Dear Reader,
A tech showed up at Matt Posda’s house and gave him the worst service experience of his life. Matt came from finance. He didn’t know anything about the trades. But he knew what bad looked like. And it made him angry enough to go buy a business.
That was January 2017. The company was 98% new construction. Matt built the service side from scratch.
By 2024, Call Dad of the Carolinas did $20.4 million. In 2025, just shy of $35 million. This year, they’re targeting north of $55 million. And Matt’s vision, the number I saw on his spreadsheet two years ago, is $250 million. Still privately owned. No private equity.
I asked him where the number came from. He said, “Some guy that doesn’t exist told me I can’t build a business from sub a million to 250 million.” He doesn’t know who the guy is. But he wakes up every morning and that guy is telling him he can’t do it.
Here’s the challenge. Matt is in Charlotte. If you know the trades, you know what that means.
Morris Jenkins.
Matt calls them the best operators in the world, and he means it.
So instead of going head-to-head in one city, he did something different. He built many castles on many hills. Nine markets across North and South Carolina. Every single day, his team shifts capacity across the entire map to balance the business in real time.
That takes two things. Techs you can produce fast. And managers you can trust completely.
Matt built an apprenticeship program that’s put ten classes through since 2022. Eight-week kickoff. Twenty students per class.
A quarter million per cycle. $2.5 million invested in training last year alone. Less than 2% of applicants make it through a seven-step funnel. He designed the friction on purpose. If they can’t figure out how to turn on a camera for a video interview, they won’t figure out the technical side of the job.
That’s how he builds techs fast. The system does the work.
But managers are different. A manager four and a half hours from your office has to carry the culture without you in the room. You can’t build that in eight weeks. That takes years of trust, relationship, and proving they can hold the line when nobody’s watching.
Build techs fast. Build managers slow. That’s how you scale without losing your soul.
Matt said something in our pre-interview that I’ve been thinking about since.
He said, “I tend to find myself motivated by negativity. Like a firefighter mentality.” I know exactly what he means. This week, I did the same thing. I was so focused on the next improvement that I forgot to celebrate the person who got us here.
That’s the blessing and the curse of the high-driver personality. You’re always charging the next hill. And sometimes the people beside you just needed to hear that you’re proud of what they already climbed.
If you’re trying to figure out how to scale beyond yourself, how to replicate your standards across people and distance, Matt is doing it. And if you need help building the system that makes it possible, that’s exactly where we come in.
How it works
You can start anywhere:
- Try a tool or training with no commitment – Resources
- Join a live session and see how it feels
- Book a call to talk with a coach and get matched with a Growth Partner
No big pitch. No pressure. A clear next step based on your current needs.
In This Episode, You'll Learn:
- How Matt built Call Dad from under $1M to $35M — and why he’s targeting $250M
- Why he competes in nine cities instead of going head to head with Morris Jenkins in Charlotte
- The seven-step recruiting funnel with less than 2% acceptance rate
- How Call Dad invests $2.5 million a year in an apprenticeship program that actually works
- Why Matt builds techs fast through a system and managers slow through trust
- The “100% fast, 70% correct” philosophy and why moving slow has burned him worse than moving fast
- How they shift capacity across nine markets every single day
- Why motivation can’t be coached into people who don’t have it — and how to spot the difference
Episode Chapters & Summary
1. Motivated by Negativity: The Firefighter Mentality
Matt opens with a confession most owners won't make. He's motivated by problems. He wakes up hunting for what's broken. It's the engine that built Call Dad — but it's also the thing that makes people around him feel like he's never satisfied. Todd shares his own version of the same mistake. The maturity is learning when to hunt and when to celebrate.
Key Takeaways:
- High-driver personalities can confuse improvement mode with disappointment
- The people around you hear what you didn't say as loudly as what you did
- Maturity is knowing when you're gathering information vs. sharing it
- Celebrate the win before you charge the next hill
2. 100% Fast, 70% Correct
Matt's operating philosophy. Move fast. Accept that you'll be wrong 30% of the time. Dust yourself off and fix it. He's been burned worse by moving slow than by moving fast — and he's built a culture where failure is acceptable as long as you clean it up and move forward. The whole organization has to be on board with that ethos or it doesn't work.
