The HVAC Growth Path for Trade Pros Using Creative Videos and Bold Marketing with David Cochran

Summary

Podcast Summary

Overview

Podcast: Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Episode: The HVAC Growth Path for Trade Pros Using Creative Videos and Bold Marketing with David Cochran
Hosts: Tersh Blissett & Josh Crouch
Guest: David Cochran
Date: August 6, 2025

This episode explores how David Cochran, an HVAC business owner, has leveraged creative video marketing and bold, unconventional strategies to drive business growth and culture. The discussion covers David’s journey from launching his company right out of school, the unique challenges and advantages of his path, how he implemented lessons from outside the trade, and the practical steps he’s taken to transform both his marketing and his team’s culture.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. David's Unique Journey Into HVAC Ownership

• Non-Traditional Start:

  • David started his HVAC business right after community college, never working for another HVAC company ([05:28]–[07:30]).
  • Family influence: His stepdad cautioned him that he “wouldn’t be good working for others,” instilling early entrepreneurial drive.

• Advantages and Challenges:

  • Not inheriting bad habits from prior companies (“I guess it was an advantage in a way.” – David, [09:00]).
  • Initially faced age-related skepticism and lack of established credibility.
  • Slow, organic growth (“It’s why it took me 15 years to get to the size I am.” – David, [09:00]).

2. Transition from the Field to Office and Growth Pains

• Letting Go of Field Work:

  • David gradually removed himself from field roles to focus on running the business ([14:13]–[15:27]).
  • Faced customer reluctance: clients requested him personally, but as the team proved themselves, this faded.

• Automation and Delegation:

  • Emphasized the need to automate and delegate recurring tasks.
  • “If there’s anything that you do more than twice in one week, you gotta optimize it, automate it, and then delegate it.” – Tersh ([14:41])

3. Bold Marketing & Creative Videos

• Key Influences and Creative Inspiration:

  • Inspired by Jesse Cole (Savannah Bananas): “Do the exact opposite of whatever’s normal.” ([03:35])
  • Modeled playful customer interactions and creative content after Savannah Bananas’ attention-grabbing style.

• Notable Video Campaigns:

  • “Congratulations” Video for New Customers ([20:07])
    • Features funny, over-the-top scenes (installers doing “Mr. Miyagi karate stuff,” security guarding AC unit).
    • “It’s like 30 seconds long and it’s just funny... But it gets the same message across.” – David ([21:03])

• Parody Videos:

  • Recreated classics like “Terry Tate Office Linebacker,” “Say Anything,” and even a 300-spoof for the trades ([32:19]–[33:31]).
  • Videos serve dual purposes: engaging existing customers and attracting new ones through viral humor.

• The Importance of Creative Team Members:

  • Brought on “Jimmy,” a creatively-minded employee, to push the boundaries of video and social media ([28:33]–[31:01]).
  • “I am not an artistic type person... so I needed somebody to be thinking even further.” – David ([28:33])

• Radio and Music Marketing:

  • Created genre-specific jingles (rock, yacht rock, country) and an original song, “Red, White and Blue in the Drive,” with a music video launching soon ([33:41]–[35:59]).

4. Team Engagement & Culture

• Team Participation in Marketing:

  • Team members now excited to participate in videos—initial reluctance gives way when they see others having fun ([37:49]).
  • Emphasis: Don’t force participation, but foster a positive, creative environment.

• Impact on Culture:

  • The video projects and creativity foster team camaraderie and help attract and retain talent.

• Delegation and Elevation:

  • Delegated and elevated team members to roles that match their strengths, not just necessity ([44:27]-[45:33]).
  • “If you constantly are…finding things that someone’s really not that good at, but they just do anyway… you can unlock potential.” – Josh ([44:40])

5. Takeaways on Events, Learning, and Implementation

• Learning from Beyond HVAC:

  • Huge value in attending industry events and learning from speakers outside the trade ([24:52], [26:41]).
  • Emphasis on implementation: “If you want to get something out of it and come back and implement immediately, you will get a ton of value.” – Josh ([24:06])

• The Power of Peer Networks:

  • Importance of owner-to-owner conversations at events like BDR, Spark, and AHR ([25:24], [26:18]).
  • Advice to leverage national networks rather than relying on local/familial feedback.

• Actionable Advice to Trade Pros:

  • “Just do it. Just go for it…You’re never going to have 100% of your time.” – David ([41:36])
  • “You have to find a way to stand out…There’s a lot of different ideas we can bring into the trades.” – Josh ([41:09])
  • Don’t be afraid to “swipe and deploy” creative ideas from HVAC companies in different markets.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I’ve never worked for another HVAC company... I probably needed to work for myself.”
  – David Cochran ([05:58])

• “If there’s anything you do more than twice in one week, you gotta optimize it, automate it, and then delegate it.”
  – Tersh Blissett ([14:41])

• On customer engagement:

  • “Every time somebody buys from us now, we send them…this little video... it’s just funny. But I got that from [Jesse Cole].”
    – David Cochran ([20:07])

• On event takeaways:

  • “There’s a nugget, at least one nugget, at every one of them I’ve ever been to.”
    – David Cochran ([41:36], [42:27])

• On team culture & content:

