Hi everybody. Welcome to the UPHCA Pipeline Podcast. I’m your host, Eric Likenberg, and today we have with us Court Lundberg from Rare Breed Plumbing. So, go ahead and say hello, Court.
How’s it going, guys? Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Awesome. Thank you.
I had a chance to take a look at your website and I found it fascinating the story with the bison raising the bison and stuff. Uh it’s it’s it’s a pretty cool little story. So, I don’t know if there’s anything you care to share about that kind of before we get running.
Um, yeah. So, uh, the biggest thing for me was the bison’s been incorporated in my brand since forever. Uh, I grew up on a bison farm and when we went from cows or cattle to to bison, we found out pretty quick that they are completely different animals. Um, and a full grown bison can jump 6 feet. Just standing can jump 6 feet. So any little mistake that you made, the bison would get out and uh we found out pretty quickly that once they got out, it was very hard to control and get back in. Um and so kind of that that carefulness, that double-checking your work, that extra caution um seemed like the perfect synonym for plumbing to me of, you know, one one failed crimp ring um one small mistake and it’s catastrophic disaster. And uh so we brought the bison into the brand and uh with Rare Breed and we’ve been running with that ever since.
And and that’s kind of a fascinating segue into my uh one of my first questions is what what got you into plumbing? Kind of what inspired you to move toward the profession of being a plumber?
Yeah. So honestly, I felt like my whole life was leading up to plumbing. Like when I zoom out, I uh I uh did door-to-door sales. You know, I served an LDS mission. Um and then I did door to door sales and that was paying for my college to go into engineering. And uh you know, from the mission, I loved helping people. The door to door sales, I loved the social aspect of everything. And then the engineering, I love the problem solving. And long story short, it came to a head where I would have to take out student loans in order to continue to pay for school. And that wasn’t a path that I wanted to go down. And I was less convinced at this stage of becoming an engineer than my wife was convinced of becoming a nurse, which was the path that she was going. So, I decided to uh take a small leave from school and my dad tried to convince me to go into plumbing. And I had the same stigmatisms that come with plumbing that most people probably do, right? I didn’t want I didn’t want my butt crack hanging out. I didn’t want to be doing a dirty job. I didn’t want to be dealing with the poop. And so, I kind of put up a wall. I was just like, I am not becoming a plumber. There’s no way. And uh my dad kind of harped on me a little bit and I was like, “Okay, I’ll go try it out.” So I got a part-time job plumbing and within two weeks I was like, “This this is what I was born for. I loved it. I loved you know, people call you when you’re plumbing when they need you. They really need you.” So you’re showing up and you’re you’re providing that relief. So you get that good dopamine feeling that you’re helping people. Um I got to be a detective. I got to go see a plumbing system that I didn’t know how it worked and I had to figure it out. And then you get to put in your AirPods and kind of just tinker. And so I got the social aspect, I got the engineering aspect, I got the working with my hands. And very very rarely are you actually doing the dirty jobs that kept you away. And so I just fell in love with it. And I knew, you know, this is what I’m doing for the rest of my life. And haven’t looked back since.
Awesome. Awesome. And when did you when did you know that you had to start your own company? Like how did you go from being a business owner to to from being a plumber to saying, “Hey, I got to I got to do my own thing. I got to have my own business.” Like how did you know when that period was?
