Scott Dillingham: 00:21

Welcome to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. I'm your host, Scott Dillingham. Today, I've got Ryan with us from RFG Plumbing. How's it going, Ryan? Pretty good.

Scott Dillingham: 00:28

And yourself? Awesome. Awesome. Thanks for coming on. You're a local plumber.

Scott Dillingham: 00:32

You're doing really well on the markets. You got lots of great Google reviews. So that's why I wanted to have you on here today, but I wanna go back to your childhood. How did all this start?

Ryan Giles: 00:42

It all started, me and my brother were about 5 6 years old. My dad was a plumber, so we were working on the back of his truck. We'd go in on the weekends after school. We'd help stock the trucks, learn fittings, or we'd bring us to jobs. My uncle is also a plumber, so it's like we want to hang out with our cousins.

Ryan Giles: 00:59

And it's like my dad would drive us to that job, so I would go help my uncle for a couple hours before getting to to see our cousin. Being around in the trade and being a 4th generation, like my grandpa, my great grandpa, my grandpa, my dad, my uncles, my cousins, they're all plumbers. So it's like we've got a long line of plumbers in our family.

Scott Dillingham: 01:19

That's awesome. So with that being said, was there any cool tricks or any life lessons that they taught you along the way that you still carry with you today?

Ryan Giles: 01:27

Always work hard, think things through and piece it apart. A lot of people think jobs are impossible or and it's it's not impossible. There's always a way. Something that really sticks with me is that, you know, when everybody is willing to give up, you're seconds away from success. Like, it's like, you know, we're eeling or something super hard.

Ryan Giles: 01:48

Like, I was actually just at an eel job prior to this, and I was eeling. And it was like pushing, and I'm like, man, it's getting harder. I wanna just change to another piece of equipment. And it's like the thing I didn't because if I 2 seconds more that I went, it's like got the clog in and out, and it was just like, when you're ready to give up, it's like, no. I got this.

Scott Dillingham: 02:05

There's a book on that. It's called 3 Feet From Gold. I don't know if you ever read it, but Yeah.

Ryan Giles: 02:09

I'm gonna check that out. That's actually pretty soon.

Scott Dillingham: 02:10

Yeah. It's cool. Not to ruin the story, but this guy was mining and, he had some land and he wasn't finding anything. So he sold all of his equipment for dirt cheap, and then they found the biggest, like, gold mine 3 feet from where the guy stopped.

Ryan Giles: 02:24

That's crazy.

Scott Dillingham: 02:25

Literally. So it's, yeah, 3 feet.

Ryan Giles: 02:26

You're probably gonna hear about that on Oak Island or something like that. And they're ready to cash in and be done. They're like, oh, there's the money. There's all the gold and everything.

Scott Dillingham: 02:34

But it's true. So that's why you don't give up on things in life or business or whatever it is. If you if you give up, you're never gonna get it. And like you said, 2 more seconds and you you got it.

Ryan Giles: 02:43

Oh, that's it. And how many people are failed but still successful? There's a lot of super successful people that have failed, and it's like, don't look at it as that. What have you learned? What can you grow off of it?

Ryan Giles: 02:54

And Yeah. Especially when it comes to plumbing. There's a lot of stuff that it's like, we may not always have the answer, but we will find the answer.

Scott Dillingham: 03:01

It's true. And even if whether you like the guy or not, but like Donald Trump, right, in his real estate investing portfolio, he actually went bankrupt, but he rebuilt stronger and faster because he learned from his mistakes and he he moved forward.

Ryan Giles: 03:13

No. It is that that is. Yeah. It's pretty sweet.

Scott Dillingham: 03:15

Oh, that's awesome. So then so now you have RFG Plumbing. Was it always RFG Plumbing?

Ryan Giles: 03:20

So it started as RFG Plumbing. We started in 2016. And then once we started the business started growing. So we started networking with other businesses like electricians, HVAC, and those types of things. Then it's like we started referring these other companies.

Ryan Giles: 03:34

But then as their companies are growing, the issue we've seen was their jobs became more of a priority than the jobs that we are sending them.

Scott Dillingham: 03:40

Okay.

Ryan Giles: 03:41

So at that point, we started RFG Electrical, and and it's just it's been growing since. So that was, we were about 2 years into the business, and that was about 2018, 2019 when we started that. And it's been a success. It's been a little bit of a challenge like any business until you grow and get your customer base. But then once you're at that point, then it's just now it's like the machine is moving.

