How This Plumber Became a Multi-Millionaire: The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything

What’s up, guys? Tyler Williams here, owner of Mammoth Marketing for Plumbers!

You know, the idea of cash flow—that beautiful, essential movement of money—is a concept a lot of people just don't grasp when they jump into business. And I get it. You don't really deal with it much in your personal life. You have bills, sure, but the consistency of that Friday paycheck? Man, it ruins your mindset for business.

When I first started, the hard part about business that hit me was the realization that you have to spend money before you have it. You have to be willing to do that. I see people constantly doing just enough marketing to break even, and then they need maybe ten more calls, or ten more sold jobs. If it costs you, say, $200 to get a booked job, well, we need to spend another three grand on marketing. And they freeze. They tell me, "I don't have it."

And I just look at them and say, "But you will if you spend it."

It sounds crazy, I know. But you literally just need to commit to that next three grand in marketing, and the jobs will come in and pay for the marketing. This isn't just about plumbing or marketing; it's about a complete mindset reset. If you want to know how this plumber became a multi-millionaire, you’ve got to start by changing the wiring in your brain.

Breaking the Chains of the "Middle Class Poor" Mentality

My brother Jered's journey to becoming a multi-millionaire started in a place that probably sounds familiar to a lot of you. We grew up... let’s call it "middle-class poor." No, not quite dirt floors, but definitely no carpet in half the house for a long time!

Our parents were middle class, but we lived way more poor. Very frugal. They always lived beneath their means. And while that’s got a lot of good aspects to it, the mentality we developed around money was toxic for business. The second I got into my own company, I realized that inherited mindset did not serve me well here.

The core of the problem wasn’t living beneath our means; it was the scarcity mentality that was accidentally drilled into us for years. Jered stated "I didn't truly start to figure this stuff out until I was about 35—and I just turned 40! So for those looking at me like, "Oh, he’s so young and figured it out," I promise you, I felt like I started late."

When he first went into business for himself, he carried this fear: every dollar spent felt like a dollar gone forever. The anxiety around money being spent and not having the desired effect was immense. We grew up thinking you took what the world gave you and you settled for it. The paycheck on Friday was limited by what the world offered, so you had to be a "good steward" of that limited income.

Here's the problem: you couldn't control your income. We didn't grow up with the idea of saying, "Hey, go ask for more." In a job interview, it was always, "Oh, that's what the job pays. Okay. The end."

Jered took that fixed-point mentality right into his early business dealings. He thought there were fixed points in pricing he couldn't break, or people would just walk away. And that's partially true, but we project our own willingness to pay onto our customers. Jered was constantly undervaluing his ability and his team's ability. It was the ultimate bummer—He was transferring his own money anxieties onto the value of other people's labor.

The Pricing Psychological War: Just Be More Expensive!

The most massive psychological change we had to make was around pricing.

Jered remembered the day he finally crunched the numbers and worked backwards to a healthy business model. He was charging $140 an hour, and his analysis landed him at $259 an hour. He honestly thought, "Nobody is going to buy anything."

The very first call Jered took with the new pricing, the guy bought all the stuff. At the end, he was like, "Hey, you know this is over $200 an hour, right?" Jered just said, "Yeah." He said, "But you kind of got me over a barrel because you were the only one that answered your phone."

That’s the value!

When Jered went to a guy's house for a water heater that was practically next to the front door—an easy install—the total was about $2,800. The homeowner asked him when it came time to pay, "You sure you're making enough money on this?" Jered just laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Don't worry about me, I got that covered."

Jered was surprised. All the way up to when he finally got out of the truck, he was at about $325 an hour and selling 100% of his jobs. Zero pushback.

It was all about perceived value. When I call a plumber, I’m saying, "Come in, fix it, and let me get back to my higher-leverage activities." The customer wants the problem to disappear with as little effort as possible. And that is worth paying for. That's why sponsors like Plum Line (go check them out at wealthyplumber.com/plumline) are so awesome—they ensure that first point of contact is always smooth and professional, meaning you don't lose the lead when your CSR is busy or it's after hours. People pay a premium for that effortless service.

My brother had this crazy realization growing Prospector (Jered's former plumbing company): He was becoming the new Altrol. His competitors were looking at his prices and saying, "Oh, they're just ripping everybody off." But what Jered realized was that they just undervalue their own skill sets. If they knew their worth, they would charge more like he was, so they could make more money.

They weren't understanding that if you charge more, you can reinvest that money into the business to serve the customer better and more reliably. They are trying to do everything the cheapest way possible, just like our parents for a long time. It’s a total misunderstanding of how business works.

The Entrepreneur's Tightrope: Spending to Grow

Once you get over the pricing issue, the next mind hurdle is scaling. Once the money starts to stack up, you get stuck because you're afraid to see it disappear.

