Ep 239 - Million $$$ Start-up Series 2024 - A $1M 1st year with Daniel Totten

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to yet another episode of Electricpreneurs Secrets, the Electricians podcast. I'm your host, clay Neumeier almost choked on at that time with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph Lucani, and we are the Electricpreneurs Just a couple of master electricians with business addictions, here and ready to serve on yet another one of our daily freemium coach calls. You can read here on your favorite podcast channel or joining us live in the Facebook group. And this is episode 239 in our million dollar launch series how that loop method, as we've been talking about, is going to free us on this journey. And today, actually to your surprise, potentially, we've actually got a special guest, another one of our clients who's just rejoined us recently Dan Totten. He rejoined us in the last quarter of 2023 after spending a bit of the first quarter of 2023, kind of took the summer off. We didn't think he was doing much, but he's been doing a ton and he himself managed this million dollar launch first year. So who better to have in this perfect timing for the loop method, joseph? How are you doing today, my brother?

I'm doing amazing. It's one of those days where really you can't ask for better when it comes down to serving at the highest level, and I'm just grateful to be doing with you every single day and plus being able to talk about Dan. I mean, the guy's a solid individual. I always enjoy seeing him in class. He's nothing but a pleasure to work with, so I think it's very fitting we bring him in today. How about you today? How you?

holding up Doing fantastic man. Client interviews are my favorite. I love getting someone else in on the engagement and the conversation and really I mean I say client interview but it's more like a team this community we've built.

And.

I just want to take a moment to introduce this loop method again on the podcast, because it's something we're going to focus on for an episode or two here in how we would launch this business in like some of the ways Dan has. So the loop method and the curiosity around that can we just speak to that for one moment, joe? Yeah, we have to. Let's dive into it. So, in all the trainings we've been doing the sales process, development and training that Joseph's brought right from his $1.3 million van days to now training others to do the same and even better, here soon, right, and that's what I'm taught, and it's the guy. This loop method, that's the seven pieces that we've extracted from this process and put it ahead to figure out what we offer and that, coupled with the organic marketing, has created this effect, joe, where customers keep on coming and playing again. The business becomes sustainable in shoulder slow season can become something that we embrace and we look forward to, as we get to serve our customers again at the highest level, man, and nothing's made me more excited than launching this loop method with you, brother.

It's truly been a pleasure as well, and you know, it's a personal win in my opinion when we get to talk about removing the slow season, because it's one of those big bad bogeymen that so many people don't want to speak about or they're like oh well, things get slow and well, we just do commercial, oh, we'll do new construction. But using our method, we're able to remove the slow season to where not only is it now continuously profitable for you, but you can even plan your business as certain stop points, because now that you know your pricing, now that you know your offer, now that you know all these other factors that go into it, you can take control and meet the day rather than have the day meet you.

That's a hot mic. Speaking of hot mics, what do you say we introduce Dan?

I would absolutely love that no better time than the present.

Here we go, dan. Are you with us? Come on, dan, there he is.

Hey, how's it going guys? Hey, it's.

Deletric Doing great brother, happy to have you on the show. Thanks so much for joining us, man, how are you doing today?

Hey, we're doing good. You know we're off to I guess it's almost towards the end of the week, but it's been a great week so far. Everyone's doing well so it's great.

Nice man. I think we mentioned in the back here before the show it's kind of perfect timing to bring you in and fitting because we've been doing this million dollar launch series and how we would start over today and it seems you've done much of what we would aim to do in having your own million dollar first year. So A like huge congratulations. B I can't wait to dive into this with you, man, right off the bat. Could you see this coming for yourself, let's say, end of 2022, when you were starting, or what were your feelings then?

You know, to be honest, when I started this and I was thinking, you know, when I start this electoral company I'll probably be just by myself. You know, who knows, maybe in a year or two down the road I'll get some help, but we'll just kind of see how it goes. You know that kind of thing. And then once I realized my phone was blown up quite a bit right off the bat, I was thinking you know, I'm gonna have to figure out a way to manage all this because it was just really, really hectic. So I'm glad I reached out when I did, because I think I would have been in a really big mess right now if I didn't. I know I definitely wouldn't be nearly as close as I am right now. I've got a lot of goals for this coming year, but as far as the first year, I think we're right on track. So it's good, awesome.

