FMBGN-BIZ-Diversified Plumbing Services-Call The Cowgirl

When a toilet backs up or a water heater quits, you don’t just need a fix, you need someone who shows up calm, clear, and ready to help. We talk with Ashleydawn, the “call the cowgirl” face of Diversified Plumbing Services, about what it really takes to deliver reliable plumbing and septic service across Southwest Florida, from Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach to Marco Island and beyond.

We get into the behind-the-scenes reality of running a family-owned plumbing company in a high-demand area: emergency calls, tight timelines, and the hardest piece of growth, finding great employees who treat customer service like the job, not an add-on. Ashley shares how their team thinks about trust, communication, and small maintenance habits that save homeowners money, including annual water heater flushes and proactive checks that catch issues before they turn into disasters.

We also talk hurricane impact and recovery, including how saltwater flooding damaged older copper and cast iron systems and why many island homes needed full repipes. Then we zoom into what’s changing in the plumbing world right now, from true tankless water heaters to hybrid units that can even cool a garage. Along the way, Ashley shares her love for Fort Myers Beach, community giving through autism awareness with Family Initiative, and a personal message about skin cancer prevention and reef-safe sunscreen for beach life.

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Diversified Plumbing Services of SWFL Inc.
Ashleydawn Wells
534 Meadow Road Lehigh Acres, FL 33973
(239) 850-6674
Ashleydawn - (239) 691-2222
ashleydawn@servicedps.com
dpservicesfl.com
@diversifiedplumbingswfl

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Ashleydawn

Intro/Close 0:00

Welcome to The Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor Podcast — No Shade, Just Sunshine, Drama Free, Positive Vibes Only!!! With each episode We Bring You Closer to The Neighbors, Local Legends, and Beachside Businesses that make Fort Myers Beach The Slice of Paradise We All Love.

"Cabo" Jim 0:33

Welcome for Myers Beach Good Neighbors. Today we have the awesome AshleydDawn.

Ashleydawn Wells 0:38

Howdy howdy. Thanks for having me.

"Cabo" Jim 0:41

Absolutely. With diversified plumbing services, right?

Ashleydawn Wells 0:46

Yes, yes.

"Cabo" Jim 0:47

Very good. And you are just the icon. Well, you're just an icon in general, but uh for DPS as well, too, right? I've got my little I've got my little pen here.

Ashleydawn Wells 0:56

Oh yeah. I love it. And that's the thing. We say call the cowgirl. If you have any plumbing septic uh needs, call the cowgirl at DPS.

What DPS Does Across SWFL

"Cabo" Jim 1:07

Love it. So those listeners who aren't familiar with DPS, what is it you do?

Ashleydawn Wells 1:12

So Diversified Plumbing Services started a little over 15 years ago uh in Fort Myers. We're actually located in Lehigh now, but we service everywhere from Northport down to Marco Island. We do have another branch in Daytona. Um, and we do everything from your service plumbing, your commercial or residential uh down to new construction. We do a little bit of everything. We also do septics. The only thing that we do not do is wells. We don't do anything with wells, but we do uh recommend uh water medic. They take great care of our customers, so we recommend a lot of people to them. Uh, but we are a family-owned and operated business. It's just the owner and then his family and a bunch of really awesome coworkers that I have the pleasure of working with. I worked alongside the company for about five, six years, and they were always friends. And the owner said, one day you're gonna work for me. One day you're gonna work for me. And that one day came about a year and a half ago, and that was the best decision that I made to join really family. I had gone to every Christmas party, every company party, and they had always just treated me with so much respect and kindness and just love and support. And like you say, no shade, just sunshine. It has always been sunshine with them, always positive, always encouraging. And I was like, I cannot wait to work for a team uh like this. And it is truly a team I'm very blessed to be a part of.

"Cabo" Jim 2:42

So they they originated here in Fort Myers, then, correct?

Ashleydawn Wells 2:46

Yes. So the owner is, I believe he's like a fifth or sixth generation uh Florida guy, and several of our uh employees are also Florida born and raised. I'm born and raised here, uh grew up on Fort Myers Beach, and so there's a lot of uh Southwest Florida natives that work for our company.

