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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast and YouTube channel. I'm on a mission to help you cut the time to all the things that are holding you back so you can unleash your entrepreneurial. Hey. Welcome to Never Been Promoted. I'm your host, Thomas Helfrich. We're here on a mission to help you get out of that corporate world, cut the title, the shit holding you back so you can can kind of unleash this entrepreneur within you. Our mission is really clear. We just want more entrepreneurs in the world. We need them. You know, I'd say the world needs them. The truth is I just really care about The US. I think The US needs them. I think we need way more people working for themselves, building businesses, small businesses, and then even even bigger. They'll be happier, and I think it's better for our economy and everything else that's going on, in the world. Today, we'll be joined by Roger Wakefield. He is a YouTube plumber. He has the, I think it's the trades. I'm gonna mess up his podcast. He's gonna do it because his logo messed me up when I read it earlier. He has a podcast. It's all about plumbing and how you should become something to trade, something to actually start making money. And it's so I absolutely love what he's done. He has a massively awesome YouTube channel. And if you haven't ever watched some of his YouTubes, and and and if you wanna if you wanna learn about plumbing, first of all, subscribe to his channel. That's what he does on Saturdays. Blows you away. But, he he the thing some of his YouTubes are just insane. They're just, like, of things I never knew could do. I I saw him weld some pipe shut, and then I saw the the valve blow up and not as well the other day. It was so cool. I was like, oh, that's that's pretty neat. I didn't know that could happen. I also thought he was gonna die because he turned the pressure up to, like, 4,000 pounds per square inch before it it blew up. So, anyway, that being said, we're gonna talk to him. One one shameless plug, get out there. Go to cutthetie.com. That's a a community we have that's been set up. It's a mastermind group to help you get better at entrepreneurship. So enough shameless plugs is bringing mister Roger to the stage batting in first place. How are you, Roger? Thomas, I'm doing great. How about you? I'm good. I was kidding with you offline that, you know, a lot of your posts on social media is when you're traveling to go talk about the trades and other things you built. And it's always a picture of you and the, the really good seat in the Southwest where you can put your flags forward and and, like, my entire feet is Roger Wakefield's feet.
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It's a It's it's it's a pretty good deal. I've literally had people stop me walking down the street because they either recognize me from one of my social platforms. But I guess they go to Facebook too and see my post over there because they're like, oh my god. You're the leg room guy. It's like, no. No. I'm a plumber. So it works. I look at it as an angle. You're trying to get Southwest Airlines to sponsor you. Yeah. Wouldn't that be amazing? You know? Like, all that. Like,
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I mean, I'm I don't know why they haven't even called on yet. They don't like me. Well, they're you're like, he's already paying. Why would we
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Exactly. He's buying tickets. He's he's he flies so much. He's a list preferred.
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So, you know, just let him keep doing what he does. That's right. Well, in Atlanta here, I didn't know there was other airlines except Delta. It took I didn't know that. It took my six years, seven years to figure that out. I was like, oh, that's what the North Terminal is about, all the other people. Exactly. Yes. It's great. Where do you, where do where do where do you call home nowadays?
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I am literally just Northeast of Dallas, Texas. Right now, in one of my studios, we bought almost 10 acres just outside of Dallas at a little town called Wiley. I live a mile down the road in another town called Saksie. And we bought this because we wanted to build an event center. We wanna build training centers. What's cool thing is it's about a real long skinny 4,000 foot house. So I've got my office on the other side of the wall, which is where I shoot my podcast when I have guests come in. My studio here, we've got our marketing team over in the next room. And for them, it's it's it's a bigger room that they had than they had over in the office in Richardson. And then down from that, there's a kitchen, there's a man cave, a a living room, and then just down past that, there were four bedrooms that we turned into offices.
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We're gonna do a couple of them as podcast studios. So we got a lot of cool stuff going on there. Yeah. It's great. I mean, you you and just made a frame of reference. We we had met during a a a branding, mastermind. Yeah. And David, Briar, I believe is his last name. He Good. If you guys knew branding, he's a great guy. He didn't pay me to say that. Just really enjoyed the class. I had his cool book. It's written for people like me in giant letters, and you can read it in a day. It's amazing. So, I think it's like the what's he called it? The
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The brand intervention. The brand intervention. But he also just came out with a new one, and I don't have it in here. And I'm trying to remember the name of it, but his new one and and literally, I got it right before I went out of town, so that's why it's not in here. I haven't even opened it up and gone through it yet, but it's like a rich the rich brand, poor brand. Very interesting. Yeah.
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I like so he's really good. Yeah. And that's when we met though, I and and during this and I I wanted to just tell people this. While we were in that, you had such a cool, setup for your YouTube channel. Because YouTube channel is huge. Like, it it was at one point, it's at 600,000. I haven't looked recently, but it was it's a ton of subscribers. You have a a an actual, you know, subscription base we'll get into a little bit as well from the from the kind of business model. But you had a you had a slider you had just added. You were showing it one day. And because I went out and ordered a slider and redid in a whole room in my on my house here to be a studio. So you're the inspiration for all the extra money I spent around here. I mean and it was it wasn't insignificant. I'm saying new new detached framing, double dry wallet, add RoMax four or five times with sound tiles. Yes. It adds up. AR go off above me. I'll tell you now. And then I think it was shot in me, but you could it would be difficult. It would sound like a
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Yeah. The I'll tell you what. The the slider that I got, which is what I'm running off the camera for right now. Oh, man. Look at that. It's just it's smooth. It's easy. Sometimes it's loud enough that I hear it, and I'm like, man, Colton,
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can you pick that up with the cameras or the microphones? He said, no. It's great. No. I might Do do you like a whining sound? Because I hear a whine sound on mine. It's like a wee sometimes, like, it's, like, really high pitched. My I can hear mine right now. I'm with you. You can hear the motor running. So, anyway, it's I love what I get to do. But, yeah, that there's me playing with my slider. So then you come back to camera one, and it's just me. So you're stuck with me. Well well, listen. I I want you to introduce yourself. So, you're you're the YouTube plumber. You have a you know, just do do the, do the brain dump of what you're doing today, and then let's dive into how you got there. Because, I have completely changed my perspective on the trades and people who do them and the business that are run after meeting you and hearing what you go and speak about and seeing the channel you built. And I can't imagine how much subscriptions coming because I'm like, I think I would just do that, just full time YouTube if I had your channel set up. So
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the show is yours. You do what you do. No. No. Thomas, it's pretty much what we do. I'm Roger Wakefield. I am innovating and advancing the trades industry, and I'm doing it through education, innovation, and community engagement. I teach tradespeople how to get out and and be seen. Whether you are someone just starting out in the trades, someone who is has been in the trades for a while, you've got a license, you're not learning new things. I teach tradespeople that there's so many more things to learn that'll help you grow. I teach tradespeople how to start their own businesses, which is really funny because now I've got other entrepreneurs coming to me saying, look. If you can teach a plumber to do it, I think you can teach me to do it. And then I teach entrepreneurs how to grow their brand, how to grow their following, how to grow their communities through networking, social media, and SEO. So literally, I sold my plumbing companies because we started growing so big on YouTube. We had to figure out which way we wanted to go. So what we've done on YouTube has been really good. There's the Trade Talks logo just popped up behind me. We started a second channel about a year ago. We just went up to we're getting close to 25,000 subscribers, I think, and we just went over a million views. So it's growing pretty good. What's the second channel about? It's it's literally it's about all the trades, but we came up we wanted to create a show formula where it's more of a variety show. So we talk about what's going on in the news today with the trades. What can businesses learn for growth? What can the the plumber or the entrepreneur learn for mental growth? Soft skills, new material equipment and technology. We talk about that. We talk about MEP where it's mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, not just plumbing. So we shifted it from all plumbing, which is pretty much what my channel was about because we realized our community, our audience, we had electricians, we had HVAC techs and and roofers. And, I mean, I've got dentists and chiropractors that that are in here on a regular basis, and ask them why are you watching my videos? And they're like, Roger, you make me a better person. You you talk about doing things the right way and being professional about it. And they're like, I take out the word plumber and put in chiropractor and, you know, other than laying pipe, you you've pretty much helped me out a lot. I mean, I've gotten pretty good at laying pipe. You know, that's why I became a plumber. Just saying. I'm gonna throw that out there, and then I'll leave it alone. I'm just gonna throw it on the table. I'm sorry.
