Ep 240 - Million $$$ Start-up Series 2024 - A $1M 1st Year Tracks So Far Review

I'm stream. Nice looks like we're being live stream. Looks are deceiving sometimes, though Let me hit this record button. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to yet another episode, episode 240, of electric printer secrets, the electricians podcast. I am your host, clay Neumeier, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph Lucchini, and we are the electric printers, and you're the electric printers If you keep joining us, but we're just a couple of master electricians like you, with business addictions here and ready to serve the cost for this admission. Sit back, enjoy, spend a bit of time with us, take everything we give. Just promise to take action as we continue this mission to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Joseph, my brother, how are you doing this? Fine Monday?

Oh man, silver linings. Silver linings were healthy. Everything's good. I got everything in the right direction. Right, your boy's a little overwhelmed with some stuff in the background, but otherwise I'm feeling blessed and ready to serve. What about you?

All right, I'm feeling good man. We're going to give people more detail, because you know what. Joe's actually crushed a class over the park earlier. He just didn't get as much sleep after a nice, dare I say, a date night. Was it Getting personal with you?

Yeah, I was going to say yeah, we know, we had a nice date night the night yesterday and all things well and good. The only thing was that we got in late and I'm supposed to take a certain medication at a certain time and completely forgot to take, because I came home off and ended up having to take it much later in the night and, as a result, it threw off the majority of my day following, not realizing. So I'm very much so off but at the same time just leading forward with enthusiasm and intention.

You're dialed in, man, I know it. I haven't actually seen you off.

You know, what. I do everything I can to present as best as possible, because my why for doing this trumps everything that goes in my path. Because I recognize there are going to be people out there listening to us who are in the vans, who are feeling worse than I am right now. Maybe they're not sleeping because their bills aren't paid. Maybe they're not sleeping because they have struggles going on at home. So whatever I'm feeling now, I take with me and I say that's my reason to make other people not have to feel the same way.

Yeah, you know, on that topic, I appreciate that you said that and obviously my why is tangled with that. Before we get too deep into this, I just want to say every once in a while I get on a call with some OGs and some of the Facebook electrical game and they'll say something like gosh, you guys just talk about some stuff that's just a little above what other people are talking about, and I think what they actually mean is that hard on the sleeve. That expression you just had, yeah, sometimes it's mindset, sometimes it's just full on compassion, empathy, where we truly care, and so if you're joining us, I want you to know that we care about you and we are showing up, no matter what. We'll continue this endurance race to help motivate you on a Monday. Prep you on a Tuesday, make your Wednesdays wicked. I got to stop this alliteration before it tanks, joe, but you feel me, dog, you feel me. You always know I do man, all right, okay, so this episode's big we're kind of at like a bit of like a pivotal moment in our Million Dollar Launch Series and today's really important in that. First I want to go back and review just a little bit of Friday, because we had a bomb interview with Dan Totten, who is one of our clients, one of the electric printers we work with, who did in fact have a Million Dollar first year. Did anyone else notice this?

that we managed to slide that in there in the middle of this series, yeah, I thought that was really cool, where it's like not only are we teaching the things that we've actually done creating a Million Dollar business in our first year but then also being able to say oh wait, the people who are working with us have also been able to do the same things.

Coincidence, isn't it? Yeah, man, and there was a few mic drop moments that were like, okay, dan, that was fantastic for one, like incredible feats what you did. But also it perfectly coincided with what we've already developed in this Million Dollar Launch Series. Like we talked about number one thing we were going to go premium service rate immediately, niching in premium service and having that pricing figured out Right, and that's where we did the Dan. That was his top secret. He started just the same way. It was just a little over a year ago, but he got his pricing right away. Look at the path that paved for him. Do we have any regret or are we holding strong to the pricing being a great start for us? Joe?

I would say pricing not only is a great start, but I'd say it's the absolute number one first start. The reason being is that, even after listening to Dan, I want to double down on it because even if you could do all the right things let's say he did everything correct but his pricing came later he would be trying to do it in a deficit of income compared to doing it in a surplus of income. It's always easier to make better decision when you're not in your reptilian brain. That comes from needing money.

I love that you brought that up. It reminds me of loss of version theory too. We're all programmed. That's why Casino is a rich right, because it's really hard to walk away from something when you're already invested right, like you could already be invested at a rate. You might already have experienced people telling you your price is too high. Loss of version theory tells you you couldn't possibly go any higher. We'll be screwed. You wouldn't be alone for having those thoughts. It's the way we're all programmed. Starting out that way, getting your price right off the bat, was a huge win. I couldn't help but notice that that was kind of dance number one as well. I agree with that. That was pretty cool. You know the other piece and we don't talk about this often enough or deep enough. But like there's this thing about realizing what you should charge, it's like the next step then is to say, wow, I am worth hundreds of dollars an hour. You've got to step into it and claim that value. That's a whole other innate humanity challenge. There seems to be a lot of us, especially in the entrepreneur, electricpreneur space, that are actually doing this from a deficit of self-value appreciation. I don't know if that's a real term, but it is now.

