Show Information
Episode Number: 74
Date: February 17, 2025
Duration: 37:40.31
Host: Justin Deese
Website: www.JustinDeese.com
Contact: Justin@JustinDeese.com
Guest: Ryan Matthews
Company: My Guy Plumbing
Website: www.myguyplumbingnj.com
Contact: Ryan@myguyplumbingnj.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.matthews.50552
Summary
In this episode of the Freedom Blueprint podcast, Justin Deese interviews Ryan Matthews, the owner of My Guy Plumbing. Ryan shares his journey from carpentry to plumbing, the challenges he faced in the industry, and the strategies he implemented to grow his business. He emphasizes the importance of operational efficiency, the role of technology and AI in modern business, and the need for adaptability in a changing market. Ryan’s insights provide valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and established business owners alike.
Takeaways
- Ryan transitioned from carpentry to plumbing after a conflict with his boss.
- The name ‘My Guy Plumbing’ was chosen to create a relatable brand.
- Ryan emphasizes the importance of efficiency in business operations.
- He learned valuable lessons from previous employers about what not to do.
- AI technology is crucial for staying competitive in the plumbing industry.
- Ryan advocates for a patient approach to business growth and investment.
- Operational efficiency can significantly reduce costs and increase profitability.
- The plumbing industry is evolving, and businesses must adapt to survive.
- Ryan’s journey highlights the importance of implementation over mere education.
- Building a strong brand identity can lead to customer loyalty and referrals.
Chapters
00:00 The Journey Begins: From Carpentry to Plumbing
06:07 Building My Guy Plumbing: The Birth of a Brand
11:54 Navigating Challenges: Lessons from the Industry
18:01 Operational Efficiency: The Key to Success
24:08 Embracing Technology: The Role of AI in Business
30:00 Future-Proofing: Adapting to Industry Changes
Keywords
plumbing, business growth, entrepreneurship, AI, operational efficiency, Marketing, service industry, leadership, My Guy Plumbing, technology
Justin Deese, Freedom Blueprint Podcast, When Your Business Partner is Your Spouse, Kristen Deese
Transcript
Justin Deese (00:04.32)
Welcome to Freedom Blueprint podcast. We are hanging out today with Ryan Matthews of My Guy Plumbing out of New Jersey. And I’m excited to kind of dig into his journey a little bit. He’s done a pretty amazing job of growth. I think from a marketing standpoint, you’ve always done a pretty good job of staying on top of it. But Ryan, welcome, man.
Ryan (00:26.528)
Hey, thanks for having me, Justin. I really appreciate it. Thanks for your opportunity.
Justin Deese (00:29.098)
Yeah. So you and I have known each other for quite a few years now, so I’ve had the privilege to kind of check out your journey and watch you as you’ve grown as a business as a leader. And really, that’s what I love to do is I like to watch the progress and whatever small part I get to play in it. That’s always exciting, too. But for those who don’t know you yet, because they’re about to.
Tell us a little bit about how you got started in the trades and a little bit about my guy plumbing where it is right now.
Ryan (01:02.062)
All right, so my name is Ryan Matthews, my guy plumbing, who’s your guy? I started out in the trades years ago, actually was a carpenter. And then probably if anybody ever heard the story before, I actually got into a physical fight with my boss. I walked off that construction site, I walked next door, there were a of plumbers, I asked them if they think their boss would hire me.
I was fired on that day as a carpenter and hired as a plumber the following Monday. So Friday I was fired, Monday I was a plumber. So that’s how that happened.
Justin Deese (01:38.742)
So when you walked in, did you tell them you’re like, Hey, just beat this dude up.
Ryan (01:42.479)
I like they knew the guy so they basically they knew his personality you know I’m saying they knew what kind of person he was so I don’t think it was I don’t think it was a shock to them at all and I realized later the boss gave like a bonus so me walking in was like a bonus for them like great if this guy stays I get I get paid so I learned that later I didn’t know it at the time but I usually keep that to myself so I feel better about the fact that I was that good to be hired that quick
Justin Deese (01:47.372)
Yeah.