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Yes. We can do that on the show. Just just throw it on the table. This isn't is it corporate owned? Just What's the new channel called?
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The new channel is called The Trade Talks, and it's also on YouTube where everywhere where you can find Spotify, trying to be like you. It's we decided from the beginning. If we're gonna do a podcast, let's do it right. Let's video it. Let's put it out there. And we probably get more views through YouTube than we do listens through your your podcast, but, really, we're we're doing pretty good. I think we're in the top 25% for people that talk about the trades, and we just we're just getting started. Yeah. Well and I I just put up youtube.com/@thetradetalks.
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Is that correct for you, Susan? I believe so. Okay. I I will I will Someone can jump in if it isn't, but I think you'll find it. I think this is I like to find these reflective moments for entrepreneurs. You know? And and what's built it, you're coming into you know, you could just you could I mean, you have a huge following on the other one. You get, I'm sure, a good subscription base. You guys are student subscription model on the, on your original one. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. And so that's a great source of income that's steady. It comes in. You probably could do some predictability with it. But yet you started something else. Did you take all the lessons learned of, oh god, we're not doing this and that and that. We're gonna do it into the new one? We did. But but remember, this is this one literally started out us doing one podcast a week.
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So I would I would fly people into town. We'd go have dinner Friday night, at I always ask them, do you like steak or do you like Mexican? Because I've got two amazing restaurants. You like steak or beef? You know? And yeah. But even when I go to Mexican, I order a steak, and I tell them, well, I'm eating steak no matter where we go, so just don't just know that. But I'd bring them into town, hang out with them Friday night, get to talk to them, get to know them, pick them up Saturday morning, bring them in here to the studio. We'd go over into my office where I've got five cameras set up, and we would shoot our podcast. Then we'd come over into this studio, and I've got three microphones in here. We set up another one here to my left, and we'd talk about something. So we could shoot one or two videos. And then I used to go live every Saturday morning at 11:00 or, yeah, 11:00. Since we're doing the podcast on the other channel, we're going live every day at 10:00 Central Standard Time. And we do that so tradespeople on the East Coast can sit down during lunch and and and participate, watch it, do whatever they wanna do. But then everybody else, Central Standard Time, Mountain Pacific, when you go to lunch, the video is already up there ready to watch.
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So we put a lot of thought behind every little detail of this. Yeah. On on your, when your video so so video cast and and and podcasts are an interesting way to go. I'm gonna table that just for a second, though. I want you to the original channel. Do do your do you do the spiel on trades? Because there's people out there who are in a corporate world or maybe they're younger and they're, like, they're about to go to college or they're in college, and they're, like, they're incurring debt. They're doing this or they're considering it, and they're looking at their job prospects thinking I get paid 75 k a year to do is a good start. And I'm like, I'm facing $200,000 of school debt. I don't know if you guys know math. It doesn't pay off very fast. That way, it's like a thirty year adventure. But, I mean, go meet a plumber in year two. They're making a couple hundred thousand.
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So Yeah.
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Anyway, so talk talk about what what you preach is not the right word, but I'm okay saying what you're kind of evangelized instead. I'll get behind the pulpit here. It's it's great because literally,
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there's over a million unfilled trade jobs right now. And you you look at America. Blue Collar Workers built and are repairing and maintaining everything you see every day. If it's a road, if it's a bridge, if it's a building, if it's a house, if it's an apartment complex, it really doesn't matter. Blue collar workers built this. And each year, unfortunately, right now, there's less and less people getting into the trades. Your average age for tradespeople in The United States is mid fifties. So in the next five to ten years, these people are done. They're gonna be retiring. So I was on doctor Phil last year, and he brought me in to discuss this with with an attorney and some little kid from TikTok that tried to be an electrician and couldn't cut it. And they both had the idea that everybody needs to go to college. Nobody needs to get in the trades. It's hard work. It's not good. You're gonna hurt your body. But it's like these are the people that are building the America that we live in. On doctor Phil, he said in the next three years, they expect four to 5,000,000 unfilled trades jobs. A million now, four to five in three years. Supply and demand is fixing to kick in, and I truthfully think a good tradesman is gonna make over a hundred dollars an hour on his check-in
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the next two to three years. May maybe three to four years, but, guys, it's coming. Yeah. Well, I listen. In here in Alpharetta, Georgia, it's certainly a hundred dollars an hour take home, because it's like you're a I mean, but that that's a good point. So if you're gonna get into trades, understand the model. Right? You you might not you may need to move from a small town or at least go work in a bigger one to get the numbers you want. You know And you're talking Alpharetta. Alpharetta is not a huge town. I've I've used to go there two or three times a year. Mhmm. It's it's a what's your population? Do do you know? Probably a few hundred thousand. It's I mean, of the 9,000,000 people who live in Atlanta or I'm sorry. 7,000,000 live in Atlanta, it's probably, you know, 300,000 of it. But, I mean, it's an affluent area for sure, but it's a it's not like it's, you know, it's it's not a huge part of I mean, they're all blend together. Right? But the my point being is people pay a premium. It's unbelievable how much people pay to put an electric outlet in. They're like, you realize you can Google how to do that. That is not that difficult. I I did it, and I'm a plumber. Just say If you can listen. If you're a plumber, you can do anything. I'm just gonna put You know, other than laying pot, I'm I'm, you know, I'm not I'm gonna fall back on You can get out of a vapor lock, sir. Oh, I've had that happen. I'm gonna tell you. I do my own plumbing Right. To undercoat, of course, anybody listening. Absolutely. Yeah. No problem. You know, got the jackhammer and broke up my floor in my basement and realized it's not a big enough jackhammer and had to go back and have the work the the and what I tell my wife is it's just gonna be a bad day because Sometimes we have them. Sometimes even the lastest plumber has a bad day. It's a break through rebar. I'm man, you have to cut rebar, and then you have to it's such a anyway. So I I agree. So I so my perspective was always like, trades. People who can make it in college because that's how I grew up. You know? Go to a university. The by the way, I I am okay for education. I just don't believe you should incur massive amounts of debt that you couldn't pay off in a year or two to do it. And I was the same way. I was brought up, if you don't go to college, you'll never amount to anything. Right. With exact words, I've heard Mike Hunter. Stigma that that every tradesperson has because they heard it too.
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And most tradespeople, they still believe that. They're like, look, man. I'm just a plumber. I'm not ever gonna be anything. Guys, you can be whatever you wanna be. I mean, you can be an entrepreneur. You can own your own business. I know people that own a plumbing company that are under just under $200,000,000 a year. They're making good money as a residential company. For sure. That is definitely not residential. No. It's residential, but they're just No way. They're massive. Yes. Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and garage doors. And now they just opened a new division, well, really two. Another one that they've built their own handyman company where they can bring people in and train them. I mean, think about it. When you're out on a job plumbing and you gotta cut a hole in a wall, hey. We have a a handyman that'll come out and fix this for you. Call this company. And now they got into roofing. I mean, they're they're growing like crazy.
