S3 EP29 The $9K Service Call That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It was always nice just to hear a homeowner just compliment you, tell you how much they appreciate what you what you've done and what they did, and to see the smile on their face when you got done hanging a big chandelier or finish a little remodel for them or putting in even recess cans to brighten up a room. To see people and their appreciation of that is what really kind of reeled us in on the whole thing. Residential isn't so bad after all. Let's give this a whirl.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast, where we help home service pros like you supercharge your business and spark up those sales.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

I'm Joseph Lucanny, and together with my co-host Clay New Meyer, we're here to share the secrets that have helped electricians sell over a million dollars from a single service woman.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Now it's time for sales. It's time for sale. It's time to become a million-dollar electrician.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to another great episode of the Million Dollar Electrician. And today we have a million dollar electrician in progress in residential service. We've got Kevin Lochlier with us. We've known Kevin for a little bit now, about 18 months, I think. Kevin, we've been working together. Yeah, yeah, going on two years almost. Yeah, that's awesome. And Kevin has actually broken through the seven-figure mark before, but with commercial, with projects. And I was just talking to him backstage about how happy he would be to do that with solely residential service. Kevin, why don't you start us off with what do you love about the service game versus the projects game?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Just the gratification you get back from the customer is the biggest thing. You know, being able to go in and work with a real person that wants you to be there. And, you know, the fact that they just see you and they appreciate what you're there for versus, you know, having a general contractor just sitting on top of your shoulders, telling you to hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. And then when you get done, you get no gratification from the progress. You know, you see what you do and you appreciate what you do, but they don't care. They just want the job done.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

You're speaking to my heart of hearts, man. As you know, I had the projects background too, right? Oh my gosh. Hey, that's great. Yeah, you did you did all right there. Could you do it better, faster, quicker, cheaper, right? Every single time. And then not to mention, they're just constantly dragging you into their schedule, paying in their ways. How do you see the service side different, Kevin? That's always a really interesting transition for us when we take someone in that is kind of the project background, trying out the service as a direction, but you don't really, really know, or did you know back then?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

No, I I had no clue what I was stepping into, to be flat out honest. I mean, I knew, you know, I've heard that on the money side it was easier residential because you know, you get paid when the job is done. So you go to a job, you finish that job that day, you get paid that day. Whereas, you know, with the projects, it's anywhere from a 30. I have some of them that we've done that are as much as 90 to 120 days. So, you know, you get that the the money is so volatile and it's hard to manage. Or I found that it was hard for me to manage. You know, your bills stack up and trying to make the right percentage on the draws to cover the things that you need done for the next month. It was it was tough.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. We hear that often. As you guys can tell, we're gonna get right into this today. Kevin's gonna shed a lot of light on project versus service. Also, there's something really exciting. If you're watching on YouTube, you could probably see right behind Kevin right now, there is a new PowerPlay Electric buildup from Kick Charge, right? Yeah, yeah, doing some work with them, full rebrand. And Kevin did what a lot of us do. And uh, I think your original name, Triel, was based on family. Was that right, Kevin?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah, at the time I had three kids, so I went with Try, and then we hit the last name, you know, L for the last name being Locklear. So we just went with Triel Electric. Amazing five minutes to come up with a name.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

Yeah, yeah. But it's worked for you to this point. I mean, it hasn't slowed you down, Kevin. I think we said you started uh around the time COVID kicked in. There's so many guys that this happened to. What's your story there, man? Why'd you decide to go into business at that time? And how old were you at that point?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

So I actually worked for a local company here for about 20, almost 21 years. Wow. And prior to COVID, my employer got ill and wasn't able to perform in in the business, you know, like he used to. So I stepped into his shoes, you know, a little bit and started doing a lot of the estimating for the company that we were with. And uh with him being absent so much, it was really hard on the company because his wife was trying to run the business and I was doing all the estimating, right? And at that point, you know, we had been slow for a while. His wife was trying to take care of him and trying to take care of the business. And we finally actually landed a big job with the county. It was going to be a pediatrics clinic. You know, we line we landed the job, everything was great, you know, everybody was excited. And then we got a phone call from the county saying that they had yanked the project from the architect because he had overbuilt the project by about two and a half million dollars. That's that's funny. So, you know, at that point, you know, my employer at the time is like, man, it's it's just too much right now. You know, I can't ask her to continue doing this, and we're at that age anyway, where you know it's it's a good point for us to retire. So he gave me the news and I was like, okay, well, at that time I was 44 years old. I'm like, dude, I'm I don't want to be somebody else's pet.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

