The Legends of the Home Improvement Industry: How Dave Yoho Associates and Power100 Honor the Leaders Who Built Modern American Home Improvement...
At REVx 2026 in Chicago, Power100 is spotlighting the Legends of the Home Improvement Industry recognition from Dave Yoho Associates that not only celebrates leaders like Westlake Royal Building Products’ Paul Burleson for decades of resilience, innovation, and mentorship, but also marks the final live event Dave Yoho is expected to attend, turning this June 2–4 gathering into a once‑in‑a‑generation moment for contractors, executives, manufacturers, and partners to learn from, honor, and be inspired by the people who built modern American home improvement.
Power100—the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and partners in the home improvement industry using a proprietary five-layer ranking system—is proud to spotlight the Legends of the Home Improvement Industry recognition presented by Dave Yoho Associates, a distinction that honors leaders whose work, character, and long-term influence have helped build the modern home improvement business in the United States. More than an award, the Legends recognition reflects a larger truth that Dave Yoho has emphasized for decades: this industry was built by people who combined hard work, discipline, creativity, sales excellence, and service to others, and those contributions deserve to be preserved, amplified, and passed on to the next generation.
The award also carries added meaning in 2026 because REVx 2026 at The Westin Chicago Lombard in Lombard, Illinois, from June 2–4, will mark the final event Dave Yoho is expected to attend in person. For contractors, executives, manufacturers, strategic partners, and industry veterans, this moment is both a celebration of the leaders who shaped home improvement and a final opportunity to gather in the room with one of the most influential teachers the industry has ever known.
The Legends of the Home Improvement Industry honor exists because home improvement is not just another commercial category; it is one of the most important economic and human engines in the country. In remarks shared during a Legends event, Dave Yoho explained that the industry once fought for recognition, yet it grew into a massive force in the American economy through the efforts of owners, salespeople, installers, managers, and innovators who built companies, trained teams, created jobs, improved homes, and elevated standards.
He described the honorees not as a narrow class of celebrity executives, but as people who often started with very little: some began as salespeople, some as installers, some in small family operations, and some without credentials or titles at all. According to Dave Yoho, what makes them legends is not a résumé line; it is the combination of work ethic, ingenuity, persistence, discipline, philanthropy, and the ability to plant seeds whose fruit benefits younger people, older people, businesses, communities, and the country as a whole.
That framing gives the award unusual weight. The Legends honor is not simply about who sold the most, built the biggest company, or spoke on the most stages; it is about who elevated the field, created opportunity for others, advanced ethical and effective practices, and became a model for how leadership in home improvement should look.
To understand the significance of the Legends recognition, it helps to understand the institution behind it. Dave Yoho Associates describes itself as one of the oldest, largest, and most successful consulting firms in North America focused on home improvement, remodeling, and home services, with roots going back to 1962 and a mission centered on helping companies drive revenue and increase profitability.
Before founding the consultancy, Dave Yoho built a residential roofing company that expanded to 22 branches in 13 states and reached $60 million in volume in the early 1970s, an achievement that helped establish his credibility as both an operator and a teacher. He later became one of the industry’s most recognized voices in sales training, lead handling, profitability, communication systems, hiring, and leadership development, and his company went on to shape thousands of businesses through seminars, consulting, products, assessments, and in-person events.
In a Power100 interview, Brad Yoho, COO of Dave Yoho Associates, said the firm’s mission has long been to help companies in the home improvement space tackle their biggest business challenges through consulting, digital products, DISC profiling, and high-impact industry events. He also noted that Dave Yoho Associates has held hundreds of public seminars over the years, and that one of the most meaningful outcomes has been watching people who attended as ambitious but developing leaders later rise to the top of the industry.
That history helps explain why the Legends award carries such credibility. It comes from an organization that did not simply observe the industry from a distance; it actively helped shape the systems, people, language, expectations, and standards that many successful companies still rely on today.
In a short but powerful interview recorded around the Legends event, Dave Yoho offered a direct explanation of what the award means to the honorees and to the wider business. First, he emphasized that recipients should receive the award with the understanding that they were nominated and selected by peers, which gives the honor unusual legitimacy in a competitive field where recognition is not handed out lightly.