"Cabo" Jim 3:07

That is awesome. Bringing bringing the community together. Trying to running a business and being part of a business, as you know, down here in Southwest Florida. Sounds like, you know, in paradise, sounds like a dream, right? It can be all I know we've all had our challenges, especially over the last couple of years. Is there's something that's uh kind of defined you guys uh is you know, um, maybe a struggle that you got through or a time that you got through that kind of you can look back at now and say, you know what, we're in a better place now. We made it through that.

Hiring For Emergencies And Service

Ashleydawn Wells 3:40

Sure. I would say uh for me personally, since I joined the team, the hardest thing has been the need is is great. Everybody has a toilet that they need to keep running, everybody has water that they want to keep nice and hot. The problem that I have faced is getting people out fast enough uh to fix their problems. We do a lot of emergency work. And so getting really great employees um has been really difficult. I know a lot of other uh Southwest Florida businesses have had the same struggle. You know, you're growing and that's great, but finding those employees that are gonna have the same vision and the same mindset and that are gonna bring that positivity to work every day, you know, when sewage is spewing out of a toilet and they got to fix it. Sometimes it's hard to be positive in a less than uh happy situation. And so I would say employees are the heartbeat of our company. And so anytime we've expanded or we've been looking to expand, the hardest part is finding those like-minded employees that want to join our team and want to bring their own sunshine. That's been the biggest difficulty. But I will say right now, we have a very solid team. I'm very blessed uh to have a team that gets it, that understands that people come first. You know, anybody can have tools, anybody can have a truck, anybody can fix plumbing, but very few people are gonna take the time to walk around the house to check other fixtures and other plumbing and to make sure that that uh client and that customer is happy not only with our service, but with other problems they may be experiencing that they just need us to take a look at and then letting them know hey, in the future, you can do this, this, this, or this. And that will help you to, you know, prolong your water heater for a couple more years. One of the things that we do is uh we do water heater flushes. So yearly maintenance on those water heaters allows the sediments not to build up and it lasts longer. So just little things that we can do to help the customers and to really provide that extra value so that it's not just them calling up, you know, chucking a truck to come fix something. They're actually getting a professional that cares about them, that's gonna hold their hand through the whole process. And if they have a problem, is gonna come back and fix it.

"Cabo" Jim 6:11

It's about customer service, right? Which so many companies have forgot about, you know, you don't see it as much anymore. So I'm happy to see somebody actually focused on that. It makes a big difference for sure.

Ashleydawn Wells 6:22

In our hiring process, that is the number one question that we ask, you know, future employees, future team members is what does customer service mean to you? And that can tell you a lot about who you're hiring. If they just say, Oh, it's you know, you do your job and you go home. Well, no, that's not it.

"Cabo" Jim 6:43

There's a little bit more to it than that. But yeah, no, I'm glad you guys are doing that for sure. So talking about the community, are there certain you do quite a bit? You know, you're you're the face of DPS, you're out there every day. But uh, as far as giving back to the community, are there certain things that you guys focus on?

Quiet Giving Back And Autism

Ashleydawn Wells 6:59

We don't like to tell people what we're doing, we kind of like to uh just bless people uh anonymously. Uh, but I will say the owner of our company, he is just amazing. His name's Elmer, and he really does a great job of finding needs within the community and filling them silently. He is not somebody that wants the attention. Uh, we just won the best of Fort Myers Beach, you know. And I I didn't even tell him we won, I just told him we had to be at a luncheon. And so he was there and and he's very humble and he's just a great uh boss to have, and he's a great owner of the company that truly cares. Um, so he tries to do things silently that people don't really know about, but I like to brag about him and I like to brag about our entire team. I call myself uh DPS's cheerleader. And so our uh company meetings are normally me bragging on our team and bragging on our office staff and just telling them how grateful I am to work with them. Uh, but one thing I am very, very proud to say that I'm a team that supports is every year, uh Elmer and Diversified Plumbing Service, they support autism awareness um with family initiative. And that's something that Elmer and our team is very passionate about. I have several friends that um have children with uh autism, and that's very difficult to go through the child care and then having other uh children that do not have autism and understanding the ins and the outs of it. And family initiative really does a lot for our community to help bridge the gap to bring awareness because there's not really a lot of awareness for autism in the community. You know, people have questions, but then they they feel too shy to ask or they feel too shy to say something because you don't want to be rude. Um, and so Family Initiative is really doing a great uh work in our community, and they have been for years and years and years. And diversified plumbing services uh partners with them a lot. So we're really proud of that.

