Mark Cantrell

Oklahoma, Start to Finish

Mark Cantrell was born on February 4, 1985, in Cushing, Oklahoma, and has spent his life up and down Highway 177. In 2008 he started in HVAC at a local shop in Perkins, Oklahoma, and stayed with that same shop for fifteen years. He came up on the install side, apprentice to journeyman, then moved over to service, working his way up to service manager and running the office and the day-to-day. Along the way he earned a Bachelor of University Studies from Oklahoma State University in fall 2019.

Why He Left the Truck

Fifteen years inside one shop taught Mark that most quality businesses don't fail because of bad service. They fail because they're invisible. He lived the contractor life: the panic of slow seasons, the chaos of peak seasons, and the relentless admin in between. And he watched contractors get burned by agencies selling expensive websites built for vanity instead of ranking, and outdated SEO tactics that waste thousands. In 2022 he returned to his birthplace, buying his first home in Cushing. On September 17, 2023, he founded Upward Bound Media there to solve the problems he lived through. Marketing built by a trades veteran, for the trades.

The Mirror Strategy

Mark is the creator of the Mirror Strategy, Upward Bound Media's local SEO methodology. The Mirror Strategy structures a contractor's website to mirror their Google Business Profile, with the GBP as the single source of truth, so the business ranks in the map pack for the searches customers actually make. Mark publishes exactly how the method works so any contractor can run it themselves.

HVAC IS LIFE

Mark is the co-founder of HVAC IS LIFE, a community of more than 40,000 HVAC professionals, alongside Willie Ward. He serves as the brand's tech and platform lead and co-hosts the HVAC IS LIFE live Q&A podcast, where contractors bring real questions about the trade and the business side of running a shop.

Teaching Every Day

Mark goes live on Facebook every business day teaching marketing for contractors, and publishes free resources with no email gates, including the industry's HVAC price-fixing litigation coverage on this site. His position is simple: diagnose before you sell, teach it all openly, and only take on clients you're confident you can win for.

Quick Facts

Find Mark Online

• Upward Bound Media on The Org
• Mark Cantrell on The Org
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• X
• HVAC IS LIFE
• BBB
• Yelp