Ep 181 - Client Success Interview - 5 Weeks of Premium Service

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of Electric Paneur's Secrets, the Electricians podcast. Can I pause that for a second? Say, the premium service electricians podcast, Is that okay, Joe? Yeah, you're able to pause anything you want. We're live, as always. I am here. Clay Neumeyer, your host, the Canadian Pleasant peasant. I hold doors open for people and thank them for walking through. Join me, as always, my esteemed co-host, Joseph the salesbot. Luke Canny, Can you please tell us again why do they call you the salesbot, Joe?

I mean other than the fact that I'm a little robotic at times and I'm on the spectrum which allows to that, but it's also that I have a large amount of experience when it comes to sales and I love what I do.

Awesome, brother, awesome. If you guys have been under a rock and don't know us or just joining us now maybe you're live with us in the Electric Paneur's Secrets group. Say hello, but also know that we're here five days a week to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. So if it is your first time, I wouldn't blame you if you came back for more tomorrow. But today is a special episode because we've got some of our clients. We've been talking about them this week. We've been talking about some of their secrets. Eric and Mandy, at the right connection, are joining us. If I can just preface this by saying, we've got many clients worthy of these seats and many times we've talked about the interviews. But for us, as you could imagine, putting so many efforts out here to just help people every single day of the week, it's not always so easy to connect with busy Electric Paneur's and get them on the show, and today that's happening. I'm so pumped. Before we jump into that, joe, how are you doing today, brother?

Honestly, I'm really really, really great. Class this morning was amazing. It's been carried. The momentum has been carrying me through the entire day because I really feel like, if I'm in a position to help people at the level that it really matters, where, like you, can actually impact someone's life, not just their business. That's why I got into this in the first place and I couldn't be more grateful to serve the way I do.

Oh man, you hit the grace notes so great every time. Not a lot of people get those compliments, but I got to give you that man.

Well, thank you, it's up there.

You know how to really really exercise that. So thank you, and it's great to work with you. By the way, this has been an absolute pleasure and I hope that there's no end anytime soon. I hope we just keep going doing this for a decade or more.

I want to do this. I'm carried out in a box man. I absolutely love this. I truly, truly drew in this as far as the grace you know. It's one of those things where I believe that being humble allows you to keep learning, and I consider myself a student of everyone that I teach as well. Everyone's going to come in and I'm going to learn something from them as well as teach them, and as long as I can keep that mindset, I'll always be a student.

Man, that's a winning attitude, right there, always trying to see what we can learn from someone right. Amen, that keeps us improving. Speaking of improving, what do you say? We bring Eric and Mandy on and hear a bit about their improvements, where they came from, what they've been up to, why they're here and why they're going to keep going. I love that. I can't wait.

Let's bring him in.

Let's bring him in. Hello Eric and Mandy, Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. How are you guys doing today?

Doing great Fantastic.

Fantastic Were you guys in class this morning.

Yes, we were.

Joe said it was great. But you know what, like people are maybe tired of hearing him brag about his class. Was it actually that good?

It was so rich with content and everyone contributed, which was awesome, nice, which is nice, to tell you to it.

What was your biggest takeaway?

Oh, it was yours.

Yeah, you're on the spot now.

My biggest takeaway was when Joe was helping one of the other clients who was trying to get some more work and giving him ideas on how to really hit those dry seasons in a way that they don't have to be a dry season, and to improve that work. That, for me, was a big takeaway and I took a bunch of notes because I know that we're going to need that at some point. We don't have to just sit here and go oh, the phone's not ringing.

I love that. Speaking of marketing, I mean that's one of the points of pride that we actually built a value piece for any guys. I don't know if you've seen that yet, but the marketing, the confidence that's come through your marketing. I can't wait to get into a bit of that on the show here, but it really is speaking volumes, and to hear you continue with that makes a lot of sense. If we can take this back a little bit, though not so long ago, about five weeks ago, this was still a decision for you guys whether or not to get into this. Why were you considering coaching? Had you done coaching before? And really, kind of what were your roadblocks that you were trying to overcome? If you wouldn't mind sharing with us? We're passing the right to Mandy right.

