RICHARDSON, Texas — Roger Wakefield is a plumber who owns Texas Green Plumbing and has gained 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. He’s helped millions of people who were stuck at home during the pandemic and plans on helping many more. 

“Right now I do anywhere from $10 to $50,000 a month,” Wakefield said. 

Wakefield has been in plumbing for more than 40 years. About three years ago his business was failing and he was paying up to $4,000 a month for marketing that was unsuccessful. He decided to take matters into his own hands through social media after attending a conference that showcased the benefits. 

“Literally on the sign out front it said something like get in front of your customers using video,” Wakefield said." I thought, man, that would be great.” 

He then took action and began posting three plumbing-related videos weekly. He went from paying up $4,000 an ad to gaining income at no cost to himself. Wakefield now makes a substantial income on YouTube alone.

"Social media is going to keep growing,” Wakefield said. “For YouTube, I’m very old. I wanted to learn about video, how to get video, anything like that. Derrel Eves is the one who just opened my eyes to it.” 

Eves, marketing consultant and author of "The YouTube Formula," says YouTube and social media are a new normal. 

“Transformation is hard. There’s a lot of people that are very resistant. 'Hey! This is never going to go anywhere, it’s never going to do anything,' and they missed their opportunity when they actually could have capitalized on it and tripled or quadrupled their exposure," Eves said. “So Roger is the best example of what a brand can do if they just let go of what they think needs to be done. What he did was starting out helping people with plumbing issues and documenting that. Now, when you look at his channel he’s getting million on millions of views, more work than he knows what to do with it. Yes! For a plumber. Come on, if a plumber can do it ...” 

Wakefield says a lot of his growth came during the pandemic and thanks his platform on social for not only sustaining his business but exceeding expectations.