Epic Entrepreneurs

Building Trust: Home Inspections, Growth, and the Power of Planning with Will King

• Bill Gilliland

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Buying or selling a home shouldn’t feel like a blindfolded leap. We sit down with Will King—former teacher, now owner of Highside Home Inspections—to unpack how steady maintenance, clear education, and intentional planning reduce anxiety and create real value in every step of the real estate journey. From pre-listing inspections that prevent last-minute chaos to simple fixes that quietly raise sale price, we explore the small moves that make a big difference.

Will pulls back the curtain on entrepreneurship too. Technical skill isn’t enough; the back end matters—marketing, budgets, communication, and process. He shares why early “networking-only” strategies felt like fishing and how he’s shifting to targeted outreach with defined goals, built on a referral-first approach. His on-site verbal summaries help clients and agents understand what’s urgent, what’s routine, and what’s cosmetic—turning complicated reports into confident decisions. We also dive into BEPIC: bring the energy, educate, plan, find inspiration, and commit. It’s a simple framework for showing up with purpose, serving clients well, and sticking to the plan when results take time.

If you’re a first-time buyer, a seller prepping for market, or a homeowner who wants fewer surprises, you’ll get practical takeaways: red flags to watch for during showings, maintenance that compounds value, and smart ways to time your goals around the seasonal market. We also share details about an upcoming first and second-time homebuyer event featuring a team across realty, lending, insurance, and inspections—designed to map the process from pre-approval to closing and answer the questions you didn’t know to ask.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share it with a friend who’s house-hunting, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us. Got a question or a topic you want us to unpack next? Send it our way.

Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!
Bill

Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!

Bill

Bill Gilliland:

Hi there. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I have got an amazing guest today. And but first, I'm Bill Gilliland. I am the principal and action coach, Business Growth Partners, and one of the founders and principals at the Asheville Business Summit. But at today, we're not talking about me. We're talking about Will. And so I've got Will from High Side Home Inspections. Will King, welcome to the podcast. Tell us a little bit about Highside Home Inspections and what you do and how you do it here in our communities.

Will King:

Yeah. Thanks, Bill. High Side Home Inspections, we do residential home inspections for buyers and sellers, um, or even just folks that um own their own home and just want to know the kind of the status of the home, the health of the home. Um, most of what we do is for real estate transactions, but again, we can just if you just own a home and kind of want to know if there's things that need to be repaired or maintained, we we do that too.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I think that's a very underutilized service. I I know that we were at one time in in my life, we were looking at we weren't in a hurry to sell our house, but we knew we were going to move eventually. And I mean, that that was super helpful to have a and it was another town, and a home inspector come out, just tell us everything that needed to be done, and we just did it. And I I was amazed a lot of it, you know, I thought, man, this is gonna be, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. And it just wasn't. It was just a lot of little stuff to get fixed, you know, and to to make the house worth more money when we finally did list it. So yeah.

Will King:

Yeah, the the best way to um get the most money for your home uh kind of over time is to do continual maintenance on it. You know, there's there's always something to do in a home, and not all of it is is huge, you know. No, no.

Bill Gilliland:

In fact, most of it isn't if you just do it along the way. So yeah, it's interesting. Well, let me ask, let's talk about business a minute. So if you had to start from square one in business, what would you do differently?

Will King:

I would uh do a little more research on things like marketing. Um uh you know, I I attended the Asheville Business Summit this year, and I'm doing the 30X challenge, and I would quite frankly do a lot of that stuff. Um uh I would start with the end in mind versus just kind of making my own way through it. Um and I I as I'm going through this program, I'm only on day, I don't know, what are we on, day nine or something right now?

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah.

Will King:

Um I would really start with the end in mind and then and build and build build my marketing and my business with that in mind. And it really does make it a clear picture. Yeah, perfect.

Bill Gilliland:

Perfect. I love that. Well, a little bit selfishly. Tell us how the 30X challenge is going and what you're getting out of that.

Will King:

Um, so I I just started in January. So a lot of it or some of it doesn't necessarily apply to me directly, but I can see how it will in the next year or two. Uh, but it's going well. Um, I've already kind of changed the way I do marketing, um, or or I'm making a plan of how I change the way I do marketing. And um I've uh run run some numbers and figured out what I need to what I need to do next year to reach my goals. And so it's it's definitely worthwhile.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, yeah. No, I tell people in the challenge, like, look, just make a list of all the action items. It might be a six-year list or a three-year list. It's not, you're not it's so much there that you know, don't you know, do the things that are critical now that you need to do to move forward. But I think just you know, getting, like you say, begin with the end in mind, figure out the figure out the goals. So, um so what have been some of your learnings as an owner since you started?