So and did they just close the doors? That was it?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, he gave me he gave me my two weeks, and then of course it took him some time to to fully shut down, you know what I mean? I think he was probably around for about seven months after that, you know, slowly closing the doors down to sell everything, turn off the phones because they were strictly commercial. There was no there was no sell in his business, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Isn't that a shame? Do you do you look back at it today and think, man, there was probably more I could have got from that, or was it the right move, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

No, I think it was the right move for me. It really worked out well for us, and I'm still in great con. Matter of fact, he's he's my landlord. I lease from him. Oh, in a way. I'm I'm sitting in his building right now.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Okay, careful what you say, Kevin. Don't say the wrong thing, man, in case he's listening.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah. No, he's uh they've been really great to me. You know, they during the time of transition, they were throwing me bones, projects they didn't want to do anymore because it was too big. So they were pushing that stuff my way. And then at the end of it, when they finally closed the doors, they flat out told everybody, you know, hey, here's your guy from now on. If you need something, call him. I had already developed that relationship with all those people for so long, you know, that they just knew who I was. So it was it was really an easy transition.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

Nice. That's excellent. Okay, so you were 44 at this time.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

In COVID, it was 2020, right? 2021? 2020. 2020. Okay, 44. Were you worried about getting started at that time?

SPEAKER_01 7:08

For me, COVID wasn't that big a deal. I didn't think it was all that, you know, I thought I thought it was a lot of hype. And, you know, we were still working, so I wasn't too worried about it. I went out and and started kind of hitting the ground. I did, you know, what anybody would do, just started rolling through neighborhoods at that point and taking pictures of signs for builders and started calling guys and saying, hey, you know, I'm Kevin Lockler with Trial Electric, doing my thing. And yeah, I got hooked up with a few builders and it worked out.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Nice. So that carried you for that first year, just meeting these builders, getting work from them. Can you just pause here for a moment? Because I know, yeah, we focus on the service a lot, but there's still guys that are looking to get started. And sometimes it just takes a bit of time, a bit of momentum, as you know, to start getting those service leads in. Did you literally just go drive around and start calling builders? Was that your number one move?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

I sat there right in front of the sign and made the phone call just to make sure pick up the phone and tell them, you know, I'm I'm the new guy in town for the most part, and trying to be able to get in on their bidders list. And for the most part, a lot of them were really perceptive to it. You know, they'd ask for you know any information that I might have, any kind of numbers, you know, on square footage and things like that that we might have been doing at the time. And then well, I really respect that they were completely loyal to their dude. They're like, nah, man, I've got a guy, I've been using him for years, I'm sticking with him. You know, that's which I really respect that because that's you know a dime breed in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

But hey, just just to add a nugget here, if I can, because this one's really cool too. I know it's not what you did, but guys, if you're doing that and you get that message, that's the kind of guy to be friends with, too, because it usually means they do do like great value work. And even talking to that guy, if people are saying, Well, this is my guy, we only use him, what's their schedule usually like, Kevin? Pretty full, probably, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, for sure. They're they're doing the houses at the time that I wanted to be in.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Yeah. So even getting in hold of that guy, he could be turning service work away. Typically, those are the word of mouth guys that you really want to, you know, it's reminds me of like you see on the National Geographics, a shark or a whale swimming through the water, and there's all these little fish just following and eating the scraps. Kind of like that when you get started. Anyways, Kevin, not to distract us, but how far did that take you, these builder relationships into your business? How far did you get with that?

SPEAKER_01 9:33

We actually started doing a lot of homes. I mean, like everybody, I think uh during that COVID time frame, the housing market blew up. We really started rolling. I think we did approximately, you know, we weren't doing homes like for huge neighborhoods, but we were doing them for custom builders. I think we did like 45 homes.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Okay, that's not that's not just a few. That's good, man. That's a good pace. How many guys did you have working to do that?

SPEAKER_01 9:57

At that time we had it was me and two other guys.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Wow, you guys are ripping. Not that I'm the residential builder guy. I don't have that great of concepts of timelines, but what a rough in in a couple weeks, I guess, or faster.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

We were we at that time we were doing probably about a rough in every week, week and a half, if that.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

And these homes you're saying custom, so like two to three thousand square feet kind of range or bigger?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

They range anywhere between 19 to for the most part, 19 to 25. Most of the guys that we were with had uh you know a similar plan, and then they would just kind of flop it around a little bit. It was a really quick in and out deal. Were you profitable on these homes at that time? No.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Sorry, I should laugh. Why did I laugh? Why is that my knee-jerk reaction?