Um again, it kind of just fell into my hands. Um I think every plumber deep down always has that that nagging that they want to start their own thing, right? the the trades is a is a very different commodity. All these outside influencers that want to come in and they think the trades they’re just going to dominate it, that it’s an easy business. It couldn’t be further from the truth. And the reason why is the service that we’re pedalling isn’t a service at all. It’s people. Right. I’m only as good as my plumbers are. I could be the best businessman in the world. If I can’t attract and keep and train good plumbers, I’m nothing. Right. Right. Right. And so if you’re good at what you do, you have it in the back of your mind that I could go off and do this, even though you don’t know anything about marketing or business or finance or any of that kind of stuff. And so I did have it in the back of my mind, but I didn’t know when it would happen. Um, and quite honestly, I was pretty content. I was very happy working with my master plumber, who’s a good man, uh, that I still look up to. Um, but ultimately a client came to us that was a home warranty company. Um, and if you don’t know anything about home warranties, it’s bottom of the barrel pricing, but there’s consistent work. And they came to my boss and said, “Hey, we’re having a hard time finding honest plumbers in Salt Lake uh, that are reliable. Would you open up a branch in Salt Lake?” And my master plumber said to him, “Nope, not interested.” But he turned the opportunity over to me. And so it was kind of being handed a different job. It wasn’t a business by any sense of the word, right? I I basically worked for the home warranty under my own business. Um, and I very much owned a job and one thing led to another and the customers gave us good feedback that they liked us and we ended up growing. And it turned from owning a job to starting a business when I hired my first plumber, uh, which was an apprentice, which ultimately came down to plumbing changed my life. I loved it. And it would be selfish not to pass it on to another generation. And when we decided to hire on that first plumber, then the story started to become, well, how do I make this a career for him rather than a dead-end job where he’s going to want to leave and start his own thing, which if he does, by all means. Um, I have no hard feelings, but my job now as a business owner is to make this so easy and so um comfortable for him that he’s not going to want to leave, that he’s constantly getting attention, he’s making good pay and and all that kind of stuff. And that’s when we kind of shifted uh into owning a business. And that was probably about 3 years ago.
Okay. So, Court, what prepared you to start a business? You had the knowledge, you had the expertise as far as plumbing is concerned. How did you make that transition to becoming a business owner in the knowledge and the expertise of making sure that you know a business was successful?
Um, again, I think that’s a lot of the engineer mindset in me. Um, being an entrepreneur is if you had to put a definition on entrepreneur, you’re a problem solver. no different than a good plumber. You’re a problem solver. Um because you are faced every day with tasks that you don’t know the answer to, right? How do you do payroll? How do you do taxes? How do you set up an LLC? All this kind of stuff. And so I think that that was just a life um I think that the way I was brought up on a farm of you have to solve problems. Um, I think it was a natural tendency and uh, you know, God helped us and we we beat the fiveyear mark. I I’ve seen incredible people that on paper would be better business owners than me fail within that 5year mark because also on top of everything, owning a business is a gamble. And hopefully you have to have a little bit of luck on your side. The market has to hit, marketing has to hit, everything’s got to hit just right. And we were one of the lucky ones. Very cool.
What makes what makes this such a cool industry and such a viable career path for young people who are trying to figure out where to go in life and what they’re going to do with their life?
Um. Yeah. Well, so if you ask if you pull the average school right now on what young kids want to be, um the biggest thing that people want to be right now for whatever reason is influencers. Um that’s that’s like the number one thing I hear from kids, well, I want to be a Twitch streamer, influencer, do whatever. Um and by all means, chase your dreams, but let’s have another plan as well. Um, there’s a lot of reasons why you should become a plumber. One, there’s a labor shortage, right? Um, they keep building homes. AI is not going to be replacing you. There’s job security here, especially if you’re good at what you do. Um, it’s great pay. Uh, plumbing in particularly along with electrical is a highly protected trade in the state of Utah. and thanks to the UPCA, uh, we don’t see that slowing down. Uh, plumbing and electrical are the two. Um, and then why I had more of an affinity for plumbing versus electrical is one, I one, it intuitively makes sense to me a little bit more, right? If it’s leaking, I know it’s bad. Uh, if it shocks me, I don’t want to find out about that. So, I didn’t want to deal with that. Um but then also from the outside looking in, if you look at some of the biggest companies uh that are out there, electrical is typically such a small portion because electrical is very up and down on the economy. If the economy is doing good, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket, you might be spending money on electrical. But plumbing, I mean, water created the Grand Canyon. It’s a highly destructive thing. plumbing will always whether the economy is good or bad, toilets are going to break. Um, and so I think that is the most uh economy proof. Um, I think that it’s the best trade by far, just recession proof in general. So, that’s what sold me on plumbing from the outside looking in. And that’s proven to be true uh over my career.
Awesome. And and let’s just say uh someone who is uh younger is interested in getting into it. How would they find the right company to apprenticeship for? Like what should they be looking for in a company when they choose to take on an apprenticeship?
