OWNR OPS Podcast

💰 Join our Free OWNR OPS Skool Community to grow your local service biz: ➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops

In this episode, Dave Sheridan from Ascension Tree Care reveals the challenges and triumphs of growing his tree service business from $290K to $550K in just two years. 

Dave dives deep into his equipment investments, B2B partnerships, and how he successfully navigated marketing through Google Ads and reviews.

Dave discusses:

• His $130K initial equipment investment

• How mini skids became a game-changer

• B2B strategies for landscapers and golf courses

• The ins and outs of running Google Ads and generating reviews

• The impact of plant healthcare on the business

• Family business dynamics and scaling with partners
  

Listen in to hear how Dave scaled his service-based business through determination and strategic decisions.

Get inspired by his story of entrepreneurship and growth.

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownerops-spotify

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

💰Learn Google Business, Facebook Ads, and Automation tips for your Blue Collar Business

➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops

How do you hire employees who actually stick around?

Austin Gray sits down with Patrick Murphy, founder of Cascade Home Cleaning, to unpack why recruiting is the single biggest bottleneck in service businesses—and how to fix it.

Patrick reveals:

• Why every great hire adds $130K in annual revenue

• His proven recruiting funnel modeled after sales & marketing

• How to use Indeed, automation, and strong copy to attract better candidates

• The secret to disqualifying bad fits early (and saving yourself months of headaches)

• His full multi-step hiring process: applications → screening → test clean → offer

  
  

This isn’t theory—it’s the exact framework Patrick uses to manage 20+ employees in a highly competitive, high-turnover industry.

If you own a cleaning service, landscaping company, snow removal business, or any local service operation—this is a must-listen playbook for scaling with the right team.

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

📞 QUO- Business Phone System That Scales With You: Get 20% off your first 3 months. http://quo.com/ownrops

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownerops-spotify⁠

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

💰 Join our Free OWNR OPS Skool Community to grow your local service biz: ➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops

What does it take to buy a 103-year-old business and scale it in today’s competitive home services market?

In this episode, Austin Gray talks with Hardy Farrow, entrepreneur and owner of Longacre Company, a full-service plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and remodeling business.

Hardy previously built and exited multiple companies—and now applies those lessons to operating and growing a multi-division service company.

Hardy shares:

• Why perfection is the enemy of growth (and why 85% is enough)

• Recruiting strategies that actually work (and why “motor” matters most)

• Sequencing problems and prioritization for scaling

• How to balance specialists vs. generalists on your team

• Marketing lessons from B2C funnels, reviews, and Thumbtack ads

• Why location and zip code targeting are underrated growth levers

• Hard-won lessons from cutting new construction and doubling down on residential

  
  

Whether you’re running a service business, building a local brand, or just love hearing how real operators think, Hardy’s insights will help you think differently about growth, hiring, and execution.

👉 Tune in and learn how Hardy scaled a 103-year-old business while staying focused on people, process, and profitability.

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops-spotify

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

📚 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

📈Access my free Blue Collar Growth Training: https://start.ownrops.com

🎓 Join OWNR OPS Skool Group: skool.com/ownrops

In this episode of the OWNR OPS Podcast, I’m sharing an important decision we just made inside Bear Claw Land Services that I believe will change the future of our business.

Over the past three years, we’ve said “yes” to a lot of different work—trees, dirt, foundations, driveways. But after tracking the numbers, analyzing the systems, and watching what’s actually working, we finally made the call to focus on one service and dominate our local market.

If you’re a home service business owner, contractor, or operator who’s trying to grow past that first $100K–$500K in revenue, you’ll want to hear this. I break down:

• Why focus beats being a jack-of-all-trades in the service business.

• Lessons I learned from interviewing 7- and 8-figure contractors on this podcast.

• How systems like Jobber and Go High Level help track leads, quotes, and average job size so you can make smarter business decisions.

• Why optimizing your Google Business Profile and running simple Facebook Ads are the best top-of-funnel strategies for local services.

• What “fire mitigation” is, why we’re focusing on it, and how specialization gives clarity to your marketing, sales, and operations.

• The 80/20 rule in action: how 20% of services usually drive 80% of profits.
  

👉 If you’re early in business, my advice is simple: pick one service, become known for it, and pour gas on that fire.

💰 Join our Free OWNR OPS Skool Community to grow your local service biz: ➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops

How a residential cleaning company hit a $1M+ run rate with production pay.

Owner David Loria (Squeakies Cleaning) explains the exact changes that unlocked growth: moving from 2-person crews to solo cleaners, adopting production pay, targeting 35–40% labor on each job, and pricing toward ~$60/hr effective. 

He also walks through the Made Central stack (and why ~$1,000/mo is a steal) plus the community advantages that come with it.

You’ll learn:

• What convinced David to adopt production pay (and how employees ended up earning more).

• How soloing doubled jobs and halved time on standard cleans.

• The real-world math: example job at $309/4 weeks dropping from ~8 hrs to ~4.