SPEAKER_01 10:44

I had no idea what I was doing. Okay, you know, I mean, we were you know, I say that we we were making money, we were getting by, yeah, you know, but it was nothing to grow on, and it felt like every time I was turning a corner, it would, you know, I'd I'd find a pinch point. I could definitely see it. And then, you know, at that point, that's when we started to get in with some of the bigger GCs doing the commercial stuff.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Yeah. And if we could just for a sec, what do you mean by a pinch point? Like, do you have like a memory of of one of those moments where you're just like, ouch, this hurts? Like, what was it for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Just you know, flat out missing. I mean, don't put a bit out there and then just be three or four grand short. Or I've had uh you know instances where crap's happened and you go back and they catch it, and it's it's like oh god, how you how are you supposed to fix this? You know, I've I've lost big on on houses. One in particular, we had an incident and he just didn't he didn't know. He didn't he didn't know any better, and that was through lack of training. But we had uh one point where we cut some floor trusses to make some cans fit properly. And the guy that owned the house was an architect by trade. So we're probably a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Yeah, last mistake. Probably good that he caught it.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah, for sure. And we had to have it re-engineered and you know, go in there and fix it. I think that was like a a$7,500 hiccup.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Oh, that's actually better than I thought that might might have been. So they found a way to patch.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah, we we were able to go back in. They found a way to go back in and and restructure the four joist, and then so it was just you know putting some two by four back in there in certain positions with a certain amount of nails, and you know, putting the engineer stamp on it, and then yeah, patch of paint.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

So does he have one of the uh telescoping uh support poles in the basement that he looks at every time? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

This was in the in a 20-foot living room, so it wouldn't have been very good. Yikes. There was some spots like that, you know, and then just not really knowing how to handle money for the most part in a business. You know, I was I was a technician, I was not a businessman at any point.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Were we all? That's that's the problem, right? Yeah, for sure. At what point did you get a taste for residential service and realize that you actually liked uh this crazy game?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

You know, uh we've always done a little bit here and there, even whenever I was back with my former employer, we always did a little bit here and there. And it was always uh nice just to hear a homeowner just compliment you. You know, just tell you how much they appreciate what you what you've done and what they did, and you know, and see the smile on their face when you got done hanging, you know, a big chandelier or finish a little remodel for them or putting in even recess cans to brighten up a room. So see people and their appreciation of that is what really kind of reeled us in on the whole whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Right. At first did it seem like there's no money to be made there either.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

That's what I always thought was the money is in the commercial gig. You can get your markup where you want it and just sit there and make buckoos of bucks all day long. The bigger the project, the more money you make. Of course, we know we all know that's false. Or not all of us, I didn't at the time, but now we do. Some other people figured out that, you know, hey, residential isn't so bad after all. Let's give this a whirl.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Yeah, that's interesting. And so was that around the time that we came together? Or had you already been on a bit of a residential kick and and trying it uh in different ways before us?

SPEAKER_01 14:34

So yeah, we we were trying it before came on board with you guys. Um, I've actually been with two other coaching groups trying to make this work, and uh none of it ever fit. It was just too broad, and they tried to make something work for everyone, right? And it's different for us, I feel like. So that's when I almost started to give up on the whole residential thing and go back to the commercial. I started podcasting and listening to podcasts, right? A lot, and that's where I kind of come across some of y'all's stuff and I started listening, and then you know, I saw some Facebook stuff, and then you know, at the end of the day, I think it was the bulldog that got me. The bulldog? Yeah, what did you mean by that? What's the bulldog? That's that's uh what's his name? Austin?

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Austin, yeah, yeah. Our mascot that we had running on the ads recently. Yeah, that's funny. Rock. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

I was sitting on a call with him. You know, I've I filled out the paperwork to see what it was all about, and uh, I was sitting on a call with him and I had to pause him. You know, I had to pause like, do I hear Bulldog in the background just snoring away? And he was like, Yeah, he goes, I got I got a big old fatty down here, and you know, it it was cool though. So at that point, you know, I I could tell that there was some personal relationship, right? That you guys had a real personal relationship with people versus just trying to make something work with everybody.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Yeah, I appreciate that for sure. And so you mentioned kind of the general coaching. I don't like to throw sand, as you guys know, so we're not gonna go into names or any of what's wrong. I just want to better understand the difference though. What point did you realize, oh, this is actually gonna work? This is for electricians. What were some of those differences, Kevin? If you wouldn't mind.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Yeah, so I mean, you know, just the way you guys came about. I mean, to start off with teaching us how to structure our pay, our hourly right, trying to get that pricing right to start right out the gate. That was huge. None of them did that with us.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Did they tell you to increase prices? Because most people do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

