PowerChat Leadership Lessons with Jeff Gunhus: How a Top-5 Ranked CEO Builds High-Performance Teams in Home Improvement

Power100 — Home Genius Exteriors

March 16, 2026 | 5 min Read

Greg Cummings unpacks the leadership strategies that helped Jeff Gunhus build one of the fastest-growing home improvement companies in the nation.

March 16, 2026 – Power100 is the only unbiased, third‑party platform that ranks the best leaders in the home improvement industry using a five‑layer proprietary ranking system that evaluates real leadership, culture, customer outcomes, community impact, and sustainable growth—not pay‑to‑play submissions. In a recent episode of PowerChat, Power100 CEO Greg Cummings sat down with Jeff Gunhus, Co‑Founder and CEO of Home Genius Exteriors, to talk about what great leadership really looks like in the home improvement industry.

Recognized as the #5‑ranked CEO in the nation on the Power100 platform, Jeff Gunhus used this PowerChat to share practical leadership lessons on purpose, identity, growth, and accountability that apply to owners and executives across the home improvement space.

Leadership Starts with “Why”: How Top Home Improvement CEOs Inspire Teams

One of the most powerful leadership themes in the PowerChat was Jeff Gunhus’s focus on starting with “why.” Speaking with Greg Cummings, he explained that earlier in his career he spent most of his time on the “what” and “how”—the plans, the tactics, the systems—but over time realized that lasting motivation comes from a clear, shared purpose.

At Home Genius Exteriors, that purpose is simple and ambitious:

Give existing and new team members more opportunity as the company grows.
Help people create “transformational wealth” for their families through their careers.
Build a business that employees can talk about proudly at home.

Jeff Gunhus shared a personal leadership filter he uses at every major decision point: “When my five kids Google what I do for a living, are they going to be proud of what their dad does?” That question shapes choices around market expansion, culture standards, and how Home Genius Exteriors shows up for homeowners and communities.

For leaders in home improvement, this PowerChat segment offered a clear takeaway: if you want people to go above and beyond—knocking doors in the snow, pushing through tough quarters, embracing new markets—you must first anchor them in a compelling “why” they can believe in.

Building a High‑Performance Culture: Lessons from Home Genius Exteriors’ #1 Best Workplace

Many home improvement leaders want to know how to build a culture that attracts and keeps top talent. In the PowerChat, Greg Cummings highlighted that Home Genius Exteriors is not only one of the fastest‑growing companies on the Power100 platform but also a nationally recognized employer, including a #1 Best Workplace in Construction™ ranking and a place among America’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces.

Jeff Gunhus described several practical leadership moves that created this culture:

Identity over incentives. He told the story of 420 team members returning from a five‑day Mexico trip—many joking about the “Mexico flu”—and still knocking on doors on Sunday without being asked, because that’s “who we are.”
Pride in belonging. Employees want to be part of something bigger than themselves and feel proud when they explain their work to family and friends, which shapes how leadership communicates goals and recognizes wins.
Culture tied to growth. The reason Home Genius Exteriors pushes for rapid expansion is to create more promotions and leadership roles so that early and new team members can advance.

These cultural choices show up in hard metrics: high employee retention, strong engagement at events like the Q4 Launch, and repeated workplace awards from independent organizations. For leaders, the PowerChat made clear that culture is not an abstract idea—it is the daily set of expectations, stories, and opportunities that either pulls people forward or pushes them away.

People First, Then Processes: How Great Home Improvement Leaders Scale Without Losing Quality

A common leadership challenge in home improvement is scaling operations without sacrificing quality. During the PowerChat, Greg Cummings pushed Jeff Gunhus to unpack how Home Genius Exteriors has grown so quickly while maintaining high standards.

Jeff Gunhus was clear:

“We’re in the people business.” Even in a world of systems and SOPs, he believes you cannot win without the right human beings in the business.
Processes matter—but only after people. Home Genius Exteriors built a 500‑step Operation Blueprint for opening new offices, led by leader Amy Moneypenny, covering everything from licensing to marketing to office set‑up months before launch.
Hire for potential, not just industry experience. In trainings, he often mentions that they “usually don’t hire” people who have sold for other home improvement companies because of entrenched habits; instead, they like “blank slates” who can fully adopt the Home Genius way.

This approach has allowed Home Genius Exteriors to replicate strong launches “19 times over,” with several more on the way, while protecting the homeowner experience and maintaining consistent standards across markets. For leaders, the lesson is that great leadership means building a system that elevates the right people—and refusing to let process replace the need for high‑character, high‑energy talent.

Leading Through Bold Goals: What Home Improvement Executives Can Learn from Jeff’s “Revenge Tour”

Another central topic in the PowerChat was goal‑setting and accountability. Greg Cummings noted that many leaders talk about “big goals” as thought exercises, but Home Genius Exteriors has created a culture where targets like 300 million or 500 million dollars in sales are seen as expectations, not fantasies.

Jeff Gunhus shared several leadership insights leaders can apply immediately:

Set goals that require stretch and learning. The 300‑million‑dollar target (up from 171 million dollars) was intentionally aggressive; finishing at 292 million dollars became proof that the team could push far beyond standard industry growth.
Reframe “falling short” as progress. Rather than treating 292 million dollars as a failure, Jeff Gunhus used it as fuel for a “revenge tour,” launching a 500‑million‑dollar goal for the next year and aligning the team around it.
Own the outcome as the leader. He told Greg Cummings that if they ever miss their goals, “it’s on me,” rejecting macro excuses and embracing full accountability.