  • “We’re kind of just open…we just have, like, several ideas of things we want to record and do.”
    – David Cochran ([36:58])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:13 | Meet David Cochran, intro to his approach | | 05:28 | David’s origin story: Starting HVAC right out of school | | 08:02 | Pros/cons of never having worked at another HVAC company | | 12:05 | Biggest pain points: age, credibility, growth | | 14:13 | Transitioning out of field (letting go of hands-on work) | | 14:41 | The importance of automation and delegation | | 15:08 | Challenges with client expectations during transition | | 19:13 | Where creative videos started: inspiration from Savannah Bananas & Jesse Cole | | 20:07 | “Congratulations” video details and customer reactions | | 26:18 | Importance of peer networks, conferences, and implementation | | 28:33 | Bringing on creative help: Jimmy’s impact | | 33:41 | Radio jingles, custom song in the works | | 36:30 | The growing pile of creative ideas | | 37:12 | Team involvement and effects on company culture | | 41:09 | Takeaways for other business owners; inspiration, standing out| | 44:27 | “Delegate and elevate” team growth strategy | | 45:33 | The ongoing challenge and learning curve of scaling |

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Conclusion & Final Advice

• Stand Out by Being Different:
  Disrupt normal expectations with creative, bold marketing—especially video—and customer interactions.
• Leverage Your Team:
  Hire for creativity, elevate people into roles that maximize their talents, and foster a collaborative environment.
• Learn and Implement:
  Attend events, embrace new ideas (even from outside trades), and be willing to actually act on what you learn.
• Iterate and Prepare for Growth:
  Delegate repetitive tasks, set yourself up structurally for upcoming waves of business, and continually push forward.

Follow David and Complete Comfort:
Links shared in episode notes—follow their social channels for more ideas and to see forthcoming creative campaigns!

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For questions or to dive deeper, connect with David via his social links or reach out to hosts Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch.

Transcript

[David Cochran]

Every time somebody buys from us now, we send them in. Text this link to this little video and it's me sitting at the desk starting out and it goes, you know, congratulations on your new system. And then it says, you know, our installation team is rigorously preparing a plan and it shows like one of our installers doing like Mr. Miyagi karate stuff. And then it shows, it says your system is stored in a climate control warehouse.

[Podcast Narrator]

Are you looking for valuable business advice to reach that seven figure revenue newmark? Do you want actionable tips to properly navigate through every business challenge you encounter along the way? Let Tersh Plissett and Josh Crouch be your guide in getting you to the top here at Service Business Mastery. Tune in as they sit down with world renowned authors in business leadership and personal growth who share valuable insights about management, marketing, pricing, human resources and so much more. Let their nuggets of wisdom goals guide you in owning a thriving, profitable and ever growing business business. Here are your hosts, Ter and Josh.

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[Tersh Plissett]

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[Tersh Plissett]

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[Tersh Plissett]

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[Josh Crouch]

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[Tersh Plissett]

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[David Cochran]

Hope you're having a wonderful day.

[Tersh Plissett]

You're listening to or watching Service Business Mastery Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Tersh Plicit, sitting virtually next to my co host Joshua Crouch. And we have David Cochran on the show today. And I'm excited about this because we met, it's been a couple years ago now when we originally met in Savannah. Is that right, David?

[David Cochran]

Yep, that's correct.

[Tersh Plissett]

And it was at a BDR event. One of the things that has really stood out with me is the implementation that David does. And so we had the pleasure of listening to Jesse Cole with the Savannah Bananas present at that event, at the BDR event in Savannah. And one of the things that Jesse really harps on and I really took to heart was, you know, whatever's normal, do the exact opposite. That's why whenever I'm doing air conditioning, I'm typically wearing a three piece suit and like it's just not normal which makes things stand out. And David kind of wrote that down and took it to heart and has done some really awesome things when it comes to the video marketing world. And so I'm excited to see or to talk with David and share some of the things that's worked for him when it comes to marketing and growing the company and just going through the whole journey, the good, bad and the ugly, what the pain points that you've gone through, David, and how you've overcome some of that as well. Josh, you got anything to add for you?

[Josh Crouch]

No, I think you summed it up pretty well. I'm excited to watch some of these. We're actually going to share some videos during this. So if you are listening to this, make sure you also go on to the YouTube or the, the section where we play those because we want to try to give you some examples and some ideas on some, some different creative things. And we're going to kind of talk through that process of like how David and his team figure out what videos to put out because I think that's a, that's a big challenge in the trades is, you know, we see, we've had Derek Cormier on the show. He does a great job with his, his content online and people Like, I, you know, they either think they're not creative enough or they, you know, some of this stuff just doesn't come naturally to them. And they think, well, I'll never be able to do that. And so we'll dive into some of that stuff today.

[Tersh Plissett]

Share your story. Like how you got to where you're at right now.

[David Cochran]

I guess the short of that would be, I went to school right out of high school. You know, my stepdaddy's always like, you need to work for yourself. You're not gonna do no good working for anybody else. So I'm like, all right. So I actually started, you know, you.

[Josh Crouch]

Were going to be a shitty employee or what?

[David Cochran]

I mean, I don't know if that's his version of it, because he's really soft about it, but. But probably basically that's what he meant. Yes. He's like.

[Josh Crouch]

He's like, I know you work for yourself, somebody else.

