Episode 12- Be Willing to be BAD at it to Get Great

@14:38 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Welcome to Electropreneur Secrets. I'm your host, Clay Neumeier with my beautiful partner as always Joseph Lucani. We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver consistent premium level service.

And boy, do we have some topics to help you with that. today. First I want to let you know if you're listening to this you literally just missed out on about seven minutes of pre-show in our Facebook group, the Electropreneur Success Club and we were live there but we're moving on now.

We've got a few things to discuss. One little problem came in from the live wall that we're going to let Joseph run away with here for a minute.

Jason Brogy, did I say that right Jason? I'm sorry if I messed that up. Just a tough install he says rescheduling appointments because of being chained to the job site.

We're going to touch on this and then we're going to tell you more later in the show about why you need to suck before you ever get strong and we're going to tie it to Joseph's story who as we said already definitely sucked at 1.2 even though now we call him the sale bot.

Joseph the sales bot, Lucani, fire away brother.

@15:49 - Joseph Lucanie

I love it. So Jason I want to speak directly to you on this because this is something that really hurts my soul because I've been there where you recognize that I have to do large problems.

in order to pay my bills, but you're so chained to them that you actually can't ever take a break away to deliver the service to a wider multitude of people.

So you're stuck between am I doing projects? Am I doing service? So one thing that I found that really, really, really helped in this particular scenario was creating what's known as the first class membership pass.

Now, if you're not familiar with that is, I'm gonna give you a quick little highlight and I'll describe exactly how you can use this to leverage where you're available and where you're not.

Does that make sense?

@16:35 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Oh yeah, let's go for it.

@16:36 - Joseph Lucanie

Awesome, all right. So the first class membership is it's actually a concept I adopted from HVAC trainers because have you noticed that electricians, we very rarely have club memberships.

It's almost always an HVAC or a plumbing company that says, hey, we're gonna come every year and we're gonna tune up your furnace and we're going to check your water heat softener or water heater and fill the anode rods.

And there's always. that they're doing, but we can do the exact same thing. We're not sorcerers.

@17:06 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

And we should.

@17:06 - Joseph Lucanie

And we should. 100%. So the first class membership creates a group of tangible things that every single client, regardless of their financial background or their demographic or where they live would appreciate.

The first is when you're a first class member, you get what's known as the front of the line pass.

For anyone who's been to Disneyland, a good way of describing it is, hey, you have the option of either waiting online behind everyone else to ride Space Mountain, or you show your wristband, you go right to the front of the line, which we'd prefer.

The second is letting people know that, believe it or not, you have the only people that have access to after-hour service are our club members.

So you can actually start your day. If you're normally you're a nine to five or eight to five, you can do seven to seven exclusively for those kinds of clientele.

So the kind of person that wants to... use you may be like, you know what? I don't get out of work until five o'clock, but I make so much during the day that you know what?

It's worth paying a little bit of extra for you to come in the evening. It's worth you coming a little bit before I go to work.

Yeah. Okay. I'll take that pass. The next is letting someone know I'm not going to nickel and dime you on any kind of dispatch or diagnostic fees for an entire year.

No matter what happens, I'm going to make sure that as many times as you call me for this year, it's car ponch for me to show up.

Don't even worry about it. We'll charge when it comes time to actually do some work, but for now I've got you.

Then lastly, is you're setting them up with a whole home electrical safety inspection every single year, whether that's in your winter season when you know it's slowest or one year after they've purchased it.

Now, I know I gave you a bunch of different things, but how can you use those to actually leverage your situation right now?

Well, the first is saying, if you're chained to a job, you're kind of stuck in the same. Like saying, you know what, I'm turning away calls.

But what you could do is if you're offering club memberships, you can say at this point, because of our services in such high demand the only customers are taking on right now are club members.

Are you a club member? So any incoming call immediately becomes prioritized as do you if right now we are so busy, we are in such demand right now that the only people we're serving are those already in our club membership.

Are you a club member? If they do want to be a club member, what you can do is you already have the enhanced services hours that you can provide them.

You can say first class visits get the next available point, which means you're willing to bump any non-club member out of the way in order to service them.

Now, once again, if you're physically chained to the job and you're like, I cannot leave and they will literally fire me if I leave, then you know what, we can always do this in stages.

find ways to get you out of those situations in the future. But for now, you can say, not a problem because our service is in such high demand, this is what we can do.

I can either move you to the next available spot tomorrow morning at 8 AM, or I can show up before our day starts, or I could show up after our day starts.

These are only available to first class members. Which would you prefer? Now, Jason, if you were to tell someone that you can come before or after your day, and that because you're so busy, that's why you're only available in those hours, what does that say about your level of service?

