Hey everyone, Tyler Williams here. If you’ve been following the Mammoth Plumber Podcast, you know we don’t just talk about pipes and water heaters; we talk about the guts of running a successful trade business. Today, I’m recapping a killer conversation I had with Christine Lawson. Christine is a strategic consultant who specializes in figuring people out and moving businesses forward.
Let’s be honest: business owners go on a journey. There is a massive difference between a guy who just started his plumbing shop and someone who has been grinding for years. Usually, by the time someone reaches out for help, they are drowning. They think they just need “systems and processes,” but as Christine pointed out, the root cause is usually much deeper.
In this article, I’m breaking down our conversation on how consulting can save your business—from defining your values to taking the emotional “sting” out of hard decisions.
The “I Just Need Systems” Trap
When people come to a consultant like Christine—or even when they come to me at Mammoth Marketing—they usually say the same thing: “I just need to get organized. I need systems.”
They aren’t wrong, but they’re looking at the surface. It’s like a customer calling you because a faucet is leaking, but the real issue is that their water pressure is through the roof and about to blow the pipes. Christine’s gift is asking about 5,000 questions (she actually wants to put that on a t-shirt) to find the “root cause” domino.
Most business owners don’t realize they are drowning until they are already underwater. They’ve built a business that relies entirely on them, and they’ve reached a point where they can’t scale because they are the bottleneck. A consultant doesn’t just give you a checklist; they help you see the dependencies you didn’t even know existed.
Values: The Wrench in Your Hand
We talked a lot about values and vision. Now, I’ll be the first to admit it: for a long time, I rolled my eyes at “corporate values.” They sounded like fluff. But Christine gave me a great analogy: Values are a tool.
If you give me a wrench and you give a master plumber a wrench, the results are going to be different. Values are the same. When used correctly, values are decision-makers. They dictate:
Who you hire and fire.
What kind of culture you have when you aren’t in the room.
When to say “no” to a million-dollar check because it doesn’t align with your vision.
In the plumbing world, we often get “held ransom” by a high-skilled technician who is a total “toxic rockstar.” They can troubleshoot anything, but they treat the team like garbage. If you don’t have defined values, you’ll keep that person out of fear. If you do have values, you realize that keeping them is actually costing you more in the long run.
Using Numbers to Kill Emotional Decision-Making
I’ll be vulnerable for a second: I want people to like me. I want things to go smoothly. That makes making hard calls—like letting an employee go—really difficult and emotional.
Christine shared a trick that blew my mind: Put a number on it. If you have an employee who isn’t fitting, rate them 1 to 10 on how well they embody your core values. When you see a “0” or a “2” on paper, the emotion leaves the room. It’s no longer about whether you like them; it’s about whether they are untenable for the business.
Numbers and data are the “speed indicators” of a business. If you can see your analytics and your values clearly every week, you can make decisions ten times faster. And in business, speed is everything.
The “Horse and the Plow” Strategy
One of my favorite parts of our chat was the “stump” analogy. Christine’s husband is a pastor, and he talks about how farmers used to plow fields. If there was a giant stump in the way, they’d just plow around it.
In business, we do this all the time. We have a hard problem—maybe a difficult employee or a broken billing process—and we just “plow around it” season after season. But eventually, those roots settle, and that soil becomes unusable.
A consultant helps you decide: Do we go around the stump for now so we can keep eating, or is it time to blow the stump up so we can actually scale the lower 40? You don’t have to tackle every mountain on day one, but you do need a strategist to help you navigate the path.
Why “Social Chameleons” Make the Best Consultants
Marketing and consulting are two sides of the same coin: Psychology. I’ve learned that as a marketer, I have to be a bit of a social chameleon. I have to understand what motivates a homeowner to click a “Call Now” button. Christine does the same thing with business owners. She uses tests like the Colby A or Working Genius to understand how people creatively problem-solve.
She isn’t just giving a “one-size-fits-all” plan. She’s tailoring the message so the business owner can actually hear it. It’s “manipulating for good,” as we joked. If I know you’re motivated by being helpful, I’m going to frame a leadership change in a way that shows how it helps your team. If you’re motivated by growth, I’ll show you the ROI.
At the end of the day, 99% of business is just a psychological game between you and the rest of the world.
Moving at the Speed of Success
If there is one thing I want you to take away from my talk with Christine, it’s this: Consulting is about speed.
You aren’t stupid. I’m not stupid. We could all probably figure this stuff out eventually. But it might take us ten years and a mid-life crisis to get there. A consultant is an accelerator. They take what you’re already on track to do and make it happen in half the time with half the heartache.
I spent the first five years of my business trying to be a “jack of all trades” because that’s how I was raised. I thought asking for help was a weakness. I was wrong. Asking for help is the ultimate “cheat code” for business growth.
Are You Ready to Scale?
Running a plumbing business is hard, but it shouldn’t deprive you of all joy and sanity. If you feel like you’re treading water, it might be time to stop plowing around the stumps and start building a business that actually serves you.
If you want the Tyler Williams crew to take a look at your current setup, your marketing, and what you need to focus on to actually grow (and maybe even enjoy your life again), I’d love to chat.
Schedule a consultation at my website here: tylerwilliams.net
