In 2015, in her early 30s, while in the military thinking of a backup plan, launched a digital marketing business. Later on, it was niched down to HVAC division. Now on par to hitting 7 figures with 8 FTEs (Steph Whittle)

Grow A Small Business Podcast

In this episode, Troy interviews Steph Whittle, founder of HVAC Growth Lab. She's based in Austin, Texas, United States. HVAC is an acronym that stands for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. Basically, working with the contractors who do all the heating and cooling work in your home.

In 2020, during COVID, decided to niche down her digital marketing business and focus on the HVAC industry with a mission to help 500 of America's top HVAC contractors double their business through profitable marketing by 2027.

Steph says the most stressful point is when COVID hit, there was just so much uncertainty at the time. Like, where's this going to go? She didn’t like the conversations, the sales conversations with prospects, she was starting to feel defeated. But she just kept putting one foot forward, sharing to people what she knows pertaining to HVAC industry.

This Cast Covers:

• How a small talk on the military plane while on mission inspired her to learn marketing
• Why she niched down to HVAC industry
• Fun fact about Legionnaires' disease
• How funding the first 2 years through day trading stock hinder their growth
• The benefits of having two kinds of mentors - a tactical and strategic
• The challenge of trying to improve everything by 1%
• How she used to avoid problems but is now embracing it
• How she relates to Drew Barrymore’s character from the movie ‘50 First Dates’

Links:

• Josh Nelson’s Seven Figure Agency
• Wave Apps

Additional Resources:

• Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin Freiberg
• The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

Quotes:

“Anyone who's good at sales should never be doing less than 250k a year in income. And anyone good at marketing should never be doing less than a million a year in income.” — Steph Whittle

“Success is being able to do what you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, with whomever you want.” — Steph Whittle

“Focus on the volume and perfection will come.” — Steph Whittle

“I think sometimes when you have a little too much funding, you start to get sloppy, and I don't ever want to get sloppy.” — Steph Whittle

“The best way to generate startup revenue, is to get customers and get them to pay you.” — Steph Whittle