Episode 13- Becoming 'THE SalesBot" w/ Joseph Lucanie

@12:41 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Welcome to Electropreneur Secrets. I'm your host, Clay Neumeier, with my partner, Joseph Lucani, also known as Joseph the Sales Bot Lucani.

We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing, and deliver premium-level service. That's why we're here five days a week with real actionable advice to help you with just that.

As we just gave special mention, and Austin, thank you, appreciate you as well, happy Friday. We're just seeing that on the live wall.

Guys, if you haven't seen us live, please join our Facebook group and catch us there too. But we just gave honourable mention to Justin Goldsboro, who managed to turn out a simple service call in his first week of business into a $6,400 plus club membership win.

So congratulations again. And Justin just all owed some of the advice that we have here and took action on that, as we were just discussing in the pre-show.

Today though, today's topics recorded for you live here for the podcast is going through what it takes to become a sales bot like Mr.

Lecani beside me here. Joseph, we've got a ton to unpack with you today.

@13:48 - Joseph Lucanie

Are you excited? Nervous as all hell, but I'm excited as well. It's one of those things where I really truly do feel like I need to tell my story, but it's always harder when you're talking about yourself.

especially when there's a lot of heaviness to unpack, but you know, Clay, let's buckle up. I want to make sure that I'm willing to bear myself and betters the rest of the community.

@14:09 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah. In our last couple episodes, we've really been talking about the gap between bad, good, and great and the actionability required.

And I know we're going to touch on this huge, but it really became grow with her death for you, right?

@14:26 - Joseph Lucanie

Unfortunately. Yeah, it really was grow or die. There really wasn't another option. I was forced in a black or white situation and I chose the road I chose clearly I'm here.

So it worked.

@14:36 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Right. And let's just talk about it for a moment. Like where is here? Where are we now? And what makes this journey so noteworthy for our listeners?

@14:46 - Joseph Lucanie

So you're saying like the physical, like, where are we right now? I mean like, well, the first thing I'm alive.

So that means my story worked, I survived, but where are we currently right now? We are leading an industry that has not had any support.

Right now, you and I are focusing on delivering an ability to help other electricians simplify their prices, master their sales, and deliver premium level service.

We say those three things, but we mean them from the bottom of our hearts. And we both had to walk that path before.

So for any electrician that's out there, I want you to understand this path isn't easy, but it is the most rewarding path you can possibly take because everyone wins when you do it for the right reason.

The reason is the most important. Are you doing it because you're trying to make a buck or are you doing it because you genuinely want to serve at the highest level?

And that's why I feel so honored to be here today.

@15:39 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Absolutely. I love that. And digging a bit more into where this journey takes us when you exited your business, what are some of the numbers you were seeing that would make this a journey worth following and advice worth taking?

@15:54 - Joseph Lucanie

Sure.

@15:54 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

So some of my personal acclimates?

@15:56 - Joseph Lucanie

Yes, sir. Yeah. So the claim to fame that I had was... I was consistently doing over a million. I maxed out around 1.3 million out of my service van.

And that was consistent year by year. And I was also very consistent in my closing ratio. I had dialed into a process that was allowing me to consistently close at an 80% ratio, whether it was an opportunity call or service call, even on demand, even on warranty calls.

You go into an opportunity where you think you're gonna end up losing and you find an opportunity to make it win.

But lastly is my average service ticket was $2,800. Meaning that it was, regardless of what our call you sent me to, I was very likely to walk away with at least $2,800.

@16:40 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

That's wild. That's really good. Do you have in mind a big week where you really knew, holy cow, this was massive.

@16:52 - Joseph Lucanie

May of 2019. I will say May of 2019 sticks out in particular because. that particular, I don't remember why it stood out so much, but I remember on that Monday, I did a $35,000 day.

On the Tuesday, I did a $70,000 day. Then Wednesday I did a $14,000 day. Thursday I did a $13,000 a day.

And then Friday I did a $35,000 day. And only two of those were pre-scheduled calls. Literally those 70,000 was a pre-scheduled call.

Everything else was on a service call. And I really remember feeling like that was the win because it was something that allowed me to say, I did it when people say you couldn't.

I didn't think I could do it. I always told myself I couldn't do it, but by following the process, suddenly I became a believer of, okay, the struggle stops now.

@17:51 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Absolutely. And A, I'm impressed as always, but I work with you every day. So as you can tell, there's no shell shock here for me.

I've already seen. the proof, I've seen this stuff work. Our clients are seeing it work. Even our electropreneur listeners are starting to see it work.

So guys, that's what we're here to share with you today. The reasons why and how we got to this place, because it wasn't easy.

Wasn't easy, right?

@18:20 - Joseph Lucanie

So let's start closer to the beginning.

@18:23 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

As you said, you didn't always believe in yourself.

@18:25 - Joseph Lucanie

In fact, that can't word was in your mind a lot, wasn't it? The can't word practically was tattooed across the top of my forehead.

I guess it depends on what you want. Should we start from the beginning, I guess?

@18:36 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, give us the backstory even from, you know what? As a kid, did you know you were gonna be an electrical?

@18:43 - Joseph Lucanie

No, no. The real realistically what ended up happening was I always knew I was different. It didn't matter what it was, where I was, who I was talking to.

I was different than that person. Not in my opinion, it felt like not in a good way. I just knew that something.

wasn't right. And I don't mean to say that that bad talking anyone, I'm just saying it felt it wasn't right.

So I remember going to my father and we have a very unusual relationship, but I approached him at 14 and I said, sir, what should I do with my life?

And he literally looked me from toe to head and said, you're gonna be an electrician. And I was like, yes, sir.

And that literally was it. There was no background in electric. He wasn't electric. We were a family of white collar professionals.

It was just, you're gonna be an electrician. Yes, sir. Command confirmed, let's go. That's what we're doing. And literally from there, I just said, I'm gonna go to trade school.

I'm gonna start reading books. I'm gonna start going involved. And I got into the trade at 14, as soon as I got my working papers.

@19:48 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Wow. Can I stop you there for a second? So guys, if you're listening to this live, please give us a one in the chat.

If you had a parent pushed you into this trade and give us a two if you decided it on your own, we'd love to hear it.

Okay, so. So dad says, I'm gonna do this. I'm just gonna do it. Cause why, what's your reasoning? Were you actually that obedient as a kid or did it?

@20:08 - Joseph Lucanie

No, no, I was not an obedient child but I recognized structure. Structure was very comforting. It didn't matter what kind of structure or whether it was good structure or bad structure.

If I knew that there was an order of operations to where things were meant to be, even back then I naturally gravitated towards process and structure and discipline.

You know, I may not have always rebelled against it. You know, every teenager is going to but I really loved process.

I was the kind of kid that would take things apart. Like anyhow, everyone will say that but like I was really taking stuff apart.

Like I was taking apart appliances. Like there were probably things in my parents' house that are still just hanging on by just like the thread of threads, but lasted that many years.

@20:55 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Wow. Okay. And we're gonna get a little more into that process piece. story and why that stuck with you so heavy.

But do you remember wanting something outside of electrical for yourself?

@21:09 - Joseph Lucanie

Kind of sounds sad, but I just want it to be happy in all honesty. There wasn't anything else that I really wanted.

I didn't care what I was going to do. I just knew that I wasn't happy and I want to chase anything that I thought was going to make me happy.

And I was told you're going to be an electrician. And I said, okay, this is a path. There's a structure.