They did. They would kind of ask you, okay, what's your hourly rate? Oh, yeah, that's not gonna be nowhere near high enough. What's what what is everybody else doing? And you're like, I it's not, you know, like you guys have said a thousand times, it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing. It's where are you at in your business? Is what we need to find out.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

The market's between your ears, as my mentor taught me.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

They would pull out the PL and try and go through and do the whole pony show and and you know, get that hourly rate mailed down for you. So that was huge. And then just the play call sheets that you guys have, just specifically tailored to us as far as before you even get to a house, you know, getting out of the van, checking the van. I mean, I've been in y'all's shoes before you open the door and the crap, like Joe says, just comes falling out, right? Giving us that detail of telling us, hey, you need to do this before you go there, how to approach the door properly. I never got any of that. One of them I totally didn't agree with is they would try and literally get the sale over the phone before you ever left. You don't do anything about it, you don't give an estimate for them, get them locked in before you even leave. It just doesn't work for us.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yeah, you disqualify so much. And I think your numbers prove that because are you around 50% conversion somewhere in there?

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah, I think uh right now for the month of April, I think we're sitting at around 47 or 48% for the month of April right now.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Okay, so just under half. But does that mean you're not happy with the month of April? Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Oh, you're we're we're doing we're doing good for the month of April. It's been slow, but we're still doing okay. And we've been going through a lot of transition too, right? Yeah, still shutting down some of those bigger commercial jobs with the past couple months, doing the brand changing. It's taken up a lot of time and and a lot of focus. April slipped a little bit. We're still holding tight.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yeah, okay, fair enough. How's your average ticket doing at roughly that conversion rate?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I think we're right around that$1,300.$1,300?

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Yeah. Fair enough. Where have you seen sort of the proof then? At what point did you realize holy crap, this just unlocked the next level for me? If not today, when? Because obviously there's a reason you're here still training with us, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Yeah, for sure. So start off with was options. The first time I ever presented, I I would have never done that before. There was never even a good, better, or best. It's like you guys have said before, Mr. Fixit. That was me. Walk through the door, go in there, fix the problem, get out. Nine times out of ten, your ticket was only about 200 bucks. You know, and try and squeeze in seven or eight of those a day just to make that. The first time that I went and made a presentation, the homeowner chose a platinum option. And she's still with us today. And that was a I think it was around a nine thousand dollar panel upgrade. I'd have sold that same call any day of the week before meeting you guys for probably about 2,500 bucks. So that was that was huge.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

And so a platinum, that was your first time ever using the process.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yep, yep. It was an and it was an emergency call. Now she was to be fully transparent, you know, I did have a connection with her through a friend. Yeah, you know, so we came highly recommended, but we had never met before. You know, she had an issue. It was like probably, I don't know, gosh, it was like eight o'clock at night. I was just I just happened to be sitting in the cul-de-sac with the neighborhood. We were having a neighborhood movie watch, and she gives us a call and she's upset and kind of nervous on the phone because she can smell it and hear it sizzling, her panel was sizzling. So I called up a couple of guys and they went out there and checked out what was going on, and sure enough, you know, she had a bunch of breakers that were burned up. Bus was shot. This was a I mean, the house was only about eight years old, you know, so it was a newer system. They got her back up and running for the for the evening. We went back out the the next day and I looked over the the project. I hadn't been with you guys very long at all. You know, I gave it a whirl and then she took it. Took a platinum option on the first sale.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

What were some of the extra things that you included there then that you wouldn't have included otherwise? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Yeah, for sure. Uh we did the the sear protection right off the bat. I didn't never offer sear protection. Now, of course, now it's code depending on what jurisdiction you're in and what update they're on. We would have never offered anything like that. Lifetime craftsmanship. I'd have never done that before. You know, even though we're always doing the right thing, showing that to a homeowner and giving them that kind of guarantee, we would have never offered that before. You know, a difference in panel style versus, you know, the copper bus or aluminum bus. You know, which one would you rather have at your house? Yeah. I'd have told her what she was getting versus asking her what she wanted.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Yeah, it's a good way to look at that. And so you presented six options then, was it? Yep. And so at the most basic, it just didn't include those things, was the lesser panel, no surge protection, just got it safe and that was it.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

