From Wrench Turner to Paycheck Signer
What does it really take to go from turning wrenches to signing the paychecks? When you’re on the crew, a mistake means a bad day. When you own the company, a mistake could mean losing the house. The leap from technician to owner demands a new mindset, a longer view, and the willingness to put your team’s future ahead of your own.
In this episode of Cracking the Code, Victor Updike, owner of Masterworks Mechanical shares his journey from a third-generation wheat farmer’s son to buying the company he once dreamed of working for. He opens up about how crew relationships shifted overnight, the fallout that comes with any transition, the weight of protecting the futures of people who plan to retire under his roof and how to handle it all.
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00:00:00:06 – 00:00:14:08
When you go from turning wrenches to signing the paychecks, everything changes, including your relationships.
00:00:14:09 – 00:00:44:03
Welcome back to Cracking the Code, where we break down the real world strategies, decisions, and lessons that help contractors build stronger, more profitable, and less stressful business. I’m David Holt, third generation Hvac contractor, educator, and business coach. And today’s conversation is one that a lot of people in this industry think about, but not everyone actually does. What happens when you go from being an employee to owning the company you work for?
00:00:44:04 – 00:01:08:06
Joining me today is Victor Updike, owner of Masterworks Mechanical out in Craig, Colorado. Victor story is one that hits close to home for a lot of contractors. He didn’t start out as the owner. He worked in the business, learn the trade, built relationships, and then made the leap to buy the company from its founder. Now he’s not just leading the business, he’s doing it with his family by his side.
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Hey, Victor, welcome to the show. Hey, Dave. It’s great to be here. It’s going to be fun. Having a chance to talk with you. Victor, let’s start at the beginning, because I always think context matters. Tell us a little about your story. Like, how did you get into the trades in the first place? And what drew you into Hvac?
00:01:30:03 – 00:01:59:22
And how did you end up at masterworks mechanical? Well, it’s the silliest story, probably of any contractor that, is in our group. But, I was raised on a wheat farm, and when I approached 18, I told my dad I was going to continue on farming, and my dad said, no, I’m not going to let another generation starve to death on the farm.
00:02:00:00 – 00:02:26:18
You’re going to go to school. And it happened that a guy from a trade school was having a demonstration, and that got you out of class. So I, I signed up to go to that. And that was the first I heard about refrigeration and Hvac. Long story short, I took the course. I fell in love with it because being a farmer, we were mechanical anyway.
00:02:26:18 – 00:03:10:16
And what a great way to, to use your abilities. And from 18 all the way to the 36 years old that I am right now, I’ve done this trade, but I started for Dave in 2009, and I found in this business a difference. He was, heavily involved with National Comfort Institute, where he picked up some ideals of doing this trade a little different, with with a little bit more focus on quality and attention to details, and I, I just fell in love with the business model.
00:03:10:18 – 00:04:04:20
And when he got a little older, his son was in a different trade. He he was pursuing graphic design. So, between me and Dave, talking, me and my wife were able to buy this business and continue it forward. It was just like a a handoff to a surrogate family, if you will. In fact, even when we we officially took over, Dave brought in one of the town preachers, and we did a formal, transition, just like you would, you would, do the inheritance to your son in the Old Testament and, and we did that formally, and I, I got to tell you, I still think today that was a
00:04:04:20 – 00:04:46:21
big part of what made masterworks be so successful since we’ve had it. But that’s that’s kind of a funny story that, I like to tell. But since then, we mash the gas and, really tried to grow and develop the business while maintaining the same ideals of, there’s plenty of businesses doing just the production and the day to day mechanics of this trade, but to separate yourself, you could be the business that wants to do it a little better, a little more ethically, a little bit more comprehensively.
00:04:46:23 – 00:05:20:17
And so that’s where our full focus are. And that’s that’s the thing that we get out of being Negishi members and National Comfort Institute members is these two groups, collectively build us to another level than another level. And that’s my business model. Yeah, and that’s cool. And that’s actually, you know, we’re you and I first met was when I was actually working for National Institute for NCI, and, I did a little business coaching with you over that time.