Second, he said the award is designed to make the public know who these people are and to amplify their stories beyond the room where the ceremony takes place. Even if only a few hundred people witness the program in person, the message is intended to travel further, lifting up the examples of those who have done real work and achieved real impact in the business.
Third, Dave Yoho made clear that the award carries responsibility. In the interview, he agreed that the recognition functions not only as an honor but also as a call to action: a reminder that legends are expected to keep inspiring others, keep spreading the message, and keep serving as ambassadors for a business that offers extraordinary opportunity to people willing to work, learn, and grow.
That perspective gives the Legends award a tone very different from many standard business recognitions. It is not only retrospective; it is forward-facing, asking recipients to use the platform to keep giving back.
One of the clearest examples of the meaning of the award is the story of Paul Burleson, Senior Account Executive at Westlake Royal Building Products, whose induction as a Legend of the Home Improvement Industry has already become a powerful reference point for what the honor represents.
A previous Power100 press release about Paul Burleson describes a life and career defined by adversity, resilience, and impact. According to that profile, Paul Burleson was hit by a car as a child, spent years in a body cast, was told he might never walk again, grew up in extreme poverty in Tennessee, and found an early path forward through door-to-door selling before eventually discovering home improvement as his calling.
Over a 44-year career, he became known as a million-dollar producer, trainer, strategist, speaker, and connector, working with major brands such as Reynolds Aluminum, Owens Corning, Alcoa, Ply Gem, and Westlake Royal Building Products, while also embracing AI, TCPA compliance, virtual measurement tools, and new forms of contractor education. His story shows that the Legends award is not reserved for one type of operator; it can honor sales excellence, innovation, mentorship, advocacy, thought leadership, and a lifetime spent making other people better.
In the St. Louis Legends coverage, Dave Yoho described Paul Burleson in deeply revealing terms. He said Paul Burleson did not come into the business with credentials or a title, but with the willingness to work hard, stay diligent, discipline himself, and learn how to sell products and services to people who often knew very little about them. That, Dave Yoho said, is what made him a legend.
Part of what makes the Legends recognition so compelling is the response it draws from other high-level professionals across the field. During and after Paul Burleson’s induction, a wide range of leaders offered testimonials that reveal the values the award is meant to celebrate.
Daniel DeMatteo of Revien appeared at the event to support Paul Burleson, while Dustin Kirby of gFour Marketing Group said Paul Burleson brings a different kind of energy than everyone else. Tim Musch of Paradigm called him the most hardworking person in the home improvement industry, and Brock Crabtree of Think Unlimited described him, alongside others, as a matchmaker and a great person.
Other industry voices highlighted different dimensions of the same legacy. Dustin Rhoades connected legendary status to work ethic, forward thinking, and putting oneself in position to win. Brian Elias of Refloor said Paul Burleson deserved the honor because he worked with many people and made them successful. Jimmy Hammond said he was the kind of mentor who gives without expecting anything in return.
Those testimonials matter because they show the practical definition of “legend” inside this field. A legend is not simply remembered; a legend multiplies talent, elevates standards, creates movement, and leaves behind better people and better businesses.
The Legends honor matters not only for the people who receive it, but for the people still climbing. In his Power100 conversation, Brad Yoho explained that younger professionals and developing leaders need examples to look toward, much like other established industries have long provided through formal recognition systems.
That insight is especially relevant in home improvement, where many owners and executives arrive through unconventional paths. Some start as canvassers, setters, closers, installers, branch managers, or entrepreneurs who built their companies with skill and grit but had little formal roadmap for scaling. A recognition like the Legends award gives those rising leaders a visible model of what long-term excellence can look like across sales, leadership, innovation, service, and mentorship.
It also reinforces an important message that Dave Yoho has repeated in different forms for decades: the home improvement industry is a serious profession, a powerful economic force, and a place where people can perform at a high level and become something special. Recognition helps counter the old tendency to underestimate the field and instead places deserved attention on the people who built its modern standards.
The timing of this spotlight is especially important because the home improvement industry is navigating significant change. In interviews with Power100, both Dave Yoho and Brad Yoho discussed major current challenges including lead generation pressure, rising lead costs, the need for stronger training, evolving regulations around how companies can contact prospects, and the need for businesses to combine traditional and non-traditional marketing methods more intelligently.
