Episode 3 - Get Fired up & Fire yourself! (an accidental podcast) With Edward Rivera & Eddie Cruz

2022-11-07 Ion Electric Podcast

Tue, Nov 15, 2022 . 2:03 PM

1:11:29

Owner: Clay Neumeyer

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, eddie, talking, business, electrical, questions, electrician, trust, call, customer, edward, fellas, big, edie, problem, life, put, company, man, asked

SPEAKERS

Clay (46%), 

Eddy (27%), 

Edward (25%) 

Clay Neumeyer

0:14

Hey, what's up, brother? Can you hear me? I sure Ken, how you doing today?

E

Edward

0:18

Doing all right, man. It's pretty good Monday so far haven't had one of those in a while. So I'm pretty happy.

Clay Neumeyer

0:24

Yeah, brave booking a meeting at this time on a Monday. We never know what happens on a Monday it seems.

E

Confirming Speaker...

0:30

Yep, exactly, dude. So, and where are you again, Edward. So I am in New Hampshire and Edie is in Pennsylvania. So we're basically doing England. Well, there we go. Yeah, yeah, cuz you're not even you're not even in the States, right?

Clay Neumeyer

0:48

I am Canadian. That's my area. I'm up in Vancouver, BC, man. I tell you what, it's snowing sideways right now. What? Yeah,

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:01

well, we're not too far behind you, brother. Like I think we're gonna be there probably soon as well. Yeah, it

Clay Neumeyer

1:05

gets pretty cold over there. Hey, hello. Perfect. That's my video. I'll join me on the camera. How you doing today?

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:14

Oh, shit. Are we going camera? Hold on. We can we can. Yo, what's up, guys? Eddie, can you hear us?

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:23

Oh, hold on. Now I think yeah, yeah, carry now I was just setting everything up because zoom like had for whatever reason, like the speaker says to my my Yeti mic. I was like, I can't hear anything.

Clay Neumeyer

1:36

Fine defaults to that all the time. Brother. I hear you.

1:40

was like super confused.

Clay Neumeyer

1:45

Right? So I take notes on these sessions. Hope you don't mind. I find if I write stuff down, it will stick in there. I'll never need to read it again. If I don't, it'll be in and out. So we also got this recorded. So any good nuggets come up, we can have a reflect back. I'll send the link to you if you want. Okay. First, I want to say I love the branding. Fellas. I on watch. I can't think good. Yeah, thank you, man.

E

Confirming Speaker...

2:10

Yeah, like one thing, I'm so picky about how things look how they fit, I want my guys to be comfortable. It's all about that image. Right? You know what I mean? Like, you know, when we walk, go to your house, it's like, you know, I want everybody look like a team. You know what I mean? Just like we run, like, you know, like, you see a coach running a football team and stuff like that, like, I just, I'm all about that image man like,

E

Eddy

2:29

seven just that it's also us as a company to look completely different from the typical electrical company, not the most tradesmen or they don't take think about how important how you look your professionalism, like in your appearance. You look modern, you look like an actual smart intellect. If you got yourself put together. Some guy running up all dirty, you know, mustard on a shirt or something like that. By the way, your true story, your story, by the way,

Clay Neumeyer

2:59

mustard in the kitchen with a spatula? It's funny. No, you know what, I love that guys, I wrote down two things, their brand identity and continuity. So I love that you said that to Eddie. I mean, it's clear right off the bat, you guys are on the same page with this. Yeah, I'll just throw something down there. We say there's two seasons in business, building equity, and cashing in on equity. Hmm, what do you think are the things that build equity think of like your house? Right? What are the things that build equity in a business?

E

Confirming Speaker...

3:34

Let's see both I mean, I guess, communication. I mean, this, like this consistency of everything, but it's communicating with the customer, you know, always informing them what's involved in the on their project, what's what, what the what the stages, you know, just keeping them informed in the whole process. You don't want to you don't want them to feel that they're left out their own personal project, you know, and what they're looking for.

E

Confirming Speaker...

4:00

Yeah. And also, I think, too, I think the answer as well as that is, even before you get a customer, you know what I mean? Like, you know, if they're following you for a while, I want to build that trust, we can call it equity to, you know, Edie, like, we're always trying to post that content. So by the time when they're ready to buy, I want to be the company that they call and, and hire, because they've been watching us for a while, you know what I mean? So,

E

Confirming Speaker...

4:23

and that's such a common thing nowadays with EX consumers. When the customer is ready to buy, they, they really plan that out very plan that purchase out well in advance before they call you or they go to the store. They really did their research way before, because that's the society we live in now. You know, it's based on reviews and content. And you know, what people are out there saying,

Clay Neumeyer

4:45

I love those answers and all this. It was just some of the best answers I've heard on these calls. Just so you know, you guys are really forward thinking. Let's say that, but also, it's the same brand identity and the continuity that you already mentioned. Yep. Right. And Lloyd sometimes talks about this in a little simpler terms. It's awareness before it's ever marketing. It's, oh, that brand exists. And they see it and they see it and they see it. And they always see it clean. With trust, they don't even know. But it's inception. This is happening in the background, right? Like you said, Edward, we're building that trust long ahead. And the fact that you guys said, you know, people are planning their purchases well ahead of time, that's a really important piece, too. And actually, my content is focused on that this week. Really, and don't listen to what I say. Watch what I do. Edward, you and I have been chatting for a little bit, I think the last year honestly, right. Yeah.

E

Confirming Speaker...

5:39

Yep. And I see what you do man watch and secretly.

Clay Neumeyer

5:45

Strategy is not the hard part, fellas. Strategies coming out the ying yang. It's a it's story. It's consistent activity. Entrepreneur winners and losers come to the game with the same mission. They both want to win. What's the difference? Yeah, 100%, it's the consistent activity, that's all it is,

E

Confirming Speaker...

6:04

yeah, putting the work, you got to put in the work you think about he wants to see he had his end result that you want, you got to put in the work, you got to figure out the steps you need to take to get set up to get to that result you want. Whatever it is, you know, obviously could be, it could be very short steps, but those steps can be very, very difficult to achieve that end result that you want. So really, we got to put it in got to go in at it, you know, not be scared to take the risk and that scared to maybe those steps get you by fail on those steps. But you can't see that as like, oh, it's never gonna happen. You gotta keep on going to figure out how to complete that step. So you go to the next one to get that goal to get you know,

Clay Neumeyer

6:40

yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. Yeah, that's really good, guys. That's so good that I want to ask permission right now. I think we should post that clip we just did.

6:50

Oh, yeah. Oh, sure. You guys know about it. Good. Yeah. Cool.

E

Confirming Speaker...

6:53

Yeah, I'm a true believer of sharing knowledge man and helping everybody. I mean, the industry gets lifted up, right?

E

Confirming Speaker...

6:59

100%, you know, we want the industry to change, we want the issue to pivot. We don't want the industry to stay back and stuck in the 70s or 80s. You know, because the trades is still stuck in that time. The majority of it is, so we want to help everybody in all types of trades, where your plumbing, you know, welding anything, just to bring it up forward? Yeah, today's sir.

Clay Neumeyer

7:21

Okay, so the second piece of that just to finish the thought, cashing in on that equity, right? So we build that equity up? When do we get to cash in on it? What does that mean? Really,

E

Confirming Speaker...

7:32

I think a cash because you did all that work, you did all that we built all the equity, got that trust and everything like that. Now, when customers that read that was the first time and you know, they know we have a relationship? Now there's no questions. There's no, there is there's no question that our price or our methods is just okay, I want you guys to get it done. Tell me what it is. When can you do it? It's done that there's no,

Clay Neumeyer

7:54

can I interrupt you? There is a one thing quick. No worries. It's not even that there isn't questions that they trust you to present the actual questions that they have. Yeah, right. A lot of objections are surface level at first. And what we're truly getting is a lack of trust. I just wanted to insert that slight detail for sure. Oh, there should still be questions, but they'll actually be forward and just say, you know, Eddie, I'm not sure about this price. Can you tell me help me understand this? Because we want to work with you. But I just not feeling right about this. That's something a friend would say right? Gotcha. Yeah, I'm gonna doesn't respect you doesn't trust you yet might say, I need to talk to my wife about this.