I'm gonna be happy for you, man.

It was electrical in your blood, or why'd you get into this? Why'd you get into the electrical business in the first place?

You know my dad's been an electrician since he was 18. He's now in his 50s, so he's been an electrician for over 30 years. So that's a big thing. You know, he's always been commercial, industrial kind of projects. And you know, going up through high school I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn't want to go to college. And he said, oh, you know, electrical it's. You know it's a rough trade. I don't know if you want to get into it, you know. But I always went on, you know, a couple side jobs here or there at the neighbor's house or wherever, and I was like you know, this is something I really like. So I pretty much got into the apprenticeship at 18 as quick as I could and then went through it and got my car. Basically, so very cool man, I love that.

If I can touch on something, I just feel like it's so cool that you got an exposure early in the trade, because for so many of us you know whether it was you don't have a family member that's handy or you don't have a mentor. It could have been a lot harder for you to get exposure to it, and nothing's worse than jumping into a trade you don't love. But the fact that you had that ability being like you know I can take on a project on the side I can see that I like it. Oh, I do like it, and I really feel like that passion for the trade is one of the reasons why you're so successful at what you do, because every time you and I have a conversation, it's really I can hear the passion and I can hear the commitment to the highest level and I really think that's something I respect about you. I appreciate that.

You're welcome brother, there's another twist in this in that your background you actually came up in the union. Is that right?

Yeah, absolutely. So what we're at right here it's kind of a split, but basically he was through the union. When I came into it I said you know, that's what I want to get into and from a business standpoint, that could definitely change a lot of things. There's a lot of minimums as far as, like, pay scales and different things like that, which, in our specific area, is generally quite a bit higher than if you were non-union. So it definitely changes a lot of different things as far as health benefits and pay Right.

Yeah, and your area again, if you wouldn't mind telling people.

Oregon area. So the nearest city to us would be that's a big city would be Portland. We're probably our shop is based, you know, about 40 minutes from there, but that's a pretty big area where we do a lot of work.

Nice and sort of hire someone a residential service electrician, like what does that pay scale look like for a year of that employee?

You know, as far as from a residential standpoint, our technicians right now are more commercial residential mix. But as far as from a residential standpoint, an average hour including health benefits, you know they're around $65 per hour for a real basic one. And if you want a commercial guy, you know you're over $100 an hour really. And they're. If you want health benefits and everything, they're making $65 to $70 an hour on average, plus health and benefits. So it can be quite a bit.

No kidding, no kidding. So with that in mind, I remember doing sort of your pricing exercise for the first time and really looking at those expenses, going, wow, this rates climb in quick. Did you ever have any nerves around that? And the affordability for the people in your area for your services.

You know, when I first started, I kind of was looking at the company as far as everyone else's pricing, and that was kind of my biggest downfall, I think, is I was thinking, well, what is everyone else charged? What do we charge in order to make a profit? And from a starting point, that was the really biggest part for me. It's like, hey, we need to charge this much. I don't know how we can physically do that. And then it started focusing on what everyone else charges, what we need to charge, and that was kind of the biggest thing we're starting out with. That right on day one was a really big boost for me.

Massive yeah and kudos to you for embracing it and doing the hard thing, which is to go out and try Incredible piece, like so many people get stuck right there. I'm so glad you didn't, because you might not even be here to talk with us today if you hadn't. Yeah absolutely so. What is the primary focus of your guys's work now? What do you guys find yourself working on most?

Residential service. I would say you know generally you know I mean 90% that we do and when we started in that most of our guys have commercial experience, kind of commercial background we all can do residential, but we did a lot of that. So we still have those kind of bigger projects pop up. But generally speaking we're trying to transfer over residential services as much as possible. We still have to do stuff on commercial-ish jobs that are from a maintenance standpoint. We'll go back there and it's a really similar process Apartment complexes and stuff like that which we've got good luck with but it's something where we're slowly transferring over for sure.