That is pretty damn high, right? Because very rarely does anyone ever say, because I'm in such demand, I can't get to you.

It's usually I'm stuck on a job, I'm doing a cut in, I'm in an attic, I don't know when I'll get out.

That doesn't sound valuable. That sounds like you can't manage your time. But if it's because so many customers are banging down your door.

Now there's a reason, there's a specific enhanced reason for why they want to call you. Man, he's got to be doing something right if people are banging down his door.

So yeah, what's your next available appointment? It doesn't have to be next day either. If your soonest appointment is Monday at 8 a.m., that's truly the soonest you have.

You're allowed to offer that. You could say right now, the soonest first class appointment we have, because we are literally back to back from all the customers from the emergency service calls we're dealing with right now, the soonest we have is Monday at 7 a.m.

If that doesn't work, I can also do Monday at 10 a.m. Which would you prefer? Get them on the calendar.

When you get them on the calendar, you show up with your A game. It doesn't matter what the install is doing.

It matters that your customers see you as valuable. When they see you as valuable, they will become more accommodating of your schedule.

Because when you're scarce, you're valuable. When you're not scarce, you're a commodity. Which would you rather? That'd be Jason.

@22:03 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Valuable.

@22:04 - Joseph Lucanie

I'm about, okay.

@22:07 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Here's how I'm going to tie in our topic for today to that little Q and a. If you're going to start this Jason, and I strongly suggest you do this first class thing, it begins at the front door.

It's what we call our front door. Actually you guys, this is something we give away to this little script that your CSR can be running or even yourself if you're still on the phones.

And if you typed in front door, we can actually hook you up with that little bit. In fact, when you came into this group, someone was supposed to offer that to you.

So if they haven't yet, please type it in. It's owed to you. Free value piece. Here's the thing. We're trying to get people to take action.

We talked about it yesterday, just saying pretty big podcast yesterday on exactly that, and you're going to suck it first.

And that's how this started. You are going to suck it first. I sucked at first. Joseph sucked at first.

@23:03 - Joseph Lucanie

You're not born good at anything.

@23:06 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

That's false. If you've been watching the Michael Jordan series, anyone watch that? Go ahead and put a one in the chat if you have guys, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

I can't remember the actual name of it. The Last Chance maybe? But Michael Jordan. Last Dance.

@23:23 - Joseph Lucanie

Last Dance.

@23:24 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah. Have you watched this too?

@23:26 - Joseph Lucanie

Can't say that I have, but that's mostly because I've got two kids under three and almost every hour is me desperately looking for sleep.

@23:34 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Point is this. Michael Jordan sucked at first too. Man, thank you, Louise. Last Dance. He sucked. And the only reason he became the greatest is because as he got better, his older brother used to kick his ass every time he won.

And I'm not kidding, not meaning like pushed him. I mean, he beat the shit out of him. If you win, you lose.

And in his young adolescent mind, It spun and became, I can't lose. He has to win. The show, it's actually sad if you watch this.

Good, Jason, glad to see you reviewed that front door script the other day. Reviewing is part of the battle, that's what we're talking about.

It's gonna suck at first, but if you'll use it, you'll get better at it. So this guy, considered one of the greatest athletes on the planet, definitely sucked at first.

Here's what made him great. He was committed. Because of the stuff he went through with his brother and his dad, losing was not okay.

It was not an option. You ever had something like that, Joseph?

@24:41 - Joseph Lucanie

Let me just say that I can entirely relate with the feeling of, I can't lose. There's no other choice.

It's do or die, I have to make this happen. So yeah, that hits close to home.

@24:54 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Absolutely. And that's a little nugget guys, a little breadcrumb to let you know that again, tomorrow we're gonna. We're gonna go through Joseph's story and let you guys in a bit behind the scenes on what happened and what caused him to learn and develop the sales process to that level because it's actually quite incredible.

If you've seen him stumped, then you've got one up on me. I haven't seen it yet. All right. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So what it takes to be strong at something is what we're talking about here. It takes a process.

It takes repetition and it takes refinement. If you have those three, you will win. In fact, it's the law of success.

You will succeed faster than anyone just through that trial and error. It's actually the first thing they taught us in school.

Did you ever have a kindergarten teacher, Joseph?

@25:53 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah, I did. I remember. Mrs.

@25:55 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Quarrel. I remember back in this day. You got her name. I don't remember mine, but it's nice to know.

that all the way from Vancouver, Canada to New York, United States, kindergartners are learning this lesson. I'm sure you'll agree.

Mistakes are how we learn.

