Episode 151 - Proactive Vs Reactive & the 5 P’s

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Electric Pernur Secrets. Despite what I've been saying earlier in the week, given the wrong episode numbers, we're actually on episode 151, which means we've showed up 151 times like an endurance race straight to support electricians, joe, and every time we do this we really don't have much of a plan, bit of a framework, a topic we're speaking to. So I just want to give you props and myself props for just showing up right present, not perfect, as we say, in helping electricians the whole way. Thank you, how are you doing today?

Honestly, I feel like I'm having energy from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. I am so happy today. Have you ever had one of those days where just things are going right and your family is healthy and you're healthy and things are just? I'm blessed? Today I feel absolutely and totally blessed.

I'm feeling that too, man. In fact, that was my post today on Facebook. If you're following us on social media, you may have even seen yes, I Clay Neumeyer post on Facebook where the kittens and your families and friends are posting about their weddings and new babies, etc. We do a lot of work on their deep content work connecting with our audience, connecting with electricians everywhere to help them master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. I hadn't dropped that yet, joe, so I just stuffed it right in there, man.

I'm going to go for it. I love it and, more importantly, how are you doing today? I?

mean you always ask how I am.

But we care about you too, yeah.

I'm doing fantastic, man. You know what I love what you brought up, because psychology is so deep rooted in what we do and that confidence and knowing that we are everything we set out to be is so important every day of the week, and it's something that came up in our class this morning, and there's this affirmation that I've used over and over again and I got to drop it here.

I'd be upset if you didn't.

All right In the pursuit of everything that we're after this affirmation, I have truly loved and has helped me in many ways and it's this simple faith knows that it has already received and acts accordingly. Have you heard that before?

I mean through you, yes, but I love it. And it's one thing that constantly comes back up, because if you prayed for something or believed in something or had faith in something and you're like, no, it was answered, I'm getting what I want, this is going to happen your whole demeanor would shift compared to I asked for something and I want to wait till it's physically in my hand before I have any sort of happiness. And I know you act as if and because our bodies and brains don't know the difference between imagination and reality. If everything upstairs was full of happiness and confidence and contentment, what would your result be when you're in front of your customers?

Dismal, I would say for sure. You know what, as a 30,000 foot view guy, I got to say when you come down to the ground level, sometimes in the thick of it, in the weeds, it can be really difficult and really reactive. Tying into our subject today this concept of proactive versus reactive, Joe yeah.

I mean.

I find that too, and that's another reason that that affirmation and having that faith, that knowing that everything is going to plan, that I'm already everything I aim to be, and having that vision and that clarity and then going to the ground level dictates and creates a different action. Maybe you have some examples in mind. What are some of the situations? Do you think we're electricians are finding themselves more reactive than proactive, and feel free to, of course, tie this back to our slow season topic of the week.

I mean, that's the first thing that comes to mind Reactive versus proactive. Reactive is why am I not getting enough generator sales? It's like, okay, I can make sense, you're not getting enough generator sales. Proactive is am I setting myself up with as many service agreements as I can for generators I didn't install or did install? I mean that would be proactive because, okay, yeah, I may not have a pile of generators to install, but I am going to be connected with existing systems which likely have installation errors that I can correct and I can continually nurture relationship over time and through that they can call me for other things and then eventually I will have a pile of customers that need to have replacements. So I'd rather be proactive and build the tribe or, in this situation, build the boat before it starts to rain.

Mmm, yeah, that's good. I like that. I also find it with marketing and the marketing stuff right. The prime example is what we're talking about right now and as we agitate the slow season Concept throughout our content, there are multiple electricians many saying well, there is no slow season, that's a myth.

Mm-hmm.

Is it a myth, joe, in your ten years of running your service business roughly, was it? Was it a myth or something that happened? Did you experience slow months?

Yeah. So the reason that I am so concerned about slow season was before we developed our processes, things would just shut down like we were residential people. We didn't get into construction. We said, no, I'm turning my back on new construction, I'm turning my back on commercial, I'm not getting into industrial, no, we're not doing agricultural, it was just service. And we noticed that what would happen is September was still strong, then October would start to dip and it would really have almost a hard shut off right around Thanksgiving Because everyone wants their lights and things done before the family comes to visit. But after Thanksgiving we would have from this Thanksgiving to Christmas. People would say no, because it's Christmas coming up and I need to save for that. Then January would come and they would say no, because we just had Christmas and we're trying to recover from that. And then February would come and they'd say, no, we're getting any for tax season, we're gonna spend after we get our return. So without having systems built, it was a real struggle during those months and For people who are saying it doesn't exist, I'm telling you as an electrician who was boots on the ground running a company this happened and we overcame it through systems and processes which I'm dying to teach you about. But to hear that it doesn't exist is almost insulting.