Awesome, and you said something already that I think people are dying for us to ask about why is your demand so high? Do you think, like did you market a certain way? Is there something going on in Oregon, something in the water for DT Electric or what's going on, brother?

Yeah, what's interesting is when I first started, a lot of mutual friends of mine have their own construction companies. As far as like landscaping, painting companies, any friend of mine that I went that I've connected with that I've had the best results is like, hey look, anyone that has their own business already is a friend of mine. Anyone that you know tries to exceed. It's one of those things where it's like you know, if you hang out in the sewer you're going to get hit with a turd. So my thing is like I like hanging out with good quality people that like to do work, whether they're older, younger, you know, I just like being around successful people to find success myself. So that's something where I've tried to do. So if everyone else has a company that they're trying to grow, generally speaking, you're going to get a lot of you know help through that alone. And then one big thing I did is it's like, okay, well, if I have all these people that I know that own companies, well, if I recommend them, then in terms, they're going to recommend me. So, as far as our phones, since day one our call volume has been way more than we could ever handle. Right now we're starting to get to the point where it's like, okay, you know, we're catching up, we're getting multiple install teams set up and now we're starting to catch up with that workload a little bit. So I've never paid for any advertising. I mean we wrapped our vans and got matching shirts and stuff, but I've never paid for advertising, never put a sign in the ground, never, never tried anything farther, just because our call volume is so high. And even even to this day you know the CSR that answers all the phones there'll be times where she's on the phone call for four or five minutes and she's like man. By the time I got off that phone I had three voicemails and I'm calling it back as quick as I can. So our call volume it's not always like that, but start of the morning or into the afternoon, especially on a Monday or Friday, is huge.

So you know you said something in the very beginning and I didn't want to break your flow because I really love what you're saying. But there's a study that says if the five people you're closest with you end up developing their similar traits and something I really love that you're doing is that you said I'm gonna focus regardless of their age. If they're running their own business and they've got a desire to work, I want to ally with them, and I think that's really, really important, because there's a lot of people who start businesses for the wrong reasons and, as a result, they're in these situations where they try to rush or they're trying to just get to the bottom line. But it seems like you're doing the opposite, where you're focusing on people who want to work and want quality and by referring them, they're referring you and you're creating this reciprocal relationship that just seems to get better and better over time, as well as your habits being improved through those connections. So I see it as like this continuous loop that's improving. I just want to say, if no one else noticed it, I see it. I think that's really awesome.

I want to say it the way Dan said it hang out in the sewer, get hit with turds. Is that something your dad kicked down by chance?

No, I, you know, I'm not really sure he was. When I was going to start this thing he was really a little bit hesitant, like, are you sure you want to do that? It's like, well, hey, if nothing works out, then I'll just go back to work. I mean, there's not really anything to lose here. He was a little hesitant at first. Now I think he's really happy and everything like that. But it's something where you know, through, I guess, other business people, they, they've said that you know I A lot of close friends, a minor twice my age, and they've got, you know, pretty successful companies. So that's something that I like to do. What I found is is kind of funny is by doing this training, being with you guys on a weekly basis, a lot of times I've been able to help out a lot of other people. It's it doesn't necessarily electrical we're really the only electrical but you know, someone's got a landscape company, someone's got does excavation, contracting, general things. There's a lot of tips and tricks that you can pass along that they're like, wow, how did you come up with that? That's, that's insane. You're like, oh, I've just got this thing I do on a weekly basis. You know we're just for electricians, but you know, I'll pass that down to them. Well, that sounds like some kind of magic.

So Wow, man. Okay, so before we wrap up where these leads are coming from like, can I ask specifically, where do most of your leads come from? Do you think, then, is it all that internal network that you had, or is it grown beyond that since then?

