You pay the dues, walk in, and everyone is scanning name tags for their next sale. Nobody listens. Everyone waits for a turn to pitch. That was my read on networking in Bucks County, and then I sat down with Julie Murray of ECI Comfort and watched her do the opposite. She knows what feels like half of Langhorne, and she got there without selling anything.
I have been a licensed Realtor here for two decades and helped hundreds of families buy, sell, and invest. I have sat through more pitch-first breakfasts than I care to count, which is why Julie stopped me.
Here is what you will take away:
How Julie walks into a room wanting nothing
What the Rotary Club of Langhorne actually funds
Three Chamber facts that answer the usual objections
Why a family owned HVAC company in Bucks County still answers its own phone
One piece of maintenance you can handle yourself this week
Check out the highlights here:
Why I Wanted Julie Murray of ECI Comfort on Bucks Co Living
There is a line I keep coming back to. People forget what you said and what you did, but they never forget how you made them feel. Julie has been living it here for years.
I watch people join groups and treat every room like a lead list. They collect cards. They follow up hard. They quit by spring when nothing closes. Julie does the opposite.
Her background backs that up. She has been Sales and Marketing Coordinator and Business Development Representative at ECI Comfort, the Langhorne HVAC company, since 2021. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Langhorne, Co-Chair of the Contractors Roundtable at the Lower Bucks County Chamber, and active in the Langhorne Borough Business Association.
The company has been family owned since 1990. The Musser family started it delivering oil and grew it into full service heating, cooling, and oil. I wanted to understand how she gets into those rooms.
Watch the full conversation here:
How Julie Murray Networks Without Selling Anything
Julie joined Rotary and the Chamber with nothing to sell. No service menu. No pricing sheet. No ask. She let people meet her first, and the work followed.
That matters more here than in a bigger market. Langhorne is small. The person across from you at a Chamber breakfast will see you again at Harvest Day, at the car show, at the playground. You cannot pitch somebody Tuesday and dodge them Sunday.
"Basically just went in being Julie. I didn't try to sell anything, force any services upon anyone. I just went in comfortably letting them get to meet me first. And that's how I pretty much go into everything." — Julie Murray, Business Development Representative at ECI Comfort
In practice, an agent asks what the other person's slow season looks like and leaves the listings out of it. A contractor talks about the job that went sideways instead of reciting a services page. At your first Chamber breakfast, you learn three names and leave without handing out a card.
The second visit is where it moves. People recognize you. On the third, someone introduces you around. By the fifth, you are the name a neighbor gives when asked for a recommendation. I run listing appointments the same way, which is part of why homeowners in Bucks County choose to list with Bucks Co Living.
This is slower and more durable. A relationship built without an ask survives your slow season, because the ask was never holding it up. A pitch-built one expires the minute the pitch stops landing. The Rotary Club of Langhorne is where Julie's version shows.
What the Rotary Club of Langhorne Actually Does for This Town
Most people hear Rotary and think dues club. Julie corrected that on air, global first and then local. Rotary is the largest service organization in the world.
According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, more than a million Rotary members have volunteered their time and money toward ending polio, and Rotary's role in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is one of the campaign's founding partnerships.
Julie also pointed to surgical teams that travel for cleft lip and palate work, clean water wells, and literacy programs.
Locally it looks smaller and lands harder. The club gives scholarships to area high school seniors every year, a couple thousand dollars annually by Julie's estimate. It funds groups serving people experiencing homelessness, including veterinary care for their pets. There are blood drives and an annual street cleanup.
The big one is the Langhorne Rotary Pet Fair and Family Fun Day, Saturday, August 29, 2026, 10 AM to 3 PM at Mayors' Playground, rain date September 12.
Admission is free. Vendors, food trucks, a petting zoo, a pet parade, raffle baskets, and the cooling stations ECI Comfort supplies for the dogs. I bring the boys and skip the snakes. Summer hits home systems the same way, and how often to change your AC filter in summer is worth a look.
Ripple effects were the part Julie kept returning to. You rarely see who contributed, only the outcome. The unglamorous work is what holds a town together.