The most basic was just literally taking out the guts of the existing panel and putting in new.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Okay. Yeah, so that was a big prover for you then, right off the bat. For sure. For sure. Amazing, man. And yeah, I've got a bunch of your wins here. And some people report every single win. Kevin, you reported uh the big ones you're super proud of. We've got over$134,000 in wins here. Man, there's some good stuff. I even got Jordan closing a silver plan, uh, six options presentation not too long ago and this year for 11k. So your team's even been able to adopt this as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah, they're rolling with it, man. Jordan is our primary rep as far as sales go. And uh he does all of our quoting for the most part, you know. I I rely on him very heavily. I still go out and do my thing, but I'm trying to get back in the office so I can work on the business instead of in the business, I think is how it goes. But yeah, Jordan, Jordan's killing it, man. He's he's he's learned a lot, he's grown a lot, you know. So he's he's doing a good job.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Really cool. And I think recently on a class, this was the last one I have here. You reported over two weeks after returning to the field. So you went out to help pull again.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

44k? Was that right?

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

That was from you alone?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Yeah, it was it happened in like literally like two weeks. We had we landed a good solid generator build, you know. She took uh I think she took the gold and ended up now. They called us back. That then that one's funny because this was a brand new house. It was just closed on in November. The builder just finished it. During that installation, Jordan found that out of 18 of the single pole breakers in that panel, seven of them they'd never even touched the screws on. The wires were just falling out from underneath the breakers. We we brought that up to her, you know, and to let her know, hey, you know, while we were doing this, we we found this problem. And now she's hired us to come through the house and do a full home inspection on the house because she doesn't feel safe. She wants us to go back in there and make sure that she's comfortable.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Hey, you guys, if this episode sparks something for you, imagine stacking that every single week. That's how businesses stop flickering and start running steady. If you subscribe to the show or leave a review if you're on audio, and if you're driving down the road, please pull over when it's safe because I've got something you're not gonna want to skip. For every person that subscribes and or leaves a review and fills out the form below, letting us know that you did that thing. We're gonna draw one monthly subscriber for our open circuit lifetime membership worth$1,500. And that's not all. Every six months, we're actually gonna draw another subscriber for our$5,000 scholarship, which you can use for any of our electric service packages to get your business and your service rocking better than ever. Come on, guys, let's brighten this thing up. Is it gonna be you? Back to the show. What's the inspection authority like there in Oklahoma?

SPEAKER_01 24:55

So it's kind of wild, man. And I don't know how it works for you know the rest of the states, but the state itself, I think, is still adopted under the 17 code, I believe, if I'm correct. But the jurisdiction, the city that you're in, dictates what code you go by. So, like here in Norman, where I'm at, I think they're underneath the uh either the 17 or 20. And then I can go down to another city, they're gonna be under the 23, or I can go to 18, or so on and so on. So you have to go to each municipality and find out, hey, what code update are you guys using? You know, most of them for the most part are fairly decent guys. I mean, they do a good job. But just like anybody else, you get some you're human and you make mistakes and you miss stuff. That one just happened to be a pretty big one. That that we found in her panel, you know, Midwest City, which is where this location was, they're on the the 23, and you know, they're required to have the exterior disconnect. So they had the exterior panel outside with the 200 amp main with no bonding whatsoever. It was done on the inside panel, and on the inside panel, they had the neutrals in the ground separated like it was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

What's the licensing requirements there for you, Kevin?