Hurricane Repairs And New Tech

"Cabo" Jim 9:01

And and how did the hurricane affect what you do? Obviously, it's changed your right focus a little bit.

Ashleydawn Wells 9:08

Yeah, so I will say a lot of the homes that were on uh Sanibel that were on Fort Myers Beach, obviously their plumbing was shot, most of them because it was all underwater. Um, a lot of them had copper piping because it was, you know, back in the day and uh or cast iron and that salt water corroded it, so they had to have complete new repipes. Another thing that we do for um any kind of piping situation, not really with the hurricane impact, because most of those people, like I said, have already gotten repipes. But anytime there's like a uh break in the line, or maybe the roots, there's like root intrusion in the line that's uh causing a blockage, instead of replacing the entire pipe, we'll just replace that line. And one of the really cool things that we do before we replace when we reline that pipe or that section of a pipe is we actually will kill that root from growing anymore. So, you know, you cut the root back. Well, unless you kind of freeze it in place, if you will, uh, it's gonna grow back and it's gonna do the same thing that it just did and it's gonna, you know, block your sewer lines. So that's one of the things that I've seen change in the industry. And full full disclosure, I am not a plumbing professional. I'm the face of diversified plumbing services. I love our company and everything that we do, but I have never uh performed work on any of our clients' homes, and that's a very good thing. I did change a cartridge in my own bathroom. Uh, and I did change uh the little fill valve in the back of a toilet once, but I am not a plumber by any stretch of anyone's imagination. And my guys would tell you they're like, no, she ain't. So every day I'm learning something from them. I'm learning about different sizes of water heaters, and I'm learning about true tankless water heaters. Did you know, Jim, I didn't know that there is a water heater that will heat your water instantly and take no space whatsoever?

"Cabo" Jim 11:17

Really?

Ashleydawn Wells 11:18

It's called a true tankless, and I kid you not, it's about yay big. It's a little box that sits most of the time in your garage, but it is literally like the tiniest little thing, and it heats your your water instantaneously. It's called a true tankless. We're selling a lot of those, um, so that's something new. Another new thing that I've seen in the industry um is a hybrid water heater that cools your garage. It's like a water heater and an air conditioner kind of all in one. They are very expensive, but somehow it takes the hot air and and heats the water up with it and then cools your garage off. I'm I don't know the technical terms, you'll have to call one of our guys for that, but it's pretty cool.

"Cabo" Jim 12:06

We don't need to know, we just need to know what it does, right? That's what it does, right?

Ashleydawn Wells 12:10

But if your garage is properly sealed, it kind of works kind of like a mini split for air conditioning your garage.

"Cabo" Jim 12:18

Interesting, good idea. See, good stuff going on. So, yeah, since you're not plumbing uh all the time, you are promoting the company all

Fort Myers Beach Memories And Tips

"Cabo" Jim 12:27

the time. Yes, what are some things you enjoy doing outside of work?

Ashleydawn Wells 12:31

Oh goodness, I love eating at local restaurants, I love spending time with amazing people that I meet uh through work and then turn into friends. Uh, you're one of them. I am so grateful every time that I get to see you and just listen to your positivity that you spread with everybody that you meet. I love photography. I love being out on the boat. Anytime I can be on the water, that is a happy day for me. And I just love people and making our community better in any way that I possibly can. Like I said before, I grew up here. So, you know, this is my hometown. I love it. I love the people here, and it's sad to see, you know, places that I grew up not here anymore. Um, but I want to make it even better for the generations to come. So anything that I can do to help the community, I definitely try to.

"Cabo" Jim 13:23

We are, we are definitely making it better. You're doing a great job and helping promote that. So you grew up here. Any favorite places? I mean, they've changed, some aren't here, like you mentioned anymore, but favorite things to do on Fort Myers Beach.

Ashleydawn Wells 13:37

So this is gonna be uh oldie but goody for some of the OG FMB people. Orpheus Cafe was one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. My daddy and I would eat breakfast there all the time. Uh, one of my favorite places to eat, uh, and then beach barbecue. That's like a throwback. That was one of my first jobs. I was a waitress and I was a cashier and I was a server and I cleaned the dishes.

