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:And yourself? Awesome. Awesome. Thanks for coming on. You're a local plumber.
Scott Dillingham:You're doing really well in 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:It all started, me and my brother were about five and six 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.
Ryan Giles:We'd bring us to jobs. My uncle is also a plumber, so it's like we want to hang out with our cousins and it's like my dad would drive us to that job. So we'd go help my uncle for a couple hours before getting to, to see our cousins. Being around in the trade and being a fourth 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: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: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.
Ryan Giles:Like, it's like, you know, we're eeling or something super hard. 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 hard. I wanna just change to another piece of equipment. And it's like, the thing I didn't because if I two seconds more that I went, it's like got the clog in and out and it was just like, oh, you when you're ready to give up, it's like, oh, I got this.
Scott Dillingham:There's a book on that. It's called three feet from gold. I don't know if you ever read it,
Ryan Giles:but Yeah. I'm gonna check that out. That's actually pretty sweet.
Scott Dillingham: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 three feet from where the guy stopped.
Ryan Giles:That's crazy.
Scott Dillingham:Literally. So it's, yeah, three feet
Ryan Giles:from 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: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, two more seconds and you got it.
Ryan Giles: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? Right?
Ryan Giles: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: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:That is that is. Yeah. It's pretty sweet.
Scott Dillingham:No. That's awesome. So then so now you have RFG Plumbing. Was it always RFG Plumbing?
Ryan Giles: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, but then as their companies are growing, the issue we seen was their jobs became more of a priority than the jobs that we are sending them. Okay.
Ryan Giles:So at that point, we started RFG Electrical, and it's just it's been growing since. So that was, we were about two years into the business, and that was about 2018, 2019 when we started that. And it's been a success since. 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:Right?
Scott Dillingham:That's it. Is there gonna be any other niches that you get into besides plumbing and electrical?
Ryan Giles: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, 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 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 good at what they do. 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.
Ryan Giles: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 Right?
Scott Dillingham:Yep. I love it. Now what does RFG plumbing stand for?
Ryan Giles: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:Nice. I love it. And where did that come from? Was that the public, or did you guys come up with that?
Ryan Giles:So my dad, when 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, okay. If we're gonna start a business, you plan on retiring about seven years. And it's just be and the reason why I said seven years is because any business and, like, any smart businessman will tell you that it takes seven years to grow a business.
Ryan Giles:If you hit that seventh year mark, you know you're good. Right? Yep. And seven years ago, they went on this vacation, they were talking. And so then, my stepmother end up going to work at the hospital.
Ryan Giles:So she's a nurse. So she was working on the hospital, and me and my dad are just talking. And so they said my dad said, if he ever went into business again, he'd be starting a plumbing company.
Scott Dillingham:Okay.
Ryan Giles:And so we were talking about it. We came up with the idea where I'm gonna add and he was big on I wanna name it after, like, his dad. Right? 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?
Ryan Giles:So it's like, wanna do something with RFG. And I remember just joking around and we're just like, oh, yeah, real effing good. And so I were like, he was big on it. He was like super happy. I remember my son and my daughter were with me when I was talking to my dad and it's like, let's get in the car.
Ryan Giles:We drove from Essex to the Leamington hospital, waited till my stepmother was on her break. We're like, hey, boom. We're doing this. And then it's just like, here's the line, right? And, yeah, it's been a hint.
Ryan Giles: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:Yeah. That's right.
Ryan Giles:You know, we get people that will chase us down the street for like sweaters, for pens, for whatever. And it's like, I love when we're driving down the road and they're, like, real effing good. So that's huge and it's cool and sticks out. Do you
Scott Dillingham:have swag?
Ryan Giles:Yeah. Like, so we have we have sweaters. We have hats. Haven't gotten to pants or anything like that, but sweaters, hats, or even actually it's cool because it's like my kids, we take the real effing good part off, but it's just RFG. All my kids wear that stuff to school.
Ryan Giles:Right? We have little work shirts and stuff for them.
Scott Dillingham:It's like teachers
Ryan Giles:know what that means. 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.
Ryan Giles:It was really cool. So it's like we're going, okay, we need all these actors, whatever, like these people. And then it was like last minute, everybody bailed. So it's like literally my brother's girlfriend at the time, my son and me were in this commercial. And so my son got to be in this.
Ryan Giles:This is his first thing ever. And he's super, super excited. They let him say it say the slogan. And so we we filmed it. Ended bleeping it out for obviously national television.
Ryan Giles:It's you could probably find it online, the unedited version. But when I told my son's principal, 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:The edited version. The edited version.
Ryan Giles:Yeah. Yeah. It was an elementary school so they had to play the edited version but, that was huge. And then it made me I know that meant a lot to them and to and to everybody. Right?
Ryan Giles:And even now when people are like, oh, I've seen your commercial. Like, that's that's our fifteen seconds of fame, I guess you'd say, but it's still it's one of those cool things.
Scott Dillingham: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:Can you elaborate on that a little bit more?
Ryan Giles: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 that I like doing is I'll go in, we'll look, and it's say maybe it's not just necessarily plumbing, but it's like there's other issues that we notice.
Ryan Giles:I'll let you know. I'll take pictures. We'll send that stuff to you, know, but it's a big deal because it's just, like, knowing what you're buying. Right? And it's just, especially when in the we're in the market of where people are overpaying.
Ryan Giles:Like, it's scary once you open up a wall. What's behind there? What's that? Right? And it's like even what's underneath the ground.