[David Cochran]

That's the way I took it. And. But it's okay that it's that way, because it's true. But. So obviously, I had jobs right out of high school. I had a couple jobs, and I was going to a local community college. We have an H Vac program. My mom and stepdad, we kind of gathered up some tools and things as I was going through that program, knowing what we were going to do to gear up to get this started. And then right out of that, my stepdad, he was a maintenance manager at a local hospital, and a guy that came to work for them didn't last very long because he'd worked for himself doing H Vac for so many years. And so Tommy put us together, and Bob was his name, Bob Stiltner. And he really showed me how to make duct work, showed me how to install systems. You know, it's really just took me under his wing, if you will. And that was a big way to get started. But I knew early, early on that I wanted to do this. I went to the community college to take electrical, and in my first week, a friend of mine from high school was taking the H Vac class. And so I switched over to that real quickly. They actually had an opening, so I switched over. That's where that kind of got started right out of school. Hit the ground running right out of Never. I've never worked for another H Vac company. I've only had. I worked for Penske washing trucks while I was in college, and I worked for UPS at night unloading trucks. And then I had a quick job as a maintenance guy and I knew real quick I didn't want to use my degree to do building maintenance because I would end up changing light bulbs and rearranging offices. I had a good manager. So to Tommy's point, I got fired from that job. So that's your stepdad? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, back to his point, I probably needed to work for myself. So, um, I got fired and I. And that was pretty much it. Once I got fired, it was like I was about done with school anyways, and that was. It was just time to get the ball rolling. Right. So, yeah, I started. It's been almost 15 years ago, which is mind blowing.

[Tersh Plissett]

Now, how do you think it has affected business and even like, the technical side of things, not having worked for another H Vac company. So, like, you, you don't really have a whole lot to compare it to. But also, in my opinion, you don't have a ton of bad habits that you have to you. Like, you realize, okay, we shouldn't. Yeah, other than your own. But then, like, because you weren't a technician for 15 years before you started your own business, I feel like it's. It's not the same effect as if you were. Because I'm not saying, you know, you don't get in a truck or anything like that, but it's. There are times where, like, if you've done air conditioning for a long time beforehand, like, if you. If you've been the. The technician, it's real easy to get back in the van and, like, don't get out your own way, you know? I mean, does that make sense?

[David Cochran]

Oh, yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

You feel like you. It was beneficial or did.

[David Cochran]

Was it so to your point? Yes, I think so. It's hard to say, right? Because like you said, I don't really have that comparison. So to meet other guys, talk to other guys. It's funny, I didn't even think about this until recently. I think it was my Mitsubishi rep, Cody Walden. I think he was the one. He's like, you're the only contractor that I have that didn't work somewhere else ever, you know? And so I'm like, you know, I never thought of that before. I didn't even realize that. I didn't even think of that. That most people cut their teeth somewhere. You know, I mean, it's natural, it's common. Rather did make me think this way. Like, well, I wonder what did I miss out on? Or possibly what are just the advantages of that? What about the fact that I didn't have anybody that's taught me this way or that way? Yes, don't do this. Yes, do that. I had Bob, you know, but I, I kind of think it was an advantage in a way. I also think it's why it took me 15 years to get to the size that I am potentially. You know, also maybe the fact that I didn't have $2 million.

[Josh Crouch]

But just like being a tech that works somewhere for years and starts her own business, they might have a different perspective. But to Tersh's point, like, you know, it's hard to hang up the tools for good when, you know, you can go out and do a service call when you're, when you're really good and really efficient. And sometimes the guys that are tech turned owners, they love doing that stuff. They almost rather do that than the business stuff because it gives them more gratification. They kind of feel like that superhero cape is on. Especially if it's like, you know, little old lady that it's 80 years old, needs your system fit. You feel it kind of like, like a superhero type complex. Because I remember our guys would talk about that. I'm, I'm the same as you. Like the, the companies that I manage and ran, I was never a tech. I had to rely on them exclusively. And I'm not even a handy person. As Tertian, my wife will tell every single person that they know as much, as often as.

[David Cochran]

As often as I can, as often.

[Josh Crouch]

As possible, and as many times as he can in one conversation.

[David Cochran]

So that was the thing, the, the thing about it starting on my. It was just me. So, like, at first you don't have a lot of work, so it's not that hard. You know, I'm answering the phones, I'm running that service call, I'm scheduling that install. You have a little bit of help, you find. It's. It's one thing about it now it's a little different finding help today than it was then because, you know, then come to work for me and it was like, we're meeting up at my house, you know, I mean, I said it's like you didn't have any kind of thing behind you. You're new, nobody knows you, they don't want to work for you, they don't want to work with you, you know, so it was a little bit difficult at first, getting a little bit of help. And then that just slowly came along the way. And I've, I've got a killer team. The best, some of the best, especially in our area, you know, all around. I mean, that's Our office folks, our field folks, everybody, they're. They're awesome. So I can't brag on them enough.

[Tersh Plissett]

What would you think? I know that you haven't experienced everybody else's pain points, but what, what would you say is. Was your biggest pain point, getting from where you were to where you are now? Because at one point you, you were like a mechanical company, right? Like a. Mainly commercial or.

[David Cochran]

The funny thing is our name definitely was, but it was like a whole nother division, right. That I actually never really did anything with. I was always over here doing residential H vac and like commercial. And there was this going on on the side and that was more of my stepdad's thing. And so my mom and them were kind of managing that and dealing with that. And it would be on and off sometimes, sometimes they would have projects going and sometimes wouldn't be anything going on for a while. So I didn't get to experience that as much as far as pain points go for me, being as though I started right out of school, you know, I only went to a two year school, so my age was a huge thing for a while because I was very young, so I had that also against me.

[Tersh Plissett]

They didn't take you serious?

