#248 Inside the $150M Operator Playbook: How Sierra Scaled Fast

Summary

Podcast Summary: Owned and Operated – Episode #248

Title: Can AI Really Help Your Business Grow?
Date: October 7, 2025
Host: John Wilson
Guests: RJ McGee (Sierra), Tyson (Avoca)
Location: Live at Pantheon

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, John Wilson is joined by RJ McGee from Sierra and Tyson from Avoca, live at Pantheon, the annual gathering for the ServiceTitan home services community. The main theme explores the role of AI—particularly AI call center technology—in streamlining business operations and accelerating the growth of home service companies, such as those in plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. The discussion dives into practical experiences on multi-location scaling, technology implementation, and change management, sharing actionable insights for operators navigating the rise of AI in the trades.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Landscape: Live from Pantheon

• The hosts and guests reflect on the scale and energy at Pantheon, an industry event, and remark on the value of meeting peers and learning about disruptive technologies, especially AI.
• RJ: “Really, the AI conversation is going to be really interesting… there’s always going to be a lot of disruption. I think it’s going to be good disruption. We’re going to have to figure out how to adjust and adapt and overcome.” [01:44]

---

2. Company Backgrounds & Growth Strategies

• Sierra’s Story:

  • Started in 1987 by RJ’s father.
  • Shifted from new construction to home services in 2014, sold to private equity in 2020.
  • Now operates six companies across five states (Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, two in Tucson, AZ) with ~490 employees.
  • “Since then, we've acquired five additional companies.” [03:19]

• Expansion Philosophy:

  • Focus primarily on the Western Rockies but open to good companies in any geography.
  • Finds local market dynamics (e.g., traffic patterns, metro area sprawl) crucial for service radius and operational planning.
  • “Geography matters some, but it’s not the entire equation.” [04:30]
  • Importance of company fit and adding value through operational support, not gutting processes.

---

3. Shared Services, Centralization, and Change Management

• Centralizing vs. Local Autonomy:

  • Sierra centralizes resources (HR, marketing, tech), but leaves call centers and dispatch local to maintain ownership and accountability at each branch.
  • “If I bring the call center into one location, that’s going to be the first excuse that a GM…” [08:02]
  • Marketing and recruiting are collaborative, with centralized guidance and local execution.

• Change Management:

  • Emphasizes transparency and involving teams early to avoid resistance when introducing tech advancements.
  • “You need to be explaining like, these are the great technology advancements we’re going to help you make so they’re excited about it. If you just go in and just be like, oh by the way, here’s all this AI stuff now, it’ll never work.” [19:08]

---

4. Implementing AI & Technology Across Multiple Locations

• Adopting Avoca’s AI:

  • RJ discusses meeting Tyson and implementing Avoca’s AI call center solution after skepticism about AI agents.
  • Initial negative experiences with generic AI (“customers were screaming ‘human, human, human’” [00:00]) versus Avoca’s rapidly evolving, customizable approach.
  • “Met with Tyson and his team and I was really amazed at how far they had come, what they had built so far.” [00:07]

• Rollout Process:

  • Start with one location (Vegas), optimize, then scale to others in 2–3-week sprints.
  • Centralize tech stack after local accounting and banking integration (Sage Intacct, ADP, then ServiceTitan; Avoca layered on last).
  • “When we do technology on any other location, it's always accounting first... Then we'll do ServiceTitan after that and then once we get the three cores of our tech stack in place, that's when we start to add on the pieces like Avoca.” [10:35]

• Benefits of Avoca’s AI:

  • Reduces missed calls, especially after-hours and overflow.
  • Books calls directly in ServiceTitan for instant dispatch board integration.
  • Removes excuses around staffing shortages and productivity gaps.
  • “They answer 24/7, sound like a real human, and plug straight into your CRM to book jobs…” [07:47]
  • Avoca’s team is highly responsive to feedback, quickly implementing changes and improvements per client requests.

