Ep 289 - Replay - Your Electrical Business is a Mirror

Hello and welcome to Electropreneur Secrets, the electrician podcast. We're here with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. I'm your host, clay Neumeyer, with me, as always, joseph, the sales bot Lecani, and, if you guys haven't heard, on our last episode we talked about this and it's all the rage on Facebook in our group We've got a gen class coming up, may 31st nine to noon AM Eastern time. How do people get in this class, joseph?

That's pretty sweet, I'm going to use put up a smoke signal, not just. All you got to do is just let us know that you're interested and we'll actually send you an invitation link, because this is by invitation only is in a situation where we're letting everyone in. We're only looking to work with people who are trying to aspire to be premium service providers and serve at the highest levels.

Simple little application. You can access that on Facebook. If you're not part of our Facebook crew, part of that network, the electric group, please join us there. You can jump on Facebook and just search it. You can look up either the electrician podcast or electricpreneur. Today we've got something to help you out with the better understanding of your business, how things work in this world A little bit tied into manifestation and the attraction methods and a lot tied into your personal commitment to health, family and business. What we're talking about today is this problem and sometimes this benefit of your business being a mirror of you yourself and your relationships. Joseph, what do you think about this topic?

God. It hits way too close to home. For way too many people, I can imagine. As we're saying, a business is a mirror. There are some people shaking their heads and thinking we're going to swipe right or we're going to turn up. We're going to switch to another podcast. For you guys who are still with me, let me explain why this is so important. When we're willing to look at our business and say how did I have a hand in creating this result? It is both humbling and horrifying when you're like, wow, I manifested this amazing thing and things are going great. It's also equally horrifying when you say, wow, things are really bad and I'm the one that allowed this to happen. I think this is an incredibly important topic to talk about and I can't wait to dig into it.

Absolutely. I'm going to start by sharing a story from a client on the inside.

Now without naming this fella today. We're super proud of him. If he's listening right now, he knows who he is, so we're bringing nothing but pride to this little story. But he didn't sign up right away. In fact, we were in chats for about a year, I think, before he ever did come to the inside track, but we always knew where he was headed Every time we met. The year prior. Last year, we kept coming to this. But I'm just not sure if I want this. I'm having trouble with my guys. There's no one really that wants the responsibility and we don't really have goals in our business right now. We're just unsure of what this looks like. This was for really good reasons for this client. I think they had a mentor in the past and something had happened with that mentor, unfortunately, but sometimes too, there's just seasons in life. Do you subscribe to this philosophy of seasons in life, joseph?

I do, if anything, I actually believe even further, like I'll put a specific number behind it. I know for a fact that every seven years, every single cell in your body is different. Your allergies will change, your diet will change, your preferences will change, your interests will change, because you yourself become a different person. Life comes at you, but it's never coming for you. It's one of those things where it's a situation where life happens and that's okay, but it's what you do with those cards that you're dealt that really determines whether you're a winner or a loser.

That was some. You just kick some knowledge there. That's crazy. Seven years, love that cycle, love that, love that.

So in this, and what had happened for this individual is they did eventually say you know what, enough is enough. And they came on board and three almost now I guess it's four or four and a half months after that, we had a conversation, actually while I was at your place in New York, and he actually said this to me it's crazy, it's not something I said, it's not anything I did, I don't think. But all of a sudden, people are coming to me with their papers, they want to be signed apprentices. People are showing initiative, people are taking accountability. And I said to him at this point, I said we got to pause for a second. Is it okay if I tell you why? Because he didn't know, he legit didn't know.

So I want to tell you why people are showing up now. Because you're showing up, because you took steps, because they know you're improving, because you've got goals now, because we're looking at the numbers now, the KPI, because we're doing these things and implementing processes. People see this is a mission we got to take serious right now and our leader is pulling this string. I've said that before. Right, you can't push a string across the table. It folds over itself. But you can pull it and it'll fall perfectly in line. Whether you looked back and told them to follow or not, a good crew will follow you. If you have that respect, if you have that trust and if you have those relationships with those staff, they will follow. Isn't that crazy?