[David Cochran]

Absolutely no name behind me. You know, I didn't have very fancy, nice vehicles and lots of good tools or anything like that. So my parents ended up helping me out, my mom and stepdad with a truck. We had a 04F250. It's 15 years ago, so it wasn't exactly too old of a truck. I've got some old pictures that we've been looking back on recently and it's kind of neat. Our first service vehicle was a T100 with a like bed cap on it with some old openings on the sides. You know, you look back at that and you're like, man, that's what we used to look like, you know, like. But it's all right. I mean. And so you got to also look back and say that all the customers that I have and the relationships that I built from that time in business, if they're still loving me today. And those people, I have some real respect for those people because they really took a chance on us, you know, I feel like they took a chance. I'm now older, a little more mature, and I'm like, if I was little. Yeah, yeah, just a little maybe. I'm like, if I was them. Yeah. So I, it's. That changed my perspective a little bit.

[Tersh Plissett]

Are you completely out of the field? Or are you still in the field?

[David Cochran]

Majority, yes. I mean, so you're talking like, I might go out with some job site visit type stuff, but as far as to say that I'm running calls every. With these guys, or actually going out and running installs or anything like that, that is not the case. No. And I've. The only main reason is I've found that it's just when I'm in my office, I can't, I'm so busy. There's just a lot more to do here than I ever realized.

[Tersh Plissett]

You can stay busy doing busy work too, but if there's anything that you do more than twice in one week, you gotta optimize it, automate it, and then delegate it.

[David Cochran]

That's what we do.

[Tersh Plissett]

So we talk about all the time, man. Automation is, is key for those, those repetitive tasks that keep you busy.

[Josh Crouch]

All like, because they burn you out. He knows the words you don't want to do. It's like, oh, I got to do this again for the 30th time. Like, it's not fun.

[David Cochran]

Yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

Did you notice a transition, like when you transitioned from the field to the office, did you notice issues with clients who had seen you in the past and they're like, hey, I need David out here. I. I don't want this new tech. They don't know what they're doing. I want David.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, it's been a little while, of course, but it's definitely been a thing. Like, I mean, just because it was me, right? You know, it was me. I mean, when you called, you talked to me. So for sure, for a solid several years, seven to eight years, something like that. Definitely. Because Eric, that works in our office now, that answers the phones and does a lot of the dispatching and ordering and wears a lot of hats. He could tell you for sure when he first was answering phones, you know, I mean, it just took a while to get the customer base to the point that it wasn't me, you know, so definitely. I don't think anybody, like, necessarily dropped us because of it. They were like, well, if David don't come out here, I'm not, you know, I'm not dealing with you guys. But even family members, I mean, you know, it just comes to a point where it's tough to even go help your sisters. And, you know, then your, your employees are helping your family members. And so it's, it's tough.

[Tersh Plissett]

It's funny, my grandma's like that young guy, that young fella who came over here Last week, I'll be at Sunday dinner with them. And they're like, that young fella, he said something. I don't remember what it was. He. I just told him I'd ask you whenever I seen you at Sunday dinner. And I was like, grandma, he's here. He has the parts to fix your.

[David Cochran]

Your stuff.

[Tersh Plissett]

Don't wait till Sunday and then expect me to come over here at dinner time.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, it was something simple, I'm sure, you know. Oh, yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

I mean, and he did. He's like, hey, she just needs a thermostat on her. In her bedroom air conditioning unit. I'm like, you're like, just go on there.

[David Cochran]

Like, why?

[Josh Crouch]

You shouldn't even be asking me.

[David Cochran]

This is exactly.

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah, it is hard, though, because, like, I struggle with that. When I. I used to do sales for Relentless and then transitioned into not doing sales. But a lot of everyone reaches out to me on social media, and then they're like, well, I want to talk to you. And I'm like, I understand, but I don't have enough time in my day to talk to every single person that wants me to talk to them. And it gets easier with time. I think of, like, messaging, because you just don't care. It's like, no, you're gonna go on the count. Here's the calendar you're gonna book.

[Tersh Plissett]

Let's be honest, too. Nobody really wants to talk to Josh once they've talked to him.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, that's what it is.

[Josh Crouch]

You're just jaded because you talk to me every day.

[David Cochran]

Day. Every day. So maybe that's a terse thing. I don't know.

[Josh Crouch]

That's definitely a church thing. That's why the podcast episodes that he's not on are, like, the best ones, because.

[Tersh Plissett]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Crouch]

We don't have to deal with his nonsense and shenanigans.

[David Cochran]

The views and listens are higher on those.

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah, it seems that way. I don't know. At least it looked that way to me.

[David Cochran]

I mean, data doesn't lie. Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

Speaking of data.

[Tersh Plissett]

Couldn't read a spreadsheet to save his life.

[Josh Crouch]

ChatGPT does that for me.

[David Cochran]

True.

[Josh Crouch]

Speaking of data, you kind of open the door here because we, you know, the.

[David Cochran]

The.

[Josh Crouch]

The main gist of what we want to talk about is creative marketing solutions and growing smart. And you've really kind of taken to this in a. In a different way with your social media content. I'd love to kind of dive into what your process. Like, how did it become where you guys started making these, like, funny spoof type videos. You mentioned that you've made a series about, like, if people remember, if they're old enough to remember, like, the Derek Tate office linebacker type videos. You guys have remade those for the trades and stuff, which I think is hilarious. Well, but still, if people remember those, they're gonna be like, they'll get a kick out of it because they. It's that nostalgia. It's like. Because as soon as you said it to me before we record, I'm like, oh, man, those are funny. So I want. I literally went in your tick tock. Like, I'm gonna go watch these.