The Chamber of Commerce Misconception That Keeps Contractors Out
I get pitched on networking groups constantly. BNI, tips groups, all of it. The pressure keeps small operators out of the room, so I asked Julie what the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce actually requires. Three things she confirmed on air:
An annual fee, scaled to company size. One employee costs less than multiple tiers.
No referral quota. Referrals are appreciated, never forced, with no penalty for skipping.
You can sit in the back and say nothing for a year. Julie would rather you join in, but quiet is fine.
Julie co-founded the Lower Bucks County’s Chamber of Commerce Contractors Roundtable with her co-chair Jen, who works in flooring, after the two kept meeting at Chamber events. The Chamber had groups for women, entrepreneurs, and young leaders. The trades had nothing. It meets every other month, because nobody leaves a job site in July. SBA guidance on building a business through networking is a fair place to start.
That room is a speaker and a real conversation. Topics rotate on purpose.
"We find the flexibility and we try to have different speakers that come in. We've had an HR company come in just to help with finding the right way to handle situation. We've had AI specialists come in and just talk about answering services that are possible and so forth. Insurance, business needs insurance. So we try to switch up the topics so that everyone has some point that they can connect somehow." — Julie Murray, Co-Chair of the Contractors Roundtable, Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce
The practical version: go to one keynote or happy hour before you pay anything, then walk in with a question instead of a pitch. Leading with what you sell is what makes people write the whole thing off. If you are hiring into the trades, HVAC technician career outlook and wage data is worth reading. All of this changed how I think about my calendar.
What Changed for Me After Talking With Julie Murray
One detail reframed the conversation. Julie's husband grew up in Levittown. She did not. She came from rural Ohio and landed here because of him. She is still the one who knows everyone, and he jokes that she is the mayor. That is years of showing up.
It connects back to the family owned piece. Private equity has been buying local HVAC and trades companies across our area, and the first thing to disappear is the real person on the phone. ECI still answers with one, and Julie takes service calls herself. Same tone on Facebook and Instagram, where the posts mostly try to teach people about their own systems.
"I would say success doesn't necessarily have to be measured financially. I mean, I guess everybody holds it different, but the fact that I like to come to work and I'm happy and I like the people I work with. I hold that just as high of a priority, if not more than going day to a job that I tolerate." — Julie Murray, Business Development Representative at ECI Comfort
Here is how I apply it. I stopped counting rooms by leads generated and started counting them by people I would actually call. When you are ready to move, you can search homes for sale in Bucks County, PA and Monmouth County, NJ or sell your Bucks County home with local real estate guidance. Find me on Facebook or Instagram. A few questions come up every time I mention this episode.
Questions I Get About ECI Comfort, Rotary, and the Chamber
When is the Langhorne Rotary Pet Fair and Family Fun Day?
Saturday, August 29, 2026, from 10 AM to 3 PM at Mayors' Playground in Langhorne. Rain date September 12. Free to attend, with vendors, food trucks, a petting zoo, a pet parade, raffle baskets, and cooling stations. It is the club's largest fundraiser.
Do you have to refer business to belong to the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce?
No. Referrals are welcome but never required, and there is no penalty for skipping them. Dues scale with company size, and you can sit in on a Contractors Roundtable meeting before you join.
How often should I change my HVAC filter?
Every one to three months, depending on system age, household activity, and pets. Closer to every 30 days at the peak of summer. Julie's point was that this is the one job any homeowner can handle. Here is a step by step furnace filter replacement walkthrough, plus common HVAC maintenance questions answered for the rest. ECI Comfort sells filters online with a subscription option.
Keep the Conversation Going
If you want trusted HVAC guidance and community-focused business connections, reach out to Julie Murray of ECI Comfort:
Website → https://www.ecicomfort.com/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-t-murray
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/ecicomfort/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/ecicomfort/
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@ECIcomfort
If something in this episode made you think, question, or laugh, don't let it stop here. Follow Anthony Paul Pinto:
🌎 Website → https://www.buckscoliving.com/
📘 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/anthonypaulpinto/
📷 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/anthonyppinto
🔗 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyppinto/
Apply as a Guest on the Bucks Co Living Podcast
Bucks County runs on family owned businesses and the people who keep showing up for them. If you are building something here, a trade, a nonprofit, a storefront, a service business, and solving real problems for neighbors, I’d love to have you on the Bucks Co Living Podcast.
