Built by an operator. Tested by experience. Driven by what's next.

I didn't come up through consulting. I came up through the business.

Years ago, I was hired into a family-owned heating and cooling company that was ready for its next chapter. The market was shifting, the business needed to evolve from new construction, and the second generation was figuring out how to build on what their father started. I was young and underqualified on paper. One of the owners took a chance on me anyway — a real risk, the kind that only happens inside a family business.

That owner's name was Pete Randazzo, and he became my mentor — the most important leader I've ever worked alongside. He taught me how to see opportunities, how to connect with people, and how to lead. Over time, he let me earn his trust — and eventually, he did something most founders struggle with. He let go and let me run.

What came next took more than a decade to build. We built the business from the ground up — a consumer brand where none existed, a call center built from scratch, and a sales organization that grew to serve all of Southeast Michigan, touching hundreds of thousands of customers. We built an operating system that connected how we generated demand with how we fulfilled it. We grew through discipline, through hard decisions, and through the kind of alignment most companies talk about but rarely install. We upfitted trucks, ran commercials, created promotions the company still uses today, and turned our processes into a competitive advantage nobody could match. It was a team effort all around, and learning how to execute this type of growth at scale was something none of us were truly prepared for — but we figured it out by running toward it, not away from it.

Six years in, the growth had become consistent — double digits, year over year, and sustainable. That's when private equity came to the table. I learned how capital actually flows through this industry, what it takes to build a platform instead of a company, and what real scale looks like from the inside. I also learned something that most PE playbooks underestimate: in home services, your people are the product. Capital can accelerate growth, but it can't replace the culture, the trust, and the leadership alignment that hold a platform together when things get hard. Pete planted that seed early, and everything we built proved him right. I learned what happens inside the rooms where platforms get built and sold — the conversations most operators never hear.

During the build-up to our second major recapitalization, Pete lost his battle with cancer. He never got to see how far it would go — but everything that came after was built on what he started.

Losing Pete didn't end what we built. It deepened it. He bet on me when the outcome was anything but certain — a 22-year-old with no playbook, walking into a business that couldn't afford to get it wrong. He saw something in me before I saw it in myself, and he backed it with patience, trust, and time — even when the results weren't there yet. He didn't just teach me how to run a business. He taught me what it means to believe in someone. That changed my life. I carry his lessons every day, and everything I build from here is a reflection of what he poured into me.

What I've come to believe over more than a decade in this industry is something that doesn't get enough credit: home services and the trades are where real businesses get built. Not flashy. Not glamorous. Real. There are companies in this space doing nine and ten figures with the kind of operational depth that rarely gets credit. The people running them are some of the most capable I've ever worked alongside, and the upside in this category is just getting started.

Robert Anthony Consulting is the next chapter of that conviction. I still hold equity in the platform I helped build — and I started RAC to bring everything I learned inside it to the leadership teams who are scaling the next generation of businesses in this space and beyond. The problems are remarkably consistent wherever we go. Misalignment between leadership and execution. Scattered priorities. Growth that outpaces the systems built to support it. We know what it looks like from the inside, and that's where we start every engagement.

When I started RAC, I had seen enough to know what this industry deserves — and what it doesn't. You can't build that without people who just "get it." Everyone who works with us and for us has to believe in the work the way we do. Amanda Zindel showed up and made the firm better — and she hasn't stopped since.

Amanda is my partner in leading this business. Every client engagement, every strategic decision, every hard conversation — she's in the room. That's not a staffing choice. That's how we built the firm. When you work with RAC, you get both of us. Senior leadership, direct accountability, every time. That's the standard, and it's non-negotiable.

She came up through the marketing agency world, and when we met and began working together, her resume didn't reflect what I could see in front of me. I could see someone with drive and creative vision who could execute. Since then, she's built the role, earned the title, and become a major reason RAC can operate the way it does. She's our COO — and that wasn't handed to her.

The people who shaped me taught me something that I rarely lose sight of: you recognize someone who's ready, and you give them the room to become what they already are. That's how we built this firm, it's how we operate with our clients, and it's part of what makes this business bigger than any one of us — by design.

RAC isn't a placeholder between chapters. It's the next thing we're building — with the same conviction, the same operator instincts, and the same belief that growth comes from people first.