---

5. ServiceTitan Usage and Multi-location Nuances

• Single vs. Multiple Instances:

  • Most multi-location operators run multiple ServiceTitan instances due to differences in shop “language,” processes, and need to avoid cross-location data interference.
  • Standardization consultants (like Maury Christmas) help but local nuances persist.
  • “At the end of the day, each shop to some degree is going to have its own language… it's really hard to take one instance of ServiceTitan and get it to speak the languages of multiple shops.” [16:09]
  • Some operators with highly unified operations use a single instance, especially if they have a centralized call center.

• Change Management in Tech Adoption:

  • “You really have to have a culture of change management... as you're bringing on a new partner, you need to be explaining these are the great technology advancements we're going to help you make so that they're excited about it.” [18:48]

---

6. Looking Ahead: What’s Next for Sierra?

• Continued growth with focus on western states, but open to moving east.
• Maintains unique appeal as a group led by experienced operators with trade backgrounds.
• Aims for acquisitive growth with strong value-add processes and collaborative partnerships.
• “We like to think of ourselves as a little bit different than some of the other portfolio groups that are out there... I think we're just guys you want to go have a beer with and want to talk about trades and how to fix stuff and how to make customers happy.” [19:45]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• AI Pain Points & Breakthroughs:
  • RJ: “Half the time the customers were screaming, human, human, human. Like, get me off of this.” [00:00]
  • Tyson: “Part of what we now do is… help you standardize both at an operational level as well as from a technology perspective. So then it's like, okay, when we start the actual Avoca onboarding, you guys are ready.” [15:46]
• Centralization Resistance:
  • RJ: “If I bring the call center into one location, that’s going to be the first excuse that a GM…” [08:02]
• AI Implementation Success:
  • RJ: “I was really amazed at how far they had come, what they had built so far. He's got an amazing team over there… within like a day or two they were making changes to how the agent was responding.” [13:36]
• Technology Culture:
  • RJ: “We are becoming a technology company. We have to embrace it. Doesn't mean we're getting rid of everyone. We just need to figure out how we optimize for it.” [02:36]
• Why Multiple ServiceTitan Instances:
  • RJ: “At the end of the day, each shop to some degree is going to have its own language within that shop and it's really hard to take one instance of ServiceTitan and get it to speak the languages of multiple shops.” [16:09]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] – Frustrations with AI agents in call centers
• [01:44] – Excitement and disruption from AI at Pantheon
• [03:19] – RJ McGee details Sierra’s growth and acquisition journey
• [08:02] – Centralization of services and local accountability
• [09:12] – Using Avoca’s AI in call centers to improve efficiency
• [10:35] – The staged approach to tech stack rollout in new acquisitions
• [13:36] – Customizing Avoca’s AI to fit Sierra’s needs
• [16:09] – Challenges and rationale behind multiple ServiceTitan instances
• [18:48] – Importance of change management culture
• [19:45] – Sierra’s focus and philosophy for continued growth

---

Closing Details

• RJ welcomes networking and shop tours, best reached via LinkedIn or email (rjmcgee.com). [21:12]
• Tyson is accessible at [e-mail] or through the Avoca website. [21:49]
• The panel emphasizes a collaborative spirit in the trades, helping each other win by embracing technology and operational best practices.

---

To learn more or connect with the guests, visit ownedandoperated.com.

Transcript

[RJ McGee]

We'd been exposed to AI. I had not yet found an agent that even sounded remotely believable. Half the time the customers were screaming, human, human, human. Like, get me off of this. Met with Tyson and his team and I was really amazed at how far they had come, what they had built so far.

[John]

We're about to go multi location in like 31 days or something like that. I'm trying to figure out how I would implement technology across different geographies. Like, how do you think about that?

[RJ McGee]

At the end of the day, each shop to some degree is going to have its own language. And it's really hard to take one instance of search service Titan and get it to speak the languages of multiple shops.

[Tyson]

How developed service Titan is, there's just so many still like configurations. I mean that's, I guess that's why all of these service Titan consultants exist.

[John]

Welcome back to Owned and Operated. Today we're live at Pantheon. I've never done a live one, so this is kind of fun. I'm joined by RJ from Sierra and Tyson from Avoca. Welcome guys to the show.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, thanks for having us.