No more, if I can just say, between working with both of you guys. You're both an absolute pleasure. And, mandy, when you come into the group you definitely have such an energy that you bring with you that I can understand why Eric wants the basketball. I get it, eric. Love you to a man.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, so a big obstacle. Like we had been doing coaching before, it was more generalized coaching. It was not geared toward electricians. We would hear raise your prices or offer premium service, but we didn't know what that looked like. So we felt stuck. We were just continually trying to figure out okay, raise our prices to what and why, and then what does premium service look like and how do we bring that up? And we were talking to people in other fields and it's just different for electrical. They're going well, you need a membership and I'm going. Well, how do we do a membership? We had no idea and so we've been. We've been in coaching for about four years, learned a ton, had just great value to our lives. We've grown as people and in our marriage through the coaching like it's, it's changed us completely. But the one thing that was missing was just that specialized this is for electrical, this is what you can do. This is what we did as electricians and this is what helped us. So it gave us the confidence to go wow, they can do it. And maybe we should listen because we're no different.

Right, yeah, no, that's really important stuff. And so what would you say if you had to reflect back? I mean, this did come down to a moment in decision, as mentioned before. What was would you say? There was some forces that were holding you back from maybe saying, yes, let's do this, let's go all in.

Yeah, I think, fear, fear, just, you know, not knowing what to expect, just the. But I mean that was short lived because we started seeing results like right away, and the return on investment has been, I mean, priceless.

For me, the biggest obstacle was the financial investment. If we're barely making payroll, how in the world are we going to do coaching? And that's where we were. We were at this point where we're struggling every two weeks to make payroll to cover everything that we need to cover, and when you said that you will make sure that we get our return back, we will coach us for free until we do, as your guarantee, that took some of that fear away from me as the wife going okay, we can do this, because they're going to make sure that we're not just a number and we're not going to fall into the cracks.

I appreciate that that's really good, and so I know that it wasn't, you know, seamless and we're okay being a bit vulnerable to. Would you have any even live here suggestions on how we could have improved that process early on, or did it click right away?

I think for me there was just a lot of information you know drinking water from a fire hydrant and just. But I like what you said, clay, just focusing on the fundamentals. Like don't jump ahead, just stick with the fundamentals. Go through the process step by step. That really helped.

Trust the process, yeah, and that's so important in so many ways. This is something that we've been even talking about this week, I believe how, how, so often we can get distracted. It's like all the things that are out there meant to help us are also detracting from our progress if not used in the right way at the right time. You guys must have felt that in your four years of coaching, though I'm sure many times yes, awesome. So a few of the things we touched on and really, mandy, this all came to fruition Monday morning in class when we started to realize, holy hell, you guys had a great week last week and I believe, if it's fair of me to say you were right in sort of the average, 30 K months and all of a sudden, October stacking up to closer to 80 K, right, wow, for one, we're incredibly proud of you guys. Those are massive, massive numbers to put up so soon. We've got Austin with us from the group saying, yeah, these are great people. Edwin, congratulating you guys as well, really excited for y'all. So appreciate that you guys. Thanks for engaging with us. Now, what would you say from those few things? Ultimately, we talked about like a belief shift was number one. How did this belief shift happen for you? What was the major contributing factor that really started to change how you looked at this? I think it was for me.

I was the bottleneck in the business insecurity, fear, whatever was kind of holding me back. But the change in mindset and believing in what I can do and who I am is made of real importance.

I love that. Mandy, did you have an answer for that one as well?

I think being in the classes every day, being immersed in it, and then getting people to role play to build your confidence and to see that you are becoming that. And, clay, when you said in our class one day about acting as if, that was one of those moments where I grabbed onto that and went wait a minute, I don't have to have everything in place all at once before we can start becoming that premium service provider. You're going to act as if. And when you start acting as if, your confidence goes up and you start doing it. It's very strange. I said that really quickly in the class and I walked away going wow, I think my mind just was blown.

Those little aha moments. Right, it's funny. Joe, did you want to jump in on that?

Yeah, I was going to say I really think it's amazing because, going through that mindset, it's interesting how most of the battles we face are really up here, right, and we project the difficulties out into the world and then we're facing the holograms of what we've already projected, when we realize that we actually are the ones who are in control and all we need to do is just put a different slide in and now suddenly the obstacle becomes less overbearing and you're actually able to overcome the way you are, and I'm proud of you for being able to do that. It's not an easy chapter for people to really step out of their own comfort zones and be able to recognize that ability.

And one of the beautiful things I was going to throw in there is when we're acting as if and just showing up, that's really, it's present, over perfected. It's a huge theme of even why we're here right now. If we sit there and trying to perfect things, it just never gets done, whereas it's actually the courageous people that just show up, that can just act as if, that can just put themselves out there and do their best, because unfortunately that's inextricably linked to judgment mistakes, nose rejection, right. Have you guys had to face any of those kind of hard lines that? Have you made some mistakes in your acting as if or had the shakes, maybe during a presentation or any moments where you're like, oh boy, that didn't go as planned, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely yeah.