SPEAKER_01 26:13

So we have a two-year apprenticeship program for a residential journeyman. Yep, you got to be an apprentice for two years before you go test to be get your residentials. Oh, yeah. Then at that point, you're only allowed to work on residential service, and then at four years you can go test for your unlimited journeyman. Nice. And then after that, it's another four years before you can go test for your your contractors.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Oh wow. So is that like 10 years then? They do the math, right? It's eight. Eight years to get your contractor.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Yeah, it's two, it's two to get your your residential journeyman, then another two to get your unlimited. So four before you can turn the contractor.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Yeah, okay. So that should offer some protection. Man, I'm I'm sorry to hear that low quality work. I'm sure a lot of people listening are feeling the same way. That shouldn't happen, in my opinion. It reminds me of uh my brother-in-law who was telling me a story recently where he went to a shop to just get his brakes done. Simple routine job, right? Or on the back end of that job, what actually happened is they had an apprentice do it and go to button up his brakes. So they bled his brake lines and he didn't actually tighten the last brake, what do you call it? Nut, I guess. Right. So he's driving down this crazy fast uh highway we have in the mountains, and just in the light braking in that for 45 minutes to get there, he had bled all his brake lines out that loose fitting. Oh wow, and then he's literally behind a school bus in 120 kilometers an hour, so like a 70 mile an hour zone, and he goes to slow down and he's got nothing. Brake pedal goes to the floor. Oh, I only tell this story because it's so important that we as electricians recognize this too. That's the kind of safety and derailment that we could be really, really either helping, you know, go as a disaster, like in this case, or saving if we just do our diligence. And I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here. I don't need to say that on this channel, but holy cow, the value of a checklist, the value of checking your work, having someone else check your work before we button it up. Oh my gosh. I'm glad you guys were there to find that. And by the way, brother-in-law, he found a way there was an off-ramp. He he managed to slow this thing down, and yeah, it wasn't a good outcome for that mechanic shop. But not to take away from what you're saying, man. It's crazy out there. That's the thing, though, is like you mentioned, Mr. Fix It, the whole Mr. Fix It mentality is based on the value of cheap price, fast implementation. Just get you what you need as quick as possible and get out, right? We feel it. It's a feeling you have when you do that. That's sometimes there's also like, okay, the troubleshooting aspect, and I really solved the problem fast. But in your experience, Kevin, is that really what your customers have wanted?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

No, they want to feel they want to feel safe. You know, they want to know that they're getting what they pay for, they want to know that they're confident in your ability.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Yeah, that's oh man, couldn't agree more. Where do you see your company going? You said I think you're gonna be on track for maybe$850 at your current run rate. Sounds like you want to get through seven figures. You've done that with commercial, but you just you want to do that all on residential. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Okay, we're gonna grow for sure. I think we're going we're gonna continue to push and get things in order and work on the processes. And you know, me and and Claude the other day sat down and created a roadmap for the company to start working on so I can, you know, get my stuff squared away. Love it. And I'm hoping to be in three years with at least four bands. And I would like to re you know, two, two and a half. I'd be thrilled. If I can even get close to that, I'll be satisfied. My my whole plan is just I just want something that's sustainable, you know, that's good for me, it's good for the employees, you know, and it's great for the customers. That's what I want.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

And what's the team size like now, then where you're you're kind of between these 70 to 80k months? Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yeah. So right now I've got two guys in the field, and I got I got Stephanie, you know, she's in the office doing all the admin stuff. She's my rock star inside, she keeps me organized, and then myself. So Jordan and Tanner are out there, you know, busting their humps, running the calls, giving estimates, and I'm helping picking up Slack wherever I can.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

That's awesome, man. Really well done. Tell us more about the branding change then. So you were triel, you still are trial, I guess. What made you decide? I mean, there's kind of a couple pieces to this. I'd love to go into it for the next 10 or 15 or so. A lot of people consider Kick Charge the absolute maestro of this game. We've had Dan on the podcast, as you know, huge supporter. Also, kind of the Harley Davidson. So a lot of people go back and forth about well, these other guys are cheaper or whatever. I'd love to hear your thoughts on really what brought it home for you with Kick Charge and and making this brand update happen.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yeah. So, you know, the biggest thing that I had was I tried to do a lot on my own. Yeah. You know, and I'm I'm sure a lot of people do, but I continued to change things and change things and change things and change things, and I could never get it to just work. I had a guy develop a wrap for the van based off of a website that we had created, I think, two years ago. And the wrap is cool, it looks great, but you can't take it anywhere else other than the van. It doesn't work on a business card because it's too, you know, it was too dark. I wanted to try and keep it and work it all out myself, so I tried using AI to come up with some stuff, you know. And I'm not huge in the tech world as far as being savvy with it. I can work it, but I'm not great. So finally I I we came up with something I thought was pretty cool, and I I took it to a place and it didn't work out. You know, they they they tried to put their spin on it and it didn't work out, and that was the ultimate you know, straw that broke the camel's back was that point, and that's when I called up kick charge, like, hey, okay, I need to sit down with you and figure out what's up. So, you know, I did that. Yeah, I mean, there's always some sticker shock, right? Yeah, but it's it's like you say you you you pay for what you get. Yeah, that's what I've done. I they've done I felt like they've done a great job. They've held my hand for the most part through the entire process. Yeah. So I told them what I was looking for, they gave us some some options and they start off with just the name. You know, we had to do the name change. I didn't have to do the name change. You know, I chose to do the name change to kind of differentiate myself from everybody else because the way our area is organized around here, there's a lot of different companies that start with try. You know, there's you know, you got try city and you've got try trick and you've got try this and try that. And I've had people call and say that they've tried to reach us and reach somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