Key Takeaways:
- Moving slow has cost Matt more than moving fast ever has
- Failure is acceptable — staying down isn't
- The culture has to collectively accept that mistakes happen
- If the team fears failure, they'll stop moving
3. From Finance to the Trades: What Surprised Him
Matt came from Wall Street hours and Type A intensity. His biggest surprise: not everyone wants to be texting at 2 a.m. The trades workforce is different — and Matt had to learn that his pace isn't everyone's pace. But what surprised him in a good way was the loyalty and the grit. The people who show up in this industry show up with everything they've got.
Key Takeaways:
- You can't apply finance-world intensity to a trades workforce and expect the same response
- The loyalty and grit in the trades is unlike any other industry
- Adjusting your expectations doesn't mean lowering your standards
- Some people you can't save — no matter how much you want to
4. Many Castles on Many Hills: The Multi-Location Strategy
Charlotte is Morris Jenkins territory. Matt respects them as the best operators in the world. Instead of fighting for one city, he built across nine markets in North and South Carolina. Every day, the team shifts capacity across the entire map — Raleigh to Greensboro to Winston to Hickory to Charlotte to Columbia to Charleston. Alan calls it a nightmare. Matt says it doesn't even feel like a thing anymore.
Key Takeaways:
- If the dominant player owns one city, build many castles on many hills
- Daily capacity shifting across nine markets keeps every location productive
- What seems like an operational nightmare becomes invisible with the right systems
- Matt's respect for Morris Jenkins is part of what drives his own standard
5. Build Techs Fast: The Apprenticeship Machine
Call Dad's apprenticeship program is the engine. Ten classes since 2022. Eight-week kickoff. Twenty students. $200K–$250K per cycle. $2.5 million invested last year. But the real fight isn't getting them in — it's keeping the cycle going. Six months after techs hit the field, managers don't want to send them back to class. Matt holds the line. The education never stops.
Key Takeaways:
- The program is expensive and painful — and it pays off long term
- Most companies say they have a training program but there's dust on the tables
- The hardest part is pulling producing techs back for continued education
- Repetition matters — people need to be reminded more than they need to be taught
6. Build Managers Slow: Trust Takes Years
You can build a tech in eight weeks. You can't build a manager in eight weeks. A manager four and a half hours from your office has to carry the culture without you in the room. That takes years of trust, relationship, and proving they can hold the line. Matt is intentional about this — he promotes from within, lets people grow into the role, and doesn't rush the process even when the business is growing faster than the people.
Key Takeaways:
- Techs are built through a system — managers are built through relationship and time
- A manager far from the home office has to carry the culture solo
- Promoting from within protects the culture better than outside hires
- The business will always grow faster than the people — be patient with the right ones
7. The Recruiting Funnel: Less Than 2% Acceptance
Seven steps. Video interview. Assessments. Recruiter screen. Service manager interview. Regional manager interview. COO interview with a case study test. Less than 2% make it through. Matt designed the friction on purpose — if they can't figure out how to turn on a camera for a video interview, they won't figure out the technical side of the job. The funnel is the filter.
Key Takeaways:
- Designed bureaucracy filters for the qualities you can't train
- If they won't do the work to get in, they won't do the work once they're in
- Making it exclusive makes people want to be part of it
- The COO's final test: watch the video, take notes, answer questions — most fail
8. The $250 Million Vision
Matt's goal is $250 million. Still privately owned. No private equity. Just an imaginary guy who told him he couldn't do it — and Matt waking up every morning to prove him wrong. Todd believes he's a $100 million operator. Alan says it seems reasonable. And Matt's already eyeing Georgia and Tennessee for the next expansion.
Key Takeaways:
- The vision is $250M — from under $1M to a quarter billion, privately held
- Motivated by negativity means the imaginary doubter never goes quiet
- If he exits at that scale with decent profitability, it eclipses the largest trades sale in history
- Next up: Georgia and Tennessee