Ryan Giles: 04:02

Right?

Scott Dillingham: 04:02

That's it. Is there gonna be any other niches that you get into besides plumbing and electrical?

Ryan Giles: 04:08

One of the things that we were looking at and then, again, it's just finding the people. Like, everybody's struggling now with that. But in HVAC side, you know, so then this way, it's like a one stop shop. There has there are other companies that we partner with, and we do you know, that do renovations and do different things around your house and stuff like that. Those are people that we referred that we're always gonna refer because they're gonna what they do.

Ryan Giles: 04:30

But it's just we haven't really looked at that side, but it's just more so the HVAC so we got the trades covered. Because it's like when somebody's doing anything, it's easy to pick up one phone and sit there and say, no. This is what I need done. And we're like, I got you. I can help you.

Ryan Giles: 04:42

Right?

Scott Dillingham: 04:43

Yep. I love it. Now what does RFG Plumbing stand for?

Ryan Giles: 04:48

I love getting asked this. So originally, it's actually for my my dad and my grandpa. So it's actually like we RFG is my initials. My dad's initials, my grandpa. So it's Ralph Franklin Giles, or mine is Ryan Franklin Giles, but we also are known as the real fucking good plumbers.

Scott Dillingham: 05:04

Nice. I love it. And where did that come from? Was that the public, or did you guys come up with that?

Ryan Giles: 05:08

So my dad, when I still remember the conversation back in 2016. My my dad and my stepmother went on vacation, and my my dad's always big on planning. And so he him and they went on this vacation, and they both said, said, okay. If we're gonna start a business, you plan on retiring about 7 years. It's just be and the reason why he said 7 years is because any business and, like, any smart businessman will tell you that it takes 7 years to grow a business.

Ryan Giles: 05:34

If you hit that 7th year mark, you know you're good. Right? Yep. And 7 years ago, they went on this vacation. They were talking.

Ryan Giles: 05:41

And so then my stepmother end up going to work at the hospital. So she's a nurse. So she was working on the hospital. Then me and my dad are just talking. And so they said my dad said if he ever went into business again, it'd be starting a plumbing company.

Ryan Giles: 05:52

Okay. And so we're talking about it. We came up with the idea where my dad and he was big on. I wanna name it after, like, his dad. Right?

Ryan Giles: 05:59

And then with the RFG because there's the RFGs, like, there's, like I said, my grandpa, my dad, me, my son, my uncle. I have a couple uncles with it too. And it's it's big. Right? So it's like, I wanna do something with RFG.

Ryan Giles: 06:11

And I remember just joking around, and we're just like, oh, yeah. Real effing good. And so I like, he was big on it. He was, like, super happy. And I remember my son and my daughter were with me when I was talking to my dad, and like, let's get in the car.

Ryan Giles: 06:24

We drove from Essex to the Leamington Hospital, waited till my stepmother was on her break. We're like, k. Boom. We're doing this. And then it's just like, here's the line.

Ryan Giles: 06:31

Right? And, yeah, it's been a hit. There's a lot of people, and it's like our biggest fear was, oh, maybe people aren't gonna like it or it's gonna throw them off. But, I'll tell you, it's one of those things that once you hear it, you laugh, you remember it.

Scott Dillingham: 06:45

Yeah. It's

Ryan Giles: 06:46

You know? We get people that will chase us down the street for, like, sweaters, for pens, for whatever, and it's I love when we're driving down the road, and they're like, we're laughing. Like so that's huge, and it's cool, and sticks out.

Scott Dillingham: 07:00

So have swag?

Ryan Giles: 07:01

Yeah. Like so we have, we have sweaters. We have hats. We haven't gotten to pants or anything like that, but all sweaters, hats, or even actually it's cool because it's like my kids. We take the real f and good part off, but it's just r f g.

Ryan Giles: 07:15

All my kids wear that stuff to school. Right? We have little work shirts and stuff for them. So it's

Scott Dillingham: 07:19

like teachers know what that means.

Ryan Giles: 07:22

Actually, funny story. So in, I wanna say, 2020, I think it was, so we were contacted by Rogers to do a commercial. So for a hockey night in Canada, it was really cool. So it's like we're going, okay. We need all these actors, whatever, like, these people.