"Cabo" Jim 14:08

You did it all, just like you do now. You do it all.

Ashleydawn Wells 14:11

Yeah. And then um, what else from my childhood that I absolutely loved on Fort Myers Beach? Obviously, every kid loves McDonald's, so that was always cool. Um, and I just I love that I can look back at pictures and see one thing that I was really excited about was when they built the 7-Eleven. Yeah, I got so excited that they had the 7-Eleven back, and the murals that are all around the 7-Eleven just touch my heart because my daddy was a mural artist and he had the big stick specialties tattoo shop that was on the foot of the beach, and he actually painted it. He mural he did a huge mural on the outside, and he loved Jimmy Buffett so much, and he always used to say, This is Margaritaville Fort Myers Beach. This is, you know, the late 90s, like 1998, 1999, and he was saying that and he played Jimmy Buffett's music. And so my daddy passed nine years ago, but a lot of the places on the beach he painted, and he used to sit at Times Square and do caricatures for people for free, just because he was that great of a guy. And so it's really cool every time I pass Margaritaville to remember my daddy kind of spoke this into existence in the 90s. He said there's gonna be a margaritaville on Fort Myers Beach, and literally the parking lot is where my dad's tattoo shop was. Like, that's just cool.

"Cabo" Jim 15:38

Yeah, so I used to park there all the time. That was my favorite parking spot. Yeah, for sure.

Ashleydawn Wells 15:43

Yeah, well, oh my gosh, and I just forgot Dusseldorf's. Oh, right, Dusseldorf's burger. It was like what five, six bucks, and it was huge, and then those hand cut fries, and they had karaoke. Oh my goodness, I miss Dusseldorfs.

"Cabo" Jim 15:58

See, we're gonna we're gonna create new memories and new things for sure. So one thing, somebody, a new person coming to Fort Myers Beach. Sure. What's one thing they need to try right now? One thing they need to go see.

Ashleydawn Wells 16:12

Oh, um, so this past weekend, um, I had the pleasure of going on uh the tiki pub party barge. Uh, me and a bunch of my friends celebrated a birthday, and so we did that. We went to uh Bonita, Bonita Fish Company, the old Bonita Bills. We had breakfast there, their cinnamon rolls. Oh my goodness gracious, absolutely delicious. Of course, the Yucatan shrimp is amazing too. I know that there's a 5k race coming up very soon.

"Cabo" Jim 16:43

Yep.

Ashleydawn Wells 16:43

Um, and then so you go to breakfast there, get a little brunch, right? You get your cinnamon roll, then you get your Yucatan shrimp, then you go out on the party bar, you spend the day on the water, maybe go do the sandbar. That was super fun. Cody is a hoot, he did the karaoke there. And then when you get off the boat, change your clothes because you might be a little wet from swimming, then go to Matanza's on the bay and get a nice little happy hour, little dinner, and then watch the sunset. Isn't that the most perfect day?

"Cabo" Jim 17:17

That's a perfect day, right? And that's why we live here in paradise. Absolutely. So, and I I'll go back to what you said previously about the murals. They they've done uh that's one thing I appreciate. They've done a great job all around Fort Myers Beach as far as painting those murals up on the buildings. It's beautiful to drive by and see those. So we need more, just keep painting more. We do, we love it. We do need more art. So, last question.

Free Quotes And How To Reach

"Cabo" Jim 17:43

Back to plumbing again, back to plumbing. Is there anything else you want to share about DPS that we should know?

Ashleydawn Wells 17:50

Well, they're the best plumber in the whole wide world, and we're blessed enough to have them in our own backyard. So that's awesome. And we give free quotes. So if you maybe have a question about maybe a property, maybe a commercial property, we do a lot of work on the beach for condos um and resorts. So boost pumps and um stacks. Anytime that there's a problem with stacks, we can handle that. There honestly is no job that is too big that we can't figure it out. Um, the owner is a master plumber, he's got like 30 some years of experience. Him and his dad dug all the wells in most of Lehigh. Uh, so he's very, very knowledgeable about uh situations. So if you have something and you're just not sure, you can always call me or call our office and we will give you a quote um or walk you through it if you're confused. If you really don't know and you're like, I got this issue and I can't figure it out. So we love helping people. And um, I don't know a whole lot about plumbing, but I know people who do, and that's the important part.

