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

Latest Episodes:

The State of Home Service Marketing in 2026: Google Ads, Meta & LSA Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

What’s working in home service marketing in 2026?

John Wilson and Sam Preston break down Meta Ads, Google Ads, LSAs, speed to lead, call centers, and how contractors can find their next growth channel.

They cover why marketing channels eventually level off, the rise of Meta Ads, Google’s shift toward AI and Performance Max, and why your call center is a critical part of your marketing engine.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
IN THIS EPISODE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• What’s working in home service marketing in 2026
• Why marketing channels eventually level off
• Meta Ads for HVAC, plumbing, and home services
• Why speed to lead matters
• Turning low-intent leads into booked jobs
• Why your call center is part of marketing
• Google Ads, LSA, and Performance Max
• Testing new marketing channels faster
• Growing through new markets and services
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SPONSOR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Catalyst | May 3–5 | Akron, Ohio
100+ home service owners and operators. Three days of tactical sessions, real conversations, and learning from great operators.
Grab your seat: https://www.ownedandoperated.com/catalyst
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CONNECT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/
Sam Preston
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-preston-a682103b6/
Service Scalers
https://os.servicescalers.com/go/oao_podcast/referral/podcast

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Companies
Jack Carr, CEO of Rapid HVAC
📌 Disclaimer: Some links may include UTM parameters or affiliate relationships, meaning we may earn a commission if you make a purchase. Episodes may feature sponsors, but all opinions expressed are our own.

How to Grow Your Home Service Business With Google Business Profiles Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

John Wilson sits down with Julie Phan, founder of Big Reputation, to break down how home service companies can use Google Business Profiles to expand into new markets.

They cover how to choose the right location, how many reviews you need before expanding, Google's verification process, and how to build authority on a new GBP without weakening your existing locations.

John also shares how The Wilson Companies has used GBPs through acquisitions and organic expansion, including a $10,000 acquisition that may have generated roughly $1 million in revenue.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• When to open another Google Business Profile
• How to choose your next market
• Building reviews and authority
• Google's GBP verification requirements
• Buying existing GBPs through acquisitions
• Google Business Profiles and AI search
• Why more locations don't automatically mean more leads

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
FieldPulse

Ready to ditch the whiteboard and spreadsheets? See how FieldPulse helps home service companies simplify scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, and more.
Book a free demo: https://landing.fieldpulse.com/owned_and_operated

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/
Julie Phan/Big Reputation
https://www.bigreputation.ai/

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

Owned and Operated with John Wilson | Podcast Trailer Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

John Wilson has spent the last decade growing a home service company from $1M to $53M in revenue.

On Owned and Operated, John breaks down what it actually takes to build and scale a home service business, including hiring, sales, marketing, operations, acquisitions, pricing, and everything in between.

Real operators. Real numbers. Real problems being solved in real time.

If you own a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, or other home service business and want to build something great, this show is for you.

New episodes twice a week.

Find Owned and Operated:

https://www.youtube.com/@JohnWilsonOAO
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

The 2026 SBA Playbook: How to Buy a Business With 10% Down Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

The SBA rules for buying a business are changing in 2026. Here’s what buyers and home service operators need to know.

Jack Carr sits down with Alan Peterson from First Internet Bank to break down the latest SBA 7(a) changes, including how buyers can finance up to 90% of an acquisition, new equity requirements, seller financing, and changes affecting minority investors.

They also cover how sellers can stay involved for up to 24 months after closing, strategies for navigating licensing when buying HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other skilled trades businesses, and new Quality of Earnings requirements for larger acquisitions.

Plus, Alan explains one of the biggest opportunities for existing business owners: using SBA expansion financing to acquire another company with potentially 0% down when the deal qualifies.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Inside This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Buying a business with an SBA 7(a) loan
• Financing up to 90% of an acquisition
• New 2026 SBA equity requirements
• Seller financing and transition rules
• Licensing strategies for home service acquisitions
• Quality of Earnings and business valuations
• SBA expansion loans and potential 0% down acquisitions
• What buyers should know before making an offer
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Avoca

See how Avoca helps home service companies book more jobs with AI that handles calls, texts, follow ups, and dispatching without adding more chaos.
Book a demo: https://www.avoca.ai/partners/oao
FieldPulse

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jack Carr
https://x.com/thehvacjack

Alan Peterson
https://alanfib.com/

Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

What Is EBITDA? How to Value, Grow & Sell Your Home Service Business Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

What is EBITDA, and why does it matter so much when building, financing, or selling a home service business?

