Wyatt Smith – The Power of Games in Business | RILLA LABS Ep. 9

Wyatt Smith left Uber to build UpSmith, applying the dopamine and gamification playbook of consumer tech to the skilled trades.

Positive behavior narration — celebrating and praising good work in real time — drives performance the same way it shapes a toddler learning a task or an athlete building a habit.

Gamifying daily work with leaderboards, points, and recognition turns mundane tasks into something people care about, pushing retention to 80% or higher.

Engagement compounds into a flywheel: a better service experience creates a better financial outcome, which rewards the rep, which fuels more momentum.

The revenue math is stark — an extra $100 per lead across 1,000 leads a month is $100,000 in additional monthly revenue.

The trades face a million-person labor shortage; making the work rewarding and offering a debt-free alternative to a four-year degree is part of the fix.

Rewards should reinforce autonomy and mastery (flow), not signal distrust — intrinsic motivation matters as much as the prize itself.

AI and robots will augment tradespeople, not replace them; the physical, judgment-heavy work of a plumber becomes even more valuable per hour.