@26:11 - Joseph Lucanie

I didn't have as nice of a kindergarten teacher, but you know what? You're right. It's one of those things that is 100% true.

The only way you're ever going to learn is by failing. There was an expression that I was taught when I was younger, and that really has carried me through a lot of things I considered mistakes in my life, and that's this.

Good judgment comes from experience, but experience itself comes from bad judgment. Sometimes you need to learn what not to do from firsthand experience so that you can say in the future, oh, I recognize the situation, and I'm going to make better calls the next time.

So anyone who knows what they're doing very likely has a very big track record of failure, and that's totally okay.

I do.

@26:59 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Me too. Just like most though, I was held back not by what our kindergarten teacher taught us that mistakes are how we learn, but what our education system then showed us and trained out of us, which was not that mistakes are how we learn.

There was several pivotal moments in my education coming up through the teens and as a young adult, I'm sure you guys can agree, where marks were on the line.

If you were an honour roll student, you needed that for a scholarship. Not a lot of us in the electrical world, but some of us for sure.

Great. Awesome. Right. The subpar mark was not okay, was it? If you were on the line of failing, the subpar mark was not okay, was it?

In fact, that marking system may have been the very thing that pushed you to drop out if you're like me.

Grade 11 education went to work. Still, by the way, not to toot my own horn here too much, but by the way, later got accepted to a

master's degree in business. So what's wrong here? It doesn't mean we're stupid. What does mean is that an education system gave us an example of something that is contrary to what they taught us in the first place.

@28:20 - Joseph Lucanie

Mistakes. It's contrary to human psychology. It's contrary to so many things. You need to be able to fail. Because in order to fail, that means that you have to try something.

And can you ever fail?

@28:33 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Can you ever succeed without also trying?

@28:36 - Joseph Lucanie

And who tries everything and succeeds 100% every time?

@28:41 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

First try.

@28:43 - Joseph Lucanie

So you would think that it would make more sense to say, we learned through our mistakes. There's really a concept I found, which is there's only two outcomes to every situation.

You're either going to win or you're going to learn. There is no win and lose. Because in losing, you learn better and more.

or concrete lessons than you ever would if all you did was win.

@29:05 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, totally. And this kind of ties into yesterday a bit guys, but again, you need a process, you need repetition and you need refinement of that process to make it work for you to become an all-star.

So here's what we kind of see often. Someone comes in says, yes, yeah, no, I'm gonna adopt a process, I'm gonna learn from others.

They see the process, it scares them a little bit because it's gotta be new, you have to suck at it.

You have to be willing to go in front of the mirror and read this script to yourself to make it work for real with a client.

And if you'll do that, that counts as repetition. And if you'll do that, you'll learn a thing or two even just in the mirror, won't you?

@29:51 - Joseph Lucanie

Mm-hmm, can I touch on that?

@29:53 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

You'll refine it and you'll become great at it and it will work. And something I think we may have said this yesterday, right?

Don't tell us it won't work, show us. And something amazing happens when you try to show someone something doesn't work, it starts working.

Run the play, run the play and then tell me it doesn't work. All right, you ready to talk a bit about, give a little teaser, how bad you stuck in the beginning?

@30:20 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah, I was gonna say, now you guys will learn that I have my reasons why I stuck so much and that'll be more tomorrow.

But let me just tell you that I couldn't close a door. It was pathetic on the most personal level.

And the thing was is that it wasn't just on opportunity calls. It wasn't like, oh, Joe just can't sell a generator.

No, I couldn't close a service call. Like I literally, you could have no power and I would leave and you'd still have no power.

That's how bad I was.

@30:57 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I shouldn't laugh. The only reason you can laugh is because that's a trap. the difference from today.

@31:03 - Joseph Lucanie

But that's the thing. It's not that I am anything special. There is nothing special about me. All it is is commitment to process and the ability of saying I refuse to die.

And maybe that's giving too much away, but the thought is that I will not allow myself to fail. And if I do fail, I'm going to learn a lesson from it that I wouldn't have been able to learn if I had succeeded.

And it's sometimes having that grace of saying, that's okay. As long as you're learning a lesson, you can grow from it.

@31:35 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

In fact, to illustrate that, I want you to repeat what you said to one of our clients in RSS earlier.

I think it was something to the dune of like, there's just monkeys and percussion in here.

@31:46 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah, I was going to say, so when people, people may look at me, I mean, I have the title of the sales bot and it's funny because I've actually been called that ever since I was in the trades.

Like it's actually something that stuck with me on almost every industry, the robot. the sales bot, the machine. And you know, that's for a lot of different reasons which we're gonna talk about.

