases close rates and ticket size  • The psychology behind why customers buy the middle option  • How to fix your billable hour and stop bleeding margin  • Why technicians don’t hate selling—they hate pressure  • How to align pricing with process for predictable profit  • The EOS tools Danielle used to fix communication and accountability  • How to turn a family business into a scalable, transferable company  • Why clarity in pricing is the foundation for confidence and growth More From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too!  To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting

Most contractors think shutting down a division means failure. Teddy Slack Jr. learned it can be the smartest move you ever make. After running a $3 million environmental company that looked successful on paper but was drowning in debt, Teddy made the brutal call to close it. That decision, and the lessons that followed, became the foundation for SimpleTank, a debt-free, fast-growing tank removal company built on discipline, data, and real profit. He shares how chasing top-line revenue nearly cost him everything, why factoring and debt made things worse, and how starting over forced him to focus on what actually matters. Instead of more trucks and chaos, he built systems, pricing models, and habits that produced cash in the bank, not just numbers on a spreadsheet. In this episode, Teddy breaks down what happens when ego meets economics, how to rebuild from rock bottom, and why most “growth” problems in contracting are really profit problems. It’s a raw look at how one shutdown saved his business and turned pain into a playbook for scaling smarter. What You Will Learn in This Episode • Why shutting down a $3 million business became Teddy’s turning point • The real dangers of factoring and personal guarantees in contracting • How discipline and debt-free growth turned chaos into consistency • The fixed-price model that doubled his close rate • How to judge pricing tests over 90 days, not one job • Why top-line obsession kills profit and peace of mind • The KPI ladder Teddy uses to run his business by the numbers • How to build loyalty and brand power in a dirty industry • What every owner can learn from hitting bottom and starting again More From Profit & Grit Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here: http://cfointrocall.com Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades. If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too!  To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group 🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners. 🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com 📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler 📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades 📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy? Book a free intro meeting