00:05:20:17 – 00:05:43:00
In fact, I also did some business coaching for several years with your previous owner, Mr. Dave DeRose. So, shout out to Dave DeRose. Man, it was, it was a great time. It really enjoyed our our engagements on a regular basis. And, still always a pleasure to see you. And I think, if I remember correctly, I was the one that even introduced you to SGI many years ago.
00:05:43:00 – 00:06:09:15
Is that correct? That is correct. And from that first day, I’ve never I’ve never missed, a webinar or, or, summit that they had, because of that. But every one of our coaching sessions and I can’t tell you how many years that went for at the conclusion of them, I felt like somebody put a gold brick on my desk, and I I’ve just been collecting them all along.
00:06:09:15 – 00:06:28:11
But, yeah, I, I couldn’t offer more appreciation, than than the, the value that I got out of those coaching sessions. I’d recommend it for any business owner from 20 all the way up to 65.
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I appreciate that. So at some point, and this is this is critical at some point you go from a farmer, right. Or a farmer son. You go from a farmer son to trade school guy and then you get into the trades. Where was the farm located? In Craig, Colorado. It’s a third generation farm. In fact, recently we was able to buy the last remaining 40 acres that’s still in there.
00:06:56:01 – 00:07:25:22
So my son and daughter and now their kids will continue had on another couple generations. Obviously, it’s not a productive in producing, wheat farm anymore, but it’s it’s nice to have some of the original ground that they settled on in 1912. That’s crazy, man. That’s awesome. That’s that’s a that’s a that’s a big legacy right there. So getting on to the, the Hvac component, the mechanical business component.
00:07:25:22 – 00:07:52:20
And you guys do plumbing, electrical, you do some electrical work as well. I mean, other than Hvac or is it just Hvac and plumbing? It’s yeah, just Hvac and plumbing and refrigeration. Okay. Okay. So at some point you go from being one of the team, right? You’re running a truck. In fact, I remember when we did some, some research, amongst all your peers that you got the award for having the dirtiest truck, I think that was correct.
00:07:52:22 – 00:08:18:14
So at some point you go from being one of the team to thinking about ownership. So when did that idea first cross your mind? You know, it’s, funny story, but when I come out of trade school, the western slope of Colorado was an insanely depressed, Exxon had just moved out of the oil shale and you just couldn’t find a job.
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So at 18 years old, I opened up my first business. And, hey, you have the the chops to be able to put in the work, but at that point, you didn’t have the chops to know how to bring dollars and cents together. But that got me work to start building my experience. And and then eventually I went to work and, our local hospital and, and did their Hvac and stuff there.
00:08:51:00 – 00:09:31:00
So with those components of experience you developed throughout that time, I always wanted to go to work for masterworks because they’ve had all these separated his company from the other ones. And Dave approached me and after I had left the hospital and I went to work, there was kind of like my dream job. And as anybody on the crew that has any entrepreneurship in them, as you’re working the job, you always think, oh, if I had this, I’d, I’d try this or I, I would make this change.
00:09:31:02 – 00:09:56:21
And when Dave finally decided that it was time for him to go enjoy his life on a different thing, he looked to me to see if I was ready for it. And me and my wife, Amy, were and we took on that challenge. And, you know, put in those changes that you thought, oh, this might make it cool.
00:09:56:21 – 00:10:20:16
And some of them worked and some of them didn’t. And, currently, right now, my own son works here. He’s, the god of all of our installations right now. And, I guarantee you, in his mind, the same thing is going on, no doubt about it. And so, you know, thinking about that transition moment. Right?
00:10:20:16 – 00:10:44:15
Because this is really where things kind of get real. You made the decision to buy the company from Dave and Linda DeRose. And, what ultimately drove that decision? What made you and Amy say, yes, we’re ready for this. My whole life, whenever I was doing anything, I was always looking to the next step of whatever you master today.
00:10:44:17 – 00:11:09:00
So you always try to put the challenges in front of you of what you’re going to try to achieve and, hopefully be successful at. And while I was on the crew, that was always in my mind of, now that I’m here, what’s the next thing I need to do? What’s the next thing? And and that was just a natural progression.
00:11:09:02 – 00:11:39:03
As well as I have a huge commitment to this town and, Dave, build a business that was, a servant business to the community. We lived that. And I absolutely wanted to continue on with that same model. And mind, to have, an awesome place for people to work that paid a, a better wage than they could get just anywhere else.