But if you look at me, you may think that it's like some encyclopedia that you can just pull out sales scripts, but really my head is empty.

It's like really the closest comparison is there's a monkey doing jumping jacks and banging a symbol. And that's really all it is.

Like if anyone ever seen the Simpsons episode of what's going on Homer's brain, that's literally it. And it's okay.

You know what? Because I don't wanna come across that I'm better than any of you. I want you to see how weak I am because if someone like me can do it, why the fuck can't you guys?

I know you can do it.

@32:44 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Superpower, man. So again, that leads us right back to what we're talking about. There's a process that Joseph spent a lot of years dialling in decoding HVC and plumbing training.

Seven years of coaching yourself, right?

@32:59 - Joseph Lucanie

With your former mentor. Yep.

@33:01 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Decoding that information, recoding it in a way that was useful for electrical. Right. Stop trying to sell capacitors and contactors, contactor coils even.

@33:14 - Joseph Lucanie

I've never, I've never sold a water softener in my life, but I can tell you exactly when you're supposed to be changing the anode rods, right?

It's like, great. Like I'm so glad to know about this information, right?

@33:25 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

And the whole time you're going, why is this not being done? Why does no one have this training for me specific?

@33:34 - Joseph Lucanie

Maybe the electrician's on the redheaded self child. I mean, for anyone listening, do you guys ever feel like that?

That like people just don't want to work with you because you're a Sparky. It's like what you can't sell an air conditioning system.

Therefore we're not going to make enough money to make it worthwhile to invest in us.

@33:47 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Like why is that a thing? Which by the way is just inflated revenue numbers because of distribution and markup.

It's distributorship, right? James says yes, Mr. Bliss, thank you. Right, you're not alone, brother, we are with you. Two master electricians with business addictions fed up with an industry not having training available to you guys to help you with a process that actually speaks to what you're trying to install and service.

It speaks to the needs of the clients that you're trying to build relationships with. Why has it been this hard?

I do not know, but we stand against it. That's why we're here five days a week trying to help you guys.

Here's the thing though, you gotta take the process, you gotta repeat it. That's what's created this wealth of knowledge right in front of us, he developed the process, he repeated it, as you said on the RSS earlier, the only thing driving those monkeys and these symbols, the reason it's successful is because of the process and the repetition, also known as muscle memory.

@34:53 - Joseph Lucanie

The brain is no different a muscle than a bicep or a calf or a quad or back, anything. You think about it, you.

say, how do I get a six pack? You train, right? You put the right material into your body. You diet the right way.

Your mindset is about it. You read books on dieting. You have a routine to stretch and work and stretch.

Like there's things you do. And through that process, eventually you're ripped, right? But why can't we take that same concept to the brain?

I remember looking at it, my body was always in great shape. I did bodybuilding ever since I was a kid.

This muscle wasn't okay in my mind. This was the muscle I needed to fix. And if I didn't fix this muscle, there was a real, real problem headed into my future.

So that's why I wanted to do this.

@35:44 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

That's why I wanna share this message with so many of you because I don't want you going down my path.

Yeah, yeah, me as well. I love that. I love that share. Bragger, yeah. Hey, here's the thing. You guys seen the matrix?

You remember when Neo gets plugged in? Any of that. Next thing you know, he's a fourth degree black belt.

@36:03 - Joseph Lucanie

I love that scene.

@36:06 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

The only piece of that that's untrue is that it was done like a pill, just like the red or the blue pill they started with.

So immediate gratification and muscle memory. There's no physical way to do it without physically doing it. And the very things that we fear about adapting to a new process and failing in it, making mistakes so that we grow the very things we fear are what drive us later to be so successful at it.

You need that experience of, wow, I sucked at this. That was embarrassing. So that later that's what drives you to the gym to work out.

That's what drives you to the mirror, to run the script. That's what drives you to keep going on this thing and become so proficient, please.

@36:51 - Joseph Lucanie

I want to just add something to it because that's along the lines is anyone I want, I'm speaking to everyone out there that ever felt like they weren't good enough.

I know what the feeling feels like to say, yeah, they're gonna call us back. Sorry, yeah, I had to email over the options.

They're gonna get back to us. This is a good one. Or being able to say, yeah, I didn't get the job.

They're going with someone cheaper. Like, I know what it's like to go to your boss over and over and over and tell them that.

Guys, you know it doesn't feel good, but you can actually take those feelings, though feelings are only manifestations of what you have in your mind.

You have control over what your thoughts think based on what thoughts you surround yourself with. And if you're in a place of always talking down to yourself, unfortunately what's gonna end up happening is either you're gonna grow or you're gonna die.