Will King:

Um wow, that's a that's a good question. Um first it's uh it's more difficult than you think, or if you don't do the planning, it's more difficult to um to market and to to get repeat business than than I initially had thought. Um there's a lot more um things in the background. It's not just home inspections when you own a business, it's uh of course, marketing and budgets and um customer contact, and it's it's it's more on the back end than I had anticipated.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I think that's what happens a lot of times. People say, well, holy cow, you know, I can I can do the tech stuff. I, you know, whatever the technical job of the business, your case, home inspections, but I, you know, I didn't count on you know the financial and the and all you know the time that it takes to do the marketing and the sales and the you know the the whole thing. So yeah, it's great. So what are what are this this question always cracks me up? So what are some common misconceptions about running a business?

Will King:

Um that um but I guess one of them is that business will just kind of show up. And uh that that that's that's not the case.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, if you build it, they will come. It doesn't work that way, yeah.

Will King:

Right, not necessarily. Um I this year have spent a lot of time doing my my most of my marketing plan was just networking. And um, you know, networking's kind of like fishing. It's uh you you really never know what you're gonna get. Uh if you know, if uh if if you caught fish every time, they'd call it catching, not not fishing. So um this year I plan to put a more targeted marketing force as uh as as I plan for quarter one of next year and even the end of this year.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, so being more intentional with um with the target. But you know, sometimes it's hard to figure out who the target is until you've gone fishing a little bit. You know, you you you gotta go to figure out where the fish are, you sometimes you have to go fishing a couple of times to figure that out. So good on you for getting out there and seeing what network events work and which ones don't work, and you know, those kind of things. So, what do you attribute your growth to?

Will King:

Um I I guess I attribute my growth mostly to my communication strategies with clients that I have currently. Um I um I I like to meet with all of my clients at the end of my inspection so I can give them a kind of a verbal summary before I hand them a report. And they seem to they seem to appreciate that. And that has um led to referrals from both agents and um and other clients just won't that I've that I've met.

Bill Gilliland:

I love it.

Will King:

Um and uh I'm reminders and questions, and I'm I'm I'm just available for for for my clients.

Bill Gilliland:

Love it. Love it. Yeah, anything to get referrals. I mean, referrals are obviously easy business or easier business, not easy, but easier. So how do you balance like personal life and business life?

Will King:

Um, that's a good question. It hasn't been a great balance so far. Um, and mostly because, you know, I'm just starting. I when the phone rings, I answer it, even if it's 8 30 at night. Um and uh I have started making a so I take Mondays and I I spend that time doing personal stuff and then working directly on the business and not doing anything home inspection-wise. Um, and that has helped kind of the the work-life balance. Before I before I got into home inspections, I was in in the classroom, I was a classroom teacher, and um, I didn't do well with work-life balance at that time either. So I'm it's one of the things I'm still working on.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I mean, uh balance is a tough word, right? Right. You know, what what does that really mean? I mean, I, you know, and so I think you have to define what it means for you. I mean, what's your you know, what's your system or what's your plan? You know, the you know, in ancient times the plan was work six days and get a day off, essentially. And so that's what the ancient scripts say. But it's, you know, what what's your plan? So I mean, I I think that's I think that's a good one to to to take Mondays and make it a day of for you know taking care of all the personal stuff. Love that stuff. So um let me give you a sort of a quick fire round, get your thoughts on it. You know, B Epic is our acronym here, and I'll tell you, you know, I'll tell you what the act, you know, what the letters stand for, and then you just tell me a little bit about like you know, one or two sentences at most, what that what that means to you. So the first one is B, which is bring the energy. So what are your thoughts around bringing the energy?

Will King:

Um, I I mean I think as a as an owner, my energy toward how I communicate with clients and network and market and all that stuff really drives how people view me. And um, if you do if if you don't bring a positive energy, then um I feel like a positive energy is the best way to to reach people and to have them want to do business with you.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I mean, energy brings energy. I mean, it's it so E stands for education.

Will King:

All right, yeah. Um in fact, I feel like that's how I set myself apart. Uh I'm a former teacher, and you know, most of what I do is bring peace of mind to either buyers or sellers, um, if if if they're you know, if they're buying a home. And part of that is education, and that's part of the reason why I I like to meet with my clients after after for a verbal summary to kind of educate them about my findings. And, you know, there's always something that needs to be fixed in a home, and it doesn't mean it's uh uh a reason not to buy it or to tear it all down or whatever. Right.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I I yeah, I always think that you know really good sales is really education and allowing other people to buy. And so um, yeah, I think that's fantastic. So P stands for planning.