Unintended. You tried to reach you, tried to reach you, and I got two other people, man. I'm at three. What the heck?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

I'm done with jokes.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

You know, we we just wanted to be in your face for the most part. And you know, there's other companies out there that do it, but I've I've heard through you guys, I've been I've seen that podcast episode with with Dan, and then I also listened to a lot of Tommy Mello and their good buddies. You know, he talks about it all the time. So it was like, hey, give them a world.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

Yeah, yeah, in the big club. Uh guys, I can't recommend it enough. Honestly, if you want to know more about brand changes, Kick Charge, I feel I wish Dan did more of these videos. Honestly, uh, if you go to their YouTube channel, Kick Charge Creative, they do some before and afters, any rates in the different areas they look at, uh, just exceptional content to help you decide. I I always say this to everyone. It's like, even if you can't stomach the bill, they know that they know it they're not for everyone. Even if you're gonna have price shock, it's worth meeting with them and at least talking to some of the best pros in the game. I mean, we've uh some of us who've followed Dan or talked to him for a bit, you see his uh original OG photos of him on a stepladder with you know doing pinstrokes on the on the vans by hand when he was 19 years old. It's really tough to compete with that level of experience and authority in the space. So couldn't recommend that enough. Again, Kick Charge Creative on YouTube, great place to see their before and afters. And so, Kevin, you had a great experience. Uh, what made you choose Power Play, man?

SPEAKER_01 34:58

You know, they they gave me a few different options. And to be flat honest, a minute they they said it. I was already hung up on it. Yeah, it wasn't even close. You know, they they they said I didn't I think it was actually the very first name that was on the the presentation list, right? They said that one and they went through like four or five other names, and I gave it about 30 seconds. I said, no, that's it right there. So it was awesome. I really like the way it it just flowed, you know, the way it just came out when you said it, you know, the representation with the power and what we do, you know.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

So and do you have a mascot on there as well that I can't quite see from here?

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Yeah, there's there's a chess piece up there. And yeah, it's it's a pretty cool little guy. And you know, my reasoning behind that is you know, I'm in a B and I organization here locally, right? And one of the ladies that was in that group worked for a local company that also has a mascot, and that mascot is at every event. And no matter how many times my kids see it, they want pictures with it, you know. So it's just it's just baked in your brain every time you go to a football game or you, you know, the local Christmas parade or or the local event, you know, for Halloween or whatever it is, trade show that we have or county fair or whatnot, they're always there, you know, and it's a great, it's a great way to meet people and you know, just kind of be there and and show the community that you want to be part of the community. So that's that is the future goal for the mascot is to actually be able to have one and be at those events, you know, football games and you know, the community events, the parades and things like that as well.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

Are you gonna don the costume?

SPEAKER_01 36:50

I might wear it once.

SPEAKER_03 36:52

Yeah, I might wear it. That's awesome, man. Really cool. So, what do you want people when they see this rap with this new look for you guys? What do you want them to feel then? I'm sure that's something you talk about in the whole design of it. Well, what's the power play there, Kevin? Do you use your name?

SPEAKER_01 37:08

You know, I just want the feeling to know that we're we're not your local, you know, run-of-the-mill electrical company. We want to show them that we're a premium brand and that we're we're here to really take care of them. And I think that you know, showing people when you roll up in a premium rap band, your guys are dressed well, they've got the tools that they need to succeed. When you show customers that they know they've they've chosen the right person, right? You know, it sometimes it's hard when you see, and I've been this guy, and I still am rolling as this guy as we speak. When you roll up in a white van with just letters on it, and a guy steps out, you know, that's shirts untucked, it's not necessarily clean or whatnot, it doesn't make a lot of people comfortable. And in our industry, nine times out of ten, when you that door opens, there's typically a woman standing behind the door, right? I want them to be comfortable knowing who they're getting when they open the door.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

That's powerful. What color shirt will you be wearing in uh how many weeks here?