Justin Deese (02:10.966)
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So you got started in the trades and then when when did my guy plumbing become? The business that it is now.
Ryan (02:21.966)
So that was a long time later. mean, I’m going to say probably I’ve been doing this now, I’m going say probably 12, 13 years later after I got into the trades. I started going to school probably about two years after I got in. I started going to school and that was during the first recession. So that was back in 2010.
2011 I was in school and at that time the recession kind of bailed me out because my boss at the time had too many people in school so he wasn’t allowed to sponsor me. So I was lucky enough that it didn’t kick me out of school but I didn’t have a sponsor. So I ended up actually completing all of my schooling at that time without a sponsor and the reason they allowed it was because everyone was getting laid off right? Everyone was getting fired. Nobody could hold a job.
So it was either that or the school system would go down. So instead they’d let us all stay in. And so I ended up staying in all the way throughout school without a sponsor. And I think I went four or five years after that before I actually went to try to my license.
Justin Deese (03:42.71)
And then from that point, so now you’re licensed, you’re ready, you’re ready to rock. Did you go work for a company before you kicked off My Guy or did you go right to it?
Ryan (03:52.749)
I went right to it. the real way that it worked, once I was eligible to take the test, I had to work for somebody for a year and a half. So they had to basically vouch for me and say that I could do all the things that they said I could do. That actually, that turned into three years. I got stuck working there for three years because you get busy, you lose sight of the goal, right?
ended up staying there for three years helping that guy build his business. And then I got ran off. I ran off because they thought I was going to get my license and I would take all their clientele. But it was a new construction company and they were silly because I didn’t want to do new construction. I want to do service work. That was my goal. So that was kind of they lost a good person at that point. But they ended up I ended up getting fired and it was either
I go work for somebody or I hunker down and study. So that’s what I did. I hunker down and study and then on my birthday on April 2nd, I signed up for the test. Because if I passed it, I wanted to be like the best birthday present I could ever have. Right? So yeah, I did that. I stayed home. I studied, studied, I went and I took the test. I remember sitting outside in the truck.
Justin Deese (05:06.752)
Awesome.
Ryan (05:18.058)
reading it like I kind of get choked up every time I talk about it just like I did it you know what I mean like I passed I did it and I remember calling my wife and saying I did it babe I passed and so I came back to the house I get back on my computer and I formed my guy plumbing it was gonna be Ryguy after me R Y G U Y and the last minute I changed it I changed it to my guy because I didn’t want it to be all about me and I
I’ve always had this idea to grow a business that could sell. So I didn’t want it to be Ry Guy. So I changed it at the last minute because everyone in New Jersey has a guy, right? Everyone’s got a guy. So I was like, you know what, let’s call it my guy and I’ll make this slogan, the tagline, who’s your guy? And it picked up, man. Everyone loves it.
Justin Deese (06:07.65)
So I think it’s genius because I catch myself a lot of times people will ask for recommendations for something and I go, yeah, yeah, I got a guy. I always think Ryan was really onto something when he came up with the my guy. Cause that’s not really just a, I’m sure that’s a Jersey thing, but that’s even in the South, we tend to like, Hey, I got a guy. Well, when, and when you have a guy, you want to share that.
Ryan (06:24.431)
That’s it. Everyone’s got a guy. Who’s your guy? Call my guy. He’ll take care of
Justin Deese (06:34.294)
you know versus yeah there’s one you’re like yeah I have a guy like here’s my guy that I trust and I know that’s that’s great and so here’s another thing I want to give you a little bit of kudos to a lot of times when when especially technicians start out they’ll do exactly what it is that they were doing with the company before and I think it’s interesting that you went from new construction and going no I’m not I’m not interested in doing that over to service which you know I don’t.
What a blessing that you did that, right? I’m sure you see that now, but what is it that made you think, you know what, I’m gonna go ahead and jump into service. I’m not even gonna mess with new construction.
