HVAC Success Secrets: Revealed

EP: 235 Cody McLeod w/ Utility Plumbing Services - Scaling Your HVAC Business: Expert Advice on Operations, Technology, and Growth

• Cody McLeod

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🚀 We just wrapped up an episode of HVAC Success Secrets Revealed with Cody McLeod, founder of Utility Plumbing Services. It was an enlightening conversation filled with valuable insights for anyone in the trades and service industry. 

In our compelling chat, Cody shared his journey from working in the family business to building his own company from the ground up. Here are 3 key takeaways from our discussion:

🔧 Build Operations First: Cody emphasized the importance of establishing strong operations as a foundation for growth. Getting customer service, technicians, and apprentices in place early on set the stage for scalability.

📈 Embrace Technology: Implementing a robust CRM (ServiceTitan in their case) transformed their ability to manage the business effectively, leading to smoother operations and significant growth.

💡Focus on Personal and Team Development: Cody shared how vital personal development is, not just for leadership but for the entire team. Investing in continual learning and growth propels the business and its people forward.

Tune in to hear Cody's full story and more of his invaluable insights at the HVAC Revealed podcast. Don't miss this episode!

#HVAC #Plumbing #Entrepreneurship #Operations #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership #TradeIndustry #CustomerService #BusinessGrowth


Find Cody:

On The Web: utilityplumbingservices.com
Instagram: instagram.com/codymcleod_88
 

Presented By On Purpose Media: https://www.onpurposemedia.ca/
For HVAC Internet Marketing reach out to us at info@onpurposemedia.ca or 888-428-0662


Sponsored By: 

Elite Call: https://elitecall.net
On Purpose Media: https://onpurposemedia.ca


Cody McLeod:

Number one most important thing was building the operations when I started the company. Getting the customer service in place. Getting the technicians and apprentices and building the operations from the ground up.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Yep.

Cody McLeod:

Now we are ready.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Hey, welcome back to another episode of HVAC Success Secrets Revealed with Thaddeus and Evan where we have good conversations with good people. Any good conversation generally is worth having drunk, but we're going to stick to the H20s here today. Today we have on Cody, got it right this time from Utility Plumbing Services from Southern California, Rancho Cucamonga. But we're actually here live at the Rocket X event in Dallas, 2024. This actually episode and us being here, it wouldn't be possible without our sponsor Elite Call for helping us out and hook us up. Thank you Elite Call for doing all that you do. Have you ever thought about outbounding your database to fill your dispatch boards as lucrative service and sales appointments? How about boosting your memberships too? Now you can with EliteCall, a US based call center that does just that. For over 20 years, their dedicated teams don't just make calls, they directly integrate these appointments into your CRM and fill your job boards. Don't let your competition get ahead. Let EliteCall connect with your customers first. Visit elitecall.net to learn more. Enhance your online presence with On Purpose Media, your go to home service marketing experts for everything web design, SEO, and PPC. Stunning user friendly websites? Checkmark. Increased visibility on search engines? Also a checkmark. Targeted traffic through effective pay per click ads? You betcha. So let's go ahead and turn your online presence into a lead generating powerhouse. Visit onpurposemedia.ca to start your digital transformation and watch your home service company thrive in the digital world. Cool. All right. So Cody been in the industry for 16 years plumbing your entire life you were in your family business, 12 years, worked your way up to the title of VP, left the family business and started your own thing two years ago. Super excited to dive in to hear some of the things about working in a family dynamic. It's going to be an exciting episode. So walk us through a little bit of your journey and your history into the trades.

Cody McLeod:

I'm a second generation plumbing contractor. I own Utility Plumbing Services and, as far as my journey I was a kid in a plumbing truck with my dad. I had a plumbing shop in my backyard. When I was waking up for school, the guys were getting ready in the backyard. You know what I mean? And then I got into just started working with my father and stuff and yeah, hopped in a truck and then, so I learned that, I feel like I learned the trade from the ground up from my father. And then other mentors in the industry and stuff. So came in as a partner early in my 20s and stuff and then and then I worked my way up to vice president and yeah, So vice president of, it was vice president of Scott McLeod Plumbing, it's in Rancho Cucamonga and

Thaddeus Tondu:

So was there a title behind VP or just the VP.