Absolutely. I had to do a breathing exercise before my presentation this week at the local chamber and it just it went better. I was more relaxed and it just went a lot better.

Wonder where you learned breathing. No, we already talked about that previously. I'm sorry I had to take a quick dig at that. But I'm also proud because apparently the presentation went really, really well and you were like, hey, I think they need to breathe too.

Right, yeah, you could just see people walk up nervous and stiff and tense and all, and I was able to walk up relaxed and give my little commercial.

If I can just say something with that. Imagine that you were the consumer and you see the salesperson coming up and they're stiff as a board and they're tight and your jaw is tight. You can tell the clench. What does that tell you about this person? What does that tell you about their intention? It's usually not a good thing, but if you came up smiling, relaxed, calm, saying this may be a problem, but I'm not going to be part of the problem, I'm going to be part of the solution and we're going to figure this out together. We're on the same side of the line, we're a team. Such a huge difference. And who would have thought? People say breathing is not sexy, but that mindset that you allowed to get into because of it is sexy.

I think that's awesome, really great, chair. Moving on from that, the second piece was okay, you believe in this premium service. Now, how has that impacted your feeling of the need to fill a gap then, as you're out there serving people, eric?

So it's been interesting. I've had my own business for 14 years and I've just you know, I get a demand call, I go fix the problem, that's it. I've had blinders on and since this class, my eyes are wide open to opportunities that are all open, whether it's a panel upgrade or replacement, smoke detectors, generators, you name it. Just my eyes are more open to it and I can share that with the customers. You know I can help them.

Really, really impressed by that. Yeah, it's such a just a change when even in the approach right, but then it's also the results that you're seeing. I mean, where else do you draw this up to? What else changed? Did you guys change your diet while you were with us? Yes, she has. Did you kick the kids out of the house? You got more time now. Just, is there anything else?

you need to tell us. We've just been focused. I mean, I wake up at three o'clock in the morning thinking about something one of you guys said and it happens all the time.

I'm sorry about that.

You know, it's funny apologetics.

We're immersed in it. It's making a difference in both.

Clay's first thought was to apologize. My first thought was just that makes me so proud to hear, Not because I'm glad that you guys are thinking about us, but the fact that you know that we're thinking about you and the information is meant to make you better. And if you wake up thinking about how you can make your lives better, isn't that the way that all of us just start our day?

I like where you went with that, joe. That was a great perspective shift, cause my imagination was like wake up, eric. It's Joseph, I've got something to tell you. No, that's the worst. I can't wait to see you in class Now.

I got a stalker creepy vibe in the background.

I think one of the things that I see with Eric that has helped cause that shift with his eyes wide open is he knows he can go in and offer a generator or, let's say, a surge protector and maybe one that he has never installed before, but he knows he has the support now to be able to offer services that he's not as comfortable with because he has this whole. We have an entire group chat going on all the time with amazing people that are posting and helping each other build with electricians. It's like having hundreds of years of experience in your back pocket just by being able to put a picture or a question and hear all the feedback, and it gives you more confidence to know if I don't know the answer, I'll find it.

I'm so proud that I really create that environment. Yeah, and, as you say, that I'm reflecting on even this week, where there's been people in our group doing their first installations of types, what we've been able to do is actually help someone get started with their first installations, much like we talked about in the past with Alan and the generators right. Or your first time doing a 200 amp service upgrade but still being able to provide the premium service and that high quality solution because of all those people behind you are really, really respect that you brought that up, mandy, that's a powerful, powerful thing. The other thing that that kind of leads to ultimately is the third piece of this puzzle, which we kind of spoke to this already and have been doing a disservice if I didn't bring it up again is this marketing confidence, because ultimately, what we see in industry is a lot of kind of passive marketing and what it is is it's like a layer of attraction marketing where we like to put ourselves on Google and we like to pay someone to do a nice website and we like to put money into the Google website and into SEO and all these things that are kind of done for you. So we don't have to do a lot, we just answer the phone and tend to get overwhelmed and pissed off at answering the phone too at some point, which is kind of funny. But there's three other main ways to really, 30,000 feet up, generate traffic and leads and awareness around your business, including warm traffic and cold traffic. And I know that, mandy, you've been kind of hustling this. You've gone to even dealerships and given people information about your EVs and whatnot. How has your confidence changed and what you were doing before that to now, what you're feeling more empowered to do, and how do you kind of justify talking to someone you don't know with your message?