I can follow it. So like I went to trade school and went to college. I did the things I worked summers, but the goal wasn't to make money.

The goal wasn't to be wealthy. It wasn't for anything. It just, I wanted to be happy and I just never was.

@21:50 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

So what were you struggling with at the time that was keeping you from being happy?

@21:53 - Joseph Lucanie

The thing was, is that I'm a different kind of person and we'll get into it. a little bit more why later.

But the main reason why it came out was I wasn't able to communicate with people. If anything, can I just maybe, can I just jump into it now?

@22:10 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Oh yeah, go for it. Let's hear it, man. Cause I think even what you just said a lot of electricians relate to that.

I don't know why this trade seems to attract us like the moth to a flame with communication and maybe social underlying confidence, a lack thereof.

@22:33 - Joseph Lucanie

So I'm going to kind of fast forward some information but then I'm going to put it back as if a, oh, if I knew then what I know now.

Sure, let's do that. I'm an autistic person. That means I'm someone who has autism. And though I may be, as some people perceive presenting as higher on the spectrum, that's all well and good, but it comes with a lot of difficulties and a lot of gifts, but a lot of difficulties because.

If you know what you are, you can plan around it. You can prevent, you can perfect techniques. You can get processes, you can do therapies.

There's things you can do to get right. But when you don't know, and all you know is I'm just so fucking different than everyone else.

I can't talk to people. I couldn't make eye contacts. I was awkward. I had no friends. I had no support.

Like that's where I was. And all I wanted to do was say, I just wanted to fit in. I wanted to make people proud.

I wanted to feel like I wasn't such a failure. And it was those things that I had in myself.

It was my own limiting beliefs that I feel that were keeping me down from what I really could have achieved.

@23:49 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

That must've been a struggle.

@23:52 - Joseph Lucanie

It was, man. It really, it was one of those things where it led me down some very dark paths, but at the same time.

It's one of those things where I look back at it as if I didn't go down those paths, I wouldn't be as capable of helping people and prevent them from going down a similar path.

@24:13 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I want to reach every way to look at it.

@24:15 - Joseph Lucanie

I want to reach the people who are like me. I want you guys to know if you're listening and you feel different, I want you to know that success doesn't have to look like what it looks like on social media.

You can be happy and you can be successful as a neurodivergent. You can be happy and successful as whatever you are.

It's really what you choose to do. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you get to decide what you look like.

I didn't realize that years later, but I want to share that now.

@24:40 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

For sure. I would relate that to even some people only want to be a one man shop.

@24:44 - Joseph Lucanie

There's nothing wrong with that.

@24:47 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Should you still serve at the highest level? I feel so, and I think you guys would agree, but you don't have to chase revenue and there's definitely a consistent thread of people that reach out who just want to double their numbers.

because it's sexy, but it's, that's not what they want necessarily. That could be what the industry wants, what your peers want, what you see people doing that that can totally be the Jones's effect happening.

And as we say, revenue is vanity and profits are sanity.

@25:17 - Joseph Lucanie

A hundred percent. I mean, there are so many people who are like, I need to sell a million. I need to sell 2 million.

I mean, think about it. Like, can I just speak to our trade for all you electricians listening out there?

We've been brainwashed into thinking all these high numbers should be the minimum. Like, I remember when I first started off, I was trained primarily by HVAC technicians.

And all of that just taught me and reinforced in my mind, Joe, you're not shit because all these HVAC guys, they're selling 20, $30,000 a week, but the electrical department wasn't selling anything we were selling two, three, 4,000.

So I thought that was the minimum standard we need to chase. And when I eventually got there, I didn't realize how far it separated me from the

the rest of the pack. I just assumed I was chasing the minimum.

@26:04 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah. That's crazy. Right. That's crazy. Yeah. These other trades really blur the lines for us and we get unrealistic expectations.

So did you always feel that you were going to be a great electrician? I know you started to answer that a bit, but tell us a bit more about when you got into it and maybe the reality of how you were feeling as an electrician when you first started.

@26:27 - Joseph Lucanie

When I first started, I remember thinking to myself, okay, this is going to be an opportunity for you because I was doing new construction at the time and anyone who's done new construction, you know, you don't have to talk to other people really.

I mean, you could be set on your own part of the job. You're doing this, you're doing that. And you really don't run into the general public all that often.

So I remember thinking, this is it. I just got to be a really, really good electrician. I got to just be really good at install.

I got to dial my install down. If I can do install, right. I won't have to talk to people.

And then I won't have to worry about it. I'll just get good at this. And I won't have to stress about being so socially inept.

So my desire was to be a really, really, really good electrician. But I mean, anyone who's been in new construction, you have to recognize, unless you're just some grunt and that's never where you're gonna aspire to grow from, you're eventually gonna have to talk to somebody.

You're gonna have to learn how to lead a job. You're gonna have to talk to your peers or even more so, how are you even gonna sell that job?

You could be the best electrician in the world, but if you can't communicate to people, one, no one's gonna wanna work with you, but two, no one's gonna hire you.

So I realized really quickly, once I reached that skill level where I was able to do the work, I was like, I'm still in the same boat.

I was like, now what? I have all the skills. Why can't I still talk to people? So that's what someone was struggling with.

@27:58 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Huge, huge takeaway there guys. I'm trying to think of who I follow online there, but it was a big business article I read and they said, it's 10% business strategy, 90% strategic empathy.

That was a little pause to get that out.

@28:16 - Joseph Lucanie

Cause it's been a while since I read that, but I've seen that in every corner of every business of every trade.

@28:23 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

If you don't have that communication piece, this whole thing is hard. Cause at the end of the day, you need to relate to the very people you said, coworkers, peers, clients.

@28:37 - Joseph Lucanie

It's crazy. It's one of those things where, and the worst part about it all was I didn't know any better.

I didn't know. I thought there was something genuinely wrong with me. Like there was no therapy at the time I was misdiagnosed.

I slipped through the cracks. There was no further testing. It was it. I was high functioning enough that I was able to pass as neurotypical.

And because you can pass as neurotypical, there weren't services that could support you. So I was just good enough to blend in, but I wasn't good enough to be fully functional in society.

So it was like that sweet spot to where I couldn't get what I needed, but I also didn't know how to ask for more.

@29:23 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, that's gotta be really tough.

@29:25 - Joseph Lucanie

That wasn't a fun place, man.

@29:27 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

So you hit this wall, you realize, Hey, I need to get better with people. And yet you're feeling disconnected from people and probably intimidated by that very realization.

Can you tell us a bit more about that moment and how you begin to overcome this wall?

@29:45 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah. So I learned that I was very, I knew that I was a smart person. Like it wasn't that I was unintelligent at all.

It was, I was very good with books. And I could, I could learn things really quickly. So I was very good with books and I was very good with books.

So I learned that I was very good with books and I was very good with books. I said, you know, I'm gonna go to college.

I went to SUNY Del High and for any alumni out there, hey, shout out to that. But I remember I went to Del High and it was a trade school.

It was primarily focused. It was one of the best electrical trade schools that I was aware of. And I said, you know what?

Maybe it's that I don't know enough about electric. Like that's where my brain was at. I was like, maybe I just don't know about electric.

It's not like I'm gonna learn people. I didn't know enough about electric. So I said, you know what I'll do?

I'll get two degrees. I'll get an electrical degree and I'll get a backup degree. So I actually have a degree in electric construction, but also in HVAC and refrigeration.

So that actually turned out to be a major stepping stone for me though, that whole degree.

