In today’s HVAC landscape, owners are inundated with comparison traps. They’re exposed to a parade of revenue snapshots accompanied by picture-perfect, curated shop tours and “hockey-stick growth” narratives. For Alyssa Rogers, who co-owns Rogers Heating & Cooling in Southern Virginia, the last two years brought a powerful realization along with them: those highlight reels can quietly erode an owner’s clarity. The more she watched what others were doing, the easier it became to overlook what she wanted their company to become.
But the turning point wasn’t a conference, a book, or a new KPI. It was a conversation across the kitchen table with her husband and co-owner, Joey. Alyssa told him she wasn’t enjoying the business the way she once had. In return, he offered a truth she hadn’t given herself permission to see: “You have to get rid of some things.” Letting go—delegating deeply and deliberately—became the first step toward rediscovering her passion for the work.
Today, Alyssa is a vocal advocate for a more grounded definition of success: growth that aligns with the life you want, not the life you think you’re supposed to chase.
Building a Business Around the Work Only You Can Do
Alyssa’s leadership philosophy centers on one principle: know what you’re good at, and build a team that shines alongside you. After years of wearing every hat—from finance to HR to marketing—she realized the company could no longer scale on grit alone. The question shifted from “How do I keep doing more?” to “How do I structure the business so each person is doing their best work?”
Her first major offload was also her most intimidating: accounts receivable and accounts payable. “My entire life consisted of entering bills, paying bills, and collecting money,” she recalls. Handing over the financial controls felt terrifying—but it transformed her day-to-day life and helped the company move forward with more clarity and professionalism.
The bigger lesson? Owners can’t lead effectively when they’re buried in tasks that drain them. Delegation isn’t a luxury; it’s a responsibility to the business and the people inside it.
Why Rewriting the Story of the Trades Matters More Than Ever
When Alyssa entered HVAC, she didn’t know what a heat pump was. Having spent years in corporate America, she saw the trades through a lens shared by many outsiders; namely, she saw it as a field with plenty of technicians and tools, but also one short on opportunity. However, that perception shattered quickly.
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What she discovered was an industry full of people willing to mentor, answer questions, and share openly—a level of generosity she hadn’t seen elsewhere. “Every single person is willing to help,” she says, reflecting on how consistently leaders in the trades respond when she reaches out.
Equally misunderstood, she argues, is the breadth of roles available. The trades need AP, HR, customer service, finance, sales, and marketing talent—not just technicians. And these roles offer not only stable livelihoods but genuine upward mobility.
Changing the perception of the trades, Alyssa believes, is essential for attracting the next generation—people who want to build a career but don’t yet realize that HVAC offers a place for their skills, passions, and ambitions.
Community as a Competitive Advantage
While many contractors invest heavily in digital marketing, Alyssa doubled down on something more personal: community engagement. Her grassroots approach centers around a weekly podcast, Hello Hello, which spotlights local leaders, small businesses, nonprofits, and members of her own team. What began as a simple idea has grown into a regional platform with more than 30,000 weekly listens—nearly the size of the entire population of the surrounding area.
The impact has been significant: stronger brand trust, deeper local ties, and a steady stream of customers who first encountered Rogers Heating & Cooling through the show. In fact, an estimated 95% of podcast guests have become customers.
But Alyssa is clear that the podcast isn’t a promotional vehicle — it’s a community resource. By elevating the stories of others, she has become a connector in Southern Virginia, building what she jokingly calls her “own chamber of commerce.” This commitment to authenticity and service, she believes, is what truly differentiates them from private-equity-backed competitors operating hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Creating a Team Culture That Actually Works
Inside the company, Alyssa and Joey build culture through shared goals and the intentional visibility of those goals. Every team member identifies their personal, professional, and financial goals for the next one to three years—and those goals aren’t tucked away in a manager’s drawer. They’re shared openly, displayed publicly, and used to create accountability across the organization.
By making these goals a collective conversation, the team supports each other’s progress and avoids the kind of silent burnout Alyssa herself experienced. “We want to have those conversations all the time… so they don’t get to that point,” she explains.
The second cornerstone of the culture is simple but powerful: no customer left behind. The company aims to “come in to win every day”—not through perfection, but through consistent, customer-first effort.
The model is straightforward: look after your team so they can look after your customers, and your customers will look after the business.
Practical Ways Contractors Can Adopt Alyssa’s Approach
Clarify your real goals—not the Internet’s.
Ask: Do I actually want a $10M business, or do I want a great $2M business with less pressure? Align strategy with desire, not comparison.
Audit your hats.
List everything you handle personally. Circle only the tasks that energize you or require your unique strengths. Begin delegating the rest—starting with the tasks draining the most mental bandwidth.
Make staff goals visible.
Keeping goals public creates a culture where ambition isn’t singular and silent, but rather seen and shared. It also allows peers to share a sense of purpose and accountability towards the goals of the group.
Increase community proximity.
Whether it’s a podcast, local events, or partnerships, be present. Authentic visibility beats generic advertising.
Normalize asking for help.
Owners prevent burnout in their people and teams by communicating openly and staying approachable.
Grow in the Way That Serves You — and Your Community
As Alyssa looks ahead, her message to contractors is direct: growth is meaningful only when it aligns with who you want to be. Chasing someone else’s milestones leads to fatigue, misalignment, and compromise. But choosing the scale, speed, and style of growth that fit your life—that creates a business you can love for decades.
“You have to be honest with yourself,” she says. “It’s okay to be really good where you are.”
This kind of grounded clarity is exactly what the trades need more of—leaders willing to build not just bigger companies, but better ones.
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