Well, I know that Eric brings 24 years of experience and so when he is going in to do an install he is way more qualified than any other company in our area and whomever happens to walk in that house, and so that's been a big thing to really wrap my head around as I'm going out to do marketing, to go know he is bringing this wealth of knowledge, knowing that we're offering a lifetime guarantee craftsmanship guarantee on all of our work. No one else is doing that. So then I can have confidence, knowing that we're going to serve them at a higher level, knowing that we're going to listen and hear everything that their goals and their dreams not only just put this EV charging station in, but what else are you wanting to do and really ask some questions and be able to offer some solutions that in the past we didn't know. We're there, and with Eric trying to do all of this on his own, it was harder to go market because I felt like we kept dropping the ball, we wouldn't call someone back, we wouldn't get the estimate out in a timely way, but knowing that he's going to be in front of them sitting down giving a presentation and we are going to really give premium service. That gives me a new level of confidence when I'm marketing that. I know you would be crazy to be with anyone else and so when I can approach that, when I walk in there and talk to people, I walk in there with my shoulders back and my head high going. You need us. We are here to serve you. We're here to help.

I love what you just said. Go ahead, joe. You go ahead and compliment them first. You're so good at grace, right, so jump on in there, brother.

I mean, it's one of those moments where you're saying things that we teach, but it feels so good to hear it from you, like it just feels really good, because it's one thing to have the knowledge, but I feel like it's more important to share it with others, because if I have it and I hold it in my pocket and I don't share it with anyone, no one gets benefited from it. All the struggles and all the issues I went through, I need, I'm compelled to make you better, I have to, and just the fact that you're taking the advice and you're running the play and you're doing the thing that most other people wouldn't have done, that is just so praiseworthy. It really really is the fact that you're willing to do what others will not so you can have what they want. That's so for your kids, it's for your companies, for everything, and I'm just so grateful that I've been able to contribute to that in any way that I have.

I love that you said that, because it just reminds me of that big L word legacy. We've talked about this on the podcast, joe. I don't even know how we get in these conversations, but isn't in our responsibility to teach our kids these lessons? Isn't our responsibility? Not even like let's step back from electrical. I could care less if my daughter becomes an electrician. I would support it 100%. But it's not that she needs to become an electrician, but doesn't shouldn't she learn customer service, premium service at the highest level, how to serve, how to not impose and respect people's space and just be that person for someone.

Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that, like I have two daughters and anytime I ever do any project in the house, anytime, doesn't matter what it is, whether I'm installing a security system or building a fire pit, they do it with me and I make sure I teach them, even if it's just you're involved. You're gonna hand me the tool, you're gonna stand behind me, and then what I do is I take a selfie with them in front of the thing and I save into a photo album and I take a video about it. And the part then what I'm trying to impart with them is that you did this, you were a part of what we built. You built something here. So when they're old enough and they can look at our home and can say, hey, remember, we built this, remember we built that, and then in the future they have a reason to wanna invest in their own homes and they'll have the knowledge of doing so. One day, maybe I'll even teach them sales, but for now, we'll start with the basics. Take the fundamentals right.

You guys may have heard this before, but Joe's wife's actually the better sales person. She hasn't taught in our group yet. Maybe one day that'll be encouraged but she's been the role play queen with Joe for a lot of years, so I think she could teach us a thing or two.

My wife is my better half in every capacity. I do not think that I would be half the man, not even a fraction of the man I'd be without her in my corner.

Love that. I have just one more question for you guys and we'll let you get back to your busy days. I'm sure you've got lots scheduled already. Sure, you guys are a power couple. You've been doing this together for a while and I'm sure there's people listening, watching right now, wondering if that's a good idea or not. What's your take on working with your partner? How has it served you, how has it challenged you, and would you recommend it to others?

That's a great question.

It's Careful, Eric. I just thought you've got an opportunity to hit a home run. Or maybe less than a base hit.

So it's been difficult, but things have really changed tremendously and I think before we're more. There's more friction between us, just expectations, not being mad and black and community and things like that. But it's been transformed. We're on the same page and Mandy is is an asset. I love that she's engaging the other guys in the group and In the class when she's there every day. So it's been, it's been.

I think this time because we had worked together before and then I kind of stepped out of the office and we hired someone else to do all of the office I was still doing the marketing, but somebody else was doing all of the the office part, the admin and I Step back in this time and I said I want to make sure we do it better, because last time I felt like it might take us down. There was so much strife, there was so much fighting, there was just. You know, when you're mad at your co-worker and they sleep in the same bed, that's tough, that's tough.