@30:44 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

If I didn't have that degree, I wouldn't be here right now. Okay, how was that a stepping stone then?

@30:50 - Joseph Lucanie

Okay, so I wanna give you a quick snapshot into what happened after college. So I got my degree and two days after getting the degree, was after getting the degree.

I graduate. I did really high in my class. I actually, in trade school, I had a equivalent of a 99 average.

It was like, I was really good because one, when you don't have friends, you have plenty of time to study.

So I was really, really good at that. So I actually got recruited at IBM, right? Like literally two days after graduation, they had said, hey, we want to bring you in for an interview.

And I landed it. And I got a job working for IBM right out of college. I was like, that's it, I made it.

But it was the same problem. I had the skills and I had no social communication skills. But where the actual degree helped me was there was another company that I ended up working with that actually, they did a commercial advertisement saying, this was right around 2009, right?

Remember whenever like the market would crash and everything was bad and everyone was losing money. This company was like, we're hiring and we trying to get so many people to come in and we have so much work.

but they were an HVAC company. And when I, cause I had an HVAC degree, I said, you know what?

Let me apply. I can do electric. I can do HVAC. We'll do a multi-traded, let's do it. And I, they gave me a test and I was awesome at tests.

So I passed the test and they let me join. But if I didn't join that company, you're going to find as I continue my story, that company set me up to be where I am right now.

@32:28 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

And I did that. Okay. Okay.

@32:31 - Joseph Lucanie

So you get the job at IBM.

@32:33 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Do you fit in right away?

@32:35 - Joseph Lucanie

No, I hated every single day there. There's actually a guy I was working with. And I remember he used to call me stupid every day.

Every single day he would look at me. And like, I remember not to, if you don't mind me using the language, verbatim he would say, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Every single day he would look at me and he would say that. And he was my foreman. And my work was.

great, but I just could not understand social cues. I was so socially inept and I didn't know the rules that I just could not fit in anywhere that wasn't physical work.

So no, I was not happy. I was skilled. I was getting paid really well, but it wasn't, I wasn't happy.

I still wasn't happy.

@33:23 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

The thing I was chasing was constantly eluding. Wow. Wow. And for those of you watching live, go ahead and type in WTF.

If you've ever had a journey person appear, anyone ever talked to you that way, made you feel a bit outcasted.

@33:38 - Joseph Lucanie

Cause I know I sure did. Yeah.

@33:40 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Definitely seems to happen in our working environments. A lot of pressure on people early on in the field. And I feel like the irony of it is, is the skills and the pressure that we feel go against the stuff we need later.

And maybe that's why there's such a big barrier to success with so many electricians. Because later it's not about being fast and keeping your mouth shut.

It's about slowing down and understanding people and helping them at your best potential.

@34:09 - Joseph Lucanie

Mm-hmm, you're right. And the thing is that I, deep down I felt like I was able to do more.

I just felt like, have you ever been a kid where you're playing a board game and you just wanna know the rules and you kinda have to figure it out as you're going?

It was like, that was how my life was. I was just trying to figure it out and I knew I could see all my friends playing the game and they were being successful and they were happy, but I was reading the rules in Chinese.

It was like, I just didn't know. They wouldn't work. Nothing was translating. So I ended up getting to this HVAC company and that's actually where I fell in love with generators.

And if anyone who knows anything about me, I love generators so much because they were literally, if it wasn't for generators, I don't know where I would have been in business.

But. this company brought me in as an installer. And they said, you're going to do AC tuneups. So, I was doing furnace and AC tuneups.

And then they said, well, if you can do HVAC furnace and tuneups, we can also do generators. They're mechanical material.

You can do that as well. I got really, really good at doing generator tuneups. But then they were noticing, they were like, well, you're not really selling anything on any of the calls you go to.

You're just like, you're great at doing the work, but you're just not, you're not converting anything. I didn't know.

I didn't know what was wrong. So, the thing was, they kept shifting me from department to department. And like, I felt like they believed in me enough to say like, they wanted to make it work, but not enough to really put me anywhere to keep me there.

Does that make sense?

@35:47 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, it does. Yeah.

@35:50 - Joseph Lucanie

I was going to say, you almost become a bit of a hard hat filler in a way.

@35:54 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

It's like, hey, we can put Joseph there, but we know he's not quite going to get the sale. acceleration that we're desiring.

@36:03 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah, I was a fulfillment person. I could do the job, I could do whatever you wanted me to do, any install they needed doing, I could do the work.

I was good at doing the work, I wanted to be professional. I was always clean, my uniform was always on top, but I couldn't sell because I couldn't talk to people.

It was unrelatable in every aspect of life.

@36:23 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Looking at you now and knowing where we started here today, talking about the accolades that you have achieved and come to this point, it seems fairly unlikely that we would have experienced this.

So what happened to change this all?

@36:39 - Joseph Lucanie

So the thing that I was missing, other than personal understanding, was process. There was no framework that I really understood was communicated to say, if you do this, you'll succeed.

I didn't have that framework. And the thing was, is that this company, they didn't tell me at the time.

But I had found out because my former business partner actually was my supervisor. He was my service manager. Turns out they were like, we got to either cut them loose or we got to teach them how to sell them.

That really was where they were at.

@37:14 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

They were like- They were going to lose you.

@37:16 - Joseph Lucanie

They were going to lose me.

@37:17 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

They were going to cut me off if I couldn't sell.

@37:19 - Joseph Lucanie

Wow. I didn't know that till later. They didn't tell me. But the thing was is that, so they invested in me to go to an HPC sales trainer and I dedicated my entire life to it.

Like every single video, every class, every single thing that I could do, I invested in. But there was something really important that they didn't know.

And I feel like it's something that I want to share. It's a heavy topic, but I really feel like it needs to be shared.

Can I kind of go a little dark for a second? Yeah. All right. So the thing was this. For 21 years, I thought I was the biggest POS that-

ever walked this earth. There was nothing was working. I wasn't understanding anything. I was struggling with alcohol. I couldn't get myself in order.

And I was realizing that life just wasn't really working out for me the way I thought it was. I had this 90s kid mentality of, if you do work hard, you can achieve anything.

But I was working my ass off. And all I was doing was just constantly finding wall after wall after wall.

And I was facing it alone. And what they didn't know was that if I didn't succeed at this sales trainer's class, I was going to kill myself when I came home.

And I had a plan. I had everything written out. I had everything step by step. I knew the day.

It was literally going to be, I had a train schedule. I knew when the train was going to come.

I knew which days it was going to come. I knew which time was going to come. I kept a log in my room at all times.

That was what was on the line for me. To them, if I didn't sell, I would just be replaced.

To me, if I didn't sell, I'd be splattered.

@39:12 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I got goosebumps just from hearing it, man. I'm really sorry to hear that. And I'm obviously glad that that didn't happen.

It really brings to light this statement growth or death, which I've heard so many times. I've never heard someone embody it so truly and really be committed to that.

@39:34 - Joseph Lucanie

The thing is, and what I want you guys to learn, if there's anything that I can impart from my story that I think would be helpful, is if you were literally training as if failure would literally kill you, how hard would you be training?

There was a period of time where I would take every, I took all this sales knowledge I had and I put it onto an MP3 player.

And this MP3 player became my Bible. So I was so proud because as I started to sell a little bit more, I was able to buy a brand new car, which no one, I never thought I was gonna be able to do.

So I made sure that it had a MP3 attachment.

@40:16 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

So for 2012, this was big, right?

