Old School Wins — Why Direct Mail Still Prints Money for Contractors

How I Actually Market My HVAC Company in 2026

Billy Gregus, owner of Integrity Refrigeration, called in and asked a question every contractor is asking in 2026: What is actually working in HVAC marketing right now? PPC? LSA? Guerrilla marketing? Where should contractors be putting their money and energy to get the best ROI? In this episode, Derek Cormier breaks down exactly how Climate Experts approaches marketing and why that strategy continues to produce results. Like many contractors, Derek initially handed his entire marketing budget to a large agency and hoped for the best. While it produced some results, he quickly learned a better approach: segment your marketing among specialized vendors and have someone on your team managing performance and accountability. At Climate Experts, the majority of leads still come from referrals, supported by a strong referral program and consistent marketing to existing customers. The company also has its own CMO who works with the team weekly, manages vendors, tracks performance, and ensures every marketing dollar is being spent effectively. Combined with an internal marketing coordinator and a social media strategy built specifically for the trades, the company has developed a system that delivers measurable ROI. This episode is a real-world answer to a real question from a contractor trying to determine where to invest marketing dollars in 2026. What You'll Learn: • Why many contractors get burned by large marketing agencies • How to segment vendors based on their strengths • Why your existing customer base is your most underutilized marketing asset • What a successful referral program looks like • Why having an internal marketing leader changes everything • How trades business owners should approach social media • What is producing ROI for a multi-million-dollar HVAC company in 2026 Topics Covered: • HVAC marketing in 2026 • PPC vs LSA vs guerrilla marketing • Referral marketing for contractors • Marketing to existing customers • Managing multiple marketing vendors • Building an in-house marketing team • Social media for HVAC companies • Home service lead generation • Marketing ROI for contractors Who This Episode Is For: HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are spending money on marketing and want to know what's actually working. It's for contractors who have been burned by agencies, owners looking to scale from $1M to $10M+, and anyone wanting a clearer strategy for growing a home service company. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi-million-dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Keywords: HVAC marketing 2026, HVAC lead generation, PPC vs LSA, contractor marketing, home service marketing, referral program, HVAC business growth, social media for contractors, marketing ROI, HVAC leads, contractor podcast, trades business marketing, Climate Experts, Derek Cormier, Escape the One Man Show, marketing budget for contractors, home service business growth, HVAC company marketing strategy.

She Had No Trades Experience. Now She Runs Half My Company

Every contractor thinks they need to hire someone with years of trades experience to become a manager. This episode will change the way you think about leadership forever. In this episode of Escape The One Man Show, Derek Cormier sits down with Climate Experts COO Krystal Hernandez to break down her incredible journey from stay at home mom and part time office admin to running operations for a multi million dollar HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company. Six years ago Krystal knew nothing about the trades. No HVAC experience. No accounting background. No management experience. Today she oversees office operations, customer service, dispatch, accounting, HR, staffing, and marketing. This episode is not about motivation. It is about a proven blueprint for building leaders from within your company instead of constantly searching for outside hires. Derek and Krystal discuss why culture fit matters more than experience, how to identify leadership potential in your team, the biggest mistakes contractors make when promoting employees, and why some of the best leaders in your company may be hiding in plain sight. If you are tired of being the bottleneck in your business and want to build a team that can grow without you this episode is for you. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE: Why hiring experienced managers often backfires. How to identify leadership potential in your employees. Why culture fit beats experience every time. The framework Climate Experts uses to promote from within. How accountability creates leaders. Why bad hires destroy company culture. The importance of coaching and mentorship. How to build management teams without relying on outside recruiting. Leadership lessons from growing a multi million dollar trades company. What contractors get wrong about promotions and management. TOPICS COVERED: Building leaders from within. Promoting employees into management. Hiring vs developing leaders. Company culture in the trades. Leadership development. HVAC business growth. Employee accountability. Coaching and mentorship. Women in the trades. Trades business leadership. Internal promotions. COO development. Management training. Scaling a home service company. Building systems and processes. WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are struggling to find great managers and leaders. It is for owners who feel stuck because everything depends on them. It is for contractors who want to stop hiring people who look good on paper and start building leaders who are aligned with their culture and mission. It is also for anyone in the trades who wants to grow into leadership and create a bigger future inside their company. ABOUT ESCAPE THE ONE MAN SHOW: Escape The One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode host Derek Cormier shares the real systems, leadership lessons, hiring strategies, and growth tactics that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company in Florida. Want to work with Derek directly? Visit www.escapetheonemanshow.com [http://www.escapetheonemanshow.com/] Have a question you want answered on the show? Call in and leave your question at 321-495-7788 and it may be featured on a future episode.