"Cabo" Jim 18:59

You know a guy, you know a guy.

Ashleydawn Wells 19:01

I know a guy, I know a bunch of guys, I know a whole team of guys, and I will say we do have a female plumber too, and she is an absolute rock star. So I know some guys and some girls.

"Cabo" Jim 19:13

Nice, I love it. I love it. So, how would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more? Had some plumbing issues they need taken care of.

Ashleydawn Wells 19:20

Awesome. So they can call uh me on my cell. It's 239-691-2222. They can call or text, uh, email ashleydawn @ servicedps.com, or you can call our office 239-850-6674.

"Cabo" Jim 19:36

Very good. Any last words for our listeners today?

Ashleydawn Wells 19:39

Uh if you see me out, say howdy.

"Cabo" Jim 19:42

Say howdy. We're always gonna see you out somewhere. You're out everywhere.

Cowgirl Hat And Sun Safety

Ashleydawn Wells 19:47

And I know everybody's like, okay, you're from Florida, you're from Fort Myers Beach, you wear a cowboy hat. What in the world is the whole cowgirl theme? Well, two reasons. I grew up riding horses, and fun fact, Florida is cattle country. So do some research, maybe go on Google and research the original cows and cattle that were in Florida down Tammyami Trail. It'll it'll be for some good reading, but this used to be cattle country. Um, and so I wear a hat because I had skin cancer. And if I can encourage anyone, my daddy uh passed away from skin cancer. He basically grew up on the beach. I grew up on the beach and I went through melanoma uh two years ago. And so, one thing that I really want to encourage people, every chance that I get, the sun is beautiful and it's amazing, and we live in paradise and it is a blessing, but you do need to protect yourself. So you can go to tuna skin. You this is not sponsored, but you can get yourself a nice SBF shirt, a hat, some sun protection to make sure you're protected. And one of the areas that people really don't think to protect is your scalp, right? Put some sunscreen on your scalp, make sure that you have a hat because that is exposed skin. And the more that you burn it and you get sunburns, I know that people say, Well, that's my base burn. I'm just gonna get a base burn and then I'm gonna tan. That's great, but you do need to protect your skin. It is like your largest organ, and it's very important. So if I can encourage you to do anything, one, protect yourself in the sun. It's great, it's wonderful. But you know, have a shirt, have a hat, have some sun protection, have some uh reef safe sunscreen. That's very important because a lot of the sunscreen can harm our fish and our ecosystems, and it can harm the reefs. So make sure you have reef safe sunscreen. And a lot of local businesses on Fort Myers Beach have awesome sunscreens that are natural that they sell. I know Island Girl has some. Um, I think I saw some. I think Tuna Skin has them. I'm trying to think of what are the other uh shops on the beach that have them, Jim.

"Cabo" Jim 21:56

I mean, I think uh, well, Ace Hardware, I think. So some of that's

Ashleydawn Wells 22:00

Yes, Gavin. That's my guy. He sponsored me when I was in a bunch of pageants. I was Miss Junior America when I was 1998. And he sponsored me. I love Gavin. So, and Gavin's Ace Hardware is just amazing. They do so much for the community. But that is one thing. I really want everyone to take care of their skin and get their skin checked at least once a year. If you have any kind of insurance, it's covered. So protect yourself. That's my little PSA for the day.

"Cabo" Jim 22:31

It's you can't uh no shade, just sunshine, right? You gotta protect yourself with the SPF. So very good. Well, Ashley Don, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor, and we're definitely gonna see you out in the community here soon.

Ashleydawn Wells 22:44

Yes, and say howdy when you do. All right.

"Cabo" Jim 22:48

Take care.

Intro/Close 22:49

Bye.

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Intro/Close 22:56

If you loved what you heard, share it with a friend and keep the good vibes going. Until next time, remember to cabo until you wobble and keep being a good neighbor. Also, to nominate your favorite neighbors, local legends, heroes, or local businesses to be on the show. Go to fmbgoodneighbor.com. That's fmbgoodneighbor.com or call 239-427-4100. We want to send out some island loved State Insurance USA, Snug Harbor, Nervous Dellies, and the Alex King Group. They're the good neighbors and businesses that allow us to cheer the soul of our community with every listener. Here's to celebrating all that makes Fort Myers Beach the lights of paradise we all love.