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Yeah. Well, what I what I love about what the trades do and and listen. If you're capable to go to college and you think you could be an attorney, then go do that. That's what you wanna go do. I mean, I I don't know attorney especially, I don't know if I've ever met a happy attorney ever. Yeah. Yeah. And and Usually the one who's left. Which at GPT, we're fixing them, not need them. Yeah. There is truth to that. They can do a good job of writing in contracts and some things, but the the, the trade that I I I think people don't realize too, and if COVID didn't make this obvious, toilets still flood, pipes still break, allow outlets go out. There's issues. Essential services, their their demand is very steady and typically has spikes above that steady when there's a growth or even when there's a growth, people rehab. Right? So peep there's always a need, and the numbers are going up, and people always have to go to the bathroom. They're always gonna need lights. They're always gonna need some HVAC or some other issues or, you know, whatever it is. They may not need paint. I may not pick that one. That that's like, I I can hold off painting, but my toilet breaks or You're not waiting. There's an issue with my water, you're you're gonna get a call. You have to have someone fix that. And even if so myself who can do a lot with plumbing, I can't figure out some stuff. Like, I'm like, you don't know why that drain's bubbling.
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And here's the thing. Paper lock. How cold does it get now, Freda? How hot does it get? When it's hot and your AC doesn't work, you're not waiting to you you know what? I'll wait till next week. When it's cold and your heat ain't working, you're like, no. Where's that guy now? Always breaks because it's the first run of the year when it is. Of course it does.
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Yes. Yes. No doubt. My HVAC guys, to be clear, Advantage Air, they didn't tell me to say that. I love these guys. They've said, listen. You You need to replace this unit, but don't do it until it breaks.
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Then sell me nothing. And and a good thing now, start putting up money. That way when it's time to do it, you're like, hey. You know what? I was able to save $5. That may not cover the whole thing, but look here. You told me to get ready for it. I'm ready for it. Here's the $5. How much more is it? And you're ready. There's a few guys, though, I will say, that my my my I'm sorry. My parents live in
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Columbia, South Carolina. And they said, oh, we had to get our HVAC replaced. I'm like, alright. Well, how much do you guys pay? And they said, 30,000. Like, you live in, like, a 800 square foot house. I go, what did they put in? They're like, some kind of I'm like, they put enough ton. And so I was like, that unit is bigger than my house, and that my house is significantly larger than there. And I'm like, my it's bigger than the unit we have in our entire home. And I go, if the three units we have don't total the ton is just they put I was like, whoever it was sold them oversold them. I mean, I looked at this thing, and it looks like like a a Cray server been put into their attic of their house. I'm like, why did they put it anyway,
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I was scoping. Thing is now now they can hang these in there if they need to.
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Listen. They can they can heat the neighbor up hood with this thing. Yeah. Our our our our my gosicles appear in the house. Either way, I'm like you guys just go put two vents into the garage because it doesn't hurt your efficiency at all. It's just gonna make that area more comfortable throughout the year. Man. You got plenty of tonnage. Literally, I could run a line to Atlanta, and it could get it there. Oh. Like Oh. Anyway, I like this. I love the idea of trade. So, and I thought to myself, in my case, it says, hey. I wanna be a plumber. I would I would I would I still kinda tense up. I go, ugh. I'm kinda like, are you sure? But then I'm like, okay. But learn the business. Learn how to do it. Get your certifications. Do everything you need to be able to execute. Because at the end of the day, you can just be that, and you don't have to do anything else. You can just show up. That's what you're happy with, and that's awesome. And you can make an incredibly good living. It would take you to your mid thirties to probably at the same salary if you were full you know, if you're working forty hours a week as a plumber. You it would take you I would think at least a decade and a half, two decades in in most jobs. Would you agree with that? I mean, like, if you're Most most city, major metropolitan city. Absolutely.
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Most plumbers, I think, by the time they get their license, are making over a hundred thousand a year by the time they get their license. So that means literally, you're a glorified apprentice. You you passed the test. Well, now you want more money, and I get that. Nothing wrong with it. But at that point is about when you should be making a hundred thousand dollars a year. It's up to you. You I've had plumbers that I've brought in and interviewed that make 200,000 a year in a truck for another company. I've had HVAC technicians I brought in that make 300 to almost 400,000 a year.
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Just driving a truck, fixing AC systems, cleaning them, selling them. Well, as I got it, put it put that one in my house, like because it's also like a $5,000 train. I'm like, how did you pay 30 for it, though? Anyway, I I'm I'm bitter. Is there a difference in your opinion between the market ed the the and I'm not picking on Linux, the only way I can think of, versus
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the Trane Good Quality America? Like, do you really think there's the the the is it just marketing, or is there a quality difference? I I do think there's a quality difference, and I say that because of the plumbing side of it. I know that the the water heaters that I buy are a lot better than the water heaters I see at the big box store. And to be honest, when you're in a position I am and you can actually talk to the manufacturers, it's like, yeah, there there's a difference. They won't go into detail what all the differences are, but yeah. Yeah, Roger. There's a difference. Y'all get a professional level water heater. So to me, yeah.
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So when so when you use a professional who really knows it and they say, we buy from the supply store for whatever reason. Because I I've noticed, like, the glue that, like, some plumbers have left here works way better than the Home Depot goo. Like, I'm like, damn. That that stuff locks down. Like, there is no time loss. Like and you better know when you set that thing, you have, like, a half a second to get it the angle you want or you're redoing the thing. Line it up quick. You I never appreciated the lines on the on the on the pipes I was cutting out until and how I probably should have paid attention to some of that. But, anyway, you know, I'll make it above and then once you have that, it it's pretty easy to do, man. If you don't know where
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Well and I tell you what, new products. The the you you made a comment about earlier about a line that we were testing, and the gauge blew off. Oh my god. That was such a cool video. Okay. I was waiting for the thing to blow up. We were waiting for it to blow up. Do you remember what the video was about?
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I I came in that you had welded it, I believe. Right? Or something you'd you'd created those seal on that? We glued it
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with a product with a product called copper glue. Is it I mean, okay.
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I didn't realize that. Because I thought that was a weld. It And I thought you were trying to actually, I thought you were trying to show what's gonna break first, and I was blown away that the gauge blew up.
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The weld on the fitting on the gauge I mean, we're I'm man, I was like, what just happened? I'm sitting here looking down at our blast chamber. Honestly. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sitting here looking down at our blast chamber, and we've got we've got our slow mo camera on it. We've got, you know, GoPros down in it. We we've got everything that we do for video. And all of a sudden, something blew, and I'm looking down there like, wait. There's no water down in there. And water's coming everywhere out here. I'm like, what just happened? And we took it apart. The weld on the fitting broke, not the the cap that we glued on the copper. It At that point, you're hoping it's just made and shiny. You're like, see? That's the problem. Man, something happened. Yeah.
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That's a and I think I think when when I so anybody that wants a cool channel what's the actual channel name, actually? I didn't I didn't capture that last time for you to It's Roger Wakefield plumbing education.
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That's that's the whole channel name? That that that's my channel. Yeah. Any any I'll tell you what. Search right now. Anybody searching that, just go search the word plumbing. And Yes. You will come up. I was on a marketing cruise last week, and literally, I did a breakout session. I had so many people wanting to learn YouTube. I said, look. Let's step step over here and I'll do a breakout session. So I did a breakout session. I probably had 50 people jammed in a corner area of the dining room on the cruise ship. And I had people come in more people coming in. They're like, we couldn't even get close enough to here. So that that was neat. But when I started this channel, it was Texas Green Plumbing. I was trying to grow a plumbing company. I had no idea I was gonna be a YouTuber. If you'd have told me that six years ago, I'd have said, what what does a YouTuber do? I would have been like, I am clueless. I met you, like, three years ago. Probably. Yeah. Right about still doing projects. You at that point, you still had said, hey. We'll still pick up some big projects from and you you have since exited that even. Like, you don't sign for that. That. Yeah. I I I was running a residential service company. We were doing Yeah. About a million dollars a year, and it was easy to run because I just had three plumbers. And then I'd get out and do things as needed. So, yeah, we we we were doing You're
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And and I think I I I love to find the reflective moments here, is to, the is that you you took a business that you could have stayed at a million and made, you know, net 400 k or whatever it is. You whatever your take home from that is. Right? Really good, like, no doubt you're you can There there should if you're doing things right, there should be 200 k profit right there every year on top of what you're paying yourself. Right. Exactly. I mean, so you're you got 400 coming in, you know, same suit, different pocket stuff, but, like, you got 200 being held back. You're banking about 20% for yourself, and you got enough to invest to kinda keep it sounds like now when your business models might be, I sell leads to plumbers in our private network.
