Ryan Thompson found his way, and you might find yours, too

WEBVTT

1
00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:15.119
Welcome, did this episode of fifty
percent Facts. I'm Jim. Hello,

2
00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:18.920
I'm Michael. That's Michael, Mike, Michael. Uh and we're here with

3
00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:24.640
Ryan Thompson, who happens to be
my plumber, and uh uh. He

4
00:00:24.679 --> 00:00:28.359
has an interesting story and an interesting
perspective, and I thought, well,

5
00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:34.280
what the hell, why not have
him on and talk about where he is

6
00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:38.520
and how he got there. And
and the thing that always like gets me

7
00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:42.320
is that people don't necessarily know what
they want to do in life. Number

8
00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:46.799
one, they often choose, you
know, even even going to college,

9
00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:54.079
they often choose a major, a
concentration or whatever that doesn't necessarily lead to

10
00:00:54.119 --> 00:01:00.320
making any money or paying off their
student loans or whatever. And people often

11
00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:04.760
bypass the idea of doing, you
know, something in the trades that actually

12
00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:11.239
it can be very lucrative, can
be very lucrative. It if you've actually

13
00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:15.719
like had any work done to your
house or you know whatever, you know

14
00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:21.840
that it's not cheap to do that
stuff. And my job, boys,

15
00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:23.799
you know what you're doing, like
like, all right, at least I'm

16
00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.280
going into this trade. You know
what that trade is, I'm going to

17
00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:30.719
be cooking all day. Yeah,
Or if you go to college or anywhere,

18
00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:34.079
and you're like, well, I
like history, Like what job is

19
00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:37.920
history going to be day to day
that's going to make you money? Or

20
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.079
business? Even everyone's a fucking business
major. But do you like doing business?

21
00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:45.799
Because like what you're learning in school
will be like ten percent of actually

22
00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:49.159
running a business. Yeah, you
know, like the admin stuff and the

23
00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:53.319
taxes and what are like actually running
a businesses you mentioned offers just like problem

24
00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.519
solving, similar to your job that's
running a business. Find a problem,

25
00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:59.719
put it out, find a fire, put it out, hopefully optimize along

26
00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.879
the way. But every job I've
ever heard of her, every friend I

27
00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:06.319
ever had that what to college?
Never, Like, you don't know what

28
00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:08.800
the taste of the work is.
Yeah, typically unless you have a good

29
00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:13.080
internship or something like that. Yeah, but that's not even called ye internship.

30
00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:15.199
That's like yeah, yeah, when
you get a job, you get

31
00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:16.360
a taste of it. Yeah yeah, But then by then it's already too

32
00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:20.080
late. You're already two hundred K
in the tank. Yeah in the hole.

33
00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:23.400
Right, Yeah, you're fucked.
I'm sorry. I just had to

34
00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:27.439
text my wife and till her to
sign our taxes. I'd done it,

35
00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:30.120
but well, that's right. Tax
Day is coming up. Yeah, yeah,

36
00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:32.719
I know it's Today's Ladies and Gentlemen. I signed it when I forgot

37
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:37.479
that she had a signed it too, and uh she just I think ignored

38
00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.719
the email anyway, So Ryan tell
us, like, what are you doing

39
00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:44.479
now? And then how how do
you get here? So? Yeah,

40
00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:49.439
I'm Ryan. I'm the owner of
Rhino Ruder Plumbing and uh, man,

41
00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:52.560
it's been quite the journey, I
gotta say. Uh. And you know

42
00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:58.479
what's cool is when you meet someone
you never know where they've been, what

43
00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:00.560
they are, and what they what
you can teach them and what they can

44
00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:04.599
teach you. And you know,
so I admire that about life. You

45
00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:06.719
just never know who's on the other
end of the phone, you know what

46
00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:12.280
I mean. But for me,
right, I opened up my plumbing company

47
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:15.759
last year in April, so it's
great timing. I just finished my year

48
00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:21.599
to year last week. The bar
has been set. The number was higher

49
00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.800
than I ever could have expected.
Honestly, I am so blessed beyond my

50
00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:34.360
wildest dreams. Plumbing has provided me
a way to teach my family morals and

51
00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:38.120
values and how to be a good
person. I show I have two daughters,

52
00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:40.759
I have a two and a three
year old, and being a dad

53
00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:46.479
is another part of life that I, you know, truly admire. Being

54
00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:50.599
a parent has just made me a
better person. Being a plumber has made

55
00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:53.159
me a better person. Being a
business owner has made me a better person.

56
00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:58.400
Yeah, And all of that being
said, right, Like, I

57
00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:01.039
got to this destination and in this
goal of mine to open the business,

58
00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:05.120
and it turned out that I've been
very, very very successful at it.

59
00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:09.479
And I take a step back and
I asked my dad, I asked my

60
00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:13.400
mentors. Why, Like, I'm
nothing special, you know what I mean.

61
00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:17.360
I'm just willing to do what's needed
to be done every day. Like

62
00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.720
at the end of the day,
you know, I got seven years experience

63
00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:24.639
in plumbing. And I'll tell you
the story here as it goes on.

64
00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:27.720
But I was it fell in my
lap. It literally fell in my lap.

65
00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:30.040
I had a guy come into the
gas station and be like, what

66
00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.920
the fuck are you doing working here? Bro? And I had to tell

67
00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:35.639
him my story because it was surface
level stuff. Every day. It was

68
00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:41.680
my boss, the guy I ended
up working for, and he would be

69
00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:43.600
like, let me get a hundred
bucks on five. I'll see later.

70
00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:46.199
After five years of that. He
goes, what are you doing, bro,

71
00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:47.360
you're kind of sand baging it here
at the gas station. I had

72
00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.600
to tell my stories. Well,
I got three duy's and I'm blah blah

73
00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:55.279
blah blah blah. I'm finishing my
school. I'm getting my DUI program done.

74
00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:56.560
He goes, all right, you
got your car, you got your

75
00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:59.240
license, and I'm like, yes, yes, yes, here's the leap

76
00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:00.959
of faith. He goes, quit
your job, put your two weeks in,

77
00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:04.000
come work for me. This is
literally, quote unquote what he said,

78
00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:08.160
put your two weeks and work for
me. Buy boots, show up

79
00:05:08.199 --> 00:05:11.399
to my house on Monday, and
I'll teach you the trade. And after

80
00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:14.199
four years, I'll sign you off
and you can have what I have.

81
00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:17.519
And he's just a random gas random
dude. Random a couple of times,

82
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:20.879
yeah, like like you know,
like your gas station guy, yea,

83
00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:24.759
I have a gas station you go
do every day? Yeah, sub Joe,

84
00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:27.160
when you get a hundred on five
them give him a candy bar pack.

85
00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:30.040
If you're whatever, you get right
and your own. You see this

86
00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:32.199
dude every day, you know what
I mean? So what's crazy is like

87
00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:36.240
that dude's asking you, quote your
job, come work for me. Right,

88
00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:40.000
So here's the fact I was making
thirteen bucks an hour at the gas

89
00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.040
station. He said, I'll come. I'll pay fifteen an hour cash under

90
00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:47.639
the table. That's a two dollar
raise, and I'm gonna come up right,

91
00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.759
and really more than that because he's
buying my lunch. He's paying me

92
00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:55.560
under the table, right, So
no taxes anyways, irs, So we're

93
00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.480
just kidding. You didn't hear No, Yeah, this is all theoretical.

94
00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:00.720
We're just kidding on that. You
never heard that allegedly, right, It

95
00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:04.279
was twenty years ago in a book
exactly. So I made that's your limitations,

96
00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:08.519
and I make that leap of faith, And there was a gamble.

97
00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:10.399
I don't know if I'm gonna be
good at this or bad at this.

98
00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:13.399
I didn't know anything about plumbing.
All I knew was hots on the left,

99
00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:15.680
holds on the right, water goes
downhill. Yeah, I didn't know

100
00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:19.560
anything else where I'm at. So
I made that leap of faith and I

101
00:06:19.639 --> 00:06:23.920
quit my job. I put my
two weeks in and I ended that chapter

102
00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.720
on a high note. Were you
ever sketched out like why did this dude

103
00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:30.480
choose me? I was, And
that's how I feel with everything, every

104
00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:31.399
like thing. I'm like, well, why is this guy talking to me

105
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:36.759
right now? So his need for
me was out of necessity, truth be

106
00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:44.040
told, his guy was going away
for a vacation for a while and he

107
00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:46.680
needed a new guy. And he
literally was pumping his to jail. He

108
00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.920
was going to jail turn himself in
Okay, And he literally was pumping his

109
00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:54.199
gas. And you need how gas
station windows have like clear windows from their

110
00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:56.720
he's pumping his gas. He looks
inside and he sees me. And at

111
00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:00.879
the time, I had been working
out a lot, and I was like

112
00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:04.079
at the peak of my performance.
I was one hundred and ninety five pounds

113
00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:12.120
six percent body fat, just shredded. And he saw me literally busting out

114
00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:16.439
of my shell shirt. And his
quote unquote rules was if you could talk,

115
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:18.720
if you could pull, if you
were a good looking do it,

116
00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.560
you would be a great plumber.
Because you need to be able to talk.

117
00:07:21.639 --> 00:07:26.000
You need to be able to have
a mechanical aptitude, You need to

118
00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:29.199
be able to be looked and relate
with people. You could be the best

119
00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:32.800
plumber in the world. But if
you can't talk, you never get to

120
00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:36.839
show your skills off. Because if
you can't sell right, what's everything?

121
00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:40.839
So he taught me that, yeah, presentation, people call it like shallow,

122
00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:42.920
but I mean that's how you get
your foot in the door anywhere,

123
00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:45.759
you know. So I found out
that I was good at that. And

124
00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:47.199
the reason I was good at that
was cut from that gas station. So

125
00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.399
eight months in it took me eight
months. I rode with my boss every

126
00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:54.439
day in a van, showed up
to his house with those boots. He

127
00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:58.120
taught me the trade, and after
eight months he threw me in a van.

128
00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:03.120
And how emergency plumbing job phones are
always running, and how it worked

129
00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.759
is after a month he put me
in a van and he would tell me

130
00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:09.720
to go run calls. And I
started running calls, and I started and

131
00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:11.319
then I found out after a year
or two that I was really good at

132
00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:16.600
plumbing. Best plumbers in the world
are tall, skinny guys because I can

133
00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.199
get to places that the bigger guy
couldn't, you know what I mean?

134
00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:24.240
Sure, whereas that bigger guy can
lift more than me. But there is

135
00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:26.759
a trade off and everything, right, I'm agile in an attic. I

136
00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.959
can move really good underneath the house. So my days of walking around at

137
00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:37.480
two hundred pounds I've accepted, I
think are kind of behind me. That

138
00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:41.120
experience was beautiful for what it was, and I learned a lot, you

139
00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:43.600
know, when I first got sober. That's another part of my story.

140
00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.799
I just rolled over. June will
be eleven years for me alcohol free.

141
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.600
So it's been a decade, right
of personal growth, working on my internal

142
00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:56.639
issues to be better, to be
the best version of myself for me,

143
00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:58.759
for my daughters, for my family, all of it, right, And

144
00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.519
that going back to what I said
at the beginning, like you never know

145
00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:05.000
who you're meeting and who's on the
other end of the phone and what they've

146
00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:09.320
been through, right, Like every
part of my story plays a role today.

147
00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:13.759
That gas station that my duy's my
bottom. You know that my bottom

148
00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:16.960
when I was broken was beautiful,
you know, because the only way up

149
00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:20.639
is up? Yeah, right,
So, like it was a terrible part

150
00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:24.360
of my life after my third dui, but it was also the beginning of

151
00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:28.639
the most beautiful ride and journey I
could ever imagine. Because at my bottom,

152
00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.120
when I got out of jail from
my third DUI, I was so

153
00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:37.159
broken mentally and internally. I was
defeated. I was embarrassed and shamed and

154
00:09:37.559 --> 00:09:41.720
like any emotion you could have,
I had, and I had nowhere to

155
00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:45.720
go, and I was so I
went to my grandma's house in Newcastle.