[David Cochran]

So, I mean, really, it happened. Started with Jesse Savannah Bananas, the speech, you know, I was like, I knew I wanted to do something different. I loved. I watched a lot of their stuff after that. I think it was so neat how they interview their players. It was funny, right? Like, I remember a video where after. I don't know if it's after practice or a game, the guy was in, like, one of those troughs with ice. Then the guy that was interviewing it was in his suit in another trough in the ice, like, taking an ice bath, talking. They were talking back and forth. There was some shower scene where the guy was, like, washing up after practice, you know, and the guy's in the suit, interviewing him in the shower. Like, you know, I was like, man, this is funny stuff, you know, and the things they do in the games. I'll tell you one, one fast takeaway that I loved because Jesse shared the video in that speech was the thank you for your order video, Right?

[Tersh Plissett]

Oh, yeah.

[David Cochran]

So I forget how they worded it. We made one, and I meant to send it to you. I still could send it to you. We. Every time somebody buys from us now, we send them in text this link to this little video, and it's me sitting at the desk starting out. And it goes, you know, congratulations on your new system. And then it says, you know, our installation team is rigorously preparing a plan. And it shows, like, one of our installers doing, like, Mr. Miyagi karate stuff. And then it show. It says, your system is stored in a climate control warehouse. And it's like me wheeling it into the warehouse. And then two of them pull the door. They pull the door down. And two of my guys are in, like, earpieces and glasses, and they're standing outside like this, like, guarding the door.

[Josh Crouch]

Almost like bouncers.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, yeah. And, like, it shows us in the office. We. We make everybody a leather bound book that has all their manuals and invoices and receipts and everything in it when they buy from us. So it showed us like we open that book in my office and we have this sheet in there that says comfortable or uncomfortable. And we circle comfortable and look at each other and go, yeah. You know, it's just, it's, it's like 30 seconds long and it's just funny. But I got that from him. I'm like, man, that is a cool thing. You know, like it doesn't have to be so cheesy of just hey, thanks for buying from us. We'll see you soon. It was more like just funny throughout the video, but it gets the same message across.

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[Josh Crouch]

I feel like what's wild about that is, you know, VR usually has very well attended events when they go there, but very few people, when they hear these keynote speakers or these breakout presenters implement in the, in the, in the topic. And I see this every time, especially around spring and fall and trade show season picks up and maybe Tertia and I just noticed this because everyone talks about are they, are they even worth going to anymore? There's so many of them and I'm like, it's always what you bring to it and what you want to get out of it. If you're, if you want to get something out of it and you're going to come back and implement immediately, you will get a ton of value from hearing people like Jesse, like you're not going to see him in all these trades events. So when you get a chance to see someone like that, we, I think the one this last year in Colorado was, I can't remember the guy's name.

[David Cochran]

He had a really cool story from them too. Yeah, you talking about the funny guy who did the marathon that nobody ever actually ran?

[Josh Crouch]

Yes, yes, yes.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, I remember his name. I got some good. He was talking about if you watch my Terry Tate remake. At the very beginning I was like, I'm a big fan of thinking inside the box because that's what he said. He's like, I'm an inside the box thinker. So I thought that was easy.

[Tersh Plissett]

The one of the great points that he made is it's easy to think outside the box. People, people use that as like a badge of honor to think outside the box. But how can you think differently inside the box?

[David Cochran]

So no to your point, Josh? Absolutely. I mean that's my thing. Like I have for years now. I go to Things. Any of these events that I can. I'll tell you. And maybe it's because of what we were talking about before, about the fact that I don't have previous experience with other companies. I always learned the most. I loved early on that train because I've been a train dealer for years. They would have their trainings and they would do sometimes like I would get to meet other owners. That's why I gravitated to BDR a lot too, because especially Spark. Spark's like as an owner of a company that's like your safe zone, you can go to Spark and you can talk about all the stuff you want to. You know, you can get into all the nitty gritty, all the stuff that's.

[Josh Crouch]

Hard to have conversation in your local network and with your team because some, some things you want to talk that are like owner, owner, founder level.

[David Cochran]

Yeah. And, and usually you're sharing that with other people who have probably experienced the same thing or are about to. And so you can kind of swap knowledge a little bit there. So for me, I would always gravitate towards other owners and especially the ones who were willing to talk and listen and try to implement from their mistakes, you know, to avoid as many of my own mistakes.

[Tersh Plissett]

Why not use your. That network and it's a national, international network of contractors that you can use and learn from their mistakes, like you said. And, and to Josh's point, it sucks that Josh made a good point, but he made an okay point. And the fact that like when we're at home, we're at a family reunion, unless you have a family member who owns a business, like I have an uncle who owns a fence company and it's easy for him and I to go off and start talking business. I have a cousin of mine who has an industrial painting company and it's really easy for us to talk business when we go to a family reunion. And. But other than that, it's like people, they can't relate to you the same way as, as other business owners can. So. Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's a great reason to go to those.

[Josh Crouch]

You get out of that busyness that we alluded to earlier. You're not, you're not sitting here with a bunch of things. Like, you know, we're sitting, like when church and I have a meeting. So you got slack, you got your email. Like you just got all the things. Everything's right here. It's, it's super easy.

[Tersh Plissett]

Somebody had a problem with.

[David Cochran]

Yep. Somebody's reaching out to you. About something.

[Tersh Plissett]

And I'm over here building out the automation while they're talking in the meeting. I'm like, yeah, I hear you.

[Josh Crouch]

That's why you never hear me. Yeah, automate yourself so you don't have to talk to me anymore.

[David Cochran]

So is this right?

[Josh Crouch]

Someone poke up Julie. Julie, if you hear me, poke him real quick.

[David Cochran]

That's right. Wake him up. To go back to your original thing was like, that was where it kind of started, right? Was with Jesse and those ideas and just sort of running with that, doing the opposite of normal.