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We're start starting to do that. We're we're fixing to move into that. I found finally found a great website guy that doesn't just rip people off. Oh, really? And and him and I are talking about doing some great stuff. So he's the one that came to me and says, look. You you need to to do this. You need to create a referral service. You should. Talk
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about that. So we we do this on the marketing side for my company instantly relevant because I I we have a very specific thing we do for marketing for LinkedIn. But but for everything else, it's only people I actually know or worked with. And I think one of your your things you could do for other plumbers are people you know you can actually refer them stuff to, which could be another revenue source of, hey. For a hundred bucks a year, we get anything in your area, but you're also listed as a trusted you know, it's a social cred. Right? It's a badge. Ain't ain't that cool the way that works? Mhmm. I love it. It's amazing. So give advice to someone in corporate. So this is a slightly different demographic. Let's say, well, I'm here. I'm 49 years old, and I still wanna be an entrepreneur. I kinda I wanna get out of now. Paul, we'll use me as an example. I'm not doing this, but let's see if I was. Mhmm. I'm I wanna get out of corporate. Is there time for me to become a tradesman, a plumber? Could could I reef to I got probably twenty five years of work left in me that I could actually move and do. Is it too late for someone in their forties to do It's it's actually not. And if they wanna get out
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and and learn the trade, that's an opportunity. But if they've been in corporate long enough that they understand how to run a business, Thomas, the most plumbers don't have a retirement plan. Their retirement plan is work till I die, give it to my children, or give it to my family, or see if I can get somebody to buy it, but, you know, I hadn't built it right. Maybe I'm not making 20%. Maybe I'm only making 10%, and I'm paying myself, you know, however much money because I'm still out running a truck. That's the kind of business you step in and look at and say, but wait. You know, you you you've got a lot of customers. You've got a good customer base. You can normally go ask those plumbers, when's the last time you send out an email to your customers? What's email? Yeah. And they're like, why would I do that? Okay. They don't get it. And, you know, we work with GoHighLevel on their CRM or on Great. I love
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it. Big big fan. So
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the the great thing about it is most plumbers don't know this. So I'm starting to teach plumbers about CRM. And if it's somebody in the corporate world that that has been able to put some money up and say, hey. Look. I'd like to come and talk to you about buying your company, but I want you to hang around. And I don't know what you think it's worth, but here's what I'm willing to give you, but you're gonna get a percentage of it. So every year from then on, it's gonna keep paying off until I buy you out and we put that option in the contract. But you go through and look at it and say, look. This guy doesn't have a retirement plan. So if you're coming in throwing maybe a hundred, $200,000 at him, he's like, wait. This is this is like hitting the lottery. And I I know so many plumbers that would sell their company for a hundred thousand dollars today. And then you tell them, hang around for another year. You run the plumbing. Let me start injecting money into it for marketing, for KPIs, to get systems and processes in place. And then you wanna walk away in a year, walk away, you'll still own 10%. Or hang around another year. You can keep making money to run the company, the plumbing side of it, until I don't need you. So how how do you do that when, the owner is not licensed? So pulling permits and things like that. Well, you you wanna make sure that the the owner has the license. If he doesn't have the license, you don't need him to hang around. You need the person with the license to hang around. So say you've got a guy and he says, look. I don't have a license. I just own the company. Great. How much would you sell the company for? And remember, you don't have a license, so you're really useless to me. I just wanna buy the company. But then you talk to whoever does have the license and say, hey. Look. I wanna make sure that me and you are on good terms. You're gonna make good money. Can you step up and do what this previous owner did? Can you step up and run the plumbing end of it? And ask them. They may be interested in it. They may not. They may they may be the same age and say, I know. I'm ready to walk away too. Well, can I just keep you around for a couple of years, use your license until I can find someone else, or take one of the plumbers we have, get them to take their their master exam, and do it that
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way? Well, that's what I was asking. So the other piece would be as soon as you have it, you're basically buying, in that kind of scenario, they have to have a book of business that is referenceable, addressable, and marketable to because that's the value. In part of the part of what you could do in that scenario too is for you to get your full payout, next two years, you need to train someone to get a master license. You need to Absolutely. We need to bring in a junior that can get a master license.
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Is is that our basis? So that I'll go back. Let's say I wanted to I wanted to get my master's. How how many hours am I looking at from from I start tomorrow? In Texas, if you go through a DOL training program, you've gotta have four years to get your journeyman and then one more year to get your master's. If you don't go through any kind of a training program at all that's approved by the Department of Labor, it's four years to get your journeyman, another four years to get your masters, so it's eight years. So it really is worth having a good plumber around that that you
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know, like, and trust and know that they're not just gonna try to steal all the customers one day. So one of those models could be, I have customers. I need master plumbers to come in. And we do it in it when it's I mean, not every job needs a permit. Right? If you're gonna go you know, someone calls I mean, I know the rules are in different places, but the truth is if you had a a list of just referral sources that basically, hey. We have you know, you have people you'll call Tyne. You gotta put my shirt on. Go do it. That's another way. They you can do all your side jobs you want, but when you're on our jobs, you do run the risk of them stealing future clients with it. But Yeah. You have that kind of stuff. But, like, they're all models. In most states, that's illegal. In Texas, I cannot rent out my master license.
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So Wow. I am supposed to legally be an employee of the company that my master license is for. And the master license goes to an individual, not In Texas, yes. It's different in different states. A lot of companies don't even have a master plumbing license. Your company has to have a contractor license. So different things
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the world's different everywhere you go. Well and and the reason I asked this, right, because one of the things that people get into for for, business or for for new entrepreneurship is in franchising. And you can buy a I've heard this. You can buy a plumbing franchise. What is your take on trades? I I say plumbing because that's weird, but let's just go trades a little broader. What is your take on buying trades franchises versus just another path that ends up the same way without doing like, with you don't get the blueprint maybe, but is there another path or is that a great path? Or Yeah. I I think it can be a great path as long as they've got all the systems and processes
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built in place. To be honest, if you're already an entrepreneur, you understand systems and processes, you understand implementation, do you really need that? What you're buying is them handing you a book saying, hey, this is the way we do it and it works. Great. If you talk to an old plumber and you're buying his company, he's done something that works. You just need to find out, look, do you have contact information on every customer you have? And if not, what can we do to get that? How can we build that? How can we start building it? And to me, that cuts your price in half or more. Because then all you're buying is all this old used van and old used equipment and stuff like that. It may be easier to say, look. I'm just gonna start my own company. I'm gonna hire a master plumber. Start with him, let him run it, and then we'll go from there.