00:11:39:05 – 00:12:08:19
Driven by the ethics that that maybe separate you from the other people. So part of it was I wanted to level up. Of course, the other part of it was, is I wanted continuity of the community. Having a company that cared about the community principles. So all of them dovetailed together and said, you and your wife should run this business.
00:12:08:21 – 00:12:30:13
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So I’m sure there’s been plenty of sleepless nights since then, since making that decision, as there always is when you run your own business. But this is really where it gets kind of interesting. You go from being a coworker with the crew to be in The boss, you know. How did that change your relationships with people on the crew?
00:12:30:15 – 00:13:06:17
Well, those relationships shift into a different model now. The people that you ate lunch with and, discussed what was wrong and what was right about the company. You had to make that separation, let them find the other person on the crew to do that with, because now you did have to move yourself to every decision you made had to make sense for how you keep the doors open next month and next year.
00:13:06:19 – 00:13:43:04
You changed your focus on, on just, the next year plan and the five year plan, or when you are on the crew, you were pretty comfortable with having your focus be on the next week and the next month plan. It’s it’s it’s enjoyable being the owner of the company as it was being on the crew, but you did have to have some differentiation between the guy you were when you was a crew member and the guy you were are when you’re protecting their future.
00:13:43:06 – 00:14:13:10
You know, a lot of our guys, our, our work and hear what the intent of they’re going to retire here. And if that’s going to happen, I have to make the right decisions through Covid and through this president and the next president. You always have to reshape your models so that you always win. I’ve never played a game of checkers that I didn’t try to win, and that was even against my grandma.
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So that that’s the principle I use.
00:14:19:22 – 00:14:45:11
That’s awesome. So did you find that some folks on your team treated you differently? And and maybe even more importantly, did you have to change how you showed up? Yeah. Yeah. You know, you’re going to have some of that. You had some that the relationship just kind of continued on the same. They, they, they realized that there, there was a new separation.
00:14:45:11 – 00:15:13:05
But oh, we even lost you. But it’s what you would consider in your own business is maybe your top tech. And it wasn’t because he was mad. It was because he had a different vision of the future of the company. And hey, here’s a young guy, probably 40, but he had put a lot into building the business.
00:15:13:05 – 00:15:40:06
So the day he left, we had a party and I gave him a gold watch. So, that was a nod to, hey, thanks for putting us here. But it wasn’t a, a feud. It was just it was going to be hard for him and me to line up our ideals, as now I’m running that. And. And then you guys, the the future has changed a little.
00:15:40:08 – 00:16:00:02
So you got to expect that a little. Yeah. In almost any transition. Yeah. In any transition you’re going to have some fallout. That’s just that’s just something that’s going to happen. And a lot of guys that are in the position that you’re in right now kind of underestimate this part. At least that’s been my experience. Was there a moment where it really hit you like, you know, this is different now?
00:16:00:02 – 00:16:17:21
When I go into masterworks now, it’s not like, you know, I go in the back door and I worry about getting the truck filled up and all that. It’s it’s different. You go in the front door and you’re signing the front of the check instead of just the back of the check, right. So was there a moment where it really hit you?
00:16:17:21 – 00:16:43:23
It’s like, man, this is really different. This is a this has been a tough decision, right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s for sure. It was, it was in the fact of no one that, your mistakes in the past meant that you had a bad day and your mistakes from this day forward might mean that you lost the house.
00:16:44:01 – 00:17:08:14
That was a big eye opening moment when you qualified it that way. Victor, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story and your perspective. These are the kind of real world experiences that helped move this industry forward. It’s not just those of us in the coaching and training world. It’s you as a willing participant, sharing your ideas that help others you know, not fall flat on their face sometimes.
00:17:08:14 – 00:17:27:05
Right? And do the right thing. So for everyone watching or listening, if this conversation hit home for you, make sure you subscribe and you don’t miss future episodes of Cracking the Code. And if you know someone who’s making that transition from technician to owner or even thinking about it, share this episode with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear.
00:17:27:05 – 00:17:31:09
Until then, keep learning, keep growing, and keep cracking the code.
