Wayne Herring
00:00:0400:00:51
Hey, Kane Damico. It's good to have you with us today. Kane is the, co owner of Alliance Heating and Air Conditioning in Bridgeport, Connecticut. And, Kane, we're doing this, series of, podcasts and videos, with our members, the members of business builders so that anybody who's considering joining can get to know who they'll be working with, hanging out with, learning from, growing with, and if anybody joins to help them get to know you and the other members, kind of by watching some videos before they come to a live event, etcetera. So, just could you share with us a bit about, who you are and and help people get to know you and why you're in our group and what you're building, and we'll just see where we go from there.
Kane D'Amico
00:00:5200:04:39
Sure. So, I am, 47 years old. I am a husband, of 17 years. Right. Reese, beginning of August was our anniversary, 17 years. And I am a father, 2 kids. I have a 13 year old son, a 10 year old daughter, and I am a lifelong heating and air conditioning, person. My father was a heating and air conditioning guy. I Worked with him always as a as a child. As a kid growing up, and so I decided to go to, vocational high school and learn the trade and get my Certification in HVAC. And after I finished schooling and I graduated high school, I came to work here at Alliance Heating and air conditioning, just about 29 years ago. I've held almost every position in the company throughout those 29 years back in 2020. Another long tenured employee, Chuck, My partner and I were offered the opportunity to buy the business, so we did. The Alliance has been in business for over 40 years. 1979, it became a company started by 2 guys who I had the pleasure to work with both of them before they retired and finished their careers. And the 2nd generation of ownership, was also a long tenured employee, not a family member, but like family. He bought the company, and I worked for him for years until he retired, and then Chuck and I got offered the opportunity. So so here we are. It's a solid company. Been in our market for many years, and we have many long tenured employees here. Fucking I aren't even the longest employees in the company. There's another another fellow who's been with us for over 30 years, and then we have many employees between fifteen, 20 to 25 years with the company. So I have a lot of family and friends within this alliance community. And what we're building is a company where people can find a home, where people can come into our industry and into our business and feel like they found their forever employer, a place where they can be Taken care of where they can trust the company, where they can be fulfilled in their work, where they can have fun and meet good people. And where the company is looking out for the people and providing them a space where they can feel safe and confident that they'll have work. We're building a place that is a That can be a, a cornerstone for a community. A company where People feel that it's a part of its community, and it's a place where people can not just start, but End a career where opportunities are are endless, just like they were for me when I started with this company. It was just opportunity after opportunity. The the company never looked outside to promote. I'm sorry. Never looked outside for high level positions. It's always just building its people, and offering those opportunities as the company grew to the people that worked here at the company to grow with And we're just looking to continue that tradition and kinda really scale it out to something even larger than the previous owners and that the founders of the company ever thought was possible.
Wayne Herring
00:04:4100:05:46
Nice. Yeah. In in our group, you have a unique perspective in that you're Not the 1st owner. You're not the founder. And you and your partner, like, bought bought the business, borrowed money, to be able to do that. So it's certainly, I think everybody's perspective adds to to the group. We have founders. We have, multi generation family, ownership in the group. And then we have, you know, 1 guy I can think of off the top of my head who built a business, sold it, and is now doing something else, but your experience in that way is quite unique. How do you think like, what what do you what do you think has enabled that process to happen where key employees bought the Bought the business because that's not common. I wouldn't say. How do you think that has happened? And how will you then prepare to probably do the same thing down the road.
Kane D'Amico
00:05:4800:07:13
I believe that the founders of the company Had that vision for the company. They they didn't name the business after themselves. They named it Alliance Heating and Air Conditioning because when they came together, They were forming an alliance. They they worked together at a previous company, and they knew each other before they started this business. And I think that they saw the business as something separate from their personalities. They They wanted to build a a company and a business that could thrive beyond them. And I think that was a bit of their wisdom in name not naming it after them, or not using their initials, or which is very standard in our industry. And so it's it's the last name, or it's this and sons, or this and brothers, or if it's 2 partners, it might be a combination of initials. They just Said we're forming an alliance, and how about we just call it alliance? And so the name lends to Going on beyond those founders. And so I think it was their intention. When Chuck and I were going through the process of buying the company, the pre the the founder of the company, We're still very close with. Had conversations with Chuck and I and with the previous owner that we were purchasing it from. He was very involved. He he pushed himself into the negotiations and into the transition
Wayne Herring
00:07:1400:07:14
Yeah.