156
00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:46.919
I had nowhere to go. I
burned a lot of bridges. Nobody wanted

157
00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:50.840
me, so my grandma took me
in and I got down with my hands

158
00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:54.080
and knees that night, and this
is my spiritual awakening. I prayed out

159
00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:58.039
loud and I went to sleep.
And what's crazy is when I woke up,

160
00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.519
nothing changed, but everything changed,
and all I knew everything was gonna

161
00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:03.840
be okay as long as I didn't
drink for one hour, one day,

162
00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:07.120
one week. And it just became
a string of days which catapulted me down

163
00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:11.519
this road of personal growth. And
it became at first, get sober,

164
00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:13.879
get a job. I got the
job at Shell a couple of years later

165
00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:18.879
of getting my license back, and
all this plumbing fell in my lap.

166
00:10:18.519 --> 00:10:22.639
And then I go down this path
of plumbing and I worked for him for

167
00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:28.000
five years. I became his lead
tech. I made him a lot a

168
00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.000
lot of money. I generated him
like one point two after five years.

169
00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:37.799
And the road is the pipe dream
quote unquote, right, the pipe dream

170
00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:41.000
he sold me is after four years
contractors need four years and once you have

171
00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:46.120
ten thousand hours, you can test
out and you get your contractor's license.

172
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:48.039
And so that's exactly what I did. What's it take to get in the

173
00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:52.279
door? So like first step to
be a plumber? Do you need a

174
00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:54.960
certification? Do you need a test? Do you just need a guy to

175
00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:58.159
so he mind you? He poached
me from the gas station. Yea so

176
00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:03.360
high schoo with diploma would be like
bare minimum, but not even that,

177
00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:07.960
you know what I mean? Like
you just need someone willing to take a

178
00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:13.840
chance on you and put all their
knowledge inside of you and give you the

179
00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:18.799
ability to elevate you to get to
that place to take that test. So

180
00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.159
he so you need yes? So
like for me, I'm looking for my

181
00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.519
apprentice one day. And what's crazy
is full circle. I'm looking for myself

182
00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:31.759
seven years ago at that gas station. I'm looking for some young kid hungry,

183
00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:35.200
doesn't know what to do with life. And I'm gonna be like,

184
00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:37.080
yo, kid, come work for
me. I'm gonna give you the blueprint.

185
00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.639
I'm gonna give you the map.
Work for me for four years and

186
00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:41.759
I will sign you up. I
mean, I'm gonna do the exact same

187
00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:46.679
thing my boss did for me to
someone else and to teach this beautiful trade

188
00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.559
to keep this world going around,
Like we all have roles to play,

189
00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:54.600
the fireman, the emt like everyone
has the role to play. And in

190
00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:56.759
my world, everything is an emergency. Right. I heard this quote the

191
00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:00.519
other day, like, you know
what America is without plumbing, It's a

192
00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:03.200
third world country. It makes it
right, we need that, right.

193
00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:09.159
Sure, good luck living in your
home without running water, flushing toilets,

194
00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:13.480
hot water. So I got so
lucky that plumbing fell in my lap.

195
00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:18.759
And I found through COVID that we
are essential. If anything, we sped

196
00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:22.320
up during COVID, because guess what, when everyone's at work using their bathrooms,

197
00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:26.360
your home is used to that.
If you think of it like that,

198
00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:31.360
Now everyone's at home, more shit, more shit, more water failing

199
00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.039
faster. So, if anything,
we sped up, and now everyone was

200
00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:37.240
home with all this money and all
this time, and they were like,

201
00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:39.960
Hey, I'm gonna do this faucet, I'm gonna do this project I've been

202
00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:43.080
wanting to. I want it.
Now they have the time to do it.

203
00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:46.799
So COVID was a great example of
essential workers. You're getting nothing but

204
00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:50.120
busier. Sure, and here's the
training. I don't know how much of

205
00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.799
these videos you've seen on Instagram or
not, but the average age in my

206
00:12:54.919 --> 00:13:00.720
industry and plumbing is fifty five.
So there's a lot of old timers that

207
00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:05.399
are retiring, and every seven that
retire, there's one of me to come

208
00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:11.639
replace. So yeah, answer,
that's the goal. That's what we're hovering

209
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:13.960
around. Everyone wants to be an
influencer wild, but he wants to work

210
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.320
hard right now. There's literal data
on that too that like interviewed every student

211
00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.519
in like it just like eighty percent
or something. Wild wants to be gotcome

212
00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:24.320
TikTok famous. We want it easy, right, and who can blame them?

213
00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:26.000
It's not even easy. They don't
even know. Yeah, and they

214
00:13:26.039 --> 00:13:30.559
don't even know because there's so much
luck involved and there's so much snakery happening,

215
00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.360
and dude, timing. Timing is
another phase in life. If I

216
00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.120
met you two years ago, oh
I'm still working for the guy. Yeah,

217
00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:39.360
you know what I mean. If
I met you five years from now,

218
00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:43.519
maybe everything has changed. So timing
and that's true for business relationships,

219
00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.799
girl, everything kids like, timing
is huge, you know, lucky,

220
00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:50.399
you know the right time, the
right place. No, that's another side

221
00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:52.759
you know of it, And like, I don't know, like what you

222
00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:56.480
guys think spiritually, but when you're
in the right time, at the right

223
00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:01.320
place, was that meant to be? Design? Who knows? Who knows?

224
00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:03.759
Right? Yeah, but there's something
so yeah, living with the glass

225
00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:07.759
half full. When I meet people
like that, it's I'm in the right

226
00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:09.120
place at the right time, and
I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

227
00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:13.200
Right. So, now that I
have my craft, now that I have

228
00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.039
my I was called I didn't know
what to do with my life. That

229
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.440
was my biggest downfall. I had
so many gifts. I could have been

230
00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:22.799
this or that or this or that. I didn't care what I was as

231
00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.120
long as I could provide for my
family. And you know how lucky I

232
00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:30.200
was that I turned out to be
good at my job. I love what

233
00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.519
I do, right, Like,
if you're good at something and you hate

234
00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:37.480
your job, imagine how good you'll
be if you love what you do.

235
00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:39.399
For sure. So I'm so lucky. You know. I was a wrestler

236
00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:46.519
background, a state qualifying wrestler.
I owe a lot of my viewpoints and

237
00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:50.919
mindset to my sports background, right, Like being a wrestler, wrestlers,

238
00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:56.120
football players, rugby players, lacrosse
them four sports are above l above all.

239
00:14:56.200 --> 00:15:00.879
I think some of the most tested
athletes wrestlers in high school. Yeah,

240
00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:03.120
wrestlers for sure. Well, I
mean any conditioning is tough, yeah,

241
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:09.240
but wrestling conditioning blue. I was
a soccer player varsity four years blue

242
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.320
soccer conditioning out the water. I
think the only ones may bee boxing,

243
00:15:11.399 --> 00:15:15.679
boxing or wrestling are probably the tough
two sons of bitches out there. Right,

244
00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:18.039
And in high school, I went
to Oakmont High School. They didn't

245
00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:22.480
have lacrosse or rugby, but I
found wrestling, and wrestling I was great

246
00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:24.600
at it. I was in that's
kind of rare on the West Coast,

247
00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:28.519
right, way less common. Right, wrestling was cool too and unique of

248
00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:31.879
it's a team sport, but you
individual at the same time, so you

249
00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:35.000
might win your match, but or
lose your match, but we'll win as

250
00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:39.320
a team, you know. So
like I think Oakmont lost one league match

251
00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:43.919
in four years against Deluo. Deloro
is a powerhouse. Yeah, they have

252
00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:46.919
some big fucks out there, but
anyways, the sports background gave me the

253
00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:50.879
ability in the mindset to just push
through anything hard. Like think of David

254
00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:54.639
Goggins. I really admired David Goggins. Like you hear some of the Joe

255
00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.440
Rogan stuff. There is beauty in
pain, you know what I mean,

256
00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:00.679
Like in the struggle, get used
to the suck, you know what I

257
00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.440
mean, Like being in that moment
of wrestling, conditioning of one more rep

258
00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:08.519
push through and you don't want to, but you do. It. Just

259
00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:14.600
is a good underlining example of how
that builds resilience, It adds to your

260
00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:18.519
character and when you do it for
years, oh my god, it makes

261
00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:22.200
you so tough, so that in
real world application, when you come across

262
00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:27.000
a hurdle, something hard and obstacle, you're gonna blow right through it.

263
00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:30.720
And so that's my mindset, Like
I do not see problems. I just

264
00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:34.320
see opportunity. Everywhere I go there's
a problem, I know how to fix

265
00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:38.639
that. The key is relating to
people, right. The key is building

266
00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:44.360
trust in someone, and that comes
from I've been doing this for six seven

267
00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:47.639
years now. I know what I'm
talking about, right. And the other

268
00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:52.120
side of it in business is like
if you're something's only I hear my dad

269
00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:56.759
in my head, something's only worth
what someone's willing to pay. Straight up

270
00:16:56.799 --> 00:16:59.799
right. I use Pokemon cards as
a great example. I'm all into prison

271
00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.559
basketball cards, trading and buying these. It's a piece of cardboard, yea

272
00:17:03.319 --> 00:17:06.640
to you, to me if you're
not a collector, if you don't,

273
00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:11.079
it's a dollar fifty cents. But
to someone else it's a million dollar card,

274
00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:15.279
right, same thing Post below by
it was that was that one card.

275
00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:18.799
There's like one in a trillion Pikachuka, And I know Jake Paul has

276
00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:22.000
one. Yeah, he mars out
his necklace. It's a million dollar card.

277
00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:25.160
Damn Yeah. I think Post has
like the rarest card of all time.

278
00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:26.880
Some dude pulled it in like Toronto
and he hit him up and bought

279
00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:30.039
them. That's sick. Yeah,
just pay the guy like five mil.

280
00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:33.759
But you can translate that to anything, right, Like sure, if the

281
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:37.519
gym membership is one thousand dollars,
there are some people that find value in

282
00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:40.759
that. There are some people that's
like, you're crazy, I'm going over

283
00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:44.960
here right for so same in my
world, if my plumbing price is so

284
00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:48.640
high people can't grab it, I'll
never be busy. But on the flip

285
00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:52.400
side, if Mi'm too low,
I'm going to be so busy. Maybe

286
00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:53.119
you raise your price, you know
what I mean. So it's kind of

287
00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:56.039
a balance, right, Like I
don't want to say the wrong thing,

288
00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:00.039
but like in theory business like you
want to get as much as you can

289
00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:04.759
that you can sleep good at night, make your profit. We all open

290
00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:08.000
businesses to make money. Right,
So with given the same, yeah,

291
00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:11.920
will value that you agree upon me, So you're going to sell what you

292
00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:14.799
think it's worth as well too,
because it's a double you know, a

293
00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:17.440
double door, and I get it
all the time. Where for example,

294
00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:19.279
I'll tell you right now my draink
cleaning price two hundred and thirty five dollars

295
00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:23.039
standard drained creak place. Some people
be going on, that's a little high,

296
00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:27.000
is it. All you gotta do
is go buy a ten thousand dollars

297
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.920
van, fill it with thirty thousand
dollars worth of tools, spend six years

298
00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.799
mastering drain cleaning and do yourself so
you don't That's all you gotta do,

299
00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:41.519
dad, homeowner whatever. Right.
So like in perspective, anyone who's paying

300
00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:45.720
anyone for anything, you're paying for
the guarantee, the warranty, the knowledge,

301
00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:48.559
the tools, the ability to know
how to fix something. It shit

302
00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:55.039
hits the fan, right, And
that's what my experience is paying for.

303
00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:57.839
I've been there, done that,
done it the hard way. Learn that

304
00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:03.240
lesson what happened to an angle stop
or a nipple when it snaps off in

305
00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:04.799
the wall. Like I did an
angle stop at Jim's house. Yes,

306
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:08.640
and that was my first job for
you, was the angle stop. Yeah,

307
00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:14.160
and great example. You maybe could
have done that job yourself. But

308
00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:18.319
worst case scenario if that broke in
the wall and the water's on whatever,

309
00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:22.319
now what, Yeah, I would
that would have been a problem, considering

310
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:23.559
that the wall is tiled and all
of that. It was it would have

311
00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:27.359
been an enormous pain in the ass
to try to fix it. I should

312
00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:30.920
actually probably tell the story at this
point when this thing happened, I was

313
00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:36.039
I was trying to solve a problem
with a with a lenky, leaky faucet.