Yeah, you know, facebook is a really big one where we've got a lot of local groups. We're in, you know, portland City Chat, oregon City Chat, all of our local cities. If I just when I first started I said, well, I'm gonna just join every single one of these and anytime someone said has a question like, hey, who's the best landscape around, who's the best? This? You know someone who I truly know is a great, you know it gives a great service, does a you know, premium level service that I personally know a lot of people I don't know in there. I don't know a good chiropractor, but I know the one down the road. It seems to be really good. We've done work with them. I'm gonna recommend them. So if every time someone says I need a local something, if I have either me, the CSR, someone else I know commenting there they're doing better, they see, oh, that guy's referring me, I should refer them back. You know we do a project it. Just last week we did a project at a roofing companies thing and they said you know, from now on we're referring to you. So anytime I see a roof I don't know a good roof, or I had a great experience with them personally, I'm gonna say you know what that's the roof for I'm recommending, and tell until I hear otherwise they're not doing great. What I found is that we just built this huge tribe of you know groups in the whole area. So people will call me that are 45 minutes to an hour away and they'll say I've heard you're the best electrician in the city over here. And I'm thinking, well, I don't ever work over there, but I'm glad you know I don't. I don't necessarily say, well, yeah, I don't, I don't agree with you, but yeah, I'm an hour away. I would consider myself local by any means, you know, but I'm happy to go out there and help you, you know.

Everyone needs to pause this, rewind a minute, minute or two there and listen to that again and again and again. The marketing companies are never going to tell you that. Why? Because they don't make money off of it. That is 100% organic leverage, and I love the way you did that. I can't say that enough. Then it's absolute fire and even in the bigger, better practice groups at the higher levels, where people see so much money Exiting to get enough leads, no one's talking about those fundamentals that you just absolutely might dropped in here, men. So congratulations on that intuition to stick with that and to build that tribe, as you mentioned. Huge superpower, absolutely, especially in a million dollar launch. I mean you were able to do that yourself and minimal effort and create massive gains. Thanks, yep, it's huge men. Okay, so at this, at this point, you're no longer just a one-man show. You've got a team around you. Is that right? How big is your team today?

Yes, we've got an office staff with one gal in there doing that. We've got two installed teams. So we've got two journeymen, one of furnace. He's kind of bouncing back and forth. You could best use in that day a lot of times. We'll have all three of them on one side if it's a bigger one. And then we have one service technician that does Mostly the day-to-day demand calls and then I'm still doing sales calls at this time but he's starting to take over those. We've got other people that are training to kind of push up that role. So three of those staff members have really been hired in the last couple months. Realistically, so we're we're growing at a fast rate of speed. Where it started going then it was like, okay, we got one. And you know, starting this, starting this year really, we had one van. Now we've got five vans, you know, for brand new ones, and pretty much every three to four months I bought another one. So we're just, we're really cruising right now and the people are starting to come faster, the jobs are coming faster, they're getting bigger. So it's it's definitely a role in volume, it's picking up.

So I Love the fact that your momentum is building, but also the fact that you're not riding on your laurels Like it's one thing to say, oh, we made it, we're good and now we can top off. But the fact you're like every three to five months I'm buying another van, shows that you're trying to scale and that it's meeting the demand that's currently there. Because if your phone's constantly ringing off the hook, if your teams are being entrained, if your sales process is being improved, then up is the only way to go at this point, and I love the fact that you have a forward view, that you're doing that.

You Thanks and one interesting thing that I wouldn't have ever really thought. But I feel like everything as far as organization and how hectic it is is less than it was when it was me and one other person. So the biggest thing is now I feel like, as we grow and we're getting people in line a little bit better, it's less stress, less going on, it's just more showing up to work. Okay, I've got some calls today. You know the CSR, half the time, is my boss. Okay, where am I going today? What do you want me to do today? And I'm going there doing what I need to do. The install techs are going in there. You know I'll help with the scheduling on durations and things like that. But generally speaking, as far as the way the company is building now, you know, a year ago it was really really hectic. I was scramble brain. Now it's like it's very set, cut and dry. It's just it's building and it's very easy.

So it sounds like your mental equity is being preserved there, because you don't have to think of everything. So it's almost like imagining a fistful of sand you have to hold the entire thing, which naturally things are going to slip through your fingers, but now you've got multiple hands holding it together, less falls through the cracks and it's less all on you.