Ryan (07:08.973)
as
Ryan (07:15.136)
It was so it was the timeline. the why did why do people start business? The true reason people start businesses is because they get taken advantage of by whatever boss they ever worked for whatever manager, somebody didn’t value them. Somebody didn’t care. Right. So I took that new construction job after my service work. Right. Because like if you go back in the history of me and like how I started, I started new construction. That’s where I started.
but there was this stipulation in trades, like new construction people talk bad about service plumbers, and service plumbers talk bad about new construction plumbers, and nobody can do both. Nobody’s good at both, and nobody wants to do both. I wanna do both. So I was that guy, was like, all right, well, I’m great at new construction, I can do this. This is easy, but this isn’t challenging. So I wanna get into service work. So I ended up leaving there without a sponsor, and I went and I got into service work.
working for one of the, I’m not gonna say any names, but one of the big franchises out there. And actually at that time, I was working for three or four different companies at the same time, all of them big names in New Jersey. If you live in New Jersey, like I worked for all the big names and I worked for them like the same two weeks. And I was like, how did you do this? Well, I would work two days here, two days here, two days here, two days here. And trying to figure out like, where do I want to work? What do I want to do?
And I started at that point, like coming straight out of new construction and getting the service work. At that point, I like it was, it was crazy to me. Like this whole thing, like, like there’s a whole culture shift, entire culture shift that’s completely different people. And you would go to different shops and I would learn, okay, well there’s different pay structures. These guys are making an hourly plus bonuses. Okay, cool. But they’re also driving all over the state.
And then you go to this one you’re like, what are you guys doing? we only work on commission. you only work commission. Why are you standing outside the shop? We’re waiting for a call. Well, what happens if you’re not standing here? Well, they don’t call us. I said, so you tell me you spend your entire day sitting here waiting for a call to come in. And if it doesn’t come in, you don’t get paid. And if you go on the job and you don’t sell the job, you don’t get paid. That’s what they said. OK. I don’t want to work here.
Ryan (09:38.711)
I’m not gambling, I’m not good, I’m not gambling on myself. I’m coming from new construction. And then I just kept moving around until I found a company that was like, okay, well, this makes sense. This is an hourly. It gives me bonus structure. I have a way to make a little more money and I’m working locally. This is the job I’m gonna go with. And that’s what I ended up doing. But what happened, the same thing happens at every job that I get lied to again.
tried to make me, he wanted me to do HVAC on the side. He wanted it, not on the side, but basically he wanted me to go to, he owned both companies, a plumbing company and a HVAC company. And he wanted me to go learn how to fix furnaces on the customer’s time. So he wanted me to run HVAC after our HVAC calls where I knew nothing about it.
So I ended getting fired from that job because I wouldn’t do that. Yeah, yeah. I always had a problem with authority, right? And so I got fired from that one and then I went to go take the test and that’s when I told me, no, you’re not, you were never sponsored. So that was my second boss who promised to sponsor me who didn’t. So now here I am trying to get my license. Like, all right, I was stuck going to a new construction company. It was like, it was either I do this or.
Justin Deese (10:35.958)
I’m seeing a pattern here, Ryan.
Ryan (11:02.998)
I’m stuck. it was a year and a half, I gave him three years. But I think what happened with those three years, Justin was it was it was fantastic that I worked at these places, because it taught me everything that everyone was doing incorrectly with running a company. So it was it was it was the exact opposite of what I have now. It was no culture or lack thereof.
It was broken trucks, not stocked vehicles, inefficiencies, you know, a lot of these things that if I didn’t work there, I wouldn’t be the way I am now. So it was kind of a devil to get to where, where I had to be. I had to go through that.
Justin Deese (11:54.422)
Well, and I think that’s interesting that you were having challenges with being sponsored. I think, correct me if I’m wrong, but my guess is they all had this scarcity mindset of you going and starting your own business. Like, do you think that’s what it was?
Ryan (12:10.304)
I know that’s what it was. Not the first two.
Justin Deese (12:11.904)
Isn’t that amazing that there’s that? why? There’s so much work out there. Why?