Will King:

Um yeah, planning certainly if you own your own business, is uh it's a super important thing as I'm learning right now. Um and if you yeah, for me, planning starts now, currently, with uh the end in mind. And then once you know your goal, you can you can get there. And without a plan, you just kind of flying in the dark. Yeah, 100%.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I like it. So I stands for inspiration.

Will King:

Hmm, inspiration. I guess yeah you gotta find inspiration every day to show up and do the plan.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, it's not always easy. You gotta, yeah. So where do you find inspiration?

Will King:

Um I I find I guess I find inspiration in helping people and providing peace of mind. Um and and part of that is in the education of folks about their homes.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. Yeah.

Will King:

I feel like I'm getting some light here. Let me see if I can that better.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, you look, you're looking it. It's all right, it's all good. It's all good here. So the last the last and the last letter in B Epic is is is C, which is commitment.

Will King:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um it's easy to lose that commitment if you don't immediately aren't immediately successful in whatever you're doing. And you know, uh commitment is in my mind is the way to to get better at whatever it is. So you you know, just because it's hard doesn't mean you give up. Love that.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I love that. Yep. So what words of advice would you offer other business owners who are looking to grow?

Will King:

Um if if you have if it had if you have it in your mind that of whatever goal you have, commit to it and do it. Um if you're looking to grow, then you know, I guess I've learned it recently in the past couple weeks. Start with the end in mind and think big. And then, you know, you can you can only go as far as as as your goal is. So set your goals, set your goals high and reach them. I love that.

Bill Gilliland:

I love that. So you've got an event coming up. Tell us about that.

Will King:

Um we are having a second time and first home home buyer's uh event. It's at Gaidon Brewing Company. It is on, hold on, let me make sure I get the date right. It's on November 4th from five to seven. And um we have a team of folks that uh all having to do with buying a home. Um, Trish Lucy from Ingle Volcler's Realty, um, Tapitha Scott from Home Trust Bank, and then Brandon Adams from Farm Bureau Insurance, and then myself um from High Side Home Inspections. And we're just gonna give homeowners an idea of what they can expect uh as they either buy their first home or uh maybe a second home here in Asheville. And uh ultimately we have created this team so that it's a a seamless um trend transition for for all that stuff, and you can get all the information you need for all those things.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, and and look, if you're in the market, you need to come out because you got to educate yourself before you can make good decisions. And this is a great team. They're gonna they're just gonna give you the education you need to make an informed decision, and that's that's all you can ask for.

Will King:

You know, that's yeah, the the home buying process itself is and sometimes anxiety driven um and um can be scary, certainly if you're a first-time homebuyer. And having all that information in education is um it's really important. One of the things I'm gonna focus on is things that they that homeowners can or home buyers can look for as they're touring a home that would be a red flag or maybe just something that's that's kind of small. So they'll they'll have some information before they so they can make a like I said, a form decision about the about a home.

Bill Gilliland:

Well, you this whole team is helping people how you know buy houses or or either way, buy it or sell a house all the time. And most people that buy houses, they're not they're only doing it a few times in their life, so uh other than investors. So um, you know, and obviously this is going to be a great educational event. You can come out, enjoy some beverages, and learn some stuff. It's a it's a win-win-win for everybody. So hey, what's the yeah, what's the next big thing for you and high side home inspections?

Will King:

Uh next big thing. You know, I'm um I'm I'm looking forward to um so you may or may not know, we have about eight months that is kind of the the home buying season, if you will, from March, March to October. And so as I move into kind of my slower season, I'm really focusing on next year and setting goals that are bigger than than I set for this year and uh figuring out ways to to reach them. And so I'm really focusing in on not only finishing inspections for this year or whatever uh clients need, but uh I'm really focusing in on next year.

Bill Gilliland:

Yeah, I think that's important to get ahead of uh get ahead of it, set some goals, to get some strategies in place for how you're gonna reach those goals and and go for it. So well done. Well done. I love that. So what's the best way for someone to get a hold of you?

Will King:

Um, you know, you can I can call, text. Um uh my number is 828-243-3436. Uh you can reach out on our website. We have a contact page there, um, or you can email me at Will King at high sideinspections.com.

Bill Gilliland:

I love it. Listen, fantastic. Thanks for being part of our community. Thanks for uh thanks for coming out to the summit and enjoying that. Um uh and uh yeah, it's it's it's great to have you on there. Appreciate all you're doing, and uh, we certainly know that you're gonna continue to be successful. So thanks for being on the podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me, Bill. Hey, and until next time, all the best.