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Do you think there's an opportunity for apparel to get, like, a higher waistband,
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non plumber ass jeans? You know, I I I've I either wear Wranglers or Harley jeans, and and I've got on my soft jeans today because, I'm Do you wear tight jeans like metro central kinds? Like No. No. I'm I'm not quite like that. I I've lost 40 pounds. I don't know that they make jeans. I mean, they used to be tight. Everyone's like, do you wear tight jeans? I'm like, yes. Because I'm chunky. Yeah. I did. I did. Everything is tight. Yeah. Yeah. Once a matter of fact, once my 30 eights got tight, I thought I'm not going to a 40. And now I'm back down to, like, a somewhere between a 32 and a 34. So, yeah, it's it's it's a little bit different. We need to do some squats. We gotta get an ass back on you. What happened? You don't wanna get old man ass. You got a flat ass. You need to get I've got one of those climbers. I don't know if you've ever seen that. Get your ass big. You gotta get some lunges. No. No. No. Your your ass and your legs,
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I mean Really? I'll show you. I'm a plumber. I really don't care. I mean Yeah. It is what it is. A friend of mine, he has, like, a 10 inch plumber's ass before it actually get it's unbelievable how deep his butt crack is. And always I know that because every time he comes over, he bends over a little to pick something up. Yeah. And it is
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Don't don't don't be there when the police come in because if they find 40 pounds of crack in your your house, you're in trouble.
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The this guy wishes he had 40 pounds of crack. It it's much, much more than that.
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40
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pounds is that is that for It's 10 different action pictures for a year. He's getting a class three felony for sure just for having it on his back. I'm gonna use that next time. The class three felony on your back right there tend to distribute. Do you see how we've derailed this? Yeah. It doesn't I love it. So what's what's a trade though you would avoid?
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Me personally, concrete work. Man, that that is hard work. That I mean, you're out there with a shovel. You're out there with those big shovels pulling concrete. And, I mean, I don't know if y'all know this. Concrete ain't job too. Like, it's really hard to do by yourself. It it it is. I mean, I've seen some good I've seen some great concrete guys that could do almost anything by themselves. But when you when you look at what the work itself entails, it is hard physical manual labor all day every day. The good thing about plumbing, electrical, HVAC, a lot of that, it's it's the mindset. Getting in, diagnosing problems, looking at the system, stuff like that. Concrete is just, alright. Put your mud boots on. You're gonna be walking around through thick mud all day and get your big shovel because you're gonna be dragging that mud around. It, to me, is probably one of the most physically demanding jobs that there is, and that's just why that's one I would not wanna do.
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I I I I like plumbing because you don't die in it unless you're doing, trenches. So trenches, I would avoid.
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Yeah. You you can. Tunnels, trenches, any time you're you're possibly in a confined space area, things like that, that's not good. So, yeah, the all the trades can be dangerous. I I remember seeing a a video one time. A lady had put put together this course and training, and it it breaks her heart, but she said I did this because my husband died. And Oh, yeah. He's literally driving home from a big job. He was a superintendent, Drives home from a big job one day, and they had a problem with a light pole on a job. Well, he goes out and test it, and there's no electricity. He's fine. So he's in there messing up everything, and it starts getting later. And the electronic photovoltaic eye or whatever kicks on. Oh my god. He's in here working. Now all of a sudden, it's fully live. He got shocked and had a heart attack and died right there. Oh my word. Yeah. You know, we we we understand lockout tag out. We understand systems and procedures, but you get through, you test it, there's no power. It's like, look. Everything's good. There's no power. And, you know, I did I told you earlier, I installed an electrical outlet. If I can do it, anybody can do it. But the funny thing is I installed it for a bidet toilet seat. Ah, so I did mine for. And it's funny because every time I turned off the light, this the seat would glow. You know, the it had the the blue UV light in it. But when I turned out turned on the light, it went off, and I couldn't get that in my head. How come when I flipped the switch, the the seat quits working? What wasn't working? It's a nightlight. When I flipped it off and made the room dark fly It was working. And I'm like, man, I'm like, man, this shit is just crazy as working backwards.
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I know who that was. We were gonna take a tangent on bidets. During COVID, everyone's, like, freaking out about whatever, totally bidets. Seven bidets and and then cut some holes in some walls, and we ran some new lines because Uh-huh. And I have not turned back. Every one of our floors are heated. You I I I when I travel, I'm like, I don't even know what to do. I don't even know how like, I can't even. Okay. They need a you need a portable bidet. That's the thing that you should that's the thing I'm like No. No. No. I made a video,
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and and I don't know if we made the whole video or not. I literally okay. So one of my former coaches is in Alpharetta, Georgia, a lady named Kim Walsh Phillips. And she did a conference or or a training in I don't remember where we went that time. Let's say Fort Lauderdale. And we were gonna be there a week, and I got this crazy idea. I said, I wanna take my bidet with me. So I've got a bidet toilet seat. So I literally wrapped it up. We shot video of it, like, coming out on the luggage rack at the airport. I'm walking through carrying this thing. I walk into the hotel, carrying this thing. And I shot a video in my hotel room bathroom of me installing a bidet toilet seat in my hotel room, so I'd have it there for a week.
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And I'm like, this was Did you bring an extension cord too? Just so you can get it over the alley. Right? I I I had I had to go to the hardware store while I was there, and the extension cord's one of the things I had to get. So every one of the ones I've installed is for a bit. And I say that because I don't think people realize what they're missing. I mean I know. And I don't even know. I had to tell the cleaning lady, like, whatever you do, do not walk in my room this week. Because if you report that I've I've interfered with the plumbing and installed it, but I told it, I'm gonna get kicked out. I I just went to a Podfest twenty twenty five in Orlando this week, and my toilet for this room endlessly leaked. It's like it's like not even quiet. It was like a like, it was like flowing. I'm thinking, okay. I don't care. It's burning money out of their pocket. But they had their valve where you couldn't even shut it off. Yeah. Yeah. And so because you they don't want you to turn off the valves in the in the room. And I'm like, well, that pisses me off. So they no longer have a hose
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that's in the back. Yeah. Yeah. They come fix my toilet. Either give me the key to the valve or come fix it because I'm listening to this thing run around the clock. I just I just turned the fan on and closed the door. I'm like, I'm just gonna burn some more electricity for you. Now we're wasting water and electricity. We're really good now. We're good. It was, like, wasteful. Alright. So I'm glad you're up to date. So you sit when you pee. Everyone knows it's way better. Everyone knows that. I I I wash my butt every time I pee too. It's like, you know what? Time I sit down. Feel better. I've I know the cleanest part of my entire people, but this is life. It is. This is real life. This is how you enjoy life. Yeah. This is information those hacks that hacks standing in front of the Lambos aren't gonna give you. This is real life stuff. I'm trying to think how you I think a a portable
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bidet would be a really good product that you take it with you. You know, like, it clips on underneath, and then you just run the line over to your thing. And somehow it, like, you you you you source it the pump from the from the back of the toilet or something.
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There's gotta be a there's a way to do it, but but I'm It might be cold. One no. Yeah. See, I ain't doing that. Yeah. You need to buy a bidet warmer. Right? My my favorite bidet toilet seat is the Toto because the seat like, the lid automatically raises. You just go stand in front of it, and it's like your throne
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appears for you. Does it make, like, a ho ho ho ho.
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It it does. It goes
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yes. It's like Actually, I'd rather I'd rather go Like, make a horse sound or something.
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Yeah. Something more retrofit. I'm not even touching that one. You shouldn't. Yeah. I wouldn't want to. Of the conversation.
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It really gets deep and thick when we talk about it. It does. It does. If there was one question I probably should ask you today and I did not, what would that question have been?
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Who should start a YouTube channel?
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Oh, that is good. Who should start a YouTube channel?
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Every entrepreneur in the world needs their own YouTube channel. I mean, I want you to think about this. What I said a while ago, anybody listening to you right now can go to YouTube and search plumbing, and you're gonna find me. I give you my word. Look for the mustache. If you don't see it, open your eyes. There's something wrong. Imagine the niche that your viewers are in. It does not matter if you're if they're if it's a chiropractor, if it's a dentist, if it's a medical sales device. What it does not matter. Mhmm. There's somebody on YouTube searching for what you're selling, searching for what you provide. And, lo literally, I like I said, I did a breakout session on the cruise ship the other day. Probably 50 people there, and I think 15 of them bought packages. They're like, look. I want you to teach me what you do. Think about that. These are entrepreneurs that are here to learn marketing. They hear me speaking. They're like, look. I I want I want your product. I I want this. It does not matter what you sell. Somebody is looking for it on YouTube. Somebody's looking to find out more about it. And if you can become the voice, the face, the persona that is teaching people about this, you become the expert in that niche, in that field. And the best way to do it is on YouTube. And here's the next thing, if you're not doing YouTube, you need to understand somebody else is out there talking about what you're talking about, and they're the ones talking to the customers, the clients that you should be in front of. Yep. So it's crazy.