314
00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:38.720
It's like, well, it's time
to replace this faucet anyway, so

315
00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:41.359
I'm just gonna get a new one. And so when I went to take

316
00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:45.759
the supply hose off of one side, like the on the on the hot

317
00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:48.799
side, it didn't. It just
crumbled. It just like at the end

318
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:52.359
of it crumbled and there was no
way to get the hose back on without

319
00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:56.200
it leaking everywhere. And I called
Ryan because my my daughter in law,

320
00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:02.000
Meredith, had dealt with him when
she was doing property manage at the other

321
00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:06.920
company. Yeah, when you were
with the other guy. And uh,

322
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:11.759
I called you and it was your
anniversary, that's right, and you were

323
00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:15.119
like, oh man, it's my
anniversary. But like I can come.

324
00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:18.599
It's like, fuck, no,
come later. You don't have to like

325
00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:23.559
put everything down and and disappoint your
wife. Well, I don't know if

326
00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:26.839
you had a good call, by
the way, Yeah, good advice.

327
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:30.759
Yeah. My MIF was like,
he offered to do what and I said

328
00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:33.920
yeah, and I told him no. Yeah. I came the next day,

329
00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:37.359
yeah, next day, next next
morning, even in even earlier than

330
00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:41.079
than I had anticipated, and solved
the problem and it was great. And

331
00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:48.519
we've then since then replaced my UH
on demand water heater the tankless. How's

332
00:20:48.519 --> 00:20:52.000
that running, by the way.
Everything good? Yeah, everything is good.

333
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:53.559
I think it gets hot a little
slower than the other one did,

334
00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:59.119
but it doesn't make that terrible sound
that the other one made. Uh,

335
00:20:59.319 --> 00:21:03.480
But you know that's actually I've talked
to several people since then who said that

336
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:06.480
is the brand that is the one
you want. That's it. Yeah,

337
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:10.400
yeah, we did good on that. We absolutely did. And that's right

338
00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:12.720
there. That little piece of that
story is a great example of just networking,

339
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.359
you know what I mean, Like
you never know when that person is

340
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:18.519
coming back into your life, how
they can help you, how you can

341
00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:22.720
help them, you know what I
mean, be of service for each other.

342
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:26.880
And I remember working with Meredith back
when she was with that other property

343
00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:30.720
management company, and it's just like
I know a guy and by that time

344
00:21:30.759 --> 00:21:34.119
I was out of my own and
it's just good timing. She still maintains

345
00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:38.559
a list of people that she worked
with, and if you know, like

346
00:21:38.599 --> 00:21:42.200
if I if I need something,
I will sometimes ask do you have anybody

347
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:45.759
on your list? Then I know
a guy, yes, Like oh yeah,

348
00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:53.680
here's this number. So let's let's
rewind a bit. You talked about,

349
00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:56.599
you know, sports playing a role
and kind of your work ethic or

350
00:21:56.599 --> 00:22:00.839
just staying consistent with stuff. But
what what was the gap? Right?

351
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.839
So you're an athlete, so you're
seventeen eighteen in high school, and it

352
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:07.000
sounds like the work ethic, the
consistency popped off when you started plumbing.

353
00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:12.799
But what about those whatever ten years
in between. Were you not tapped into

354
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:18.319
consistency or hard work or was there
another mission you had during those years?

355
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:22.440
You mentioned duys, so that ties
in with the partying aspect, right,

356
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:27.200
So in high school it was all
about sports and girls and my friends.

357
00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:30.279
I mean, life is really just
about sports and girls anyways, and sports,

358
00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:33.799
right yeah. So yeah, like
when you look back on it,

359
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:37.680
like, high school's a great place
if only we appreciated it in the moment.

360
00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:40.279
You don't pay for anything. You
don't even know what a bill is.

361
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:41.680
All you got to do is show
up, enjoy high school with your

362
00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:45.160
friends, hang out with you know
what I mean, in play sports.

363
00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:48.359
So then I graduated high school and
it was like, all right, now

364
00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:51.839
what I found myself at Seria College. Didn't know what to do with my

365
00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:53.680
life, and that was one of
my greatest downfalls. What do I do?

366
00:22:53.880 --> 00:22:57.519
So I took business class after business
class after business class, generic,

367
00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:02.920
generic, generic, and up partying. Somewhere along the rys. I'm twenty

368
00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:07.519
I'm twenty one. I get my
first DUI, second DUI, and at

369
00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:10.680
that point I kind of had to
drop out of school because you'll still have

370
00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:12.640
your license when you get your DUI. But once you start going through court

371
00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:15.559
and stuff, eventually you get it
pulled from you and you have to go

372
00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:19.240
through a program and to get your
license reinstated, you have to prove all

373
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:22.720
the stuff. So anyways, long
story short, I couldn't get to school

374
00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:25.599
anymore, so I kind of dropped
out and then I was really just partying

375
00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:27.960
full time partying, and it got
like out of control, met with the

376
00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:30.559
wrong people, the wrong time,
the wrong place, and before I know

377
00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:34.200
it, I was twenty two,
twenty three years old with three duys and

378
00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:37.240
that is my bottom. And at
that point you could say, I mean,

379
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:42.079
I've always been physically active in anything, wakeboarding, any ball sport we're

380
00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:47.000
playing and I'm gonna want to win, right, And that dog just comes

381
00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:51.799
from sports. That competitive fire is
never going to go away. And that

382
00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:56.720
plays a role in plumbing because when
I opened my business, it really wasn't

383
00:23:56.759 --> 00:24:00.440
my decision. And I woke up
to a text message from my boss.

384
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.440
After five years of working with him, he fired me via text message and

385
00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:10.079
he let me go with no notice
on a Sunday, with a paragraph long

386
00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:12.599
message that said something like, Ryan, I've seen you go from my worst

387
00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:17.000
employee to my best employee. And
you are ready. And I feel like

388
00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.960
a dad kicking your son out into
the world. That's what he said.

389
00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.559
And I'm like, Bucky, thanks, thanks, like no notice, no

390
00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:27.720
heads up, But he was right. I was ready. And what a

391
00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:33.440
good testament to myself of sink or
swim, put up or shut up or

392
00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:37.599
go work for someone else? Yeah? Right, And it came from my

393
00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:44.359
background, my willing to overcome my
hunger. I was fired up and you

394
00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:48.119
have to be right. Like it
was so scary to read that text message

395
00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:52.119
and go from lead tech to owner
operator in a day, and then to

396
00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:57.640
find out in this last year of
business that I did it gracefully with two

397
00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:03.000
girls and ending a wedding and a
wife and like, you do the best

398
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:07.880
you can with what you got.
It's my motto in life, you know,

399
00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:11.680
like and what's crazy is ever?
And I love this line. Everything

400
00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:15.079
you need to know to run a
business you've already learned in first grade.

401
00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:18.759
Sure the golden rule. Treat others
how you want to be treated. That

402
00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:26.000
small rule takes me so far in
life. Just by sitting here. If

403
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.200
I'm at your house, I'm gonna
treat that house like my house. Right,

404
00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:32.519
I'm gonna do it as if what
would I appreciate, Well, I

405
00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:36.559
would appreciate someone telling me this or
that, looking out for me, whether

406
00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:38.000
it's they're paying for it or not. You know what I mean. Just

407
00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:42.759
honest advice, being solid, being
good. And when I get compliments to

408
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:48.559
myself, it's a reflection to my
parents. I'm just doing what my mom

409
00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:51.920
and my dad taught me to do, you know, to be of service,

410
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:55.839
to be kind, to be honest, to be fair. What's crazy

411
00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:59.119
is on my stories, I've picked
up a little from here, a little

412
00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:02.279
there, a little customer service from
the gas station, a little bit of

413
00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:07.200
will and like passion from sports,
like just being committed, consistency, Like

414
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:12.720
it taught me, discipline, dedication, camaraderie. It taught me when I'm

415
00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:18.000
done with my two hour wrestling practice
and I wasn't eating food, to go

416
00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:22.319
put on a plastic trash bag and
run for two more hours. When I'm

417
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:23.559
taught. You think I wanted to
do that. You think I wanted to

418
00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:26.480
wake up at four in the morning. No, but I did it,

419
00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:32.519
and I ended up getting a partial
ride scholarship. It was great sacrifice and

420
00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:37.000
it turned out to be humbling experience. And I still carry all of those

421
00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:41.799
tools with me today. And it
all comes from sports and all my failure,

422
00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:45.160
you know, And it's okay to
fail, Like I used to be

423
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.200
embarrassed that I fail and have three
do I it's okay. What'd you learn?

424
00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:53.079
What did you learn not to do? And you can't buy experience like

425
00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:56.920
I could tell you my story,
I could tell you don't drink and drive.

426
00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:59.759
I could tell you all these things. But sometimes you have to go

427
00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:02.440
out out and fail and learn it
the hard way. Yeah, for sure,

428
00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:03.799
And it's okay. That's the only
way to learn because you just don't

429
00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:07.559
feel it, like as empathetic as
you want to be or think you are,

430
00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:10.839
Like you can't feel someone else's failure. You know, you can like

431
00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:12.359
see it and maybe learn, but
you really got to fuck up. I

432
00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:17.720
don't know if you know. Hormosi's
kind of a business entrepreneur, kind of

433
00:27:17.720 --> 00:27:18.599
in the fitness space, but now
he does a ton of business. And

434
00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:22.960
he says that like his his tuition. I don't know if he went to

435
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:26.000
college or not, but he said
his tuition is like failed businesses. You

436
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:27.279
know, he spent five grand he
failed that business. Well that's a five

437
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:32.200
thousand dollars lesson you learned, yeah, which is like, especially nowadays,

438
00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:34.240
schooling costs so much, Like well, it's kind of a cheap lesson versus

439
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:37.680
you know, yeah, years in
a university and now you're one hundred grand

440
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:41.799
deep. I do think the two
things that you mentioned a bunch or are

441
00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:45.559
working at that gas station in sports
are just so important. It's things that

442
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.920
seem to be less common now,
like and I say the same thing,

443
00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.720
like working a job when you're in
high school or college, like learning customer

444
00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:53.599
service, and it's kind of got
to be a shit job. You know.

445
00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:56.960
I worked at a commercial gym front
desk, passing out towels and wiped

446
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:00.880
out sweat all day. I worked
like, ran basketball leagues and like refereed

447
00:28:02.039 --> 00:28:03.759
for whatever dollars I could get.
And you got to deal with parents.

448
00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:08.400
I literally have parents recording games on
iPads, bitching at me about calls I

449
00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:12.039
may and I'm like, bruh,
we're not the NBA, you know whatever.

450
00:28:12.119 --> 00:28:15.440
But you gotta deal with customer service, and you got to learn by

451
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:17.799
doing it. And you're not gonna
learn by, you know, working on

452
00:28:17.839 --> 00:28:21.160
Wall Street. You got to go
do something shitty with angry shitty people,

453
00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:25.519
and then sports. Yeah, like
the work ethic and camaraderie and like because

454
00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:30.279
teamwork and customer service both are like
communication, but they're different forms of communication

455
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.119
in a way, and you got
to kind of mesh with one and kind

456
00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:37.039
of be kind with the other or
more empathetic with the other. Like you

457
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:40.400
mentioned, how would this household?
How would I like my household to be

458
00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:44.240
dealt with and work with? But
I feel like so many people don't do

459
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.400
either of those things anymore. You
know, they didn't play sports, and

460
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:49.279
they go to college and then they're
expecting to have like a big boy job,

461
00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:52.519
Like well, you just don't really
have like the tools necessary. Like

462
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:56.599
it's not really knowledge. It really
is like tools and experience, you know,

463
00:28:56.680 --> 00:29:00.279
it really is. And I love
that. I'll leave you with this

464
00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:04.079
one right here. Check this out. So it says when times are tough,

465
00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:07.440
it creates tough men. Right,
So, I think of the Great

466
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:11.799
Depression. Everyone in the Great Depression
was tough, fucking hard. They made

467
00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:15.400
it through those times, they had
to go to World War two, they

468
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:19.960
scattered whatever. Right then, when
times are easy, it creates weak men.