Ryan (12:17.524)
No, mean, I look back, I look back. The first, my first plumber that taught me everything, me and him were back, if you go back to the recession, all we’re back in the recession, we’re back when I’m going to school. My boss took a hit back then, and he took a major hit. It was millions, right? And he took it out on his guys, right? And nobody got raises for five years.
Instead, what he did was he decided to give us a builder. Okay, I’m not going to give you, I can’t give you a raise, but here’s side work. So you can go do that. So now instead of working 40 hours a week, you can work 60 hours a week, but you’ll make more money. Well, all that did was open my eyes up to business, right? So now my eyes are open to business. And now I’m working 40 hours a week and 20 hours at night. And I’m basically
Me and this guy are running this side company and I’m in his ear every day. Hey, hey, why don’t you go and quit? Why don’t you quit? Go take your test, quit. We’ll do this during the day. And what I realized now, when I look back at all that, it was always me. I was more driven than all of them. I would push, push, push, push. Let’s do, why are we not doing this during the day? Right? And so he ended up quitting. He ended up, he runs his own company, but he didn’t take me with me.
with him and I know why. So I took it over because that’s who I am. That’s like my personality. And you go you fast forward to the new construction company. I said to that company, I said, if you want, I’ll create a service company inside your company. I said, I’ll run it for you. I’ll set it all up and I’ll do it. He said, absolutely not. You can’t do that. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I said, OK. And then same thing with that big franchise company. Same exact thing.
treated me the same exact way. Same way. And it got to the point, was like, all right, these guys just don’t value me. They don’t value me, they don’t value my time. And I said, I think I can do it a little bit better.
Justin Deese (14:26.668)
So the term that comes to mind as you’re telling that story is the hustle like you’re broke. And I’ve actually got a sign in my office that says that, any time I’m kind of in a funk, I usually think about that and remember early on how, you sometimes you got to drive. You didn’t have an option but to go forward. Like it wasn’t an option to kind of dilly dally around for months at a time. You had to keep driving and keep moving. And I think that’s…
I think that’s inspiring. think it’s cool. There’s a lot of people in our industry that came from technician to now business owners. I think one of the things that you’ve done such an impressive job of is you’ve made that transition. think that making that transition of running your business as a business owner and as a leader versus running as a tech.
Ryan (15:19.918)
It’s not easy to do and it’s completely different mindset than what you’ve ever known. You see a different perspective. the hard part is you start to take things personal. You take things real personal. And if somebody doesn’t care about your baby as much as you do, you tend to get really angry, right? And that’s a reality that you’re going to have to learn.
as you keep going, some people are more driven than others. And you’ll never accept that as a person. As a person, you’ll never accept that nobody’s gonna do as much as you’re willing to do, that people are happy and content with where they are, and they might not wanna go farther. And to be able to accept that, accept that as a person and accept your friends and people around you.
Justin Deese (15:53.09)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan (16:17.654)
and especially your employees that they’re not going to want and they’re not going to do everything that you expect them to do because they’re not going to love it as much as you. Everyone doesn’t have the drive you have and that’s why you see companies like blow up and step over other companies because some people are content and it’s just, I don’t know, it’s never been me.
I think my old bosses saw that a long time ago. And so I was a threat. They are right. They’re not wrong.
Justin Deese (16:56.642)
So all right, so MyGuyPlumbing, you are now in business. How long have you been in business in size-wise? Because you have a couple of locations now.
Ryan (17:05.966)
Yeah, so I did stuff a little different than all these other companies. I have this small little shop down in downtown Tom’s River that’s got very minimal in it. It’s got my office girls answering the phone and a lot of equipment and stuff like that. about it. It was a fully functioning warehouse, but I ended up opening up another spot up north.
that is a warehouse. It’s kind of separate. So the guys can’t just go in and take what they want like they used to. And the thing about at two to three to four trucks, material doesn’t, it’s not make or break. But when you get to seven and eight trucks, waste, things like that start to add up, right? So I had to get a hold of that. And so I had to do that. instead of me going out and buying a whole new building,
you know, especially without the way that Google works. I was like, maybe I should just have a second location. And if I can, if honestly, if I can, if, if I can make $6,000 from a lead from that location, it’s going to pay for itself. And now I get to store everything in that one spot. And then I get the buy in bulk and that gives me huge buying power, which helps me drive my cost of business down. So it kind of acted as, as, as a multitude of things right there.
that kind of give me multiple locations on GMB and GLS while allowing me buying power to be able to buy a ton of material and store it there and get a hold of my material because it was out of control. It was getting out of control.