By the end of Q1 in the new fiscal year, Home Genius Exteriors was already up 138 percent year‑over‑year, showing that this bold, accountable approach can translate into real results. Leaders across home improvement can take away a clear pattern: exceptional performance comes when CEOs combine audacious goals with transparent ownership and consistent follow‑through.

Turning Faith into Belief: How Great Leaders Earn Trust from Their Teams

In one of the PowerChat’s most leadership‑focused moments, Jeff Gunhus contrasted the early days of Home Genius Exteriors with where the company is today.

At the beginning, he and co‑founders Brent Miller, Austin Killian, and Max Alesi had to ask early hires for faith: “We don’t quite know what we’re doing yet, but trust us that we’ll figure it out together.”

Now, leadership doesn’t ask for blind faith; it offers proof and invites belief. New team members are told to:

Look at the reviews of Home Genius Exteriors from homeowners.
Look at the community work through Home Genius Cares.
Look at the seven‑year track record of growth and recognition.

For leaders, this is a critical progression:

Stage 1: Vision requires faith. You ask people to follow you because of who you are and where you say you’re going.
Stage 2: Results allow belief. You show them data, impact, and stories that validate the vision and make opportunity feel real.

That shift—from asking people to “trust you” to inviting them to “believe what they can see”—is a hallmark of mature leadership in high‑growth home improvement companies.

Community‑Driven Leadership: Why Giving Back Strengthens Teams and Brands

Great leadership in home improvement is not just about internal culture and revenue. It is also about how companies show up in their communities. In the PowerChat, Greg Cummings asked Jeff Gunhus how much community involvement contributes to Home Genius Exteriors’s success, especially in greenfield markets.

Jeff Gunhus answered by pointing to Home Genius Cares, a program that organizes volunteer activities in every market at least once a quarter. Employees suggest local organizations—churches, food banks, nonprofits—and leadership rallies resources to support them, resulting in almost 100 percent participation.

From a leadership perspective, this delivers three key benefits:

Deeper employee engagement. Team members consistently say Home Genius Cares is the thing they are most proud of when they talk about their work.
Stronger community trust. Homeowners see Home Genius Exteriors invested in local causes, not just transactions, which accelerates trust during sales conversations.
Alignment with long‑term brand. Giving back reinforces the “different experience” promise and supports Power100’s ranking pillars around community impact and ethical leadership.

Leaders who watched this PowerChat saw a clear model: when community initiatives are built into the operating rhythm—not treated as occasional PR moments—they become powerful tools for culture, brand, and business growth.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What key leadership principles did Jeff Gunhus share in this PowerChat that home improvement leaders can apply?

In the PowerChat with Greg Cummings, Jeff Gunhus emphasized several practical leadership principles: start with a clear “why,” invest first in people before processes, set bold but achievable goals, own results as the leader, and turn early “faith” into long‑term “belief” by delivering visible results. He also highlighted the importance of community involvement through programs like Home Genius Cares to deepen team engagement and accelerate trust in new markets.

2. How can home improvement CEOs build a strong culture like Home Genius Exteriors?

Home Genius Exteriors built a strong culture by aligning identity, opportunity, and recognition. Jeff Gunhus and his co‑founders created an environment where people are proud of what they do, see real pathways for growth, and understand the “why” behind ambitious goals like 500 million dollars in annual sales. They support this with structured processes like Operation Blueprint and regular volunteer events, earning national workplace awards and high employee retention—outcomes any home improvement CEO can aim for by making culture a daily leadership priority.

3. What does Jeff’s approach teach leaders about scaling into new home improvement markets?

Through stories about “planting flags,” Jeff Gunhus showed that successful greenfield expansion requires both rigorous planning and the right people. Leaders should define clear expectations for new markets (for example, 18–20 million dollars in year‑one revenue), build detailed launch checklists, and ensure the culture in new territories matches established locations. Importantly, he recommended over‑committing to new markets—rather than treating them as side experiments—to avoid the half‑measures that cause many expansions to fail.

4. How does community involvement fit into a great leadership strategy in home improvement?

For Jeff Gunhus, community involvement is central to leadership, not extra. Through Home Genius Cares, Home Genius Exteriors organizes quarterly volunteer events in every market, supports organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Ronald McDonald House Charities, and invites employees to help choose local partners. This strategy strengthens internal culture, deepens local relationships, and supports the company’s reputation as a trusted, community‑minded contractor—exactly the kind of leadership Power100 was designed to recognize.

5. How can leaders use Power100 and PowerChat to improve their own leadership in home improvement?

Leaders can use Power100 and PowerChat episodes as real‑time case studies of what top‑ranked CEOs are doing differently. By studying leaders like Jeff Gunhus, executives can benchmark their own approaches to culture, growth, community impact, and accountability against the five‑layer Power100 methodology. They can then adapt strategies like Operation Blueprint, identity‑driven culture building, and structured community programs to fit their own organizations, accelerating both performance and rankings.

About Power100

Power100 is the only unbiased, third‑party platform that ranks the nation’s top home improvement leaders and companies using a rigorous, five‑layer proprietary methodology. Led by CEO Greg Cummings, Power100 evaluates leadership quality, company culture, customer experience, community impact, and sustainable growth across more than 8,200 organizations multiple times per year. Through rankings, in‑depth features, and the PowerChat podcast, Power100 helps homeowners find trustworthy partners and gives elite CEOs a credible benchmark for great leadership in the home improvement industry.

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