E

Confirming Speaker...

8:33

That's, that's a good point claim. Because I tried to train myself to think like, as I'm talking to my aunt, or like a family member or friend, and not so robotic, and you know what I mean? Like, just, I call it breaking the stranger barrier. You know what I mean? Like, you're talking and you're asking these questions to get past that point. So you guys can be candid with each other. And one thing I always tell every, almost every prospect is, you know, I'm always going to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. You know, I mean, and I hope you respect that. You know what I mean? And that's how I feel like we're gonna get closer and I can actually get to, you know, what you're really looking for, you know, and so, ya know, I'm glad you brought that up. It's, it's, it's always my goal to get past that stranger barrier, for sure.

Clay Neumeyer

9:14

Totally. You are nailing it, Eddie. I'm sorry to cut you short, I'm

9:17

sure. No, no, no, for sure. It's all good.

Clay Neumeyer

9:19

We're on a bit of a roll. I just that slight little different sometimes. littlest things, right.

E

Confirming Speaker...

9:24

That's what makes it that's what littlest things makes the biggest difference. 100%. Yep. That's definitely for sure.

Clay Neumeyer

9:31

Wild. You know what I love most about my job. I gotta tell you guys quick. Everything I do is co creation. There's all this information experience. You guys have all the accumulation of so much experience that I don't have or haven't been participating in for years now. And two people come together three people come together. And it's like there's a fourth brain borns. Cocreation Yeah, didn't it was awesome. This conversation. It's not my standard direction. It's certainly probably isn't yours. Not something guys are talking about every day. So it just comes forward and it's powerful. The things that are out already. So I do want to say that and acknowledge that with you guys.

10:09

Yeah, yeah, no, I

Clay Neumeyer

10:11

love this man. Thanks. I see some acoustic. Is that what that is? qussuk barriers on your wall there, Edward.

E

Confirming Speaker...

10:18

Yes. Yep. So me and Eddie we want to be eventually want to start our own podcast? Yeah. We're slowly working on like our little area aesthetics.

10:27

Yeah.

Clay Neumeyer

10:29

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I just started one. Oh, really? It's awesome. You guys want to be my guest?

10:38

Oh, hell yeah. I'm all about it.

Clay Neumeyer

10:41

So let's do it together. And if you already have a name and stuff, you can talk about it on there. I don't care plug it. Yeah, nice. Nice. I'm all about it, man. Guillermo Castillo Do you know him from the group?

10:52

Costello sounds familiar.

10:55

Definitely scrolled past that definitely seen the name come

Clay Neumeyer

10:58

on. Pretty good. He's pacing about 3 million a year with 20 staff right now. He was our first Oh, that's super bowl. Yep, with another guy Ken twos got five shops around the country. And ours. It's called Rise to rise podcast and it's more the story with the strategy it's not so technically focused, but rice rice podcast, I haven't quite launched it yet. But you're gonna see okay, this week,

E

Confirming Speaker...

11:21

you know what I love about that, that but that, you know, bringing in three plus mil with only with only 20 employees. That is like a perfect example of being profitable, not busy. You want to make you want to be profitable, like because you can be busy and not be profitable. Oh, for sure. Like that. They're just like, that's efficiency to its core. Yeah, have a title and being efficient and being profitable. Like it's awesome.

E

Confirming Speaker...

11:44

Yeah, and you know, we're still fresh in it compared to a lot of other people. So you know, me and Eddie we have the mindset of just let's just be sponges man let's just absorb as much as we can before the next you know, before the you know, the the people who are way ahead of us they leave the industry, we want to fill their slots, you know what I mean? So we're trying to learn as much as possible from everybody for us.

Clay Neumeyer

12:03

Totally, you know, until opportunity and every every customer every prospect out there every home I mean, there's a CARFAX Why isn't there a house fax? I mean, you're gonna see me

12:13

for that's a great question. That's a great question.

Clay Neumeyer

12:17

How many times does an electrician actually go to a home that isn't sold every year? Or renovated every year? I mean, it could be five years it could be 10 years before a master electrician is in this house again. Yet most people are like afraid of being a salesperson. I did this exercise with my with my one guy referral and we were talking through and he's like, Man, I don't want to come off salesy. I gave him this 10 Point critical inspection. I was like Rafa, you got to be doing these brothers because no one else is going to do this. There's no housefax This place isn't safe. As far as we know. It needs to be said it needs to be inspected. We need to know and he's like, brother, I'm just not a salesman. I said I think it's salesy. When someone who is an electrician, calls you to come put in a light in their house. They don't know the first thing about electron flow. And all you do is what they asked for. Yeah, you got 45,000 hours in the trade as a master electrician. You told me yourself, your friends call you with code questions. Yet you don't do anything more than the average person asked you to do. Yep. That is to me, a handyman that salesy mother.

13:27

That's true. That's so true.

Clay Neumeyer

13:29

Exactly. The only trade that has Yeah.

E

Confirming Speaker...

13:33

Yeah, I mean, Eddie, we've been talking a lot about lately, I'm in BNI, as well, like networking. We're in a few BNI groups. And my last presentation I did. We talked about how, you know, at least for ion we want to represent ourselves as like your local doctor electrician, or like your professor Sparky. Like, I don't have it with me right now. But I carry around a stethoscope that I'll keep around my neck. Because I try to remind myself like, Hey, man, your, your your doctor, wearable Doctor electrician, they're calling you to ask you questions. And you're you want to be the authority figure, you know, the educator, you know what I mean? And again, going back to that trust, you know, reframing the way people look at us, and

Clay Neumeyer

14:15

because we get a shitty rap for being contractors in general. Just go ahead, Eddie. Sorry. No,

E

Confirming Speaker...

14:21

I was just saying it's just Well, I was just I was saying like, when a customer calls, and you teach them something like you give them a better understanding, you break it down, it was seems to them very complicated. And you break it down into layman's terms and a digestible way so that they can understand how electricity works or how, you know what, why why is are these things happening and not working as they shouldn't and have a rough understanding of what's going on in a digestible way?

Clay Neumeyer

14:47

Definitely. Do you guys use a framework for that at all? Do you have a basis for which you guys use for that?

E

Confirming Speaker...

14:53

Yeah, that's that seems to be our spot right now where we got a lot up here, but we haven't yet got it down on paper. Paper or like, some sort of framework, like you said, our scaffolding. So that's where we're literally working on routes, trying to develop systems, SOPs, and just stuff to help us streamline this process, because we all have to be on the same page, right? I just don't want me and Edie or our office staff to be all saying different things want us all be on the same page. So we're literally in the middle of that trend.

E

Confirming Speaker...

15:22

And it's not only we just like, as far as speaking as when sharing knowledge, right like that. Even a work ethic, like when we had we do a panel installs, it doesn't matter if Tony cuts in a panel, I couldn't the panel or some other team member he puts in a panel, the end result is still the same. There's consistency in that as well, not only consistent in our communication, but it's consistent in our work. So no matter what you're gonna get no matter if it's a person that's like, you know, getting just a regular Hunter and pound put in or someone getting a smart spam panel put in the quality and attention to detail is still there. 100% Yeah,

Clay Neumeyer

15:56

I'm gonna I'm gonna forward you something as we are chatting here, and I'm gonna talk about this quick. Do you guys have a little more than half an hour? Yeah, I don't always go along with people. But I feel like we got some good value here. And this might just become a podcast in itself.

16:15

Brother, are you sending it in the chat?

Clay Neumeyer

16:18

Yeah, I was going to. Anyway, I'm just going to tell you, I'm gonna send it after a listen to we call it the conversion equation. Some some coaches consultants call it a marketing equation. But it's really simple, fellas, very simple. And that's why I love this thing. So as a marketing equation, there's four steps. Our marketing needs to do four things. Number one, it needs to interrupt people. Why? Because people are on their own little highway of pain and suffering every day. And right now the suffering they're going through that we know for sure, is about 3000, interruptions, distractions, trying to get their attention every day. Your attention my attention, right? You went on Facebook today? How many times? Did you see an ad on there?