Kane D'Amico
00:07:1400:09:06
Because he's very concerned about the company. And he loved the fact that it was that that Peter was carrying the tradition that they had established, that the founders had established by keeping it in the company, keeping it in the family. And because because of the years of of tenure that we're selling it to. You know, it's not we're not selling it to a 1 or 2 year employee. Like, I was a child when I came to work here. I grew up here. And even though Chuck's a little older than me, in some sense, he was too. He was a single guy. I hadn't been married yet. I hadn't had a family yet when he came to work here. So it's we all kind of grew up together, so we are family. And the idea is that we keep it in the family. There's this alliance family, this alliance unit, and it's protected if it stays here. And so Chuck and I intend to, over the course of time, identify those players that are interested in carrying the tradition. That's really our intention. We don't intend to build this thing and then sell it to the highest bidder. We really We wanna groom the next generation to to to carry the torch because it would it would just be the coolest thing For the founders' families to see that it's still here, that it's still going on. We lost 1 of our founders, probably about a year ago, And the other one is aging to a point where, you know, it won't be long. His son works for us and has for a long time. And, and it's and it's just really a cool thing, and it means a lot to me. Number 1, to be welcomed into this, right, this this this small, exclusive group of people, but also to have the opportunity To to do for others what was done for me.
Wayne Herring
00:09:0900:09:53
And you and your son, Kane junior has been working in the business a little bit. And so I don't tell me if I'm wrong, but Right? And I know you will. But the the way I see it feel it is he's working in the business. There is a chance so that he could really get into it and really pursue this trade. And maybe someday, he could be a buyer of the business, but it's also not because of that kinda way that it's been transitioning and somebody's been buying the business. It's not like, oh, it's gonna be bequeathed upon him or something. But it could happen. It would have to happen as though he, like, came up through the ranks and he was the guy. Right?
Kane D'Amico
00:09:5400:10:57
It would. And I think of I the founders had sons. Right? That and obviously, one of them still works here. The other founder had a son who's an HVAC guy, but doesn't work here. Is still working for another company. Joe's son, Joe, works here, but he wasn't when Joe decided to retire, his son was a guy who worked here. It was He did what was best for Alliance. Alliance is bigger than this. Just pass it off to my kid and that kind of thing. It It is possible that Kane could choose this for his career path, and that would be great. And I would it would be a pleasure of my life to to groom him and get him in position, but The company's bigger than that. It wouldn't be handed to him just because he's my son. I I wouldn't do that. I see the company as As something larger than that. But he he does he's 13. He's probably come to work with me since he was, You know, 9 or 10.
Wayne Herring
00:10:5700:10:58
Yeah.
Kane D'Amico
00:10:5800:11:58
And when he's here, he takes great pride in the fact that this is My livelihood, that this is the place where I grew up. And it's fun to just I mean, he comes, and he and he sweeps, and he works, and he And he separates parts and fittings and puts stuff away on the shelves, and he cleans trucks. He he just comes and works, and he and he's proud to do it. And it's fun for me to see that to get him here, and the guys the guys have gotten to know him since he was little, and they like having him around. It it it it's cool. And at the age of 13, you know, because of the way that I grew up, I'm not I'm certainly not a parent that's gonna explain to my kids that college is the only way. I'm I'm more interested in what are their interests, what do they wanna Sue, and how can I help them pursue that? Right? If it's college, great. If it's the military, great. If it's If it's dad, I just wanna I just wanna finish high school and come to work with you. That's that's great too.
Wayne Herring
00:11:5900:12:48
One of the things I know is really important to you, and you led with This when I said, you know, kinda introduce yourself, it it was family first is where you went. And I know that that you've expressed one of the reasons that You're in business builders in the group is because we we're not a a fatherhood group. Sorta. Right? It we are it's business builders, but there's a real, like, honoring of family and Marriage, and and we talk about those things as well. So you are intentional, dad, so it's good to talk about your son a little bit. And and I'm just curious. I actually don't Really? No. I haven't heard. How about your daughter? Is she, is she interested in it? And has she been around and in the shop and
Kane D'Amico
00:12:4900:15:27
She comes in and she she doesn't share the same passion for For work and contribution the way that my son does, when he comes in, it's not a visit for him. Like, he comes here. He wants to get his hands on something. He's dying to do work that's not safe for him to do yet. And even at home, working around the house, he's always getting into projects with me, things that we're doing. My daughter's a little more aloof, but she enjoys spending time here. She She enjoys coming here and sitting in people's offices and spending time with them. But for her, it's it's it's more of a social event than a work event. She's a little bit younger, and a girl. Maybe that contributes to to it a little bit, but she she'll come in and spend time in Jo Ellen's office or spend time with the bookkeepers. She makes her way around the campus and and speaks to as many people as she can. So she's familiar with the place and with the people as well. And that it's important to me to be able to bring them here when when there's opportunity to to get them Familiar with what where I go to work and and what I'm doing. And what attracted me to you and and and to the business builders is that we're all family people, and we speak of it. It's a great source of pride for all of us that we're able to What we're what our families are such a piece of what we're building. Yeah. Right? And we know that to be true. Right? The partners that we choose everywhere, like, You know, Jill being my partner is a big piece of me being able to achieve what I've achieved in my career because she She never competed with it. She never competed with my, my drive's work to to achieve. And, And then the partners that I have outside, you and the rest of the builders. I mean, it's supporting both pieces of what I'm doing, my drive to be An intentional husband and father, and to be a business builder. We're build we're all building businesses. We're all working on our on our careers, but we're building ourselves. That's where that's where the power of this community comes in. It's because whatever any one of us needs from the group, like, we can bring With whatever we're struggling with, it's not just it it doesn't just drill into the dollars and the cents and the work and the money and the and the fine. That's that's a big piece of it because we're all learning and growing that, but there's there's the there's such the human part and who we're becoming in the process. That's the most attractive part To this to this group of people.