Made my apprentice move out a long time ago. It was just disturbing.

It's been. It was really tough. This time we were More intentional with boundaries and try to hold to them like this is not business time, we're not gonna talk about it. Unfortunately, coming into this, we talk about it way more. We think we're so excited, and not that we're harassing each other. It's like we just can't stop talking about what we're learning and because we're just loving it. But setting great boundaries, respecting each other, not putting. I have to always remind Eric, is this how you would talk to Someone else that was answering the phone or someone else that you were asking to do? Ask, I'm not your punching bag, because stress will happen, right, and then I do, am I get stressed and I'm like going all off and he's like hello, don't talk to me like that, and so that's the thing was to take this step back and be respectful of each other and Set good boundaries. Six o'clock it is and you don't talk about it.

Yeah, after six o'clock you can't talk about fight club. Yeah, what's?

fight club, sometimes I.

Really appreciate that you guys see a bigger future for the right connection now.

Yeah, I think bigger than we ever thought possible.

Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything else you would like to say?

No, we're just, we're loving Having joined you guys and we're just, we're learning so much and you know whether it's class or the marketing microscope that you guys tense and you know, and just the group chat, even after hours, like that's been rich as well. So it's just a great community. We love it.

I'll thank you so much for that. Truly, it's such an honor being here to serve at your pleasure.

Okay, thank you guys, we're gonna see you out oh.

Oh, anything to put a finger for something.

I would just say that I am so proud of him Because he is stepping up in ways that I have never seen him step up before, and it has to do with the belief in himself that he now has, and Seeing him do role plays in the morning it just makes. It brings tears to my eyes because he would have shied away from that and never stepped up. And now he goes. No, I can do this. And he has a new faith and a new confidence and I'm just so proud of it. It's really at all falls on his shoulders.

Feel a grace moment coming on here, joe.

That's not what's gonna happen this time.

Thank you guys so much. I agree, eric. Well done, mandy. Just as much respect to you as well. You guys are both amazing gifts to our program. Please continue rocking this, keep growing, keep your head sigh, keep being, keep acting as if, just keep showing up and you'll keep seeing these results. We can guarantee that. Thank you, guys appreciate it talk to you there, pleasure, oh, joe man, that was heavy right.

Honestly, I'm so grateful to have them on our team Because there's also as much as I love to teach. I love to learn, and anyone who got to hear them can see that there is so much to learn from people like that, and Sometimes they leave me speechless just with, like the praise. It's hard to, it's hard to sometimes believe Everything that they're saying, even though I'm in there doing it. It's hard to recognize and say we actually are here. This is real. This is something that most people can actually achieve if they're willing to put in the effort for it, and I think that they're honestly an inspiration to me as well.

Yeah, and you know what? There's a hidden force behind that, and that is as we tirelessly work towards our goals. Our goals keep moving and we keep chasing, and sometimes we forget to just celebrate. So today is about celebration. I want you guys to ask yourselves what can you celebrate? This week? It's Thursday, tomorrow's Friday. You got another day left, another day with us. We've got lots to go over tomorrow. Let's crank out a couple of action items. In fact, maybe that was the first one.

Yeah, I would say that's actually fair. I literally was gonna vote for that to be the basic.

Okay, do you have an all-star in mind?

I can go with one. So the thing that really I took away from this conversation with them was it was the acting as if Really just believing the confidence and being willing to put one foot in front of the other. I mean, hey, we've all watched the acclaimation Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer put one foot in front of the other, right, like we've all been there. But the thing is is that they are literally actually living it. So the all-star action may sound like a basic, but it's really just. Are you willing to survive one more day, one more step to get closer to that goal, even if that goal moves? Do you believe in something enough to perpetually chase it? If you do, that's a target that's worth chasing Whoo.

That's a hot mic. How do I even follow that up other than to say thank you for joining us today on episode 181 of electric printers secrets the electricians podcast. If you guys want To get the written guide of how Eric and Mandy are able to take advantage of this everything They've talked about today, including our pricing exercises and all the rest of it if you want that copy, jump on our website at service loop electrical comm and request it there, or join us on Facebook. Even if you're a little bit worried that Facebook is just for kitten memes and family photos, guess what? There's some value there too for you. In fact, that's where we do most of our great work, so grab it there with us guys. If you're watching right now and you want a copy of that, all you got to do is type. Eric and Mandy will send that to you. Otherwise, cheers to your success. We'll see you tomorrow, friday. Can we see soon?