Escape The One Man Show

Derek Cormier
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Most contractors built a business that runs them, not the other way around. Escape the One Man Show is for trades business owners and contractors who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode Derek Cormier, founder of Climate Experts, a multi-million dollar home services company in Florida, breaks down the real tactics, leadership lessons, and culture shifts that helped him build a business that runs profitably without him in the truck. No fluff. No gurus. Just raw honest conversation from someone who has held the tools, run the calls, and built the team.

  1. 1d ago

    You Did $3 Million Last Year and Kept None of It

    You did three million dollars in revenue last year. Your bank account looks like you did three hundred thousand. Where did it go? In this episode Derek Cormier pulls apart a real profit and loss statement layer by layer and shows contractors exactly where the money disappears between the top line and the bank account. One month of peak season produced ninety eight thousand dollars in gross margin that walked out the door — and most of it left through a line item nobody tracks. Derek then breaks down the three numbers every trades business owner should know from memory: gross profit, net profit, and cash flow. Not the numbers your accountant brings up in April. The three that decide whether you keep a single dollar of what you make. Including the math on why twenty percent net profit is impossible for most contractors at their current overhead, and why your profit and loss statement can look great on the exact same day your account is empty. What You Will Learn: Where the money actually goes between three million in revenue and what you take home. Why discounting and financing fees are the largest untracked expense in most trades businesses. How to read your gross margin by department against real industry benchmarks for plumbing, electrical, HVAC service, and HVAC install. Why field managers control gross profit and owners control overhead, and why confusing the two means nothing ever gets fixed. The exact math behind hitting twenty percent net profit and why selling more will not get you there. Why profit is an opinion and cash is a fact. How trucks, loan principal, and inventory hide on the balance sheet and make your profit look higher than your reality. How to diagnose whether your margin problem is labor, materials, or pricing. Topics Covered: Contractor profit and loss. HVAC gross margin benchmarks. Net profit for trades businesses. Cash flow management for contractors. Overhead as a percentage of revenue. Discounting and financing fees. Departmental budgeting. Job costing. Home service business financials. Contractor pricing strategy. Who This Episode Is For: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are producing real revenue and cannot figure out why there is nothing left at the end of the year. It is for owners who have never compared their departments against industry benchmarks, owners who use their bank balance as a financial system, and any trades business owner who wants to understand their numbers well enough to actually change them. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Keywords: contractor profit and loss, HVAC gross margin, net profit trades business, cash flow for contractors, overhead percentage revenue, HVAC benchmarks, contractor financials, discounting HVAC, home service profitability, contractor budgeting, job costing HVAC, trades business numbers, Derek Cormier, Escape the One Man Show, Climate Experts, HVAC owner podcast, contractor coach, home service business growth, profit and loss contractor, HVAC business finance.

  2. Jul 15

    Ranking Every HVAC Marketing Channel S to F Tier — I Spent Over $1M So You Don't Have To

    Every HVAC contractor is spending money on marketing. Almost none of them know which channels actually work. Billboards or truck wraps? Google ads or direct mail? Yelp or... anything else? In this episode Derek Cormier ranks all 15 marketing channels he has spent real money on over 14 years building Climate Experts from one truck to a multi million dollar home services company. Every channel goes on the tier board, S tier to F tier, based on actual results, not theory. Some placements will surprise you. At least one will make you angry. And two channels get sent to F tier with no mercy, including the lead sellers taking money from contractors every single day. Derek also reveals the one marketing channel almost nobody in the trades is talking about yet, why the money pit tier eats budgets alive, and why the two best lead sources on the entire board cannot be bought with a credit card. What You Will Learn: Which marketing channels actually produce booked calls and which ones just produce invoices. Why buying leads from aggregators puts you in a footrace against four competitors for the same customer. The difference between the two sides of Google and why one is an A and one is a B. Why billboards and radio only work at a spend level most contractors cannot sustain. How AI search engines are becoming a lead source and why getting there early matters. Why referrals and trade partner relationships beat every paid channel on the board. How to build a trade partner network that feeds you leads all year for the cost of a handshake. Who This Episode Is For: HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are spending money on marketing and are not sure what is actually working. If you are getting calls from lead sellers every week, deciding between billboards and digital, or want to know where an owner who has spent over a million dollars on marketing would put the next dollar, this one is for you. Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership, systems, marketing, and operational frameworks that built Climate Experts into a multi million dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode.

