Million Dollar Techs

A couple of weeks back I was at the Service World Expo in Las Vegas. It was great to connect with some of you IRL! 

One of the people I managed to spend a bit of time with was Jarod Smith, owner of Clogbusters in Des Moines, Iowa.

Jarod told me about growing Clogbusters — he’s running 10 full-time service trucks right now — and how he thinks about training and paying his techs. He also connected me with Max, his 19-year-old tech who's annualizing six figures while maintaining a 3.8 GPA in college 

Jarod didn't mince words when we sat down to talk. "Let's just face it, drain cleaners are at the bottom of the trade hierarchy,” he said. "Everyone looks down on us.”

But Jarod's drain techs are making $100,000+ per year working 40-45 hours a week.

Many of those techs who thought drain cleaners were beneath them? They're watching Clogbusters techs out-earn them while working fewer hours.

How? Jarod built a complete system for recruiting, training, and compensating drain cleaning specialists. Here’s what you need to know… 

"You can go anywhere in the world and learn plumbing, electrical, HVAC," Jarod explained. "But where do you go to learn to run drains?"

The answer used to be nowhere. Often you just learned from Bob, who learned from someone else 20 years ago. Bad habits and outdated techniques are passed down like family heirlooms.

So Jarod built the Drain Cleaning Academy.

They've duplicated real-life scenarios in a training facility: tree roots, dead animals, grease blockages, towels, rags, every nightmare a tech might face in the field to train techs how to deal with any situation. 

Max, the 19-year-old tech I mentioned? He came in with zero plumbing experience. Green as grass.

"I was put in my own van in less than a month and a half," Max told me. "The training academy really turns guys like me who had no drain cleaning experience into million dollar techs."

In six weeks, they took someone with no experience and turned them into a tech running his own van who’s now a six-figure earner.

Jarod lives by a simple principle: "What gets tracked gets measured. What gets measured gets improved."

Across his company, every number is visible, every metric is posted, and every tech knows where they stand.

"Your A-plus players, your winners, they want to know where they stand every day," Jarod explained. "They want to know if they're on top. They want to know if they're on the bottom."

This radical transparency self-selects for excellence.

The performers love it. As Max put it: "It keeps the guys' drive going because they want to be number one. When the guys see those boards and they see their number, they think, 'Oh, I need to be higher.' It makes you want it."

The underperformers? They either step up or step out.

Jarod has the Clogbuster’s team set up on ShareWillow to incentivise his techs to take the actions that grow the business. 

"You should be able to get paid what you're worth." Clogbusters runs a 20% performance pay model. When other owners hear that, they think "That's a lot of money!"

But Jarod sees it differently. Through ShareWillow, his techs get additional spiffs for:

"Everybody's gotta have skin in the game," Jarod said. "People gotta get paid what they're worth."

Jarod also told me where he sees most owners going wrong… 

"We tend to always try to help all the people at the bottom," he said. "We're like, 'Oh man, poor Jimmy. His numbers are bad. We really feel bad because Jimmy's numbers are bad.'"

"And so as owners, we think, 'Come on, we know Jimmy can do it. We want to help him and try to push him through.'"

Jarod used a football analogy that hit home: "It'd be like if you had Peyton Manning and a second or third string quarterback. And the quarterback coach is spending 70% of their time on the low performer."

"You devote your time to the people at the top. The other people on the bottom? They either come up, they get cut, or they fall off."

"We have the best culture ever," Jarod told me. And after meeting Max, I believe it.

Here's a 19-year-old kid, going to school two days a week, maintaining a 3.8 GPA, and making six figures working three days a week.

When I asked Max about the money, his response said everything about the culture Jarod has built: "I'm blessed, you know."

This isn't just about money. It's about creating opportunities for people who wouldn't traditionally get them and proving that with the right system, anyone can succeed.

Most owners I talk to say the same thing: "I can't find good people."

Meanwhile, Jarod's recruiting students with no experience and turning them into six-figure earners driving millions in revenue for his business. .

The difference isn't the labor market. It's not the location. It's not luck.

It's the system.

Jarod summed it up perfectly: "Training, man. Training, training, training. Keep score, have fun. Be competitive and recruit the A-plus players."

If a drain cleaning company in Des Moines can build this kind of culture and success, what's stopping you?

Your next A-player might be a 19-year-old college student who's never held a wrench. You just need the right system to unlock their potential.