@40:19 - Joseph Lucanie

And what I did was I bought a converter for my van and I bought the MP3 for my personal car.

And I said, no matter what, non-negotiable, the moment I get into any vehicle, I will train, I will not have any downtime.

I will not, it didn't matter whether I was smoking a cigarette in the van or anything, no matter what happened, there was a training episode going on.

And when I wasn't training, I was role-playing and I was in front of the mirror and I would practice.

So the thing that I want you guys to know is, yeah, it's growth or die, but think about it.

How many? travel hours do you account for in a year, in a month, in a week, how much are you traveling and what are you doing with that time?

I didn't have a choice because I knew it was at the end of the line for me if I didn't succeed.

So I was gonna go down swinging and I said, I'm gonna make this happen or, hey, I know what time the train's coming.

@41:22 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, and even that the number of hours in travel, I actually did the math on this at one point and you could in the average travel in the city near myself, Vancouver in Canada, they say the average person is traveling two to three hours a day.

And by the time I factored in the number of listening hours, you could actually accomplish a bachelor's degree in four years, four to five years just from travel.

@41:51 - Joseph Lucanie

Correct, and that's the thing. It's like if you think about it, everyone needs a process, right? But I needed one in the worst way.

because Clay, you're a social person, you know? And it's something I really respect about you. I feel like I could take someone like you and put you into any room and you'd make a friend.

And I love that about you. I never had that ability. It was something where if I didn't have a scripted approach to everything, I couldn't communicate.

And at the time I still couldn't figure out why. I didn't get diagnosed until I was 27. So this was like 27 years of, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I know that if I just say these things and do these things, I can sell and therefore I won't get fired and therefore I could stay alive.

@42:52 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

You said that and like, what Clayton Neumeier? No, no. I've had the same social. pressures are felt, I shouldn't say had the same, but felt definitely the social pressures and the awkwardness.

And in fact, if I get in a room full of people, I need a friend like stat because I need someone to use as an anchor.

That's just the way it is. I don't know. It might seem the opposite. Obviously it does. We come and we put ourselves out here, but the same is true for you.

So many people reflect on you right now. When they hear this background, they can't actually believe it.

@43:28 - Joseph Lucanie

It's one of those things where I'm grateful because have you ever heard the expression like 1% better every single day?

Absolutely. That's that. Honestly, I'd say the closest representation to where I was at, because at 14 to 19, I was really good at install and that's all I was capable of doing.

I couldn't talk to people 20 to 21, 22, 21 really was when I was like, okay, I can figure it out.

So by 21, I had a process. So I'd been practicing it for about two years at the time. I had a process, I'd figured it out, but it was an HVAC process.

It wasn't meant for electricians. So it still didn't quite line up. So because of that, I still felt just as inadequate when I was compared to my other team members.

Like, if any of you guys electricians can feel like this, if you ever worked for a multi-trade company and you see like, oh yeah, how was your numbers?

Well, I sold two condensers last week. What'd you sell? Well, yeah, no, I actually got $45,000 this week. I got 65,000 this week.

I got 75,000 this week. Joe, what'd you get? I sold two panels and I did a couple of small jobs.

I did about $9,000 this week. And for me, I thought that was great. But at the same time, I thought that once again, Joe's just a POS because everyone else was doing better, but I had no gauge of what a successful electrician should look like.

I thought that was success. I thought I needed to hit 40, 50. 60,000 a week to be considered anything.

@45:04 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

The reference. I love that you tied in that 1% better every day, because so often, I mean, we post testimonies even for people to see, we talked about Justin's earlier in that big win and for some people that's frustrating because then we fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others, I just want to highlight that that really isn't what this is about.

It's about you being better than yourself yesterday, you being better than yourself last week. And even for us, this is all relatively new.

The first week we didn't get all five of these episodes and it was three.

@45:37 - Joseph Lucanie

And I was bitter about it.

@45:38 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

We came into Monday, we drug ourselves from the bumper of our own truck, so to speak, and come back and we're making it all five this week, right?

You get some things better every day. Yeah. James says comparison is the thief of joy. And I love that.

Absolutely.

@46:00 - Joseph Lucanie

The one thing that I'd want to say is with the 1% better every day is I'm not trying to be better than anyone else.

And realistically, I am keeping competing about myself. I'm competing against myself, but I want to be the person to others that I so desperately needed when I was a kid.

Like that to me is now success. And that's what brings me into this industry that we're in right now.

You know, I can, I have the opportunity to be that person when previously I didn't even think I was going to be here.

Yeah. So it's just, it just, it really it really is an amazing experience.

@46:36 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Right, right. For sure. Okay. So you overcome this place Mm-hmm And somewhere in here, you're you're starting your own business and quite young, right?

@46:47 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah. So what ended up happening was my service manager and I, we ended up being in the same situation that so many other young business owners are, right?

I was 22 years old and I'd finally figured out how to sell generators because that was primarily what the company did.

Right. I was just generator after generator after generator. I was like, I got this down. I could figure out this process.

I know how this works, but at the time we were doing all the maintenances. We were doing a lot of the installs.

We were doing the admin. We were doing the sales. And I'm going to say this, I'm speaking to everyone else that ever started their own business.

It was, well, if we're doing all this, why are we making someone else money? Why don't we do it for ourselves?

And literally it was that he got his master's license and said, you know what? I got a way out of this.

Let's start our own company and we'll go out and we'll take over the industry. We'll do it. We can, we can make this happen.

And I was 22 years old. I was like, you know what? Sure. Let's set up a partnership agreement and make it happen.

And I went out and we were just like, we had no idea how to run a business, but we knew how to do generators.

@47:57 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

And that's what, that was the angle. That was our stick. Awesome. I love that. I do. Okay. So at this point though, you're able to make a few more sales and you guys actually ended up dividing and conquering a bit that way.

@48:11 - Joseph Lucanie

Is that right? Yeah. So for years and years and years, the company would grow in a different way. Like I'd say if you took our first year business model, it was just two guys in a van doing everything.

Like I would sell all the jobs. He would manage the company finances. We would both do the installation eventually as we were growing because I started dialing it in.

You can't spend enough time with your back against the wall and you do it's do or die. So I was getting better with this process.

I was, I would listen to any training. Like I would go, I remember I think Jack can field seven secrets of superstar techs.

I remember that was a head in CD and it would always go in and always go into my van and Zig Ziglar, I mean, I still have a Zig Ziglar book that's high.

I did from way back then, any book I could get, I was reading every chance I could get. I was studying my process was relentless because at the time, and I keep saying this, I hated myself.

The word loathing doesn't cover it because no matter how good I achieved, I was doing it just trying to survive because at the time, even then, like even then, even running my own company, I still wasn't able to talk to people.

I could sell to them with my process, but then if we needed to make small talk, I would flounder and I'd lose it.

So I had this mentality of saying, well, if I don't do it today, I'll do it tomorrow. And then every day it would be, well, I'm not going to kill myself today.

I'll do tomorrow. If not today, tomorrow, if not that. And it just kept doing that for years and years and years until eventually, eventually in our business, we started seeing more success and I'm really proud of the effort that we did.

Like I really am proud. We grew a lot. We started developing a name. We started winning awards. We were able, we had enough money now to buy a shop and now had multiple vans.

But right around 27 was really when I feel like my life turned around. Like I would say, like my happiest day, I usually would say that people would ever be like, you know, meeting my wife, my wife Melanie is an utter angel, married way out of my league, right?

