I Host This Show. Here’s How a Diplomat Ended Up in HVAC.
Most people who interview HVAC owners either came up in the trade or are selling something to it. I did neither.
I spent 23 years as a US Foreign Service Officer, then built a small business from nothing and sold it, and then chose this industry on purpose. That route is the reason the questions on this show land where they do.
23 years in the US Foreign Service
What 23 Years in the Foreign Service Taught Me About Running a Company
US Foreign Service
- Postings and assignments
- Washington, DC · RS Gonzales
I’m a Harvard graduate and I served as a diplomat with the State Department in Afghanistan, Israel, Liberia, and Paris, where I was the USAID representative to the European Union. The job meant running large teams across borders and holding multi-million dollar programs together while the ground kept moving underneath them.
Take away the setting, and it’s the same job you’re doing. People, systems, money, and a plan that has to survive contact with Monday morning.
That experience shaped how I think about leadership, systems, and execution. And it’s the foundation I now bring to the businesses we serve.
2017 – 2022
The Company I Built, and Sold, Before I Ever Sold Marketing
2017. My husband and I started a tutoring business in Washington, DC. Nobody was coming to teach me how to grow it, so I taught myself digital marketing, positioning, systems, and operations while the business was already running.
2022. We sold it.
That’s the part that matters when I’m asking you questions. I’ve made a first hire that didn’t work out. I’ve watched a busy month fail to turn into money. When a guest starts describing the week they nearly packed it in, I’m not taking notes on an interesting story.
- 2017
My husband and I started a tutoring business in Washington, DC.
Nobody was coming to teach me how to grow it
- While the business was already running
I taught myself digital marketing, positioning, systems, and operations
- 2022
We sold it.
The lessons came from running it, not reading about it.
HVAC, and nothing else
Why I Work With HVAC Contractors and Nobody Else
I founded RS Gonzales in May 2023 and made a decision most marketing agencies never make. HVAC, and nothing else. No restaurants, no dentists, no everybody.
I did it because there’s a fight here worth picking. Private equity is buying up this trade, and an independent shop now competes against companies carrying budgets it can’t match. My position is that the independent owner still wins on the things money can’t buy quickly, and that most owners have never been shown how.
We run the agency on three things, and I run this show the same way.
Education
Show an owner how it works instead of keeping it mysterious
Transparency
Say the real number, including when it’s disappointing
Long-term partnerships
Build something that holds up in year three, not week three
Every episode is one more owner proving it can be done without selling.
Su’Coy Heating, AC & Duct Cleaning · Washington, DC
How I Know This Trade From the Inside
One of the companies we’ve built for is Su’Coy Heating, AC & Duct Cleaning in Washington, DC. Its founder, Derrick Conyers, got tired of waiting for trained technicians to turn up and started the Su’Coy Community Learning Center, where he’s trained and mentored hundreds of apprentices into the trade.
I’ve spent time inside that school and his business.
- The company
- Su’Coy Heating, AC & Duct Cleaning in Washington, DC
- The school
- Su’Coy Community Learning Center, where he’s trained and mentored hundreds of apprentices into the trade
On the show
What I’ll Ask You, and What I Won’t
I’ll ask what the number really was, what a decision cost you, and how many months went by before it started working. If you give me a vague answer, I’ll follow it with a specific question, because the specifics are the only part another owner can use.
I won’t push you to talk about anything you’d rather keep private. I won’t run a clip that lands differently out of context than it did in the room, and I won’t turn your episode into an advert for my agency.
You’ll see the whole thing before it publishes. If something needs to come out, it comes out and I won’t ask why.
From the host
If any of that sounds like a conversation you’d enjoy for an hour, I’d like to have it.
Hear how I ask before you decide whether to answer. If you’ve built something worth explaining, I’d like to ask you about it.