It's so true and actually really inspired something that came to mind. For any business owners out there who have maybe more than one employee, maybe you got a shop. Have you ever wondered when you think to yourself man, no one wants to ever clean this shop, no one ever takes care of it, no one ever does anything in this shop. I'm the only one doing everything right. The question I have for you is are you the one who's having to do anything or are you also neglecting it? The reason why I bring that up is can I talk about a personal story?

Oh yeah, let's go.

So when my partner and I we were running our shop, there was a situation where we felt that no one really had a lot of initiative to want to Maintain and clean that shop. It was like we always had this vision of having a storefront. It was one of those things we always wanted, so we worked really hard to get it. We built a lot ourselves and we grew a lot ourselves, but we felt like our employees weren't really taking care of it. And then I realized somewhere along the lines I said okay, well, are we the first ones in and do they currently see us doing it? And once we started getting in early and actually being the ones where we would say I'm gonna come in early and I'm gonna make the coffee for the team, I'm gonna come in early and I'm gonna make sure the toilets are clean, and they started seeing it get done For some reason. Miracle, if you would. People just started picking up brooms, electricians picking up rooms.

Which is, we should tie them to the rocks, throw them in the water. If they drown, they weren't witches, and if they float, they were. Is that how that went?

Yeah, literally it's almost like a Monty Python quote. It's like, well, if she Ways the same as a duck, then she's made out of wood and therefore she's a witch. Crazy logic. But the fact was, where I'm trying to get with this Was that when we started showing up and letting our team see that we believed in cleaning it and that we weren't just telling them that they had to clean it, it became an hour Vested interest compared to something they had to do.

Yeah, I love that and I love that. Lead by example and there's so many examples of this we can think of Mm-hmm right, quite often. I know, guys, this is a tough market to find staff in the first place, yet we've got clients that are attracting new staff every week, right, and it's all over the country. So we know that there are differences and it begs the question what are the differences? I Can tell you from a mental standpoint. If we really step back and looked at the 30,000 foot view, we're gonna ask the question is this someone I want to work for? Is this ship headed in a direction that I feel safe and secure about and solves my desires and my esteem and my self actualization? Mm-hmm, aren't those important questions to ask. What do you think?

Literally like I'm going through it and actually you made me think of something else. Can I jump into that as well?

That's all about guys. None of this is pre rehearsed, pre rehearsed or just rehearsed. There's very English questions, as many as I love it, no, but we got rid of the fancy shit. We just show up, live every day and have thorough conversations about what we know, what we've experienced, in an effort to help you guys.

So here we go Joseph, kick it so I know that this is something that I've seen in the past and I always had a lot of respect for it where a lot of people who run businesses they have a lot of background, they have a lot of knowledge, but how often is that knowledge communicated? Like there are some of us that get involved in real estate, there are some of us that involved in mutual funds or index funds and retirement plans and IRAs, and it's good to have that knowledge. But the question I have for you is are you taking the time to educate your team on Finance so that they can feel secure enough to grow within your organization? So, like, when we say that our business is a mirror of ourselves and our employees are struggling financially, what does that say about our understanding of finance and our understanding of business, let alone our Interpersonal skills in knowing how to communicate that to people? Doesn't that also reflect?

absolutely, and I want to offer a contrast to that. If you're currently running a business and you're not holding yourself financially responsible, Mm-hmm. Even if they don't know the books. Do you believe that that is communicated outward and that people get the sense that's happening in a business?

Yeah and yeah in a huge way. I mean, everyone's experienced this before. Right, actually even saw a meme about it the other day when someone the boss is sitting in a truck right and he forgets to order the material and Literally what he does is he says always be the hero, don't ever take blame, gives the guys off and they're like oh well, you don't worry about you guys been working so hard, you have a great day, go ahead. And then it calls the customer. He's like yeah, I got to take all my guys to a notion class. Yeah, you wouldn't believe, all day I got taken. But the point was is Bob Marley said, you can fool some people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. And if your shit isn't in order, someone's gonna smell it like that.

But even I mean, we keep going down the rabbit hole here, but even your clients. As they say, desperation is a stinky cologne. So, again right, look good, feel good, present Well.

Mm-hmm many iterations of that little quote. But when you look good, when you feel good, you look better. When you look better, you're more confident. Mm-hmm. So even your personal hygiene and how you're managing your health. Let me ask you this then move this on. Would you be more attracted to someone who was routinely going and exercising and and Manicuring themselves and taking care of their hygiene, even as a client or a potential staff?

