Handle The Sh!T

#10 - 5 Mindset Shifts to Build a Kick-Ass Septic Business

• Tanya Wilson & The Crew at HomeField East Valley • Episode 10

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In this solo episode of Handle the Sh!t, Tanya Wilson drops the mic on what really drives a successful septic business — and it’s not just trucks, tools, or trenches. It’s your mindset.

Tanya shares five powerful mindset shifts that have helped her grow multiple septic companies, lead a team, and build a brand that stands out in a traditionally old-school industry. From handling daily chaos to leading with intention and bouncing back like a badass, this episode is a firestarter for anyone ready to lead their business — and themselves — to the next level.

🧠 TOPICS WE COVER

  • Why your mindset is your greatest business asset
  • How to shift from burnout to intentional leadership
  • The secret to building trust and boosting sales without being pushy
  • What rest has to do with success (yes, seriously)
  • Why collaboration wins over competition every time

✨ 5 THINGS YOU’LL LEARN

  1. Why believing everything is figureoutable gives you power
  2. How showing up to solve, not just sell, grows trust (and profits)
  3. The importance of rest to avoid burnout and scale smart
  4. How to develop resiliency so you can bounce back faster
  5. Why collaborating with other companies elevates the entire industry

🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS

💬 QUOTE OF THE EPISODE

“Your business becomes unstoppable when you decide you’re unstoppable.” — Tanya Wilson

🧼 EPIC AFFIRMATION

“I am building a legacy, not just a business. My mindset fuels the future I’m creating.”

🎧 Thanks for Listening to Handle The Sh!T!

If today’s episode fired you up or hit home, send it to someone in the field who needs to hear it.
We’re building something bigger than a business — we’re raising the bar for this industry.

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👉 Drop us a review — it helps more badass pros find us.
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🔗 Connect With Us:

🌐 Website: HomeFieldOnsite.com/East-Valley
📸 Instagram: @HomeFieldEastValley
📘 Facebook: @HomeFieldEastValley
🎵 TikTok: @WeDoEpicShit
🎥 YouTube: @homefieldeastvalley
🐦 X (Twitter): @HomeFieldEastValley
💼 LinkedIn: Tanya Merritt Wilson
📧 Email: Tanya@homefieldonsite.com

Handle The Sh!T! is powered by HomeField East Valley — where septic gets done right, and business gets handled.

#HandleTheShitPodcast #HomeFieldEastValley #SepticStrong #WastewaterWarriors #TradesTalk #WeDoEpicShit #HandleTheShit

Tanya Wilson - Ladies Kicki... (00:40)
Hey, hey, welcome back to Handle the Shit. My name's Tanya Wilson. And today I want to talk to you about something that's really heavy on my heart. I've been having great conversations with so many wastewater professionals. And I just really want to talk about five mindset shifts that make you kick ass at running a successful septic business. You know, a lot of times when we're thinking about running a septic company, we're thinking about trucks and trenches and

what the weather's gonna look like and what the schedule is, and just like all the nuances of all the shit that can literally go wrong every day. But what we really have to understand as business owners and those that wanna be successful and have a business working for them, not because of them, it's all about our mindset. Everything that happens in business really comes down to what's the mindset of the leader of the company.

And if this is something that you've never heard of before, welcome. And if this is something that you know that you need to work on, also welcome. This is completely non-judgmental. I'm coming at you with some really raw stories about ways I've been able to really elevate my own mindset so that I can be better for my team and I can be better for the franchise and for the business as itself. I want to share with you five ways

that I've really learned to lead and grow and show up in the industry at a whole other level. And let's be honest, in the wastewater industry, sometimes it's not very hard to stand out because everybody is doing the same old shit day in and day out. And it's the grind and it's the hustle and it's the run yourself into the ground and to burn out. And none of us want to do that.

If you want to run a kick-ass septic business, it starts in your head before it ever shows up in the company. One of the first things I want you to really start embracing is everything is figure outable. Everything. If you haven't read that book, it's stellar by the way. It's just really the adage of this shit is not going to take me down. No matter what pops up in my business.

I can obtain the skills or find someone that has the skills to help me get out of it or help me get past this. Like you're either learning or you're stuck. If you're doing the same thing day in day out and you don't have any problems in your business, are you really even trying that hard? I have questions. Challenges aren't signs that you're failing. It truly means that they're signs that there is evolving going on inside of your business.

That could be gross. That could be that you grew so down fast that now you need to scale it back a little bit. And you actually need to get processes in place to make sure that you're doing great, consistent work. In this industry, every unexpected problem is truly a masterclass in disguise. It really is. It really is. How can I handle this? How can I show if it's the next level me to be able to take on?

these new and incredibly ever-growing problems. Are they problems or are they opportunities? Right there is a mindset shift. Are we running into problems all day long or are we met with new opportunities to learn? I know sometimes this can be very hard and for many of you this might sound like, that's nice and that's fluffy and I wish that I could be as positive as she is, but you can be. Again, it's a mindset shift and it's just a choice.