And as we continue to build, you know it's just getting better and better. So I think once we get a little bit more sales in there, you know, okay, now we're going to need a little bit more install. You know the install texts are kind of being trained into those positions a little bit farther service sales. And then, you know, install texts are a lot easier to come by. Especially we're at right now in a union company. I can make a phone call and say, yeah, can you send me a guy, come in there, put him in the bottom, train them, see if they're going to be a good fit and kind of go from there. So it's really really easy to get help where we're at. So as far as scalability it's, it's huge for sure.

Amazing man. My next question was going to be based on the fact that you don't look afraid, not one bit. You don't look fearful of this, even though you're scaling, rapidly growing. Rather, this is a growth point, difference being, growth still has a lot more expense to it, and learning right scale at some point is just like Okay, we're going to turn up the real stat here, right, or turn down, rather and flow that current. But let me ask you, man, are you having trouble sleeping at night at all? But like, why do you seem so calm with this?

Yeah, there's, there's times, but my thing is, I just really like to work. So it's not a thing of, like, lack of sleep, like last night it was a and I was like, oh, you know, I was just sitting there not really doing anything productive and I was like, oh, we kind of need this for the job. Tomorrow I'm going to go get it. The technician was going to go from the shop to go get it, but I was thinking, Well, if I do that, then that's going to save him a half hour from having to go over there. So I wouldn't did it, but not something I have to do. I just really like to work. So it's something where, if you know, if there's anything I can do to improve, I'm going to do it. I don't, you know, work weekends or do anything too crazy or work too late or anything like that, and I take, you know, a lot of time for myself for sure, especially, you know, in the summer, if there's a specific season that I want to do something. You know, if I check out for a day or two, it doesn't really hurt me. It doesn't really hurt me, think, is the schedule so far in advance. So, as far as like, from a stress standpoint. There's times, you know, once every couple months, I'll go oh man, I'm getting ready to pull my hair out. But usually by the next day it's like, yeah, I was just overthinking it. But the problem is is because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and I don't like things to go even slightly wrong. Even if we do it at 99%, it's like, yeah, we could have just been a little bit better. We missed that one little thing. That was just not exactly the way I was. I drew it up and that's that's just. You know part of it. You know where, realistically, most people are probably doing it at 70% of what we're doing. So we're doing, we're going above and beyond anyway. But you know, that's just part of it.

So I gotta stop you there for a moment, because what you said at the very beginning is the all star action that someone should take and I don't even think it could was to be picked up on, which was hey, eight o'clock last night. I looked and said I wasn't doing anything productive. What can I do? And that itself is an absolute all star trait, Because, if you think about it, 8pm most people are turning in. They're done, they're clocking out, they've already been clocked out, and yet you're willing to get the keys, go back out and get the parts that you need. So in the morning your tech has a better start, meaning that their whole day and all their productivity and everything along it is now that much more set up for success. So the fact that you're willing to do the thing, the consistent thing, I really feel is a huge leverage to what your success is. Because being able to say, yeah, I like to work is one factor, but being able to say I am productively working on a focused action, I think that's what's giving you the best result and I love the fact that you're doing that. It shows a lot of character as well as diligence.

I want to add to that, because there's also a balance factor. Right, yeah, it wasn't. Oh, I've been stuck at the shop since 7 this morning it was. I've gone home, I've rested, but I'm not doing anything, and there's this thing I could do to get ahead. Exactly In those moments, joe and Dan, I find myself improving my life, where you start to become aware of well, I'm about to turn on a show, why, right, it's just a rest period, but is there one more left in me? Is there something else I could do that I would enjoy? That would still move the needle ahead, I got to say. I appreciate that too. Man, that's huge stuff, dan. Thanks for sharing that. So, with this growth, obviously embracing it, moving ahead, what would you say, though, have been, let's say, your biggest challenges in this year, then? Is it just demand, or was there anything else that got in the way for you?

