Why I do what I do: Pool cleaner from UK now has three times more followers than Kim Kardashian

A professional pool cleaner has opened up how he first fell into the role and shared his thoughts on whether it will be his career for life.

Miles, a.k.a 'thep00lguy,' has amassed an incredible 13.7 million followers on TikTok since he started sharing videos of his work with members of the public during the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 15 years into the job, Miles tells LADbible some of the weirdest pool cleaning situations he's seen as he reflects on how he's found fame - having amassed a following on TikTok even larger than Kim Kardashian.

If you're the type of person who gets sucked into watching satisfying videos such as pimple popping, then wait until you get a load of this:

Of all the weird and wonderful things which can be found online, TikTok has opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

For Miles, the social media platform has resulted in his job as a swimming pool engineer taking on a whole new meaning.

Miles told LADbible he first got into being a swimming pool engineer by starting off as a labourer.

"I never really done well in school to be honest with you, so any job that I could get when I was younger, I would just take," he said.

However, one day, he got a call to come and help out at a swimming pool company. After doing some temporary work, he was asked to stay on.

Miles first uploaded a video of his job onto TikTok two years ago, around the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

After gaining a bit of interest, he set up another account, called 'thep00lguy'.

"Literally the first video I posted it was another green pool again. It just went crazy, the views within the day were mad and the comments and my phone was going nuts and it was like a part one of a part two," he said. "[...] People were just going crazy messaging me [...] so I posted the Part Two after the weekend and then that went viral."

Miles was shocked by the response to his videos, and still 'always think[s] how crazy' his following on Instagram has grown to be. He thought the hype would die down after six months or so, but 'it just didn't go that way at all'.

"The following just kept getting bigger and bigger. And then I started changing platforms as well. So I started on TikTok, and then moved over to Instagram."

After people requested longer-form videos, Miles decided to create a YouTube channel and thep00lguy's social media empire grew.

Going from a pool cleaner to a social media star is 'pretty odd really', Miles reflected.

From people asking him to come to their homes because their children have seen his videos and asking him for a picture, to being called out to clean women's baths, Miles noted how 'bizarre' his journey has been.

However, one of the weirdest call-outs was when Miles was once faced with a car inside a pool.

Another incident saw a cow stranded inside one, too.

"Earlier this year actually there was a horse in a pool alive. It just got into these people's garden from the farm next door and jumped in the pool and didn't get back out.

"The pool was all green and dirty as well but it was sort of shallow enough the horse could just stand there.

"Obviously the customers heard splashing around and they came outside and there's a horse just standing there. It took quite a long time to get the horse out actually. [They] had to get the fire brigade out to hoist it," he explained.

Despite getting 'paid more' now from his social media presence than his actual job, Miles loves being a pool engineer and is carrying on with it, just picking and choosing which ones he most wants to do.

He explained how one of his favourite pool cleans is from last week when he cleaned a pool at a daycare for dogs.

But the one pool he wants to clean the most? Deep Dive Dubai - the deepest pool in the world.

"I'm desperate to go and film content around that. [...] Not just go there and do the dive, but I'd definitely love to go see how it's run," he said.

Miles' satisfying pool cleaning and fixing videos have led to him having almost three times the amount of TikTok followers as reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

The Kardashian recently complained that ‘it seems nobody wants to work these days,’ but considering Miles has triple the number of followers as her on TikTok and subsequently must be working harder than she is on the platform, I asked him how he would respond to the Skims founder.

Miles replied: "Like you say, I work twice as hard, if not three times as hard as I've ever done before. Still now. I'm doing the job, recording the audio, the videos, editing the videos, and then posting them out. And then online, replying to comments and stuff, so it literally never stops. It's busier than ever.

"I wouldn't mind having three times as much as her money but it's good. Not gonna lie."

While it's 'not the best paid job in the world,' Miles 'loves' it and has now been doing it for around 14 years.

He resolved: "If you've got a job you enjoy doing that makes half decent money then I thought, well, stick at it."