469
00:29:21.720 --> 00:29:26.160
And we're at the end of that
cycle right now with this generation everyone

470
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:27.720
wants it easy. No one wants
to work hard. Like one hundred years

471
00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:32.920
ago when you had to plow your
field, get your horses and your mules

472
00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:36.160
and go play. Take a week. Even now, get in your air

473
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.400
conditioned tractor, listen to your radio. It's still hard, you know what

474
00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:42.759
I mean. It's like so the
more advancements we have in technology, kind

475
00:29:42.759 --> 00:29:47.680
of the weaker we become. Right. So I love that quote. When

476
00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:51.240
times are tough, it creates hard
men, and hard men create easy times,

477
00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:53.519
and then easy times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.

478
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:56.640
It's a circle, you know what
I mean. But you have too much

479
00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:00.720
comfort? Yeah, you know?
And I mean we see it. You

480
00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:03.480
ever see those physical education videos from
the seventies. Every single one of them

481
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:07.480
was going across the monkey bars,
y look at it in the nineties.

482
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.480
I don't know, is it a
California that stopped it. A bunch of

483
00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:15.119
states are looking at pulling back the
president's physical fitness maybe not even the fitness

484
00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:18.960
tests, but like pulling back funding
on a bunch of physical activities in sports.

485
00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:22.480
I don't know why, because there's
something to that, you know what,

486
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:26.960
Sure and teaches kids important lessons,
you know it gives you perspective on

487
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:30.119
things, you know, and it's
a good underlying if you want something and

488
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:34.079
you work hard enough long enough,
like pay off. Yeah, Kobe Briant

489
00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:37.000
used to shoot what ten thousand free
throws a day or something like crazy like

490
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:40.960
that. He didn't get there by
not shooting free throws. You know what

491
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:45.240
I mean. It was work consistent. It's just like the gym consistency.

492
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.680
You're not going to get swoll in
a day. You're going to get swoll

493
00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:52.359
over five years of showing up every
day, of eating the right shit,

494
00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:55.640
of doing the right shit, of
being surrounded by the right of people,

495
00:30:56.039 --> 00:30:59.279
and you know, listening doing it
all. You know what I mean,

496
00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:02.119
Like it does. It happened in
to night, you know. And that's

497
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:07.240
what I appreciate about sports, weightlifting, powerlifting like it's earned. You can't

498
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:10.400
buy it. You can have the
best gear in the world, the dopest

499
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:14.720
shoes, the sickest gear, but
if you're not there putting in the work

500
00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:18.480
Friday night when no one's looking,
champions are made when no one's looking.

501
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.599
You can't fake it for sure.
To run it back a little bit,

502
00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:26.039
you were talking about just what you
charge and stuff and I think that a

503
00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:30.559
lot of people who you know,
when they go out on their own,

504
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:34.880
don't know what to charge or or
how much to charge, and they feel

505
00:31:34.920 --> 00:31:40.240
like if they get a little bit
of imposter syndrome around about what they charge.

506
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:45.599
But like, I feel like the
way around that is to make sure

507
00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:48.960
that your value proposition is equal to
what you're charging, and then you can

508
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:52.039
say, well, I know I'm
putting out this much, so it's worth

509
00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:55.200
this much, so you know totally. So yeah, if I were to

510
00:31:55.240 --> 00:31:57.920
break that down, right, there
is something to having an hourly rate,

511
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:02.160
which what you think your time is
worth. And then when someone were to

512
00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:07.000
do a true estimate, it would
be, well, what's my cost of

513
00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:09.799
materials? Right, I'm gonna buy
one hundred dollars materials? Do you mark

514
00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:14.240
it up? Some people mark it
up twenty thirty percent? And that covers

515
00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:16.440
me going to the store. What
if I get an accident on the way

516
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:20.599
to the store, right my van? Who pays the gat all that stuff

517
00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:22.920
goes into it, right, So
maybe a little bit of markup. So

518
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.200
once you find your value, But
that's the million dollar question is well what's

519
00:32:27.240 --> 00:32:31.079
the value of it? You're gonna
pay whatever you need to pay when you

520
00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:36.920
got shit overflowing in flooding your house. Sure, right, So it really

521
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:40.160
depends on the urgency and what you're
doing. There's something to be said.

522
00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:44.359
If I got to go under your
house with a vacuum in suck up raw

523
00:32:44.440 --> 00:32:49.119
sewage, well that's more expensive than
if I was doing something easy, right,

524
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:53.359
And so I think the key is
just honesty relating to that and being

525
00:32:53.599 --> 00:32:57.960
good at communication. Like, Hey, Bud, if I'm gonna crawl your

526
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:00.119
home which is flooded with sewage,
I'm going to charge you this much.

527
00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:05.799
Otherwise you do it, you know
what I mean? But yeah, you

528
00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:08.599
got to be by tools. You
gotta get fair, you know, like

529
00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:12.680
I got, I'm paying off tools, like all my stuff is expended and

530
00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:15.160
I don't want to go down that
whole wormhole. But the answer to your

531
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:21.960
question is what's fair. And if
you did a good job explaining, Hey,

532
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:27.000
that machine you see cost ten thousand
dollars, it's totally justified why I'm

533
00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:30.400
charging this much. Sure, And
if I'm crawling in an attic and it's

534
00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:32.400
one hundred degrees outside and I'm going
to be in there for do you know

535
00:33:32.440 --> 00:33:36.119
what it's like to be in an
attic one hundred degrees one hundred and twenty

536
00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:38.559
degrees for three hours. It's like
being in a car with the windows rolled

537
00:33:38.599 --> 00:33:43.960
up. What's that worth? Otherwise
you do it right? If it that

538
00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:47.000
Picasso sketch, if it was just
an issue of pen and paper, you

539
00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:51.720
would have done it. The reason
you're paying me is because either you don't

540
00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:54.000
know how, or you don't want
to, or you don't have the tools

541
00:33:54.640 --> 00:34:00.400
right. And I think that should
reflect any professional business. That's what you're

542
00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:07.119
paying for, the knowledge, the
experience, the professional quality, everything right.

543
00:34:07.840 --> 00:34:12.519
And you don't get that by just
opening up. You get that by

544
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:16.559
the years of grind and learning and
failure of what not to do. And

545
00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:21.079
that's where me, being the lead
tech for five years comes in. We

546
00:34:21.119 --> 00:34:24.800
operate out of a there's a standardized
book across America. They took the average

547
00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:29.800
prices in California, New York,
Georgia, so on and so forth.

548
00:34:30.119 --> 00:34:34.159
How much they charge for water heater
there here there, how much you charge

549
00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:37.519
for drain cleanings there here there.
They took the average cost and the average

550
00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:43.239
time and they put it in this
standardized book. So when I asked my

551
00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:46.440
boss, how'd you come up with
two thirty five. His answer was,

552
00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:51.920
well, it comes from the Standardized
Plumbing Book. So somebody at some point

553
00:34:52.199 --> 00:34:55.519
did a lot of informational research where
they put all this into a book and

554
00:34:55.559 --> 00:35:00.800
they took the average time, the
average cost came ou up with this number.

555
00:35:00.119 --> 00:35:04.360
Now, mind you, that number
is different for every company. My

556
00:35:04.519 --> 00:35:08.559
overhead is a lot less than let's
use Bonnie. Bonnie has one thousand technicians

557
00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:15.559
and a thousand vanag They like NorCal
because I think they were my neighbor growing,

558
00:35:15.599 --> 00:35:17.840
but Bonnie is the biggest. I
might be wrong, but I swear

559
00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:22.880
I grew up next to Miss Bonnie. I wouldn't be surprised like Carmichael.

560
00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:27.159
Okay, so they used to be
a smaller outfit. They're huge now and

561
00:35:27.239 --> 00:35:30.719
they are the biggest plumbing company there
ever was and will be in America.

562
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:35.400
I heard a stat last year they
spent like fifteen million on marketing alone.

563
00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:39.400
Holy And when you break down the
cost of overhead on a company that has

564
00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:45.440
fifteen million, it makes sense why
they charge what they charge. So there

565
00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:49.000
is a time and a place for
a big, huge company, and there's

566
00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:52.119
a time and a place for a
small one man show like me. We

567
00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:58.199
can both offer the same quality services
the differences. I can do it for

568
00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:02.360
a tenth of the cost. But
I also don't have one hundred man crew.

569
00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:07.280
So if you're doing a huge project
as a one man show, I

570
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:10.559
can only bite off so much,
right, But there's value in that if

571
00:36:10.599 --> 00:36:14.320
your look so, I'm a service
in repair. I don't do new construction.

572
00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:17.360
I don't do you know, like
add ons or additions. I'll service

573
00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:22.920
them. I am a quick,
fast hit. I clear your drains.

574
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:28.519
I get you out of emergencies.
I emergency response flood dammage, you know,

575
00:36:28.599 --> 00:36:31.400
replacing your water heaters when you need
something. Now, I'm your guy.

576
00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:35.920
There's other plumbers out there that specialize
in new construction, and all they

577
00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:38.840
do is do ABC on a new
building. They do pipes, they do

578
00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:42.519
drains. Then they move on to
the next building and do that. So

579
00:36:42.639 --> 00:36:45.320
there's value in that. There's value
in what everyone does in different areas.

580
00:36:45.320 --> 00:36:49.519
It's just what do you want when
you got that text from your boss letting

581
00:36:49.519 --> 00:36:52.239
you go or pushing you, you
know, a little birdie out the nest?

582
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:55.239
Did some of this thought process like
coming to your brain right away,

583
00:36:55.280 --> 00:36:58.360
like all right, am I going
to scale? Am I going to get

584
00:36:58.400 --> 00:37:01.519
employees. Where's my knee? Am
I going to go make a contract with

585
00:37:01.559 --> 00:37:05.079
a construction company and try to be
the new builder guy? Or am I

586
00:37:05.079 --> 00:37:07.880
going to be the repair or I'm
just gonna say, fucking I'll work twenty

587
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:09.800
four to seven and I'll come when
you're flooding, Like did some of that

588
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:14.079
company your brain? And then how
did you narrow down like a decision on

589
00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:17.000
what you wanted to do? So
thankfully, over the course of those five

590
00:37:17.079 --> 00:37:22.119
years, I had slowly been brainstorming
what I want to do when I get

591
00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:24.519
better. And during that five year
journey with him, all I could think

592
00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:28.880
about was, Man, when I
get up to the plate, I'm gonna

593
00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:32.119
do it tighter, cleaner, better, more efficient. He was very inefficient.

594
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:35.360
For example, he because you can
see it right, because you're you're

595
00:37:35.480 --> 00:37:37.960
oh yeah in it all day.
Ye yeah. So for example, he

596
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:40.639
would like pay for marketing leads and
then let's say Friday night, fall asleep

597
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:45.719
with his phone on marketing leads.
When you ring, you're charged whether you

598
00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:49.760
answer or not. So there's six
hundred bucks miss nine calls, bing bing

599
00:37:49.760 --> 00:37:52.559
bing bing ban wake up from partying? Oh shit, six hundred bucks spam

600
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:55.239
down the drain. So that was
one example. I'm like, I'm not

601
00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:59.480
going to do that. In fact, you're talking to a guy who doesn't

602
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:02.400
really advertise. Here's how I did
it. He fired me, he let

603
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:05.719
me go. I was scared.
I'm shitting my pants. I'm like,

604
00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:07.800
oh my god, where's the calls, where's the money gonna come from?

605
00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:10.760
What am I gonna do? I
did flyers at a Walmart where I printed

606
00:38:10.760 --> 00:38:16.320
out flyers and I put them on
everyone's windshield. Maybe a low move whatever,

607
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:21.400
mind you, but that works.
Hitting the street, it gets gets

608
00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:22.559
your name out there. Hit the
street. Cheap to do that, it's

609
00:38:22.639 --> 00:38:24.760
cheap. That was the name of
the game. Cheap. But here's the

610
00:38:24.800 --> 00:38:29.320
golden rule. And here's what I
learned over five years. My boss had

611
00:38:29.320 --> 00:38:31.360
been slowly feeding me tips and tricks. All right, when you open up

612
00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:35.119
your company, here's what you gotta
do. Here's the key. You don't

613
00:38:35.159 --> 00:38:39.639
need a thousand customers. What you
need is four or five solid real estate

614
00:38:39.679 --> 00:38:45.159
agents. What you need is two
or three solid restoration companies. What you

615
00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:52.119
need is three or five solid property
management companies. Sure so property management,

616
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:55.519
right we she's Meredith. For example, she was on a very large company

617
00:38:55.599 --> 00:39:01.400
that managed ten large properties. Each
property, for example, is two hundred

618
00:39:01.480 --> 00:39:06.800
units each unit. Yeah, a
lot of toilets, kitchen, sinks,

619
00:39:06.840 --> 00:39:10.239
and tenants. No offense to any
tenants out there. Sometimes they're not the

620
00:39:10.280 --> 00:39:15.400
most gentle for renting. Hey,
landlord, you got a problem? What

621
00:39:15.519 --> 00:39:17.599
happened? I don't fucking know?
You know what I mean? Why do

622
00:39:17.719 --> 00:39:21.199
we find a Barbie doll down here? Drive it like you stole it,

623
00:39:21.239 --> 00:39:23.000
but live in it like you rent
it. Yeah, and I'm fishing out

624
00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:27.000
Barbie dolls from toilets glasses? You
know? How did that get in there?