Yeah, I guess everything's going realistically as smooth as anyone can ask for. There's small growth, there's just everything that is learning experience. Okay, well, how can we shift this to make this a little bit better? As far as this year and coming into next year, my biggest thing is I need to just train, train, train, where right now I'm thinking, okay, how many of these jobs going to be getting done? Let's get more jobs, let's sell more jobs, let's do more jobs, where what I'm trying to do is not necessarily that because that's going very well, but just from a training standpoint, I'm trying to step back just a little bit farther and really delegate as much as possible. Where it's falling great right now where I'm at, but it's like, well, if I'm selling these jobs and the service tech, it's all those jobs, then why don't we have another service tech and then he can move to sales, something like that, where I can step back a little bit farther. So training is going to be my number one thing, starting this year, that I'm really trying to focus on. That was not necessarily a struggle from last year, because it's always there. It's just something for me. I struggle with setting up the time in order to do that. So that's my, that's my thing For sure Great Sure.

Love the delegation, awareness, love the awareness of self at this point. And I did want to ask just briefly then what is it that you do at this point then? I mean, it mentioned sounds like you're getting more into training, sounds like the CSR is your boss sometimes and you're kind of the support and in the field a little bit. Are there like a half dozen things that you're doing in your business then at this point, or is it still a dozen plus hats that you're wearing?

Yeah, for me I don't do any of the installs at all anymore. So I mean if there was a quick thing that came up that someone really needed, I'd be happy to go do it. But generally speaking I don't do any installs at all. You know, if a HVAC company is like, oh man, I really need this hooked up today, they need me to go turn some tools for a little ball to do that. But pretty much I'm 100% off the tools. I look at it. Mostly all the bigger jobs, the service tech right now is estimating up to, you know, medium sized jobs and I'm trying to get it to where they can bid every job. You know I, just from a trust standpoint with their skill, are a lot of times if it's like, hey, we need to bid this full home rewire. They're like, can you check this? Maybe you should look at it first. I'm not really sure and that's one thing where all the bigger jobs, I still estimate them and happy to do that. So I'm usually driving around a lot of times all set up material and things like that for jobs that I know are coming up that I estimated, the tech estimated, I'll get it set up, organize, like, okay, when you show up to the shop, we've got a pallet right here. This is all the lights, this is the plugins, this is everything. Very mainstream. You just go in there and has the name on there, you grab it, you put it in the van, you go do the project. I'll do a lot of that kind of you know backside things where I don't necessarily have to all the technicians stock their own vans. I'm getting a little low on this, I feel it. You know I don't stock any of their vans. The shop has, you know, some normal consumable items that we use extra panels and things like that. You know we have a stack of 200 antme and breaker panels. We have the big ones, the smaller ones. We've got every single size on a shelf. So it says, okay, if you need one, it's right there. There's five of each one sitting there, that kind of thing. So I'll, you know, keep that stock. But from you know, coming into this next year it's going to be a huge delegation period where, as soon as I can get someone that can start doing those sales, I'm going to step back even farther. Even right now I've got a van full of tools and don't really use them.

Well, done man. How great is that when your tools collect dust right.

Yeah, I love it Absolutely. Okay, we're getting near the end of this, Dan, but top three things, man, that have helped you in this million dollar launch year, what you've been able to accomplish and that you'll see leveraging going forward. If you had to say the top three things, what would you say, man? What's helped you?

I would say the pricing was the number one thing to very. The very first thing is like okay, well, if you're going to do everything in scale and get your sales into better, well, the pricing is going to be the number one thing you're going to want to set up right off the bat. So getting the pricing set up and then, once your pricing set up, you know if you have the installers to do the work, well, if you need to have sales in order to get the work, so by having the sales set up there, that was a huge thing. And I guess my the number one thing, realistically, is definitely going to be the CSR position that can allow me to get for one, you know, if you're one to one shop, being able to get off the tools there. But also from a standpoint of okay, well, I'm off the tools already, you know, building from there, just starting to compound, where they're doing more and more and more every single day. So that's a big thing for me. But I'm just looking at, you know, this next year, how can I get to where I don't have to schedule all the jobs that they're not exactly sure on a duration? So that's one big thing I'm trying to step into.

