How does a plumbing and HVAC company grow from $3.6 million to $15 million in just four years?

For Jayni Fontaine and her daughter Danielle, it wasn't because they found a secret marketing strategy or hired dozens of people overnight.

It happened because they made one of the hardest leadership shifts every growing home service business eventually faces: they stopped trying to do everything themselves.

In this episode of The $100 Million Mindset, Todd Liles sits down with the leadership team behind Advanced Plumbing, Heating & Air to unpack what it really takes to scale from 12 employees to 50 without losing your culture, your standards, or your sanity.

What makes this conversation different is how honest it is.

Danielle admits something most owners never say out loud: the more she delegates, the less stimulated she feels. If you've ever struggled to let go of work you know you can do better or faster than anyone else, you'll probably see yourself in this conversation.

Jayni shares the decision-making framework that's helped guide their explosive growth, why she believes in hiring people better than herself, and how she's navigated building a successful company while working alongside her daughter every day.

In this episode, you'll learn:

-How Advanced Plumbing, Heating & Air grew from $3.6M to $15M in four years

-Why HVAC and plumbing companies often stall around 10–15 employees

-The leadership identity shift required to scale to 50+ employees

-How to stop being the bottleneck in your business

-Why delegating feels uncomfortable—even when it's exactly what your business needs

-How Jayni evaluates risk before making major business decisions

-Why hiring people better than you accelerates growth

-What it takes to build leaders, not just great technicians

Whether you own an HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or other residential home service company, this episode is packed with practical lessons from owners who've successfully made the leap from operator to business leader.

If your goal is to build a business that grows without depending on you to solve every problem, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

🎧 Listen on the go:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821

All episodes: https://www.toddliles.com/mindset

Chris Yano did everything right. He built his company on one rule: reputation over revenue.

Then he sold it to private equity to scale it, and within a year, he was on the bench, watching strangers run the thing he built.

This is the conversation every owner thinking about selling needs to hear.

Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill sit down with Chris for the unfiltered version of life after the deal closes: the 14-month search for the right partner, the bet on one CEO, the day that CEO walked away, and the moment his mantra got flipped from reputation over revenue to revenue over reputation.

The hard truth underneath it all: an exit doesn't fix broken leadership. It exposes it.

You'll learn:

-Why selling to scale is a completely different decision than selling to exit

-What "I went from offense to defense" really means after a sale

-Why Chris passed on the top two offers and took the third

-What happens to your culture the moment you stop making the calls

-Why the day you sign is the day the game becomes a different sport

-How to build a company worth exiting, and worth running

🎧 Listen on the go:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821

All episodes: https://www.toddliles.com/mindset

The $100 Million Mindset is hosted by Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill.

Two techs. Same house. Same problem. Two completely different prices. That gap is the most expensive problem in your business, and most owners have never put a number on it.

In a six-tech shop, it's $600,000 a year.

Here's the part that's hard to hear: it's not your techs. They're good people doing their best. But without a consistent system, their best looks different on every call, and you're leaving money on the table every time someone different shows up.

Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill walk through the exact, repeatable process Service Excellence has trained on thousands of home service companies, the one that turns every call into a consistent, profitable experience. It's not a script.

And process doesn't replace talent. It multiplies it.

You'll learn:

-The $600K consistency gap hiding in your average ticket
-Why scripts fail and a framework wins
-The full PRESS PLAY system, start to finish
-Why four options closes more than three or five
-The four anxieties every customer has before you say a word

🔗 Get the $97 diagnostic + training:

https://servextra.com/diagnostic-checklist

🔧 See how Service Excellence helps contractors grow:

https://www.servextra.com/get-started/

🎧 Listen on the go:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821

All episodes: https://www.toddliles.com/mindset

The $100 Million Mindset is hosted by Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill.

Pull your average ticket by tech this week, find the gap, and run one 15-minute role play. Then share this with an owner whose team is all over the place.

#HomeServiceBusiness #ContractorTraining #HVAC #Plumbing #ServiceExcellence

The trucks roll. The revenue's there. But you keep hitting the same wall and sliding back. You blame the market, your people, the economy. It's none of those. Your company cannot grow bigger than your capacity to lead it. And right now, that capacity is the ceiling.

Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill break down John Maxwell's Law of the Lid and name the five lids that trap owners at every level, from the owner-operator who can't get out of the truck to the leader who runs every decision through themselves.

They run a live role play through every excuse owners make, and hand you the exact assessment to find out which lid is yours, and how to lift it.

You'll learn:

• The five lids: perfectionist, field player, decision hub, time trap, management gap
• Why 80% of the execution should be done by others, but 100% of accountability is yours
• The one question that stops your team from calling you for every answer
• Why the skills that built your business are the same ones capping it
• How to score your leadership capacity across six categories

Take the leadership assessment and get the show notes: https://www.toddliles.com/mindset

Listen and subscribe:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821

All episodes: https://www.toddliles.com/mindset

Hosted by Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill.

Matt Posda bought a company that was 98% new construction. Built the service side from scratch. $35 million by 2025.

No private equity.

He's in Morris Jenkins' backyard. Instead of fighting for one city, he built nine markets across the Carolinas. His apprenticeship program has put ten classes through since 2022. $2.5 million invested last year. Less than 2% accepted.

Build techs fast. Build managers slow. That's the system.

You'll learn:

• The apprenticeship machine: 10 classes, $2.5M, less than 2% accepted
• Why techs are built through a system and managers through years of trust
• The seven-step recruiting funnel
• How nine markets shift capacity daily
• Why $250M is the goal with no private equity

Show notes: toddliles.com/mindset

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821

All episodes: toddliles.com/mindset

Ten managers in a room. Every one said recruiting was their biggest obstacle. Then Alan asked how many minutes a week they actually spend on it. Less than 1%. His response: This is the definition of madness.

Contractors kept asking what they'd want to know from a plumber who built his company to $150 million. This is Part 2 — talent, hiring, training, and delegation. Alan explains why recruiting is farming.

Todd breaks down why under $3 million, you are your best recruiter. And they tackle why training fails at most companies — and what the ones that grow like gangbusters do differently four days a week.

You'll learn:

• Why spending less than 1% on recruiting is the definition of madness
• How to recruit like a farmer — sow seeds today, reap the crop tomorrow
• Why under $3 million, time is the only resource nobody can outspend you on
• Why motivation can't be installed — recruit for it
• Why training is a daily system, not a weekly event

Full show notes: toddliles.com/mindset

His son said the business didn't take his dad away. It brought the family closer. That's not the answer most owners get.

Todd sits down with Alan O'Neill and his son, Paul, for the most personal episode this show has ever done. Paul was six when Abacus started. He grew up inside the business — warehouse Saturdays, fake commercials in the living room, summers as a plumbing apprentice.

When Todd asked what it was really like, Paul didn't describe chaos. He described a family that shared something together.

Then he said something his dad had never heard before.

You'll learn:

• What it was actually like at home while Alan built Abacus from nothing
• How Alan included his kids without giving them the burden
• The voice in Paul's head that Alan never knew existed
• The hardest sacrifice Alan made — and why he's not sure he'd do it again
• Todd's honest reflection on the seasons his family saw the worst of him

Full show notes: toddliles.com/mindset

Subscribe & listen:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO?si=252c975c7bf84683

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821

All episodes: toddliles.com

Contractors asked what they'd want to know from the owner of a $150 million plumbing company. Nobody asked about marketing. Nobody asked about AI. Every question was about systems.

Todd Liles and Alan O'Neill answer those questions.

They also cover why fear is the real reason most owners don't enforce standards, the dot system that had plumbers bringing their wives in to see their scores, and the story of a suspended top performer who later got tipped a classic red Corvette.

You'll learn:

• The 10-minute daily meeting behind a $150M company
• Why the daily huddle works at any size — even one tech
• When the daily huddle should become the daily cuddle
• What to implement first under $3M
• Why the best plumber in the company got suspended — and what happened next

Full show notes and chapter summaries: toddliles.com/mindset

Subscribe and listen:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ovHcon0dZEgamxFOdzDFO?si=252c975c7bf84683
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-%24100-million-mindset/id1803514821
All episodes: toddliles.com/mindset