• Tooling & ops: Made Central for payroll, price increases, compliance, and reporting.

• Scale & next plays: about $85K/month run rate, hiring plans, and a new SaaS with 11 paying customers.
  

If you’re growing a service business or optimizing a home-services podcast pipeline, this episode is a masterclass in incentives, pricing, and process.

🔗 Connect with David

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode

🔥We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing.➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops-youtube

📚 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

💰 Join our Free OWNR OPS Skool Community to grow your local service biz: ➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops

AI is revolutionizing sales, customer service, and business operations. In this episode, Austin Gray talks with Nikolas Hulewsky about the latest advancements and how he’s implementing AI in his businesses. 

From automating sales follow-up with AI chatbots to optimizing lead qualification with CRM tools like Go High Level, Nik reveals how small businesses can use AI to save time and increase efficiency.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The future of AI-powered sales and customer service

• How AI tools like Claude and GPT are transforming how we organize and leverage data

• Nick's journey in applying AI to his healthcare accelerator

• Tips for automating lead capture and follow-up to scale your business

🔗 Follow Nikolas on Spotify: Nikonomics

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode 🔥

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

📞 QUO- Business Phone System That Scales With You: Get 20% off your first 3 months. ⁠http://quo.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

What’s holding you back from scaling your service business?

In this episode of the OWNR OPS Podcast, Austin Gray interviews Steven Nash—private equity operator and partner to dozens of HVAC businesses.

Steven shares how he helps business owners go from $800K to $100M+ by solving one bottleneck at a time.

You’ll learn:

• Why small businesses stay small—and how to break through

• How to calculate your exact growth targets using simple math

• The difference between working on vs. in your business

• How systems, SOPs, and hiring checklists unlock freedom

• What founders need to understand about finance and cash flow

• The visionary vs. executor framework: when to pick your lane
  

If you’re a service-based business owner ready to scale with intention and accountability, this is the episode you’ve been waiting for.

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode 🔥

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

📚 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros:

https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

What happens when a college dropout takes massive action—twice a year?

In this episode, Austin Gray talks with Andrew Rampulla, the founder of two seasonal service businesses: a softwash company in New York and a Christmas lights company in Florida.

Andrew shares:

• How he got his first client from a Facebook post

• Why he alternates between NY and FL to maximize revenue

• How he hires and builds systems for repeatable success

• His content & review strategy to attract local leads

• The key mindset shifts that helped him cross 6 figures
  

This episode is a must-listen for anyone building or scaling a local service business—especially if you’re tired of 9-to-5 and want to take control of your calendar.

Listen now and learn how to stack seasons, scale smart, and simplify your hustle.

🔗Follow Andrew on X: @rampulla_andrew

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode 🔥

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownerops-spotify

📚 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

💰 Join our Free OWNR OPS Skool Community to grow your local service biz:

➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops
In this episode of the OWNR OPS Podcast, I sit down with Spencer Claeys, an exterior home service business owner and YouTube creator with over 264,000 subscribers and viral TikTok success.

Spencer shares his journey from starting a roof washing business in Washington to building a loyal online following, all while staying true to what excites him most. We dive deep into content creation, entrepreneurship, and how to avoid being trapped by fear or low-ticket thinking.

This conversation isn’t just about business—it’s about life. We explore the power of flow state, why bigger-ticket services can be a game changer, and how faith and spirituality shape how we work, create, and live.

Inside the episode:

• The moment Spencer quit sales to go all-in on content

• How one viral tweet thread changed everything

• His 4-part content flywheel (and how you can steal it)

• SOPs, editing, and why he still does it all solo

🔗 Follow Spencer Clay on:

X: https://x.com/spencerclaeys

IG: https://www.instagram.com/spencerclaeys/

Get a copy of his book: The Official Roof and Gutter Cleaning Business Blueprint

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode 🔥

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months here:

https://go.getjobber.com/ownerops-spotify

📚 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!

💰 Join our Free OWNR OPS Skool Community to grow your local service biz: ➡️ https://skool.com/ownrops

Austin Gray speaks with Hector Resendez, the mastermind behind Trade School Secrets, a unique platform that helps businesses solve their staffing problems by leveraging trade schools.

Hector reveals how virtual reality is revolutionizing the traditional trade school model, making it faster and more accessible for people to gain certifications.

Hector discusses:

• The benefits of building a virtual trade school in today’s workforce

• How to use the WIOA grant to fund your trade school tuition

• The financial model behind scaling a successful trade school business

• Why trade schools are a game changer for businesses struggling to find skilled talent

  How to position your trade school for an exit and add value to your business
  

  
  

This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, operators, and those interested in the future of education in skilled trades.

Listen in and discover how you can scale a 7-figure trade school business that not only trains but provides long-term career opportunities.

🔥 Mentioned in This Episode🔥

We use Jobber to manage our quoting, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off your first 6 months: https://go.getjobber.com/ownerops-spotify

📚 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker Digital⁠ SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📰 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → ownrops.com/newsletter

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and success stories!