Owned and Operated Podcast
1) The Disaster Roofing Business: Temporary Roofs, Real Margins
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Adam Cherup, a “disaster roofer” who’s built a niche, high-margin business installing shrink-wrap temporary roofs after hurricanes, wi...Show More
2) How to Turn Referrals Into a Scalable, Predictable Growth Engine
Referrals are still the #1 growth channel in home services — but most contractors treat it like hope marketing. In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Murphy Nadauld (ReferPro) to break down how ...Show More
3) Google LSAs: The Easiest Way to Add Leads Tomorrow
This is the literal easiest lever you can pull to add leads tomorrow: turn on (and properly run) Google Local Services Ads (LSAs). In this episode, John Wilson sits down with Sam Preston (CEO of Servi...Show More
4) Stop Losing Money in 2026: The Profit Plan for Higher EBITDA
We’re heading into 2026 with one goal: stop losing money. Not “grow at all costs.” Not “try harder.” Just: build a healthy business that actually cash flows. In this episode, John Wilson and Jack Carr...Show More
5) The Sales Process That Took Us From Losing Money to $12.5K Tickets
We break down how we tripled our HVAC average ticket—from $5,000 to $12,500+—and finally made sales profitable. In this episode, we walk through the painful mistakes, system overhauls, and process cha...Show More
6) The REAL Cost of Running a Trades Business in 2025 — What Most Owners Don’t Understand
We reveal the real cost of running a home service business in 2025. In this full debrief, we open our books to show why plumbing business growth exploded while HVAC stalled, and exactly how we navigat...Show More
7) Nextdoor Marketing for Contractors: The Local Referral Engine for Plumbing, HVAC & Home Services
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Sam Preston, CEO of Service Scalers, to break down one of the most overlooked (and misunderstood) marketing channels in home services:...Show More
8) How Smart Home Service Owners Should Invest (P&L, EBITDA, and Enterprise Value)
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson and Jack break down what “smart investing” actually looks like for home service operators—starting with the truth most owners miss: if you run a busi...Show More
How Smart Home Service Owners Should Invest (P&L, EBITDA, and Enterprise Value)
38:43 | Dec 18th, 2025
9) Remote Staffing for Contractors: How to Hire Offshore for Recruiting, Dispatch & Ops
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Aizik Zimerman of Jay Blanton Plumbing (Chicago) to break down the remote staffing playbook that most home service operators still are...Show More
Remote Staffing for Contractors: How to Hire Offshore for Recruiting, Dispatch & Ops
31:33 | Dec 16th, 2025
10) AI Didn’t Kill Google Search — Here’s Why GBP Still Wins
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson sits down with Sam Preston — CEO of Service Scalers — to talk about the marketing asset that still quietly outperforms everything else in home servic...Show More