The Employee You Are Scared to Lose Is Your Biggest Problem

Most contractors are terrified of losing a key employee. A technician who knows everything. A manager who holds the whole operation together. Someone who has been there so long that the thought of them walking out the door keeps you up at night. That fear is not a loyalty problem. It is a systems problem. In this episode Derek Cormier breaks down why the fear of employees quitting is really a symptom of two things, a weak recruiting process and an even weaker training system. If one person leaving can derail your business you have built your company on a foundation that was never meant to hold weight. This is the episode for every contractor who has ever held back on holding someone accountable because they were too afraid of what would happen if that person walked. What You Will Learn in This Episode:The real reason you are afraid of employees quitting has nothing to do with the employee and everything to do with your systems. Derek breaks down what it actually takes to stop being held hostage by your own team — from building a training program that develops technicians from the ground up, to proactively coaching out poor fits before they become a crisis, to recruiting so consistently that no single person is ever irreplaceable. Topics Covered:Why fear of employees quitting is a recruiting and training problem not a people problem. How to build a training system that develops technicians from scratch instead of depending on experienced hires. Why you need to always be developing your people and never stop. How to proactively coach out poor fits while hiring their replacement in the background. Why a repeatable onboarding and training process is the foundation of a scalable company. How tools like Loom and Trainual can save your managers hours every week on onboarding. Why every contractor over three million in revenue needs a dedicated in house recruiter. Why one good selling technician will pay for their position many times over. What it actually looks like to build a company where no single person can hold you hostage. Who This Episode Is For:This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, and electricians who are tired of walking on eggshells around key employees. For trades business owners who know their training is inconsistent but have not fixed it yet. For contractors doing one to five million who feel like they are one resignation away from a crisis. For any owner who has ever held back on accountability because they were scared of losing someone. And for anyone ready to build a company where great people want to stay and no one person can destroy you by walking out the door. About Escape the One Man Show:Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode host Derek Cormier breaks down the real tactics, leadership lessons, and culture shifts that helped him build Climate Experts into a multi-million dollar home services business in Florida. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. I will play it on an upcoming episode and break it down just like this. Keywords:Scared employees will quit. Contractor employee retention. Trades business training program. How to train HVAC technicians. Trainual for contractors. Loom for onboarding. Contractor recruiting process. In house recruiter trades. How to stop being held hostage by employees. Trades business systems. HVAC business owner podcast. Contractor coaching. Derek Cormier. Escape the One Man Show. Climate Experts. Contractor podcast. Trades business growth. Home service business podcast. Contractor training system. Technician development. Selling technician. How to grow a trades business. Trades business leadership. Working on the business not in it. Contractor scaling strategies. Home service recruiting. Independent contractor growth.