Growth-minded owners don't get overwhelmed. They get curious. Why do the same problems keep showing up? This week, next week, the next week? Maybe it's a cashflow issue. I've definitely had that problem in my business. We're like clear the hell up here. It's like that funny meme that you see that shows entrepreneurship is 10 cents on Monday. Monday afternoon, you have $30,000. Some by Friday after payroll, you have 27 cents left.

Although it's funny and most of us can relate to it, it's not something that we want to have in our business. Cause what do you think that brings? Lack mentality, which is something that a bunch of us struggle with, myself included, and also inconsistency and fucking stress of like, my God, I'm on this cashflow roller coaster that is just like never going to end. So get curious about consistent problems that keep showing up in your business.

The next one that I think is really, really, really important that we talk about is that you're here to solve, not to sell. Now, some of you might be like, hold up, we're definitely here to sell. And I get all of that. But when you show up with a servant leadership, when you show up with a service, heartfelt emotion behind what you're doing out in the field,

You want to leave the customer in a better place than where they started. You want to leave them more educated about the system that they are running than they had when you got there. Selling becomes second nature. Selling is a byproduct of educating. Selling is a byproduct of being there to solve a problem. When you put your customers first, when you are a service technician out in the field, or even on the phones in the office,

You build trust with them. You build a rapport with them. And that trust becomes your unfair advantage in the marketplace. Because many people don't spend the time to build the rapport. They don't even ask somebody on the phone, how's your day going today? While they're looking up their septic records. it sounds like you've got a puppy in the back. What's your puppy's name? what kind of dog is it? And meanwhile, you're preparing to give them the spiel that you need to over the phone.

But you're building rapport with them and actually communicating with them that they're so much more than just a customer to you or a potential lead. They're actually another human being and people want to do business with other humans that they know, like and trust. We always want to make sure that when we're out in the field, we're doing the right thing. It's not about, I promise you, if you will show up and do the right thing, those sales will follow.

It's not about going out and selling people a bunch of shit that they don't need to have. And I think in wastewater, we're very integrist in that fact that we don't do that and we don't need to do that. And it's kind of a waste to do that. But when we show up and we properly educate and we build that rapport, those sales just continue to come because you know where else they come from? Word of mouth in the neighborhood. They come from them leaving you a glowing five-star review online and that just continues to help perpetuate

more and more customers into coming into your business. If you really have the attitude of how can I help instead of how can I win every single time, you will just see your sales skyrocket and soar. And what that does for your mindset is so crazy. I've definitely worked for a company where at nighttime you lay your head on the pillow and you're like, I kind of feel like a slimy piece of shit today because I did things I shouldn't have done, but I had to hit a sales goal. We can have integrals sales goals.

and really go out and kick ass and build a successful team. But it's all about in the way that we educate our team in achieving those goals and the way that we treat people in the field that will continue to grow that business. Another big mindset shift that a lot of us have a hard time doing, myself included, but it's so important. It's like that physical reminder that we get all the time that you need to take some rest in order to be your best. Rest to be your best.

When do we ever do that in our business? Hell, when do we ever do that in our personal lives? If you're an entrepreneur, you're probably going a million miles a minute all the time. You're known as the busy bee. You're always busy. No one can get to you. You're kind of all over the place. But when we really want to scale up a business properly, we have to slow down. High performers burn out because they say yes to everything. They don't say yes to the right things.

You don't need to hustle more. You need to have more intention in your day. What is your zone of genius in the business? Now, I know a lot of you may still be a one man band in the office and somebody's working out in the field or hell, might be both of those people. But at what point do you look at your sanity and say, it's costing me more not to hire someone than it is to place my bet on someone, train them up right and have that support in my company.

Trust me, having started three septic businesses myself, it is the hardest hire ever is your first one. And you'd think as you've had continuous businesses that that would go away, but it doesn't. And then you still have that just like, oh my gosh, it's the first one I'm gonna hire. I don't know if they'll ever do it as good as me. I don't know if I can trust them. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Just give it a shot and let them prove you.

wrong. Because if you take the time hiring great people, they will. And sometimes you want to like a major kick to the ego, they'll do it better than you. Because that's their focus. And they're not trying to do 50 things at once, they're doing one or two things at once, which obviously comes out better than when you're trying to do it all by yourself. So slowing down to scale up truly means

that not everything that comes across your desk or in your eyesight is an opportunity that you need to take on now. You can put some of those in the parking lot and you can work on them next year. And what I would really, really encourage you to do right now is start writing down those goals of what you want to work on for 2026. That's great. And put them to the side because what else do you need to fucking crush for 2025?