625
00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:30.719
Doesn't matter? Drugs? You know? Oh my god. So I

626
00:39:30.760 --> 00:39:32.760
see the both, the good,
the bad, the best, the ugly,

627
00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:36.280
And it's a blessing in disguise,
you know what I mean? Because

628
00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:38.039
I know what I don't want.
I know what I want. I meet

629
00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:42.599
some amazing people. I get to
hang out with their animals, get to

630
00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:45.239
twist my wrenches, be the hero, you know what I mean? So,

631
00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:50.400
like plumbing checks all my boxes,
I got so lucky. I'm physically

632
00:39:50.519 --> 00:39:54.920
challenged, I'm mentally challenged. I'm
overcoming obstacles, making your problems going away.

633
00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:59.119
So I have to think outside the
box, like I'm critically thinking all

634
00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:04.360
day long. Dealing with people sometimes
is good and bad, blessings in disguise,

635
00:40:04.519 --> 00:40:06.880
you know what I mean. I'm
good at it, so I think

636
00:40:06.920 --> 00:40:09.480
that's why I've been so successful is
just my personality, you know what I

637
00:40:09.480 --> 00:40:15.360
mean. My story helps play the
sports background every little bit, and you

638
00:40:15.400 --> 00:40:21.960
think about all your guys' life.
Everything you have been through makes you who

639
00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:25.519
you are. I used to be
embarrassed in my duuys Full Circle. June

640
00:40:25.559 --> 00:40:30.119
thirteenth, twenty thirteen is my Sobriety
day. I'll be coming on eleven years

641
00:40:30.159 --> 00:40:36.800
sobriety. I'm so grateful for my
story and my DUIs my failure. I

642
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:40.400
embrace it. I'm thankful for it
because it taught me those lessons and it

643
00:40:40.480 --> 00:40:45.199
made me know who I am.
And the best advice I could give anyone

644
00:40:45.239 --> 00:40:49.719
listening is that golden rule of treating
others how you want to be treated applies

645
00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:53.519
in everything, business, life,
relationships, kids. You know what I

646
00:40:53.559 --> 00:40:59.079
mean. In somehow, some way
we've lost that in society. You know,

647
00:40:59.159 --> 00:41:02.639
like when your neighbor had a problem, all the neighbors come out and

648
00:41:02.760 --> 00:41:07.719
help. You know when you have
a problem, depending on your support group,

649
00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:10.360
you are on your own. You
know, when I was a kid,

650
00:41:10.840 --> 00:41:16.360
our next door neighbors because my dad
worked in agg He was a farmer

651
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:22.679
and he would be like gone overnight
irrigating whatever, and then sleep during the

652
00:41:22.760 --> 00:41:28.920
day sometimes and if the lawn got
long, the next door neighbor would mow

653
00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:32.000
it. It is no I cannot
say that that would happen right now,

654
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:36.360
but it's taken my entire life from
like we moved when I was four or

655
00:41:36.360 --> 00:41:39.360
five, and until the last couple
of years that I had neighbors that were

656
00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:44.159
that like close. You know,
I don't know that they would mow my

657
00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:46.440
lawn, but they might. What
happened, Yeah, I think there's pockets.

658
00:41:46.599 --> 00:41:50.119
My mom liked her neighbors. I
just moved my mom to Las Vegas

659
00:41:50.159 --> 00:41:53.079
and she had cool neighbors and Carmichael, but the Vegas neighbors were really cool.

660
00:41:53.199 --> 00:41:57.800
Yeah. Sometimes I feel like it's
very city driven and then culturally driven.

661
00:41:58.159 --> 00:42:00.400
Like I feel like the West Coast
is just a little bit like that.

662
00:42:00.440 --> 00:42:02.760
It's a little bit more selfish.
My dad was from Cleveland, and

663
00:42:02.800 --> 00:42:05.800
all my aunts and stuff are out
there, and it's still kind of like

664
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:08.519
that. Everyone's saying what's up like
the neighbors kids. Yeah, the neighbors

665
00:42:08.599 --> 00:42:12.039
kids are just walking through the door. I was literally out there for a

666
00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:15.199
funeral last summer and like just two
like kids are just walking through the house.

667
00:42:15.320 --> 00:42:19.679
Like, who the fuck are these
kids? They're just the neighbor kids.

668
00:42:19.679 --> 00:42:21.599
They're just the neighbor kids. And
they just came in and grab a

669
00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:22.599
drink and like left. I was
like, how cool is that? It

670
00:42:22.599 --> 00:42:25.079
was cool? It was cool.
And then obviously it was my cousin's house

671
00:42:25.079 --> 00:42:27.880
and he knew them and loved them. Yeah, and it was all great.

672
00:42:27.920 --> 00:42:29.800
But that was just I mean,
if that happens out here, bro,

673
00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:32.880
I'm throwing fists. Yeah, that's
going crazy. That sense of camaraderie

674
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:37.039
though, you know, I admired
that, but it's cool what happened.

675
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:38.320
Yeah, I was lucky. I
went to a really small school and so

676
00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:42.079
I got some of that growing up. Obviously it's not the same because you're

677
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:45.000
not your neighbors. But I graduated
in class was like twenty four people,

678
00:42:45.320 --> 00:42:47.280
so you just know everything about everyone. I knew all my friend's aunts and

679
00:42:47.360 --> 00:42:52.800
cousins, and it kind of felt
that I forget what the book is because

680
00:42:52.840 --> 00:42:55.000
I don't really read. But I
hear a lot of things. There's some

681
00:42:55.079 --> 00:43:00.440
book that talks about like tribes and
shit like that, and how like humans

682
00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:02.599
are made to be around like one
hundred to two hundred people or two hundred

683
00:43:02.599 --> 00:43:07.400
and fifty people. And that's one
issue people think just because like our communities

684
00:43:07.400 --> 00:43:09.239
are too big, you know,
like even high schools, right, Like

685
00:43:09.440 --> 00:43:13.039
there's two thousand kids graduating from the
same class, Like, how are you

686
00:43:13.079 --> 00:43:16.239
supposed to feel camaraderie with two thousand
people? Like it's impossible. There's got

687
00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:19.719
to be a couple of them though, right, yeah, really click with

688
00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:22.239
Yeah, you might get some homies
for sure. But you know, imagine

689
00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:25.280
if we had cities that weren't as
big or you know, communities that were

690
00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:29.039
as big. That's why sports teams
are special, Yeah, because the biggest

691
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:31.199
teams would a probably football team.
And that's like Max seventy eighty. You

692
00:43:31.199 --> 00:43:34.880
know. It's crazy too for us
men, is that as we get older

693
00:43:34.880 --> 00:43:38.079
to our circles get fucking smaller.
Ye smaller and tighter. B my circle

694
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:39.880
in high school, bro, I
mean, I don't want a too my

695
00:43:39.880 --> 00:43:43.159
own horn. But me being like
a social butterfly, bro, I got

696
00:43:43.159 --> 00:43:45.159
along with everybody, you know,
what I mean. I was a jock,

697
00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:46.800
but I was cool with that.
I'm cool with everyone. I'm a

698
00:43:46.800 --> 00:43:49.800
big nerd. I play lots of
video game you know what I mean.

699
00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:52.159
I'm a collector. I'm into all
kinds of things, so I could get

700
00:43:52.199 --> 00:43:55.719
along with everybody. Right, it's
harder, it's different, you know what

701
00:43:55.760 --> 00:43:59.039
I mean. I don't know.
Yeah, it's just a lot harder.

702
00:43:59.079 --> 00:44:05.000
We do. We started a couple
of years ago now doing a like neighborhood

703
00:44:06.119 --> 00:44:10.119
dinner every other month, pretty much
been at our house, and it sort

704
00:44:10.119 --> 00:44:15.679
of grows, like it grows through
like network connections and stuff. It's not

705
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:20.360
all neighbors anymore. But it started
out there sadly, our neighbor across the

706
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:22.320
street. He was like the first
neighbor that we started this with. They're

707
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:25.360
moving to San Francisco and they're looking
for neighborhoods and their stuff, and like,

708
00:44:27.559 --> 00:44:29.840
how do we find this again?
How do we recreate this? And

709
00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:32.480
it could be it could be a
bit of a challenge san Francisco. We

710
00:44:32.559 --> 00:44:36.679
might be all right, I feel
like just because like people have been there

711
00:44:36.719 --> 00:44:39.079
for a long time. Yeah,
you know, like Sacramento is like just

712
00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:43.320
feels so much coming and going like
I had one friend growing up whose parents

713
00:44:43.360 --> 00:44:45.000
were from here, but everyone else
moved here, you know what I mean.

714
00:44:45.039 --> 00:44:47.960
It's just so uncommon. And then
now obviously it's growing because everyone from

715
00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:52.519
the bays moving here and everyone else
moving here. But yeah, I do

716
00:44:52.559 --> 00:44:54.480
feel a giant community thing. I
mean, that's part of why we built

717
00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:59.800
the gym, because similar things we
had great experiences with smaller communities, and

718
00:45:00.519 --> 00:45:04.639
and the gym is something that's so
like foundational. It doesn't really matter like,

719
00:45:04.679 --> 00:45:07.119
oh, you work out, work
out like that doesn't make us friends,

720
00:45:07.119 --> 00:45:09.320
but that's like a foundation to build
a friendship, common ground. You

721
00:45:09.400 --> 00:45:13.840
have something you want to really cool. You guys will appreciate this owning a

722
00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:19.880
gym. The day after my mom
died, that morning of my mom passed

723
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:23.039
away, like two in the morning, I had noah. My world was

724
00:45:23.079 --> 00:45:28.400
fucking rocked. Right, your parents
died? Where was I? I found

725
00:45:28.400 --> 00:45:30.679
myself at the gym. I went
to the gym and I lifted, and

726
00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:35.000
I don't want to get emotional,
but I didn't tell anyone anything. This

727
00:45:35.039 --> 00:45:38.519
had just happened like six hours.
Imagine like your mom passed boom, You're

728
00:45:38.559 --> 00:45:43.840
at the hospital. You go through
that initial movement. They asked if I

729
00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:45.840
wanted to see her. I said
no, I didn't think that was gonna

730
00:45:45.840 --> 00:45:47.840
help me. Right, I go
home. Probably good decision, but I

731
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:51.840
couldn't be right right that was gonna
help me? Yeah? And I go

732
00:45:51.920 --> 00:45:53.840
home and I couldn't process what was
you know what I mean? So I

733
00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:58.840
had a twenty four hour a fob
for my gym in Auburn Lifestyle Fitness,

734
00:45:58.920 --> 00:46:01.280
and I am so thankful that I
went and I fobbed in. I'm there

735
00:46:01.320 --> 00:46:05.000
at three in the morning, nobody
there, empty gym and I'm lifting,

736
00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:07.840
you know what I mean? And
I used my pain as fuel for that

737
00:46:07.960 --> 00:46:12.599
moment. And what else you're gonna
do? You just gonna sit there and

738
00:46:12.639 --> 00:46:15.360
I don't want to get too emotional, try to like keep it together.