Yeah, I mean that would make sense. I mean like an attraction is a multi, multi thing, and I don't want to say in the wrong context, but when I look at an employee and I say, all right, I've got two people, like I've had people show up to interviews in sweatpants, one guy literally said I just roll out of bed. But man, I am present and I'm like dude, you could have lied. He had dandruff all through his hair and his, he was all greasy and he didn't shave and he had a grateful dead t-shirt. So he like, yeah, you're right. At a certain point you're like show up and how you show up matters more than if you even show up.

And this ties in brilliantly with advice you gave one of our clients, you gave personally, about our Apex attraction model. And even just how are you showing up to the supply house, A place where other electricians congregate, no doubt right when you're at the wholesaler? What do you look like? Is it different than everyone else or is it just the same? Is it sweatpants, grateful dead t-shirt and a beard that's a week overdue?

Yeah, because you're right. One of the biggest things that comes away from that is we all say that we can't find anyone right? We're all like no one wants to work, right? Okay, we're speaking from someone who's 32, I guarantee people in our generation do want to work, but we've got some concerns that we got to work through. I get that. I get it. But the factor is is, if we're all fighting for the same people but none of us are willing to stand out, then why are we complaining that they can't find us?

You go to the supply house. Everyone's got their torn jeans or their dirty dickies or they've got like a company sweatshirt that's seen their share of addicts overgrown beard, you're looking unhappy, you smell like a cigarette, but everyone else looks like that too. And then we walk in button down shirt matching pants match or boots match our belt. There's clean under our nails, we're clean shaving, I mean. Luckily I don't have to worry about it too much. But the fact is, is that the rest of us we're clean, shaving ready to go? If there's anyone that wasn't attracted to that style of company before and they see you coming in every day, smiling, whistling, thinking it's a great day, wouldn't they start having that itch. What's going on with this?

team. You know what. You asked a question and it's like, in fact, it's more of a statement. At this point, where are the people that want to work? I think it begs the question where are the people that want to work for you? No one's going to finish this episode. There's so much gravity and holding a mirror up to ourselves. Guys, I know, done it. That's one of the all star qualities. In our Apex attraction, we identified this what's the acid test for an all star? They love to be measured right. All star. Come to you and do a self evaluation before you ever got there, knowing what went wrong, and go ah, joe, I didn't do it, even me. Today we're talking about our own KPI earlier. Where did I tell you Yesterday we had our KPI set. I didn't get mine done. I need you to know that, because I do measure, because I do care. Every all star has that quality. They do care Right. So how do we attract people like that? You got to look the part. All star doesn't want to be on a sinking ship.

Of course not. I mean, no one wants to be the rat. We all want to be the person that is growing in an environment where we can thrive. No one ever wants to feel like they're tied to a sinking ship, because even the rats will scurry away. They'll swim, they'll like screw this, I'm not staying on this ship, I'd better off swimming and getting on a raft somewhere. So you've got to look the part, as Clay said, and so when we talk about a mirror, I actually would like to bring up an analogy of an actual mirror.

Imagine you guys are in a snow white, is it no? Snow white story.

No, I was going to say. The thing is is that when you're a mirror on the wall?

I had to be thinking for a second. Yeah, I took it. Yeah, I got clever there, sorry.

That's okay.

So, when you're in a mirror and you want to say what could you do? Do I look the part? What I'd want you to do is imagine, don't even get yourself ready more than you normally would, and I want you to go and actually look at yourself in the mirror and, if you can, take a candid snapshot. The reason being is that if you take a next day and you say I'm going to shave, I'm going to clean my uniform and I'm going to smile, and you take a candid snapshot, now you'll find that just between the two people same person, same uniform, maybe, but just holding your shoulders back, chest up, full smile, confidence in your eyes that is the person that only your employees see and they're like yeah, that's a leader I want to rally behind. But it's also the people that your customers are like man, this guy's got to shit together. You wouldn't show up looking like if you didn't know what you had.

Yeah, for sure. And just to be clear, it's well known that many of us have some confidence issues. We don't like the sound of our own voice. I don't do you.

