Episode Details

Jordan Chivers runs WL Chivers Plumbing - a 17-man Melbourne maintenance and emergency plumbing business that turns up in under an hour, 365 days a year.

From a 14-year-old operating a Takeuchi TB108 to running one of Melbourne's go-to emergency plumbing outfits, Jordan has been on the tools since before he was out of Year 9. In this episode, Jimmy sits down with him - Managing Director of WL Chivers Plumbing - to talk about the reality of running a reactive, no-BS trade business: being raised by his old-school maintenance plumber dad Wayne, talking his way into an excavator at fourteen, digging sewers before he had a driver's licence, and how a handshake operation turned into a team doing 150–200 jobs a week for the RACV Emergency Home Assist program.

It's a wide-ranging, operator-to-operator chat about the trade shortage, the fuel crisis, the PVC pipe shortage hitting the whole industry, and why the phone will always dictate the day.

What we cover:

• The trade shortage — how Melbourne went from graduating 1,000 plumbers a year to 200–300

• Why young tradies are choosing lollipop sticks on government infrastructure over apprenticeships

• The fuel crisis, the PVC shortage, and the ripple effect through construction

• Politicians, payroll tax, fuel excise and the Victorian business environment

• Compliance, the "TikTok Inspector," and the new Building Plumbing Commission

• Women in construction — pink trucks, pink excavators, and female managers

• Why neither Jimmy nor Jordan has a written business plan

• Showing up: the Australia Day call for a $1.5M job

• Why AI will never install a toilet — and why trades are the most future-proof career going

If you got something out of this one, drop a review — five stars, three thumbs up, whatever your platform lets you leave. It genuinely helps the show get in front of more tradies and operators.

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Connect with Jordan:

🌐 Website: https://chiversplumbing.com.au/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chivers.plumbing/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plumbcast.au/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wlchiversplumbing/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-chivers-51a71395/

Connect with Jimmy:

🌐 Website: https://starbuckgroup.com.au

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JimmyTalksConstruction

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starbuckexcavation

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starbuckexcavation

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-starbuck-13336546/