Justin Deese (18:49.282)
And I mean, you know, in our, in our industry, when with the service side of it, and it doesn’t matter plumbing, AC garage door, it doesn’t really matter what industry the two things that can sneak up and bite you the fastest is labor and materials. That is the two things that you can just blink if you’re not keeping an eye on it. And you’re like, well, I have 50 % material costs. Well, that’s not going to work. And you know, so, and I would imagine too, that probably cuts down on some windshield time, uh, with techs as well.
Ryan (19:10.798)
You
Ryan (19:19.03)
Yeah, so it’s like, I have four core values. I think we just had a fifth, but we’ll stick with the original. So honestly, integrity, efficiency, and family. Like efficiency is a core value of ours. Everything I do is all about efficiency. I mean, I’ll go as far as our vans. So I’ll buy a brand new van. It’ll come with racks inside of it. It’ll come with racks, the racks are already there. You know, I’m like,
I ask them, take the racks out, can I save money if you take the racks out? Oh no, they came with the van. Okay, I have these racks, cool. Scrap them, sell them, eBay, whatever, they’re coming out of my van. They’re coming and I’m $7,000 racks back in my van. Why am I doing that? Because now every single van looks exactly identical. Everything’s in the same place. When my apprentice gets off a truck, he goes to another truck, he knows where everything is.
If one of my trucks breaks down, I got a spare fully loaded right here. They just hop in that truck and go. So it’s efficiency. They know where everything is, right? And then I buy the rack so I can see everything. I can see it all. I know exactly what I have. And now with this, now we’re going to full inventory and service side. Every single truck has its own warehouse. So now I can track everything from this truck to that truck, to that truck, and from the warehouse, I can track.
each one of my individual Navient boxes and know exactly what’s in it. And efficiency, like if you can, the more efficient I can be, I can be cheaper or no one’s ever cheaper, right? But you could be if you were more efficient, but you’re more profitable. And that’s, that’s the end game. If you can be efficient and I can show it, like there are jobs that I show up that my, my trucks will show up and they’ll park for a day.
Justin Deese (20:54.85)
you’d be more profitable.
Yeah.
Ryan (21:07.086)
They’ll change the water heater, they’ll change the toilet, they’ll change three faucets, they’ll change two hose bibs, and they’ll never leave. They’ll never leave. That’s gold. Maybe a warehouse is bringing them stuff. I mean, I have box trucks that have all that stuff on them, you know? So efficiency is the key to making, to beating your competitors, definitely beating your competitors, because…
Justin Deese (21:18.518)
Yeah.
Justin Deese (21:31.052)
Well, I mean, from a, from a service aspect too. mean, the more time the, your team is on the wrench. I mean, that’s, that’s the end of the day. That’s, that’s what will help with that efficiency is having them on the rent. You know, make any money when they’re standing in line at the warehouse or getting popcorn at the warehouse or talking to other people at the way.
Ryan (21:45.326)
That’s it, mean.
Exactly.
Yeah, nothing good happens at the supply house.
Justin Deese (21:56.002)
No, recruiting. It’s a great. It’s a great place to recruit. So what? Alright, so so let’s let’s back up a little bit. Let’s talk about. Let’s talk about something that you doffed. Like what’s something that you’re like man if I could take that back? Or something that you would have shifted a little bit differently.
Ryan (21:59.033)
huh.
Ryan (22:20.974)
I wouldn’t have jumped ahead and bought the newest best thing that everyone’s talking about on Facebook that’s gonna help you move ahead 90 % of the time when I don’t have the time to do it. if like, like you can buy everything in the world, you can go out and get the best coaching system, you can go out and do all this, but if you don’t physically have the time to do it, then you shouldn’t buy it.