John Wilson and Jack Carr break down EBITDA in simple terms, including how it differs from net income and SDE, what a healthy EBITDA margin looks like, and why buyers, banks, and lenders pay so much attention to it.

They also explain how EBITDA impacts business valuation, why maximizing profit doesn't always maximize company value, and the other financial metrics buyers look at during an acquisition.

Plus, John shares the 50/30/20 framework used at Wilson: 50% gross margin, 30% SG&A, and 20% EBITDA.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• What EBITDA means and why it matters
• EBITDA vs. net income and SDE
• Healthy EBITDA margins for home service businesses
• How EBITDA impacts business valuation
• Using strong financials to access capital
• Why higher EBITDA doesn't always mean a better business
• The 50/30/20 framework

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Quick Staffers

Hire trained HVAC and plumbing CSRs without the overhead of traditional hiring. Save $500 on your first placement with Quick Staffers:
https://www.quickstaffers.com/

Service Scalers
Get more high quality leads with marketing built for home service companies. Book a free strategy call with Service Scalers and see what's driving real jobs: https://os.servicescalers.com/go/oao_podcast/referral/podcast

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/

Jack Carr
https://x.com/thehvacjack

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

Why Roofing Is a Beautiful Business: Marketing, Sales & $20K Jobs Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

What does it actually take to buy and grow a roofing company?
Nicholas Riley left Deloitte to buy Driftwood Builders Roofing, a 20-year-old roofing company in Austin, Texas. After reviewing roughly 2,000 businesses, he finally made his first home service acquisition.
In this episode, John Wilson and Nicholas break down the economics of the roofing business, including $20,000 average roof replacements, cash vs. insurance margins, roofing marketing, direct mail, referral partnerships, and competing in a market with more than 1,000 roofing companies.
They also cover Nicholas' biggest mistakes during his first year as an operator, what buyers should look for when acquiring a home service business, and why roofing ultimately comes down to two things: marketing and sales.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Buying your first home service business
• The economics of running a roofing company
• $20K average roof replacements
• Roofing marketing and direct mail
• Building referral partnerships that generate leads
• Why seller integrity matters when buying a business
• Competing against private equity and local roofers
• Why roofing is a marketing and sales business
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Military Veteran (TMV)
Hiring a VP, GM, or C-suite leader? The Military Veteran (TMV) specializes in executive search for home service businesses, connecting you with proven veteran leaders who know how to execute, build teams, and drive growth.
Select Owned and Operated as your referral source when you schedule a consultation: https://themilvet.typeform.com/to/BDwkmCU0?typeform-source=www.themilvet.org
Big Reputation
Get more from your Google Business Profile with Big Reputation. Automate reviews, improve local visibility, and turn more Google searches into inbound calls.
Learn more: https://www.bigreputation.ai/oao?utm_source=oao&utm_medium=paid
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/
Nicholas Riley
https://www.instagram.com/nickriley2/
https://driftwoodbuildersroofing.com/
Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

Ismael Valdez: How I Built a $108M Home Service Company & What I’m Building Next Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Ismael Valdez built NexGen Air Conditioning & Plumbing from $0 to $108 million in just 6.5 years. Now he’s back on Owned and Operated to share the blueprint for his next $100M home service company.

John Wilson and Ismael break down what worked at NexGen, the mistakes he would never repeat, why most HVAC and plumbing contractors stall below $2M, and why sales and marketing are the real engines behind rapid growth.

Ismael also shares what he’s building next. After investing more than $22 million of his own money into Nuve, generating $15.2 million in first-year sales, and selling more than 110,000 units, he’s turning his attention back to home services.

His vision: an AI-powered, hyper-efficient HVAC and plumbing company with almost no traditional back office, lower prices, higher close rates, and the potential for 40%+ EBITDA margins.

In This Episode:

• How Ismael Valdez built NexGen from $0 to $108M
• What he learned from a nine-figure home service exit
• Building Nuve to $15.2M in first-year sales
• Why most contractors stall below $2M
• NexGen’s biggest wins and mistakes
• Why sales and marketing drive growth
• Building an AI-powered home service company
• Ismael’s blueprint for his next $100M company

Connect

John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/

Ismael Valdez
https://www.instagram.com/nuveceo/

Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

Sponsors

Quick Staffers

Hire trained HVAC and plumbing CSRs without the overhead of traditional hiring. Save $500 on your first placement with Quick Staffers:
https://www.quickstaffers.com/

Avoca

See how Avoca helps home service companies book more jobs with AI that handles calls, texts, follow ups, and dispatching without adding more chaos. Book a demo:
https://www.avoca.ai/partners/oao

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

How We’d Turn $5M Into $10M in 12 Months Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

How would we turn a $5 million home service business into a $10 million company?