Ryan Giles: 07:38

And then it was, like, last minute, everybody bail. So it's, like, literally my brother's girlfriend at the time, my son and me. We're in this commercial. And, so my son got to be in this. This is the first thing ever, and he's super, super excited.

Ryan Giles: 07:52

They let him say it say the slow And so we we filmed it, ended up bleeping it out for, obviously, national television. It's you could probably find it online, the unedited version. But when I told my son's principal, who was a customer of ours, when I told him, he called an assembly, had everybody go down there, and so they could play it in the gym for him. So it's one of those things and

Scott Dillingham: 08:14

The edited version. The edited version.

Ryan Giles: 08:16

Yeah. Yeah. It was an elementary school, so they had to play the edited version, but, that was huge. And maybe I know that meant a lot to them and to and to everybody. Right?

Ryan Giles: 08:25

And even now when people are like, oh, I've seen your commercial. Oh, like, that's that's our 15 seconds of fame, I guess you'd say, but it's still it's one of those cool things.

Scott Dillingham: 08:33

Yeah. No. I love it. That's awesome. Now I know also this show is, like, mostly geared towards investors, and we're talking about how you work with investors and how things work.

Scott Dillingham: 08:44

Can you elaborate on that a little bit more?

Ryan Giles: 08:46

Yeah. So one of the cool things with knowing different real estate agents, home inspectors, different businesses is that, from time to time, we'll get contacted by investors. And, like, the one of the biggest things are is that, like, you're in Toronto or you're wherever you are in the world and you're buying this property, you're trusting your real estate agent, whoever your handyman or this buddy is that they're making this decision for you. And I can tell you that we've seen from time and time again where everybody knows a guy, and the scary thing is the guy doesn't always know. So it's like one of the services that we offer, and then me personally, I like doing is I'll go in.

Ryan Giles: 09:22

We'll look. And it's say maybe it's not just necessary plumbing, but it's like, there's other issues that we notice. I'll let you know. I'll take pictures. We'll send that stuff to you.

Ryan Giles: 09:31

It or but it's a big deal because it's just knowing what you're buying. And it's just especially when in the we're in the market of where people are overpaying. Like, it's scary once you open up a wall. What's behind there? What's right?

Ryan Giles: 09:43

And or it's like even what's underneath the ground. Right? Because it's like we we call it the where people are putting lipstick on a pig where, you know, it's painted. It's nice. Everything's all nice brand new.

Ryan Giles: 09:54

But what's underneath the ground? Nobody's fixed it, and it's just that's when all of a sudden you buy this property, you put tenants in, and then it's, oh, shit. There's actually shit on the floor.

Scott Dillingham: 10:04

And we do have an older infrastructure as far as plumbing, even citywide, but just we have a lot of older houses here too. So this is definitely important.

Ryan Giles: 10:12

Windsor definitely has some old stuff, and it's no you look at some of these older houses where people have been doing some of their own work over the years, and it's Band Aid fixes or it's it's fixes aren't right, and it's we come in and it's just my mentality and especially from having my own properties is I like fixing everything because it's once I like, and what we did at my house was it's like brand new sewer on the ground, everything. Because the minute that I spend a dollar on floor, I spend a dollar on any, Right? Is that now in 5 years, if that were to go, what is that gonna cost me? Inflation's going up. So it's if you spend a little bit of money upfront at the beginning, you get everything done.

Ryan Giles: 10:50

Now once you get those tenants in, like, in theory, you should have 50 years. Right? So it's just like then that way, it might just be painting or whatever small stuff. Again, I get it. People are on a budget.

Ryan Giles: 11:01

Right? And everybody wants to make money. But if you don't invest the money at the beginning and get things done right, it's how much more money you're gonna spend over time. And it's you add those little bills up, that will be twice as much, if not more than what the one initial cost would be. So we like to break things down too for people.

Ryan Giles: 11:19

So it's just like saying this is major fix. This is a minor fix, or this is what we believe you need to fix now.

Scott Dillingham: 11:25

No. That makes sense. So I'm an investor. I'm in even if I'm in Windsor, Toronto doesn't matter where, let's say I'm an investor. I'm buying this rental property here in Windsor.

Scott Dillingham: 11:34

What are some common what's the most common issue that you're finding in a property or maybe biggest piece of advice that you could give to an investor to prevent flooding or sewer backup, that type of thing?