739
00:46:15.400 --> 00:46:19.840
But I had a trainer come up
to me and just putting his hand on

740
00:46:19.920 --> 00:46:24.239
my back. I paused my lift
and I started breaking down and I had

741
00:46:24.239 --> 00:46:29.239
to tell someone at that point something
And I'm just what I'm trying to get

742
00:46:29.280 --> 00:46:32.079
to you is how cool was it
that where I went six hours after I

743
00:46:32.119 --> 00:46:38.039
lost my mom was the gym,
my support group, my place of security,

744
00:46:38.880 --> 00:46:43.320
where I felt safe with the gym
Yeah. So anyways, the gym

745
00:46:43.320 --> 00:46:46.639
played a huge role in my life, in my story, in my background,

746
00:46:46.679 --> 00:46:49.599
you know. And the gym is
a safe place. It's a good

747
00:46:49.599 --> 00:46:52.599
place to be. Everyone at the
gym is there to better themselves physically,

748
00:46:52.760 --> 00:46:55.800
mentally, spiritually. You're gonna network, you're gonna meet people, You're gonna

749
00:46:55.800 --> 00:47:00.320
surround yourself with like minded individuals.
So the gym is the best place to

750
00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:07.039
be for anyone who is looking for
direction or change or something better. The

751
00:47:07.079 --> 00:47:10.079
gym is where you'll find it.
Agree because I mean, where else do

752
00:47:10.159 --> 00:47:14.320
other like people congregate, Like a
church, a gym, or a bar

753
00:47:14.719 --> 00:47:16.719
Tho's the only place that modern eight
people congregate. All those are good points.

754
00:47:16.760 --> 00:47:20.519
Yeah, the church everyone's like minded, well not everyone, but you

755
00:47:20.519 --> 00:47:22.400
have that in common. The bar
you have that in common. Right,

756
00:47:22.599 --> 00:47:27.039
the gym you have that. You
try to be around here. So make

757
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:29.360
friends at the gym, and when
you're done with your lifts, go hang

758
00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:30.639
out with them, you know what
I mean, Like surround you with them,

759
00:47:30.719 --> 00:47:34.599
Go come eat, Come meet my
family, you know what I mean.

760
00:47:34.760 --> 00:47:37.480
Oftentimes they're going to be good people. They're there to better themselves.

761
00:47:37.519 --> 00:47:39.119
The gym is the best place to
be. I agree. I got a

762
00:47:39.199 --> 00:47:45.639
question based on some of what you
were talking about earlier. What's kind of

763
00:47:45.639 --> 00:47:51.400
the craziest plumbing situation that you walked
into in the last man to be like

764
00:47:51.440 --> 00:47:53.480
a cat and a drain or something. So I got grace, I got

765
00:47:53.760 --> 00:48:00.760
gross stories. I got some crazy
sexual stories, like right when I met

766
00:48:00.760 --> 00:48:04.320
my wife, my fiance asked her
to marry me. It's funny how life

767
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:07.039
works, right. I had this
one lady. Their water heater was it'll

768
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:09.119
get a little graphic. We're a
man, we can talk about it.

769
00:48:09.239 --> 00:48:14.039
Yeah, okay, if you listen, I love you. Her water heater

770
00:48:14.239 --> 00:48:17.039
was out for a week. A
week. Imagine you're hot, no hot

771
00:48:17.039 --> 00:48:21.800
water for a week. Now it's
cool to take cold showers in the summertime.

772
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:23.559
Now they're doing cold plunging, you
know what I mean. Like,

773
00:48:23.639 --> 00:48:27.360
I personally go as hot as I
can take it and cold as I can

774
00:48:27.400 --> 00:48:30.159
take it, for as long as
I can take it. That's my little

775
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:32.079
thing. But anyways, this lady
seven days, she has like five kids.

776
00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:36.159
Oh, no hot water for seven
days. Crazy. So anyways,

777
00:48:36.440 --> 00:48:38.320
it was a warranty. Part the
reason it took seven days was because they

778
00:48:38.360 --> 00:48:40.679
were doing it through warranty. It
was free, but you gotta wait.

779
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:44.239
So they sent the part. It
wasn't the right part. They sent the

780
00:48:44.239 --> 00:48:46.000
next part wasn't the right part.
Anyways, I finally got the water heater

781
00:48:46.079 --> 00:48:50.639
up and running, and quote unquote, she says, Oh my god,

782
00:48:50.679 --> 00:48:53.519
I will suck your dick in the
bathroom right now. She was so happy

783
00:48:53.599 --> 00:48:59.119
the service I provided. I'm like, I'm in the wrong industry. So

784
00:48:59.159 --> 00:49:00.960
I tell my boss it's the story. He laughs, I trade the funk

785
00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:04.440
out of people. No one offered
me that, right right, Like where's

786
00:49:04.480 --> 00:49:06.920
my tip? Yeah, but I
tell the story to my boss and he

787
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:09.199
is hysterical. He tells the story, you know what I mean, and

788
00:49:09.239 --> 00:49:12.239
I'm like, I gotta get that. I gotta get out of here kind

789
00:49:12.239 --> 00:49:15.719
of thing. But it's gonna sign
himself to that next job. It's just

790
00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:19.239
like the classic start of any adult
film. Yeah. Yeah, I was

791
00:49:19.239 --> 00:49:22.840
gonna say, like the pool Boys, plumber, I'm gonna lay this pipe,

792
00:49:22.840 --> 00:49:27.119
baby. So, yeah, there's
been those situations they want to trade

793
00:49:27.480 --> 00:49:30.519
services for work. You know what
I mean. I'm a married man.

794
00:49:30.559 --> 00:49:35.000
I appreciate the compliment, but I
live an honest lifestyle. I can honestly,

795
00:49:35.119 --> 00:49:37.920
proudly say I walk away from those
with my head held high and I

796
00:49:38.039 --> 00:49:40.960
just take it out the compliment.
Yeah, and there's nothing more than that.

797
00:49:42.039 --> 00:49:45.079
Thanks, you know. But uh, I just did a job about

798
00:49:45.119 --> 00:49:50.559
two months ago, and there's a
drain backed up, flooded the upstairs,

799
00:49:50.920 --> 00:49:55.280
upstairs, flooded downstairs, water dripping
all through the ceiling, probably ten feet

800
00:49:55.320 --> 00:49:59.400
by ten feet. I open it
up, I cut it to find out

801
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:04.719
it's the line. So it's compromised
sewage water, shit, water dripping through

802
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:07.519
her thing, and it's all on
my gloves. It's dripping on me.

803
00:50:07.599 --> 00:50:12.199
Right, So when a customer asks
why I charge what I charge, it's

804
00:50:12.199 --> 00:50:15.119
a messy, dirty job, right, Long story short. They were flushing

805
00:50:15.199 --> 00:50:20.960
needles down the drain, down the
toilet, they were shooting heroin. And

806
00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:22.880
I have a badass video on my
Instagram. If you guys want to check

807
00:50:22.920 --> 00:50:27.599
it out, you'll find me on
Rhino Ruter Plumbing on Instagram, Facebook,

808
00:50:27.639 --> 00:50:30.519
all my socials check it out.
There's a video on there, and I

809
00:50:30.599 --> 00:50:35.280
do a very good job of keeping
there an anonymity, so you don't see

810
00:50:35.320 --> 00:50:38.039
the customer or the house. But
I did show what was potentially in the

811
00:50:38.119 --> 00:50:43.559
drain. I cut the pipe and
I pulled out probably six or seven hypodermic

812
00:50:43.639 --> 00:50:49.159
needles that can get super dangerous,
super sketchy. That's another thing too,

813
00:50:49.159 --> 00:50:52.639
and it gave me another perspective.
Imagine me reaching my hand into any old

814
00:50:52.719 --> 00:50:57.800
drain. If I get stuck with
the wrong thing, I'm walking away with

815
00:50:57.880 --> 00:51:00.159
something for life, yeah, for
sure. And the e coli that's in

816
00:51:00.199 --> 00:51:06.039
the drain and everything, and even
like aids like you can get some like

817
00:51:06.159 --> 00:51:10.239
life changing, right. Sure,
so you gotta be there's smart and bad

818
00:51:10.239 --> 00:51:14.559
ways to do everything. You just
got to be smart about it, right.

819
00:51:14.679 --> 00:51:17.920
And everybody deserves a plumber, the
good, the bad, the rent,

820
00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:22.960
every walks of life need a plumber. And coming out of that job

821
00:51:22.239 --> 00:51:27.679
gave me another perspective. Right.
Last year it was about open the business,

822
00:51:27.880 --> 00:51:29.920
grow, grow, grow, grind, grind, grind. This year

823
00:51:30.480 --> 00:51:34.559
I did fairly well, you know, so I don't need every single job,

824
00:51:34.960 --> 00:51:38.880
every single customer, right, But
with that being said, everybody does

825
00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:43.280
need a plumber, you know.
And those services that I provide, everyone

826
00:51:43.320 --> 00:51:45.719
needs hot water and a flushing toilet, and I just put myself in their

827
00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:51.119
shoes. What would I like on
a What would Ryan want Friday night?

828
00:51:51.239 --> 00:51:53.960
I want to hot water and flush
my toilet. So when you put yourself

829
00:51:53.960 --> 00:51:57.880
in their shoes and you remember that
golden rule, you know. But to

830
00:51:57.880 --> 00:51:59.800
answer your question, it's, you
know, I see the good, the

831
00:51:59.840 --> 00:52:04.159
bat the ugly. I pulled out
glasses from toilets, sunglasses, toys,

832
00:52:04.239 --> 00:52:07.679
foreign objects, kids flush down.
It's always old people and kids. So

833
00:52:07.719 --> 00:52:10.679
the inside joke. And at the
gas station we had this too, homeless

834
00:52:10.719 --> 00:52:15.159
issues with they're pissed because it's customer's
only bathroom. Well, the next time

835
00:52:15.199 --> 00:52:20.199
they can sneak by and not see
me go by, they're flushing their shirt,

836
00:52:20.280 --> 00:52:22.800
their socks down the toilet and they're
backing up and flooding the gas station's

837
00:52:22.800 --> 00:52:28.360
bathroom. Same thing in like a
customer's back. It's hard to control behind

838
00:52:28.360 --> 00:52:31.159
closed doors, which you can't see
when you're a kid and your six year

839
00:52:31.159 --> 00:52:36.159
old is behind that door and it's
closed, dude, they could be throwing

840
00:52:36.199 --> 00:52:37.320
anything down there. Sure, right, And what do you think a six

841
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:42.599
year old's gonna say, did you
do this? Nope? No, oh

842
00:52:42.679 --> 00:52:45.119
never, you know what I mean? Like and then old people too,

843
00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:49.079
like when they're eighty five ninety eight
years old and you're starting to you know

844
00:52:49.119 --> 00:52:52.440
what I mean, you use way
too much toilet paper, and at that

845
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:54.599
point it's kind of user error.
So a lot of things in plumbing,

846
00:52:54.679 --> 00:52:57.599
like why did it back up?
Why did it fail? Why did it

847
00:52:57.599 --> 00:52:59.920
clog? Why did this? Well, some of it's age and condition.

848
00:53:00.519 --> 00:53:04.679
How does the pipe look? If
the inside of a rusted pipe is rusty

849
00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:07.960
in like popcorn ceiling, like the
texture of that wall, well, it's

850
00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:10.719
gonna snag paper products, it cause
backups. If that pipe is smooth,

851
00:53:10.880 --> 00:53:14.280
it's gonna flow, you know what
I mean? So what's the age?

852
00:53:14.280 --> 00:53:19.000
What's it look like? How did
you so they call it brown Friday?

853
00:53:19.199 --> 00:53:22.119
The day after Thanksgiving? It's called
brown Friday? Right? And this is

854
00:53:22.159 --> 00:53:27.440
true? This is another good story. For seven years straight, every day

855
00:53:27.480 --> 00:53:30.840
after Thanksgiving is drain called drain,
called drain called drain? Call Every story

856
00:53:30.920 --> 00:53:34.719
every year is the same. What
happened? Maybe the Super Bowl too,

857
00:53:34.719 --> 00:53:37.639
We got a Super Bowl the brown
party? Right? Yeah? So I

858
00:53:37.639 --> 00:53:42.559
had twenty people over for Thanksgiving.
Everybody scraped their leftovers into the kitchen sink

859
00:53:42.719 --> 00:53:45.320
and I blended it up with my
garbage disposal. And you wonder why I'm

860
00:53:45.360 --> 00:53:50.000
here? Right? So, so
anyone listening, best advice, You only

861
00:53:50.039 --> 00:53:52.239
want water? Going down your drains, right, but I get it,

862
00:53:52.280 --> 00:53:55.440
like I'm realistic. You're gonna wash
your dishes. There's gonna be some foods,

863
00:53:55.440 --> 00:53:58.639
some water, some grease. It's
gonna go down. You might lose

864
00:53:58.679 --> 00:54:01.639
a ring, whatever, A little
bit is not gonna hurt. But a

865
00:54:01.679 --> 00:54:07.239
little bit over a long time being
consistent, well, then you have drain

866
00:54:07.320 --> 00:54:12.199
problems. Right, So the deferred
maintenance over twenty years, consistently not doing

867
00:54:12.280 --> 00:54:15.360
it well, now you have a
big problem. If you maybe had had

868
00:54:15.360 --> 00:54:20.400
a plumber look at it, service
something once every few years, routine maintenance,

869
00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:23.119
it doesn't get that bad. But
when you let it get real bad.

