The Power of the Hustle: Moriarty Alum Devyn Haney Turns Childhood Hardship into Multi-State Success

EDGEWOOD, NM — Devyn Haney moves at a pace that suggests the clock is always running out. Sitting across the table, coffee in hand, the 27-year-old owner of Cooking Clean LLC constantly checks the minutes—not out of impatience, but out of necessity. In less than an hour, he has to drop his son off at Hope Christian school, swing home for a service truck, and head straight to Santa Fe to knock out an air duct cleaning job.

For Haney, downtime is a luxury he simply never developed a taste for. When you’ve seen how fragile stability can be, motion is survival.

“I don’t really talk about it much,” Haney says quietly, looking down. “My father went to prison when I was five, and my mom fell off the deep end. We ended up homeless, living in a car, bouncing between family and friends. Then she went to prison, and we were put in foster care. It was a bad situation. My childhood memories from back then are just a blur. I don’t ever want to go through something like that again.”

At age 12, looking for a way out of an unstable environment in Riverside, California, Haney moved to New Mexico to live with his grandmother. That move changed the trajectory of his life. Settling into Moriarty, he found the kind of roots and structure he had never known.

“That’s where I started actually having a decent childhood,” he recalls. “And football is what saved me.”

Under the Friday night lights and in the hallways of Moriarty High School, Haney discovered mentors who saw past his rough start. Figures like history teacher and head football coach Gabriel Romero stepped in not just with playbooks, but with genuine belief in his character. Haney earned varsity letters in both football and track, showing up on his own every single day to put in the work.

After graduating from Moriarty High in 2017, Haney initially gave college a shot, studying fire science for two years. But the classroom couldn’t compete with reality. With bills and rent piling up, he realized sitting at a desk wasn’t his path.

“I’ve always been hands-on,” Haney says. “I had to go make money. I looked at the guys I was working for—small business owners who had dropped out of high school, making great livings, providing for their families. I absorbed everything from them. That was more education than four years of college could ever give me.”

Determined to carve out his own enterprise, Haney pursued kitchen exhaust and commercial hood cleaning. While the State of New Mexico does not legally mandate specialized certification for the trade, Haney refused to take shortcuts. He traveled to the Phil Ackland School in Fort Worth, Texas, earning his certification under NFPA 96 fire safety codes.

Armed with a license, proper tax registrations, a beat-up pickup truck, and basic equipment bought from Home Depot, he hit the pavement running 15-hour days. Restaurant to restaurant, door to door, he chased down accounts.

“I just needed one or two clients a week to pay the bills, which was more than I was making working for someone else,” Haney says. “So I just kept pushing. We’d take that revenue, reinvest every dollar, buy another vehicle, and build.”

Three years later, Cook and Clean LLC has transformed into a powerhouse operation. Haney manages a fleet of service trucks equipped with commercial-grade $15,000 pressure-washing systems, servicing more than 150 accounts across Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and surrounding communities. His service radius knows no strict borders—if a job calls from El Paso or Amarillo, he loads up, drives through the night, gets it done, and heads back home.

Last October, he expanded his footprint by acquiring an existing exhaust cleaning company in Phoenix, adding another 150 clients and two more rigs to the business. Back home, he teamed up with his younger brother, Aystin Haney, to launch AWD Mechanical, tackling large-scale HVAC and radiant flooring installations, including high-end builds in Angel Fire.

Yet for Haney, business metrics and revenue figures are secondary to the family he supports.

Of his core five-man crew, four are family members—including his father, his brother, and his cousins. He also hires local Moriarty students paying strong wages and teaching them trades that can sustain them for life.

“All of our family struggled growing up,” Haney says. “This is the best thing that ever happened to us. I’m able to keep everyone working, pay them well, and keep the money inside the family.”

But he is willing to share pointing out he wants to have a booth at the next career fair in Moriarty, so he can introduce the work he does (it’s rather new) to students who might be thinking about taking up a trade.

Haney carries his faith as his compass, wearing his crosses and giving credit to God for guiding him through the storms of his youth. Now a father coaching his five-year-old son in youth football, his vision of success remains grounded in everyday security.

“The biggest thing for me was always wanting a family and being able to provide for them,” he says. “I just wanted to walk into the grocery store, buy my family dinner, and not have to check my bank balance to see if we have to put something back. I grew up with nothing. Now, I know what hard work can build.”

Contacting Cooking Clean LLC

Phone: 505-400-1676

Website: www.cookingcleanco.com