I try not to listen to it, but it's one of those things where it is what it is.

I hear you differently, you hear me differently than I hear myself, and likewise it's just. It seems to be an alien. Everyone a little bit, and quite often we're the biggest critics of our own looks too. So this mirror exercise isn't for you to nitpick it yourself, but we all have a level up Fresh haircut right. Flossed teeth, cigarette, stale smell around you tucked in. Got your uniform on clean, no wrinkles, right, clean, shaven, as you said, even if it's styled at least clean, not overbearing.

That's a level up for every one of us, no matter what you look like.

Exactly. And if I can add something to that, do it like when I was still smoking like cigars, I loved the smell of tobacco, like I truly, truly loved the smell. If I could award it as a cologne, I would have. But the question that I realized, or the statement that I realized, was I'm in the minority. There are so few people who are like, yes, old cigar smell, that's what I want more of. I want to get close to that guy. I loved it, I thought it was a good thing, but when I stopped smoking I realized that more people wanted to talk to me. So, guys, just realize that how you look also has to be through the lens of would other people look at me the way I'm looking at me? Definitely.

Definitely. I love that. I want to dive a little bit deeper here and really get on a bit of a passionate note. Let's see how this goes with my man cold going here, guys. So good, rocket. You ever heard the expression? You reap what you sow.

Yeah.

Is it that crazy to imagine that the miracle of life is what happens after you sow the seed the seed turns to a tree. I don't know how I can't make a seed turn to a tree. All I know is that if I dig the hole, put it in fertile soil, come back and give it tender, loving care every day. With a little bit of water, a little bit of sun, a tree will grow. How tall will the tree grow?

I mean realistically. I mean my brain is trying to tell you soil content, growth height, active water. Like that's my brain going.

Let me simplify it. A tree will always grow to its potential to reach the sun and the environment that it has. With the DNA structure that it has, it will do its best every time. There's no mistaking it. I've rarely, if not ever, have I seen a tree and been like poor little guy. It just won't go, this guy just doesn't want to go.

But what I have seen is apple trees struck by lightning, split in two, with red luscious apples on a dead rooted tree still growing. That's the miracle of life. I saw you had your hand up. I know I was in a flow state here.

No, I love it. I didn't want to interrupt your flow, but you actually made an analogy that I really want to touch on as well, because it stays on the plants. Right? You knew that the tree, in good soil, with adequate support, would grow and thrive to any height that it could reach, right? Yeah, what would happen if you took that tree and you put it in a pot that never got bigger?

That's valid. I love that. Actually, the tree dies, it would be limited.

It would be limited. So the thing is is this is an analogy you can bring back to your own employees you may have hired someone, starting them at entry level, but if you never expand the pot that they get to grow into, they only have two choices they either stagnant and they're like this is as much as I'm going to grow and that's all I can amount to, or the roots die and they crawl out of the ground and their root ball is insane. You guys can tell. I, literally, was just doing trees recently, so this is top of mind for me. So the fact is is, guys, everyone who's listening to this look at your company and say what kind of pot am I bringing? What kind of pot am I planting my seeds in? Is this something that I know? If they were to grow, do I have the means of transplanting this or expanding it or making sure that this is going to get the attention that it needs?

Absolutely or are you hiring people and putting them in a stranglehold without even realizing it?

It ties into a post I did the other day and then I got to spin back to this because there's something really important to tie into. We're all at one of two stages. We're all about to be stuck. That's the size of the pot you're talking about. Our current strategies, our current positioning, our current roles and responsibilities in our business are just for this time, only this stage of growth. If you aspire to grow your business, then what happens as you grow is your responsibilities change. That's the hard part. That's the hard part. You've got to know that. You've got to grow and get a bigger pot too. You yourself need to grow. As a mirror Is your business, as a mirror of you and your growth. Your business will grow if you will grow. Can you do that on your own? Sure, grab some books, start a library. I've done that. I've gone and done academic education. I've also sought much mentorship in my life. I'm over 150k in personal development and coaching, because I want the transformation and I want it quicker. That's why I can be here mid-30s, late-30s, that's why that's what enables the bigger pot. That's the key is my personal growth is reflected in this business. Amen to that. Your personal growth and experience is reflected in this business as well. That's why it's so powerful as a partnership.

