Brian sits down with JD Beck, owner of Mountain Valley Plumbing and HVAC, to talk about what it actually takes to go from employee to business owner in the trades.

JD's path wasn't a straight line. After four years as an Army engineer officer building runways and forward operating bases, he spent five years climbing the ladder in commercial elevators — field supervisor, department manager, covering Colorado and Wyoming. Good career, good trajectory. But the ceiling was closing in and nothing on the table felt right.

So he bought a plumbing and HVAC company instead.

Getting there was messier than expected. Deals fell through. A mechanical contractor he had under LOI unraveled in due diligence. A company he thought was locked up sold to someone else. He kept working his day job the whole time, visiting sellers at night when they d ...