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Uh, so we went with purple. Okay. We got a purple shirt. I actually have a couple revisions of it, actually. Um, but I'm starting off with the purple. Yep. And then we've got the purple trucker's hat with the white mesh.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Amazing. That's awesome. Yeah, it's gonna look great. I've seen some other brands do something similar. I think Alan, who we've had on the show, Watts right, they've got a nice purple background on some of their polos, which look just great. I think purple is a really good color. Why did you decide to go with purple, Kevin? The hat sold me. The hat. Yeah, the hat sold me as far as that goes. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. What do you think your next steps outside of branding? I mean, branding's obviously gonna do a lift, get you guys some more calls. What are next steps for you to get into the seven figure and service world? Do you feel?

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Uh, for me, you know, it's just repeating the process. I got I gotta make sure that I'm doing the right thing, that I'm I'm giving the guys the right tools to succeed. And for that, it's gonna be, you know, with with you guys doing our thing through y'all, you know, making sure that I'm checking the box. I don't want to put too much on my plate. I've done that in the past where I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this, this is what I gotta do. And then I throw all that stuff on my plate and it becomes overwhelming. So I've got a few things as far as that I'm fixing to start working on as far as building processes, actual SOPs, Stephanie's working on on some of that, you know, right now for herself, and then checklists for the guys, you know, when we're out on calls, what does that look like from the beginning to end of that call? These are things that we're supposed to do on each and every call. Are we are we getting that done? You know, just just those little steps is what I want to work on first, and then we'll tackle some of the bigger stuff. I think the biggest one that I'm gonna have to tackle is gonna be social media, you know, being in front of a camera is not my gig.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

Yeah. Yeah, I get that. Yeah, you know we have feelings about that one, but you know what? The brand is uh great little push behind you to say, hey, we're invested in this now, we might as well just go all in, right? Yeah, there you go, man.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

I I don't have a whole lot of choice now. I gotta tell people why. Why did I decide to do this? So it's time to get in front of the camera and and really put that why out there. Why am I here and why I do what I do?

SPEAKER_03 40:25

Amazing, brother. I feel like I could talk to you forever. But speaking of telling people, if you had to give yourself some feedback, you're I don't know, you can choose the place, whether it's COVID or somewhere else on this journey, Kevin, what would you say to yourself to help you kind of speed through this, get it a little faster, make one less mistake, whatever that thing is, how would you help yourself or someone else in your spot do a little better? Do you think?

SPEAKER_01 40:50

You know, I I think my biggest downfall through a lot of my journey has been implementation. People give you a lot of advice, but if you don't do something with it, it's just a bunch of air. So I guess Nike's got the best version of it. Just do it. Just do it. Yeah, just do it. If when people give you advice, if you think it's solid advice, just do it. Don't don't procrastinate. Do it. If it doesn't work out, then you know not to do it again. If it works out, then ransom repeat. That was my biggest downfall was I procrastinated a lot on advice that was given or implementing you know the process properly.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Yeah, that's a really good point. There's this expression I like to use people need permission more than they need a plan. A lot of times we already know we don't need much new. You've already heard it. It's the age of information. I think this is driving you know a big part of anxiety and depression out there today is now that we know and we know what we don't know, and we know what we haven't implemented it. I mean, it's it's hard to look at that mountain and start to climb. But as they say, how do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time. One piece at a time, man. That feels like a mic drop by you. So why don't we call it a show? Is there anything else you want to add to this one, Kevin, before we part ways?

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Yeah, man. I mean, for all the guys that are out there looking, you don't have to look very far. They're everywhere. You know, SLE is the place to be for electricians. Uh, done the other groups, and you know, this is by far the best place to go.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Yeah, I appreciate that. I do. That was an unpaid advertising, by the way. Actually, this guy pays us, and he said that, so we must be doing something all right. Uh, that's my little joke to kick it off. Uh, thank you so much, Kevin. It means a lot. As you know, uh, we started this by just giving it all away. We really try to come here and give as much as we can every hour a podcast. Uh, you've just joined us in that means the world to us that we continue to be surrounded by people that want to give back. If someone wanted to reach out and hear more about your story, Kevin, is there some way they could reach out to you or a place you'd prefer to chat with someone?

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Uh yeah, man, I'm all over Facebook. Hit me up on my personal Facebook. I'd say throw the info at trieleelectriclc.com out there, but it's not going to be here much longer.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

So love that, right? Excitement. Power play electric, guys. Look them up in Oklahoma. Find Kevin on Facebook. Thanks again, Kev. We'll talk to you soon, brother. Bye for now, guys.