Yeah. So this is where I might ruffle some feathers. Um I think on that same foot of being recession proof, I think service is the only way to go. Uh, personally, and that’s also my personality. I can’t go into a bunch of spec homes and do the same thing over and over again for years on end. I can’t be the gopher that’s drilling holes. Uh, service is where your brain gets worked out, too, and you’re you’re really problem solving. Um, so what I would look for and what I recommend for people is if you’re going to go into new construction, which isn’t a bad place to start, just know that that is where you’re starting. Um, but what you’re looking for and what you’re shopping for for those first four years in particular is not the best pay. Um, it’s not good work life balance. It is finding a mentor. It is. And that’s not just your boss. That’s the journeyman that they put you under. And so, you’re looking for somebody that’s a teacher at heart. Um, somebody that’s going to let you be hands-on, not somebody that tells you to go and fetch tools all the time. That’s what you will do inevitably, but you need to get your hands on the tools and you’re looking for a teacher. Um, I think that the best teachers are all over. There might be the best teacher in new construction, but I think that that there’s a lot of great ones in service, but that’s what you’re shopping for. You’re shopping for a good teacher.
Awesome. And what is something that you wish that you knew when you were starting out in your career path? Is there a piece of advice you could give to someone that might be an aha thing for them or any kind of thing that you have and that you wish you knew when you were first starting out?
Um,I think just with those stigmas, like now the stigma’s shifting the other way, uh, that plumbers do make good money, but when I first started out, you know, I started out at $12 an hour and I kind of accepted it of I love what I do. I’m going to be broke for the rest of my life. Um, that’s what I thought, right? I I wasn’t making anything. And like everything in life, your potential is limited to your ability to communicate well. Um, and what I mean by that is I I know plumbers that are far better plumbers than me, uh, or far better plumbers than many in the industry that will never be incredibly successful because they cannot communicate well. Whether that’s communicating with their hire-ups about problems that they’re having on the job or communicating with customers effectively. Um I think that communication in all aspects it will improve your marriage, it will improve your family life. Uh but in the same lane that you are learning how to plum, you need to be also focusing on your communication skills. Um and plumbing’s a sales comes down to service plumbing, right? There’s always sales and service plumbing. The difference between sales in service plumbing versus sales in a car dealership or doortodoor sales is in those things you are creating the need. Um, and what I mean by that is like that’s where certain sales tactics come in. In plumbing, you don’t have to create the need. The customer knows that they have a need. Can you be the best educator and can you be the person that they feel confident is actually going to solve their problem? Um, and so you don’t need a bunch of sleazy sales tactics. You need to be honest. You need to be clean shaven. You need to show up. And you need to be able to educate them in a way and stand with confidence that um, do you know what, Mrs. Jones, I am the best company to take care of you. Um, and this is what we’re going to be doing for you. Um, and with that, your earning potential is unlimited. you will be in high demand with every company or better on your own if you’re a great communicator. Court, one of the issues that we see in the industry right now are companies that weigh more on the side of um commission sales than they do with the actual serving the public. And I, you know, everybody needs to make their money. I’m not opposed to that, of course, but they seem to have taken the other side of commission sales. There’s just a whole bunch of commission salesmen out there. What is your what made you decide to ensure that you wanted to take a different tack to that? Um, so the biggest thing is the longevity of the company um was the biggest thing for me. So understanding the overall economy of the service-based industry right now is private equity is coming in um and they’re buying up everybody and the play is so so you get bought out on what’s called an IBIDA which is earnings before interest taxes depreciation advertisation long story short on your profit right so money is the name of the game of what your company is worth with these companies uh the big commissionbased companies and so because money is all they care about because that’s what they’re selling for. Commissions is all based on how much money you sell. Uh Rare Breed has a different philosophy of we are not building to sell in any way, shape, or form. This this is my philosophy is I’m going to work until I’m 65 anyways. I want to control where I do it. I want to enjoy doing it. So, the problem with full-based commission is one, when your back’s up against the wall and you have to pay your bills, dishonesty can creep in. Um, because if you don’t make a sale, you don’t get paid. The second problem is is when you have a big job on the line and you need help from other plumbers to go over and work there. And if there’s no hourly pay or incentive that way, if there’s straight commission, why would there be team work, right? I don’t want to be working for free or working for much less than than just uh and then, you know, I I see it all the time of it really comes down to that honesty thing. I see it all the time that we go over we do a lot of sewer liners and we’ll go over to people’s homes and they’re being pitched to 1825,000 even up to a $40,000 sewer liner and my guys will put their cameras down and say Mrs. Jones like you don’t need it. Like in no way, shape or form do you need this? Um we’re more than happy to give you a bid if that’s what you choose. But I can’t help but think that those guys on the other end might not be bad people. That’s the only way they can pay the bills. And and they’ve gotten sucked into this cycle of umthey might have been lied to by the company that that trained them um that so and so actually does need a sewer liner or they might be bad actors. But I don’t know. But I like to believe that people are inherently good whether or not that’s true.