  3. Jul 8

    Why Most HVAC Companies Make Millions But Stay Broke

    Most HVAC contractors hitting a million, two million, even five million dollars in revenue still feel like they are barely keeping up. The trucks are running. The phones are ringing. The team is busy. So why does it always feel like there is never enough money? In this episode Derek Cormier gets vulnerable about what he got wrong financially building Climate Experts and what finally changed. He breaks down the three reasons most HVAC companies make great revenue and terrible profit. The cash flow trap that hits hardest when you are growing fastest. The overhead creep that feels like progress but quietly eats your margin. And the danger of running a multi million dollar business on gut feel instead of actual financial systems. This is not theory. This is what Derek learned firsthand going from one truck to a multi million dollar home services company and what he would do differently if he was starting over. What You Will Learn: Why revenue is not the same as profit and why chasing revenue is keeping contractors broke. How the cash flow gap grows as your company grows and what to do about it. What overhead creep looks like and how to catch it before it kills your margin. Why running on gut feel instead of a real budget is the most dangerous thing a growing contractor can do. How to know your billable hour cost so you can price correctly and actually make money. What financial systems actually need to be in place before you hit your next revenue milestone. Topics Covered: HVAC business finances. Cash flow management for contractors. Overhead and expense control. Contractor budgeting. Billable hour model. Profit vs revenue. Home service business growth. Financial systems for trades companies. HVAC company operations. Contractor profitability. Who This Episode Is For: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are doing real revenue but still feel financially stressed. It is for trades owners who have never built a real budget, who check their bank account to decide if the business is healthy, or who have watched their expenses grow every time their revenue grows. It is for any contractor who wants to actually build wealth from their business instead of just working harder for the same result. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Keywords: HVAC business finances, contractor cash flow, HVAC company profit, overhead control contractors, contractor budget, billable hour HVAC, home service business growth, HVAC profitability, trades business finances, contractor financial systems, HVAC owner podcast, Derek Cormier, Escape the One Man Show, Climate Experts, contractor profit, trades business owner, HVAC company operations.

  4. Jul 1

    If I Bought an HVAC Company Tomorrow, Here's Exactly What I'd Do

    If you bought an HVAC company tomorrow, what would you actually do first? Not what the business books say. Not the generic advice you hear at every conference. What would someone who has already built a company from one truck to fifteen million dollars in seven years actually do, in order, starting day one? In this episode, Derek Cormier walks through the exact playbook he would run from the moment he took the keys. Seven priorities in order. No fluff. Just the real decisions that determine whether a company grows or stays stuck. Derek starts where most owners never think to start: the brand. Most HVAC companies look like every other HVAC company. A strong brand lowers your marketing spend, drives branded keyword searches, and helps you recruit people who want to work for a company that looks like it has its act together. From there he gets into the systems and people decisions that separate companies that scale from companies that survive. Why training tied to SOPs is the only thing that creates a consistent customer experience. Why hiring experience is one of the fastest ways to kill your culture. Why the companies doing twenty five and forty seven million dollars a year are moving toward an internal academy model. Why your pay plan is either driving the behavior you want or creating the entitlement problem you complain about. And why a team full of nice people pleasers is a liability, not an asset. What You Will Learn: Why the first thing Derek would fix is the brand and how it affects recruiting and marketing spend. Why SOPs and training are the only path to a consistent customer experience. Why experienced hires often create culture problems. How to build a pay plan with accountability built in. Why leadership and management are different skills and why most companies only develop one. How to build a selling proposition that has nothing to do with price. Why career progression is a retention strategy. Topics Covered: HVAC company strategy. Branding for home service companies. SOP and training systems. Recruiting and hiring for trades. Performance based pay plans. Culture building for contractors. Leadership vs management. Selling proposition and talking triggers. Knowing your numbers. Employee retention. Who This Episode Is For: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are buying a company, thinking about buying one, or want to know what they would do differently if they were starting over. It is for any trades owner who feels like they are working harder than their results justify and wants a clear look at what the most successful operators actually prioritize. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Keywords: buying an HVAC company, HVAC business strategy, home service company growth, HVAC branding, contractor SOPs, HVAC training program, hiring technicians, contractor pay plan, performance based pay trades, HVAC culture building, leadership vs management, contractor selling proposition, trades business numbers, employee retention contractors, contractor podcast, Derek Cormier, Escape the One Man Show, Climate Experts, HVAC company operations.