17:10

Oh, yeah, last count constantly. Constant.

Clay Neumeyer

17:13

They've got so good at it. Sometimes I'm scrolling through marketplace. You guys tell me if this is the same for you. Sometimes I scroll through marketplace, and I think oh, by that, and then you realize it's an ad, it's completely blended in. can't even tell what's an ad and with no standard feed now.

E

Confirming Speaker...

17:31

I mean, for me, I go through that all the time, because I'm always in marketplace looking for cars to buy two cars to buy. Like, like, it's like a great deal. It's like, oh, man, it's bullshit.

Clay Neumeyer

17:45

So that first one is to interrupt. And we've actually got a resource called Content headlines, pretty much as a giveaway resource. But it's a whole list of ways to interrupt people, like three big mistakes you don't want to make in your electrical contracting business. Right? Even if we're distracted 3000 times before we see that there's a piece of us that recognizes that maybe those are three things I ought to see. And so you've seen a lot of content with that, right? And some people are developing a lower resistance to it. But basically, if you interrupt someone with something that's going on in their life, currently, they have to look, it's just human nature. Sure. Right. So number one is interrupt now, as a conversion process, when you're talking to someone, don't interrupt your client when they're talking. That's not what it means, right? So if you're already at the point of conversing with someone, it's not like, oh, wait, George, Hey, hang on, buddy. Let me say, let me say something for you, man. But everything we do is in the next three steps. Okay. So if it's marketing, you start with interrupt. If you're already out the door, you don't need that step. The next one is engage, engage, engage in what engage in the conversation that's going on in their head, not yours. See, the problem with sales in general that I find is everyone preparing to go there and sell something is wrong. It's the wrong task. It's the wrong prerogative. It's the wrong goal. We go there and we try to make a friend and if they become a friend, then we can agree on a sale. Right? Because a confused mind never buys. And without trust they'll never buy so engaging in the conversation in their head. You want to hear something magical. And you know, you can smile ear to ear if you ever if you ever hear this sort of your prospects mouth. It's like you took the words right out of my mouth. Wow, you read my mind. You understand me basically? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right now we're speaking her language. So what's the most important piece to engagement? Well, Let me ask you guys this, what's the most important subject any person,

E

Confirming Speaker...

20:05

their own their own their own vision, you know what they want, that's the most important to them, they don't really care even about your business, they care about what they what they're gonna get out of it.

E

Confirming Speaker...

20:15

And also, they're gonna get what they want. And sometimes it's our job to figure out, Hey, what is your Trent were you trying to create with this space? Like, what do you what are you trying to do, because for us is just a job of delivering wire from point A to point B, but for them, this is something that's going to be creating, creating memories with this space. So wherever this project we're trying to do. So it's our job to get them the main focus of why they're calling us and what why. What are we quoting on? Like, you know, you'll get to that what what's the what's the point of that that's

20:43

more important than the actual electrical work.

Clay Neumeyer

20:46

So important. Yeah, you guys nailed it, it's them. Most important subject, any person is themselves, not you, even philanthropists, who are out there giving it all away. Right? They're doing that in part, they don't want to say it, but it's in part for them. It's in part for credit. It's in part about their attention, and they're following their influence. It just is. That's why it is so Doggy Dog world and people care about themselves first. All right, so engage, how do we engage them? We get them talking. Five critical questions. Who, what, when, why how? Where? Maybe I said six there, but you get it open ended questions, fellas that gets people talking. What do we learn if we just asked why? Oh, when did you first notice that? Well, it was just after Thanksgiving, the neighbor was over. The neighbor and I are close. Right? They know the kids, the kids know that everyone trusts why are we talking about the neighbor? You know? No, I don't know. But you just found out a critical piece of information about your prospect that you couldn't have known otherwise? Yep. Right. But most contractors, most of us go in and we skip to step three, we skip that engagement, and we get right to educate. Problem is if they don't trust you, are they going to listen to the things you say?

E

Confirming Speaker...

22:06

Right? Not? Obviously not, you didn't spend that time for engaging. They could just be like, Oh, this guy just trying to get my money or whatever is gonna overcharge me or whatever the case may be of the typical stigmatism of the trades,

22:19

throwing up all over them? Totally.

Clay Neumeyer

22:22

It's like, it's like engages a fork in the road, we're gonna go down friend lane, or we're gonna go down sales lane. And so I see and people say all the time, you see me throw out questions and ribs and on my personal page and just just see what people say I don't try to create a bunch of controversy, but I'm always inferring something. Yeah, and you see people every day, well, I don't care. They're just not my customer. I see a bunch of uncared for customers out there, guys. Yeah, everyone needs something. And we have to acknowledge that there's different personality types, right? So some people like me, I'm fairly assertive. So when someone comes to the door, I'm like, Yep, no, we're just going to do that. Oh, that's cool story. I like it. But hang on, let's just, let's have a look at this. Let's go through the process, you're going to do it right quality. I take people off their game with that. And you've sure encountered people like that in your experience, too, right? 100% Here's my dirty little secret. If they're good at this conversion, if they're good at building rapport with me, if they then demonstrate that they're educated and experienced, I'll pay I'll pay whatever they want. If I like them. Yeah. How about you guys?

E

Confirming Speaker...

23:40

Know 100% if a customer is like, doesn't matter, like if they you went through the whole process with them. And you take, you know, you build trust with them. You gotta build a relationship with them. At that point, it's just kind of like, Hey, I don't care. I know you guys are gonna be I know you guys are higher than everybody else. But I love the experience. The process with you guys had because it's so streamlined, so fluidic it's, it's you don't have to think about it is you make it so stress free. And you just wherever it is, Okay, we're good to go with you guys no matter what. You know. So that's,

E

Confirming Speaker...

24:09

yeah, I agree. You know, there's a there's a local mechanic over here that, you know, for the longest time, my wife she's so skeptical of just that stuff like, like a lot of homeowners are a lot of women's, you know, especially and she's like, I tried to go this, this mechanic plays that mechanic place, they all seem to try to rip me off. Like I never can get the full picture. I didn't get that level of respect. Long story short, we ended up finding this place nearby, small little spot, but the guy is just so personable. He asked a lot of open ended questions. He doesn't like she doesn't feel uncomfortable, like he's trying to sell or something or fear monger her. He sits down with her. And he'll give her a list of things that are like must must need to get done. Now. This can wait and so on. And she just feels so comfortable that at this point, whatever Dennett His name is Dennis whatever Dennis says needs to get done. She's like, just just do it. There's not even any questions. I don't even care about the price because we trust him wholeheartedly. And we send everybody we know to him. And I'm like, and I pay attention as a business owner. I'm like, what is that? Okay, I want to capture that essence of what he's doing. With our with our company.

Clay Neumeyer

25:11

Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned something so important, will tie back to that lifetime customer value after because it's not just about today's transaction, is it? Right, so somebody asked, What's your lifetime client value? They tend to say the same as their average ticket price. It's not the same sorry, I caught you off

E

Confirming Speaker...

25:30

guard. Oh, no, no, I was just saying like, uh, Eddie, but you know, from the mechanic from him, like, okay, that experience he, you know, that feeling he experiences like, damn, like, I want the customers for my bet for my business. I want them to feel like I'm feeling right now. So we got to implement that in this in this company as well, because that's a great feeling.

E

Confirming Speaker...

25:50

Just know, they're gonna give it to a straight. I trust those guys, which we're starting to build people like that. You know what I mean? Like Mr. Bacon, he's a guy you call him, took him out of a nightmare situation, which we did a we did a customer testimonial video with him. It's pretty powerful. But now he literally said he's like, I'm not ever using anybody else ever again. You guys are my people, like just forever now. And I want to hear that. I'm trying to repeat that more and more

Clay Neumeyer

26:14

course. Of course, you can't get that in commercial fellas. I did commercial industrial projects for a long time hated it. And ultimately, where I want to be I want to have impact on real people. They're going to show real love man for a long time. That's what I'm about changing lives. And you can't do that. Some of these contractors, these contracts these

E

Confirming Speaker...