So, so what do you see the future of the plumbing industry in the state of Utah to be? Do you see that that’s going to continue to be a strong influence in the industry having those type of commission um salespeople out there or do you think uh people will get a little bit smarter at their being a consumer and learn?
Yeah, I I think the question has two parts to the answer. One, when I first started plumbing, we didn’t even, which this this is scary to me now, and I would never recommend this, but we never gave pricing at the beginning, not because we were being sneaky or anything like that. We just didn’t even think about it. We just went in and fixed it and said, “Hey, it’s going to be $300 at the end.” And nobody ever gave any push back at all. They trusted. they just trusted. And it wasn’t until that was up in Cash Valley. And it wasn’t until I moved down to Salt Lake that I realized how defensive people were about pricing. And it’s because the plumbing model changed from being we are servants. And you know, the plumber is the uh what does it say? The protector of the health of the nation. What’s the plumber? The health of the nation. Mhm. Yeah. And it shifted from that to a plumber as a used car salesman, you know, with with wrenches. And so I think that the public is wising up to it, which makes your job harder if you are an honest plumber. Also, when it comes to private equity, um, all these companies as they sell, what they’re doing is they’re rolling up and in four or five years, they’ll sell again. And then when that happens, there’s a culture shakeup and all of these commission-based guys didn’t get taken care of like they thought they would because again, money is the end goal. And so the culture gets shaken up and they go off and they start their own thing or they go to other companies. So the question is they’re all rolling up until one of them IPOs which has become a publicly traded company and that’s a gamble of whether or not that’s even possible. Um, I think that somebody will, but I don’t know how many. I mean, look at there’s one company in particular here in Salt Lake that owns well over eight companies. And in order to do that, they cannibalized a bunch of other ones. I think that homeowners with a conscience will uh not homeowners, business owners with a conscience are going to think twice before giving something that they’ve poured so much of their heart and soul into to a company that will end up seeing their their brand be just obliterated. But that all depends on how good of business owners they are. Many of these business owners are selling out of necessity. They might be making money hand over fist, but they’re paying out all these commissions and they’re not sustainable and they’re they’re selling because they’re in massive amounts of debt and that’s their only way to continue forward. They didn’t build a sustainable model because they built only to sell. Does that make sense what I’m saying? I think that’s a little bit jumbled, but I think we’ll see what the private equity market does. Um, but I don’t know. I’m kind of focused on my race, which has nothing to do with that. I’m just trying to build the best company I can. And seeing some of those IPOs kind of come in and buy up the smaller companies and they keep the name of the original company and kind of just butcher it.
Um, if there is a plumbing company that’s out out here, um, kind of in that position, what kind of piece of advice could you give them? to have that kind of successful mindset to to fix this thing from snowballing any further than it is to fix their own plumbing company so they don’t have to sell, right? Is there do you see anything that could be done to kind of stop that flow of of businesses being turned over into these um private equity conglomerates?