Wayne Herring
00:15:2900:16:52
Yeah. And I have a I I love being part. I get to lead and help create this community, and I'm also part of another community where I can be a member as opposed to the one putting it together. And in my group, I'm seeking Some of those same things where business and I also just am in this Environment of smart people who are intentionally working to create their life. And just yesterday, I had a conversation with somebody about, his rental real estate that he he's done rentals, midterm rentals, long term rentals, Kinda rich dad, poor dad, Robert Kiyosaki type stuff, and I'm talking about how I'm considering doing Airbnb type rentals on the farm. It's just being in a environment where people think that way and do growth and read books and, like, I I want that, and you're one of those people. And and and as are these other folks in the world. And I remember that we, we read that book. I think it might have been before you even, joined about the family board meeting by Jim Shiels. Right? And yeah. Good. You're nodding, and it it had to do with Intentionally creating time with our kids and, yeah, alongside the business.
Kane D'Amico
00:16:5200:18:01
It is. And I shared that book. I I I sent a book to a friend of mine who lives in Massachusetts. Very much an intentional father, like like, I am trying to be. And, and Jill and I have shared that book with multiple people. And it's a it's a quick read. It's it's such a common sense, and I'll and I and I like, oh my gosh. Carving out time for these little people to solidify this relationship that, You know, there there's hope. Right? Hope hope isn't really a strategy. We can hope that we build a relationship with them while we have the time to build it So that it carries on into perpetuity as they grow into adults and and build their own lives. We hope that we can remain a part of that. Or we can just be real intentional about solidifying our relationship now, and and know that when they're building their own life that we did We we did make a a bond and a relationship with them that that will continue. Know that we intentionally did everything that we could do. Right.
Wayne Herring
00:18:0100:18:08
Did everything we do, and we totally screw up. At least I do. Right. Good. Okay. You last and you're with
Kane D'Amico
00:18:0800:18:10
us? Regularly. Regularly.
Wayne Herring
00:18:1000:18:39
And and and that's the thing that that we do here too. As as leaders of a company, as creators, we, make mistakes. We talk openly about kind of the the the bad thoughts that creep in sometimes. Like, I'm not good enough. Who am I? How dare I to to do that? And that's the same thing over on the family side. So being intentional doesn't mean, like, I got it together all the time, and it's always right. It just means I'm I'm trying. I'm working at it.
Kane D'Amico
00:18:3900:19:20
Right. Yeah. It just means I'm conscious of it. I'm conscious of who I am and who I intend to be in the world. The idea of a created life versus the the the defaulted life, the life that just happens, and I just go along with it and say, well, that's just life. Right. Or it's it's creative. You know, what was great on vacation last week, I sat around it with a group of Grown adults, intentional parents, and, and spouses. We kinda had a small conversation around that. We're We're here on this beach, 6 families. It's, you know, all my wife's college roommates, you know, from Yeah.
Wayne Herring
00:19:2000:19:21
It's great.
Kane D'Amico
00:19:2100:20:16
More than 20 years ago, we get together every summer, and we do this thing. Our children have all grown up together. They're like cousins that see each other once or twice a year. And they can't wait to get there and spend a week with each other, and adult the adults are with each other, and we come together as a group Couple times a day, we schedule games to play so that all 21 of us are together for an hour. It's it's you know, versus doing our own things. We talked about how intentional that's been, right, for 20 plus years to to to hold that that time every summer Sacred. And it's because it's because of that intention. It's because we've decided that we're gonna create this this life. It's never gonna get to the point where, well, we just don't have time for it this year or this came up or that came up. Right? It's it's no. No. We're very intentional about Maintaining that that relationship and and teaching our children the value of maintaining such relationships.