[Tyson]

Thank you, John.

[John]

Yeah, this, this is, we're in like a hallway, a pantheon. So this is. Yeah, this is kind of fun. We just heard the like, I think Pantheon just opened. This is my first pantheon.

[Dan]

Oh, really?

[Tyson]

Really?

[John]

This is crazy.

[RJ McGee]

It's nuts.

[Tyson]

It's like 6, 000 in the industry for like 20.

[John]

I know, 20. I know. And we've been service like customers for like a decade and I've just never made it out.

[RJ McGee]

It's the event, it's the one.

[John]

Yeah, it, it is pretty crazy. But yes, like 6,000 some people. The vendor floor was fascinating. The food's been good. It's been a ton of fun to like see friends, like, like we know like hundreds of people here. So that's been a lot of fun to just like walk around the hallway and be like, holy shit, what's up dude? Yeah, so it's been cool how. What's your impressions so far?

[RJ McGee]

So far, great event. A lot of great, great information out there. Excited to learn more. Excited to learn about what they're going to bring to the table. Really, the AI conversation is going to be really interesting.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Think it's going to. Cause, you know, there's always going to be a lot of disruption. I think it's going to be good disruption. It's just we're going to have to figure out how to adjust and adapt and overcome.

[John]

Yeah, they sort, they dropped like almost like bundling or something. Their pro products. It sounds like what they're. What they're doing it. It was an interesting talk to, like, watch mainly from, like, how many office managers are in the room and how many, like, CSRs are in the room. And, like, the answer is probably a lot. And I feel like that was. I don't know.

[RJ McGee]

That was my first feedback to. I was sitting next to our coo and I was like, we need to go have a talk with our call center managers and dispatch managers.

[John]

Are they here?

[Dan]

They're here.

[RJ McGee]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

I was like, we need to go and, you know, get them into the fold.

[Dan]

Yeah, get them in the fold.

[RJ McGee]

Just explain that, like, hey, we are becoming a technology company.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

We have to embrace it.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Doesn't mean we're getting rid of everyone. We just need to figure out how we optimize for it.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[John]

Are you still missing calls after hours and losing leads while your team sleeps? Well, that's why we work with Avoca. AI owned and operated is exclusive call center partner. They answer 24, seven, sound like a real human, and plug straight into your CRM to book jobs, send quotes, and even revive old leads. There are plenty of AI call centers out there, but we trust Avoca because we've seen the results firsthand. More book jobs, less wasted spend, and no more missed revenue. See it in action at the link below and start winning more jobs today with Evoca. All right, so you're. Could you give us a little bit of background on Sierra?

[RJ McGee]

Yeah. So Sierra, it's been in business since 1987. Originally, my dad founded the company with his two partners. We were new construction for the longest time. 2014, we branched off into home service, sold in 2020 to private equity, and since then, we've acquired five additional companies. So we've got six companies in our portfolio in five different markets. Got a great team. We have 490 teammates throughout the platform.

[John]

So, dude, just, like, go hire 10 people.

[RJ McGee]

I know. We're right there, man. We're right there. It's. It's been a fun ride. We've got great teammates, so we're just excited for what we're building.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah.

[John]

And six locations. How many states? Five. Five states.

[RJ McGee]

Yep.

[John]

What state has multiple or, like, what states are you in?

[RJ McGee]

We're in Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, and then we have two in Tucson, Arizona.

[Dan]

Okay.

[John]

And when you think about. As you guys think about, like, more acquisition, you're actively acquiring.

[Dan]

Okay.

[John]

As you guys think about more acquisitions, you're all like, west coast, right? Now, like, would you go to, like, Cleveland, Ohio, or would you go to, like, how far east would you go?

[RJ McGee]

First and foremost? Like, I would never say no to a good company. Right. Like, we, We. We look for good companies. Like, geography matters some, but it's not the entire equation.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Our COO of operations and our corporate controller are all in. On the east side of the country. They're in Tennessee and Atlanta.

[John]

Oh, really?