Yeah. Um, I mean, first first and foremost, becoming a better business owner and knowing your numbers, making sure that you’re trending in the right way to be able to be profitable, um, is huge. And I think that the best way that you can do that is as a business owner, um, get with companies that are doing it successfully. Um, that was that was the biggest realization for me for starting out is every business owner knows without a shadow of a doubt that their company is a train wreck and they are just like they are feeling insecure, right? How could this be happening to me? I must be a terrible business owner because so and so’s got it figured out. I get comments like this all the time of because I look I have a goodlooking brand because I feel like I’m a marketer at heart and I understand the importance of a brand. Um I have a better looking brand than I would say most plumbing companies in Utah. And that’s not being braggadocious. I I genuinely feel that way. Um well people see that and they link it as, wow, you must have it all figured out. And when we sit down and we’re talking about the brass tax, dude, I got the same problems that you do. I have the exact same problems, we just aren’t open about talking about them. And dude, you feel alone and you feel scared and you’re not wanting to even, you know, peak behind the veil. But if you just talk to other business owners, most guys would say, “Yeah, this is hard.” And finding the people that are the best at what they do. Um, you know, I have one company that when I have problems with finances, I go talk to him because that’s he’s financing at heart. Like, that’s what he loves. I go get his advice. If you need help with branding and marketing, come talk to me. That’s what I love. Like, I have zero problems in that aspect. Um, but I have problems with all of the other things as everybody else does. So, so that was the big aha for me is everybody else has a train wreck as well going on under the hood. It’s how even including the biggest guys in town, they are the same. They’re having the same problems. I promise you, they’re having the same problems. Um, and just being able to speak up, people are willing to help you. Other business owners are willing to help other business owners. The UPHCA is a great example of plumbing companies coming together and collaborating rather than scarcity mentality. Because at the end of the day, there are 3.5 million people in the state of Utah. All of them have plumbing that needs that needs help, right? And if I help other people in the UPHCA, I’m not taking from their plate. If anything, if there is a plate that we’re even taking from, which I don’t believe there is, but if there is, we’re picking up everything that the private equity is dropping as we get better as locally owned companies.
That is fantastic. I could not have said that better myself. That’s we’re we’re all in this together. We’re you don’t have to fight it alone. Um but uh in order to protect our market and our customers and everything else and prevent them from uh the bad actors that are out there and without any naming any names u maybe some examples you might have seen of some bad actors uh within the industry. Is there any kind of examples you might that come to mind?
So yeah, not necessarily on on companies and I think this is where we need to be careful as locally owned companies as well. Um the like I said before apprentices need to be shopping for a teacher, right? So the inverse of that is that plumbing companies need to become great teachers. They they just do. The problem, the biggest problem with private equity is they are good teachers only in the communication realm in sales because that’s all that they care about. And so there’s a quote that uh by Steven Cvy that some people have 20 years of experience and others have one year of experience repeated 20 times. And that’s the problem that we’re running into right now within the plumbing industry is I will interview all sorts of plumbers with 20 years of experience when in reality they have one year of experience repeated 20 times. Um they can’t diagnose it correctly, they can’t fix it correctly, they’re not doing correct gas sizing as the the government and regulations are pushing us more over to tankless models. um they’re just slapping them in and and customers are having problems. And so the biggest problem I see is some of these big companies are going in. And inherently the customer believes, right or wrong, and I firmly believe it’s wrong, the customer though believes that the bigger companies are investing more into education, right? And so they, and I’ve felt this, when when you need a problem solved, you go to a bigger company because they’re probably going to know how to take care of it uh better. I’ve lost customers to this before I had my branding figured out. Um, being able to train your guys how to do the job properly and to invest in education. And it’s it’s uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to get your guys to go