And I don’t want to be any more specific than that. But that could be a $10,000 mistake. You know, that could be a major mistake is jumping on something. You know, even jumping, like even at the moment I jumped, if I would have just waited, if I would have just been patient and waited three to six months, I could have AI do everything that I paid for, for free. And it’s just but you would have never known it at that time. So I’m going to say don’t
be impulsive and be patient in business because nothing happens and if you’re chasing that shiny coin and that gold, you’re gonna get it, but it’s not gonna be what you expected and it’s gonna take you a long time to figure it out and by that time you might lose thousands and thousands of dollars. Be patient.
Justin Deese (23:41.248)
Well, I mean, that’s a good point. Like you can’t open up social media without getting tagged with some latest and greatest offer to help you. And the, and the truth is this, there, there’s no magic bullet in business. There’s just not, certainly having knowledge and education and information is helpful, but it all comes down to implementation. Like, so you can, you can buy all the things in the world. You can take all the courses, which
By all means, education is super duper important. But to your point, if you don’t have the time or the capacity to really take it and implement it, you’re wasting, you’re wasting money. And then what you’re doing is you’re, you’re wasting mind space. Like you’re wasting brain space because now you’re halfway thinking about this versus just taking a goal and going, Hey, here’s what I got going on for the next 90 days. Here’s my focus. And then when you see that shiny object, you’re like, Hmm.
That’s not on this list. So now I’ve either got to change my list or that’s just going to have to wait. So I think that’s, I think that’s primo advice because we’re all entrepreneurs. So we all have that shiny object syndrome. I’m not, I’m not away from that. Like I get it. We all have it because we all think like there’s got to be a smoother way to do it.
Ryan (25:01.986)
I’ll give the new guys a tip that I wish somebody gave to me when I first started out. And this one is fire, okay, this one’s great. So listen, Homewood Visor, Angie’s List, Yelp, they’re all gonna call you. They’re all lead generators, and they’re all gonna call you at one time. It’s gonna be when you’re slow. It’s gonna be when you’re dead and you have no work.
And the reason they are calling you at that time, because they are lead providers and they are dead. They have no work. And at that time, they’re signing up new scared plumbers and business owners. And you’re going to buy it. Think you’re going to have all these new leads. You’re not. Just being honest with you, because you’re going to find your phone ringing every single time you’re slow and it’s going to yo.
It’s gonna be home advising. It’s gonna be all these guys that are gonna promise you the world. That’s a little tip.
Justin Deese (26:06.546)
That’s good advice. I like that.
Ryan (26:09.088)
And no one ever thought that I’m telling you that’s why they do it at that time.
Justin Deese (26:13.078)
Yeah, that’s, that’s good advice. That’s actually very good advice. like it. one thing you mentioned a little bit earlier, you talked about AI, talked about AI and utilizing it. And I know that you’re, you’re kind of leaning into that and you’re, leveraging some of the AI. and it’s, and it’s easy to go online and find people that are selling the products and services, but from, from a plumber, from a business owner,
What are some things that is really helping you move your business with AI?
Ryan (26:47.321)
So I’m going to tell a little story here. So I’m in a business group and I’m in a business group. We were in there last night and everyone’s talking about how technology is helping their companies. And everyone’s got up talking about AI. Everyone got talking up. And then one guy come out and he gave his personal opinion that he hates AI. He doesn’t like it. It’s not.