How to Break Into Commercial HVAC: What Nobody Tells You

Billy Gregus built his business almost entirely on commercial HVAC — and he is not looking back. In this episode Derek Cormier sits down with Billy Gregus of Integrity Air to talk about what it really takes to break into commercial and why most contractors are leaving a massive opportunity on the table. Billy shares how he landed his first commercial accounts, what it took to get in the door with clients like Amazon, and why commercial clients make decisions faster than residential. Nobody is selling warm beers. When an ice machine goes down or a chiller fails the business stops, and that urgency changes everything about how you sell and how fast you close. They get into the real margins in commercial versus residential, how Billy competes with private equity firms buying up the market, and why the complicated jobs nobody else wants are actually where the money is. Less competition. Better clients. Faster decisions. From ice machines to chillers to full service accounts — Billy's business is growing because he does things other contractors simply cannot or will not do. If you have ever thought about adding commercial to your business or going all in like Billy did this episode is your roadmap. What You Will Learn: How to land your first commercial accounts and what actually gets you in the door. Why commercial clients make faster decisions than homeowners. What the margins look like in commercial versus residential. How to compete against private equity without their budget. Why doing the complicated work nobody else will do is your biggest competitive advantage. Topics Covered: Breaking into commercial HVAC. Landing commercial accounts and service agreements. Getting clients like Amazon. Commercial versus residential margins. Competing with private equity. Ice machines, chillers, and complex commercial equipment. Building a commercial HVAC business from the ground up. Who This Episode Is For: HVAC contractors who want to add commercial work. Trades owners tired of fighting over the same residential customers. Anyone who wants less competition, better margins, and bigger accounts. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode host Derek Cormier breaks down the real tactics, leadership lessons, and culture shifts that helped him build Climate Experts into a multi-million dollar home services business in Florida. Keywords: How to break into commercial HVAC. Commercial HVAC business growth. Landing commercial accounts. Competing with private equity in HVAC. Ice machine repair. Chiller service. Billy Gregus. Integrity Air. Escape the One Man Show. Derek Cormier. Climate Experts. HVAC business podcast. Contractor podcast. Trades business growth. How to scale an HVAC business.

Real Talk From Two Trades Operators Who Actually Built It

Most conversations about building a trades business come from people who have never actually done it. Coaches who have never run a truck. Consultants who have never made payroll. Gurus selling masterminds from a stage they bought their way onto. This is not that. In this episode Derek Cormier sits down with Texas Medley, a successful multi trade contractor based in Texas, for a real unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to build a trades company. No theory. No fluff. Just two operators who have made the mistakes, paid the price, and figured out what actually works. They get into the things nobody talks about publicly. What they wish someone had warned them before they scaled. What they got wrong. What they would never do again. What the gurus are getting wrong about the trades. And what the next five years looks like for independent trades business owners who get it right. If you are building a trades business and you are tired of advice from people who have never been in the field this episode is for you. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Most contractors are so focused on what is working for the biggest shops that they completely lose sight of what is actually relevant to where they are right now. Derek and Texas Medley break down the real lessons from scaling a trades business including the mistakes that cost them the most, the vendors and programs they regret, and the moves that actually moved the needle. They also get into the hard conversations about private equity, guru culture in the trades, and whether the industry is doing enough to bring the next generation in. Topics Covered: What two experienced trades operators wish someone had warned them before they scaled. The biggest mistakes made growing a trades business and what they actually cost. What vendors programs and investments they regret and why. What the trades industry keeps getting wrong about growth coaching and private equity. Why private equity is not buying mom and pop shops and what a real exit actually looks like. What the biggest threat to the independent trades business owner is right now. Whether the trades industry is doing enough to attract the next generation. What the next five years looks like for trades business owners who get it right versus those who do not. Who This Episode Is For: This episode is for HVAC contractors plumbers and electricians building their own company, trades business owners who want real operator perspective not guru advice, contractors doing one to five million in revenue wondering what the next move is, anyone thinking about getting into the trades who wants an honest picture of what it actually takes, and anyone who has ever paid for coaching or a mastermind and wondered if it was worth it. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode host Derek Cormier breaks down the real tactics, leadership lessons, and culture shifts that helped him build Climate Experts into a multi-million dollar home services business in Florida. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. I will play it on an upcoming episode and break it down just like this. Keywords: Real talk contractors. Trades business owner podcast. How to scale a contracting business. HVAC business owner podcast. Contractor coaching. Private equity trades. Texas Medley. Derek Cormier. Escape the One Man Show. Climate Experts. Contractor podcast. Trades business growth. Home service business podcast. Contractor mistakes. Two trades operators. Guru advice for contractors. HVAC contractor. Plumber business. Electrician business. Contractor life. How to grow a trades business. Trades business leadership. Working on the business not in it. Contractor scaling strategies. Home service marketing. Technician recruiting. Independent contractor growth.