and sit down in a room for one hour and talk to them about things that maybe nine out of your 10 guys already know intimately about water softeners, about gas, about whatever, but that other one guy will walk away with more value. Training, training, training all the time. I think that’s what’s ultimately going to set us apart uh from the big guys cuz they’re not training on the actual plumbing. they are training on sales and communication only. Um, and so that’s where I feel like I have shined above the big guys when you go in and so and so’s already been there and they didn’t solve the problem and you fix it in 20 minutes and you know that’s where you get the customers for life as well. Yeah. becoming a lifelong student of your craft and trade and all that and yeah, I think you’ve got a really good thing going. Um, as far as the general consumers go and the and the general public out there who may not know how any of this works, um, what what do you think that they can look for when they’re looking for a plumber and they’re out there kind of researching it? What are some some things you can tell them to help them find the right company to avoid getting scammed so they so they don’t spend a lot of money trying to fix it and then have somebody come in and fix spend 20 minutes and fix it, you know? Um I mean the basics that they’re going to be looking for is Google reviews, right? I don’t think Google reviews lie. Um and go down to the one stars first. No company is going to be full five stars. Everybody’s trying to make mistakes, but how the company handles those mistakes will speak volumes to it. Um, and then the second thing is understanding how to use Doppel and verifying that your contractor is licensed. Not only the company that is being advertised, right? So, if you go look up Rare Breed Plumbing, you will find Rare Breed Plumbing Heating and Air. You’ll find it on Doppel. But also, when the individual contractor steps in, that’s not enough. When the individual contractor steps in and I say, “Hi, Mrs. Jones. My name’s Court Lundberg.” It’s a quick search to say Court Lundberg. And are they licensed? And if they are licensed, are they an apprentice or are they a journeyman? And have the guts to say if they’re an apprentice like, “Hey, I’ I’d feel more comfortable if a journeyman’s out here.” Um, no company’s going to say no to that that’s running a tight ship. Um, and again for the general public, a somebody should be an apprentice for a max of 8 years. And you can see when they filed to be an apprentice, a maximum of eight years. And if they have been an apprentice for 20 plus years, and they’re like, well, I’ve been doing this for 20 plus years. It’s like, or you’ve been doing this for one year, repeat it 20 times. because if you’ve really been investing in your craft, you would have licensed out by now. You would have put the time and effort into upgrading yourself. That’s that’s my personal bias on it.
Yeah, that’s great. And then um we’ve kind of hit on a lot of this uh as far as like some of your core business philosophies, but is there anything that you have to share additionally as far as core business philosophies that that can kind of help improve and improve the quality and the of our trade and craftsman in our area?
Um I think it’s very often we remember you know the good companies already have this built into them that that we’re servants right that this is a servitude job we are serving our clientele I think we also need to remember that our clientele is also our internal customers um and we have touched on that but the the companies that are want to stick around long term and that aren’t going to have a lot of churn. I don’t know about anybody listening to this, but I for one do not enjoy recruiting uh for a position that I’ve already found a good fit for. I feel like I’m going backwards. You feel like you’re a hamster spinning your will. When I’m recruiting, it’s because I’m growing. That’s what I want to do. And so to not have that churn, you need to have a business plan that has uh room for them to grow, right? Um and that might be teaching them leadership, that might be uh teaching them more things about plumbing. But I think that that knowing what that plan is and recruiting to it and making good on your internal customers, we get people all the time because they know that they’re going to be trained here. even those guys that are 20 years into it. Um, I put a lot of time and effort into finding those apprentices and saying, “Look, nobody’s ever invested in you to to uh actually get your licensing.” Um, stop doing that. Stop having the scarcity mentality of like, if I don’t get my if my guy gets licensed, he’s going to leave. Well, I’d rather have that than have him not get licensed and stay. and me have to deal with all the cleanup. Invest in your guys and train them. Um, and it’s it’s just going to work out. Just invest in your people.
And do you think that’s part of the key of having employee growth is is just investing in the employee?