It’s not going to help anybody. shouldn’t buy into it. It’s not personable. bah, bah. Now I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t say anything at all. And I didn’t say anything for a couple reasons. Number one, he’s not as big as I am. Maybe he doesn’t have any trucks. And he isn’t as reliant on maybe Google as I am. when I start talking about AI, how can AI help me in my company? Well, once you start
to pay attention to Google, you start paying attention to how you get leads, you start paying attention to GLS, and you realize that they want someone to answer the phone after 30 seconds. Regardless of whether or not you have the capacity to do so, they’re tracking it. And what are they tracking it for? To see if you have the capacity to do so. So for him to say all that, all he was telling people was to waste their marketing budget. For me, I’d rather go out and hire
AI bot, an AI answering machine, somebody to get on the phone to take that phone call. So it keeps my GLSA ranked high, keeps my Google ranked high, and I’m using AI for that. with that being said, like, I use AI as a third party answering service. So not only do they answer my chat, if somebody’s chatting on my website, but I have a girl named Emily that
answer the phone for us, they’ll take messages. She will never get upset. She’ll never yell at you. She’ll never give you the price over the phone as much as you ask. And she will never put the operator through even though you scream operator, it won’t happen. She will be the perfect person. And she can answer 500 calls. And I don’t have to worry about missing a call from Google or Yelp or anything else. And so with that being said, like if you’re not getting behind AI,
Ryan (29:11.598)
everyone else’s, your competitors are, you’re get left behind and it’s gonna end up hurting you. I spent all day yesterday using AI. Like we were talking about this earlier, AI, I would have wrote everything I spent 10 grand on, I could have done for absolutely nothing with AI. it’s how you utilize it, it’s how you utilize any tool.
Justin Deese (29:36.108)
Well, and think about this. I it wasn’t that many years ago that people were talking about the internet with the same kind of mindset. It wasn’t that long ago when Google started advertising, people were talking about it like, no, Yellow Pages aren’t going anywhere. They’re here to stay. then, I mean, you name it. And the truth is, AI is not a new tool. It’s been around.
I always talk about spell check. I spell check’s AI. That’s what it is. Now it’s light years ahead of what it was. And it does seem like every six months, its capacity has doubled as far as what it can do. And I’ve seen some of the call centers, some of the, matter of fact, I had one on the show, I think it was last year, that was rolling out their software to answer with AI. And it was incredible.
the precision and the training and the, yes, I think AI is one of those things that regardless of your personal opinion, you better start understanding it. And even if you’re not using it yet, you better understand how to use it in the future. So.
Ryan (30:48.399)
Well, call centers are going to have trouble right now. Right. Call centers are having a lot of problem because they’re getting eliminated. Do you like. I’m not again, I’m not going to name names, but we were using a call center who was using the actual like they were using a backup AI. Right. So when they couldn’t. So, I mean, I want you to like really think about is just phone call comes to you because we’re out of you. All right. Nobody answers for 10 seconds goes to the next person.
They don’t answer for 10 seconds. Goes to the call center. The call center’s backed up. Sits on them for 10 to 15 seconds before it goes to their AI bot who now takes a call, takes a message, and is gonna call them back. All this while they’re all waiting. How many calls do you think you’re losing? How many people are dropping calls? How many, and you paid for that call. You already paid for it when you’re marketing, right? So I was like, well, I can’t do this. This is taking too long, so I gotta cut out the middleman.
That’s what I did. Cut out the middle man. found, okay, who are they using? We’re using, okay, well, that’s who I’m gonna use now. And it’s scary. And that’s where we’re at right now. mean, you don’t have to write your own ads anymore. You don’t have to create your own Facebook ads. don’t have to, like all this stuff, just ask it. What do I do? Like give me ideas. And you don’t have to use everything that says verbatim, but it’s the mind turning, gets you thinking about stuff.
Justin Deese (32:13.354)
Yeah, agreed. I think that AI is definitely a tool that you should have in your toolbox, but it is not the only two like at no point should you ever go to AI and whatever it kicks out, you go, yep. And copy and paste. I think that’s, that would be, that would be bad. but yeah, to your point, it’s a, it’s a fantastic tool and one that can really elevate. was just telling somebody the other day, a lot of times if I’m writing, if I’m getting jammed up,
Ryan (32:28.558)
Yeah, no, 100%.
Justin Deese (32:41.408)
and I’m trying to think of, I’m like, there’s something I’m trying to say, but I’m not quite getting it where I want it. Dude, it’s a great tool to just kind of, hey, give me some options on words that I’m not thinking of, so.
Ryan (32:55.065)
Well, how many employees did Google just lay off? Why is Google laying off employees? If you go to chat GPT, you look at the top, what you’re going to see is a little questionnaire that says, ask AI any question. So what’s happening now and what plumbers need to start paying attention to and start realizing is Google is going to turn out to be the blockbuster of our error for advertising.