Well, you don't have to take insult, it's not personal, but but I hear what you're saying, man, and one of the things that why that ties in so wonderfully is because Right now and I use this analogy earlier it's so busy still for many of us that it's kind of like waving out in front of a green light like stop here, because there's danger ahead.

Mm-hmm.

Everyone sees the green light times are going like let's move forward, right.

Mm-hmm. Economy strong, everything's good. Go for it, yeah sure right.

But the reactive approach that that will inevitably happen is if we experience that slow month, if we're not leveraging these processes, these strategies, then it becomes just like I said on the value piece, with a bit of a really Humor in between the lines there, how to not call your marketer and be mad at them for not getting you more leads Guide. I think is really said something to that effect, because that is the reactive approach. That is what tends to happen. All of a sudden someone comes forward and says well, I don't have any leads, I don't know what to do next month, right? Or we also see it in people just convert really high and they're not actually getting the number of calls that they should have, right? So even in talking with a team yesterday, maybe your company, for a couple of sales people, is seeing just 30 to 50 calls a month. But if you're converting it 80 plus percentage and your average tickets really high because it's a good season, does that mean we're safe through winter? It doesn't.

I mean I actually feel that there's there's a part of me that really gets hurt when I hear this, because I remember having months that were upwards of like a hundred eighty thousand a month in the summers and Then with the winters when they were so slow. You have this huge pile of cash that you've allocated and you're like this is my growth, and then you just watch it slowly Dwindled down because no one is calling. And that's why it means so much to me personally to say there are things that we can do that will sustainably get you over the hill and Over the pile of problems. But you have to start them before the problems start. You can't just start swimming when the water is already up to your shoulders. You got to put on the life vest first.

Which of course ties perfectly into the other part of this episode's title, the five peas Mm-hmm. Which are actually the six peas, and I know we've touched on these before. One of my mentors early on in the electrical trade mentioned the six peas. Proper Preparation prevents piss, poor performance.

Mm-hmm.

And it's not much of a tongue twister. You could say that over and over really fast and your apprentices will get it, your staff Will get it. But ultimately, being prepared for this is the best medicine and the good news is, being prepared is Actually just a proactive approach at making the most of every client, which has been our mission as a company to help electricians with that in implementing the highest level of service and Making the most of every single client that they come into contact with. Joe what do you have to say about that mission?

I think that's absolutely crucial because too often people will say, well, I made the sale, okay, that's great. And unfortunately in some companies the customer the last time they see the salesperson is after you've collected the check, which means any future relationship they're gonna have is already going to be tainted. But if we can foster a really almost symbiotic relationship with our clients, where we benefit from them and they benefit from us, and it's a relationship where we're all in the same team, there's no reason why they wouldn't let you come back in their home in the future. There's no reason why they wouldn't call you again. So instead of having to constantly cast seeds all day, you can plant them and then eat the fruit from what grows.

Mmm, yeah, I really like that. And, guys, of course, what we're speaking to this week, this slow season, really does, and and was highlighted in our value piece that we gave away yesterday, which was that that SS playbook, the play on SS, was meant to be super sport. Just in case anyone else had any other ideas as we came through yesterday, joe. But look, everyone is busy. We get that. It's busy out there. It's busy time, your clients are busy, we're busy, and often we're reactively or our staff are reactively Filling the schedule, trying to get jobs done in time, trying to please the next person before we even done with the person in front of us. But scale takes a proactive approach. To scale a business means that we have to have a set of Resources and processes, standard operating procedures that your whole team can be trained on and follow, like a simple bouncing ball On a karaoke machine. Mm-hmm if we're able to do that, guys, and you can automate these few topics on this first floor your sales offers and marketing and the operations between them Then all of a sudden you're at the second level. At that second level, you truly become more of this business Executive, the owner who works on the business, not in the business, mm-hmm, when you're at that level, some of the the levers that you start to play with then are just how can I improve team performance, right? How can I motivate my team better? How can we improve our training, deep, diving more into the customer's experience? How can we improve our profitability? How can I rearrange the data and look deeper on a situation to then create an enhanced impact and effect on this business, on this, this process, this streamline of our revenue? Does that make sense, joe?

It really does it. From what I'm taking away from all that it's just are we utilizing Every particular aspect at our disposal in order to improve the value for both our team and, eventually, the value that our clients receive? If our team isn't benefiting and our clients are benefiting.

No one does definitely there's a lot at stake when we resort to just reactive ownership, mm-hmm, and some of those things include Well, your company, the front doors for one, anyone ever else? Anyone else ever felt like you might have to close down? Anyone else ever lose staff or feel like your staffs uneasy, for the complaints department is overwhelmed and the activity department departments underwhelmed. You ever feel that in your business, joe?