So the thing I want to leave you with is never doubt yourself based on previous failures. But instead, every time you fail, assume that that's one jar into saying, you know what, this is one opportunity.

I figured out what doesn't work, and now I'm that. much closer to figuring out what will work. Every day, every failure is a step forward.

It is a step closer. It is not a step backwards.

@38:10 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Definitely, definitely. So I can tell you that I also sucked in the beginning and my story will come out again.

Many of you know it already, many of you don't. My first business, I started as a teenager and I was failed within three years after taking on a massive contract.

I had no business education, no project management education, and it lit a fire in my belly. In fact, there was two things that happened.

That failure, which was followed by shame and running around with cash in my pocket after doing a bunch of cash deals.

And I still remember that day crying at the bank, withdrawing my last $6,336.36. You don't forget a number like that when you're robbing yourself.

But then I had my daughter and I realized, something's got to change here. I can't just live in the shadows.

I can't run from that for. ever had to come forward and change everything. If you will change, everything will change for you.

So let's give these guys some action items and get the hell off here so they can get back to work.

I've got a couple of things that I wanna suggest today. These are life-changing momentous actions. Ask yourself this question from my mentor, late and great Jim Rohn.

Who are you surrounding yourself with? And what are they doing to you? Let me rephrase this question for you so you can ask yourself.

Who are the five people I'm around most and what are they doing to me? That's first, just an assessment, again, an evaluation.

Second is, who do I need to be around so that I can be uncomfortable and start learning some new stuff.

that forces me to grow. And if it's us, I'm flattered. We're here five days a week, so keep joining us.

Did you have anything to add to that one?

@40:13 - Joseph Lucanie

There's a lot that I want to say, and I'm wondering how appropriate it is to say, but you know what?

To put it in perspective, I want to let you know that no one is off the table for this.

It doesn't matter if it's your spouse. It doesn't matter if it's your close family. It doesn't matter if you're a father.

It doesn't matter who it is. If this person that you're surrounding yourself with does not make you a better version of yourself, they no longer serve your higher purpose.

And I want you to understand, and I'm speaking to you because it's not an easy decision to make, and nor would I ever want to make light of this, but it's important to remember that you're going to be alive a lot longer than you think you will.

I did not think I was going to make it to this age. I'm already 12 years longer than I thought I was going to be.

The thing is, is that those people I cut out when I realized I've got to live and I'm not gonna be surrounded by these people anymore.

You want to be around people that not only believe in you, but see you at the best version of yourself.

And you know what? If you don't have anyone like that, then get rid of them all. Start from scratch.

You believe you're too valuable. You are too valuable to not believe in yourself. So I just wanna leave you with mine.

@41:29 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Definitely, that's huge. That is huge. And just so you guys know, I can say this, because I know my mom would never watch my video in this far.

She's not the same as me. But my mom and some of my mom's side of the family were those people.

To me, I realized at some point what that maternal side was doing for me and what they weren't doing for me.

And there was literally a point in my life where it's like, hey, it's not that I don't love my family, but I had to insert a wedge.

We had to take space because... being around that kind of stuff too much drags you down. So that's a huge piece.

The other piece is, yeah, eagles don't roost with turkeys. That's right, James. Profounds.

@42:13 - Joseph Lucanie

James, I like you. I was going to say, I can't see the screen right now, but wherever you are, my guy.

@42:20 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, thank you, James. As the All-Star Action guys, here it is. I'm going to call it out.

We help train electricians to master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. If you haven't grabbed one of our value pieces that we give away for free, including what we talked about today, the front door script.

If you haven't engaged with us, please do. Reach out, level up, get uncomfortable, take action on this stuff. If you're getting a win from those actions,

Come back and tell us. All we want to do is yell it in a megaphone, really. Put it on blast and say, yes, another electric perner rising up.

That's what this is all about.

@43:15 - Joseph Lucanie

The beautiful mission and it's bigger than us. And that's why I love it.

@43:19 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Whew. Another big episode. Are we on fire this week? I feel it.

@43:23 - Joseph Lucanie

I mean, I'd definitely say that we got some hots out.

@43:28 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Tomorrow's a big episode again, guys. We're going to go through Joseph's story. Just about called you Jason. That was bad.

I'm sorry. It's all good. I was going to say, Jason has been the highlight VIP of the guests. So I can't complain.

There you go. So tomorrow's big day guys, a little bit longer, but something that's long overdue. Thank you, Dustin.

He threw a flame up. I really appreciate that. I hope that this inspires you to take action today and do something worth doing, man.

Build stuff that matters, guys. Again, we're here five days. a week and we'll be here again with you tomorrow.

So please enjoy the rest of your day. We'll talk to you soon.