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I I agree. And and and, YouTube is an animal. I tell people it's not on planet. It's not a solar system. It's not even a galaxy. It's its own universe. So expect that there's a lot to learn. What I mean by that? Mhmm. We have a team of eight that do all my social, right, between podcasts and YouTube and all fill in the blank. I know you have a team that, you know, that we've had for a while. Yep. That's about the same size. Yeah. And you have to because you just you need you need creatives, you need content, you need managers, you need and and but that doesn't mean you don't let that stop you. Because my point is when you get into this, know that you're gonna need a team to keep up, at some point. And And and that's as it starts growing.
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That that says you start growing. You you can start with a phone.
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I mean, look You should. Actually, I I'll I'll one up that. This is an NT USB mic. I don't get money for Yeah. Phone with a good mic, please. I've got a stand over here. You can hook a phone in it and plug a a a lavalier. Find a plug that or find a lavalier microphone that plugs into an iPhone. There you go. I put this one right here has it goes right into my phone as well. So So it's a c connection. And so you I can use this mic on my phone if I needed to, and I know this is a little bigger mic. I saw these ones this week at PubFest that they're, they're Bluetooth clip on lapels.
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Yeah. That they're not mine aren't even clip on. I've got the same thing. Hollyland or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they they're like magnets. Yeah. There's a magnet on the back. They're magnets. Yeah. And they're, like, a 2,549, something like that. Amazing. We literally bought another set of them. My son gave them to me this morning. They were delivered when I was on the cruise. And he's like, hey. Your your other set of microphones came in.
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They're not I don't what I don't I know they do two to one set. Can you put four so you could just instead of doing these mics in your you could just clip these on the people and they can talk, and it it picks it up just fine. I have not checked yet to see if we could sync it up with four, but that would be good. If you're speaking on stages, which, you know, both of us get out and talk,
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if I'm on a panel with four people, you give everybody a mic and say, hey, guys. This is just for my video.
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So, you know, keep passing by. And you're off stage in your in your phone recording it, and, like, this is just for me. It doesn't interfere. And so there's so much technology that you can get going and have really good quality of audio. So I will tell you, audio really matters well. I mean, invest a little in getting something that sounds well because, people leave immediately if you don't. And if you don't think you can be niche, by the way, one of the better podcasts that I saw and met the lady for, she does it on raising goats. And they get tens of thousands of downloads every month. That is crazy. And so you can get as niche as you want. Now I will tell you, someone like us, we're very broad in it last year, and we're narrowing down to who it should be. Very broad gets you lots of people, but doesn't get you the same engagement. It's just you get something that's very specific that I help people in this area that do this, that have this problem. Problem. It so find the Goldilocks of where that needs to be, but that don't really worry if you don't get it right away. My point is just keep working through it. You when you started, you were like, you were just putting stuff out there, and it was like ghost town. Right?
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Oh, yeah. My my first views I mean, it's like my live streams. There were nobody in. My videos would get 20 views. So I've been there. And you're What was the what was the thing that changed? So,
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what what did you do that made it go next level?
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I think starting to learn how to do things the right way. I think by by hiring coaches and consultants and learning what data and analytics to look at. Once you learn that, you start looking at where you really are getting your views and where you're losing them. What what video did you make that lost you the most subscribers?
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Because, you know, a lot of people don't know this. They think that when you get a subscriber there for life, YouTube goes through and cleans them out. And it is I we we have we we went to a million very fast over a 60, and we lose, like, 2,000 a month. Yeah. And I'm like and you watch that, and you're like,
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it pisses you off is what it does. I've probably But at the same time, I'm like, I'm happy because they're leaving because they're killing my engagement. You you bet. No. No. And that's true. And YouTube does it for that reason. Anybody whose channels they've quit posting, they their channel's dead. They're they're or they're just they they've realized, you know, somebody sold your channel name to bots in China, and you're getting I mean, there's so many bots. I would say, I don't think you just said you'd never advertised, which I wish we wouldn't have.
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We got a really nice subscriber base. People cared, but it's it's not the one that I think we specifically wanted. My LinkedIn is probably more for why we get more value there. But the the point being is I would build it with content and just grind through that. The the algorithms do also have to get to know you and show that you're you're consistent and it makes sense and and it and it and it's a small trending. Like, you get an 8% lift on a video and you do another one like it, you'll probably get a 7% on the next and that compounds. But if you advertise on YouTube don't buy ever subscribers. Like, that's definitely a mess. But if you advertise on YouTube, you're gonna be too broad. I would definitely go much more specific
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on what you're doing. You know? And and the things that we're learning, we've we we also sell a product, a a leak detection piece of equipment. And we just got into that a couple of years ago, found this product years ago, loved it, kept telling the guy, I wanna buy your company. I wanna buy your company. I wanna buy it. Finally, I guess, the beginning of last year, maybe the year before, we acquired the company, and and it's on a great growth mode. Now we're looking at Facebook ads. But the way we're gonna use Facebook ads is we're gonna put pixels on our our YouTube videos about leak detection. So people that have watched our videos, now we can retarget them through Facebook ads. Wait. How do you put a pixel on on on a YouTube video? You know, it's all magic. Anybody It's all magic. And I don't know, but I I got a good coach. Yeah. He he I I actually, it's my my website guy that I was telling you about. He's like, look. We can put pixels in this video. When people watch this video, now we can retarget those ads through Facebook.
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I don't know. I would like to meet that person because I've I've never heard anyone do it through a YouTube channel effectively.
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Yeah. Well, he says he can do it. Of it. We're fixing to learn.
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It's gonna be great. By another trade that people may all understand is, this digital media marketing place is a form of a trade. Oh, I I agree with you. Anything you learn in college is not gonna be applicable for 95% because it moves too fast. Now the business, the organization, you know, do you need English probably might be one of the better subjects to take. But if you outside of school, if you actually commit to learning digital media platform, either not not a social media, but, I mean, like, how you do development, how you do this, and you you're smart about it or in general, it is a form of a trade that you can do that with. And here's the deal.
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Now my my ex wife had two children. One was still in high school. The other one was in college when we when we first got together. Well, I was already in the trades, already thinking about starting my own company, and I kept telling him, y'all need to learn marketing. Whatever you do, learn marketing because nothing else you learn is gonna be relevant in in ten or twenty years. But everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. Everybody wants to be a business owner. And if you understand marketing, they need you. And there are so many people out there scamming people, doing people wrong. I've been ripped off by marketing companies for so many years and for so much money. Nowadays, I tell people, imagine driving on the road, throwing $47,000 cash out the window knowing when you get to the office, your phone is not gonna ring. That's the position I was in. So I kept telling both of them, learn marketing, learn marketing. Neither one did. They're they're still both doing different things. They're both making good money, but one of them will, her my stepson. When he was working with me, he's the one who helped me learn YouTube. And I literally paid him. Look. Get in here and learn YouTube. We're gonna figure out how to do it. And he's the one who did it. So he did great. Probably worked him too hard. He got burned out, and he's like, look. I'm getting out of this. I don't wanna do this forever. But, I mean, it's something you can learn, and it's a great thing.