But like that isn't even my happiest day. My happiest day was 27 because I hit my rock bottom. I was still an alcoholic.

And I was really, really struggling with my drinking. Not because I was partying. It was that I was in a state of such emotional despair and I felt like I couldn't ever find my way out of it.

That drinking was the only thing I could use to medicate. I didn't know any better. I really didn't. But I remember something happened in 27 where I was like, that's it.

I was like, I gotta go to therapy. I was like. I got to get this fixed. Something's not right.

I can't, I'm going to die like this. And not in the way I want. I don't want to go from liver cirrhosis.

I got to get this fixed. So I ended up going to therapy. And within two sessions, my therapist is like, you're autistic.

You're really autistic. This is what it is. And some people might look at it like, oh, but for me, oh my God, like even just thinking about it makes me want to cry because it was so relieving.

I finally was like, this is it. This is it. The social awkwardness. I mean like all the other things, like I have an insane pain tolerance.

You can hit me in the face with a bat and I probably wouldn't recognize it, but you play a loud siren and I'm going to cripple.

Like it's just, there's so many things that make me me that I didn't realize were so directly tied to my neurological wiring.

And now that I. understood what it was, now I can actually actively work on improving and developing myself to be something better.

Can you tell how, like, just talking about this, raise my voice and my demeanor?

@52:12 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

No, totally. Yeah. It's a different energy. So really that, um, at 27, that's, that's remarkable. And did that also help with the drinking then?

@52:21 - Joseph Lucanie

I stopped drinking. That was the thing. Like I, it was one of those things where like I stopped smoking cigarettes.

Um, I stopped pretty much doing almost anything. Like I drank, don't get me wrong, but the difference was it wasn't to medicate.

You know what I mean? Like there's a difference between going to a party and having a few drinks compared to, I can't feel this way anymore and I'll do anything to numb how I'm feeling because the sound of the firehouse next door is making my ears.

@52:51 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Want to bleed. Yeah.

@52:53 - Joseph Lucanie

You know, like I couldn't quite figure it out. So I would say, I mean, you know, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, but I haven't

been drunk, I can't even tell you when. I don't know the last time I've been drunk. So it's really- Congratulations.

Thank you. From going from like being drunk all the time to like, I literally cannot tell you the last time I really ever, I, yeah, I don't even know what time I had anything more than a drink.

@53:21 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

So the twenties were a big decade. How did this new understanding of yourself free you? And how did that impact you at work?

@53:32 - Joseph Lucanie

It was, that is really where the shift happened. Because at that time, that's when I started getting to like the 80, the high 80 close ratios and the higher tickets, because you can have a process.

And Bob, actually Bob Marley said it really well. You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

I had gotten good enough at my scripted process that I could dial into it and provided they didn't want enough small.

I could portray myself as a fully functioning adult who could get across the point and was very professional. Now, now that I was invested in therapy and I was learning coping skills and I was not drinking anymore and I was on the right kind of medications, like everything was working.

Now I felt comfortable enough with myself to start opening up with people. I was able to talk to people.

I was able to relate with them a little bit more. Like I could recognize certain triggers from me. I could recognize certain things and say like, okay, this situation is gonna set me off.

So therefore I'm gonna be prepared for it.

@54:40 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

So things like that. You mentioned one day actually even training your process, your script while listening to dogs barking in your headphones.

@54:51 - Joseph Lucanie

Yeah, I can remember you remembered that. And so the thing was, is I mentioned earlier, I really struggle with sounds.

It's something that happens a lot in neuro. burdens, bright lights, random sounds, babies crying, dogs barking. So I recognized, okay, Joe, you're autistic.

So the sound of dogs barking isn't that you hate dogs. You just hate the sound that it makes and it's causing you to feel.

So I realized when I was tracking my averages, I wasn't able to close it. I wasn't able to close when there was dog barking.

When babies were crying, I couldn't do it. So what I started doing was I was practicing in front of the mirror and then I would play on the radio or I'd play, I'd go to YouTube at the time and I would play dogs barking.

And I would really have to push past it, but it built my tolerances up so that eventually when I would go to these homes, I was prepared.

It would be like, okay, I'm prepared for this. Let's go. The dog's in a bark. You know what to do.

Focus on this, focus on that control your speech, lower your ears. Like I learned skills to get past it.

And believe it or not, that actual skill is what I feel made me a more functional father. Can I touch on that if you don't mind?

@56:10 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Of course, yeah, go for it.

@56:12 - Joseph Lucanie

So obviously I can, I really will stand by the fact that I married out of my league. My wife is an angel.

She's the best person I ever known. But the closest second I would say is my daughters. I love my two girls so goddamn much.

But I didn't realize at first, I thought I didn't like kids. For my whole life, I didn't think I liked kids.

I thought I hated kids. Turns out I hate the sounds of babies crying. I didn't know that about me.

So the same techniques that I practiced against listening to dogs barking while I was working in therapy, we would have babies crying in the background.

And I would learn how to push past it. I would learn that ear muffling. I would learn that AirPods work.

So I learned coping techniques to be a better parent. And when I became a parent, then I could also be relatable to other parents.

It was something that never connected with me. So now I was not only able to sell with small talk and I could sell with a process, but now I could connect with not only married people, but people who have kids.

And I could start doing things in my process like, you know what? I'm gonna knock on the door at night.

I'm never gonna ring the bell. Cause I remember when I get upset with people wake up the baby after I put her to sleep.

So I started incorporating little things into this process and tweaking it and making my own to make it more relatable to people.

@57:44 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

That makes sense? Oh yeah, yeah, I love that. And I relating right here, hand up. I've never been more vulnerable than having my own baby girl crying in the middle of the night, right?

And who doesn't know that, that is a father. I used to go lay on the floor. I would get in trouble.

The Mrs. would tell me, come back to bed, stop coddling the kid. She needs space too. I couldn't handle it.

As a dad, like I was the most vulnerable I've ever been in my life. So I definitely relate. And at the same time, still the infant stage is hard, isn't it?

@58:24 - Joseph Lucanie

I actually have a one-year role as it stands. So I'm still not out of it for now, but you know what?

The coping skills keep me alive.

@58:32 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Awesome. So I can't complain. I'm better now.

@58:35 - Joseph Lucanie

I'm a more functional person today than I was yesterday. And I will be a more functional person tomorrow than I am today.

@58:41 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Can I highlight the superpower that I'm starting to see? There's actually two things you said already. Three really in the last little bit that is like where all the money is in this.

Yes, there's adversity. That's what causes us to push. It became growth or death for you. And in a way that maybe some people can relate to it and maybe for some that's a little ways off what they've ever felt.

I mean, it's a touching story. It's a huge battle that you face. So I wanna honor that. But as we zoom out, I'm also seeing someone that just wouldn't give up and had to find a way to be freed from that.

And that's kind of what adversity is. And I think that we're surrounded by people that think we shouldn't have problems.

But it's those problems and challenges that keep pushing us that keep affirming our decision to grow.

@59:42 - Joseph Lucanie

It's really important. And you know, in addition to that, has anyone out there that's listening ever felt littler after watching someone's social media?

Like I remember when Facebook first came out, I was, I didn't know I was autistic at the time, but like Facebook was like, look how happy I am.

Look how sick. how successful I am. Look at how many friends I have. Look at all the money I'm making.

And I'm like, damn, I can't even be happy doing the things I like most. And this guy is living the life.

