We recently connected with Jay Monday and have shared our conversation below.

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Jay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style.

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My first job was landscaping, I would work after school and on weekends for the company that my mom ran. I personally never hit any waterlines digging, but our guys hit them all the time and it was super expensive for us to get the loan fixed even though we dug it up and got it already. I watched a plumber come in, make the repair and have it done in less than an hour. Later, when I was at the office talking to my mom, she told me how much that service cost and I was blown away. We had done all the work and all he had to do was solder a couple couplings. She said, that’s what you have to pay when you can’t do it yourself.

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I took that as motivation, I went down to Home Depot, and I talked to the gentleman in the plumbing department and he helped me get all of the materials and tools needed in order to figure out how to solder plumbing. Now this was way before YouTube or any other ways of learning on the Internet. This was during the time when you had to go to a trade school in order to learn a trade.

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I was determined to figure this out, I had a game plan. I cut the copper, I put it together, and I spelled my mom‘s name out in copper. Not knowing plumbing like I do today, I had to make a couple trips back to Home Depot, but in the end I had some beautiful plumbing artwork to impress my mom with.

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After school, I headed to the office like normal but this time I had something that I was truly proud of. I propped my creation up against a small boulder in front of the office. Got out my little specially hose adapter and connected the hose bib at the office to my mom’s name spelled out in copper and sat back for a minute as I patted myself on the back. Shiny copper, no ugly solder drips & most importantly, no leaks!!

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My mom, super busy lady running around at 100 miles an hour managed to find time to take a breather so that I can drag her outside for a surprise. She opened the door, went out on the patio and then noticed my artwork. The look on her face was of confusion but then pride. I immediately told her that I did it and I figured it out all on my own and that next time one of our guys had a water line. I wanted the opportunity to fix it. She said done, give me a big hug and of course told me she loves me and is proud of me. That along is enough to push you to achieve greatness.

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My moment had arrived, the guys had hit another waterline. They dug it out. They cleaned up the areas as best as possible so it would be easy to access, just like we always did. Water was off so I cut the copper line, let the water bleed out, so it was dry. I cleaned the copper extremely well and I went to work. 20 minutes later, water line was back on, and the repair was solid. Took out my camera, yes camera because we didn’t have fancy Apple & Samsung cell phones like today and I took a couple photos. When I got back to the office, I showed my mom my work, she said you’re our plumber from here on out.

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We didn’t have the money to go to a trade school & no one was offering apprenticeships. If you wanted to learn something, you had to work hard at figuring it out. For the next three summers, I learned construction with my uncle. He taught me how to read plans and  he said engineers and architects go to school and they don’t have any actual experience building with their own hands so there’s a lot of improvising and adapting that must be done in order to achieve things like delivering air to rooms with no space for ductwork. This was truly my first apprenticeship. I learned things using my brain in my hands, things that you would never learn in school.

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After I got out of the military, I got back into air-conditioning and plumbing. I started building a friend’s air-conditioning company and one of the things I noticed was poor habits and low quality workmanship. I’ve always taken pride and everything I do. To this day, I study our codebooks in order to make sure that I’m building to the newest codes possible so my customers are safe for decades to come. My technicians and I are constantly training, even though we’ve been through the certification courses, that are only required once in your life, we take them over and over again. Most companies don’t even bother showing up for one certification sadly.

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I realized the best way to ensure honor, integrity and quality is to teach it so for the last 26 years I have offered apprenticeships for every company I built as well as my own. It’s created quite a bond with many people, my longest employee of 18 years is my reward. It’s helped several great technicians go out on their own and they’re also successful due to their quality and workmanship. Even though we are competitors, we continue to communicate and even work together. Recommend each other, help each other out & they still come for me when they need advice or want to confirm codes.

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Now, more than ever, I’m constantly looking for young men and women who don’t enjoy learning from books, they need something to be proud of, and they want to do it with their own hands. The trades are more important more than ever, computers and machines will never crawl underneath your sink to fix a leak or jump up in an attic to do some ductwork. Learning a trade will feed you for the rest of your life, you can go anywhere in the world and be able to find work.

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Jay, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

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While in high school, I started learning plumbing after school and on weekends. During the summers, I would work with my uncle doing construction. After high school I left for the military. When I exited out of the military, I started doing business consulting & my first customer was a friend in the air-conditioning business. I helped him grow his company and I brought plumbing in as well. I eventually went out on my own after building several companies. Not counting my earlier years I’ve been in the industry for 26 consistent years.

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Our company holds an impressive 5 star rating for over 20 years. The majority of companies can’t say that. We’ve won Best of Houzz consecutively from 2018 to 2026. We are listed as the top contractors in our field of air-conditioning and plumbing through Expertise, which is a company that ranks businesses nationally. from 2016 to present consecutively as well. We were featured on Rich Noonan‘s “BEST OF THE BEST” where he highlighted the best contractors in the state of Arizona and we were #1. We’ve also been featured in several magazines and publications. All of this is due to a lifetime of hard work, honor, and integrity. Every day, my technicians and myself deliver the best in quality and service. We’ve separated ourselves from the low Industries standards and we’ve raised the bar. We work hard at being a pillar in our community, we donate our time to help military/veterans and families in need. We do this because we are proud of what we do and we love what we do. Helping customers solve problems that others can’t, making their homes comfortable and amazing. That’s our goal.

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What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

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My quality of workmanship is what has paved the road of success in building my reputation. My work is never sloppy, rushed or messy and it’s always done to code. My communication with my customers is great, I listen to them, I help them understand why the services are needed. I helped them with their wants and their needs. I get things done right the first time, I fix things that others can’t. I take the worry out of my customer’s day so they can get back to focusing on enjoying life.

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What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

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The best source of new clients and clients of the past has always been referrals.

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A lot of companies put a lot of effort in advertising so that you’re constantly seeing the company's name. You don’t know the company or the owner, you don’t know the quality of their work. You just see them blasted everywhere on billboards, the television or the first page of Google. Nowadays reviews are even bought, they’re not real, they’re not organic from real customers. The big companies do this. They pay for thousands of reviews to push them up in the search engines. You take a big chance, letting one of these companies in your home. You hear horror stories of pushy salesman, sketchy employees, uneasy/uncomfortable feelings in your own home, and of course, the bitter taste of poor workmanship. Having to call someone else out to fix something you paid a lot of money for, but you definitely don’t want that company back in your house.

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I’ve built my company delivering the highest quality services. I post photos & videos of our work so that others can see how clean & perfect it is. Everything we do is to code in order to protect our customers. Going above and beyond from start to finish is what keeps our customers coming back but also this turns into the best form of advertisement. Our customers love our customer service and workmanship so much that they will refer us to everyone they know. Our reviews are organic, they come from actual customers. We even have customers do video testimonial so that you can see actual people, not actors talking about their experiencing happiness. Nothing is better than answering the phone and the first thing out of our new customer’s mouth is we chose you because we looked you up and you’re the best and that’s what we want.

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