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I I tell my kids, like, you know, my kids have their own talents. Right? And and one of them can draw very, very well. And I said, listen. You don't really need to get a job if you just listen to me on how to use Instagram to make money. She's like, well, how am I video type or at times you building this? Absolutely. I was like, make that your your your cover, you holding it, and sell the actual drawing so people see you built it. They see what it is. Each each thumbnail is original. You can talk about how it inspired you. You get a story behind it. And now you're maybe selling that for a few hundred bucks for the time you've put in. Okay. You don't even work at Publix. Do that. Sell that for
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$500 and then make prints of it where you sell a hundred of them for a hundred dollars each. Yeah. Or Exactly. You you don't have to buy the original. You can buy the print. The print's only a hundred bucks. I'll sign them and sell them for a hundred dollars a piece. Yeah. Sell the original for a thousand. I buy all the original. Yeah. Yeah. I buy the original for $20 right now, someday. Yeah. Yeah. There you see. There you go. I put it. You can go she's like, that's not worth 20. Like, no one else is buying right now, is it? Yeah. You know what? Tell tell her to look at daughter. Right? Yep. Okay. Tell her to look at the the anime. I went on a plumbing job, probably, kinda, it's probably five or six years ago because it was Thanksgiving night. A young lady actually, it's not before Thanksgiving. A young lady had come to town. She was at college at a and m, came to town to hang out with her mother who her parents had split up. So mom's an attorney. She's in an apartment. Dad's a doctor somewhere. Dad was paying for school. And I go there with a little girl came home, and she's flushing feminine products down the toilet, and it got clogged up. So we start talking about it, and I find out what she does. And the mom tells me about her niece that lives in University Park, a very affluent part of Dallas, who has a YouTube channel. Because she was talking to me and was like, yeah. I've just started YouTube and doing this. And I'm telling the daughter, look. Quit college right now. You you don't need it. Not with what you're studying. Learn social media. Learn YouTube. Learn stuff like that. She said, oh, well, I've got a niece who who does anime drawings. She's a young female in Haskell making $700,000 a year on YouTube doing anime, drawing some little cartoons. Oh, just do complete cartoon and anime. And I'm like, she's making how much money? She says, yeah. She's making 700 a year, but but she's tired of it. She's like, look. I just wanna quit. She already has too much money in her life. She already has a problem with wealth. Another young lady who has a YouTube channel is in my inner circle. And the first time we show up at a retreat in Utah, she's not there and her mom's are because they both got YouTube channels. And I'm like, wait. Where's she at? And she says, well, how do you tell a 23 year old multimillionaire she has to be anywhere? When you make so much money that you can write your own rules,
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life becomes a little more I'll tell you, you didn't have to take that much. If you put enough in where the interest could pay your bills every year, you're more optional at all points. Yep. Yep. I love that. You know, it's it's funny because then, like, you know, as entrepreneurs go, I know it's like my son sings really well, and I'm like, you know, if you just did a channel of you singing, over time, people are gonna be like, they're gonna love your voice, and you're gonna you you will you don't have to you can you can sing or anything. You can just make up stuff. I wanna be a gaming channel. My god damn it. Like, it's everyone does that. There's no one has your voice. Oh, god. There's there's a lady named Lainie something
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on YouTube. She does covers or or did. She's she's now starting to get record deals, or at least I'm seeing her speak on or or sing on stages in front of people at big venues. But she used to do covers of Fleetwood Mac. And she's literally sitting in her bed cross legged, and she's got a microphone. She's got headphones on, so so she's listening to the track. And she starts singing. It's just like, oh my god. This chick is fun. She may have sang that better than Stevie Nicks did. And I I that's pretty that's a that's a big claim right now. It is. It is. But but I'm telling you, if I think her name's like Lainie Garner. You go search her on YouTube and listen to her sing, and it's like, oh my god. This was good. I mean, I've played it for other people. They're like, Roger, that sounds better than Fleetwood Mac. I said, I I get it. But she did it on YouTube. Look at Luke Luke Combs. He started on YouTube. And he got so big on YouTube. You're like, man, I I guess I might have to start, you know, making records and stuff. Gee, it's a tough life you live. Yeah. Man.
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I'm just conscious of time here. I go far off track. No. No. It's not off track. This is two conversation to two people. And and so I think, you know, our whole thing is I want you to be an entrepreneur and and and and the you know, if I was gonna close it out, being a trade is one thing, but trade is a sense that you're speaking to it in these things that were labeled as not as worthy of a college degree job. And the reality people don't understand is it is more money than you're likely making out of college. You could be a shitty plumber and probably still make a hundred k a year because people don't know if you did it well or not.
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Your master might, but If you're working for yourself, you can definitely do that easy. I mean, I probably could have worked a day a week and made a hundred thousand dollars a year. And you're talking a day, like, get to the job, do it, come back four hours later. I'm talking one day a week, decide, okay. Monday's the day I'm gonna do plumbing.
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If I could have booked my jobs, I could have probably ran those calls in that day and made a hundred grand a year. Alright. So here to side hustle. Oh, actually, the last question I have is it was four years plus the thing for DOL, but how many hours is in that?
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It's two two thousand hours a year is the way they look at it. Wow. Do you think that's too much? I do. I've actually talked to the executive director of of the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, Lisa Hill. I've talked to Frank Denton, the chairman of the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. And and I've told both of them that, and then they're like, Roger, we don't disagree, but a lot of the old plumbers in Texas are gonna fight this. I said, so let them fight it. There's a shortage. Most of us entrepreneurs understand there's a shortage, and we need more people. And if we keep making it worth 8 years before you can own your own business, they're never gonna get into it. It's an arbitrary number. I mean, ten thousand hours in the mass or something, I don't disagree with that. But you can be a doctor in four years.
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I yeah. I don't get that. Well, the the thing is it's there's just not that many combinations. Right? Like like, there there could be certain things you're licensed for. I mean, I'll I'll leave it at this. I know we come back a little bit of this, but I I oh, we got comments coming here. Sorry. I missed some stuff. Jake Hudson. You know Jake Hudson? Jake Hudson seems I'm doing okay. Thank you. How are you doing? That's good. Nothing shared. Random comes. Hey, Jake. How are you doing, man? Body bike. Jake Jake from State Farm is on. Yeah. Alright. So the the my guess my thing with that is is that, like, in year one, you're allowed to set toilets, do small fixtures, and do this with the the master signing off. You're fully approved. Like Well, you you you run a whole new line to a street year one? No. You cannot.
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No. No. You can't work in high pressure. You may be with you may be with the plumber that's doing that, so you're learning about it. Because you're learning about it. Licensing standpoint, like, you could stop after your one and only do toilets or something. No. No. No. No. No. No. You your first year in the trades, you're an apprentice. You're a helper. You don't know anything and and realize You're handing wrenches to people and Yeah. Yeah. Or or you're carrying the tool bag, whatever it is. But you're gonna watch and you're gonna learn. And then one day you're gonna say, hey. I think I can do this. Can I work on this? And while you do the other one. Sure. Go right ahead. And if you're working with a good journeyman, he's teaching you how to do it, so he understands what you can do. So if I've rebuilt three toilets in a row with you hanging over my shoulder watching me, when I get that fourth one, I might say, hey. Look. You got the tool bag. You do it. Let me watch you. You go install those bidets.
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By the way, that's gonna require you to redo all the shit in the back of the toilet half time if it's an old toilet, which is what I found because you can't get the goddamn thing off. You gotta disconnect the wall on it all. Absolutely. It takes work. So my kids' ones, I wouldn't when I because I've done it, like, 20 times now for I mean, I literally went to Home Depot and bought all new stuff for the back, the fillers. I know what they're called. To rebuild it. I already know. I'm gonna take my little multi tool, and I'm gonna be cutting off the plastic little fitting that comes down the bottom toilet because I you cannot get that thing off after fifteen years of it sitting there. It's not coming off. Gosh. I get them off all the time. Come on. Not without ruining it. I'm telling you, it's not coming off. This thing is Well, you're getting it off. Do you care if you run it? I mean, it's trash. I can't get I can't get the new thing on with the new fitting is what I'm saying. So with the when the new bidet thing goes on, it won't thread right. And if I every time Yeah. I'm happy about that. They're probably I don't know what you're talking about. Original toilets. Okay. We're good. I think they've they cemented them on.
