Build an HVAC Career From the Ground Up

01

Start before the ideal job exists

Brian did not leave the Army with a neat map into home services. He had served seven years, completed three overseas deployments, and worked as an infantryman. That experience gave him leadership habits, but not an obvious civilian job he wanted. He considered electrical work because he liked using his hands, then an HVAC instructor at Lincoln Tech persuaded him to change programs.

The important move came two weeks into school. An instructor told him to find a local company instead of waiting until graduation. Brian searched for nearby HVAC businesses that night and sent Dayco Systems a plain message: he had just started school, wanted to enter the trade, and was willing to help. Owner Dean Yarington responded about 20 minutes later even though Dayco had no formal internship.

The available work was not glamorous. Brian earned $10 an hour for two days a week while sweeping the warehouse. That arrangement gave Dayco a low-risk way to see how he worked and gave Brian something a classroom could not: proximity to the people, pace, and standards of a real service company. Brian gives the two-week, $10-an-hour, and warehouse account at 17:22–18:09.

02

Turn the smallest role into evidence

Brian stayed with the warehouse job throughout school. He graduated on a Thursday and received the keys to a service van the following Monday. He later spent two years as a service technician, moved into service management, and eventually took over as general manager. At the time of our conversation, Dayco was the only HVAC employer he had ever had.

That sequence is useful because it removes a common excuse. You do not need an employer to promise the whole career on day one. You need the first role to be real enough that your effort can be observed. Sweeping a warehouse does not prove diagnostic skill, but it can prove reliability, humility, and whether you are paying attention. Those are the conditions under which an owner can trust you with training and a van.

For a contractor, this is also a recruiting lesson. A part-time shop role can become a long interview. The company gets help today while watching for tomorrow's technician. The student gets paid exposure rather than being asked to learn every practical habit after graduation.

03

Lead by making the team eat first

Brian credits the Army with changing his trajectory and teaching him how leadership feels from both sides. He saw good, bad, and ugly examples, then carried one simple rule into the office: the people doing the work come before the person holding the title.

His example was literal. When food or snacks arrive, he checks that the team has been served before taking any for himself. A small ritual will not fix a bad operation, but it makes the leader's priorities visible. People notice whether a manager takes the first portion or makes sure the field and office teams are covered.

That same service posture appears in Dominic Vella's approach to scaling a contractor business: capacity and systems matter only if they protect the customer and the people delivering the work. Brian's version begins with behavior nobody needs a dashboard to understand.

“I make sure everybody eats.”

Brian Davis, episode timestamp 20:03

04

Expand services around existing trust

Dayco began in heating and air and had recently added plumbing when Brian joined me. The logic was not simply to chase another category. The company already served a base of homeowners who trusted it with comfort systems, and plumbing let the team solve more problems for those same people. Brian also discussed attic insulation, planned duct cleaning, and a longer-term interest in electrical work.

That expansion only works if the original experience survives. A trusted HVAC brand can give a new plumbing service a head start, but it also puts the existing relationship at risk. The customer does not separate a poor plumbing visit from a good HVAC history; both wear the same name.

My test for an adjacent service is straightforward: does it make the homeowner's next call easier, and can the team deliver it at the current standard? If the answer to the first question is yes and the second is not yet, the right move is preparation rather than a premature launch.

05

Vet every referral like a field hire

A company cannot perform every home service, so Brian built a small network he called Dayco's most valuable partners. The categories included work such as handyman service, roofing, and junk hauling. His goal was to avoid telling a homeowner, “I don't know who you need,” while being honest about what Dayco does not do.

A referral is borrowed trust. Brian does not add a company because its owner exchanged business cards at an event. He meets the people, talks through expectations, and has Dayco use the service. That last step matters: a vendor pitch tells you what a company promises; becoming the customer shows you what it actually does.

The relationship with Ace Handyman Services began after a Dayco technician stepped through a ceiling. The handyman partner repaired the damage, the homeowner praised both companies, and the partner later earned additional work in the house. Dayco paid for its mistake, but a well-vetted partner helped restore confidence at the exact moment it was most fragile.

06

Teach the trade to grow the bench

Brian later returned to the same Lincoln Tech campus as an evening HVAC instructor. For three years, he taught four nights a week while continuing his Dayco role. He said he recruited 12 people from the school during that period.

Teaching did three jobs at once. It helped new technicians understand the trade, forced Brian to explain what experienced people sometimes do by instinct, and gave Dayco a sustained view of developing talent. A recruiting post captures attention for a day. A good instructor sees attendance, curiosity, preparation, and how a student responds after getting something wrong.

This does not require every manager to take a formal faculty position. A contractor can run ride-along debriefs, document a diagnostic sequence, invite students into the shop, or assign a senior technician to teach one concept each week. The point is to make talent development an operating process instead of an emergency when somebody resigns.

07

Use AI for coaching without removing people

Brian's view of AI was practical. Dayco was using it to monitor calls, surface coaching opportunities, and support some initial customer communication. He did not describe a plan to eliminate technicians or customer-service representatives. He saw the tool as a way to give a growing team more consistent feedback.

That distinction matters in home service. A transcript can show that an appointment setter skipped a question, but software does not own the relationship or repair a damaged ceiling. A model can help a manager find the call that needs attention; the manager still has to coach the person and decide what good service sounds like.

Brian's story is consistent from the warehouse to AI: technology and systems should create better people, not give leaders an excuse to stop leading. Start with useful work, make standards visible, teach what you know, and keep the homeowner's trust attached to an accountable human being.