Kim Yeagley is running a successful residential plumbing company in the Gold Canyon, Arizona, area, carefully managing company growth and building a loyal customer base. But she’s having fun, too. Her social media sites are evidence of that.
“I am trying to show a younger generation that you can be in the trades, be a plumber, and still have fun,” says Yeagley, owner and operator of Gold Canyon Plumbing and a commercial auxiliary, Coppertop Plumbing. “You don’t have to be frumpy. You can be sexy and hot and have fun with your work.”
That may sound like the 41-year-old company owner is too frivolous to lead a plumbing business. The truth is, she’s just confident. In operating the company with her husband, Ivan Rowe, Yeagley has found her place. She recalls being told as a young teen that she was “never going to amount to anything” and otherwise was on a dead-end path.
“It made me stronger,” Yeagley says. “I began to believe I could be the person I wanted to be. I’m trying to show people that you have to believe in yourself.”
Take a look at her Instagram account named Plumberwoman, a profile that has recorded millions of views. Yeagley had Wonder Woman in mind when she launched it. It features some things one might expect in a plumbing media site, such as rusty pipe couplings and intricate copper pipe solutions. Tools are a regular feature.
But then there is Yeagley also modeling Gold Canyon Plumbing attire and looking fetchingly at the camera. Not all that risqué but also not staid advertising.
Yeagley’s traditional newspaper advertising is directed at the winter visitors to Gold Canyon and East Valley who are older and not especially internet or social media savvy. But her Instagram and TikTok posts, on the other hand, reach out to an entirely different segment of the customer base.
The social media posts are well-received not only by visitors who are curious what a “plumberwoman” might be, but also by peers in the plumbing industry. For example, her modeling of socks bearing the Apollo brand of fittings and valves, and recurring shots of Milwaukee tools, have attracted other companies wanting her imprimatur on one product or another. The social media posts are fun, but they are also beginning to generate another income stream.
What’s next? Yeagley isn’t finished having fun yet. Her next project is to offer a line of Plumber Woman swag. Wrenches not included.
Read more about Gold Canyon Plumbing in the August 2022 issue of Plumber magazine.