[RJ McGee]

So we have. We have the bandwidth to expand out that way. Yeah, just right now, the focus has been the Western Rockies. We see there's still a lot of great markets. There's Salt Lake, there's Reno. Phoenix is an opportunity.

[John]

So is Portland, like, do we. Is Portland good? Is Portland bad? Like, what do we think?

[RJ McGee]

You know, we. We haven't seen a lot of opportunities up in Portland. Yeah, I.

[Dan]

The.

[RJ McGee]

The business economy isn't necessarily our ideal. Yeah, Avatar.

[John]

Yeah, sure.

[RJ McGee]

It'd be tough if the right company was there. We would definitely go there.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah.

[John]

Something that I didn't appreciate. We started looking for deals, and I feel like you have to see this. And it came to mind when I was thinking about Portland specifically, but we were looking at a deal in Pittsburgh, and I had. Pittsburgh was kind of like a funny city because it's like, big. Pittsburgh's big. Like, top 50 city, millions of people. And there's no one big like. Or there's like one company and they're like $20 million, but there's no, like, you know, winner of Pittsburgh. We started, like, looking around and trying to understand it, and the roads were like the big problem in Pittsburgh, which I would have to imagine that's like Denver or something like that.

[RJ McGee]

Crazy.

[John]

There's Denver and then there's nothing.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, Seattle's very similar. Just like it. The. The metro area is so large compared to Vegas, where I'm used to, which is very condensed, you know, traveling far.

[John]

Like good highways or something.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah. And traveling far, there's not the traffic that you have in, like, Seattle and Denver like in LA. It's just like, for tech there to travel 30 minutes, they're going to complain. Whereas techs in Seattle and in Denver are, like, happy that it calls only 30 minutes away. So it's just that those things, the perception you have to kind of like take into consideration is like, sometimes in those bigger areas, you are we just servicing a. A specific radius.

[Dan]

Yeah, right.

[RJ McGee]

And what. And then within that radius, what does the demographic look like?

[John]

All right, so six locations. When you're thinking about the conversation, I'm thinking About now is like shared services and like, how do we think about combining resources? Sounds like some of that, like corporate controller, cfo, CEO is across all of them.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah. So we, we definitely, we want to, whenever we bring on a partner, we want to make sure we're adding value. Right. And so from an operational standpoint, making sure that we have resources that can help them grow their business, helping them put new processes in place or enhance the processes they already have in place. We're not going into, like completely gut and redo a company. We want to find a partner that we want to work with that has some Runway, they're ready for an exit. They still want to stay involved though. And we can bring in some capital infusion. We've hired some of our previous Nexar coaches, which have a wealth of knowledge. And then, you know, we brought on a director of hr. We have an amazing marketing team. So we bring those resources in with recruiting and that allows us to take some of those multiple caps that an owner will typically wear off so they can focus on like vision and growth.

[John]

Yeah, and you're. And I, I think I heard in all of that call center dispatch, like, you're centralizing some of that, all of that. Like, how do you guys think about that?

[RJ McGee]

So from a call center dispatch standpoint, we want each location to own their own call center. I'm a big believer, like, if I, if I bring the call center into one location, that's going to be the first like, excuse that a GM. Yeah, 100%.

[John]

I think about that with marketing, like, we, we're about to go multi location in like, like 30 or 31 days or something like that. And like my team on one hand, they're like chomping at the bit. They're like, my marketing director's like, all right, let me look. And I'm like, dude, I know the moment we, the moment you glance at their marketing, we own it. And then we've given them all the excuses they need to not hit numbers.

[RJ McGee]

Exactly. So it's a collaboration with marketing. They have to have a dedicated marketing person there.

[Dan]

Okay.

[RJ McGee]

They have to have boots on the ground. We come in, we help, we advise. We, you know, we bring deals to the table. You know, we know how to like M and A. Well, not.

[John]

Or like agency deals.