26:34

commercial, commercial. Yeah, totally disconnected. Like, it's, we've experienced like what I mean, when we do that T Mobile Jhaveri. Like the GC for that one was just like, this is harbor communication. Is this like, you know, he they're putting up walls before putting up electrical? It's like, Why didn't you tell me you need to put electricals? Do you have the same plans as us? Like, you know, there's has to be outlets over here. Why are you putting up walls? And you're getting mad because you gotta tear the walls back down again.

E

Confirming Speaker...

27:06

Yeah, even even in that aspect. We're trying to find a way to replicate what we're doing and residential on that side of things. It's been pretty difficult. But I mean, Eddie, we've been talking about, you know, how do we do that. And so one way we've been trying to do is utilizing our network or BNI networks and Chamber of Commerce, and what we've been focusing on instead of trying to just throw out some random bid, and there's no, they don't know what I look like, they don't know my name. It's just as cold interaction. So instead, we're trying to go towards actually meeting some of these GCS meeting, the owners haven't sitting down having a beer or coffee building the relationship, which we've been we have like at least two or three commercial GCS, where we've sat down, we've had coffee we drove we've joked with each other, and we're trying to build that trust now to where I want them to call me. Hey, Edward, I got this project. I kind of already know your prices, man. You know, when can you start? You know, I mean, because there's a relationship. Now there's not like some cold interaction, like the rest, like the regular way of doing it.

E

Confirming Speaker...

28:00

And now that was trying to change a little bit. Yep. And Simon just a cold interaction, like they're calling us because they already got the job. They've already got they won the bid. It's us bidding on a random, whatever, you know, in the tight invitation we got it says like, No, this GC here, you got here, you got the job. He just needs to find his subs for all these fittings. Just guess what? Like,

E

Confirming Speaker...

28:21

they're humans to you? Don't you mean just like a homeowner's guys also a regular person, he's got kids, he's got a wife, you know, he has emotions and stuff. So we can tap into that, on that side of things. Totally. I feel like we might be able to have a little bit of luck. You know, commercial is a different animal. But trying to figure that out, like a little Rubik's cube or something, you know. So

Clay Neumeyer

28:40

when it comes down to people, right, we're in the business of people. So yeah, we'll leave that one there, guys. But let me jump back to this conversion equation. Finish up what I started there. So we got to education. Now people understand they trust us from engaging we educated them. Now we can finally offer that's the fourth piece. But an offer isn't just as simple as saying, well, here's our price, is it? There's still education components, there's still this component of making sure they understand what that offer is. And I'm not sure if I send it to you as well. But we've also got something called the value driver framework, which is something I've borrowed from sent a millionaire now Alex for Mozi. You guys ever read this book? 100 million dollar offers?

29:25

Oh, yes. Do you have that one? The guy's

Clay Neumeyer

29:28

incredible. He's all over podcast right now. He's done amazing things. But it comes down to this simple little framework. Right? So if you're interested in this value piece, whatever, let me know. I'll send it to you. Definitely no, but 100%

E

Confirming Speaker...

29:42

Essentially, that was one I gotta get you on on that one. It's such a good book.

Clay Neumeyer

29:45

Yeah, totally. Man. I've got audio. I've got the book of God notes. I mean, I've just dissected this thing and reproduced it and borrowed some stuff and it's it's wonderful.

E

Confirming Speaker...

29:54

So that's my Yeah, I'd love to get pick your brain on your thoughts on that. Yeah, totally.

Clay Neumeyer

29:58

So that conversion equation again, when we have this approach, it takes all the scripty robot shit out of this, the goal is no longer to sell. The goal is the first step, right that engagement, organic remarketing with it, and we're doing this in one fell swoop, interrupt, engage, educate, offer, and you can do that in a single advertisement. You can put that on a business card even. You got to get creative with space. But this stuff works. And it begins to create that next level of trust. It helps us move through that process. So it's so important. All right, tell me a bit about how you guys got started. How did you two meet? Were designed. Background here?

E

Confirming Speaker...

30:45

Yeah, so you take the Wayback Machine Man. Probably what Eddie like 13 years ago, maybe at this point? I

E

Confirming Speaker...

30:51

was 2010. He was 22. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

E

Confirming Speaker...

30:55

Yep. And then so you know, mean, Eddie, I lived on from Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, and he's from pa where he is now he he moved to AZ to go to school. You know, you're I think you were going for automotive school. Right? Yep.

E

Confirming Speaker...

31:07

Once I went to McGill, for that for us, too. It was two weeks after graduate high school, I went up and bounced to Arizona, and went to tech school out there, you know, for automotive technology. And, but when I moved there three months before I was gonna start going to classes. I was like, Okay, I need to find a job get myself together. And I got a job at journies at the malls and okay, like, this is good for now. Getting somebody coming in before I can start applying at these dealerships and stuff like that. So that's small journeys. It was maybe like a week after I started, and I roll up whatever. I see my manager Tom, he's talking with Eddie, but it was funny because like I showed up, I mean, like blue jeans or red flannel and backwards snack. snapback sounds tasty. nadian. Yeah, pretty much. And then Eddie, he's there wearing blue jeans, a flannel, and a snapback backwards. And we're like

E

Confirming Speaker...

31:58

you want your names? Your name's Edward to like

E

Confirming Speaker...

32:03

frickin both A and then we've, obviously so we both started when we started the when the backpacking shoes and we start getting to talk and then it's like, dude, like, we're both heavy goal oriented people to go, Hey, this is the first step. You know, we try buses this and this. And open businesses, we get into this whole giant conversation. You know, everything we're on the same page as far as the underage mug and paste started 25 An hour stalking shoes that journeys. Yeah, but

E

Confirming Speaker...

32:25

we were stacking shoes and dreaming bro in the back like, all this cool shit. And after that it was just the rest is history man was just at that point, we just supported each other and any any little goals that we had. And we used to call each other every day, we talked every day, just to make sure we're on the same page. We kind of split weights for a little bit in our careers, you know, but we knew that's what needed to get done right to kind of keep moving on with with hitting these little goalposts and then again, you speed things up a little bit. I'm now in New England, my brother in law, he he was going to he was in the middle of getting his master's master electrician license. And I was just on the end of getting my over here in New in New England is called a gasfitters license for like HVAC. And so I was getting that. And then he got his license. And then I was like, Dude, I was like, why don't we just why don't we just start a business man. Like we got all these licenses and shit. You know what I mean? Like, I have Eddie there and he's always down, like always down, like, whatever. You're trying to get into it. And so I called Eddie up and and Eddie's all he's aggressive. He's like, bro, what do you need? Man? Like, I'll put money. Like I was like, Well, funny. Another sound like,

E

Confirming Speaker...

33:35

oh, at this time period, because during this time period, I was traveling the world fixing industry machinery. And we called me was funny. I was like, we call me asking me about it to talk about the business. I was like, I think it's on a Saturday or something. I was in California walking about to walk into Chipotle like this. I mean, he's asked me about this I'm like, I mean for this Chipotle going crazy just like yeah dude me I'm so down we're like a crazy man. Like super energetic.

E

Confirming Speaker...

34:03

Yeah, that was like 2016 You know and you know we didn't have any trucks yet at the shitty like little Hyundai Santa Fe you know that I put a ladder rack

34:11

on row the worst paying on that Hyundai i did

E

Confirming Speaker...

34:15

some elderly couple who lived in Florida or some shit and you know we just did it man we my whole mindset was like we're just gonna go after this and we're going to correct course as we go along you know and immediately as soon as opportunities opened up for like anything we took it you know and so then we got we got to work trucks. We eventually got ready to come on board and it got to the point where when you know when when myself I was still working at Bosch thermal technology I was doing tech support and all that stuff so I was doing like the IR we got ion after hours you know working on the weekend overnight we're gonna midnight sometimes bros brutal

E

Confirming Speaker...