870
00:54:23.159 --> 00:54:28.199
Let's use roots in drain lines.
For example, if you've never had

871
00:54:28.199 --> 00:54:30.440
a plumber, look at your drain
line. That could be good or bad.

872
00:54:31.199 --> 00:54:36.599
Just because your house isn't backing up
doesn't mean that there aren't roots growing

873
00:54:36.639 --> 00:54:39.800
into the cleanout as we speak.
And once those roots find their water source,

874
00:54:40.320 --> 00:54:44.639
they just take over. And then
so we have four and three inch

875
00:54:44.679 --> 00:54:47.599
pipes at a house. I see
four and three inch pipes that are completely

876
00:54:47.719 --> 00:54:52.400
rooted, and when I cut them
out, and like, wonder, how

877
00:54:52.440 --> 00:54:55.880
did anything flow? How did toilet
paper doodoo? How did anything get by

878
00:54:57.280 --> 00:55:00.239
let alone sunglasses somebody threw you know
what I mean? So I see it

879
00:55:00.280 --> 00:55:04.280
all, you know, And part
of my job is to educate, and

880
00:55:04.320 --> 00:55:06.760
that's what I love to do.
I'd love to do it in my content,

881
00:55:06.880 --> 00:55:10.079
in my videos. I personally wear
a lot of hats, but I

882
00:55:10.119 --> 00:55:14.360
love wearing those hats. And it's
exactly what I signed up for. I

883
00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:16.440
know exactly what I want to do
and what I need to do and how

884
00:55:16.440 --> 00:55:20.800
to get there. Some people when
they worry about, like why did I

885
00:55:20.880 --> 00:55:22.280
not do this or that, Well, it's like what did you not do?

886
00:55:22.480 --> 00:55:28.119
You know what I mean? Did
you post consistently? Did you target

887
00:55:28.199 --> 00:55:32.760
your audience with valuable information? Are
your prices absurdly high? You know what

888
00:55:32.760 --> 00:55:37.239
I mean? So I think being
able to compromise, being able to wiggle,

889
00:55:37.159 --> 00:55:42.239
being fair and flexible is key.
And that's for anything, you know

890
00:55:42.280 --> 00:55:45.679
what I mean? Like balance in
life for me is key. What's some

891
00:55:45.719 --> 00:55:49.280
of the next business goals? So
you said ye had a very you know,

892
00:55:50.440 --> 00:55:54.039
bigger first year than you maybe expected. Get your goals to scale and

893
00:55:54.039 --> 00:55:59.039
get employees and chase down miss Bonnie, or you're going to cruise. You're

894
00:55:59.039 --> 00:56:00.239
going to take your foot off the
game as like, what are the next

895
00:56:00.280 --> 00:56:04.239
steps and how do you how do
you kind of approach that love that question?

896
00:56:04.320 --> 00:56:08.840
So yeah, that's a great question
personally, best for me and my

897
00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:12.639
side of the street and what I
want. I can only speak for what

898
00:56:12.679 --> 00:56:16.280
I want and recommend. I want
to stay small as I can for as

899
00:56:16.320 --> 00:56:21.639
long as I can. My CPA
told me my profit margins this year,

900
00:56:22.039 --> 00:56:27.480
and part of the key points of
my success was keeping the bills to a

901
00:56:27.519 --> 00:56:30.800
minimum. Right. It's not about
how much you make. How much do

902
00:56:30.880 --> 00:56:35.000
you keep? Yeah, and how
little do you spend? Sometimes keys,

903
00:56:35.199 --> 00:56:38.800
right, So there's something said to
sacrifice if you had a big goal.

904
00:56:38.920 --> 00:56:43.360
I'm going to use myself. For
example, I literally today pick up my

905
00:56:43.440 --> 00:56:46.920
van from the wrap shop. I
just spent five grand getting my vehicle wrapped.

906
00:56:47.119 --> 00:56:51.039
This was a goal that I've had
for year, you know what I

907
00:56:51.039 --> 00:56:53.079
mean? Did I do it last
Could I afforded it last year? Sure?

908
00:56:53.320 --> 00:56:57.880
But again, blessing in disguise for
everything, So goals. I wanted

909
00:56:57.960 --> 00:57:00.559
my vehicle wrapped. I want to
stay as small as I can for as

910
00:57:00.559 --> 00:57:04.760
long as I can, So I
will scale my business when I have to.

911
00:57:05.360 --> 00:57:08.239
When I'm two weeks out, I'm
not helping anybody at that point,

912
00:57:08.280 --> 00:57:13.639
right, I help people by bring
ring Rhino. My house is flooding,

913
00:57:13.920 --> 00:57:16.760
I'll be there in thirty minutes.
Right, Rhino, my house is flooding,

914
00:57:16.760 --> 00:57:20.480
I'll be there in two weeks.
It doesn't help anyone, right,

915
00:57:20.519 --> 00:57:22.480
So when I get to that point
and I'm so busy that I can't,

916
00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:25.840
So the downside of being a one
man show is I can only be in

917
00:57:25.880 --> 00:57:30.519
one place at a time. The
upside to having a really good technician is

918
00:57:30.559 --> 00:57:32.719
now I can put you in a
van and I can be two places.

919
00:57:32.800 --> 00:57:37.280
But if that guy isn't worth the
damn or if he doesn't care, he's

920
00:57:37.320 --> 00:57:40.559
fucking up. Now I got to
go back and fix his mistakes, take

921
00:57:40.639 --> 00:57:44.639
my time, my money. Now
I'm losing money. Right, So there's

922
00:57:44.639 --> 00:57:47.599
a lot in that because any reputation, like he's carrying your name, here's

923
00:57:47.639 --> 00:57:51.880
a view. Yeah, and now
you're not getting a recommendation from that next

924
00:57:51.920 --> 00:57:53.239
person. And let's be real,
right, like, there are good guys

925
00:57:53.239 --> 00:57:57.159
out there who care. I'm not
saying that, but nobody's gonna care about

926
00:57:57.199 --> 00:58:00.400
your baby as much as you,
for sure. And just some people just

927
00:58:00.840 --> 00:58:02.719
cruise through life not giving a shit. You know, they do the bare

928
00:58:02.800 --> 00:58:06.800
minimums. Yeah, and we talked
about like kind of the quality of people

929
00:58:06.880 --> 00:58:12.039
you know throughout this show, caliber
of athletes. Yeah, different things.

930
00:58:12.599 --> 00:58:15.000
It is what it is, you
know what I mean. And so that's

931
00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:17.480
the problem I'll have. But he's
out there, he or she They're out

932
00:58:17.480 --> 00:58:22.360
there like a diamond into rough.
There is some kid out there, just

933
00:58:22.440 --> 00:58:25.840
like me at the gas station who
I need to give a chance, to

934
00:58:25.880 --> 00:58:30.800
give him an opportunity, take a
leap of faith and teach what I know

935
00:58:30.920 --> 00:58:36.119
and to someone else so that I
can keep this beautiful trade going. When

936
00:58:36.199 --> 00:58:38.079
and how that happens, I don't
think I'm there yet. Like I just

937
00:58:38.119 --> 00:58:40.679
opened last year. I still have
a couple more things I want to do.

938
00:58:40.840 --> 00:58:45.159
Office space is next for me.
I need this right. So I

939
00:58:45.159 --> 00:58:46.599
got a two and a three year
old. They're thirteen months apart. I

940
00:58:46.639 --> 00:58:51.639
made a comment last week. I'm
trying a network. I'm doing my lie

941
00:58:52.079 --> 00:58:54.920
what do they call those video chat
zoom doing a zoom meeting. My kids

942
00:58:54.960 --> 00:58:59.960
are screaming off. I'm doing a
product review. Somebody sent me on Instagram.

943
00:59:00.119 --> 00:59:00.760
My kids a screen, you know
what I mean? I need a

944
00:59:00.800 --> 00:59:05.559
place on my own to go do
business when I have when I'm slow,

945
00:59:05.760 --> 00:59:07.840
I have an office, I have
Wi Fi. I can go sit down

946
00:59:07.920 --> 00:59:08.559
do what I need to do right. So I do it out of my

947
00:59:08.599 --> 00:59:12.920
house right now, or in the
van or at a Starbucks. And it's

948
00:59:12.960 --> 00:59:14.840
just like, I do what I
gotta do, you know what I mean?

949
00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:17.079
But yeah, office space is next. I got the van wrapped,

950
00:59:17.199 --> 00:59:20.679
so I'm going to ride that van
for a couple of years. But when

951
00:59:20.719 --> 00:59:23.920
I appreciate it to zero, it's
not worth anything. I buy another van,

952
00:59:24.360 --> 00:59:28.719
wrap that, hopefully it's an upgrade. I get a sprinter, so

953
00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:31.519
I want a sprinter. I eventually
want a guy, but maybe a cyber

954
00:59:31.559 --> 00:59:36.199
truck. I've been seeing those bro
A cyber truck plumber would be kind of

955
00:59:36.199 --> 00:59:37.000
fire, you think, I think. So, I don't know if it

956
00:59:37.079 --> 00:59:38.880
holds your equipment. I don't know
what that bed's like. But if you're

957
00:59:38.880 --> 00:59:44.280
trying to make an impression, if
my guy rolls up in a fucking cyber

958
00:59:44.320 --> 00:59:46.039
truck, it's a dude, okay, so that'll be my estimate truck,

959
00:59:46.079 --> 00:59:49.239
I think. I don't know.
Yeah, you gotta make sure shit is

960
00:59:49.239 --> 00:59:52.000
like actually fits, because I don't
know how functional of a truck. It

961
00:59:52.079 --> 00:59:54.559
is, but it is a statement
piece. I feel like someone at the

962
00:59:54.559 --> 00:59:58.440
bank. I got a story.
I got a story. So my buddy

963
00:59:58.480 --> 01:00:00.880
Ken I bought a cyber truck and
he got it wrapped, actually got it

964
01:00:00.920 --> 01:00:07.119
wrapped by by Genesis, where Adrian
here works with. He is the executive

965
01:00:07.159 --> 01:00:15.519
director of this Indian energy company and
they are making deals with tribes around the

966
01:00:15.559 --> 01:00:22.679
country for helping them set up microgrids
because there's like a significant percentage of like

967
01:00:22.719 --> 01:00:28.199
fifteen percent maybe of people who live
on reservations who have never had electricity,

968
01:00:28.239 --> 01:00:35.519
never had electricity, so doing that. There is a giant Indian gaming convention

969
01:00:35.679 --> 01:00:44.800
going on right now in Anaheim.
He drove his wrapped cybertruck down to this

970
01:00:44.960 --> 01:00:51.679
conference and he gave the valet one
hundred bucks to make sure that it stays

971
01:00:51.800 --> 01:00:57.159
parked where everyone has to walk past. Hell. Yeah, good marketing is

972
01:00:57.239 --> 01:01:02.679
free dollars. I'm I mean,
that's nothing on a billion dollar deal.

973
01:01:02.760 --> 01:01:06.599
One hundred dollars or nothing, drop
in the bucket. Yeah, you know,

974
01:01:07.079 --> 01:01:08.960
I thought that was so smart.
He's he's I told him, he's

975
01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:14.320
playing forty chess and the rest of
us are just trying to trying to keep

976
01:01:14.400 --> 01:01:16.320
up trying easy work. So the
older I get, right. I I

977
01:01:16.440 --> 01:01:20.840
was playing checkers, now I'm playing
chess, you know what I mean.

