Owned and Operated - A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast
The Owned and Operated electrical, HVAC, and plumbing business growth podcast is hosted by John Wilson and Jack Carr. These two Home Service Business owners bring you weekly podcasts and daily content with multiple perspectives, actionable advice, and info on an ever-changing industry revolving around advertising, lead generation, and more.
Join us every Tuesday for topical conversations that unlock the potential for your business growth. Covering topics from top-tier talent recruitment to mastering marketing strategies and scaling your home service business, the podcast aims to be your guide on the path to entrepreneurial success.
For more information, visit www.ownedandoperated.com.
Episodes
316 episodes
How to Scale to $100M Without Breaking Your Business
How do you keep growing fast without breaking your business?In this Owned and Operated supercut, John Wilson pulls together his favorite moments from recent conversations on what actually snaps when you scale: cash...
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Season 1
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Episode 283
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36:03
Under $5M? Marketing Isn’t Complicated (Here’s the Playbook)
How do you stop wasting money on marketing… and start building a lead engine that actually scales?In this episode of Click to Calls, John Wilson sits down with Service Scalers CEO Sam Preston to break down one of t...
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Season 1
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Episode 282
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39:15
Building, Scaling, and Selling Home Service Businesses (Supercut)
This episode is a supercut of standout moments from multiple Owned and Operated episodes, focused on one theme: how great operators build, scale, and eventually sell home service businesses.John Wilson pulls together some o...
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Season 1
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Episode 281
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35:57
How to Budget Marketing in 2026 (Without Wasting Cash)
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson is joined by Sam Preston (CEO of Service Scalers) to break down how smart home service operators should budget for marketing in 2026. They explain why one-size-fits-all mar...
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Season 1
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Episode 280
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48:01
What Home Service Business Should You Start in 2026? (And How to Win Early)
If you want to play the game on hard mode… randomly pick an industry and hope it works.In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson and Jack Carr break down exactly how they’d build a home service business in 2026—and...
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Season 1
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Episode 279
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41:33
How Smart Operators Plan for Real Growth (Bonus)
Most security & life-safety companies don’t get stuck because they lack hustle—they get stuck because they lack measurement.In this special feed drop of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble (...
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Season 1
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Episode 279
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46:39
The Dark Side of Roofing: Insurance Scams, Storm Chasers, and Why Homeowners Get Burned
Insurance claims, storm chasers, and broken incentives — welcome to the dark side of roofing.In this episode, John Wilson sits down (again) with Adam Cherup to unpack what really happens behind the scenes in roofing — from ...
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Season 1
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Episode 278
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25:58
The Disaster Roofing Business: Temporary Roofs, Real Margins
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Adam Cherup, a “disaster roofer” who’s built a niche, high-margin business installing shrink-wrap temporary roofs after hurricanes, wind events, hail, and fi...
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Season 1
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Episode 277
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31:41
How to Turn Referrals Into a Scalable, Predictable Growth Engine
Referrals are still the #1 growth channel in home services — but most contractors treat it like hope marketing.In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Murphy Nadauld (ReferPro) to break down how the best operator...
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Season 1
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Episode 276
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48:58
Google LSAs: The Easiest Way to Add Leads Tomorrow
This is the literal easiest lever you can pull to add leads tomorrow: turn on (and properly run) Google Local Services Ads (LSAs).In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Sam Preston (CEO of Service Scalers) to break down why...
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Season 1
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Episode 275
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34:43
Stop Losing Money in 2026: The Profit Plan for Higher EBITDA
We’re heading into 2026 with one goal: stop losing money.Not “grow at all costs.” Not “try harder.” Just: build a healthy business that actually cash flows.In this episode, John Wilson and Jack Carr break down what they...
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Season 1
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Episode 274
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45:01
The Sales Process That Took Us From Losing Money to $12.5K Tickets
We break down how we tripled our HVAC average ticket—from $5,000 to $12,500+—and finally made sales profitable. In this episode, we walk through the painful mistakes, system overhauls, and process changes that turned HVAC from a money-loser int...
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Season 1
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Episode 273
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30:53
The REAL Cost of Running a Trades Business in 2025 — What Most Owners Don’t Understand
We reveal the real cost of running a home service business in 2025. In this full debrief, we open our books to show why plumbing business growth exploded while HVAC stalled, and exactly how we navigated the hardest summer in years.If you...
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Season 1
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Episode 272
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49:27
Nextdoor Marketing for Contractors: The Local Referral Engine for Plumbing, HVAC & Home Services
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Sam Preston, CEO of Service Scalers, to break down one of the most overlooked (and misunderstood) marketing channels in home services: Nextdoor.They unpack why Nextdoor fe...
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Season 1
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Episode 271
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25:55
How Smart Home Service Owners Should Invest (P&L, EBITDA, and Enterprise Value)
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson and Jack break down what “smart investing” actually looks like for home service operators—starting with the truth most owners miss: if you run a business, you’re already an investor. You’re inv...
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Season 1
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Episode 270
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38:43
Remote Staffing for Contractors: How to Hire Offshore for Recruiting, Dispatch & Ops
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Aizik Zimerman of Jay Blanton Plumbing (Chicago) to break down the remote staffing playbook that most home service operators still aren’t using.John and Aizik start...
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Season 1
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Episode 269
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31:33
AI Didn’t Kill Google Search — Here’s Why GBP Still Wins
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Sam Preston — CEO of Service Scalers — to talk about the marketing asset that still quietly outperforms everything else in home services: your Google Business Profile (GBP).<...
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Season 1
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Episode 268
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38:06
This HVAC Owner Scaled from $11M to $250M (Ken Goodrich’s Playbook)
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Ken Goodrich — legendary home services operator, turnaround specialist, and former CEO/Chairman of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing — to unpack what it really takes to buil...
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Season 1
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Episode 267
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1:11:36
You’re Growing Fast… So Why Are You Still Broke?
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 266
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51:48
Plumbing Owner Grew From $6M to $25M on Sewers (Here’s How)
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 265
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48:40
The Silent Growth Blocker in Home Services
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 tec...
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Season 1
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Episode 264
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49:45
The Ultimate Home Service Trivia Show (What Homeowners Really Think)
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 natio...
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Season 1
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Episode 263
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51:13
How To Scale a Service Based Business by Implementing an FSM
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 HVA...
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Season 1
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Episode 262
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46:33
How to Rebrand Your Company and Add $500K in Revenue
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 Hamps...
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Season 1
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Episode 261
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47:17
How to Scale Beyond Yourself and Build a Real Company
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 leade...
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Season 1
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Episode 260
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30:53