Yeah, and just before the show, we were also talking a bit, and I just want to highlight, if that's all right, will you spend a couple more minutes with us? Yeah, absolutely. We're talking about because, as we established, you were with us for a bit and that sort of last quarter of 2022, first quarter of 2023 took most of the year on your own dealing with the high demand and everything, and then came back just in this last quarter of 2023 looking for some additional clarity, some structure, and that's really when the CSR started for you, right? Yep, absolutely. And so what other shifts have you seen, then, in this last quarter of 2023 that are sort of paving this way? Csr, but also I think there was a discussion of like conversion rate even doubling on some of these big opportunity calls, like, can you give us a bit of background in the how and the mental shift that you've seen around that?

Yeah, so a big thing where what we used to be doing when I first started this year we were, you know, providing estimates and doing this sort of thing, but we were more let's email it, okay, we'll do this. Some of them we were doing in person, but generally emailing. So one of the biggest things we're doing is providing the options in person and then also, you know, not emailing anything. Hey, let's show them to you. We'll provide six options and you know, kind of through your guys's direct training, basically we've doubled our conversion rate as far as our average ticket and a lot of cases quadruples, you know, in an average week. So those few hundred dollar calls are now one, two, three, five $20,000, you know, add on. So it's something where, as far as from a gross standpoint, you know filling our schedule rather than go into a service call going in there fixing something running out the door real quick. You know our tickets are getting a lot more, which is filling our schedule enough to where it's like, okay, well, now we're needing to grow because we need more installers, because we're getting full home rewires and panels and other things were a lot of times Not just for the sales ticket itself but from like a customer service standpoint. Go in there and you fix one thing and you don't tell them about anything else. You're just like well, on to the next one. You're really doing them disservice. But also you're hurting yourself you know, as far as your business growth, as far as profitability, I mean it's a huge thing. And without that training I mean I wouldn't wouldn't even be relatively close. So it's definitely something that's going to be an ongoing thing and, honestly, from a long term perspective, the ongoing training help whether you're a one person company even if I grew this thing to 10, is something where you kind of need the training forever because I mean, you don't necessarily need it. But the week to week group meetings and having the group chat, that people can go in there at any point in time and have, you know, a bunch of electricians that will instantly respond hey, what do you guys think about this? Oh, boom, everyone's helping each other in there. But the weekly trainings for you know the technicians, as far as the videos that you guys provide, for you know, I get a brand new technician. We have one that's been here for three weeks and actually this afternoon we're going to sit down and say, hey, watch this video. Hey, this is kind of how we do the pricing, you know, go through everything, spend a couple hours on it, and on a weekly basis we're going to have these trainings. But being able to key in hey, joe, I'm having this issue, with this this technician he's having a hard time with verbiage on this and just be able to have an instantaneous response and the best verbiage possible to think wow, I've got this big problem in a matter of two minutes. Oh, let me just solve that for you. It's huge.

So that's all. I'm honored man, Truly honored, to be in your corner full time man.

I'm not always full attention in the daily classes. Joe's always there, of course, helping with the Q&A, but did I hear this right? Did you take your whole team out of the country for Christmas?

We did. So we went to and a couple people didn't make it because they just been hired on since then. But yeah, pretty much we six of us went down there, we had the service tech install et cetera, and then, plus their wives and stuff, we all went down there for a Christmas break. So it was just kind of a gift back to me, like hey really appreciate where we've come from this start of this year and I want, on a yearly basis, from a cost standpoint, something where it's like it doesn't necessarily have to be right there, but I want to do a cool trip somewhere once a year, somewhere around Christmas time or if it's not that, it's going to be something good. If someone can't make it, if someone has something else going on, it's going to be just something, not necessarily giving back, but just say, hey, I really appreciate the help.

I think it's a great thing that you're rewarding your staff because, at the end of the day, a lot of people view like, oh well, the customer's the boss. Not necessarily. If your employees are respected and taken care of, they will take care of you.

Uh-oh, did you pause, or is it me?

I'm using Neil Something.

No, maybe it's me Sorry about that, guys. Just a little bit of a speech there. Keep going, joe, you got it.

