Exploring Life & Business with Shane Hayden of The Rooter Dude

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Hayden. 

Hi Shane, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started plumbing when I was 17 years old right after I graduated high school in 2004, but have been on construction sites since I was a little kid working for my father and uncles. I got into plumbing when one of my friends’ dads bought him a drain cleaning business, I was blown away at how much money he was able to make just doing drain cleaning that I approached a guy by the name of Dave Miller aka Dirty Dave whom my friend’s dad had bought the drain cleaning business from. Dave agreed to take me under his wing and teach me everything plumbing-related. I worked for free for about a month and then Dave had deemed me worthy for a daily rate. It was long days usually starting at Daves house at 5 am and I had about a 35–40-minute commute form thousand oaks to his house in the valley. We would usually run service calls into the early evening and then remodels on the weekends. I just became a sponge and soaked in every ounce of information that he would show me. Within a year I was running my own calls and after a few years, I went off on my own and started SHANECO plumbing. I had got hurt when building a dialysis center and stopped plumbing for about 2 years. When my wife and I decided to move back to Nashville in 2020 we talked about me opening another plumbing company and that’s when The Rooter Dude was born. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not hahaha. I had taken a loss in a failed business in California and accumulated a large debt. Moving across the country with A wife, two-year-old, newborn, a rottweiler, and two cats in the middle of the pandemic to start a business in a state where I didn’t really know that many people was anything short of glamorous. The first few months I wasn’t sure if it was going to work and almost threw the towel in multiple times. My wife constantly reassured me though and always encouraged me that it would all be worth it. I literally would wake up at 4 am and start messaging realtors and property management companies on Facebook and Instagram introducing myself and the company. if I didn’t have calls I would drive around to local businesses and hand out business cards and go to Lowes and Home Depot and hand out business cards to people looking at anything plumbing-related, Before I knew it, I was booked out for two weeks. 

As you know, we’re big fans of The Rooter Dude. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I think the biggest thing that sets us apart from other plumbing companies is quality over quantity. I take a lot of pride in my craft and I believe that is visualized in my work. We do everything plumbing related from drain cleaning and hydro jetting to roughing in and trimming out custom homes. Education is a key component in every job that we do, the main priority is to let the customer know what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how to avoid the situation in the future. There are many jobs that a customer doesn’t need to call a plumber for and I have walked countless customers how to do simple tasks like changing a toilet flapper via phone call or Facetime. I think the thing that I am most proud of is that we have built and continue building a very successful business without ever spending $1 in advertising, every job that has come in has been either a referral or recommendation and that makes me extremely proud of the quality of work Th Rooter Dude is producing. 

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking?
I am a huge risk taker. More calculated now in my wiser years. I once told my wife I would rather lose $1,000 at a casino trying to make $100,000 than to walk away at the end of the night only making $100. I swing for the fences in all aspects of life, sometimes you swing and miss, but the game isn’t over yet. I am an all-or-nothing guy so the risk of failure fuels me to my next success. I have failed many times in my life and with each failure, amazing realizations and lessons have transpired. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.TheRooterDude.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therooterdude/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRooterDude
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DudeRooter
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-rooter-dude-mount-juliet-2