Against that backdrop, the Legends award provides something more than nostalgia. It highlights the people whose examples can help guide the industry through disruption, reminding contractors and business leaders that the future still depends on enduring fundamentals: listening, discipline, structured selling, follow-up, better hiring, continuous learning, and the willingness to adapt without abandoning standards.
That is one reason the stories of honorees resonate so strongly. They show how individuals survived adversity, embraced change, stayed relevant across decades, and continued helping others even as the business model around them evolved.
The next major stage for this story is REVx 2026, tied to the Peak Profit Summit 2026 hosted by Dave Yoho Associates. According to the event listing, the summit will take place June 2–4, 2026, at The Westin Chicago Lombard and is designed to help home improvement leaders unlock higher close rates, strengthen their teams, and increase profit per lead.
The event page for the Legends program says that, in conjunction with REVx 2026, Dave Yoho Associates will honor new recipients of the prestigious Legends of the Home Improvement Industry award. That means the June program will not only deliver practical business education, but also serve as a gathering point for the values, stories, and standards embodied by the award itself.
This year’s gathering carries even deeper emotional and historical importance because it is being presented as the last event Dave Yoho will attend. For an industry that has been shaped by his seminars, methods, language, and leadership, that makes the June summit feel less like a routine conference and more like a landmark moment in home improvement history.T
For contractors, remodelers, home services operators, sales managers, marketers, and executives, the June event matters on two levels. First, it is a live educational forum built around the kinds of challenges companies are facing right now, from profitability and close rates to lead efficiency, training, and team development.
Second, it is a rare moment of industry memory and continuity. The same organization that has spent decades teaching businesses how to improve sales performance and operational discipline is also honoring the people whose lives demonstrate what those principles look like over time. For leaders trying to decide whether to invest time in attending, that combination of current relevance and historic significance is difficult to replicate anywhere else in the field.T
In earlier comments to Power100, Brad Yoho said the value of attending programs like these is not that a company must implement dozens of ideas at once, but that even one or two strong ideas, or one or two meaningful relationships, can have a tremendous impact on a business. Viewed that way, an event that includes both practical guidance and the Legends recognition offers contractors access to systems, perspective, and role models at the same time.
The Legends award also reflects something deeply personal about Dave Yoho’s contribution to the business. In the interviews and event clips provided, he repeatedly returns to the idea that the key issue in business is people: how to train them, how to communicate with them, how to help them grow, and how to encourage them to perform beyond what they thought was possible.
That human-centered emphasis is visible in the way he speaks about honorees. He does not reduce them to metrics alone; he speaks of their character, their diligence, their discipline, their support of others, and their role as ambassadors. Even when celebrating major business accomplishments, he treats recognition as a means of helping people carry the message further rather than simply admiring past success.
That may be one reason so many leaders across the field continue to view Dave Yoho Associates as more than a consulting firm. For many, it has functioned as a teacher, convener, standard-setter, and keeper of institutional memory in an industry that is large, fragmented, fast-moving, and often under-documented.
Awards like the Legends of the Home Improvement Industry honor are also important because industries can lose their memory if they do not intentionally preserve it. Home improvement changes quickly: consumer expectations evolve, tools change, technology accelerates, regulations shift, and the next wave of leaders often arrives without full knowledge of who built the systems they now inherit.
The Legends recognition pushes back against that forgetting. It says that the stories of people like Paul Burleson are not side notes; they are part of the blueprint of the industry itself. It says that young leaders need to know how legends were made, not just who they are.
And it says that in a business built on homes, trust, relationships, and long-term customer value, leadership should still be measured by impact on other people—not just speed, hype, or short-term gain.
Looking ahead, the Legends of the Home Improvement Industry recognition points toward a healthier view of where the industry should go. It affirms that the future should be built by people who combine business performance with customer care, innovation with discipline, growth with mentorship, and personal drive with service to others.
That is why the June event in Lombard, Illinois, matters beyond the schedule itself. It is where new legends will be recognized, where established leaders will gather, where contractors can gain insight into current market realities, and where one of the most influential voices in home improvement is expected to make his final in-person appearance.
For an industry that has often advanced through people willing to go farther than expected, teach more than required, and give back more than necessary, the Legends award is not just appropriate—it is essential. It names what the business should keep honoring.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
