General Air built a plan where everyone walks away winning

Patrick Somers is President and CEO of General Air Conditioning & Plumbing, a residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company serving the Coachella Valley. He started at the General in 2010 as an entry-level technician, worked his way up to General Manager, and bought the company in 2018 through a succession plan with the previous owner.

Everyone at General Air knows Patrick keeps a model jet on his desk. It's his marker for what success in the business looks like. The target matters less to him than who gets there with him. He wants to build a phenomenal business with a legacy, and he has a firm rule about how.

I don't want to build it on the backs of people. I want all of us to get something, to rise, to grow together.

What he couldn't find was the vehicle. Paychecks and bonuses kept people focused on the next payout, not on the business they were building. He wanted something closer to a golden handcuff: a way to keep his best people and give them a real stake in the outcome.

I was looking for something. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I was looking for kind of a golden handcuff that would allow us to retain good talent and help people become part of the building of the business.

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When Patrick found Reins, his first reaction was disbelief.

I was like, 'Wow, is this for real?' Because this is exactly what I'm looking for. I can give phantom stock to team members, so they get a piece of sweat equity that pays them when we hit our goals. And if we ever decide to sell, they also win.

He was still wary of the rollout. He'd seen plenty of software companies promise the world during the sale and fall flat during implementation.

There's always the big talk, the excitement, the promises of the world. Then it comes time to onboard and implement, and most times it's lackluster.

That isn't what happened. Jenna Toon, Founding CSM for Reins, kept the process moving, even when running the business pushed it to the back burner for Patrick and General Air.

When I'm delayed because of things going on in the business, she's still pleasantly and persistently keeping me on track.

For the team, the concept turned out to be the easy part. Tanya Priest, Chief of Staff, had never heard of phantom stock before onboarding.

I knew nothing about it until our meetings. It's actually very simple. Everything was very transparent, very easy to understand.

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Tanya has worked at General Air for a long time and has always shown up like an owner. Now the business is investing back.

I've always come in as if I am an owner. But to actually have the owners invest in me and show me that appreciation is huge. It could be life-changing.

For Patrick, the point is the goal years down the road. He wants people thinking about what they're building, not just what's coming next week.

They stick around for the long-term gain. It's not just about the next paycheck or the next bonus. It's about building something, and when the owners win, we win.

Tanya already sees it pulling the team together.

It brings us more together as a team. We're all on the same path, we all have the same goals, and we're supporting one another.

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General Air is preparing to roll the plan out more broadly. Tanya expects others to feel what she feels.

It can change their lives as well. They can have the same feeling that I do.

Patrick sees his role as helping people get where they want to go, and building a place the right people choose to stay.

My job as a CEO is to help people achieve what they want. And especially the right talent, I want them to want to stay and grow with us. I don't want to do it on the backs of people. I want everyone to walk away winning.

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