So yeah, it's hard, but it was one of those things where I just, I don't know why I didn't give up on myself.

I honestly wish I could give you a reason. I really wish I could, but it was just one of those things where I just felt that I was, that there was more.

I felt that there was more that I could reach.

@1:00:31 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I didn't think that I couldn't get there.

@1:00:34 - Joseph Lucanie

I just felt that I didn't know how to get there. Like everyone else was happy. So there's gotta be something they're doing.

I just, I believed in that vision enough to say that I didn't want to give up on that vision.

I wanted just to be happy.

@1:00:51 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I also heard that in some, my mentor used to say, Jim Rohn, like, great. You are the average of the five people you hang around most.

and we touched on this briefly the other day, when you start filling your ears with these motivational speakers, but also really people that are profound in sales and understanding other people, relationships, communication, when you start filling your head with that stuff so much as you did, you start becoming it.

You are the average of the five people you hang around most, even if they're just in your ear. And that's why so commonly I'll say, hey, my mentor XYZ, and I'm like, oh, you know, Chris Voss?

I don't need to, you know what? Yes, Chris Voss doesn't know me, that doesn't matter. He puts this information out for me to be a mentee of that.

You know what I mean? So I love using that term and I love referencing that exact, really it's a solution.

@1:01:52 - Joseph Lucanie

If you'll be with that stuff, you'll become that stuff. I had something that ties right in with that, that is right around where we're at in the story.

is I didn't have many friends. I had very, very few friends at the time prior to being diagnosed. But once I went to therapy, there was actually a period of time where I did what's known as a mass exodus.

I cut off everyone. I mean, when I mean everyone, I mean family, friends, everyone. Because the thing was is I realized what I'm surrounded with right now hasn't worked.

And if I keep being surrounded with what doesn't work, I'll never be in the position to find what will work.

And it was hard. It was really, really hard. Anyone who's ever separated from family before, it's never easy. And it's still something that I battle with.

But the fact was is that now I'm in a place that I can truly say I'm me and I'm me because I want to be this way and not I'm me because I have to be this way.

And I don't think I could have got. I've gotten that if I kept surrounded by the people I was surrounded by.

@1:03:03 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Yeah, I love that. And I want to relate that back to electrical language as an industrial guy. I love ladder logic, PLCs, inputs and outputs.

That's how I see this thing. And relating that to the supercomputer that's in your head, is something they call the reticular activating system.

You've been programming that your entire life. All these inputs are adding up and they continue to add up. And they will continue to add up for as long as you expose yourself to them.

It's one of the biggest things we deal with on the sales level is that first dark cloud, as we call it, the self-objection cloud, the red team, the stuff that has been adding up that isn't consistent with what is available of you.

And I'm going to keep deep diving this for a little second, right, because it's so important. So if you had a brother.

as a kid that told you, you're ugly, man. You're ugly, you're ugly. Or I've heard this in a book, Psycho-Cybernetics, a guy being told, you got a big nose, you got a big nose.

Go and see a surgeon later in life to get a nose reduction. And he's like, it was stopping him in sales.

Literally the guy was like, no one will buy from me because my nose is so big, I need to get a nose job.

And the surgeon's like, that's not real. People will like you, big nose or not.

@1:04:31 - Joseph Lucanie

I mean, look at me. I was gonna say, I got that Roman nose.

@1:04:34 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I mean, that's about it. Yeah, right. I'm doing it too. So just to tie that together, if you wanna change the outputs, you have to change the inputs.

100%. And if you won't put those inputs there, who will? Like that's like that serenity conversation, right? The things I can control, the inputs, you have to control those to get this output right.

All right. So knowing this diagnosis now, collecting where we are in your story. You begin to train on this, you begin to understand better, you're listening to the noises.

I love that you keep working on your weaknesses.

@1:05:10 - Joseph Lucanie

Mm-hmm.

@1:05:11 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

You are on, and that's maybe the 30,000 foot view again, but you're on this trajectory of, I know what I want, I know what's in the way of that, and I need to fix or grow or focus on those things to achieve the goal on the other side.

@1:05:28 - Joseph Lucanie

Correct?

@1:05:29 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

How important? And you were doing things like you said, looking in the mirror, because language, or what's communicated is more than just the words or your mouth.

Can I touch on that for a moment? Yeah, please.

@1:05:42 - Joseph Lucanie

So we started doing, in therapy, we started doing social training, right? And saying like, okay, how much eye contact is too much eye contact?

Where are your hands? Where should they be? Should you physically? When you cross your arms, what's communicated? When your arm's behind you, what's communicated?

Like I started learning how. how to hold myself. And I started incorporating those into the process and starting to learn, okay, all these little things that I didn't know will now make me better at selling and therefore, but not because it's gonna make me a better salesperson, but because it'll make me more of a relatable person.

So all these things I started focusing on were just small little steps to other people. Like to a neuro-typical person, I'm pretty sure they don't have to be trained on how long to maintain eye contact.

But even you and I have mentioned, hey Joe, sometimes it looks like you're zoning out because I'm just staring without blinking.

It just, sometimes that's just me. I just forget to blink. It happens. Love that.

@1:06:46 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Right? Yeah, embrace it, embrace it. Man, I honestly, I'm just gonna insert a moment of gratitude. I don't think there's anyone else in this planet that's anything remotely close to who you are and what.

what you've done. There's no other person that could lead this mission of mastering sales to the degree that you did.

Because guys, the stuff you're hearing, it wasn't just like, oh, I noticed this. Most people notice things. At some point you might even address it.

You might even say it out loud. For Joseph, it was a must to build a framework that addressed it and then to rehearse that framework and make sure it addressed that problem.

@1:07:30 - Joseph Lucanie

Mm-hmm.

@1:07:32 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

That's not an 80-20. We're talking 95-5 or maybe 99-1 here. You are the 1% brother.

@1:07:41 - Joseph Lucanie

Thank you. I'm honored that you'd say that. And the thing is that we'll never think as highly of ourselves as others might think about us.

You know what I mean? So I'm taking it with a grain of salt. But once again, it was grow or die.

That mentality never really changed. I struggled with suicide attempts my whole life. Even beyond. that point and everything, I had my struggles, but what was securing it was, okay, I now run a business.

And if I can just know that I can sell this much, I'll be good. The thing was, is I still was under the metrics of HVAC companies.

So I thought a $20,000 a week was the minimum. So what I started to do was I said, okay, every day, I need to sell at least $5,000 a day so that I could have a 20,000 or $25,000 a week.

Cause I thought from all the trainers that I worked with, that's the minimum or the average. So the thing was, is I started rapidly growing my company.

We went, like we started off at like $90,000 in sales the first year, and we just kept growing and growing and growing and growing.

And in the course of seven years, we were at 1.3. That's what it was because we kept growing it and not giving up on it.

And it's a small appreciation of the details that means so much.

@1:09:01 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I got to ask because a lot of people then, especially when they see a script or see a process, they've already got what their accumulation of experience is.

They've already got some fears around being seen as salesy. That's that first dark cloud, again, the self-objection. Will you just tell me quick, were your customers any less happy when they were paying more?

@1:09:23 - Joseph Lucanie

No, no. So let me explain very important thing about sales that I don't think is nearly addressed enough. Sales is not something you do to someone.

Sales is something you do for someone. I knew our work was top-notch. We were studying, we were generator, both Generac and Kohler dealers.

We were Tesla dealers. We had the best financing. Our workmanship was on top. We had a lifetime guarantee on everything we touched.