[Josh Crouch]

Was there, like, one thing that you like right away? You're like, I mean, how quickly did you guys start changing your marketing process and what you guys were doing?

[David Cochran]

When did we go Savannah Terse? That's been a year and a half ago. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it's probably. It probably took almost a year to get to the point that I was, you know. So one thing was finding somebody to help figure out somebody creative. All right. I'm not a artistic type person, and so I am religious. And it's just the. I was on Facebook one day and, you know, I've had this on my mind. I knew what we wanted to do. I'd been working with my media guys to shoot some of these videos, right? But I had ideas and things that we needed to do now. And I'm like, but even I needed to have somebody to be thinking even further than that. And a guy that I'd known for years back when I first started my company, I met him just as an acquaintance, rather. And so Jimmy is his name. He was in the car business. He was selling cars for that whole time. I liked Jimmy for this because Jimmy created his own brand in the car world as the Sasquatch. You know, he's like, come buy a car off the Sasquatch. And he would post videos on Facebook and they would always be doing neat stuff. Right? Jimmy's creative. It's funny, he just. That type of guy, I guess. You know, he's just got that monster. He sings. He's fun to. To do things like that with. So Jimmy puts up on Facebook and says something along the lines of, you know, I'm a free agent on the market, looking for a job, looking for something more. Monday through Friday, I immediately sent him a message, said, hey, man, we need to talk. You know, so you finally read who.

[Josh Crouch]

To match up with your ideas.

[David Cochran]

That's 100, correct? Yeah, 100. Because let's go back. You know, allude to the fact that in my position, it Would be very difficult to do the things that Jimmy can do and do all the things that I need to do. Right. So it's like a catch 22 if. And. And I'm not as creative as Jimmy anyways, so. But if I was to try to do what I need Jimmy to do, then I'm taking away from something over here. So I felt like I really needed somebody, and I really felt like he just fell right into place at the right time. And so that's what really got us started. So he was kind of. To start. He was doing stuff in the office and helping with the social media stuff. We've just brought on Amber, a new girl, and she is going to be taking over things that he was doing in the office and some of what my wife does. And we're turning Jimmy loose, if you will.

[Josh Crouch]

And this is one you guys are working on. It's not live, right?

[David Cochran]

It's not live. Our media guys came down, helped us record this. So this one. This was an idea that actually the Dan the video guy had. He's been wanting to do this for years, so please go ahead and share. That's my 63 Econoline, by the way. It's my. I bought that thing a few years ago. It's three speed on the column, runs and drives. Say Douglas. That's right. That's awesome.

[Tersh Plissett]

How heavy. How heavy did that thing get?

[David Cochran]

All right. So my Mitsubishi guy hooked me up. That thing is empty. Okay. That head unit is a plastic shell with a metal back on it. So he gave us that and an outdoor unit that's empty to. To do these videos with. It's perfect. Okay. Because to your point, I had to stand there and hold that thing forever.

[Tersh Plissett]

Just hold your hands above your head that long?

[David Cochran]

Yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

All right, here's a. Here's a.

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[Tersh Plissett]

Last one here we got.

[David Cochran]

This is my favorite one of them.

[Josh Crouch]

This is the one you told me about.

[David Cochran]

So this particular scene of me alludes to another video that we've made that's not out yet. It's about the scene from. Well, I'll share in a minute.

[Josh Crouch]

That's great.

[David Cochran]

So we shot a. And I. I didn't share it yet, but we shot a scene. So it's from 300. It's where the guy, like, he's talking to rally and everybody in his community and he, like, says, we are Sparta and kicks that guy off in a hole. We did one with a unit. We did one with an outdoor unit. So.

[Josh Crouch]

So at this point, like, inspiration for Your videos and content is coming from.

[David Cochran]

Literally all kinds of the places, man. I mean, that 300 video has been in talk for a long time. You know, the say Anything video. Dan. So we have a media group called Comfort Media Group that we've. I've worked with for a little while now, a couple years at least. And they do a lot of the social media, a lot of background stuff. They. They do a lot of our social media posts, pretty much all of them except for the videos that we do and some little things that we're doing now. But they do our emails and a lot of our website stuff and background stuff. But they also came out and helped us shoot some of those videos. And I met them through Mike Capuchio, who does. Used to own netr. But anyway, so some of those then Jimmy's brought a lot of inspiration. I've had some of the ideas, you know, we're just kind of like open.

[Josh Crouch]

To, I guess now watching TV and movies is like, yeah, how can I.

[David Cochran]

Make that an H vac scene? Yeah, how can I turn that into.

[Josh Crouch]

That's what I'm thinking.

[David Cochran]

That's what we see, you know, and so little sneak peek is we. I sent you some radio tracks that we recorded too, or our ads, rather. They're little jingles, we call them. And to have fun with it, we went to Audio Aces in Bristol. It's a recording studio. Name's Matt Smile. Used me in a band, but he's got his own recording studio. And so we're like, hey, we want to record our radio jingles. Instead of just going to the radio station, I want to do something like right here in the studio. So we recorded a rock version, a yacht rock version and a country version to start so we could play on like the country station. The. Like we have like a Delilah station. It's yacht rock, I guess, if you know what it is. You know, it's like real low and slow music. And then we have like the rock, you know, like AC DC style. So that's where we started. And it was fun. I mean, it was so fun. Jimmy did a lot of the singing because Jimmy's a singer, Matt Smile. All the music was recorded live right there in front of us, every piece individually. He recorded all that. So it wasn't AI derived or anything. It was all just Jimmy Hill wrote everything. And that's how we did it. And then I'm like, I want a song. I want a literal song that's a complete comfort song. So we wrote a song. Jimmy mostly wrote the Lyrics. We sat down, he wrote everything up. We looked over it changed, like, three words in it. No big deal. And we went down there and laid down that it took a whole day to do all the music with it, pretty much. But so then we wrote a song, and we decided we want to do a music video to that song. So we are now recording a music video for this song here this month, and it will be live. This song will be on Spotify itunes. It'll be everywhere. Middle first of July, like July 6th or 7th. So I would love to share it with you, but we are keeping that really tight to the chest because we want that to be blown out there when we get it out there. But it's a lot of fun. I'll tell you the name of the song. It's called Red, White and Blue in the Drive. And it's by Dave and the boys is what we named the band. So if you noticed in the video, all of our vehicles are kind of American flag themed, so that's where we kind of got.