Wayne Herring
00:20:1600:21:30
I love that. That could be a whole like, we could create a whole podcast about how do you stay in touch with a group like that. Right? But what I hear in that is Most like, you're having fun, and it's there's some of that fun time can be you make sure we're together to play a game, and fun times is, like, Hanging out in the beach. Like, we're not being serious all the time. And then there's also this time where you could get together and talk intentionally about what you're doing, and why you're doing it. That's a really cool mix. Like, if we do nothing but be all serious and have, boy, I find that with my kids. If I'm, like, serious and have wanna have the deep dads of coach conversations all the time, like, that's a no go. That can be sprinkled in here and there. And then some of the rest of the time, like, it's just, like, you know, be humans and live life and have fun. Right? Hey. 22 kinda 2 quest questions to take us out. 1 is, so for other people that are working to get to know you, can you Just paint a bit of a visual picture for and and I know because I've been there, so I can see it. Right? Alliance says it exists now. It's Buildings, it's vehicles, it's tools, it's a shop, it's people. But can you, like, kinda paint a picture of what is your business?
Kane D'Amico
00:21:3100:22:47
Our business is, a a full, engineering, construction installation, service, and maintenance heating and air conditioning company, commercial and residential. We've got near 70 employees. We've got about 40 trucks on the road rolling every day in our market. We've got a sales team, we've got bookkeeping, we've got managers, we've got a fabrication shop where we custom fabricate all of our own ductwork. And, and we've got clients that have been with us since the beginning. And we're taking care of their children now, and we've We installed their systems 30 years ago, and we've replaced them twice since, and, And it's a team. And and like any team and any family, it's dysfunctional at times. We're all we're all bringing our individual personalities and our individual talents to work. But overwhelmingly, we have one passion, and that is to serve each other and to serve this company. And in doing that, our customers get to feel The rewards of a group of people that come together, to make Alliance a better version of itself every day.
Wayne Herring
00:22:4900:23:57
Yeah. Okay. That's that's pretty, visceral. I can see that. And it reminds me one of the things we worked on Over the last year or so, one of the things that you're doing in campus, when I heard you say 70 employees, 40 trucks rolling every day, Engineering all all this, I'm like, woah, that's a lot. Like, it it has gotten to be, quite a bit more than what those 2 people when they started the alliance, had going on, and, therefore, the responsibility as as a co owner then It is is much greater. And one of the things I know you've worked on really hard is to and this is a tool of of a business builder. Right? Is And and you didn't go to, school to learn this. As you said, you went through the business learning to be a technician, but you worked very hard at understanding financials and and how where the money flows, where it goes. Almost like, you know, we've got captain Steve Kurian that has a boat that has a rudder and a wheel, And you're learning to use financials as kind of a rudder and a wheel and know where you're headed and compass and all those, things. Right?
Kane D'Amico
00:23:5800:24:49
Absolutely. And that I used to say before I went on this path of Understanding the financials. I used to say I'm not a numbers guy. I'm still not a numbers guy. Math is not my thing. But the numbers tell a story. And as a business owner, it's a responsibility to know your numbers, know Not not what the right numbers or the wrong numbers are, but know how your business behaves and and know when the numbers tell you that it's It's going in a good direction or a bad direction, and the numbers only add to your ability to make sound decisions. There's gut, there's experience, And then there's data. And it I think to be a responsible leader of of a business. You've you've gotta understand how to play with all 3 of those.
Wayne Herring
00:24:4900:25:12
That's great. This has been wonderful spending this time with you, and, I think anybody watching this, this will be really helpful in lots of ways. Any like like, what's your last okay. So you're on your way out, and there's People out there like you, building businesses, any any advice to them? Anything you'd share, as we depart here?
Kane D'Amico
00:25:1300:26:25
My greatest piece of advice at the moment for a leader in a business, whether it be the founder, whether it be a high level manager or somebody with, ambition to to grow bigger with their operation is to get to know the people on your team. Get to really know them and what are their ambitions and understand your role in helping them achieve that. And make sure they know that you're on their team. As the business owner and the business leader, They think they they inside, they think that you're against them. You're they're there to make you money. And, yeah, write it down on a piece of paper. Employees are here to make money for the company, which makes money for me. Your responsibility as their leader is to help them achieve what they want first 1st, you gotta and you have they have to know that you're in their corner, and that's that's hard work. It's more than just saying that you're in their corner. You have to actually be in their corner. So get to know your people, get to know their wants and their needs and their desires, and then let them know that you're there to help them get there.
Wayne Herring
00:26:2700:26:29
That's great. Thanks, Kane.
Kane D'Amico
00:26:2900:26:30
Thank you, Wayne.