Ryan Giles: 11:46

One big thing, especially in Windsor, we get the we got a lot of floods. So it's like the backwater valve sump pump subsidy program, which is something that we do offer through the city.

Scott Dillingham: 11:55

So we Could you elaborate

Ryan Giles: 11:56

on that? So the city of Windsor offers a it's $2800 rebate, and what that covers is for backwater valve a sump pump, the disconnection of a collection box, which is a square box, your storm and sanitary meat. So they give you money for that to offset the cost of, say, a flood in your basement.

Scott Dillingham: 12:15

Okay.

Ryan Giles: 12:16

So now what's cool with that is that we have the technology. If you have a clean out or not, we can camera. We can find exactly where your sewer is. We pinpoint, like, the best spot where a sump pump would go. And ideally too is, like, we help plan it because it's say, you own this house today.

Ryan Giles: 12:30

What happens if you sell it tomorrow? So we look at it as the next person that can come in. This is how we kinda plan things. Maybe they wanna put a bathroom, maybe whatever, turn this into an apartment. So the nice thing is with that program, with what we do is so we help you plan that aspect.

Ryan Giles: 12:44

Same thing with putting a sump pump. A lot of people put them in ridiculous spots. Right? And it's like, what's the best spot in your house that we could put it in? It's nice with that.

Ryan Giles: 12:52

We go through the program. We explain it. You get pictures, all that stuff. We fill out the city paperwork, which makes it super easy for the homeowner. And then the only thing the homeowner has to do at the end is we get paid.

Ryan Giles: 13:03

We get an invoice that says paid in full, and you submit it to city hall, which I'm pretty sure is all online now.

Scott Dillingham: 13:08

For the homeowner, they pay upfront and then get reimbursed?

Ryan Giles: 13:11

So, unfortunately, the city of Windsor hasn't caught up in today's standards. Like, I I think there's maybe 20, 30 companies, plumbing companies in Windsor, Essex County. And to me, what I think is they should be doing is that if a check's getting made out, like, it should go to the people that are licensed within the city. But, apparently, there were some companies doing fraud out of Other companies. When we had the big flood in 2016, there were some companies coming down here and they're scamming the system.

Ryan Giles: 13:37

They were, oh, hey. You know what? We'll do it this way kind of thing. And so the city just made it now where the the homeowner has to pay us upfront, and then they get the reimbursement on the end.

Scott Dillingham: 13:48

Okay. Just But still. So $200, is that including HST?

Ryan Giles: 13:53

So so the backwater valve sump pump, it ranges on people's houses. Like, we have a standard, typically, depending on people's houses. Right? If it's a house trap, how deep your sewer is, it's pretty pretty basic around. I mean, typically, we're, like, $45100 plus tax for the most part.

Ryan Giles: 14:10

You get the $28100 rebate, and then that this is for an inside one. We sometimes run into the city of Windsor where you could be outside, and have a house trap outside. So you have to do a little bit more digging. You have to get locates, all those types of things, which we do. So that's a little bit more costly because you got the other contractors that have to come in and dig the dirt, and then we gotta bring that in.

Ryan Giles: 14:32

We try and be reasonable. We try and keep it consistent. We're it's like the kind of the pandemic where everybody went crazy. It was, like, selling toilet paper for x amount of dollars. We've been consistent because it's, you know, sucks at your house flood.

Ryan Giles: 14:45

And I didn't ask for my house to flood. So now I gotta deal with it. So

Scott Dillingham: 14:49

Agreed. That's a

Ryan Giles: 14:51

pain. Yep.

Scott Dillingham: 14:52

So, okay, so that's great advice for an investor. Now back to maybe a business owner or somebody starting business, right? Because you you've done this for a long time. You're one of the highest rated in the city as far as the Google reuse that I looked up, which is kudos to you. So what would you say to somebody who's starting a business?

Scott Dillingham: 15:10

Doesn't have to be plumbing, but what are some success tips that you could share with them?

Ryan Giles: 15:14

A lot of people don't realize how many hours that you have to actually put in as a business owner. A lot of people don't real they they think success is like that. And granted there are the odd people that walk into and get the money and all that stuff, but those are the people that don't appreciate their business and don't appreciate their employees. We've done a lot of hours, and it's just like you have to take every role on in your business when you first start, and it's like don't be scared of the challenges. And, like, we've gone to different business meetings, gone to different things.

Ryan Giles: 15:43

There's no, like, business education other than it's just you learn on the go. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 15:46

Yep.