[Tersh Plissett]

I love the location of your shop, too.

[David Cochran]

All right. On the interstate, like that Great spot. Yeah. Ironically enough, two exits south from here where I started at. I own seven acres down there. And as part of our growth. Funny, it's right on the interstate. We're going to be building another shop up there hopefully soon, because we're outgrowing this one. So we'll still be on the interstate, just on. On down the road a little bit. So there you go. That's cool. Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

You get inspiration from all these places now for all these different ideas. And I'm sure you guys got ideas that kind of piled up, right? Like, just things are like, oh, someday we're going to do this. Thank you to companycam for supporting today's episode.

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[David Cochran]

Yeah, so we have Jimmy. Every now and then, I'll just. He'll just kind of spit out scripts, right? Not really, because we're not too scripted. We like to try to be loose with the. Especially the just short, funny stuff. But, you know, we just have, like, several ideas of things we want to record and do.

[Josh Crouch]

What is that done? You know, getting the team involved in the videos. Like, I watched a couple of the ones where I think it was Jimmy was trying to do. He was talking about splits and trying to do the splits.

[David Cochran]

That was fun. Yeah, that was back before Christmas. He's like, what if I did a mini split?

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, what is that? What is that done for your, you know, team and culture and things like that? Because that's a question I've always meant to ask, like, Derek Cormier, because I, I talked to him fairly, you know, often enough and we've had him on the show, but I don't think I've ever really. I don't think we've really asked him, like, because he involves his team a lot with the content as well. It's not just him. It's a lot of stuff with his team and he's usually involved.

[Tersh Plissett]

And also, do you find that some.

[David Cochran]

People are just like, no, not exactly. I mean, I always ask. I don't want anybody to feel like they have to, so. But generally everybody's like. At first they're like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I want to do that or not. And then next thing you know, like, some of us are doing it and they're just, they're fine with it. So so far everybody's been cool. Like, they just. They're kind of having fun with it. Okay, that's cool. That's. That's the vibe here is just. Everybody's just kind of having fun with it.

[Tersh Plissett]

We had a guy that was like anti it, like all together, but he turned. Turned out he was an extremely toxic individual to start with, but I thought it was peculiar that he was like, I don't even want my picture taken. But we have to send it. We have to send a picture.

[Josh Crouch]

We have to send a photo ID or a photo of you so that. Yeah, homeowner knows who's coming.

[David Cochran]

Yeah. All right. And. And I'm with you on that. Like, so we do that too. We have headshots. Of course, if you go to our website, you can go to about us and see all of us on our website. We don't have any issues with that, thank goodness, so far. But I had this conversation recently. You know, as we grow, we're going to get different personalities working here too. And so I guess we'll just kind of see what that looks like when we get there. Because right now we just have a bunch of everybody get. Gets it, like they want to have fun and do it. So eventually somebody's not going to want to do it and I'm not going to make them do it. So. Sure. Yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

No, I get it. As long as they're not also toxic at the same time.

[David Cochran]

Well then they wouldn't. I mean that typically works itself out, you know, like it's just not a good fit in that way. Then they usually work themselves out of that. But 100% agree with that.

[Tersh Plissett]

Talk to you again and we've talked a couple of times. But to be able to share how you've kind of transitioned from where you were to where you are now and telling your story and being willing to share those pain points and how you overcome them, we really appreciate that. Josh, do you have anything else before?

[Josh Crouch]

We just challenge people listening to this because the few takeaways that I got were one, get out of the busyness and go to an event. Just start and listen to those speakers and be ready to implement something that you, that you hear. Because getting these events have speakers from all different industries. They're not just people in the trades that duntered the trades for 30 years and it's the same way they did it 30 years ago. There's a lot of different ideas. There's a lot of things that we can bring into the trades like that you've done. Derek Cormier does that with a lot of like popular tick tock and social media trends. Yeah, there's a lot of like trendy videos but they do it for the trades which is always fun. There's a lot of great ideas out there to be different. And here's the thing. If you follow people like, like David and complete comfort in their channels or Derek or some of these other companies that are really have fun social media they're not in your market. Most likely you can swipe and deploy most of this stuff or take it and make it your own and but you have to get outside of. You have to, I was going to say get outside of your, your get outside the box. But also you know, figure out a way to stand out, to stand out in your market. There's so much like we go Church and I as you guys that listen to this. We've met a lot of listeners through the last couple years during our travels. The stuff that we're able to share in our breakout presentation people are just like it's mindblowing to them. It just they don't even know that a lot of this stuff exists in these different classes you take.