978
01:01:20.920 --> 01:01:23.119
Like, the older we get,
the wiser, we get sure that all

979
01:01:23.159 --> 01:01:27.000
comes with experience. You can't buy
experience, right, And I wish in

980
01:01:27.079 --> 01:01:30.239
high school they taught less history more
practically. Teach me how to file my

981
01:01:30.320 --> 01:01:32.639
taxes, Teach me how to take
out a loan, how to buy a

982
01:01:32.679 --> 01:01:36.280
house, Teach me what I need
to know in life, you know what

983
01:01:36.280 --> 01:01:38.519
I mean? Because unless you're going
to be a history major or a mathematician,

984
01:01:38.880 --> 01:01:42.679
or I don't need to know who
the thirty second president was. Yeah,

985
01:01:42.800 --> 01:01:45.679
right, Like I got lucky that
my trade landed in my lap,

986
01:01:45.719 --> 01:01:49.199
you know, and then we got
fucking Google. You can learn anything so

987
01:01:49.239 --> 01:01:52.320
that if you're driven. So sometimes
I don't want to say the wrong thing,

988
01:01:52.360 --> 01:01:55.159
but sometimes people can give it up
too easy, right, Like there

989
01:01:55.239 --> 01:02:00.599
is something to being said for watching
YouTube five ten minutes, so yourself hundreds

990
01:02:00.599 --> 01:02:05.119
thousands of dollars. I've watched the
ship before and it might be incorrect exactly

991
01:02:05.159 --> 01:02:07.960
what it is, but I'm pretty
sure Bones Jones, who is arguably the

992
01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:13.360
best MMA fighter in the history of
MMA learn muay Thai on YouTube, all

993
01:02:13.440 --> 01:02:15.000
right, that could be right.
Yeah, so if in YouTube, I

994
01:02:15.039 --> 01:02:20.480
love YouTube that platform. If you
don't know how to do something, just

995
01:02:20.599 --> 01:02:22.639
know there's a video on it YouTube
for sure, you just have to go

996
01:02:22.800 --> 01:02:25.960
find it. So either it's you
don't know how well now you know,

997
01:02:27.360 --> 01:02:30.559
or you're lazy. Don't be fucking
late. People are lazy, that's easy,

998
01:02:30.599 --> 01:02:35.400
straight up lazy. So sometimes I
don't want to disrespect a customer,

999
01:02:35.920 --> 01:02:38.280
but you probably could have done that. Yeah, but there are somethings a

1000
01:02:38.360 --> 01:02:43.000
plunger can do a little bit,
and I have. I'm so brutally honest.

1001
01:02:43.199 --> 01:02:45.159
I'll tell my customers I'll come do
it if you want me to.

1002
01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:47.800
But dude, you could do this
yourself. Just go over here, get

1003
01:02:47.800 --> 01:02:51.559
this, do this, and I'll
walk them to it. And some plumbers

1004
01:02:51.559 --> 01:02:52.639
are like, Ryan, why'd you
do that? You just lost money?

1005
01:02:53.000 --> 01:02:57.400
Did I? Or did I make
the world a better place by spreading knowledge?

1006
01:02:57.440 --> 01:03:00.880
For sure? Making a valuable relationship? Going to call that rhino,

1007
01:03:00.960 --> 01:03:02.360
dude, Yeah, when that guy's
got a real issue, he's going to

1008
01:03:02.440 --> 01:03:06.400
call you back right for easy?
For sure? Treating you how well my

1009
01:03:06.440 --> 01:03:12.719
family treated simple my uh my YouTube
experience this last week was I'm we're I'm

1010
01:03:12.840 --> 01:03:16.679
re regrouting the tile and our bathroom
floor, and I thought I was gonna

1011
01:03:16.679 --> 01:03:20.000
have to just spend a week scripping
that ship out. And I saw YouTube

1012
01:03:20.079 --> 01:03:22.880
video work. I used an oscillating
power tool. Oh yeah, yeah,

1013
01:03:23.039 --> 01:03:27.079
with just the right bit on it, and you could just like I did

1014
01:03:27.079 --> 01:03:30.480
it in like two and a half
hours to do a multi tool played.

1015
01:03:30.679 --> 01:03:34.000
Yeah, yep, yeah, yep. I kind of sync out with those

1016
01:03:34.079 --> 01:03:37.079
last week. They were great.
Yeah, And it would have I know,

1017
01:03:37.119 --> 01:03:38.960
it would have taken me at least
a week and I would have carpel

1018
01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:42.920
tunnel while the trauma was done.
You know what the old school one was

1019
01:03:42.920 --> 01:03:46.119
was a scraper and you scraped each
line. So my inside joke is I

1020
01:03:46.159 --> 01:03:50.119
would not want to be a contractor
seventy five years ago, for sure,

1021
01:03:50.159 --> 01:03:52.519
because them boys were working hard.
They were working, they were working.

1022
01:03:52.599 --> 01:03:55.960
To talk about a tough generation.
Yeah, why are we not as tough

1023
01:03:57.000 --> 01:03:59.159
now? Well now, I don't
know. If you see my videos,

1024
01:03:59.239 --> 01:04:03.280
I'm pressed and pipe together, I'm
crimping pipe. Our drains are plastic drains.

1025
01:04:03.280 --> 01:04:05.960
It's not cast iron, lead and
oakum drains like it used to be.

1026
01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:10.320
They were melting lead at three in
the morning. And you wonder why

1027
01:04:10.360 --> 01:04:14.920
that generation's tough. Have you ever
moved a ten foot stick of four inch

1028
01:04:14.960 --> 01:04:18.679
galvanized pipe. It's fucking three hundred
pounds. And these dudes were doing it

1029
01:04:18.719 --> 01:04:24.800
in skyscrapers, in basements and attics, And you wonder why this next generation

1030
01:04:24.880 --> 01:04:28.159
isn't as tough as them. There
it is, you know what I mean.

1031
01:04:28.760 --> 01:04:30.960
But everything's changed. You know.
My original point was I didn't want

1032
01:04:30.960 --> 01:04:36.159
to be a contractor seventy five years
ago because it was so hard. Nobody

1033
01:04:36.239 --> 01:04:41.519
wanted to be a plumber. Well, now let me toot on the trades.

1034
01:04:41.880 --> 01:04:44.519
Anybody out there who doesn't know what
to do. All you need is

1035
01:04:44.519 --> 01:04:46.800
a high school diploma. Learn a
trade. It takes four years. You

1036
01:04:46.840 --> 01:04:49.920
need someone to go learn, Go
learn, Start at the bottom of the

1037
01:04:49.920 --> 01:04:53.280
barrel. They like go getters and
say, hey, I'm here to learn

1038
01:04:53.440 --> 01:04:57.320
roofers, contractors, electrical anything.
Learn a skill. Once you have the

1039
01:04:57.480 --> 01:05:00.719
skill, you can go anywhere.
You go to Maine, Florida, New

1040
01:05:00.800 --> 01:05:03.719
York, Georgia, wherever. It's
all the same, different codes, it's

1041
01:05:03.760 --> 01:05:08.320
all the same. It's the same. So learn a skill, and when

1042
01:05:08.360 --> 01:05:13.800
you compare the doctor and the plumber. The plumber doesn't have ten years of

1043
01:05:14.119 --> 01:05:16.559
doctor school. Sure the plumber wins
in the long run, you know what

1044
01:05:16.639 --> 01:05:20.039
I mean. So if I could
have done it all over again and had

1045
01:05:20.039 --> 01:05:24.519
a time machine, here's the double
edged sword. Sometimes my brain prays tricks

1046
01:05:24.559 --> 01:05:25.880
on me, and I'm like,
oh, I wish I could go back

1047
01:05:25.880 --> 01:05:29.119
and not have all my deuis and
not do this. But do you do

1048
01:05:29.199 --> 01:05:31.480
I? But then I I wouldn't
have what I have now? Right?

1049
01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:35.440
But if maybe if I did,
it would be different. Who knows if

1050
01:05:35.480 --> 01:05:39.400
it's better or worse. So sometimes
my brain plays the wet if game.

1051
01:05:39.639 --> 01:05:42.159
But if I could do it over
again, I would have graduated high school,

1052
01:05:42.199 --> 01:05:45.000
got right to my trade. I
would have been a business owner for

1053
01:05:45.079 --> 01:05:46.480
a minute, now, you know
what I mean. Instead, I wasted

1054
01:05:46.480 --> 01:05:49.519
a few years at college, this
and that. So anybody listening, the

1055
01:05:49.639 --> 01:05:56.079
trades are the future. They are
only going up, and with more and

1056
01:05:56.119 --> 01:06:00.800
more people come to California and more
and more demand for electrical roofing, solar

1057
01:06:01.760 --> 01:06:06.400
plumbing, any trade. Throw a
dart at a dartboard, pick that do

1058
01:06:06.639 --> 01:06:13.880
that? Master that Because in ten
fifteen years, with this decline of nobody

1059
01:06:13.920 --> 01:06:18.760
wanting to do the trade. It
brings opportunity for those that do to the

1060
01:06:18.800 --> 01:06:23.800
next fifteen to twenty years. What
happens when the boomers get to the housing

1061
01:06:24.079 --> 01:06:28.199
We already have a housing shortage.
If we're going to have a contractor shortage

1062
01:06:28.199 --> 01:06:30.960
as well. Yeah, the supply
and demand goes through the roof, so

1063
01:06:31.280 --> 01:06:33.920
real quick and simple. Off.
Anybody looking for the future and something to

1064
01:06:33.920 --> 01:06:39.280
do, get in a trade now
and learn as much as you can and

1065
01:06:39.400 --> 01:06:43.360
never stop learning. That seems like
a really good place to park this one,

1066
01:06:43.719 --> 01:06:46.079
Ryan. Where can people find you? Yeah? Plug away? Yeah.

1067
01:06:46.119 --> 01:06:51.880
So social media's Instagram, Rhino Router
Plumbing, Facebook, Rhino Router Plumbing.

1068
01:06:53.760 --> 01:06:56.679
Give me a follow, I follow
back. I like to ship out

1069
01:06:56.679 --> 01:06:59.719
my swag all across the world.
Anybody wants to get a Rhino, a

1070
01:06:59.760 --> 01:07:04.519
pair old shirt, hoodie hat,
dm me Reach me out. Business number

1071
01:07:04.639 --> 01:07:11.199
is nine to one six two zero
nine zero nine three nine. If anybody

1072
01:07:11.280 --> 01:07:15.440
needs any plumbing work, I do
specialize in sewer and drain, but I

1073
01:07:15.519 --> 01:07:21.519
offer anything from gas work and repair
to gasline replacement, leak waterline replacement and

1074
01:07:21.599 --> 01:07:26.800
repair, sewer line replacement, in
repair tankless water heaters. I can do

1075
01:07:26.920 --> 01:07:30.079
anything inside or outside your house at
a fair cost, and I treat you

1076
01:07:30.119 --> 01:07:33.119
like family with a smile along the
way. Thank you guys for having me

1077
01:07:33.199 --> 01:07:35.360
on the show. This was awesome. Thanks for coming man. This is

1078
01:07:35.360 --> 01:07:39.119
a plast second of time. This
is cool, ladies and gentlemen. I'm

1079
01:07:39.119 --> 01:07:42.119
sorying Mike. Where you want to
find me. New episodes Wednesday and Friday,

1080
01:07:42.679 --> 01:07:45.559
three SB dot co. March fifteenth, brand new soft drop some accessories

1081
01:07:45.639 --> 01:07:50.880
up live April fifteenth. Let us
say March April fifteenth, Monday. So

1082
01:07:50.920 --> 01:07:54.159
if you listening to this, I
think we are live right now. Check

1083
01:07:54.199 --> 01:07:56.760
it out three SB dot co and
I'll catch that next week. I am

1084
01:07:56.760 --> 01:08:00.000
at the Jim mcdion all the social
media. This show is fifty percent facts

1085
01:08:00.280 --> 01:08:03.280
or percentage a word and fifty is
just numbers. Fifty percent Facts is a

1086
01:08:03.320 --> 01:08:10.199
speaker prime podcast in association with iHeartMedia
on the Obscure Celebrity Network. And we

1087
01:08:10.239 --> 01:08:11.199
will talk to you next time.