  5. Jun 29

    Why Smart Contractors Are Keeping Their Warranty Profits

    Most contractors sell extended warranties and never think twice about how broken the model actually is. Homeowners pay upfront, and when they actually need a repair the manufacturer or third party warranty company makes it nearly impossible to use. Low labor rates. Denied claims. A processing nightmare that benefits everyone except the contractor and the customer. In this episode, Derek Cormier sits down with Will Kinsey, owner of Conduit Warranty, to break down a completely different model. One where the contractor owns the warranty company itself instead of handing that revenue and control to someone else. Will walks through exactly how this works, why it is structured to be fully legal and compliant, and how contractors end up owning the majority of the money instead of giving it away. He also shares how he personally incentivizes his own management team with a percentage of the revenue instead of giving up ownership, and what that means for contractors thinking about doing the same with their leadership. This is a real, detailed breakdown for any contractor who has ever sold a manufacturer extended warranty and wondered why the customer experience on the back end is so painful, or who simply wants to know if there is a better way to build long term value into their business. What You Will Learn: Why traditional manufacturer and third party extended warranties are broken for both the contractor and the customer. How a contractor owned warranty model is structured to stay fully legal. How the money flow works and how much of it the contractor actually keeps. How long warranty funds sit before becoming accessible and whether they can be invested. What trades and what types of equipment this model can be used for. How long warranty terms can run. How to get started and what it costs to implement. What companies are already using this model successfully. Topics Covered: Contractor owned warranty programs. Extended warranty alternatives. HVAC plumbing and electrical warranty strategy. Building recurring value into a trades business. Warranty claims processing. Manufacturer warranty problems. Contractor compensation and incentive structures. Trades business growth strategy. Home service revenue models. Who This Episode Is For: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who currently sell manufacturer or third party extended warranties and want a better option. It is for contractors who have dealt with denied claims, low labor reimbursement rates, or a painful process on behalf of their customers. It is for any trades business owner looking for a new way to build long term value and recurring revenue into their company. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode.

  6. Jun 17

    HVAC Tune Up or Scam? The Truth About Preventative Maintenance and Why Your Pricing Is Killing You

    Every year when shoulder season hits, HVAC companies start flooding homeowners with ads for $29, $39, and $49 tune ups. And every year homeowners ask the same question: is an HVAC tune up actually worth it or is it just a way to get a foot in the door? In this episode, Derek Cormier tackles one of the most debated topics in the trades head on. The difference between a real preventative maintenance visit and a low price bait and switch. Why the perception problem exists in the first place. And why your pricing strategy might be quietly destroying the trust you need to grow. The uncomfortable truth is that a legitimate tune up and a scam can look identical to a homeowner if you are not doing your job right. No checklist. No system health report. No explanation of what was found. Just a receipt and a wave goodbye. That is not a customer problem. That is an operator problem. Derek breaks down what a real tune up actually includes, why the name you use matters less than the process you follow, and how contractors who charge low prices to get in the door are not always wrong but are often setting themselves up to fail. He also addresses the pricing trap that keeps contractors stuck and the one shift in how you present and deliver your maintenance service that changes everything. What You Will Learn: Why homeowners are Googling whether HVAC tune ups are a scam and what that means for your business. The difference between a real preventative maintenance visit and one that earns the reputation of a scam. Why your delivery and documentation matter more than what you charge. How to present your tune up in a way that builds trust instead of suspicion. Why low priced tune ups are not inherently dishonest but can be a trap. What a real 24 point inspection looks like and why the checklist matters. How your pricing strategy is either building or destroying your brand. Topics Covered: HVAC tune up vs preventative maintenance. Low price tune up strategy. Building trust with homeowners. HVAC maintenance pricing. System health report and documentation. Contractor pricing strategy. Home service maintenance visits. How to present a tune up to customers. Why homeowners distrust HVAC companies. Shoulder season marketing for contractors. Who This Episode Is For: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are running maintenance visits and wondering why they are not converting into loyal customers. It is for contractors who have lost business to low price competitors and do not know how to compete. It is for any trades business owner who wants to understand how to deliver a maintenance visit that builds trust, generates referrals, and creates long term customers instead of one time calls. About Escape the One Man Show: Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Keywords: HVAC tune up scam, preventative maintenance HVAC, HVAC maintenance pricing, contractor pricing strategy, home service maintenance, HVAC shoulder season, system health report, HVAC trust building, contractor podcast, trades business growth, Climate Experts, Derek Cormier, Escape the One Man Show, HVAC business owner, home service pricing, HVAC customer trust, trades marketing, HVAC maintenance visit, contractor business growth.