I have. I have to just insert one thing, because you mentioned the complaints department and I have the funniest thing I've ever seen that applies to that. I was in Georgia once and there was a HR department and the HR department had on the outside of their door it was a gigantic rat trap and it was completely posed and let and they put a doorbell right where the trigger would have been and it said complaints department, please ring bell. Hmm, is there a little bit like snap, but just the thought. I sorry I saw it in there. It has a touch on it.

That's all right, man. Again, we talked about sales sanity before. That's at stake in this reactive mindset people's health and even, as you said, that savings, that 90 day nest egg, the things you put away to try to make sure that you're safe, right, and then everything beyond that becomes at risk as well. That's what's at stake with reactive, and it reminds me of something we teach called the four forces, where we're able to identify in any company whether they're working away from their goals or working towards their goals, and this is such an important concept because typically, the away from is in a reactive state, and what that that reactiveness is from is scarcity mindset or fear about what's painful right now and the fears that they have for the future, instead of working towards their goals by recognizing and focusing on what they want and what they aspire to have with their vision entails in the future, which actually brings us full circle. Back to how we began this episode, joe, which was withholding strong to that vision, knowing that well, faith knows that it's already received an axe. Accordingly, knowing that the actions of today are what matter, not what we put off till tomorrow, but what we do today for tomorrow. Is that coming through, joe? Does that make sense?

It really, really does. It's really. Are you doing the steps, are you taking the actions in order to receive the fruit that you will eventually have tomorrow? Are you planting the seeds now instead of are you waiting until you're hungry and then figuring out what you need to do from it?

Absolutely. I want to hit us off with a couple of action items and keep this one nice, short and sweet. Joe, that's fine Thursday. As the first action I really want to fill this one Is that okay, sure, good, good, okay. It starts with, actually, something we touched on a couple of times, and it's that focus. Where we focus is where we go. The reactive focus unfortunately ends up all over the place and so we end up spinning circles or being stuck in the mud or in the tall grass or the many other cliches around what that really means. It's also represented by something we call the Eisenhower Matrix, where we end up in stuff that's kind of urgent and important, or even urgent and not important, but we're so reactive that we're not able to even distinguish between the two and we're stuck on the left side of this matrix for 80% or more of our journey. We just don't get far To properly represent this focus. In this case, as you said, you were focused on residential service. That's what we help teach. We help electricians become premium residential service providers. In that focus, we don't need construction, you don't need commercial, you don't need anything else. Right? You don't need to go become a grocer at the grocery store part time or deliver pizzas, or anything else crazy that comes to mind and when we're able to focus proactively, when we truly have that vision, we know what we want. The one year, three year, five year plan like look down the hallway here, see the light at the end of the tunnel and stick to it and focus on this proactive approach. And, of course, that base action comes down to grab the value piece that we sent out yesterday. You can comment right here on this post. That's happening live in our Electric Nurse Secrets Group or you can even see us on our website. If you're not a Facebook user at serviceloop electricalcom and if you were to type in SS playbook anywhere, then we'd be happy to send that to you and help you with this and make sure that you're taking a proactive approach at your future. How's that for an all star setup? Joe? Do you got something to mind?

Man, I absolutely love it, but it feels like all your basic actions are always all star action, the non basic basics I was going to say. I have an all star action and it runs relatively parallel to what you're doing. All right, because our main focus is how can we get out of reactive instead to proactive? And my first view is this Anytime someone's reactive, it's because they're in the mindset of being reactive. We need to change the mindset, but we can't do that with just words. Sometimes. That needs space. So something I'm sure you guys have heard me say is how you breathe is how you think, and how you think is how you talk. So what I want you guys to start doing is following the advice of faith. Acts as if it's already received. If you can say I am preparing for slow season and I will actively do the things against it to make sure I don't have to deal with it, my first suggestion is close your eyes and breathe as if you know that your calendar is already full. The reason why I want you to do that is, if you can imagine not having that stress, you usually will be more clearheaded. With you being more clearheaded now, you can tackle problems with a little more. I want to say dignity, but with more effectiveness. Because, once again, if you're stressed, the lens of everything you look at will be stressed. But if you're peaceful, you're calm, you're balanced, you're in a centered mentality, then anything you see won't be a problem. It'll just be another opportunity for you to grow.

Boom, I love that big mic drop moment. Two huge actions for you guys to follow Again. Episode 151, which means we've given away like make me do the math here A lot 302 action items, joe, that's massive. This has been another episode of Electric Pinner Secrets, the Electricians podcast. Guys, if you're taking some big value from us, please let us know where you heard us first. We're happy to be here, happy to serve electricians all over internationally. We know we've got fans over in Australia, all the way to Canada, so we're everywhere and we love that. Guys, tell your friends and join us as we help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. We'll see you again tomorrow for Friday. Wish you all the best Cheers.