In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson and Jack Carr break down how they’d invest $1 million to double a profitable home service business.

They cover where they’d invest first, finding the next high-ROI marketing channel, hiring salespeople ahead of demand, expanding the balance sheet, and building the capacity to scale.

Could they reach a $10M run rate in just 12 months? This is the playbook they’d use.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• How to grow a $5M home service business to $10M
• Where they’d invest $1 million for growth
• Finding your next high-ROI marketing channel
• Why one marketing channel could double the business
• Branding, radio, LSAs, and commercial sales
• Hiring salespeople ahead of demand

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/

Jack Carr
https://x.com/thehvacjack

Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Yelp
Looking for more qualified leads beyond Google? See how contractors are using Yelp to reach homeowners who are ready to book and diversify their lead generation. Learn more: https://business.yelp.com/campaign/ownedandoperated/
Comfort Connect
Turn one installation into years of repeat business with Comfort Connect. Give homeowners flexible payment options, stay connected after the job, and create new recurring revenue opportunities. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4wGXqSX
FieldPulse
Ready to ditch the whiteboard and spreadsheets? See how FieldPulse helps home service companies simplify scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, and more. Book a free demo: https://landing.fieldpulse.com/owned_and_operated

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

How We’d Start a Plumbing Company From $0 in 2026 Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

If John Wilson and Jack Carr lost everything and had to start a plumbing company from scratch, what would they actually do?

In this episode of Owned and Operated, John and Jack break down exactly how they’d build a plumbing business from $10,000 to $1 million in revenue using everything they’ve learned as home service operators.

They compare two different paths: staying extremely lean by subcontracting work and proving demand before spending money, or hiring early and building the operation one truck at a time. They cover how they’d land their first customers, where they’d spend their first marketing dollars, when they’d hire, what jobs they’d target, and how they’d build toward four productive trucks.

John also explains why he’d eventually use a small acquisition to accelerate the business, including examples of companies he’s previously acquired with very little cash down.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• How to start a plumbing company with $10,000
• Getting your first customers without a big marketing budget
• Subcontracting vs. hiring your first plumber
• Why John would prioritize revenue before investing
• Using Facebook, Nextdoor, referrals, and LSAs to generate leads
• The plumbing jobs Jack would target first
• When to add your first truck and technician

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/
Jack Carr
https://x.com/thehvacjack

Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Service Scalers

Get more high quality leads with marketing built for home service companies. Book a free strategy call with Service Scalers and see what's driving real jobs: https://os.servicescalers.com/go/oao_podcast/referral/podcast

Yelp

Looking for more qualified leads beyond Google? See how contractors are using Yelp to reach homeowners who are ready to book and diversify their lead generation. Learn more: https://business.yelp.com/campaign/ownedandoperated/

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

There Are Millions Hiding in Your Customer Database Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

Your customer database might be worth more than you think.

In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Faraday founder Alex Coleman to break down how home service companies can turn the data they already collect into better marketing, smarter dispatching, and more replacement opportunities.

They cover how Wilson uncovered millions of dollars in opportunities hidden inside old customer records, why equipment data becomes increasingly valuable as a contractor scales, and how back-office automation can tackle permits, warranties, rebates, and other processes that often fall through the cracks.

John and Alex also dig into AI in the trades, where automation is actually useful, why AI still needs a human in the loop, and why contractors should think twice before building their own software instead of focusing on the core business.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In This Episode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• How old customer data can uncover millions in replacement opportunities
• Why equipment age matters for marketing and dispatch
• Turning service calls into long-term marketing assets
• Using existing customer databases to drive more revenue
• Automating permits, warranties, rebates, and back-office work
• Why rebates can become a major source of missed profit
• How data becomes more valuable as a home service company scales
• Where AI is overpromised in the trades

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Connect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/

Alex Coleman / Faraday
https://www.faraday.so/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/faraday-ai/

Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Profit & Grit

Running a $3M–$15M home service business? Profit & Grit helps contractors improve cash flow, pricing, forecasting, and profitability with guidance from an operator who's built and sold a $25M service business.
Book your free 20-minute strategy call: https://www.profitandgrit.com

Send Us Mail!

More Ways To Connect with OAO

Leave a Review

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

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

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected