In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The Career Pivot: How 9/11 forced Chuck out of aerospace and into home improvement—and why he never looked back.
• The "COVID Hangover": Why the easy market of the last few years created "soft" sales teams and how to fix it.
• Activity vs. Results: Why you must manage the activity to ensure the results happen.
• The Sales Manager Trap: Why promoting your top sales rep to manager is often a recipe for disaster.
• Building a Training Culture: The secret to getting your team to buy into daily training and discipline.
• Personal Branding: Why your personal social media is the most powerful (and free) recruiting and marketing tool you own.

Core Business Principles

• Master One Trade: Become dominant in one niche before expanding; adding trades too early creates distractions and loses money.
• Price for the Future: Charge based on the $5M or $10M company you want to be, not the small shop you are now.
• Prioritize Profit over Revenue: High revenue ($8M+) means nothing if your net profit is zero or you cannot make payroll.

Operational Lessons

• Financial Literacy: Owners must master their numbers (P&L, balance sheets) rather than outsourcing them entirely to an accountant.
• Exit Commercial Work: David Hirst shifted from commercial to residential service to ensure faster payment and better cash flow.
• Hire an Operator: Visionary owners need a "no" person or an operations manager to manage the chaos of scaling.

Leadership & Growth

• Personal Branding: Social media is the "new currency" for recruiting top talent and attracting customers.
• Mental Health: Victor and David advocate for therapy and extreme accountability to handle the stress of entrepreneurship.
• Abundance Mindset: Modern contractors should share "secrets" and train others to elevate the entire industry.

Key Topics & Takeaways

• Why Contractors Distrust Marketing
  • “Set it and forget it” agencies, no accountability, no trade knowledge
• The Power of Niching Down
  • Specializing in home services = faster onboarding, better results
• Marketing Isn’t a Black Hole
  • Track real revenue, not just leads or vanity metrics
• SEO That Drives Revenue
  • Google Business Profile, reviews, citations, and long-term planning
• Yelp, Apple Maps & Review Diversity
  • Why Yelp still matters and how AI search pulls local data
• Local SEO Ranking Factors
  • Business name keywords, seasonal categories, 2026 insights
• Omnichannel & Brand Growth
  • OTT/CTV, radio, brand search, and credibility marketing
• CSR & Call Performance
  • Speed-to-lead, call monitoring, and CSRs as sales reps
• Guerrilla & Community Marketing
  • Job-site signage, door knocking, events, and local backlinks
• Lifetime Value Over New Leads
  • Retarget existing customers to keep the call board full