[RJ McGee]

How to negotiate. Yeah, Most people are just buying off a rate sheet. We teach them how to go and like, develop relationships with, you know, the local television studio, your local radio companies. So we bring some of that in just knowledge on how to like, reduce costs in those areas. But yeah, where we do. Where we do centralize is in, like, technology.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Right. So, like, for instance, like, Avoca has been a great partner for us. They are in all of our locations. We brought them in. We've been very successful from, like, a marketing standpoint. But we did have, like, a conversion issue in the call center.

[John]

Like, convert booking calls.

[RJ McGee]

Yep.

[Dan]

Okay.

[RJ McGee]

Booking calls. Just getting to calls right after hours and then overflow. And so we partner with Avoca. They've been huge on helping us, like, maximize our efficiency within the call centers. And then also taking those excuses away that we were talking about, like, oh, we need more staffing. We need more this and that. It's like, now, here's the tool here. Here's how we optimize the tool. Now let's go and utilize the tool.

[John]

Like, primarily inbound overflow, like nights and weekends.

[RJ McGee]

That's where we started was primarily inbound overflow. And after hours, we now we utilize the agent just as another call center person. Now, like, they take. They take lots of calls for us.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

But they book right into service Titan.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Dispatch gets it on the board right away, and we get it ran.

[John]

That's sweet.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[John]

When you're thinking about. And like, I'm. I'm immensely. I'm 31 days out and I have two locations, and I'm like, I'm trying to figure out how I would implement technology across, like, different geographies. Like, how do you think about that? Like, you stage it 1. You do it all at once. Like, how's the timeline?

[RJ McGee]

Definitely you want to. For us, we. We. When we do technology on any other location, it's always accounting first. We want to go in. We want to make sure we.

[John]

It's accounting first.

[RJ McGee]

Accounting first.

[John]

Okay. What does that mean?

[RJ McGee]

So we want to. If they're not on Sage intact, we're going to get them converted into Sage intact. We want to make sure we gain control of.

[John]

How long does that take?

[RJ McGee]

Usually 90 days. Yeah.

[John]

We're halfway through our stage right now. Yeah, I'm like, I'm happy and sad.

[RJ McGee]

It's. It's. You know, Dan's got a good process. We utilize a third party to help us with that. Baker Tilly. Yeah, but we want to make sure that we get the. The accounting integrated. We get the banking integrated so that we're able to pay attention to it and keep eyes on it. Yeah.

[John]

Okay.

[RJ McGee]

And then after that, we'll Depending if they're on ADP grade. If not, we'll go to ADP Then we'll do Service Titan after that and then once we get the three cores of our tech stack in place and that's when we start to add on the pieces like Avoca and some of the other products that we utilize.

[John]

Are you tired of chasing reviews and watching competitors outrank you on Google? Well, Big Reputation has your back. They're an AI powered review and SEO platform built just for home service businesses. With automated review generation, AI, keyword rich responses and heat map local search tracking, you'll finally get the visibility and reputation you deserve. Plus they integrate with all major CRMs you already use. And the best part, setup is free and your first month is on the house. Book your demo in the description below. Bigreputation AI. Who are you buying that's not on Service Titan now? Like what else have they been on? I mean, I'm assuming you're buying like platform size businesses.

[RJ McGee]

Well, so most of the businesses we bought were not on Serviceitan when we bought it. Really like so out of the six, four of them were not on Serviceitan.

[John]

What were they on?

[RJ McGee]

Various like legacy softwares. All of them had a construction background to them at some point in time. So typically like a legacy construction software.

[John]

That's interesting. Okay, so for Avoca you guys started like a year ago and six locations. How, how did you drive call? Like how did you do that?

[RJ McGee]

Well, met Tyson at Pantheon actually last year.

[John]

All right.

[Tyson]

Hell yeah.