Cody McLeod:

When I came in as a partner with my father, it was me and him basically in our backyard and so we took the company from three vehicles to 30 vehicles from two employees, me and my father to 30 employees and on one of the main streets in Rancho Cucamonga. So it was huge for our family and stuff and and my way, it's a true family business where my general manager was my cousin Katie. My, my other partner was my brother Cole. The lead technician at the company right now is my brother Carson and we had a couple other family members. My sister Paige was in customer service and everything a true family business.

Thaddeus Tondu:

And all three boys have C's to start with their names.

Cody McLeod:

That's right, and I have one more brother too, Kai. Yeah. Everybody has it. Paige, Cody, Kai, Cole, and Carson.

Thaddeus Tondu:

But Paige is the, oh, I guess a girl, so that'll be the outlier with the P instead of the C. In terms of taking that growth from two two people, three trucks to, 30 people, 30 trucks. What was that like? What were, I guess if you were to look back on that time, and so you were to say, okay I have this tremendous amount of growth. What is one thing that you wished that you knew when you had two trucks that you learned when you had 30 trucks?

Cody McLeod:

So when we were just like, we were under 10 employees and stuff, it was like, it felt like never ending. I feel like the 8 to 12 employee mark was like the big hump maybe 15 employees was the big hump where it was like, felt like we could never be one of the big guys and once we got to that 18, 20, 25 employee mark, things got easier in the operations, I feel and we were able to lean more on our employees and stuff and we would lean on each other.

Evan Hoffman:

Was that just because there was more people to take on, more roles, get more specific, you were able to focus on more of the leadership and that side?

Cody McLeod:

Absolutely. Building just building our management structure and then, just building the company structure itself where we don't have to wear all the hats, where we're answering the phones, where we're running the calls, where we're, trying to manage people and everything else and provide a great service to our customers.

Thaddeus Tondu:

It's funny that you said it was easier. A lot of people think that it gets harder, and it can, if you don't have the right systems in place. In putting those systems in place, how did you guys do it? What did you guys leverage? Is there any sort of, success secret? See what I did there? Come on, that was good. That was good. Is there any sort of a secret there that you guys found made it easier for you? Because I know a lot of guys struggle when they get to that point.

Cody McLeod:

Yeah, definitely implementing service title was the biggest thing. We were on handwritten, this was like 14 years ago now, but we were on, handwritten invoices and, just Google Calendar and this kind of stuff. But once we implemented our CRM service side, everything changed for us, and yeah, that was probably the biggest thing. Then you can work, create those systems and processes and, you work the system, right? And that's it. So you can see everything.

Evan Hoffman:

That's cool. What else kind of change and shifted to get over that hump to get to that 13th 15th 17th employee when things started to get easier? What was the shift that was made there?

Cody McLeod:

I think it was a mentality shift cause we went from, the family business and stuff and we had a great customer base at Scott and 12 Plumbing and just the mentality of, hey, we gotta change up some things to make this happen and I'm a big proponent on not reinventing the wheel. So I was looking at the big, the roto rooters and stuff like that of the world where, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're going to get all the best equipment and then we're going to start bringing on the best employees to do the best job for our customers and that's where it really just started and we started, we were doing two to four trucks a year and we just started growing like crazy.

Thaddeus Tondu:

And looking at it in the reverse engineering it's doing the best thing, for the customer and then that in turn allows you to do the best thing for your team, which in turn allows you to have the best equipment and it's this trickle down effect that really helps to be able to leverage that. Absolutely.

Evan Hoffman:

Sweet. And so now you're running your own company. So what was the reasoning behind that? What was the drive behind that? Why did you want to go off on your own?

Cody McLeod:

So there was a lot of reasons for that, but basically two years ago, I made the decision to break off from the family business. My brother Cole actually moved into my position as the vice president of the company and Cole and my dad are going to take that company great places but I started utility plumbing services two years ago and it is, that was the absolute best decision I ever made just cause I could, I never stopped working and stuff and I it's given me this liberating feeling of doing it on my own, which has been the hardest thing I've ever done for sure, but definitely the most rewarding for sure.

Thaddeus Tondu:

And you take all the experiences of that and now you've leveraging it on your own. So I guess what's the most rewarding part of it?

Cody McLeod:

The most rewarding part of it is for me, it's always been about my employees. What I can create. I started off with a new phone number, new email address completely from scratch. Which I don't recommend but I knew I could do it, but now seeing it, now I have ten full time employees and stuff, and I'm just creating careers for people, and we're doing it together, we're working as a team, and that's, for me, that's the most fulfilling thing, and that's honestly why I do it.

