Build It To Sell It: Home Service Secrets with Lance Bachmann

In this episode of Build it to Sell it: Home Service Secrets with Lance Bachmann, Lance sits down with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder and CEO of ServiceTitan, to discuss the technology that helped modernize the trades. Ara shares the story of growing up in a contractor family, watching the challenges his parents faced running their business, and how that experience ultimately led to the creation of Se...

Some conversations start with small talk—this one goes straight into the real stuff! What begins as a casual sit-down quickly turns into an unfiltered discussion about loss, resilience, and the moments in life that completely reshape who you are. From navigating personal tragedy to finding meaning in the hardest experiences, this conversation explores how adversity can forge purpose. Introducing K...

He bought a landscaping company for $50,000… built multiple businesses… started a pro basketball league… and now helps contractors make an extra six figures just by understanding their numbers. This conversation with Ian McCarthy was one of the most eye-opening we’ve had!  This one went way deeper than I expected.. In this episode, we talked about how he built, sold, rebuilt, and scaled multiple c...

Most contractors are selling to skeptical, “burned-before” homeowners… and then they wonder why nothing closes. In this episode, I sit down with Joseph Hughes (Contractor Dynamics) and we get BRUTELLY honest about the real problem in roofing marketing: uneducated buyers, zero trust, and contractors who think hiring an agency means they can stop paying attention. We talk accountability, why most ag...

TRUTH TIME: Most hiring is a coin flip… and then owners act shocked when culture falls apart. In this episode, I sit down with Spencer Brannan from Culture Index—the assessment we use right here at LB Capital to stop guessing and start placing the right people in the right seats. We get into the uncomfortable reality– if you want to build anything that matters, you’re going to upset some people, a...

Texas roofing is the Wild West—no licensing, nonstop storm chaos, and a whole lot of companies flexing revenue while quietly bleeding cash. And I’ll say it again: if you’re doing $100M and it costs you $100M, I’m not impressed.  In this episode, I sit down with Heather Hitchcock—founder and CEO of Royal Roofing in Houston—to talk about what it really takes to build a roofing company in one of the...

If your marketing “isn’t working,” I’d bet money it’s not your ads—it’s your business.  Most home service companies aren’t losing because their marketing “doesn’t work.” They’re losing because they’re obsessed with the wrong things—arguing over ad costs while calls go unanswered, chasing more leads while close rates stay embarrassing, and treating marketing like random monthly tactics instead of a...

Most people think money is the goal. Dan Uszaki, Athletic Director of Northern Burlington Schools and CEO of GLOW, created as a JOKE but now has taken off as a 20-acre winter attraction featuring millions of twinkling lights each holiday season! Proving that money is water—move it, don’t worship it.  In this episode, we go from entitlement culture and raising tough kids… to building multiple busin...

You’ve got more tools than ever to see exactly what’s working in your marketing… and most business owners still run blind. They guess.  They blame the agency.  They bounce from vendor to vendor.  And meanwhile, leads are leaking, follow-up is slow, and the marketplace forgets them. In this episode, I’m in Las Vegas with guest Aoife Roche of Intleacht AI System—straight out of Ireland, known as the...

Missed Calls Are Ki11ing Your Business—This AI + Human Hybrid Books 400+ Jobs/Week While You Sleep (Contractors Are Waking Up FAST!). In this eye-opening episode, suave Italian powerhouse Federico Crivelli (from Avoca AI—YC-backed, exploding in the trades) sits down with me to reveal the brutal truth: AI isn't replacing your team—it's supercharging it. From 90%+ answer rates to human-in-the-loop r...

I’m gonna be blunt—most contractors don’t have a lead problem… they have a “they don’t ask” problem. Is this maybe you? Today I brought in the guy who’s helped businesses 25x, 50x—some even 75x—their referral results, and we’re breaking down how to turn your customer list into a pipeline. Meet Murphy Nadauld CEO of ReferPro. Murphy has built a system to unlock it without spreadsheets, “golden tick...

I’m gonna say what a lot of you don’t want to hear—if you’re bragging about “leads” but your revenue isn’t moving, you’re not growing… you’re just paying for activity. This is not marketing!  Today I’ve got Kevin LeSage on, and we’re ripping the mask off the fake metrics—because you can fake clicks, you can fake conversions… but you can’t fake revenue! Your Big Takeaways: 60% of unique leads never...

ServiceTitan isn’t “good” or “bad”—it’s a mirror. And for a lot of contractors, what they see in that mirror is messy: broken processes, workarounds, numbers you can’t trust, and a pricebook that feels like a never-ending fight. In this episode, the BlueCollar Nerd–Richard Koberger and I go straight into the good, the bad, and the ugly—why onboarding feels like 90–180 days of chaos, why most teams...

If you're in home services (HVAC, roofing, plumbing, garage doors, etc.) and tired of playing small—this episode will light a fire under you. Warning: Mindset shifts ahead. Poor-minded? You might want to skip this one. In this raw, no-BS episode, garage door legend and my friend Tommy Mello, who bootstrapped A1 Garage Door Service into a national powerhouse doing $300M+ revenue, 1,500+ employees,...

Marketing is getting more expensive and competitive—yet most owners WASTE thousands chasing vanity metrics (clicks, leads) that don’t turn into real revenue. Meet Michael Cooney who built WhatConverts to fix this: track every call, transcription, quote value, and true sales outcome so you know exactly what’s working and what’s bleeding cash. Stop guessing where your marketing dollars go! Highlight...

If “no one wants to work” is your excuse, you’re not recruiting—you NEED this episode! “I can’t find good help.” Have you ever said that before? Did you know it is the #1 excuse k*lling home service businesses?—My guest Kelly Rowlett is here to prove that there ARE good employees out there just waiting for the right home service business. In this raw episode, she exposes why most owners are invisi...

He lost sleep, almost lost his mind, and watched his priorities crash—then rebuilt everything on faith, numbers, and zero tolerance for bullsh*t.. From $10M chained to insurance hell—endless adjuster fights, massive AR headaches, and staff stealing jobs right under his nose—to $78M straight retail in ONE insane year. Joe Boyd didn’t just flip his roofing business… he survived lawsuits, tech meltdo...

WELCOME TO THE NEWLY BRANDED PODCAST!  Bigger, better, jam packed with the topics you need answers to and seasoned guests here to help!  I bring to you 🥁🥁🥁…… 💪⚡️BUILD IT TO SELL IT ⚡️💪 WARNING! If you’re not willing to check your ego, this conversation will make you uncomfortable—in the best way This episode HITS HARD for those that need it!  If you’re building a team, carrying weight, and...

After watching hundreds of contractors try to scale, one truth keeps showing up—systems beat hustle every time. In this episode, I sit down with Dan Claps, serial entrepreneur and founder of Voda Cleaning & Restoration, a fast-scaling home services franchise with 100 locations and $60M+ in system-wide revenue.  If you’ve ever wondered whether to build it yourself or buy a proven system, this c...

In this episode, I sit down with guest Joseph McEvoy, founder of MTM Recruiting, to unpack what it really takes to build, scale, and sustain a recruiting engine inside home services. Joe isn’t guessing—he spent a decade inside one of the largest door-to-door machines in the country and helped scale a company from $100M to over a billion dollars by treating recruiting like sales! This conversation...

Some people chase clicks. I chase coverage. In this episode, I sat down with Gage Donovan of Johnson Media Group. We peeled back the layers on something most marketers either misunderstand or completely ignore: why brand beats tactics when the storm hits. Gage might only be 25, but don’t let the age fool you—he’s placed over $50 million in paid media, manages 3,000+ billboards nationwide, and unde...

*HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This is gonna be YOUR year!  Just a little reminder: Build It to Sell It will be launching soon! Most people think wealth hits like a lightning strike ⚡️  They’re wrong! It builds like a storm system—slow at first, then all at once. In this episode, I sat down with Derik Kline, founder of HailTrace, and we got real about what it actually takes to build wealth, scale a SaaS busin...

What if the fear you’re trying to get rid of is actually the reason you’re dangerous? In this episode, we get brutally honest about what happens before the lights turn on — the anxiety, the paralysis, the pit in your stomach, and the internal voice that says, “Nobody cares how you feel. Go get it done.” Eddie Alvarez is back (if you haven’t already seen part 1 go back and watch first) and he break...

Happy Holidays Exiters! Hope your day is filled with good food, family and love! Now onto today's podcast.. What happens when a man who made millions fist-fighting at the highest level takes that same obsession, discipline, and humility into business? Step into the ring and find out! Meet Eddie Alvarez — the only fighter in history to hold world titles in both UFC and Bellator — for one of the mos...

Warning: Once you hear this, you won’t be able to unsee how much money you’re leaving behind.  Most contractors are leaving millions on the table — and they don’t even know it! In this episode, we break down why financing isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s the difference between scaling and stalling. From why close rates drop 20% if financing isn’t introduced early, to how simplifying payment plans can...