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I was How do you think there's that?
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Blue. I was I was happy. I did my first gas work. I I literally cut a hole in my countertop of my kitchen and put it a bigger stove in. And I I I did my research and said you can't use Teflon tape. You gotta use the goo. I didn't know. And what I found was the people who put the other one in didn't goo tape or do any of the threading on the gas that was there. I'm like, holy cow. What else is in this house? Yeah.
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Yeah. That that that's kinda scary. Dude, it's very scary.
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So your leak detector. Let's talk about that.
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Like, is it a water leak detector or a gas leak? It's it's water. You could probably use it on gas too just because, you know and it's funny. Me and my son today in the last room were talking about ultrasonic leak detection. But when when air escapes pop, it makes a noise. You know, take a balloon, pinch it, and poke a hole in it, and and when release it where you can let that air out, and it's gonna scream and make noise. A lot of times it's making noise. You can't even hear it. That's an ultrasonic noise. So there's equipment for that, but the leak detection that we the equipment we sell is actually designed for water. But, yeah, if there was a leak on a gas line, you could probably touch the gas line, and and you'd hear that air escaping. So It's a it's using ultrasonic sound, sound like detect. No. The one that we use is is strictly harmonics. It it it it's the noise. It it's all audio. When water is spraying out of that pipe, it's again making a noise. And, well, I'm I'm this is it right here. Does it sit on the pipe itself? Yeah. No. No. So all your computer and everything is in here. Oh, I'm gonna go full screen so you can you can see this better. You squeeze the trigger. You've got a spot here on the back to plug headphones into it. And then literally, you take the tip, which is right here and just stick the tip in. Just the tip? Yeah. Just the tip. And and you put it, like, on a valve, and then you press the little button right down here on the bottom, and that makes your speakers go live. You don't wanna hit anything or move this around with your finger on this. It it'll blow your eardrums out. But this is what literally listens to things like that. And when you have it set right, you go in and you put it on a valve, and you can hear the two valves that are screaming the loudest. And that tells you, you know, if these two lines are joined, the leak's probably between them, and then you listen right above it. You can take that same tip, push it down on the floor, on on tile, on anything like that. Wood's hard to listen through in carpet. You'll either need to peel it back or push down where you go through the carpet. If you can put that on the concrete, you can hear below it. And That's pretty handy. Coolest equipment. Yeah.
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Can you, my our water company has had this thing where they're starting to bill bill people just random numbers. True? Like, I have an irrigation meter that's been put in for a project for next year, and they sent me a bill that said, hey. You've used 15,000 gallons. I'm like, pretty sure I've not filled half of a pool up since we haven't even turned it on yet and the valve's off. I'm like, well, that's what it shows. I'm like, well, there's nothing hooked up to it. I was like, I there's nothing here. And they're like, well, I'm like, what month was in it? We can't tell you that. Really? You can't tell me what month the meter. Anyway
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Okay. So go out and take pictures of your meter and and just set set an alarm to do it every month and go look and see if the number is changing. Because then I call it though. There's no meter. It's just Yeah. Yeah. But but even though it's digital, if you open, there should be a little black cap that you can open. Oh, that's underneath that? Screen. Yeah. See a screen and take pictures of it. It'll let you know, like, how many gallons per minute is flowing through it at that time or how many gallons have have been accumulated through it.
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I wanna go do that because I'm pretty damn sure nothing's hooked up to it. So, like, oh, you must turn irrigation. Like, doesn't work. Nothing's hooked up. Then I'd call the city and say, hey. I need y'all to come out. I've I've got problems with my meter. I don't think it's reading accurately.
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Let them come out and say, hey. Do you see anything coming out of the outlet side of that? And And when he says no, say, then why are y'all charging me for $15,000? I did that. Well, we're gonna have to have a crew come out and investigate them like you should because it's the one that put it in. I wanna see them when they come out because I wanna I want them to prove to me how I use this many gallons of water with nothing hooked up to it. Yeah. I'm I'm a my theory is that they did it when they installed it. That's when that came. It blew out of water and it ran for, you know, eight minutes. Yeah. It takes more than that to get that many gallons of water. I know. It's a lot of water. Yeah.
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Shameless plug time for you. Where do you want people to go? Who should who should come and who should go there? Just just go to rogerwakefield.com.
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We talk about everything that we do. I teach people about the trades. I teach entrepreneurs about social media. I've got speakers now reaching out asking me if I'll help coach them on speaking. So we kinda we we do a little bit of all of it, but I travel around the conferences. I do different things. Go to YouTube and search plumbing. If if you do that and you think, wow. I wish that I could be found in my niche. Maybe you need to start in the YouTube channel. It's a great thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
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Hope you can do this. I appreciated your time very much. Alright. Let's do this. Just so we have a good thumb, look at the camera, do a silly smile, whatever you want.
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I just smile.
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And finally, for good sound bite, here it is. Three reasons why someone should get into the trades. Go.
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People need to get into trades because supply and demand is fixing the kick in With more people retiring each year and less people getting into the trades, now's the best time because in the next five years, you can become the next entrepreneurs, and tradespeople make great money. Number two, as we found out when the pandemic was around, there's a lot of things that are nonessential. Every trades worker that wanted to work, worked and stayed busy. And number three, plumbers normally have the biggest house on the block.
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Boom. That's a mic drop. Man.
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Number four, plumbers not a lay pipe. Number four, you can become known as the pot landfill.
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I don't know why companies have not every every every city has to come, I lay lay that pipe or something kinda. We we lay pot, but so so do you remember the old show grumpy old man? Cougars.
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You you remember the show grumpy old man? Yes. One of merges, merges, meridivus lines when when he's going through at the end. He's coming up with just all these smart things to say. One of them is, I've laid more pipe in this town than Wabash Plumbing. Oh my god. I love that old man. If I have a plumbing company ever, it's gonna be called, you know, laying pipe for cougars. There you go. Oh, there you go.
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Lay and pop in the wild. Divorced women, need a plumber. Yeah. Yeah. The pipe has been broken. I will fix it for you. Yeah. Attention single women. We we lay pot better than anybody. Lay pipe. This is a bunch of dudes They call ripped. And then the guy that shows up is not gonna be like that. But that's okay. Yeah. He yeah. They they don't really work for us. Thank you. Alright. Thank you, Roger. I'm gonna put you in the green room. I appreciate you coming in. It's not green. It's periwinkle today because of the colors. Yeah. I'll take it. Thank you so much for letting me be here. I do. I love what you do. I appreciate it. I'll be right back with it. Just give me one sec here. Roger Wakefield. Go to RogerWakefield.com. Search plumbing on YouTube. There's, you really will. That's if you don't find him, you're not looking because, I don't anybody knows more about plumbing or done more content on it. And and he is way more that is, like, the the first thing he he did. Right? And and I love his story of, I was a plumber. I did this, and then I'm doing this, and he's stacking. Right? And he's doing it intelligently learning on the things before. He could've just chose delayed pipe. Like, he could've just chose, I'm just gonna work for somebody to go do this, and he decided he wanted more and took advantage of that and fought through it. And, and you that could be you. You just get out there. Try something new. Get out there. Go unleash that entrepreneur within you. And, that's what we're here for. It's here to do. So if you made it this point, please hit the follow button on Apple or Spotify. We got lots of good content we release about five times a week. Thank you for listening. Get out there. Go unleash your