Thaddeus Tondu:

And the other part too, and I think this came from last night, is now It's 100 percent yours, right? And I guess in terms of some of the family dynamic parts that may have resulted from starting your own business. If you were to tell somebody they, okay they're in that similar situation, they have a family run business. They're like, you know what? I think I just want to go run and do my own thing. I think it's time for me to leave the business and do my own thing. What sort of advice would you give that person? And sorry, and let me clarify that in dealing with the family.

Cody McLeod:

Yeah. That's the biggest. The biggest part of all of it is it's still rough between my father and brother and I and stuff and if they're watching, I no the question was,

Thaddeus Tondu:

In terms of advice of leaving a family business to start your own and how can that work within the finding dynamic? And I know you're guys have, you have an interesting story and interesting path. We don't need to get into the, to the vultigos of that. But if somebody were to potentially look at, okay, how can I avoid having this and you're ready to make amends with your family. How can I look to potentially avoid getting in that place in the first place, based off of your experiences?

Cody McLeod:

I think it goes back to communication, communicating through the whole process and stuff, and there's, I don't think there's any easy way to do it at all. had an unorthodox exit there to the company and stuff, but just communication, man and, it's like at the end of the day, family comes first, especially in the McLeod family and so just I'd say communication.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Oh, it's huge ones, right? And having that open dialogue back and forth is phenomenal and be able to do that and we saw that yesterday with the guests that we had on and just like the communication and having that upfront aspect of things and ripping that band aid off is a big one and what's the five love, the five dysfunctions of the team just finished reading the Patrick Lencioni book and that's the first one is absence of trust, but how can you do that? Communication, right? And then when you have that ability to communicate, now you can build on that trust foundation. Sure. Yep. Absolutely.

Evan Hoffman:

Setting clear expectations up front.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Yep.

Evan Hoffman:

Yep. Yep. The lessons that you were able to extract from being in the family business to now running your own, what did you keep? What did you want to change and shift and make your own?

Cody McLeod:

So I wanted to keep the morals. We're a like I'm, I come from a plumbing family. So we are real plumbers. That's what I always say. I know there's, I'll just keep it at that. We're real plumbers. We're, it's service first and so I'm keeping that for sure but just putting a modern spin on it our company is black and white. It's super simple and our brand stands for being bold and professional. That's all I wanted to do. I didn't wanna be a flashy brand and stuff, and, there's a bunch of great brands out there and everything, but I just wanted to take it back to the old school and but with a modern twist.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Right? And core values, right? That's a huge thing and when you can have and leverage those core values, especially from there to where you're at now super powerful. What did you, so that was one thing that you kept. What is one thing that you stopped doing in terms of bringing from the old business to the new business?

Cody McLeod:

That's a good question. I think I'll just stick with myself. A lot of personal development. So I was I got to the point in my career where I had 30 employees. I was a vice president of the company and I was an owner of the business. I was 24. 5 percent owner of the company. So I started coasting. And as a professional, I stopped my personal development and everything. Continuing my personal development was the most the biggest thing with this company. Because I started Utility Plumbing Services with the same habits at Scott McLeod Plumbing that I would, that were my detriment and that was the biggest thing was just, you always have to keep learning and keep that personal development going.

Evan Hoffman:

So what are you reading right now?

Cody McLeod:

What am I reading right now? I just got Joe Crisara was actually at our shop the other day and I'm reading what should we do by Joe Crisara.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Nice. What was the last book that you read?

Cody McLeod:

The last book I read was

Thaddeus Tondu:

or listen to,

Cody McLeod:

Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins,

Thaddeus Tondu:

did you read it? Did you listen to it?

Cody McLeod:

Let me say this first. Like I said, I'm a plumber. I've read. I'm not proud to say this, but I've read one book my entire life. Even through school and everything. I wasn't, I couldn't pay attention in school and everything. I read David Goggins Can't Hurt Me and I'm trying to get more into reading and stuff, but that just, that tells a little bit about my story.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Do you listen to books at all? Are you an Audible learner?

Cody McLeod:

I'm doing that with the Joe Crisara book right now. I'm trying to read along and stuff.