[RJ McGee]

Our CMO and Tyson had a great conversation. Ryan Field. Yeah, Ryan came back and he's like, I got this amazing technology company that you're going to help in the call center. And of course I was skeptical. Just like anyone I. We'd been exposed to AI. It was great. You know, you could tell that like everyone was going that direction. I just, I had not yet like found an agent that even sounded like remotely like believable. Yeah, Half the time the customers were screaming like human, human, human. Like get me off of this. And so anyways, went through all the onboarding, met with Tyson and his team and really just started to like learn more about the product. And I was really amazed at like how far they had come, what they had built so far. He's got an amazing team over there.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

And he was like, tell me what we're doing wrong and tell me what you need to, you need it to do to be better. And it would literally be like we'd have a conversation with him and his team and then within like a day or two they were making changes to how the agent was responding, how the agent was interacting. What we were looking at on the dashboards, how we wanted to see the metrics coming in, how we were booking things in the service side. So it was. It was amazing just because we had a partner that was willing to work with us and enhance that technology at a very rapid rate.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

For the business.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[John]

How did, how you put it into Vegas first and then like, 30 days later? Yeah, same day. Like, how did you drive?

[RJ McGee]

So Vegas, we. We probably. We spent about 90 days really focusing on Vegas and, like, working.

[John]

Working on all the kinks.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, worked out. And then after that, it was literally like two to three week turnarounds at each location with him and his team. It would just be like, okay, we're going to the next one. Because there's a lot you have to do with service Titan as well. You gotta get your service titan set up right. You gotta get your job titan set up right.

[John]

Are they separate management?

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah.

[John]

Are there separate service? Are they separate instances?

[RJ McGee]

Yes.

[John]

Okay. Does it make a difference if, like, it's one instance versus, like, the Enterprise Hub?

[Dan]

There.

[Tyson]

There are some slight differences, but basically, if all the operational processes are the same, it's pretty much a, like a version of copy and paste. Now, the. The difficulties and nuances come when, you know, different tenants have different kind of peculiarities. There's different rules. And so part of what we now do is, you know, work with, you know, companies like RJ's. We actually start and do a bit of assessment. It's like, okay, here you have 20 locations, you have 50 locations. What are all of the differences in each of those locations? How do we first come in and help you standardize both at an operational level as well as from a technology perspective? So then it's like, okay, when we start the actual VOCA onboarding, you guys are ready. And so that's. That's kind of how I think about it.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[John]

This might be like a dumb tactical question, but what is the actual benefit of running? We ran multiple instances for like, two years and then we consolidated it down. Now, granted, the Enterprise Hub just came out. This was like 2021. So, like, it wasn't good. I supposedly it's better now, but, like, why not just run one instance?

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, for. I mean, for us, one, it's multiple shops being in one instance where there's no control from shop to shop, people potentially going in and accidentally messing with somebody else's job. And I understand there's permissions that you can limit within, but at the end of the day, each Shop to some degree is going to have its own language within that shop and it's really hard to take one instance of Service Titan and get it to speak the languages of multiple shops. Yeah, we use. We use a third party consultant, Maury Christmas and she's helped us a ton with. With all of our shops and getting them as standardized as possible.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[RJ McGee]

But even within that like utilizing her and her team with the standardization of job types and skill setting with all the different aspects of the dispatch board, it's still. There's just various nuances that it's really hard to like get them all together in the same.

[Tyson]

Absolutely.

[Dan]

Yeah, I've met.

[Tyson]

I mean even with how develop Service Titan is, there's just so many still like configurations. I mean that's. I guess that's why all these Service Titan consultants exist. Yeah, but yeah, I mean I think. Exactly. And yeah, I think we've worked a bit with Maury as well. So yeah, she's very helpful.

[John]

Like do you have multi state operators that are in one instance?

[Tyson]

Uh, we do. We have a few of those as well.

[John]

But most people multiple.

[Tyson]

Most people do multiple.

[RJ McGee]

If they are in one instance do they typically have a like centralized call center at that point?

[Tyson]

Yes.

[Dan]

Yeah, that would make sense.

[John]

Yeah. That's basically the question like is that if I was multi state in one instance evoke as a. That's a. You roll that out one day for the. Because you don't have a choice. Right. Because it. Well or you could do it by phone number.

[Tyson]

You could do it by phone number. So that's the thing we have really efficient. Quite a few large businesses that use exactly like based on campaign and so when they start a VOCA though they'll start with a few numbers. See that that works well and then proliferate across their campaigns. Okay.