  7. Jun 10

    How I Actually Market My HVAC Company in 2026

    Billy Gregus, owner of Integrity Refrigeration, called in and asked a question every contractor is asking in 2026: What is actually working in HVAC marketing right now? PPC? LSA? Guerrilla marketing? Where should contractors be putting their money and energy to get the best ROI? In this episode, Derek Cormier breaks down exactly how Climate Experts approaches marketing and why that strategy continues to produce results. Like many contractors, Derek initially handed his entire marketing budget to a large agency and hoped for the best. While it produced some results, he quickly learned a better approach: segment your marketing among specialized vendors and have someone on your team managing performance and accountability. At Climate Experts, the majority of leads still come from referrals, supported by a strong referral program and consistent marketing to existing customers. The company also has its own CMO who works with the team weekly, manages vendors, tracks performance, and ensures every marketing dollar is being spent effectively. Combined with an internal marketing coordinator and a social media strategy built specifically for the trades, the company has developed a system that delivers measurable ROI. This episode is a real-world answer to a real question from a contractor trying to determine where to invest marketing dollars in 2026. What You'll Learn:• Why many contractors get burned by large marketing agencies• How to segment vendors based on their strengths• Why your existing customer base is your most underutilized marketing asset• What a successful referral program looks like• Why having an internal marketing leader changes everything• How trades business owners should approach social media• What is producing ROI for a multi-million-dollar HVAC company in 2026 Topics Covered:• HVAC marketing in 2026• PPC vs LSA vs guerrilla marketing• Referral marketing for contractors• Marketing to existing customers• Managing multiple marketing vendors• Building an in-house marketing team• Social media for HVAC companies• Home service lead generation• Marketing ROI for contractors Who This Episode Is For:HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are spending money on marketing and want to know what's actually working. It's for contractors who have been burned by agencies, owners looking to scale from $1M to $10M+, and anyone wanting a clearer strategy for growing a home service company. About Escape the One Man Show:Escape the One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are tired of being the bottleneck in their company. Host Derek Cormier shares the leadership lessons, systems, marketing strategies, and operational frameworks that helped build Climate Experts into a multi-million-dollar home service business. Have a question you want answered on the show? Call 321-495-7788 and leave a voicemail. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Keywords:HVAC marketing 2026, HVAC lead generation, PPC vs LSA, contractor marketing, home service marketing, referral program, HVAC business growth, social media for contractors, marketing ROI, HVAC leads, contractor podcast, trades business marketing, Climate Experts, Derek Cormier, Escape the One Man Show, marketing budget for contractors, home service business growth, HVAC company marketing strategy.

  8. Jun 4

    She Had No Trades Experience. Now She Runs Half My Company

    Every contractor thinks they need to hire someone with years of trades experience to become a manager. This episode will change the way you think about leadership forever. In this episode of Escape The One Man Show, Derek Cormier sits down with Climate Experts COO Krystal Hernandez to break down her incredible journey from stay at home mom and part time office admin to running operations for a multi million dollar HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company. Six years ago Krystal knew nothing about the trades. No HVAC experience. No accounting background. No management experience. Today she oversees office operations, customer service, dispatch, accounting, HR, staffing, and marketing. This episode is not about motivation. It is about a proven blueprint for building leaders from within your company instead of constantly searching for outside hires. Derek and Krystal discuss why culture fit matters more than experience, how to identify leadership potential in your team, the biggest mistakes contractors make when promoting employees, and why some of the best leaders in your company may be hiding in plain sight. If you are tired of being the bottleneck in your business and want to build a team that can grow without you this episode is for you. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE: Why hiring experienced managers often backfires. How to identify leadership potential in your employees. Why culture fit beats experience every time. The framework Climate Experts uses to promote from within. How accountability creates leaders. Why bad hires destroy company culture. The importance of coaching and mentorship. How to build management teams without relying on outside recruiting. Leadership lessons from growing a multi million dollar trades company. What contractors get wrong about promotions and management. TOPICS COVERED: Building leaders from within. Promoting employees into management. Hiring vs developing leaders. Company culture in the trades. Leadership development. HVAC business growth. Employee accountability. Coaching and mentorship. Women in the trades. Trades business leadership. Internal promotions. COO development. Management training. Scaling a home service company. Building systems and processes. WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: This episode is for HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and home service business owners who are struggling to find great managers and leaders. It is for owners who feel stuck because everything depends on them. It is for contractors who want to stop hiring people who look good on paper and start building leaders who are aligned with their culture and mission. It is also for anyone in the trades who wants to grow into leadership and create a bigger future inside their company. ABOUT ESCAPE THE ONE MAN SHOW: Escape The One Man Show is a podcast for contractors and trades business owners who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode host Derek Cormier shares the real systems, leadership lessons, hiring strategies, and growth tactics that helped build Climate Experts into a multi million dollar HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company in Florida. Want to work with Derek directly? Visit www.escapetheonemanshow.com Have a question you want answered on the show? Call in and leave your question at 321-495-7788 and it may be featured on a future episode.

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About

Most contractors built a business that runs them, not the other way around. Escape the One Man Show is for trades business owners and contractors who are done being the bottleneck in their own company. Every episode Derek Cormier, founder of Climate Experts, a multi-million dollar home services company in Florida, breaks down the real tactics, leadership lessons, and culture shifts that helped him build a business that runs profitably without him in the truck. No fluff. No gurus. Just raw honest conversation from someone who has held the tools, run the calls, and built the team.

Information

  • Creator
    Derek Cormier
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Derek Cormier
  • Show Website
    Escape The One Man Show

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