No, it makes sense in a lot of different ways, and I don't mean to cut you off. Did you want to add to?

that no, please jump right in, man. It's perfect timing.

Because the thing is is that when people come from this loss aversion or also self-deprivation state, a lot of what it comes down to is the thought of saying if you don't believe that you're worth what you're charging, you will never be able to convince someone else that you are, because even if I were to teach you all the sales lines, I'd say the perfect way of describing it from beginning to end, but you didn't have that authentic and innate belief in what you're doing. It'll always come off as inauthentic, and people can sense inauthenticity, because that's the one thing that they're looking for in their proposal is are you being yourself and can I believe this is actually who you are? So I really feel like that initial thing was absolutely crucial.

Huge man, huge, huge, huge. The next thing then he drops the mic on the organic marketing and I know there were some marketers that heard our series so far and they probably completely lost interest at the point that we said we were going to go organic and feed off our networks. And we may have thrown a little jab to marketers in there too. No offense, guys, we love you. Everyone acknowledges that we need you and all of your assistants. But when we're starting out we've got to learn to lean on ourselves and that vision and that why and that network that we already have. Because we don't have a bunch of money. Who's got 10 grand to go spend on a website and SEO and get your LSA boot and all this stuff, man adds up. So we took the organic route and I don't doubt it at all. In fact, dan just proved it in second mic drop when he said look, I did this organically and I still do not pay for ads. He did a million dollar launch without paying for any ads. No LSA, no PPC. The only thing he's got is a fairly simple website, the vans and the wraps and the uniforms, yeah, and if we want to go even further with it.

I think that what we're talking about with the organic marketing is even more effective for the long game, because, let's say sake of argument, the only reason we do this is because we're low budget. Now I agree that I believe in organic marketing. I think we should continue doing it, but let's say, just to speak to the marketers in the background that are like, oh well, you shouldn't do it. I think it's essential that you do, because if you don't understand how marketing works, you'll end up in a situation where you're paying money that you don't know where it's going. Because if you control the marketing in the beginning, like I know my posts, I know how it's supposed to be done, I know what's supposed to be structured, I know where it's supposed to go, who my target is, then eventually, when you pay someone else, you can have at least a general idea of what they're trying to produce for you. But if you've always outsourced it without any kind of finger on the pulse, that's where the $10,000 months in marketing and not getting a result for it can happen, because you have no idea whether they're doing things the right way.

So I want to double down and just be like that.

That's extremely important to understand your marketing as well.

Superpower, man, superpower. No one can really do organics for you. Like you too and I think that's kind of settling a bit of a common misconception as well the best medicine for organic marketing really is your consistent touch, so that people can relate to you and you can become this community person. Now I'll argue that's why a lot of the bigger companies don't do this, and isn't that your edge as a smaller company, then? Because at some point, the CEO of a company tends to find themselves graduating from doing a social media post every day. I'm promising you I won't. I accept my role as an influencer in what we do, and what we do is help electricians rise up. Electricians need to help other people rise up in their electrical understanding and ability to make the right choice when it comes to service right, and something Dan said that ties wonderfully into this is most of that traffic originated from him making referrals to other contractors.

I love that he did that Either it was such a cool and such a smart move on his end, does him be say you know what? I have heard that you guys do amazing work, and that's exactly what we're about, and I'd like to work with other people who want to take care of their clients. Oh, by the way, when you're looking to refer it, I think would be a great fit, because we have similar values. I thought that was masterfully said.

Yeah, yeah, really done great things, man, and you could tell by his demeanor there was a lot more. I don't want to use the word ease, but he was calm. There was a calm about him. It's a lot easier to be calm when you know you're not at the end of your rope. Spending on marketing and you're still at the beginning hasn't been challenged entirely organic. He still knows he's got LSA to play right. He still knows he could go down and improve his website and will someday. He still knows he could improve his even. You know his branding still simple, if you've got the value piece. I mean you're still seeing white vans with just easy going wraps, right, like simple wraps. I should say it's not the full colorful you know beast just yet and it could be or it could not be. I mean, when your brand speaks for itself in that way, it really does a lot. So, man, there's so much. But I sense that people are wondering well, this is maybe where the path divides a little bit from where we were and where Dan is, or maybe it's divides the wrong word, because we're just not quite there yet.

I think so.

Yeah, Dan's next things were like the sales process and how in some cases that helped him double his average tickets. I remember before the show we got into details of that, like he was talking about well, opportunity calls, he's closed twice as many now, going from roughly three out of 10 to now closing six out of 10 opportunity calls and his tickets are higher. I mean, no wonder December was his biggest month at 136K. January this month's looking to be about 180 for him. I mean those are huge numbers. And that's again organic pricing, right, organic bit of a sales process locked in right and CSR.

And there's one thing that we didn't touch on that I think really needs to be highlighted. We said January. In December We've been talking about trying to beat the slow season for the longest period of time, and these are entirely residential calls. These aren't going and doing industrial projects out in the field. So the thought that we're attaching here is that you know, your best months, your 100k months, are in the two most notorious slowest months of the year, where one people complain about Christmas and the following they complain about after Christmas, like those are the two best months that he's ever had. It's insane to think about, but it shows that the process works, especially because it's entirely organic.