Our goal this year was to hit $3 million in revenue and it's going to be real close, but guess who's going to be putting the pedal to the floor these next 45 days to finish this year out as strong and as close to that number as humanly possible. This girl. I'm hell bent on making sure my marketing is dialed in.

that we are working through our customer list that we already have, that we're showing up in every opportunity, community, and space and place we can be at right now to try to hit that goal.

The next one that I'd love to talk to you about mindset number four shift is that resiliency is a superpower. You need to learn how to bounce back like a damn pro and you got to stop taking things personally. There are going to be people sometimes that they're just not going to be happy no matter what. But when we know deep in our heart, because we work on our own mental mindset that we did the best that we could that day, it's really easy to deal with those people.

Inceptic, something will go wrong, probably every day. That's normal. We do underground utilities and most of the time the people that we're going out to don't even know they have a system, let alone how it works and how to maintain it properly. But resiliency is mental toughness. It's your ability to adapt when you need to. It's that lever of pivoting that you can pull when you need to without intimidation.

You know, you can still be really tired in an industry and be very, very powerful if you have the mindset to do so. Kick-ass business owners rise, they rebuild, they reset, and many times people don't even know that they got kicked off of their pedestal to begin with. That's resiliency. That's showing up in places where people don't expect you to show up.

That's you continuously showing up every single day, even though you're like, I don't know for sure where we're at today or where are we going to do? It's continuing to show up and it's continuing to show the world what you're capable of building. And it's continuing to show up to support your team, no matter what crazy stuff is going on for them. And the last, but certainly not least is understanding that we are here to collaborate, not to compete with

all of the competition in our field. If we would reach out to more service providers and get more referrals from plumbers, from home inspectors, from real estate agents, from property management companies, hell, even other septic companies. We have a great relationship with the septic companies, Circle J Septic, shout out to Josh, out on the west side of Phoenix where we refer work back and forth to each other all the time.

I don't go to his area, he doesn't come to mine. And so we refer work back and forth to each other and it's been a really great relationship. And that's what we want to continue to really encourage everyone in this industry to do. If we start working together and we start collaborating more than competing with each other, we raise this industry as a whole. I'm so passionate about this because there's so many people in this industry that definitely just need that one person to talk to.

Maybe they're struggling with their price book. Maybe they're struggling with something that's a customer service issue. Maybe they're struggling to get reviews. If we all elevate each other, the entire industry gets an entirely new perspective. We don't want to just be the old grumpy bastard in the wading boots that's kind of mocking around in our septic system. We want to be the professional badasses that show up that are professional, that are educated.

that use technology and that they were able to find us because of our amazing reviews online. This is what we want. This is what we want to show up inside of our business. Your business becomes unstoppable when you decide that you are going to become unstoppable. Ooh, that one hits me. Your business becomes unstoppable when you decide that you're unstoppable. Why do you think that is?

because no one's going to believe in the vision of this business more than you do. So if you want the buy-in from the people on your team and you want to have that culture that you envy from so many other people, you better start working on yourself because you're the leader. And it's not necessarily the way you, anything that comes out of your mouth. It's the way you interact with people. It's the way you handle problems at work. It's the way that you handle

the troublesome employee that although he's been trained and he can do the job, he gets to stay because you're too big of a wuss to let him go. And I know that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. And I'm talking to myself in this too, because we've all been in a position where we've kept people on a team that have held back the rest of the team because we were too afraid to let them go.

I truly promise you that if you will adopt these five mindset shifts we've been over today, you won't just run a septic business. You'll have a kick ass septic business because mindset is the foundation for everything we build.

We don't build companies at home filled. We build legacies.

We build something different for our families. It's not a business that I'm building that my kids can take over someday. It's a business that I'm building that I'm going to sell someday that my kids can be extremely proud of their mother that went after her goals.

It's a mindset shift.

No, that's not the way grandpa did it or daddy did it or wherever you fell into the wastewater industry. But you get to choose the destiny of what you do with this business now. And if you'll embrace the mindset shifts I've talked about in this episode and really find tools to help you elevate your mindset, I'm going to put a link for Growth Day. It's a personal development app that I listen to religiously every morning while I'm in the shower.

It just gives you a really good thought process, something to think about for the day. Today, it was about Monday and showing up and how you're going to show up this week and what are you going to do to get your Friday finishers done? And where are you going to show up for the people that need you most in your life? It's a challenge for us to stretch ourselves. And I'd love more than anything for you to join and be able to get that goodness in your ear every single morning. Just remember.

Shit doesn't handle itself, but with the right mindset, you can handle anything. And until next time, keep handling that shit.