Getting back to this miracle, to tie up this tangent, we can all accept that if I go plant some red pepper seeds, they're just seeds like any other. They look pretty similar, dna structure a little different. But if I plant those things, cover it up and show up every day with water and sun Very important factor here we can't plant it Monday, give it water Monday and then skip Tuesday, wednesday, thursday and come back and water it four times Friday. That won't work Consistent activity. But we all agree that if I water it every day, I'll have red peppers in a month or two. Why don't we agree that that's the same in your business? Why can't we plant these seeds? Have faith, show up, water it every day and then reap the reward, the fruit, the vegetables that come from that. Please.

Because people are too busy working in their businesses instead of on their businesses when they get so inundated with the.

I can't think more than two steps ahead. They don't think about growing the others and instead they're just trying to survive. And I really, really think that what we could do as an industry, as a whole industry we electricians are one of the most educated people in the industry as a whole we could rally together, support each other, like we're trying to do as well with you guys, and say what could you do? Point out how you can improve not only yourself, but point out how you can improve others. Take the time to help give the support that maybe others aren't receiving. The more you rise, the tide, all the ships go up.

Absolutely. I love that I'm going to ask you this question again how tall will the tree grow?

How tall will the tree grow? Brandon, I was going to say once again, my first thought is tree species, ground soil, what type? But it really depends on the area that you're going to put it in. Is it going to be attached? Is it going to have the room to grow? Will it be able to reach its full potential? Isn't it an environment that could allow it to reach its full potential?

Given those factors, it's going to grow as tall as it can. Yet humans predictably can know the course from A to B and never go from A to B. Humans predictably will not live up to our potential. There are people sitting on the couch right now listening to us. It makes me sad to say that, but there's people sitting on the couch or maybe even disconnected from this podcast already and turned on the TV. They're occupying their mind and occupying their time with things they're not fruitful and they're failing to hold up that mirror and just see that what you reap is what you sow. I inspired something. Go ahead, you did.

There's a quote that came to mind, and it was let me look it up, it was the man that lacks passion and purpose, distracts himself with pleasure, and the logic in that statement is if you truly believed that you were going to grow your business and you were going to show up every day, you wouldn't turn back on the TV. But the person who lacks that direction and says what can I do? I already punched in, I did my job today. Click. That's the person who you can say isn't, and that's the mirror. The mirror that they're seeing is just on the reflection of the screen.

Yeah, if you could see it on the other side, if we were able to show you, instead of a mirror, a window into the future, 36 month window, and you could see your business with 10 staff not four, 12 staff, not three, doing three, four million a year, not 650. If you could see that. And then we said this is the road you took, these are the steps you took, and you just came and you showed up every day and you did your best. It wasn't perfect every day, but you were present every day, you did your best and that's what it leads to. Then I think that A to B would be a little bit easier. I think people would do it more. There would still be some that don't.

But if you could see it this is where I believe the problem is it takes a little faith, right, this isn't just a seed bag where we can say here's your seeds, here's what will come, there's the window to see it. You can't see it. You got to show up with a little faith and know that, hey, other people are in our program killing it. Other people are going to go to this generator class, take big nuggets from it, turn around and sell a generator and make thousands of dollars off this free class that we're offering we know it's true because someone's doing that on the inside right now Inspired us to put the class together. We already know that you are the generator specialist. We already know that you have this experience. We just had to see someone else do it first.

It's true.

People can know A to B doesn't mean they'll do it.

Amen to that Last thing. I know we got to get to the action assignments, but that actually leads me to another quote that I heard that I think lies with that perfectly. Warren Buffett is one of the most successful financial investors in the entire world. Everyone knows the name and it's pretty substantial. There was an interview that I was watching at one point where Steve Jobs was talking to Warren Buffett. He's like your policies and your practices are so simple. It's so simple and so straightforward and you have a proven track record of making such consistent money. Why doesn't everyone just listen to you? And Warren Buffett said because telling people that getting rich in 10 years isn't the problem. It's convincing them that 10 years isn't a long period of time. I love that.

So that's a really thing.

It's like, yeah, we could show them the window, all the results are there, like this is what you can do. I mean, I was selling 1.3 million out of my van, but it took me seven years in order to build that. This is the path, but with the path in place, you can get there even faster.