Do you know what my favorite part about it is? I don't, but by means, we're not even there yet. All of that without coming across salesy. Yeah, we hear it all the time. Electricians reach out. Listen, I want to have a sales process, but I don't want to be salesy, and I can't blame you for that. Who wants to go and apply a bunch of pressure, right? High pressure sales tactics, tricking people, scare tactics, all that stuff? I mean, no one wants to do that, and that brings us perfectly into a little vision of the future and where we're heading into this week with this discussion of the loop method, and when Dan's talking about the sales process that's serving him. That's all part of this loop method. Some of these big keys, though, that we got to focus on in our enterprise. Now, as we jump back into our million dollar launch right, taking lead from Dan, ironically, which is awesome I believe we need to install this loop method, too, to get this done. Joe, what do you think? I'm with it. Let's make it happen, all right, so let's simplify it on this session, then we're going to go deeper for the rest of the week on it. How does that sound?

Sure Put it on the team and I got your back.

As you may have heard on the podcast before, the name service loop is with intention. There's a double entendre here. It means that little bit extra for future serviceability. Joe, would you say that's what you focused on when you were having $1.3 million of Vang years?

Yeah, the goal was always to serve at the highest level, not to chase the sale, but instead chase the service and the customer service and, as a result, the sale would always follow.

That's the magic. Right there, though, People got to stop and hit replay, rewind, that listen again. Aim to serve at the highest level. Not on today's sale, but as a result. The sale always seemed to follow.

Yeah, and the best part about it that follows it is that people will always say, well, I don't want, as you just mentioned, I don't want to be salesy. It's like okay, but if you aren't going to be salesy, you need to also understand the intention you're trying to put out. Am I willing to be more if it means that I won't cut corners on your quality, reliability or customer service? If I'm okay offering those levels of qualities, why am I not also okay charging more than someone who isn't providing those services? And knowing that fact, then every price objection that directly follows it has to point back to if I were to charge more for quality, reliability or customer service, would it disqualify me compared to someone who doesn't do those things? So, no matter which way they want to present it, you are authentic, you are innately confident in your abilities and you already have a very pure objection handling skill that you can tap back into.

And when you really leverage all of that and your process then becomes this loop we're talking about, it just wraps full circle and it's undeniable that you're there to serve at the highest level. And I can't wait to share again some of the intricacies of that with you guys this week, because that's what the loop method's all about Repeat business in a win-win-win format, right A win for you and your business, a win for your staff and a win for your clients. Everybody wins with this because it's repeat business through repeat transactions and why would anyone buy again if they did not have a great experience in the first place?

Makes complete sense. It's like you want them to come back, but you won't give them a reason to come back. Then you complain why they don't come back, instead looking at it and saying why can't I make it so that everyone wants to come back and I can predictably expect it because of systems I've put?

into place. 100 percent man. For me it's a no-brainer. I know what way we're going to go in this million-dollar launch series. We're going to use the loop method. I guess the question is if you're engaging with us here live, are you? That's the big question. Let's crank out a couple of action items and get back to the day here. Joe, sounds like a plan. I'm ready when you are All right, you want basic or all-star?

I can think of a basic action. I can also do an all-star. It's up to whichever you want, otherwise I'll take basic.

I mean ultimately, dan lined up four solid ones, but go ahead, man.

Yeah, I would say the most basic out of all of these things was this is that it doesn't matter which of those four main levers that you want to touch, but whatever one you want to touch on, be willing to put consistent effort into it. As an example, you can say I want to take on organic marketing. Okay, that's well and good, it's good to say you're going to do that, but it's more important to show up every day and be present, not perfect. Whether you want to use the loop method, whether you want to use organic marketing, whether you want to understand your niche and your brand, whether you want, doesn't matter. Are you willing to, at the very minimum, say I'm going to do this day in and day out, consistently, come hell or high water, I will do this thing? If you can at least commit to that basic level of mental energy, you will be more successful in every endeavor you put your finger onto.

I love that man. That's huge and that's going to transfer over. So I'm going to double down and add to it as the all-star to say, yeah, do the organic marketing and show up every day and watch what happens. And if you don't have our cheat sheet to help you with that yet, throw your hand up on this. Where you're seeing us, whether it be live on the Facebook, on YouTube or even if you're just listening on your favorite podcast service, you can reach out to us at serviceloopelectricalcom or again on our Facebook and we're going to send that right over to you. If not us, then our front man, austin. So that's going to be a huge help, guys, massive, massive help. I doubt severely that Dan would have had a full million dollar a year without consistent efforts organically on that Facebook and in those groups and helping those others get the clients they want as well. Joe, this been another great episode of Electric Printer Secrets Again, where we're helping you guys master your sales, simplify pricing, deliver premium level service. In our million dollar launch. That certainly will not be any exception. More on the loop method, more on how we're rolling this out and even getting to our CSR higher, as Dan did and that freed him up. I can't wait to get to that point. More on this Electric Printer Secrets Electricians podcast this week, guys, so stick around. We'll see you again soon. Hey, we'll see you soon. Hope you're well.