I knew hands down, you put me against any other electrical company at the time, I felt. strong and confident.

But in order to deliver that level of service, we needed to charge more. It by default, you had to do it.

You cannot deliver high levels of service if you don't have the means of funding. So the thing was, is I stopped selling high ticket items just to have a revenue.

What I was doing was I was creating options and giving the customer the choice of which one they wanted to do.

We would always offer six level choices, premium, mid range and economy. Regardless of what it was, you would always have a choice.

And for every choice, I could say, I did this for you because I would tie it into the emotional reason why someone would want to have it and how working with someone like me would better their lives and their homes and their families.

So yeah, they might've called me for a trip GFI and ended up getting a whole new service, but you know what?

They were grateful because they didn't. They didn't know they had a rock hole in their meter outside. They didn't know that their ceiling fan that was constantly dusty in their daughter's room actually was blowing fiberglass all over the place.

That's actually all the dust that usually you're seeing. Once again, thank you for learning from HVC companies. People didn't know, hey, you know what?

I've got a pool, but you know what? I have no lights outside. So I've got to go swim in the dark.

When I was offering things for emotional reasons that would benefit people, they stopped being upset at the price and started thanking me for thinking of them.

So really at the end of the day, all we are is just a conduit to solve people's problems. And they may not be problems they knew they had, but as long as you're an honest person and you're telling them the truth, then you really are solving a problem that they need to solve.

@1:11:53 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Something you're doing with them, helping them buy. Absolutely. Yeah, I love that. And I think that there's a huge block.

in there for most, I think that's where we see it the most is we spend so much time with not enough muscle memory in the background to operate for us, or not enough of a dialed in process that we spend so much time and energy in front of the customer thinking, I don't want to mess up this price, I got to get this price right, I don't want to miss anything.

I don't. And there's a lot of don'ts and can'ts and fear of losing the sale ahead of ever proposing an honest, thoughtful and thorough solution.

And that's the difference that I've seen in working beside you that I think is so profound in this process that we teach is that all these solutions, we hear it from guys who've been in business for a decade or more, I just never thought of that.

You've clearly taken the time to be in the buyer's shoes and think of the things that will actually benefit the quality of life going forward.

@1:12:57 - Joseph Lucanie

Can I explain why?

@1:12:58 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Please do.

@1:13:00 - Joseph Lucanie

So once again, being in the mentality of being surrounded by HVAC and plumbing technicians, they have a massive advantage over the typical electrician because there's parts that constantly break and there's also continuous services that need to be offered.

So like you think, okay, I'm gonna have a service call on an outside condenser. You know that you could offer a hard start kit, you can offer a dual stage capacitor, you could offer the surge protector, the enhanced disconnect, the rewiring, the fin grades, like there's so many things just in that that you could offer.

But now you're taking an electrician and you put them in front of a GFI on a countertop. What does he do?

You can't offer more things. People don't need things, but people care about being happy. And that was something that I knew I was chasing my whole life.

So I said to myself, okay, how can I make them happier by me being here? Okay, you've got a bad GFI.

Well, right now that GFI controls all your countertops. So could I make you happier if I localized each one of them so that when this one trips, it doesn't take out the fridge and now you don't worry about losing food if you're gone?

Or you don't have to work, right now you've got lighting in your room. Great, I see you have a ceiling fan with a remote by your bed.

Wouldn't it be better if I actually cut a three-way switch by the side of the bed? That way you can walk into the room and have a light on, walk into bed and be able to turn the light off.

So by being creative and saying, how can I make you happier by me being here? Solutions will come up.

They just will. If you truly care about people, you have to put yourself in their shoes. And now that I had the skills, like I already was a good electrician.

I was a bad person. I could not a bad person. I was a non-functional person. I did all the pieces were incorrect.

Once the piece. is clicked and I could understand and relate with people, I could connect good electric work to them being happy.

And that I feel was the difference.

@1:15:09 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Right. Yeah, absolutely, man. And I think that's the difference. That's what people keep saying they're seeing in this program that you don't see anywhere else.

That's the specificity, the specialized training with that thorough thought through every process from the front door to the referral review and repeat transaction and I'm, I'm astounded by it.

So I appreciate you. I wanted to extend that, that gratitude, of course. Now at this point, you exit your business and I think that's a different story.

We don't need to go too deep and we're already at the hour. But can you tell us a little bit about the last few years in sense of exit, what happened next and where you believe you left this process and what you believe it's actually capable of?

beyond what you took it to?

@1:16:05 - Joseph Lucanie

So I was realizing that I was doing around 1.3 million, even though we were running a company and doing service calls.

Like at the time I really wasn't a fully selling tech. You know what I mean? Like I would go to a call and I would either sell it and then offer to do it.

Or if it was a big job, I would sell it and there'd be someone who'd follow me to do it.

But eventually the goal was to have me strictly sell and just have nothing but leads and not have to turn any tools.

I truly believe that 1.3 is the floor. And my goal is to make every single person who I train better than me.

I want that to be the benchmark. I really think that this should at least be a $2 million system.

Because if I could have done 1.3 while running a business, while also having a young kids, while also having to physically do the work, what would have happened if I didn't have.

have to run a business. Like if I was an employee and I was just fed leads five times a day, five days a week, what could have happened?

Yeah, can I jump in there and insert something quick? You're sure, go for it.

@1:17:12 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

We have a five pillars document guys. And if you're watching this live, if you're on the Facebook group, you can just actually type in five pillars and we'll send this to you.

I should type it quick, five pillars. A document explaining how Joseph was doing this really with roughly 14 qualified leads on average per week.

This, like I think a lot of people hear the millions and they go, oh yeah, well, you must've been serving so many people.

Not with an average ticket that high, not with an 80% close ratio, not with repeat transactions, reviews, referrals, all this stuff adds up to qualifying those leads at the front door and building that thing solid as a rock.

@1:17:55 - Joseph Lucanie

Sorry to interrupt you. Yeah, no, it's fine. So that was that. And I know we're trying to like fast track it to where we are now.

And the goal always was happy, right? Once I knew that I knew who and what I was, I knew that the position of my life was a paradigm.

It was a paradigm shift at this point. And I realized that I really love training people on how to sell.

Like I've developed a process and I had perfected it over so long that I wanted to start sharing it with people.

So I literally was volunteering myself on the weekends. Like I wasn't even getting paid for it. Other electricians would be like, hey, can you work with me?

And to be all over the state and all over the country. So I'm like, yeah, sure, you're not a competitor, let's talk.

And then there got to a point when I was like, you know what, I want to sell my business.

I was like, I don't want to, I want to go into training. I want to do that. And I actually contacted my mentor at the time, the one who started me off.

And within 15 minutes, I was like, hey, I'm thinking about selling my company. Do you know anyone that would want to pursue like a training career?

And he's like, give me 50. I'll call you right back. And he called me and he's like, yeah, you're gonna come work for me.

I was like, what? He's like, you're not gonna put your resume out. You're gonna come work for me. This is what we're doing.

And I was like, wow. Like I got to work with my hero. I was like, this is great. So I ended up joining that team.

And I feel like I learned a lot. I was able to understand my process a little more. I learned more about coaching.

I learned more about development and I'm grateful for the time that I spent there. But I realized just like everywhere else, and it was the same problem from when I first freaking started.

And I'm not trying to bad mouth anyone. I'm just trying to say that I started and I was an electrician being compared to HVAC.