[David Cochran]

Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

Because you're so into this like tiny little zone. So get outside of that zone. Find you have time. You just need to make it your business if it's going to Fall apart. You don't have a business anyways, so. And then you can also see if your team is able to handle two or three days with you not being there. So there's, there's a bonus there of like, do I really have a good team or do I just say that because I don't want them to leave? You'll find out when you're not around and they have to make decisions on their own.

[David Cochran]

And I'm telling you, I don't know. You guys have been to a ton of things and I've been to a fair amount. Spark's one of my favorites. Again, because of the crowd that's already there. Their speakers are usually always. Not necessarily somebody who's been running an H Vac business for 30 years because everybody has the same old story, it seems like. But I would encourage for sure to challenge people for two things is, is just, just do it. Just go for it. I mean, like you're saying you got to just make the time. I mean, bottom line is we're never going to have 100. You got them at a very small amount of time in a 365 day period, if you want to look at it that way. And pretty much all of these conferences that we've ever been to, including ahr, I mean as simple as ahr, there's not guest speakers and stuff, but there's still, there's a nugget, at least one nugget at every one of them I've ever been to.

[Tersh Plissett]

A lot of people don't realize this, but AHR has a lot of breakout sessions that aren't on the main lore. And there's a lot of information there too.

[Josh Crouch]

Like literally anything and everything you want to learn about what's coming in the industry, the new technology, it. They have a ton of breakouts.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, it's like the Comic con of H Vac or something. I don't know.

[Josh Crouch]

It's like 50000 people there every year.

[David Cochran]

Yes. It's insanity. We'll be there in January or February. I think it is next year, but yeah, Vegas.

[Josh Crouch]

I think next year it is. Everything's in Vegas this year, right? Yeah, it was in Orlando last year. Now everything's in Vegas.

[David Cochran]

We missed Orlando bad, which stinks because it was probably warm. We didn't even go when it was in Chicago, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna go to Chicago.

[Tersh Plissett]

Degrees.

[David Cochran]

Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

I was like, you didn't miss anything in Chicago.

[David Cochran]

Man, that sucks.

[Josh Crouch]

They can't fit everyone in the. That's like one of only four locations in the states that they can fit all those people. But, man, it sucks going there every fourth year.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

Some people love it. And. And they have.

[David Cochran]

They just absolutely.

[Josh Crouch]

Bless their soul, man. Because we're.

[Tersh Plissett]

We're. We're. Yeah, we're warm bloods.

[Josh Crouch]

I'm done with the cold. I used to. Dave, I entice. I used to live in Wisconsin for third.

[David Cochran]

The first. Okay.

[Josh Crouch]

For 36, 37 years of my life. We've been in Arizona for three years. I'll take the heat.

[David Cochran]

Yeah, I bet money. Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

That's why we got air conditioning.

[David Cochran]

And then I want to say, you know, check back with me in 12 months, because we're. Literally everything you've seen is like a little scratch of the surface of what we're doing. So we've been. For six months solid, been making these videos and doing things behind the scenes, getting this, the song ready, the radio ads ready. We've been getting everything in place, including our personnel, to support the growth that we believe is about to come from this. Within months of really going hard at this for a while.

[Tersh Plissett]

That's exciting. Well, so everybody, we'll share links to your profiles so that people can follow you and. And check everything out.

[David Cochran]

I did.

[Josh Crouch]

There was one other little tiny piece of a takeaway that we. You said it real fast when you mentioned that the video guy that used to work at the car dealership on. And then he started in the office. Then you found someone to del.

[David Cochran]

You.

[Josh Crouch]

You delegated and elevated his position so that way. And if you constantly are doing that, you Finding things that someone's really not that good at, but they just do anyways because it's part of their job, even though they hate it and having those types of conversations. So you can really unlock the potential. And then people love what they do, and then they're going to stay with you because they love what they do.

[David Cochran]

It's.

[Josh Crouch]

I know everyone thinks it's about the dollar an hour, which obviously that's on the list, but if they love what they do and they love the company, they will stay. And it's not always about, oh, I'm gonna go get another dollar an hour down the street at the next guy because he's a. They pay me just a little bit more.

[David Cochran]

You're. You're not doing the same thing here.

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah. And it changes everything. So that. And it's. It's. You know, we talk about delegate and elevate from a business owner perspective because obviously that's the most important person in the company to ever be able to work on all this stuff. But your people too, not just throw work at them just because we can.

[David Cochran]

Finally, this for the last few months and it's, it is stressful. It's harder than just saying it. You, you, like you said, I said it fast. You just said it fast. But it ain't that fast. I mean, you know, getting that next person to come in and that person to teach them. Like we're going through that right now and moving people, but we took people from within and moved them up and then we've brought some people in down here, you know, and then eventually those people will get moved up and they're. It's just learning how to do that. That's the weird thing. I feel like I've almost started over again. But it's a total different set of problems, total different set of learning curve here. So.

[Tersh Plissett]

Yeah, for sure.

[David Cochran]

Awesome, man.

[Tersh Plissett]

I appreciate you hanging out with us.

[David Cochran]

Yeah.

[Tersh Plissett]

Anybody has any questions at all, links to all of David's social media profiles and everything so that you can reach out there if you have a question for Josh and I, don't hesitate to reach out to us. With that being said, I hope have a wonderful and safe week until we talk again next time. We appreciate you.

[Podcast Narrator]

Thank you for listening to this episode of Service Business Mastery. Now that you are equipped with essential business advice from this impactful conversation, you are one step closer to becoming the successful owner of your dreams. If this episode has been helpful to your business journey, don't forget to subscribe to the show, leave a rating, and share it with other owners as well. Visit servicebusinessmastery.com to learn more.