Yep, even an ancient stoicism. Read a little bit on that and they used to call it a craze, and that was people's inability to do things for long-term wins, for long-term benefit. We always choose the short term. That's where we're at, man, especially now more than ever. 3,000 plus distractions a day, as we said, miles of scrolling a week, scrolling miles oh my gosh, it's crazy, but it's where we're at, guess what. Here's the good news, guys. We're going to turn this around. Give you a little energy to leave this podcast. Here's the good news the barrier to entry is low here. The barrier to entry to success, to winning at the next level, is simply reaching out and taking consistent activity. Finding mentorship and taking consistent activity on the advice they give you. That alone will change your life. There's two things Find someone who's been there where you want to go and then listen to them and do what they say consistently. Does that sound very hard, doesn't?

sound hard, but it's one of those things where some people are going to be like wow, I mean I have to reach my phone and look for someone I don't know. I'll wait for someone to send me a guy.

Sounds dangerous, sounds scary. I don't know if I trust those waters.

I'd rather stay in the short, shallow pond that I'm comfortable with.

It also sounded like the action item Seek mentorship. Guys, grow that pot, find what you need. Have a look in this mirror. I just listed three different things. That wasn't fair of me. I'm going to let you choose an action item. Do you have it on in mind?

Oh, I, was going to say that actually works out fine. I'd say the very first action item I would want to say is, even before that Okay, I'd say that's better.

Yeah, an action item is the first of remember, how we said, stand in front of the mirror. I would say the very bare minimum, first entry level action is are you someone you think even needs the help? Right, literally, look in front of the mirror and there's an exercise that I did that was really helpful and just stay in front of the mirror and say what do you want? If you buy time, you get to like number 11, like literally say what do you want and then answer it, and then ask it again, and then ask it again, and then ask it again, and you'll find that what you want isn't those material things that you say out loud, they're the emotional needs that you have that are really the same emotional needs your, your clients and your employees are having. So now, once you realize what do you want, now you can figure out if you're even the person that needs help.

Well, you all start action. If you wouldn't mind, I would say within the exactly what you just said. Once you're in a position where you're like I need help, because I now know what I want, get off your ass and just find the help. I mean we're, we're all here. There are mentors everywhere Doesn't mean they're all great, but it does mean that they're available. At the very least, find someone you feel that can help you. Yeah.

Yeah, I love that and I'm reminded of a situation that I want to throw out there just to help people in this same place, because I know it's hard to ask for help. I think we discussed that with one of our prospects earlier, but I also had a call with a friend and prospect and sometimes client earlier who's been in the same seat for a long time Thank you but even admitted to me today just like, hey, it's hard to ask for help. A part of me, just as bold and stubborn and wants to do this on my own. Yet it's been years and we're in the same position. Yet there's growth, but it's slow growth, right. It's likely to take the seven to 10 years that it took you to build your thing right Without help. It just takes longer. If you want the immediate transformation, you got to get advanced help, but it's like choose your evil. You want to be where you are for longer. Well, now you want to ask for help. Which don't you like more?

Yeah, some people would rather sit in the mud than ask for the hand to be pulled out.

All right, guys, that was a big episode. We've gone a little bit long. I appreciate your action items A little more condensed. To start it out with the All Star follow up, Then I got my little ribbon for that one. Appreciate that, Guys. We're here with you five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. I feel today was fundamental to that mission. Today's one of those episodes where really I wish I could rewind it and put it back to 001 and say start here. Because what happens is you build a company without ever looking in that mirror and we can end up with some shadows in the background that we don't even recognize, trying to figure out what the hell. That is the Peter Pan principle going on. I love it.

You've been rocking the disk.

I love it.

Literally a little pound in there. Okay, so we mentioned earlier the generator class. If you guys want to get a hold of that class and see if you can fit in there and that we're at a capacity of about 20 right now and seats are opening up as confidence grows. But if you want to get a copy of that one, or get in on that one live or the recording, you can message us on our Facebook group, electric Pernur Secrets. And that's it for today, joseph, always a pleasure. Thank you for your help with this one. Pleasure is always mine. Thanks for watching. See you guys next time. Bye.