Ryan Giles:Right? Because it's like we we call it the word people are putting lipstick on a pig or, you know, it's painted. It's nice. So everything's all nice brand new, but what's underneath the ground? Nobody's fixed it.
Ryan Giles: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: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: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, like, my mentality, and especially from having my own properties, is, like, I like fixing everything, because it's once, say, like, and what we did at my house, was it's, like, brand new sewer in the ground, everything, because the minute that I spent a dollar on flooring, I I spent a dollar on any, right, is that now in five years if that were to go, what is it gonna cost me? Inflation's going up, so it's like, if you spend a little bit of money upfront at the beginning, you get everything done. Now once you get those tenants in, like, in theory, you should have fifty years. Right?
Ryan Giles:So it's just like, then that way it might just be painting or whatever small stuff. And I get it. People are on a budget. Right? And everybody wants to make money.
Ryan Giles: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 that one initial cost would be. So we like to break things down too for people. So it's just like saying, this is major fix. This is minor fix, or this is what we believe you need to fix now.
Scott Dillingham:No. That makes sense. So I'm an investor. I'm in even if I'm in Windsor, Toronto, it doesn't matter where. Let's say I'm an investor.
Scott Dillingham:I'm buying this rental property here in Windsor. 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:One big thing, especially in Windsor, we get the we had 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:So we Could you elaborate
Ryan Giles:on that? So the city of Windsor offers a, it's $2,800 rebate, and what that covers is for a 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:Okay.
Ryan Giles: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, it's like we help plan it because it's say, you own this house today, what happens if you sell it tomorrow? So we look at it as the next person that can come in. This is how we kind of plan things.
Ryan Giles:Maybe they wanna put bathroom, maybe whatever, turn this into an apartment. So the nice thing is with that program, what with what we do is so we help you plan that aspect, 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?
Ryan Giles:It's nice with that. 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.
Ryan Giles:And then the only thing the homeowner has to do at the end is we get paid. 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:For the homeowner, they pay upfront and then get reimbursed?
Ryan Giles:So unfortunately, the city of Windsor hasn't caught up in today's standards. Like, I I think there's maybe twenty, thirty companies, plumbing companies in Windsor, Essex County. And to me, what I think is they should be doing is that if what checks 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
Scott Dillingham:of Okay.
Ryan Giles:Other companies. When we had the big flood in 2016, there were some companies coming down here, and they're scamming the system. They were, oh, hey. You know what? We'll do it this way kinda thing.
Ryan Giles: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:Okay. Just prevent But still, so $20,100 bucks, is that including HST?
Ryan Giles:So so the backwater valve sump pump, it ranges some 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 that. I mean, typically, we're, like, $4,500 plus tax for the most part.
Ryan Giles:You get the $2,800 rebate, and that this is saying for an inside one. We've 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, 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: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 and was like selling toilet paper for x amount of dollars. We've been consistent because it's you know, it sucks at your house flood. And I didn't ask for my house to flood.
Ryan Giles:Now I gotta deal with it. So
Scott Dillingham:Agreed. That's a pain. Yep. So okay. So that's great advice for an investor.
Scott Dillingham:Now back to maybe a business owner or somebody starting business. Right? Because 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 doesn't have to be plumbing, but what are some success tips that you could share with them?
Ryan Giles: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 realize 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.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah.
Ryan Giles: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. There's no, like, business education other than it's just you learn on the go. Right?
Scott Dillingham:Yep.
Ryan Giles:It's like, you know, it's like when you your kids sit here say, how do know how to be a parent? It's like, you just you learn, right, along the way. 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 going to have the answer and everything's not always going to work out and be that success.
Ryan Giles: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: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.
Scott Dillingham:Right? So they say a lot of people today, they're scared to do something wrong because dates back to their childhood when they would get teased for it. So it's cool that you said that because it's true. It's perceived fear. Perceived fear.
Scott Dillingham:If you fail, it means nothing. It's yes. The real fear, 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, but that's how you learn.
Scott Dillingham:So I love that you said that.
Ryan Giles:Yeah. 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 billions of dollars. Wait.
Ryan Giles:People don't realize he started out selling books. Like, you
Scott Dillingham:know In a garage too, wasn't it?
Ryan Giles: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:So it's just I remember when you learned about this and now you look at this huge company, like, companies could veer off and get into other things. We started as plumbers, 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. It's a fun. It's a fun ride.
Ryan Giles:Trust me, I get to work with my dad and my brother and we're all the same so we butt our heads, 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 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 that we made this for everybody. That's a, that's a huge thing.
Scott Dillingham: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:So there's a lot of good ways. For one, 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 do like that you touched on the reviews, actually.
Ryan Giles:And one good thing is is when you're hiring any contractor, read the reviews. 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 aren't just saying good job. They did this. It's like they'll write in like what the experience was and like, I like reading that.
Ryan Giles:That's like our positive motivation to sit there and sit and like, you made the right choice and, you know, you made make it fun at the end of the day.
Scott Dillingham:I love it. No. That's great advice. And I agree. Always check the reviews because you just never know.
Scott Dillingham:People can appear. It's great. But yeah.
Ryan Giles:It's if they have reviews, good job. Blank. Oh, they're all five stars. It's great. How do know they're real?
Ryan Giles: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? Because it's like either they have some good marketing guy taking the time to write all those or, you know, or 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 properties in Windsor and Essex County, you know, have the best plumbing, have the best electrical. That's for sure.
Scott Dillingham:That's awesome. No. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for coming on the show, and, we'll see you guys next time.