Thaddeus Tondu:

I have a tough time reading too, right? Like I have a tough time just sitting there. I was on a plane on the way down, so I'm like, okay, I can sit here and Patrick Lencioni books are great because it's a fable and it's a story and those are the ones, some of them are pretty dry. But I found that Audible, Is really good for me because when I was driving around a lot of windshield time, I threw it on instead of music and then you listen to it instead of music. I'm walking my dog. I throw it on instead of listening to it and so it helps actually a lot of the personal development. If you're the part that you can't sit there and read.

Evan Hoffman:

But for our listeners, they should be listening to podcasts in the car, not audio books. Yeah.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Although they're already listening to it. So that's one thing that you've kept us something that you've stopped. What is one thing that you're going to start doing?

Cody McLeod:

I think getting my employees involved in the personal development. Because I'm changing, I'm rapidly changing. We're gonna be bringing in new guys and stuff. I want my guys in the field and in the office to grow with me as well, yep and I want the core employees that I have right now to be with me years from now.

Evan Hoffman:

I love that. And that's something I just went to any hour two weeks ago up in Utah. Phenomenal business. Nice. Unreal. Operation, really, but one of the things that they do with their leadership training, their management training, is just dive into a book, and they joked around that it took them three years to get through Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, because it's such a great book and there's so many lessons within it, but it just started so many conversations about how are you actually applying the knowledge and I think that's the thing that often gets overlooked with a lot of people who are like, oh yeah, I'm going to read, a book a month or a book a week for a year and they get hooked on the act of reading and they're missing the application.

Cody McLeod:

Sure. Sure.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Yeah. Then that's, and that's a huge point because I think a lot of people do that. They're like, great book and next book. Yeah. I'm guilty of that. I did that for a long time. Yeah. I usually take something and pull it and put it in, just try it as quickly as I can. Yeah. Depending on the book but.

Evan Hoffman:

Oh, and that's one thing that I've made a shift in for myself is I don't go to the book trying to learn everything or consume everything. I rarely even read it cover to cover. I will look at the table of contents, find the one idea that I want to take out of the book and then I go deep on that idea and then how can I execute on it? And I've had to train myself out of that because that's not me.

Cody McLeod:

Yeah. Yeah.

Evan Hoffman:

But I just, yeah, I stopped looking for everything and trying to get everything out of it. Events, too, that we go to. It's one idea. That's all I need.

Thaddeus Tondu:

So is it, somebody was saying, I can't remember who the person was that they go to an event and when they get the one thing that that they're going to implement in their business, they just leave the event. They're gone. They go home. They're done. Like they don't stick anymore because then you get compounded, right? It's like the people that are fervous note takers and they just they destroy notepad in an event and then okay what's your one item? Too much, right? And so listening for that one thing and then going deep on that is a phenomenal part.

Cody McLeod:

And listening to the speakers is great, but even having conversations, being on this podcast, doing the little stuff, like having the conversations at the restaurant. Having coffee with someone. I went on a 5K run this morning.

Evan Hoffman:

Oh, you got recruited?

Cody McLeod:

I got recruited for that. I didn't know it was going to be a 5K. You said we're going on a run. Yeah. But it was great. We ran around Dallas Stadium, but those are the experiences with these events and stuff and those little conversations, just like you're saying, you're taking one or a couple things from these events and I'm not really a note taker anyways, right?

Evan Hoffman:

So what's one thing that you wanted to get out of this event and bring back to the business? One lesson, one thing to take action on?

Cody McLeod:

For myself I think For the actual business operations itself, I wanted to partner with the company for lead generation and we're meeting some of the best biggest and best names in the industry here. I was speaking to Mandeep and a couple others and stuff, I think Hook.

Thaddeus Tondu:

and us, On Purpose Media, come on.

Cody McLeod:

Yes. See, we're learning as we go. So yeah, so it definitely just

Evan Hoffman:

Increased call flow.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Yeah, increased call flow and then, and it, so in terms of call flow now, do you feel that, because I think a lot of times people say, okay I'm going to get more leads, and I've had this conversation yesterday with somebody and okay I want to get more leads. Great. How, what's your percentage of answering your phone? And they're like I don't know. I'm like, okay, we'll figure that out before you go turn on a faucet, right? Because if you look at it and you're like, okay, you only answer 30 percent of your calls, you're fucked, right? That's a shit number. Like you need to be answering 85 percent or north, right? 100 percent ideally, but we all know that's impossible and so it's looking at that now in terms of the operational side of things and walking that back, how do you know that you're ready to increase the flow?

