What HVAC Leaders Must Get Right to Win the Talent War

Most business owners say culture matters. Few build their company like it actually does.

In HVAC, plumbing, and construction, culture often gets treated as a soft idea. Something you talk about at meetings but don’t manage day to day. That mindset may work when a company is small, but it fails when you scale.

In this episode of Titans of the Trades, Trey McWilliams explains why company culture isn’t optional if you want growth that lasts. Trey rebuilt his family HVAC business by making culture the foundation, not an afterthought.

His experience exposes a problem many leaders face but rarely admit.

Culture Breaks When the Owner Steps Back

Early on, culture is easy. Everyone knows the owner. Everyone feels connected.

Then the company grows. Service managers get added. Call centers expand. New locations open. The owner gets pulled into fires and financial decisions. The distance between leadership and the front line grows.

That’s when company culture starts to drift.

Trey points out something simple but uncomfortable. Culture always mirrors leadership behavior. If leaders are disengaged, the team feels it. If leaders avoid accountability, the team follows.

You can’t delegate culture and expect it to survive.

The Brand Ambassador Concept Companies Miss

One of the most powerful ideas Trey shares is the role of a brand ambassador. This role isn’t marketing. It isn’t HR. It sits at the intersection of employee experience, customer experience, and internal communication.

The brand ambassador ensures that technicians understand the “why” behind pricing, promotions, and service standards. They also handle employee engagement, recognition, and connection. This matters because technicians sell from belief. If they don’t believe in the company, the customer feels it.

Many companies spend heavily on external marketing while ignoring internal buy-in. Trey argues that external marketing never outperforms internal marketing. If your people aren’t sold, your customers will never be either.

Why Employee Experience Comes Before Customer Experience

Leaders often say, “The customer comes first.”

Trey flips that thinking.

Employees must come first, because customers never have a better experience than the employee delivering it. That means acknowledging real life. Financial stress. Family pressure. Burnout. These issues don’t stay at home when a technician gets in the truck. Ignoring them does not make them disappear. It pushes them into your culture, your turnover, and your reputation.

Trey explains how his company invested in financial education, leadership development, and community involvement to stabilize employees’ lives. The result was loyalty competitors couldn’t match.

Hiring for Attitude Changes Everything

The skilled labor shortage pushes many companies to chase experience at any cost.

Trey took a different path. He hired for attitude, then trained skill. Nearly all frontline employees were homegrown. No bad habits. No baggage. Just clear expectations and real opportunity.

This strategy required one key shift. They stopped recruiting workers. They recruited families. Spouses, parents, and grandparents often see untapped potential long before employers do. That insight changed how they attracted talent in HVAC and plumbing.

The Accountability Wake-Up Call

Growth exposed a hard lesson for Trey. Being generous without accountability damages culture.

As the owner, he could override data and reward people based on emotion. That felt right at the time. Later, it made accountability harder to enforce.

Strong company culture requires clarity. Clear numbers. Clear expectations. Clear consequences. Without financial literacy and accountability below the general manager level, culture weakens fast.

What Leaders Must Prepare for Next

Consolidation is not slowing down. Private equity is not going away. Trey believes this creates opportunity for smaller companies that protect culture. As large groups lose personal connection, talent and customers look for better experiences elsewhere.

Technology and AI will reshape call centers and operations. But leadership, trust, and culture will remain human problems. Leaders who invest in people now will win later.

If you want to scale without losing your identity, this episode will challenge how you lead.

Connect With Trey:

Website: https://www.bluecardinalhomeservices.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bluecardinalhsg

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trey-mcwilliams-161348158/

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