From Family Business to Legacy: How Trey McWilliams Built Blue Cardinal Home Services

What does it take to grow a family HVAC business into a multi-location platform, without losing your values?

For Trey McWilliams, the answer comes down to leadership, craftsmanship, and responsibility. In this episode of Construction Champions, host Ron Nussbaum sits down with Trey, the third-generation HVAC leader and founder of Blue Cardinal Home Services, to explore how legacy businesses can evolve the right way.

This is a story about balancing tradition and innovation, family and growth, profit and purpose.

Building Beyond the Family Name

When Trey took over the family business, McWilliams & Son Heating and Air Conditioning, he faced the same challenge many family businesses do, how to grow without losing the personal touch that made the company special.

Instead of chasing quick expansion or outside capital, Trey built growth around his core principles: craftsmanship, service, and integrity.

“You can grow fast, or you can grow right. The difference is whether your people come with you,” Trey says.

That philosophy led to the creation of Blue Cardinal Home Services, a platform designed to empower operators, not replace them.

The Tradesman First Leadership Mindset

Trey’s success is rooted in a tradesman-first approach to leadership.

While many companies try to scale through sales scripts and call volume, Trey believes leadership starts in the field, with technicians who take pride in solving problems and serving customers.

He’s the kind of leader who knows that culture doesn’t come from the top down. It’s built every day in the trenches, in the homes of customers, by the people who wear your logo.

“If you want to build something that lasts, make your people the heroes,” he says.

Scaling Without Selling Your Soul

Growth doesn’t have to mean selling out.

Trey made it clear that success in the trades doesn’t have to come from private equity deals or rollups. Instead, he focused on building systems, creating leadership pipelines, and developing regional operators who share his values.

This approach allows Blue Cardinal to grow while still maintaining the heart of a local business, one that customers trust, and employees are proud to work for.

He calls it “working yourself out of a job” empowering others to lead so the business can outlive the founder.

Building Systems That Serve People

Blue Cardinal Home Services isn’t just another home service company. It’s a platform for growth built around a simple belief: when you take care of your people, your people take care of your customers.

By implementing the right dispatch systems, technician ratios, and customer experience processes, Trey created predictable performance without burning out his team.

“Our job is to create opportunity. If we do that, everything else falls into place.”

From HVAC to plumbing and electrical, Blue Cardinal helps local operators scale sustainably without giving up their name, culture, or community roots.

The Power of Legacy

At the heart of Trey’s journey is one powerful question:“If not me, then who?”

That question drives his mission to honor his family’s legacy while preparing the next generation of trades leaders to carry the torch.

He’s proof that growth doesn’t have to mean greed, and succession doesn’t have to mean surrender.

True champions build something that lasts for their family, their people, and their industry.

About Trey McWilliams

Name: Trey McWilliams
Company: Blue Cardinal Home Services / McWilliams & Son
Title: Founder & CEO
Specialty: HVAC, plumbing, and electrical home service growth platform
Website: bluecardinalhomeservices.com
Email: trey@mcwilliamsandson.com

How BuilderComs Fits In

When your business starts growing, communication can make or break your success.

That’s where BuilderComs comes in, the platform that powers communication for construction and service businesses. With centralized messaging, automated updates, and real-time visibility across projects, BuilderComs helps growing companies stay connected as they scale.

Learn more at www.buildercoms.com