34:51

Oh man. I used to be with them on late like beyond zoom like webcam calls. I'll be in a hotel. You know, whatever it wherever it was at the time and I'm helping Eddie and Eddie and Tony build out quotes to like midnight, one o'clock in the morning. I'm like,

35:05

I send you plans.

E

Confirming Speaker...

35:08

Guys, I gotta wake up at five o'clock in the morning. That's a good time to fix his machines.

E

Confirming Speaker...

35:13

But probably maybe about two years ago, I came on full time I left my job and he left his job, he moved over here. And we just hit the ground running man super hard. Like we don't like wasting time on a lot of stuff. So we just we just hit it all man, we're going after just commercial projects, residential. And then like I said, we were to give it to get a couple more couple more trucks. Got to put more people on the team. Long story short, Edie was able to learn a lot of stuff out in the field from just like observing being around the team. And then now, once he absorbed all that information, now he's in the office now, you know, and he's helping me build these quotes. And as you can see, we're on the same page again, with with all this stuff. And so now me and him are kind of trying to team up trying to build this thing where we're not working in the business. We're working on it, you know. And so that's kind of where we're at right now. We still got a couple of hats we're wearing, or we're trying to what do we say we're trying to fire ourselves, fire ourselves

E

Confirming Speaker...

36:05

each other. But on somebody else, I just fired myself. Like, I said, go?

E

Confirming Speaker...

36:11

Yeah, we can't do that, right. Until we come up with these systems and everything first. Get people in the right positions

Clay Neumeyer

36:17

course, fellas. There's something we call the Law of hindrance. I just can educate people the whole way. I can't help and I feel like we have reported though. Can I drop something here? Drop? Okay, go ahead. Good, good, good. The law of hindrance, two things that hold back business business owners. One is they say deficiencies in the discipline. So what discipline right the discipline of doing the right things at the right time for the right people. Here's the problem. That changes as you grow your business. What are you supposed to be doing today? What do you suppose to do tomorrow? Every time you fire yourself? The Disciplines got to change. Yeah. So that's problem. One's huge. Most people don't figure that out. Problem two is trust connected to problem one, we tend to build ourselves a little electrical or HVAC Island. As a contractor, we never figure out how to delegate how to fire ourselves and trust someone with a little bit of framework to take that framework, run with it, focus on it and do it better than we ever could. And that is so important. So the two of those combined law of hindrance. Let me ask the question, though, Eddie, you did a couple years in the field. You're not ticketed? Or were you an apprentice or did you get

E

Confirming Speaker...

37:34

I was an apprentice. I was apprentice I didn't raise your card, everything like that.

Clay Neumeyer

37:37

Okay, so took enough in to figure out the estimating and help with Office stuff and just rolling with

E

Confirming Speaker...

37:41

it. Yeah, I mean, like I said, it wasn't just after doing the day's being in the field. It was like, Okay, after that day, I suffered, I like to self reflect a lot. So it's like, okay, when I'm home, what did I do today? Like, didn't understand what was going on? Like, throughout that day? Like during the panel? Great. Okay. Good. Break it down to the boys. Okay, black is your hot Why is your new job you break it down like that, but like, get a deeper understanding of what what you were doing and understand why. So if anybody asked you, or if a customer asked me a question, I could properly educate them as to how something works and what it was supposed to do, you know, to basically be my day to day, every single day basically just self reflected in a day and understand what I did. And love

Clay Neumeyer

38:25

that. I do love that is slightly inappropriate. But when I was still in the field and running jobs, and I ran jobs, upwards of 100 guys under me kind of thing with construction management teams, quality management, all the rest, they would actually call me as bad guys, but they would call me the notepad Nazi. For that reason, guys, and come to me and be like, Hey, how do I fast track in this trade? Exactly what you just said, Eddie, have a notepad always take notes when I'm speaking, right? Don't do this, if you don't understand. Right? Yep.

E

Confirming Speaker...

38:57

Yeah, actually reflect. And actually, that's one thing right now we're trying to teach one guy to such start being more attentive, you know. He has a little bit of issues as far as like, you could tell him to do something it's like, but then if you tell him that, you'll ask him five minutes later, what he just did, or you understand, he's like, No, he's like, No, not really. I'm like, Okay, so let's do this. Let's bring back to speed. Like, I need you to understand this. We everybody's on the same page. Like, we're out there. We're out there in the field, we're a team. We're, we're a unit. So if some if one person is not understanding what's going on, that's going to that's gonna affect inefficiency. That's going to affect our consistency. It's gonna affect a lot of stuff. It's just gonna snowball. So we need to make sure you know, everybody's on the same page at all times, especially with electrical it's a safety concern also. So somebody could get hurt if someone is not understanding what's happening around. So it's a big thing.

Clay Neumeyer

39:57

Yeah. Okay. So tell me this in this first couple of years, what's been the biggest roadblock your biggest challenge? What's been in the way?

E

Confirming Speaker...

40:04

Honestly, I guess, I guess personally or just like as a business?

Clay Neumeyer

40:10

Yeah, either one of you can answer but personally and the business I mean, this podcast, The Rise Rise podcast is all about really the story. And stories are entertaining and relatable, because there's conflict. So what would you say is your big conflict starting out, that's been the hardest thing to overcome. And your biggest realization from that?

E

Confirming Speaker...

40:31

I guess for me personally, because my background has always been, I guess, mechanical, and automotive and industrial machinery, which I did, I would have bought a lot of electrical stuff in there too, you know, 40 volts three phase, although this stuff which broke down too much other stuff, controls and all that stuff. But um, but trying to take adapt that knowledge and trying to see what I can do to learn or pull from that to put into residential, electrical, because it's two totally different things. But I have to pivot my, my theory private, my, my thought process, as far as diagnosing, and, you know, understanding how things work, how things need to be done, how installed everything as far as residential, electrical and commercial, electrical. So that was kind of like a giant learning curve, in a sense, because like, I was coming in overcomplicating things thinking, everything's like, oh, no, no, this big, giant thing, and we don't know, it's like, dude, ain't that serious? No, not doing any of that. It's like, so for me, it was just kind of hard to kind of like, rethink and basically start from scratch. Like, go back to school, I was literally going back to school, just like, instead of like paying school, I was living at home, researching, reading, like, forgot what, what is this supposed to do? Like? What, uh, what does the GFCI actually do? What it actually what is it? You know, so, just kind of diving in, you know, try to absorb like, it says, Try be sponge, absorb, absorb, absorb, absorb. Because, you know, this costly got to be costly learning every day, like, the day I stopped learning every day is probably the day I died. Like, forever student, right, forever student you know, forever suddenly.

Clay Neumeyer

42:03

Love that. And this this shift from part time to full time. I mean, that must have been scary for you guys. Edward, do you have some thoughts around this stuff, too?

E

Confirming Speaker...

42:12

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was, it was terrifying. Especially because Eddie, we both jumped on board right in the middle of like, like the COVID-19 situation. 2020. So it was very risky. But you know, we're not afraid of risks and not afraid of jumping in and, you know, that's what entrepreneurship is all about, right is kind of getting over those fears. And especially if you believe in the vision, you don't, I mean, so

E

Confirming Speaker...

42:36

100%. And we've also, just to add to that, you know, especially with ads that you know, the risks that have scared of how nervous we were, it's like, it picked COVID, leaving reputable companies, companies that like that would take care of you like Bosch and I worked for industrial fuel company that's like, based out of Switzerland that no matter what would have been covered, great. 401k, great. Benny's, all this other stuff. But now you're leaving all that stuff, you know, company car, all that good stuff. You're leaving all that? You know, to be like, okay, damn, this is like Pete COVID is very rough for small businesses. Yep. Oh, it is what it is, well, we got it, we got to double down on it, and just go in and just attack it and, you know, work at it. So yeah,

E

Confirming Speaker...