Ryan Giles: 15:47

So, you know, it's like when you your kids say and you say, how do you know how to be a parent? It's like you just you learn right along the way, and it's it's the same thing with business that we've learned. We failed at things. Like, definitely, what was the right decision to what was the right path to go? And it's like we've learned those things, and don't be afraid to fail because you're not always gonna have the answer, and everything's not always gonna work out and be that success.

Ryan Giles: 16:09

But it's like what you learned from that mistake or by me not being able to do this, it led me on this path. Yep. And be honest. Be upfront with people if you can't do something.

Scott Dillingham: 16:20

I like that you said don't be afraid to fail. There was this, man, I forget the book or I would quote it properly. But what they're saying is, like, in school, you raise your hand, right, to answer the teacher's question and people are embarrassed to get it wrong, right, and their classmates will tease them if you get the answer wrong, right? So they say a lot of people today, they're scared to do something wrong because it dates back to their childhood when they would get teased for it. So it's cool that you said that because it's true.

Scott Dillingham: 16:47

It's perceived fear, perceived fear. If you fail, it means nothing. It's, yes, The real fear, like falling out of an airplane, right, without a parachute, that's a real fear. But, yeah, I agree. Starting a business, it doesn't have to be scary, and you are gonna make mistakes, that's how you learn.

Scott Dillingham: 17:03

So I love

Ryan Giles: 17:04

that you said that. Like and everyone like, it's great to think, oh, hey. Like, you look at, like, the Amazon, for example. Everyone's like, oh, it's a major company. They're making all these 1,000,000,000 of dollars.

Ryan Giles: 17:13

Wait. People don't realize he started out selling books. Like, you know,

Scott Dillingham: 17:16

in the too, wasn't it?

Ryan Giles: 17:17

Yeah. It was a garage. My great uncle, I remember in the States so when Amazon was first starting up, he was selling books. Small scale. Right?

Ryan Giles: 17:27

So it's just I remember when you learned about this, and now you look at this huge company. Like, in companies could veer off and get into other things. We started as plumbers. Like, we're plumbers. And it's like growing into other things, and it's just like you learn, you bring other people in, and it's just and that's how your business grows, right, with anything.

Ryan Giles: 17:45

It's a fun it's a fun ride. Trust me. I get to work with my dad and my brother, and we're all the same, so we butt our heads. But it's just at the end of the day, it's like we've built something from the ground up. My kids get to see this, and it's just like they get to be a part of it.

Ryan Giles: 17:59

And it's like now that's the next generation. And it's just to be able to have that and sit there and say, we made this for everybody. That's a that's a huge thing.

Scott Dillingham: 18:08

I love it. That's awesome. So you're an investor or you're a business owner and you're in Windsor and you need a plumber. How do people find you? How do they reach out to you?

Ryan Giles: 18:18

So there's a lot of good ways. For 1, you can call our office, 5 which is 519-817-7117. You could check out either one of our websites, so rfgplumbing.com, rfgelectrical.com, or find us on Facebook. I like that you touched on the reviews, actually. And one good thing is is when you're hiring any contractor, read the reviews.

Ryan Giles: 18:40

Or, like, a lot of people, they trust the Facebook where they they ask. But you'll see, like, in our reviews, like, it's just where people are just saying good job. They did this. It's like they'll write and, like, what the experience was. And, like, I like reading that.

Ryan Giles: 18:54

That's, like, our positive motivation to sit there and sit and, like, hey. You made the right choice and, you know, you made you make it fun at the end of

Scott Dillingham: 19:01

the day. I love it. No. That's great advice. And I agree.

Scott Dillingham: 19:04

Always check the reviews because you just never know. People can appears great, but yeah.

Ryan Giles: 19:08

It's if they have Ria's good job blank. Oh, they're all 5 stars. That's great. How do you know they're real? And that's where people question where if you look up and they, like, story story story, it's like, You know what I mean?

Ryan Giles: 19:21

Because it's like, either they have some good marketing guy taking the time to write all those or, you know, our people are actually going out and word-of-mouth is huge, especially. So that's where it's really cool and looking forward to helping whatever investors and making your your properties and Windsor in Essex County. You know, have the best plumbing, have the best electrical. That's for sure.

Scott Dillingham: 19:41

That's awesome. No. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for coming on the show, and, we'll see you guys next time.