No, it's all good, it's just. The moral of what I was trying to say was is I love that you're taking care of your team, because your team is now more empowered to take care of your customer. When your customer is getting taken care of at a higher level, they have more reason to keep using you, which means you can keep taking care of your team, and it's a cycle that repeats itself ethically and honorably, and I really respect that you're doing that.

It's massive. Thank you, dan, so much for joining us. Man, any closing comments or advice? Anything you want to say to any electric printers out there to help them on their journeys, brother?

You know, my biggest thing is, when I started this, I was thinking you know, I'm going to slowly grow this and I'm going to do this Realistically. From the very first day that I started this company, I should have just said hey, I need this help, I'm willing to invest this amount of money. What can you help me with? That should have been my number one step because, you know, and I did this some extent, but I really should have just died, dived right in to hey, you know, help me structure this from day one, because the advice on a daily basis, from just getting those roots and right off the bat, it's going to be a really key thing because on a, you know, from a one man show to a 20 man show, no matter what, everyone's going to benefit. You know, it doesn't matter who you are, what, what business you are, the benefit there is going to be massive. You know, on a weekly basis, I learned something new, no matter what, and it feels like, oh, I've got a good grip on this. There's someone in there that says something and like, no, that's a, that's a very good learning experience.

So you know what man? It's been massive having you. I'm so glad you're back and we're all learning from you as well. Thank you so much for your part in this series. I'm going to put you back in the waiting room, brother. We're going to finish off this podcast and I hope you're able to stick around and say goodbye to us, but otherwise, for the purpose of this podcast, thank you so much, Dan. We'll talk to you soon.

All right, thank you, thank you.

All right Joe.

Oh my God, I know. Having a quadrupled average ticket, having a doubled average clothing ratio, I mean those are some serious high hitting words right there.

It's massive man and we've gone long enough in this one, so we got to wrap it up. Is there anything else you wanted to highlight from that interview for the people listening here?

I would say the fact that he seems to be the individual that is a perpetual student. He doesn't seem arrogant, he doesn't seem like the kind of person that knows it all. Rather it's what can I learn, how can I serve? And those two mentalities, when working in tandem, create the biggest wins, because it's a contagious mentality. When you surround yourself with people that want to learn and want to grow and want to serve everyone benefits everyone you come in contact with. So I think he's beyond deserving of what he has done and I'm incredibly proud to be in his corner 100%, and I'm mind-blowing.

I want to tie this back to the series and crank out a couple of action items, and I think you just did the first one. Honestly, listen to the man with his demand. That's crazy. All from leveraging networks and a piece that we didn't exactly articulate but still falls under that organic marketing umbrella being able to go and just have conversations in these groups and recommend others to gain favor and build a relationship that's remarkably powerful, and we want to be leveraging that in our million-dollar launch first year as well. Massive piece as an all-star, though. Did you have something in particular, or do you want me to take this one?

If you got something out of mind, by all means.

I loved, love, love, loved a couple of things here in this interview. I mean, he gave us his top three right, but we already took action on the pricing, yep, and just where we're at. I feel like it's fitting to wrap this loop method into this. It sounds like, from what I heard, dan and his last advice, that could have been the all-star action to get help and get this framework and not try to reinvent the wheels so that we can actually see this growth in our first year and just knock it over the park.

I would agree with that 100%, because a lot of times people have this mentality that they want to do everything themselves, but really it's many hands make light work and if you have someone that's able to say you know what every percent of energy you're putting into is more effective when you're applying it. This way, you spend less time spending tires and more time cashing checks.

Oh man, that's huge. So in the next episode episode 240, we're going to get right into that, into this loop method, some of that structure, and unravel it as soon as simply as we can Excuse my stutter, but really trying to create that repeatable business through repeatable transactions with repeatable customers, how to identify, qualify and make this thing last, and Dan's been a fine example of that. Joe, you ready to wrap this thing up?

I'm ready when you are brother.

Gosh, this has been another incredible episode of Electric Pinner Secrets, the Electricians podcast, where we interviewed Dan Totten and he taught us his secrets on how to master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level electrical service. We're going to see you guys again on the next one.

Can't wait to see you soon, cheers.