43:15

we realized that you know, to have true freedom is to kind of, you know, break the chains of the company that's kind of holding us on, because they're gonna pay you well do all this stuff. But that's not real, true freedom, you know what I mean? So we figured, this is gonna be it, if we really want to have financial freedom, just everything that we want to do in our lives, you know, this is the way it's going to do it. So it was worth it to us. And like I said, You correct course you don't, I mean, you know, you try to plan out as best as you can anticipate things, but to me, it was worth it. You know, I mean, and I think my biggest thing I had to get overcome was in the beginning was just, I think learning how to learn also learning how to be a leader, you know, getting out of my own way, you know, kind of putting the ego to the side type stuff, you know, and relying on other people because you can't do it by yourself. You know, and like I said, he's always been right, my right hand guy, so he's like, do whatever you need, man. So I'm like, Alright, I gotta like, step aside, and I gotta trust my people around me. You know what I mean? He's my, he's my brother, you know what I mean? So it's like, I gotta trust people around me to help me so we can all work together. And that's been a journey for me as well, you know, is embracing my team people around me.

Clay Neumeyer

44:24

I love that. I love that. Two things I want to throw in there for that. We say the greatest success that you'll realize is through the leverage of other people. So I love that you shared that and connected with that and this whole concept again, and firing yourself and keep putting people in play. Giving them more purpose, giving them that vision. I've heard you guys say a couple of key things around it. But also, you talked about freedom. And this is on my mind. I'm actually listening to this book right now. A guy's name is Ryan Holiday. And he's big on like, stoic stoicism, and he's old You know, Roman thoughts and things around a courageous a big topic, which is all about delayed gratification. We've identified this for hundreds 1000s of years that Humans inherently will choose today, every time over, right, the immediate reward over delayed gratification. So we said something in the beginning of this book that was profound, I wrote it down. Basically this freedom is really self discipline. That's what freedom is. We got the freedom in North America, wonderful Western civilization life, right? capitalist democracy, however you want to look at it. We have the freedom to rely on our own willpower to get up and go today. To get out from under the blankets five, six, whatever time you choose to awake, right? And take action. That was just so powerful. I thought freedom and self discipline, because without it, we're free to become pieces of shit.

E

Confirming Speaker...

46:03

Oh, that's that's a great that's a great nugget right there.

E

Confirming Speaker...

46:07

Yeah, and honestly, that reminds me of you Eddie. Because any other piece of shit

E

Confirming Speaker...

46:24

No, dude, literally like the opposite man. Like, he's so disciplined with with with things that like, I'm glad because you know, you want to surround yourself with people who are like that, you know, in which I'm glad we met you to clay because, you know, I know what book you're talking about. I just started egos the enemy and wrote your a couple pages in dog and it's like mind blowing. Another one though. Like, I have a list of books. But I got to go back to Eddie though, you know, he's so disciplined, especially like with the health. And I'm not gonna lie in and I wasn't taking it that serious for a while. And it was just getting out of control. And then when Edie moved over here, I knew he was the right person to confide in to try to help me figure that out. And he got me on like a workout routine. He's always helped me figure it out, like my diet. And that is so important, especially in business you don't I mean, like, it was I was I was suffering and all these things. And my business was suffering too. You know, and so you're right, man, that self discipline is freedom because now I'm a different person now. Like, my whole concept on food and, and my health and my mind is very different. And it's translating into the business. So I'm glad you brought that up. And then the self discipline because it's huge, man. I literally feel like a weight lifted off my shoulders because I got that part of my life under control.

Clay Neumeyer

47:34

And you just nailed that the world's a mirror. Literally what you put out is what you get back right? Yeah, health family then biz. Honestly, I go through these meetings with with prospects partners, brothers every day. And some people I can't help because they're not healthy. Honestly. They're just not taking care of

E

Confirming Speaker...

47:53

themselves. Business for me yeah, health came into big factor for me. When I started my got into the industry of traveling and fixing those machinery because you're traveling you're on the road, you don't have access to a kitchen. Like I was home maybe for almost like it was an eight year eight or nine years I was only home maybe four or five days a month. So when you're on the road for that much, it's very easy to go on McDonald's Applebee's, all this other crazy shit, you know, all that bad shit. You're not supposed to eat every day. You know, I was 23 I was 2223 years old, weighing two or 350 pounds with a 42 inch waist. It's just like, boy, thank you, dude. Super thick. Now Oh, no, yeah, and this guy's like Wolverine without it. But it was just like, it was just crazy. Because, you know, I had to go to doctors and like, Hey, you're 23 I got to, if I have to prescribe you, you know, high blood pressure pills. It's like, if you keep going with this lifestyle, you're not gonna live a long life. So that for me was just like a, like a switch. Sounds like you know, I need to research I need to figure out what I need to do. Or I can do that. I add that to my lifestyle of traveling not being on the road. And now started searching counting macros. I started researching this with so you know, researching the body, how the body reacts to certain things, complex carbs, I'm just like, again, just forever student just learning just absorb and pivot around. And yeah, so now I'm staying healthy, chubby, even 232 inch waist them all have a lot of good.

Clay Neumeyer

49:25

Nice. Well, I gotta go a little bit deeper there and ask you, what do you think for you? causes that grind your grinder, right? Brother? So what causes for you? What's the grind?

E

Confirming Speaker...

49:38

I mean, the grind is like I see if I go back to our division. I see a certain result for myself, whether it's visually, spiritually or even or materialistically. It's just like if I see something and visualizing something for myself, like I need to do what I have to do because it's in my head. I need to make it real, you know? If I can, I don't want my gym to stay dreams. Yeah, I needed to make them reality in whatever case it is. So it's like, you know, think about it react you do it, you know, as far as we talked about before is if people talk about other things all the time, we could sit here and talk about, we could well, ice cold, we could bench race all day and talk about what's this? What can be done all this but nothing's gonna happen until we actually do it. Yeah, we're not going to know. So there was a lot of trial and error. So you gotta be okay with trial and error as well. You're not gonna get it the first time.

Clay Neumeyer

50:31

Definitely so many nuggets. So what's the difference between you and the next guy who becomes lazy? Gives into a crazier who doesn't make it happen?

E

Confirming Speaker...

50:41

Man, I guess, I guess at that point, each. Here repeat the question one more time.

Clay Neumeyer

50:48

Yeah. What's the difference? Edie? I'll tell you a bit about me. And I'll give you a moment to think because nothing's rehearsed here. Guys. This is literally is off the cuff. Yeah. Episode from casual triage calls. So here we are. But for me, you know, childhood troubles, a bit of adversity, perceived adversity. You know, mom wasn't there a lot. I was always looking to make people proud. And I just wasn't getting acknowledged. So I spent a lot of time trying to justify value in my life, making mistakes, and then just fucking tirelessly working to fix those mistakes.

E

Confirming Speaker...

51:25

Yeah, so yeah, I guess I guess at that point, the differences is like, Okay, if someone, say, for example, you start talking about head trauma, or anything like that. They didn't have the acceptance, I would say, they, whatever they lived through whatever they experience, they need to accept it and see what they can do to move on. I know, it's a lot easier said than done, which most things are, but that's the next step they gotta take to be your to improve need to accept what happened and what you know what the experience is, and take it you know, obviously, never Don't, don't forget, no shelter back, don't hold in the back and never ever think about it again. Because those experiences no matter how shitty they may be, it's still a soul learning experience where you can apply to not ever experience that again, later down the road. Because history has a weird way of repeating itself. So it's like your last name you ever that's gonna come across your way. But since your experience, it's like you see, you might see that bad experience come up again, you might be able to avoid it, sidestep it, like, oh, I don't want that. I don't want to go through that again. I know what happened.

Clay Neumeyer

52:24

Let me ask you this on the cuff here, too. I just had a meeting a couple of times last week with a guy who wants to be on this podcast. And he's a ex NFL Super Bowl champ Chuki, a Kobe. And he's, he's, like insane in the brain man. But not an electrician, we were talking about how valuable it could be to help electricians to have him on this show. Is that like a podcast you guys would listen to? If he was going through the whole and making it simple. his company's called basic instruction, but making it simple for people to have that mindset shift you were just talking about and kind of get over themselves.