Cody McLeod:

My, the number one most important thing was building the operations when I started the company. Getting the customer service in place, getting the technicians and apprentices and building the operations from the ground up. Now we are ready where, we add vehicles and we add vehicles and put the right people in place. Technicians, apprentices, the field takes care of itself. But having that back in office staff is where the real life is.

Thaddeus Tondu:

The real magic and that's it and that and now you know, you're ready, right? Because you have that learning experience of putting in those operational things to be able to turn on the taps and the spigots and it's not the right time of the year to be able to turn on some of those taps, right? So starting to get hot.

Cody McLeod:

Yeah, we pretty much year round in plumbing. We have a couple slow times like spring and back to school season in the fall, but other than that we stay pretty busy.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Nice. Let's actually talk a little bit about marketing. You're looking at some marketing companies right now. How are you evaluating marketing companies? What are you looking for in having the right person for your business?

Cody McLeod:

That's a great question. I've worked with a lot in my career. We switched a couple times up at my previous business and I think I'm looking for, I'm looking for someone that I can personal, I could talk to an actual person and work with somebody. I don't know if it's account management or however you guys hear it. So somewhere where I can make a call and then we can make changes as we go. But I'm looking for someone to just, grab the reins and run it and it's not like I'm, I don't know what that looks like yet, but I'm just looking for a professional company that and someone that can help us grow organically first and build steps where then we could build our online presence with through SEO and organic and then like our social media presence is already doing pretty well. So I feel like we have the brand built now. We just need to build SEO organically and then go after the bigger fish.

Thaddeus Tondu:

The lead gen after once you get that, it's like building a house, right? You want to, you build the frame and put the roof on. And that to me is your website and your SEO and then as you start to, and you're like finishing the outside of them, as you want to furnish the inside, those are your fun things like the lead generation and stuff.

Cody McLeod:

Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. And we're doing the backyard, the pool and everything else. right? the rock slide.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Yeah. Putting everything on. Putting everything on. Perfect. As we do wrap up,'cause we wanna be respectful of the event and your time. Thank you for coming on by the way. We do have one final question here for you and that is one question. What is one question that you wish people would ask you more, but don't Tough questions today. I know. Tough question. Yeah.

Cody McLeod:

Gosh.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Could be personally, could be professionally, it doesn't really matter.

Cody McLeod:

Ask me more questions about plumbing, I'll say that. I actually, I'm a, like I said, second generation plumber, and I love plumbing. I actually still get out there in the field with my guys. I install plumbing, and I just love what I do. So whenever I can help anyone, even If it's a friend or anything like that. Yep. I'm always one phone call away.

Thaddeus Tondu:

So how do I replace my own kitchen faucet? hire plumber,

Evan Hoffman:

What do you feel like is lacking in the industry right now?

Cody McLeod:

I feel like service is lacking. Yeah. I feel like it's getting into a more sales sales situation there and I feel like as people are, on social media, you're like, oh, plumbers are making all this money and everything, but it goes back to the service. Taking care of customers and providing a good your, the sales are going to come with it, but providing a better service to the customers is the foundation of plumbing.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Customer service is just, it's needed and so like I've said this numerous times is that if you have an average product and an average communication and this is almost for recurring services and plumbing is one of those ones that you can have recurring services with recurring clients. If you have an average product and above, and average communication, you're going to have average retention of your clients. If you have an average product and above average communication, they're going to stay longer because of the above average communication. Now, if you have an above average product and average or below average communication they're still going to leave. Now if you can double down you're gonna have both above average product and above average communication man that's doubling down and be able to win the long term because people just want to be heard they want to have that service mentality and they want to feel valued and when you can do that, you're gonna win.

Evan Hoffman:

Just take care of people, right? Keep it simple stupid, right?

Thaddeus Tondu:

Perfect well any other lingering questions out there, anything you might want to ask?

Evan Hoffman:

No, that was my last curiosity there was around your feelings around the industry. So perfect.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Awesome. For coming on. That was a good show and until next time,

Evan Hoffman:

cheers.

Thaddeus Tondu:

Well, That's a wrap on another episode of HVAC Success Secrets Revealed. Before you go, two quick things. First off, join our Facebook group, facebook.com/hvacrevealed. The other thing. If you took one tiny bit of information out of this show, no matter how big, no matter how small, all we ask is for you to introduce this to one person in your contacts list. That's it. That's all one person. So they too can unleash the ultimate HVAC business. Until next time. Cheers.