And I was teaching as an electrician surrounded by HVAC tax. It didn't quite click. And I kept asking like, where are the electricians?

They've got to be out there. People have got to need help. I can't have been the only one. What?

Is everyone having this figured out? And it was just me with my thumb up my butt. So I left and I left honestly like Clay you were the one that actually wanted to make me do this because he literally made a post saying, why should I hire you?

And I didn't think he was being serious or not. It was just a post, but he manifested this because I was following your content for months.

And I'm like, damn, I would love to work with Clay. I would love to work with Clay. I would love to work with Clay.

And one day when you put out a post saying why should I hire you? I was like, you know, I'm just gonna put it out there.

Clay, are you being serious about this? And what did you say?

@1:20:44 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Let's get on a call. I wanna point something out in full circle back. Earlier we talked about, hey if you wanna control the outputs, control the inputs.

Now look at that the other way, flip the script guys. You have controlled outputs and you have an audience.

that are having inputs, that's marketing 101. We can't simplify it more than that, right? So in our Apex attraction model workshop and course content, we talk about this very thing and how attracting A players for you on Indeed and Monster and ZipRecruiter and all these sites where you just put this long-winded ad up with all the things you're looking for in a human, hoping that some number of a person applies, well, that may get you some resumes.

It certainly isn't gonna catch everyone. And if I could have more than one fishing line in the river to catch a fish, I certainly would.

Would you?

@1:21:39 - Joseph Lucanie

Right?

@1:21:40 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I love the fish, so why not, right? Right? So the same has to be asked in your business. So I just wanted to touch on that with you guys.

That's the Apex attraction method, but it worked. It's right here. This is it. When you constantly put out that good, put out that good energy, put out your vision, put out what you hope.

You reap, you do. You get it. Sow the seeds to the plants you want the fruit from.

@1:22:07 - Joseph Lucanie

And I really feel, if I can speak almost in a sense of Providence, I feel as if my life has led me down this river, whether I realized it or not, to shape me into this role.

I was an electrician who knew that I couldn't sell. I developed such an intense self-loathing that I always thought that I was wrong.

And because I always thought I was wrong, I was willing to accept help from others. I assumed that if I was doing something, I probably was doing it wrong.

So any advice someone gave me, I took to heart. That's why I was able to adopt these processes. Then over a decade, I took a process and I made it my own and I shifted it and I worked it and I made it something that worked for electricians.

And then I end up working for my mentor and then realizing we're not doing enough for electricians and finding the kind of person like you are.

play where we can really truly actually impact our industry. We can put real empowerment into the people who are giving power to all the homes.

Why is it that we're the least to get power when we're the first person to run it? It doesn't make sense.

@1:23:19 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

It doesn't.

@1:23:19 - Joseph Lucanie

So it's one of those things that I am just so utterly grateful to be in the position that we are because it feels full circle.

I didn't have help. I didn't have support, but now through these efforts, there may be some 14 year old kid right now who doesn't know what he's doing.

And maybe he can listen to a podcast and say, you know what? Maybe, maybe there's some little autistic kid out there that's going to see this and be inspired to not want to put his head on a train track.

I don't know. I just hope that my message helps someone. If it helps anyone, it's worth it.

@1:23:55 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Absolutely. I agree. 100%. We're very clear on our mission. and end values, and that's why everyone on our team is inspired, we hear from it from our team members daily.

@1:24:06 - Joseph Lucanie

Mm-hmm.

@1:24:07 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Literally inspired, and you do want to accomplish the same in your business, not just for your team, but also your clients, right?

Be the kind of person they would wanna work with. Mm-hmm. Gone are the days, like our fathers, grandfathers, where you would get work, and then hire people to get the work done.

Nowadays, it's about mastering getting work, mastering the attraction of people, and when people come on board that are worth retention, you turn on the tap and get more work.

And you do that with a fire under your ass.

@1:24:42 - Joseph Lucanie

Mm-hmm.

@1:24:43 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

To keep your team motivated, to keep your business growing. That's how the world's flipped. But just the same, I mentioned grandfathers.

I had a grandpa that worked on a dam, and I had a grandfather that worked on a dam, and I had a grandfather that was in the war, World War II.

The guy who worked on the dam, he was a man. Damn, they literally, when they bid that project, there was casualties in the estimate.

We estimate losing 13 people through the course of this 10-year project. Wow. That old dog won't hunt anymore, right?

So the game has changed. The rules have changed. And again, I just can't commend you enough for how well you've put these rules, our rules together to help people adopt it and make the most of it.

And what I can tell you guys 100%, and I talked to a client about this last night, last moment of our call, such a powerful takeaway.

The very things we've talked about today, the disassociation with society, the disassociation with clients, and that feeling of personal hurt and disdain and negative all can come from and to your texts from not having a process in place.

Because if they don't have a process to follow, then that means they're going out and talking to your customers all with heart, their knowledge and experience.

And that's a problem when you get rejected.

@1:26:14 - Joseph Lucanie

Oh yeah.

@1:26:15 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Everyone's got a great story, but not everyone can tell a great story. We have to give them the tools to tell it so that if it doesn't get taken well, like your sales process, it's the processes diagnostics that matter here.

It's the fault within the process, not the person, is a better way to say that.

@1:26:37 - Joseph Lucanie

Can I add something as well? Please do. Mention diagnostic, literally, you know how everyone says Joe is the sales bot.

That's the whole thing that we talked about, the birth of the sales bot. I've always associated myself more as a cybernetic or a cyborg than I have as an actual human being.

And I've been called a robot ever since I was a kid because I, you know, just a little off.

awkward and robotic in my movements and whatnot. But I used it for our benefit because I designed a self-diagnostic evaluation after the call.

And as you just mentioned the word diagnostic and I figured that's something that would be helpful because it doesn't sound like a person does a self-diagnostic on themselves.

Sounds like a machine, doesn't it? Yeah. But that's the thing. There are things that you can do when you say, this is a process, the process works well.

I'm not gonna manipulate it. And I'm not going to allow my personal views influence it. I will not blame the customer.

I will not blame the economy. I will not blame the weather. I will blame me. And I will be able to point where I let the process down in these steps.

So at the end of the day, this bubble is the only thing you're gonna control.

@1:27:57 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

I love that. Playing above the line with ownership. accountability and responsibility. That in itself is a superpower. Thank you so much for telling your story today.

We are out of time. We've actually got to go back to work after this if you can believe it.

@1:28:10 - Joseph Lucanie

We got a call coming up in 18 minutes. So. Oh geez. Hopefully I didn't take too much time, but it was one of those things where I just wanted to add, I am so grateful to be able to share my story.

Not because it's an easy story to share, but I want, I just want to know that if you're an electrician out there and you feel lost or you're an neurodivergent like me and you feel alone, I want you to know that my friendship comes free.

And I truly want to help you in the worst possible way, because I know I was going down a bad path and my sales skills is what saved me and therapy is what saved me.

So if I can lend you what knowledge I have, I will gladly do so.

@1:28:52 - Clay Neumeyer (serviceloopelectrical.com)

Get some good inputs guys, have some great outputs. As always, it's Friday, but we are here five days a week, helping you simplify your price.

Master your sales and deliver consistent premium level service. I'm Clay. My partner, Joseph. Thanks for joining us and listening today guys.

And please let us know if you relate to this. Feel free to comment on the thread. If you're not a part of our Facebook group, do jump on Facebook and join the Electropreneur Secret Group.

And we look forward to seeing you and talking to you there. Take care. Bye bye.