E

Confirming Speaker...

53:02

That's a great concept. Because because I feel like everybody has to go through everybody has to go through that, that that, you know, process what you know, in shelter, you know, basically try pivot and improve themselves. Everybody has to go through that. But I call it a reality check at some point, right? At some point life, though, is your reality check. And what when the reality check happens? It's important what you do after that, and how you take and how you react to that reality check.

Clay Neumeyer

53:31

moment of clarity. Yep, yeah, exactly.

53:33

Yeah, come over to clarity.

E

Confirming Speaker...

53:35

I would, I would totally listen to that. Man. I'm glad you brought that up, too. Because I recently had a meeting with Sky Mr. Found man he does. He does like, like life insurance. And just, I love the art of conversation, right? Like what we're doing now. Because talking to him, I found out he was he was like, head coach for like a couple of different like, Major, like college, you know, like, like universities like for football. And what he did was he took that experience of like, being a football coach, and he and he like made it work for his business. I'm like, how you like have game plans. And we have a daily game plan. Right? Like, you know, and just running your your team, like a team, you know what I mean? So he was like football stuff, just sports stuff and interpreting for business. And so I was thinking the same thing, hence why we got the uniforms and we have daily game plans, huddles, you know what I mean? Like just that stuff. So you can literally get lists or things from different skill sets, different industries, different trades, you know what I mean? So I that's I think that's a beautiful thing when you can you can take different things from different areas into corporate in your business. So yeah, I would totally listen to that podcast man, for sure.

Clay Neumeyer

54:43

So all about helping people rise, brother. Rise, Rise. Hey, so let's jump back to your business. Tell me what is this vision? You guys mentioned vision a few times. So what do you guys see for for ion?

E

Confirming Speaker...

54:55

I think one thing we're always trying to put out into the ether is like Eddie mentioned early We're trying to be like this modern 21st century electrical contractor, you know what I mean? It's like, we have to be able to stay up to speed with everything. If it's not, you know, current NEC stuff, or just what's happening in the industry in general, where's this going? And we want to be either on that wave or ahead of it, you know what I mean? So we're, you know, we're real big into the smart tech, you know, DC micro grid stuff, you know, that the smart span panel that he that we put in, you know, we're trying to be perceived as that, that modern electrician, and you know, what I mean, and we do that with, you know, with with, with the aesthetics, you know, and right now, we're trying to, we're trying to niche down, you know, the riches are in the niches, man, you know, I mean, and so that's why we're trying to take out the stuff that we hate, we don't like doing maybe we don't make a lot of money on, or maybe we're just not that good at, I tell customers like you don't want us practicing in your home was coming in and just working kit crushing it on, like a certain set of things that that we're really good at, and that we enjoy and that we're passionate about. So yeah, so that's the vision man is just being just badass is at a certain set of skill sets, and just being at the forefront of just tech and culture and everything. Electrical, you know, per se.

Clay Neumeyer

56:13

So I love that. I mean, that anything, but

E

Confirming Speaker...

56:16

that's that's, and not only that, as far as adding to the modern electric company is social media. Like just adding more to social media as far as us when we're mean Eddie, talk about like, creating skits, like little funny skits, whatever, for Tiktok reels, or whatever the case may be, or even just we've talked about the podcast and everything, just us just talking about different topics of electrical has a you know, a man that we like to talk about, like, Hey, why would you ever upgrade a panel in your house? That'd be a be a topic, because why would anybody want to upgrade that panel? Yeah. You know, about that, you know, so this, everything modernized, you know, as far as a modern, you know, trade company.

Clay Neumeyer

56:53

Yeah. Oh, man. It's so, so powerful. I'm glad you guys said both those things. First, the niche, right? riches in the niches. Everyone's going wide. Everyone's casting a wide net, and you see it with every new company, forget electrical contractors, like every new company, but in this example, electrical contractors, they come out with a business card, and it says, We do commercial, industrial and residential. They're trying to speak to every electrical problem on the planet. But they're actually speaking to no one and doing so. Because it's not about weird. It's about depth.

57:27

100%, right.

Clay Neumeyer

57:28

If you get downward it'll

E

Confirming Speaker...

57:30

play. Right? Yeah. So I'll say we were guilty of that in the beginning.

Clay Neumeyer

57:35

Man, me too. I've done it too. Right. Well, I just do everything. And then I realized, you know what, I make more money, doing gates and pools and automation. I was like, I'm just gonna focus on that stuff, and little town, Kelowna, that I lived in. And all of a sudden, it was like, wow, now I can put a message out that speaks to an exact avatar. There's a person out there that needs pool. Right. But when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.

E

Confirming Speaker...

58:02

Yeah. That reverts back to I think, what a mere as you mentioned before, it's like being profitable, being busy. You wanna be profitable, not always busy, being busy, because you're why'd you probably not profit, you're not being very profitable. Yeah,

E

Confirming Speaker...

58:17

definitely. I like that man. Speak to everyone speak to no one.

Clay Neumeyer

58:20

Yeah, it's a huge piece. We do a couple of things. But let me jump back to this because it's actually our content theme. I do content themes every week, for the same reasons. And you were talking about something really important. And so this is all going to circle back to the beginning of all of this. And I realize we've taken up a full hour and I respect your guys's time. So I'll try and be concise here. There's really three buckets of lead generation. In fact, I call them three buckets of need desires problems, because if I could have any superpower, guys, I'd want to know what everyone's needs desires. And problems are I'm talking like, walk down the block vision through the front door. Oh, they want a hot tub. Perfect. I can do spa packs all day. Oh, their dryers not working? Right? Oh, they've got a circuit that hasn't been turned on. The Breaker has been off for two years. They don't even know what it does. Right? Every home has these things going on

E

Confirming Speaker...

59:20

100% especially, especially all the homes in New England.

Clay Neumeyer

59:26

Yet 95% of us electrical contractors are pulling from this one bucket where the 5% of our clients are. And what that bucket is, is we're waiting for them to call us and tell us their problem. And we put our numbers out in places social media, Google, I mean, there's many ways to put your number out, but you're still waiting for someone to call you. So choosing from all the selection going through all the criteria we mentioned they do research. There's a whole customer journey that we go through in our program, right? Where are our clients coming from? Why Did you call us? Some contractors aren't even asking that when they pick up the phone? What a missed opportunity. We don't even know why people call us. Right? That's just the first bucket. And it's only 5% of the people. And here's the proof. Because only 5% of the people are having a problem right now that needs an electrician right now. And if we market ourselves effectively, that we might have a same day service option. But that option needs to be priced accordingly. Because it comes with inherent risk, doesn't it to keep someone available? 24/7 for those calls? Yep. 100%. Right. So people talk about building their rates. And that's one of the reasons we get on a call. Well, to what efficiency and in service, a lot of times the answer is 50%. Until justified otherwise 50% Because I'm assuming a riskier by leaving that day open for this tech to fix your problems on short notice. So Alright, so let's jump to bucket two quick we offer? Did I say that clear enough, we offer something. And that doesn't mean go out there and discount your price. There's two kinds of offers incentive and information, which is what you guys are talking about. Getting with the modern times recognizing that 95% of our future clients aren't ready to buy something today. But by getting our reputation out there, by putting it out there, so they keep seeing it by talking to them when we're working on their neighbor's house by putting information out there. Like you said, Why would I ever want to upgrade my service? You're building rapport, we have to engage with people, the BNI groups, right? That is as good as a referral in many ways. Why? Because they know you know, we're all aiming for three things know, like and trust. Yep. Then by never before. So what are we doing with bucket two to make sure people know like, and trust us? Right. It's also building equity, as we talked about. And then bucket three, the final one my favorite, really missing opportunities now is what are we doing while we're there to find more stuff? To offer more? Every time we get a bucket one call? Don't know where they come from, go and service them with only what they asked for, and then leave without looking at anything else? That's Death by 1000. Cuts. Gentlemen, would you agree?