Yes. they’re going to feel I mean I I challenge everybody that went off and started their own thing of like what what got them to leave and there was usually a catalyst of some sort of they feel like they had hit a ceiling. Um or they had a fallout with a boss because of something like there’s usually happy people don’t leave their jobs just to go try something. Maybe they do. The vast majority of people either something fell in their lap like it did for me. Um or they’ve hit a ceiling where they’re just like, I’m the most competent person here. I need to go off and do my own thing. Or they had a boss that threw them under the bus or wasn’t investing in them or wasn’t teaching them. Um and I think investing in in them is what’s going to keep them. And if it’s not um and I don’t want to go over too much on time, I have all the time in the world. So, but if you look at uh Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs is wildly revered as the largest uh investment company. The fact is that that’s just not true. They’re not the biggest in any way, shape, or form. what Goldman Sachs is, but they they look like they’re the biggest and they get very profitable jobs and all that kind of stuff. Their philosophy is really interesting to me and it’s what we’ve tried to do. Goldman Sachs is kind of a meat grinder of people and we are not. But if you go work at Goldman Sachs, you’re grinding 80 hours a week and it’s kind of your place to prove yourself. Um, well, what happens is when Goldman Sachs employees leave, they know that Goldman Sachs is very efficient at what they do. And so they go to Meil Lynch or they go to this small investment company and they get a customer that calls them and says, “Hey, can you do this?” They say, “No, I don’t, but I know somebody who can.” And they’ll refer people, previous employees will refer it over to Goldman Sachs. In plumbing, it’s the same. when your guys go start out and they land that liner job or that big boiler job or that big remodel and they’re just like, “Man, I can’t take this on.” If you were good to them and you invested in them, they’ll send it back your way all the time. Um, and so I’m not afraid of my guys leaving. I think it’s going to end up putting more money in my pocket. And if I support them, like I said, we were lucky to last the 5 years that we did. the chances of them surviving, even if they’re killers, is still pretty low. Um, and that’s not to disparrage them or anybody else. That’s just the reality of business. That business is hard and it’s not for the faint of heart. And so, if the wheels fall off that train, I still want to be there to pick them up. And you’re not going to do that by burning bridges and saying, “Oh, yeah. If you start your own thing, you’re dead to me.” No, I’ll I’ll support you however I can.
Awesome. Well, Court, I really do appreciate you taking the time to hang out with us today. It’s been uh fascinating to hear your story. Uh Court Lundird from Rare Breed Plumbing. Um thanks so much for being with us today. Uh really appreciate your time. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Yeah.
Is there anything else anybody wants to ask real quick?
I just want to you you have looked at you specialized in certain parts of the trade like give us some ideas of why you went into certain aspects and what what uh why did you specialize in certain areas?
Um yeah, I think that also goes back to what did I wish what would I have wished that I known about plumbing when I first started. Um something that people trying to get into the trades need to realize is if there is humans, if there are humans, there are plumbers in some aspect. Like you will never be out of a job plumbing. The oil fields need it. Lagoon’s hiring right now. Cruise ships need plumbing. Any third world needs plumbing. Everybody needs a plumber. And so there’s so many aspects. And this is one thing that I wish the school system would improve on is they teach code and they teach all this. I wish that when we first got into it and when I was going to school, I learned how to freeze pipes. I learned more about hydronulics. I learned more about sewer lining. I learned more about all these aspects uh pipe bursting and all these kind of things. There are a million avenues that you can go into with plumbing. Um, why Rare Breed focuses on what it does is because of the the customers that we serve. And the customers that we serve are primarily um the residents of Salt Lake, Davis, and and uh Utah County. And so it’s typical homeowners. And so we are looking for the services that offer them the best service. And that is pipelining. um on those older homes. It is general residential service. It is hydronics. Um and it’s why we’ve steered clear of things um of other things. We we don’t do a lot of commercial at as of this time. Um but as we do, we’re we’re dipping our toes into commercial right now. And the reason why we’re doing it is again because of our internal customers. I had a plumber that came to me. He’s an absolute killer. I asked him what his end up goals were and he says I really like to do this kind of work. Um well I have zero zero desire to do uh big commercial jobs personally like that doesn’t sound fun to me at all but he does and I want to keep him around. So I go and find those jobs for him and I help him build out his own department. Now he’s being invested into he feels valued. He feels more ownership into that. I feel good about it too because if we do it right, hopefully we’re making some money on it. Um, but I have a new avenue that I can attract people to of I can send apprentices over there to learn the basics and then bring them over into service uh once they have it. And so that’s kind of why we’ve focused on what we have. It’s why we haven’t really gotten into backflows yet, but we will. Um, just one step at a time. Hopefully that answered the question.
Very cool. Well, uh, Court again, I appreciate you coming on. Appreciate you having taking the time to talk with us today. But Court Lungberg from Rare Breed Plumbing, and this has been another episode of the UPCA pipeline podcast.
So, thank you for joining us today.
Hey, thanks guys.
The UPHCA Pipeline podcast.
If you need the services of Rare Breed Plumbing, you can visit their site here: https://www.callrarebreed.com/
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