Restoration Pros Unplugged
by Clinton James
Latest episode
The 5-Minute Deliverable That Gets Restoration Companies Into…
The 5-Minute Deliverable That Gets Restoration Companies Into…
About this podcast
Restoration Pros Unplugged is the podcast built for restoration business owners who want to grow, operate smarter, and lead better.
Hosted by Clinton James, CMO at Water Restoration Marketing, each episode cuts through the noise and gets straight to what matters — real conversations with restoration industry pros, business builders, and experts who've been in the trenches.
From marketing and sales to operations, leadership, and scaling your company, Restoration Pros Unplugged delivers the insights, strategies, and honest talk you won't find anywhere else.
No fluff. No filler. Just straight-talking advice from people who know this industry.
Whether you're running a two-truck operation or managing a multi-location company, this podcast gives you the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to take your restoration business to the next level.
Subscribe, tune in, and get ready to learn from the best.
Welcome to Restoration Pros Unplugged.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 78 episodes
- The 5-Minute Deliverable That Gets Restoration Companies Into Commercial Buildings with Jeff Carrier · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 78Every restorer who walks into a commercial building leads with the same line: we do fire and water damage. The facility manager has heard it. You leave with nothing. In this…
- Trust & Understand: The Profitable Restorer Series with Nikole Mackenzie · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 77Best month ever. $250,000 in revenue. Four thousand dollars in the bank and payroll due tomorrow. If you've lived that, this episode is for you. In part one of The Profitable…
- He Built an $18M Restoration Company, Then Sold It! · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 76A lab tech showed up to an active hazmat job site in flip-flops, grabbed drywall with his bare hands, and dropped it in an open tool bag. The invoice was $600. That's the moment…
- What Your Techs Are Actually Saying in the Home with Nick D'Urbano from Porter · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 75You pay to make the phone ring. Then a tech walks into a house, has a conversation you'll never hear, and that conversation decides whether you got the job. In this episode, host…
- An 11-Inch Rain and a $300K Lesson: Tyler Hendrix on Building Voda South Kansas City · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 74One 11-inch rain event cost Tyler Hendrix and his partners an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 in a single day, because they weren't built to handle the volume. In this episode…
- Dropped Out, Cashed Out His Roth, Built the AI: Caleb Owens on Running Restoration at 24 · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 73At 20, Caleb Owens took over a $525K mitigation department that had bad hires, heavy churn, and stolen equipment. Fifteen months later it was running at $1.5M with 37% profit…
- Sealed on a Napkin: How Rick McGuigan and Larry Braun Built the Partnership That Blew Pine Ridge Wide Open · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 72Rick McGuigan asked Larry Braun to join his company for ten years. Larry kept saying "you can't afford me." They finally settled it on a napkin. In this episode, host Clinton…
- Five Fire Claims in Six Weeks: Bobby Thomas and Malik Stevens on Killing the Margin vs. Volume Myth · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 71Malik Stevens believed what everyone says about TPAs. Then he ran five fire claims in six weeks, and the first one billed almost $60,000. In this episode, host Clinton James sits…
- "The Packouts Girl With the Hobby Job" : Kristen Stein on What Contents Work Actually Takes · 45 min · Season 1 Episode 70Most restorers think contents is easy. Put stuff in a box. Kristen Stein says the box was never the hard part. In this episode, host Clinton James sits down with Kristen Stein…
- Two Phone Calls, One Drive Home: How Michael Harrison Built a $6M Restoration Powerhouse · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 69Michael Harrison told his insurance agent he'd do $250,000 his first year in business. He finished at $1.6 million. In this episode, host Clinton James sits down with Michael…
- From Near-Bankruptcy to Breakthrough: Raul Gonzalez's Restoration Comeback Story · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 68Most restoration business owners only show you the highlight reel. Not this episode. Raul Gonzalez of WonderBuilt Restoration and Construction gets real with Clinton James about…
- Six Years, Six Territories: How Tunde & Moji Adefolaju Built a 15-Truck SERVPRO Starting One Week Before COVID · 38 min · Season 1 Episode 67Tunde and Moji Adefolaju opened their SERVPRO one week before COVID shut everything down. Six years later they're running six territories and 15 service vehicles in Northern…
- From Navy Squadron to a $100K Job: Dwayne West's First 9 Months at Firehawk Restoration · 24 min · Season 1 Episode 66Nine months into business, Dwayne West landed a $100,000 job off his second lead. In this episode, he tells host Clinton James how he did it. Dwayne owns Firehawk Restoration in…
- Industrial Metrics, Explosive Margins: How Larry Braun Scaled Pine Ridge Restoration Past $6M Using Dashboard Accountability · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 65Running your restoration company on gut feeling and bank balances is a quiet way to stay stuck. Real growth comes from installing hard numbers and accountability into every job…
- Scale or Stall: The Three Core Pillars Separating Restoration Giants From Stuck Operators · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 64Most episodes of this show feature a single guest sharing their unique path through the industry, but today we are completely flipping the script. In this special roundtable…
- How Andrew Rickabaugh Fled the "Apology Tour" to Build a Multi-Million Dollar Independent Restoration Brand · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 63Most restoration owners have a crazy story about how they got into the business, but very few have survived a first job so brutal it almost drove them out of the industry…
- Systems, Leadership, and Letting Go: The Next Level for Restoration Owners with Toby Clem · 38 min · Season 1 Episode 62In this follow-up episode, Clinton James sits down again with Toby Clem of Restoration Advisers to dive deeper into what it really takes to grow a restoration company that…
- Your Data Is Broken & Why AI Can't Save You "Yet," with Andrew Wirick of Docusketch · 48 min · Season 1 Episode 61If your field techs are juggling four, five, even eleven different apps on a single water mitigation job — you've got a data problem. And that data problem is going to follow you…
- The Fundability Fix with Paul Childers: Build a Restoration Business Lenders Actually Want to Back · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 60You're landing jobs. Revenue is climbing. But somehow, cash is always tight — and when you need financing to grow, the doors keep closing. You're not alone. And the problem…
- From Disney to Mold Remediation: Engineering 5-Star Service in a 1-Star Moment with Vance Morris · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 59What if your restoration company could deliver a Disney-level experience—even on a customer’s worst day? In this episode of Restoration Pros Unplugged, Clinton James sits down…
