The Guide to Branding and Networking for Service Business Owners
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Release Date: 06/24/2026
Why Your Techs Are Losing Sales in 2026 | Justin Riley
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Service Scout (14 day free trial): This is the toughest year to close a sale in home services since 2008. Equipment costs more than ever, credit is tighter, and the customers calling for a replacement are the hardest ones to sell. The problem usually is not your leads. It is what happens when your technician walks in the door. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Justin Riley, CEO and founder of UpFrog, for a straight read on the 2026 home services market and how the best companies are still closing jobs hand over fist. Justin breaks...
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Systems That Outlast You: Building a Trades Business for Generations
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most companies do not last. A huge share of the biggest names in the world vanish within a few decades. The Smith & Oby Company has been running since 1898. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Jake Wattenbarger, president of Smith & Oby, a Foundral brand, a Cleveland mechanical contractor that has stayed relevant for 125 years by reading the market before it forces the issue, and by building systems and a culture that outlast any one person. Jake spent nearly a decade as an Army logistics officer before the trades, and it shows....
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How to Beat Private Equity Without Selling | Zach Cooper-Vastola
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Private equity is buying up home service companies and quietly gutting the good ones, and most owners think their only options are to sell or get outspent. There is a third one. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Zach Cooper-Vastola, co-founder of Hickory, who has bought and built home service companies across the tri-state to roughly 350 people and 80 million dollars in revenue, without ever running them from an ivory tower. Zach breaks down how he keeps technicians from walking out the door after an acquisition, why he...
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How Home Service Pros Hit 20% Net Margin | Profitability Partners
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most home service businesses keep just 5 to 12% net profit, and most owners have no idea that is where they are. The best run HVAC, plumbing, and electrical shops keep 20%, and the gap almost always comes down to a few fixable mistakes. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Matthew Mooney and Raymond Gong of Profitability Partners, a fractional CFO firm that spent years on the private equity side of the table and now helps owners find the profit already hiding in their business. They break down the real gross profit benchmarks for every...
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How AI Is Changing HVAC (Without Replacing Techs) | Chris Plunkett
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
AI is not coming for your techs. It is coming for the busywork, the missed calls, and the guesswork that quietly eats your margin. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett sits down with Chris Plunkett, a Tucson HVAC owner who has been in the trade since he was eight years old, to talk about what using AI in an HVAC business actually looks like day to day. They get into how Chris turned home inspections from a loss leader into one of his highest paying jobs, why his AI voice agent books calls so well that customers swear they were talking to a person, and the simple pay...
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Stop Missing Calls: The Real Reason Home Service Leads Disappear
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most home service companies do not have a lead problem. They have a missed-call problem. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Chris Nelson, Senior Manager of Vertical Marketing at CallRail, to talk about why home service leads disappear, how missed calls turn into lost revenue, and what contractors can do to better understand what is happening inside their call flow. This conversation is not just about answering the phone faster. It is about understanding where your leads come from, how they move through your business, and where good...
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How to Grow Your Business with Sales Process and Technique
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most contractors want more leads, more booked calls, and more revenue. But if your sales process is inconsistent, more leads will only expose the problem faster. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Josh Martin, Director of Revenue Strategy at 3Four Labs, to talk about how service businesses can grow by building a stronger sales framework, improving technician coaching, and using AI-powered tools the right way. Josh explains why AI and automation are only useful when your company already knows what “good” looks like. If your...
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The Moneyball for Home Services: How You Can Catch the Jobs You’re Missing
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most contractors think they need more leads. But what if the real problem is that you’re already missing the jobs you paid to generate? In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Shaun Ritchey from Breezy to talk about Moneyball for home services and how contractors can use AI, better data, and smarter systems to uncover the jobs hiding inside their existing business. Just like Moneyball changed baseball by finding overlooked value in the data, this conversation shows how contractors can find overlooked revenue in missed calls, slow follow-up,...
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The Guide to Branding and Networking for Service Business Owners
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most service business owners are chasing the next lead source. Google Ads. Facebook Ads. AI. SEO. Automation. But sometimes the fastest way to grow is still the most old-school strategy in the book: getting out into your community, shaking hands, building trust, and making sure people remember your brand. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Chuck Worley, owner of Worley’s Home Services, to talk about branding, networking, reputation, and the real-world grind behind building a service business people know, trust, and refer. Chuck shares...
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Consistent Branding Can Solve Your Hiring and Growth Headaches
Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Most contractors think branding is about logos, colors, and marketing. It's not. The strongest brands in the trades do something much more powerful: they attract great employees, create loyal customers, and make growth easier. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Levi Torres, founder of High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric, to discuss how consistent branding became the foundation for one of Colorado's fastest-growing home service companies. What started as a simple idea—a high five at the end of every service call—evolved...
info_outlineMost service business owners are chasing the next lead source.
Google Ads. Facebook Ads. AI. SEO. Automation.
But sometimes the fastest way to grow is still the most old-school strategy in the book: getting out into your community, shaking hands, building trust, and making sure people remember your brand.
In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Chuck Worley, owner of Worley’s Home Services, to talk about branding, networking, reputation, and the real-world grind behind building a service business people know, trust, and refer.
Chuck shares his journey from struggling in school to building a career in HVAC sales, starting and losing a business, rebuilding from bankruptcy, paying back debts he was no longer legally required to pay, and eventually growing Worley’s Home Services into a $17 million company.
He also breaks down why branding is not just about a logo, why standing out matters, and how his orange and green jackets became a memorable part of his local brand.
They also discuss:
How Chuck went from HVAC technician to top-performing comfort advisor
Why sales changed his life and gave him a path forward
The painful lessons from bankruptcy and rebuilding from zero
Why reputation matters more than almost anything in business
How Chuck used networking to grow his company without relying only on digital marketing
Why your brand needs to be memorable, even if people think it looks ridiculous
How local chambers, BNI groups, and business events can generate real relationships
Why referrals still matter in a world obsessed with AI and ads
How Chuck used small acquisitions and owner financing to grow
Why being the “power connector” in your market can create long-term growth
How service business owners can start networking even if they feel uncomfortable
If you are a service business owner who wants to build a brand people remember, generate more referrals, and grow through real relationships, this episode is a practical, no-BS playbook.
Timestamps
00:00 Old-school networking advice
03:36 Challenges with AI voice calls
08:48 Struggling through high school
11:48 Quitting shipyard job for family
13:32 Quitting jobs due to drug use
18:42 Friend's Offer During Divorce
22:18 Early business struggles and trust
25:11 Growing HVAC Business from Dorm Room
27:03 CallRail for tracking marketing calls
30:37 Networking as an Introvert
32:51 Growing the sales team
36:55 Personal branding and first impressions
41:10 Joining a Chamber of Commerce
45:13 Networking and local referrals
48:41 Networking with industry professionals
52:26 Overcoming networking anxiety
52:58 Networking event experience
56:57 Importance of referrals and relationships
59:38 Wrapping up and subscribing encouragement
Follow the Host and Guest
Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/
Joshua Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/
Chuck Worley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckworley757/
Connect with Us
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• Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/servicebusinessmasterypodcast
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This episode is kindly powered by:
UpFrog: upfrog.com
MarketStorm is an AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/
Get Your 14-Day Free Trial with CallRail!: https://www.callrail.com/sbmpod
CompanyCam: https://companycam.com/
Breezy: Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code “SBM” to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo
PhoneTAP: Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo