Greg Crumpton’s Entrepreneurial Journey in the HVAC Industry: From Tradesman to Skilled Trades Expert and Industry Leader

Hi. I'm Greg Crumpton, and I wanted to take just a moment to talk about how I became active in the HDAC industry. And what it took to build a company, sell a company, and now work with one of the largest players in the space. My journey started as a a tradesman, a craft man, in a service truck in the HVAC community for your apprenticeship, just really enjoy the trade. As I was, a journeyman and working with customers and working on equipment theory, figuring out exactly what I wanted to do in the trade. I realized that the mission critical data center world was where I belong. And, so I began to build a a path at first mentally and then physically, how to become a business owner, part of that was understanding the business side of the HVAC world, including finance, accounting, dealing with vendors, all the things that that it takes to go into owning the company. I just really enjoyed that piece of it. My wife, and I started the company, ran it successfully. For about fifteen years and sold it to service logic where I currently work. There there were certain milestones along the way I think each of us know what those are when they occur. Maybe it was graduating from school, realizing that you are out on your own now. Maybe it was working with a customer and finding a unique solution to their problem that no one else had yet, and they gave you some prop for that. And then you eventually blossom into where you want to go, but you have to build that road map, but, technically, or engineering, whatever your background is. Understand business. You don't have to have a an accounting degree, but go ahead and and get some training and understand the business model and how to do basic accounting because you always need that. So I'm entering my forty second year in the HVAC industry. It's been quite a ride. And obviously, would those years come a lot of advancements and everything becoming digital. Our industry continues to evolve at at really a a record pace right now. And so refreshing to see. I feel like that as a technician early on, things were rather stagnant. And it really the turn of the millennium, I guess, two thousand. Things really started picking up speed as far as, automation controls. And everything becoming connected. It's such an advanced world right now. We have equipment that talks to us via OT. We have tools that are Bluetooth and IoT based. It's just really an exciting time, to be in the business. First of all, but really rewarding to see the evolution and the continued, metamorphosis of our industry And if you're going to stay in this industry, hopefully, for as long as I did or have, I'm not going anywhere. You're going to continue to have to stay up to speed on what's relevant. I'm right now in Denver, Colorado at a conference. Where all the major high performance computer people come to play. And right now, the big push is liquid cooling direct to the, microprocessor chip within the computer. So You have to stay current, you have to stay stay diligent about what you're going to be working on and really look two steps ahead of what you're likely to be working on even if you aren't today so that you can train yourself a and secondly make sure that your work force is ready to embrace new technology that will be coming down the pipe. If you're in the skilled trades right now and you have the desire to work for your self or own a company, it is certainly obtainable. Know that it's going to be difficult, know that it's going to be probably the hard than you've ever done. But know that how rewarding it is that you can build a company, especially a company of like minded people that want to be with you for the right reason such a rewarding career. I do, encourage you to study, not only your your crap, as far as HVAC, in my instance, or computers and understanding heat generation, which is where I I tend to go to. But understand the business, understand people, understand things like, e q, how to communicate, best ways to communicate with multiple generations as we have right now, five generations in the workplace and just because you're trying to get across a message, you're going to speak in a language that you understand. You have to make sure you understand that the five generations you may be talking to from an eighteen year old to a sixty eight year old. They all speak a little bit of a different language, and you have to make sure you understand people saw it of it before you can serve them well, your family well, and ultimately your customer that you're trying to take care of. The skilled trades HVAC pipe fitting welding, plumbing, electrical work, carpenter, you name it. If you use your hands and your brain to do it, you're never going to be outsourced. There's never been a better time for a young person, or a retiring a military service person to get involved in the trades. It is a lifelong fulfilling career that you can have that pays well you'll never be without word. I can tell you that after forty years plus in this industry, I've never seen people that really cared about their job who continue to invest in themselves and serve their their company well. I've never seen those people without work. As you see today, there's more and more people who choose not to work with their hands and their brain simultaneously. There, I'm telling you, is a wide open field for you to get in. HVAC plumbing pipe fitting, steam fitting, sprinkler fitting, electrical, building automation, I could I could go on and on. But if you have the desire to work, you can always make a good living, and you'll never be without a job.