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:02:36

I'm gonna ask questions, even why they're doing the job they originally got you in there for you might see some things like hey, like, what's his hanging wire here? You know, we didn't see before. What's up with this open air splice? What's what's what's going on? It's like, it could be like otter no has been there for you know, for 30 years since I bought the house. It's like, perfect.

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:02:55

I like to use the the doctor analogy, because it's like, when you go to like a good doctor. I mean, like a good one. I mean, not one where they're just gonna throw you some medication, and not know anything about you or your lifestyle or anything but a good doctor who asked questions who diagnosed and starts peeling back the onion, you know that that even comes down to even just a conversation piece? You know, I mean, just talking to them getting getting deep into their motives and what they care about. And so that way, you can actually sometimes find obvious things like any said there might be stuff hanging, or there might be something that just through conversation and like, yeah, you know what, I've done this plenty of times where they're like, man, actually, you know what, while you're here, I've been really wanting to put these lights in in this other room. It's super dark, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, Hey, man, I'm here. Let's go take a look. You know what it means though? Yeah, like you said, Clay, just kind of just, you know, offering things and asking them and just, you know, trying to pull more out of it. Not like try to like sell anything to them, but just try to meet their needs, or like their pain or pleasure or any of those things. You know, you can do that with the conversation for sure. People

Clay Neumeyer

1:03:51

don't know what they don't know. Right? Yeah, it's part of that report piece. I love the doctor metaphor. Let me give it to you like this. Sometimes I know you guys know about free Canadian health care. Right?

1:04:03

Free. Yeah. Free.

Clay Neumeyer

1:04:06

There is a small monthly payment. No, I'm not going to complain about that. But what I will tell you is people get their wires crossed on this subject. See, I see it as a negative. No, I do. And here's why. Sometimes I wish I could just go and pay someone. Because a lot of contractors run their companies like Canadian doctors run their visits. The government mandates that they get 10 minutes one problem. Wow, mom, so it's in and out, in and out, in and out. If you have a serious complex issue in Canada, it's almost impossible to get the help that you need to they'll they'll refer you to a specialist after a few visits of, Oh, I know. It's just the flu here, take some pills go away, come back later. Right, that kind of stuff. You see a specialist in six to nine months, maybe a year. And then that specialist wants to, again, pharmaceutical or surgery and yet there's an Then no real diagnosis, no real troubleshooting, right?

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:05:04

Nothing. Yeah. And just figuring questions just go straight to part swab and

Clay Neumeyer

1:05:09

becomes naturopaths. And I love this. I love that that's a journey to, I want to do preventative maintenance in my life. And that's why I love this metaphor for electrical. Thank you, fellas for bringing it up right naturopath? What's the problem? Well, they're 400 bucks an hour. Guess what? We should be two? Yep, we should. If you're serving at that level, I want to see all of us rise to that occasion to that opportunity to actually bring people more knowledge to bring them more safety to bring them more code compliance, right?

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:05:46

Yeah, one of the big issues I've been noticing too, is that we're out here, like, you know, and this isn't my own, like thought, you know, exactly. But I've kind of pulled it from many different people talking, having the conversation is, you know, if we're all out here, just kind of tap dancing, saying the same exact thing, kind of providing that Canadian Doctor experience where we're not really finding out what you really need. You know, we're commoditizing ourselves. We don't even know it. You know what I mean? And so customers expect that bottom price, you know, because that quality, you know what I mean? So we got to get away from that and like, help each other and rise everybody up together? Yeah. I mean, so

Clay Neumeyer

1:06:23

you asked for I thought about Alex Hermoza. His book. That's one of the biggest things that sticks in my mind, man, and it's the truest thing I've ever read. Every new entrant comes to the market. How do they figure out their pricing? They phone their competition? Where do you guys charge per hour? What do you guys charge? Where do you go? And they come in and they go, I'll just do a little bit more for a little bit less. A little bit more for a little race to the bottom row. Or eventually there's no less to charge. Exactly. It's a mess. But also, I gotta say, I think I think I just made a nationwide enemy with Canadian doctors here.

1:07:03

Nick, the next time you go into go to the doctor, it'd be like, nah.

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:07:08

Yeah, you look on the table. He's got your podcast, he just finished it. He's like, I just given you the side I like

1:07:16

gives you just change like a Flintstone vitamin. But like, are you good?

Clay Neumeyer

1:07:20

Scurvy man. Take it. Yeah, fellas, this has been amazing. I think we got to wrap this up. But let me ask you. You know, obviously, this turned into a podcast, I'm pumped to actually be able to put this out. I'm hoping the audio everything worked out with no preparation. I thank you guys so much for your contribution,

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:07:38

even allowing us to do that. Yeah, we awesome.

Clay Neumeyer

1:07:41

We also add a triage call. And we did get through some of the meat and potatoes of this thing. Do you guys want to follow up with a strategy call more private? Let's you know, let's get into that pricing and figure all this out. And if I can say this, I usually know if we're a fit to work together and the first time we meet and honestly, guys, this has been one of the better connections I've had. So I appreciate you guys. And I hope you feel the same way. 100%

1:08:08

Thank you so much, brother. Yeah, totally. It's been great. I feel I mean, I've learned a lot from just this alone. You know, yes. 100%.

Clay Neumeyer

1:08:16

But what's the one thing that we always want to leave people better than we found them? I wrote something on the weekend, as I'm still really trying to hone in what my purpose is, you know, I've got a vision too. I've got a niche too. And I'm figuring this out. But I really articulated it different on this weekend. asked myself a question or a hard question. I did an exercise called thinking time, which we'll get into next time. But strategy is not the problem. I said that early on. So what my niche has become is giving strategy away. Just helping every electrician we're on a mission to help every electrician realize their value. Get over this, this obstacle through this rock that is themselves. It's this personal battle shit. It's the health and family stuff gets in the way. But it's also what I call the red team, that sort of voice we hear before we knock on the door. Before we talk to our next potential client. It's the stuff that's holding us back from doing our diligence and being our best. So we give the strategies away, but we connect people with their highest selves. Yep, get back and step into your best self your worth, and start articulating that and getting paid what you're worth.

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:09:34

Yeah, yeah, I think the last thing I want to say too, is just if any other advice to some other contractors, not even electricians, but anybody service industry is what's been helping us is I forget who said it exactly. But I need to write it down and keep it in front of me. But it's it's called something like most people don't care how much you know, to know how much you care. You know, I mean, so that's been a mantra this past like year. It's just Caring, you know what I mean? Don't try to throw up on anybody just care about the person.

Clay Neumeyer

1:10:05

Absolutely, I guess care about you guys. Thanks. Sorry. Yeah,

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:10:10

I was just, it was just adding to what you said, like, you know, charging of what you're worth, you know, before you know if the electrical or the electric companies they should be charging what they're worth. But to add to that is if you get for example, if you're quoting out stuff, if your team starts getting super super good that you build a flat rate, you know, he's gonna take you normally average time to install whatever is eight hours. But if your team gets so efficient enough that it could get done in four hours, don't change your price now only charge four hours. So charge eight, your team should not suffer for being good at the job.

Clay Neumeyer

1:10:43

Yeah, that's the hourly problem, for sure. And I agree. Yeah,

E

Confirming Speaker...

1:10:47

better you are the less money start making. Yeah. And I'm quoting clay because I think I read that I think you said that one of the comments so yeah, so got it, brother.

1:10:59

I just want to add to that, that's it. I appreciate yours,

Clay Neumeyer

1:11:02

fellas. I'm gonna send you a link for that 45 minute call. I thank you so much for for your consent on this, this interview today and just turned out wonderful. I love it when things just come together. Man. There's nothing more of a miracle in life than the little co creation and you know, things don't just happen things happen.

1:11:21

So yeah 100% We're

1:11:22

here before to the next one brother. Thank you definitely floors,

Clay Neumeyer

1:11:24

guys.