When I started Prospector, I worked for six months, stacked away $80,000, and I thought I was rich! It was the most money I'd ever had in my life. Then I had to watch that $80,000 disappear. It was freaky and scary. In my head, that money should only go up, never down.

But I had a business mentor who gave me a vital lesson: It is okay to spend that capital to leverage yourself to get more capital. You have to get used to that.

I took that $80,000 and spent it on vans, tools, materials, hiring three guys, and a bunch of marketing. I remember watching the account balance get down to $5,000 on a Monday morning with payroll due on Friday. Payroll was more than $5,000. I was freaking out! My wife, Crystal, just said, "Don't you make money during the week?" And I was like, "I don't know! I hope so!"

That's the inflection point every business owner needs to hit.

The phrase "it takes money to make money" exists for a reason. You have to view spending that money as an investment into your business, not a loss.

A great example is marketing. People are doing enough marketing to break even. But if you have the capital, you need to be willing to commit to that next budget level, knowing that the jobs will come in quickly and pay the bill. It's a short cycle. It’s not like you wait months to see a return.

I also learned that aggression in marketing is necessary. I view budget as an aggression meter. The bigger your budget, the more aggressive you're going to be, the more you're going to win. I once had a client who was upset that we underspent his budget. He wasn't happy we "saved him money." He said, "No, you cost me opportunity." The people who would have seen his ad didn't, and now they're not coming in the door.

You can't approach your marketing or your business with the same scarcity mindset you approach your personal life.

Redundancy and the "A-Hole" Mindset

You eventually get to a point where the business is a machine, and there's more money than you can spend. That’s when the next hang-up happens: you start to feel bad about it.

You look at your crew, who are out there busting their butts, and they're getting paid well. Meanwhile, I'm sitting over here, not even at the office, just goofing off, and I'm making all this money.

The reality? You carry all the risk.

You have to be paid for your risk. That extra money you are earning should go to building a runway of risk. My rule of thumb is three to six months of expenses—payroll, marketing, operating costs—locked away. If a COVID-like event happens again (and they are working on it, trust me!), that runway buys you time to figure things out.

Another critical mindset change is realizing you have to be okay with being perceived as... an a-hole sometimes. You’re not actually being an a-hole; you’re just being clear. I used to be a major people-pleaser. But over time, I learned that if I always make everything "fun," I'm not setting proper expectations. Now, I’m way better at being like, "Alright, cool. Here are the lines. Now, let’s have fun inside the lines." But you go out of those lines, and I’m telling you immediately. This clarity protects the whole machine, which, in turn, protects your people.

As your business grows, it gets easier in some ways. You build redundancies. If one guy calls in sick, it's no big deal because you have multiple people. If a new hire doesn't work out, it costs you a few thousand dollars, but it doesn't really matter because you have tens of thousands of dollars coming in.

The Power of Setting Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals

There's a concept in marketing I believe in deeply: Time and consistency equal momentum. And that's true for most things in life.

If you don't keep pushing, your business will stall. The biggest lesson, and one I avoided for a long time, is setting goals. I didn't want to disappoint myself, so I kept them in my head. I thought the goal should just be right there—right on the edge of the achievable. I would hit it fast and then go, "Oh, dang, gotta set a new point."

That's the wrong way to do it. You need to dream bigger than you think you can.

After reading books like Think and Grow Rich, I realized the power of relentless action toward a fixed goal. The more obsessed you are with your mindset, the more aware you become of opportunities.

Jered followed this advice. When he was running his plumbing company, he wrote down a goal to make a million dollars a year. Less than a year later, he hit a $1.13 million run rate. Jered remembered calling up his operations manager, Eddie, and telling him, "Dude, I just hit a million dollars net on the last 12 months!"

It all just always seems to work out—which is what I call a "happy accident." But as I've gotten deeper into business, I realize there's nothing accidental about it. You can actually design your life.

One of Jered's biggest goal now is not about a nice house or a car; it's around a lifestyle that allows him to keep building stuff. It's about having enough money for freedom and teaching his kids the mindset and skills to do the same.

His current goal, written down and read every morning and night, straight out of the book:

The exact amount of money I desire is $100 million. I intend to give 15 years of my life devoted to growing Dudewash in return for the money. I intend to possess this money by September 10th, 2040. My plan of action is: Grow Dude, sell, retire.

It's specific, simple, and a stretch.

The moral of the story is simple: set goals. Figure out what you want, know your worth, get rid of your bad mindset stuff around money, and go have some fun. Build forward.

Ready to Build Your Multi-Million-Dollar Business?

If you’re a plumber and want to learn how to apply these mindset shifts to your marketing and business structure, go check out my company, Mammoth Marketing for Plumbers, at https://www.mammothforplumbers.com/.

And if you would like the Tyler Williams crew to take a look at what you need to focus on to grow your specific business, I invite you to schedule a consultation with me personally at my website: https://tylerwilliams.net/. Let’s make your business an unstoppable machine.