Justin Deese (32:58.845)
I don’t even know.
Ryan (33:23.982)
And if all your eggs are in one basket with Google, you’re going to be hurting because people are not asking Google anymore. People aren’t going to the computer. They’re not going to Google. They’re going to their phones, their AI assistant. They’re asking their AI assistant. And now who is that AI? Why is that AI going to say, okay, well, this is what Google says. You would just go to Google, right? They’re not going to say that. Where are they pulling their data? How are they getting it? So this is the things that we’re going to have to start thinking about because this has happened with Alexa. It started happening with Siri.
You know, Alexa was pulling their data from Yelp. So if you weren’t a Yelp member or you didn’t have a high Yelp score, regardless of anything, that’s where they’re pulling their data. And that’s unfair to me, somebody who hates Yelp, right? Because they’re biased to Yelpers. So
Justin Deese (34:12.332)
was going to say you can’t rank high with them if you’re not paying them in my experience. Maybe I’m wrong, but.
Ryan (34:15.918)
No, and even if you pay them, I paid them, I paid them. still had people that would leave bad reviews and it was craziness. It was all craziness and I had 60 five star reviews that were blocked. And so I dropped the L, but that doesn’t mean this voice person is then going to them for information. And now all of a sudden, like where are you getting your info from? So I mean, I want to run around and just tell all AI that my guy’s the best. That’s what I’m telling them. I want to let them all know.
So they all know and they tell each other and they talk. Hey, Grok, my guy called my guy. Right. So you got to be everywhere. And my point is you need to be everywhere. You need to start doing more than just your basics. There needs to be like video blogs. There needs to be YouTube channels. You better be everywhere. If A.I. is going to look like, all right, which company is freaking on every platform there on Bing? They’re everywhere. I think that’s what people are going to have to do because.
AI is going to change the search game and we’re going have to figure out all the ways to get found.
Justin Deese (35:18.678)
Well, I mean, you you think about the cost of acquiring a customer. I mean, it’s in the last, I’m going to say 10 years, it’s almost tripled. And maybe AI is going to drive that down a little bit, but even if it drives down the cost of an actual click to conversion, you’re still going to have to put the money into it or the, I mean, the time. So it’s either going to be, you’re going to spend the time on it. You’re going to spend the money on it.
And so lot of things that you’re talking about is a lot like SEO where you got to play the long game. You can’t make a video and put it on YouTube and Facebook today and expect 50 calls tomorrow. But if you’re consistent with it in six months, you will start to see a pop on that.
Justin Deese (36:05.462)
Ryan, this is good information, man. And as always, it is so much fun to catch up with you. Again, just watching your journey over the last couple years has been fun because truly, when I think about you and I think about your business, you implement. And I think there’s your secret sauce to success is actually taking that knowledge and that information that you’re receiving and then implementing it and putting it in your business.
think it’s fun to watch. if anybody wants to get in touch with you and has any questions for you, how would they go about doing that?
Ryan (36:38.05)
The easiest way, honestly, is just message me on Facebook. That’s the easiest way to start any kind of conversation with me. People say go to LinkedIn. I’m terrible with LinkedIn. just don’t pay attention to it. I’ve had people call the company and I’ll have them patch them through to me and then I’ll give my phone number afterwards. But I’ve had people reach out to me that way.
email me ryan at my guy plumbing nj.com. And then you can find me on Facebook. I have an Instagram account. And I think I’m gonna start a tick tock. I think that’s gonna be my new little venture. But yeah, just message me on Facebook. That’s the easiest way I’ll see it. And then yeah, I’ll help anybody any any any way they need. I always love help.
Justin Deese (37:29.142)
Fantastic. Awesome, Ryan. Well, I appreciate your time and thank you for sharing all that information with everybody here on the show,
Ryan (37:37.484)
All right, Justin, I appreciate it. Thanks again for having me on.
Justin Deese (37:40.31)
Thanks.