[John]

Yeah, yeah. I'm thinking of like Matt from Kaldad. Eight locations but one instance. Yeah, but it's also. He does that it's a totally different scenario because you're like all these different states. I think he's two states but it's a chain of a highway. So it's like a very shared cap which is really cool. I think like it's interesting. That would probably be like just a one day rollout or phone numbers by the GMB or whatever.

[Tyson]

Exactly, exactly.

[John]

Okay, that. Yeah that makes sense. I would imagine that like a technology change like call center across six locations is kind of a hard. Like that'd be a lot.

[RJ McGee]

It's like to Tyson's point you really have to have a culture of like, change, change management. Like, you have to really have a team that embraces change, wants to figure it out. Yeah. Wants to innovate.

[John]

Figure it out.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah. If, you know, if you think about your traditional old shop, mom and pop shop, it's going to be a lot harder.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[RJ McGee]

It's getting a lot harder. So you really have to, as you're bringing on a new partner, you need to be explaining like, yeah, these are the great tech technology advancements we're going to help you make so that they're excited about it. Because if you just go in and just be like, oh, by the way, here's all this AI stuff now it'll never work because they're just going to resist it all day long.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[John]

What do you think's up next for Sierra? Like, what do you think the next couple years looks like?

[RJ McGee]

You know, we're excited to continue to grow. We think there's, we think it's still a very fragmented market out there. We think that there's a lot of really good partners out there. We, you know, we like to think of ourselves as a little bit different than some of the other like portfolio groups that are out there.

[John]

We're just, you guys are operators. You're real like you grew up in the trades.

[RJ McGee]

Everyone that like works in our business is not like their background is like H vac, plumbing, electrical. They've been former GMs, former operators, former Nexar coaches. So we have a little different, like DNA than some of these other groups. And I think we're just like guys you want to go have a beer with and want to talk about trades and how to fix stuff and how to make customers happy. So we want to continue to grow. We want to continue our growth on the western Rockies side of the states and then we see an opportunity to continue through, you know, the Midwest and across the country.

[John]

So yeah, everyone knows leads are tough to come by, but what if they weren't? Service scalers is the no BS marketing team for contractors and they're running SEO, PPC, LSAs and Google my business campaigns that actually bring in customers, not just clicks. They've delivered consistent leads for me tied to real revenue and they can do the same for you. Sign a 12 month contract and your first month is free. Click the link below to get started. Service killers. No bs, just leads. Cool. Well, thanks for coming on today, guys. This was, this felt like a, this was a lot of fun to have you on. I, I knew I would eventually be able to get you on. It just happened. It had to be a pantheon.

[RJ McGee]

Tyson. Tyson's the man. He can't say no to him.

[Dan]

Awesome. Cool.

[John]

If people want to get a hold of you, how can they find you?

[RJ McGee]

I don't have a Twitter. I think I have a LinkedIn.

[John]

All right, so basically no, my email.

[RJ McGee]

RJ McGee dot com.

[John]

Awesome.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, happy to. Happy to meet with anyone or do a shop tour. Love to come do a shop tour with anyone out there. Like, we love going to visit it. Visiting shops.

[John]

Yeah, we just had you guys out in, like, May or June or.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, I think right before summer. Yeah, right before summer. Yeah.

[John]

That was fun. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, we got a ton of lessons from. From you guys. Dan was great, too. Is he here?

[RJ McGee]

He is.

[John]

Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I gotta. I gotta beat him up a little bit over sage, but, like. Yeah, yeah, it was good. Like, we learned a lot. It was good.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah, it's great. Great partnership. I mean, that's what's so great about the trades. We all want to help each other win.

[Dan]

Yeah. Yeah.

[John]

That's awesome.

[RJ McGee]

Yeah.

[John]

Tyson, people want to get a hold of you. Where can they find you?

[Tyson]

Yeah, hold of me. We can. Yeah, you can feel free to email [e-mail] or just visit our website and get a wonderful demo from one of the wonderful members of our sales team.

[John]

Awesome. All right, thanks, guys. If you like what you heard, make sure you check out owned and operated dot com.