S3 EP43 Every Electrician Hits This Wall... Here's How to Break Through It | Bill Whiteman

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I think one of the biggest reasons is options are elusive to most lectures. Like HAC plumbing, they've been on it for years. But like for us, the industry tells you, especially coming from new construction, customer calls for this. You are going to quote him this. Maybe he'll offer a search detector on top of it. But then now what's your experience with options? Like if you were to say going from that, how do you view options now? Like, why do you think that they're so beneficial?

SPEAKER_03 0:23

I think it's beneficial because it gives people control of what happens in their own home. And so, like, some of the most amazing things that I have found from learning this process is if you give the people the choice, like it just goes against every stigma about a lot of stuff that you might see online in some of these other electrician groups, you know, where people are just like, ah, you know, homeowners are cheap and blah blah blah. But this just proves that's not correct. If you give somebody the choice, most people want to be served at a higher level.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

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_02 1:06

I'm Joseph Witani, and together my co-host Clay New Meyer. We're here to share the secrets that help electricians sell over a million dollars in a single service band.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

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

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Hello, hello, my friends, and welcome back. I have an amazing person, not just an amazing business owner, but a genuinely amazing person that I want to introduce. We have Bill Whiteman from Red Dirt Electric. He's a close personal friend. After all this time working together, I couldn't be more proud of everything he's accomplished. And I just want you guys to get to know him just as I've gotten to know him, because after you do, I genuinely feel like everything he's gone through and everything he's built could really be an inspiration for all of us. It definitely has been an inspiration for me. So, Bill, first off, how are you, my friend? What's going on? I'm doing great, Joe. It's uh you know, it's another beautiful day in paradise. You know, we do say that a lot, don't we? It could literally be like, well, granted, you don't get a hail by you, but at the same time, it could you've always had that personality where no matter what we've run into, every time I see you in class, it's like, oh, we're good, no matter what it is.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Well, I mean, if something's bad, there's no use complaining about it. It's just it's not gonna fix anything. So just might as well be positive about it. You know, there's always there's always good and the bad.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

I agree, but at the same time, how few people actually adopt that mentality and live by it? I've yet to see you complain about anything in class. Not once. I love it about you. So tell us a little about yourself, Bill. I want to get you fired off. Obviously, I know you, but I'd love for you to kind of give a quick lowdown about where you're from, where you started. I think how did you even get into residential service?

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Let's just start there. Okay, sounds good. Um, so I first got into the electrical trade back in 2010. Uh, the company that I had worked for, we did a really wide variety of stuff. There was residential service, there was a lot of residential new construction. I was mostly doing like multifamily projects and stuff like that. And then I would go and help the service department whenever I could get peeled away from that. And so that was kind of my first introduction to service. So I was very fortunate to kind of learn that part of it very early on. But realistically, most of my background was in uh, you know, residential new construction, multifamily track homes, custom homes. But as far as the business goes, so I started the business in January of 2023, and realistically, what led me to that was there was a pretty wild series of events. So in 2018, my hometown of Paradise uh was wiped out in a wildfire. It was caused by the utility company. They had some equipment that failed, and it started a big massive fire, and it wiped out like 90% of the town.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

My God, I can't even imagine what that's gotta be like. Like just all gone over like how long did it take?

SPEAKER_03 3:55

The whole uh it was I mean, they were trying to evacuate people out within like a couple of hours, and uh by the end of the day, it was like, yeah, the whole town's pretty much gone.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Jeez. So tell us about that. Like, because one thing I've always loved about you is the fact that fire safety has always been a cornerstone in how you design options. And obviously, if it's a sensitive topic, we don't have to get too far into it. But it's one of those things that's awesome. I really appreciate that because most electricians, like myself, we all talk about fire safety. We're all told put the best detectors in and make sure they're not wireless, make sure they're all hardwired and putting it arc fault, all these safety systems we always talk about because some long bearded, thick glasses engineer wrote the code and said, This is what it has to be. But you lived it. So what what was that like? Like, kind of how did that lead you into wanting to get to where you are now?

SPEAKER_03 4:43

So so what happened after that is so I was working at another company and you know, I got displaced, I lost everything that I owned. I pretty much had to start over and everything, uh, you know, and it is what it is. But, you know, despite how much that sucked, I am grateful for the experience, you know, trying to look at it in a more positive light. Because if that didn't happen, I wouldn't have been inspired to start the business as soon as I did, or you know, maybe even at all. Uh, because after shortly after that happened, um, I ended up switching companies and I got hired on in an electrical department with a really close friend of mine. It was a brand new outfit. And so at that time, it was just me and my buddy Matt. You know, big shout out to Matt. Love that guy. Um, you know, I had known Matt for years, and so I was really grateful for the opportunity. And what we were doing is we were going back up to paradise and being a part of that rebuilding effort. So we were doing just strictly new construction homes. We were doing specs and customs, and you know, and since I was, you know, essentially like the foreman, somewhat project manager for that part of it, a big part of what I had done uh for the custom homes was meeting with the homeowner and the general contractor and you know, getting the whole wish list together from the homeowner, hearing all of their hopes and dreams and everything, and then being able to translate that into you know, help out with the paperwork, and then also be able to just build it the way that they want it. Um so you know, it all kind of cascades into what we're doing now. It was so but I found a really big passion for really just serving my community at that point, getting with that, you know, working with homeowners directly, hearing their hopes and dreams, and being able to translate that and make it a reality. Like I remember one lady, we were finishing up a house and she came in to check everything out. And this lady was practically in tears, and she came up and just thanked us, and she's like, I really appreciate what you guys do, and thank you so much. She's like, You guys are making people's hopes and dreams come true. And I was like, That's a heavy statement. It was really heavy. It it hit me really hard because at that point I was just like, you know, I knew that we were doing something good and helping building the community, but to have somebody put it in that kind of a perspective, it really drove it home. And it was just like, okay, this is a lot more than just a career. Like, you know, there's a real there's a real movement and there's things that are happening here, and it's benefiting a lot of people. And so eventually I ended up leaving that company. They grew a whole lot, and eventually the mission just didn't align anymore. Uh they wanted to chase out bigger projects and start pulling out of doing all of that work up there. And, you know, I was kind of in the midst of that, and you know, and I just wasn't also just getting the growth that I was looking for. And the goal after a certain point was to always start my own business and just be continuing to be build up that aspect of it. And so once the mission wasn't aligned anymore, I decided to leave.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

I can imagine what that's got to be like, you know, you've had a great start with someone who's a very close personal friend, you're both helping the community. Obviously, respect the mat, make sure everything's good there. And then you still great friend of mine. Awesome. And you know what? That itself is hard to do. You know what I mean? Like in order to the partners can be the best of friends. But there's always this situation where something can happen and then it falls out. So the fact that you were able to be able to stay best friends, even though you're parted ways, I think is commendable and shows the character you have to start with.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Yeah, thank you. And then yeah, so after leaving at that point, it took about a year off and to went to just be a stay-at-home dad. Okay. I love it. So, and that was when, you know, because I left at that point knowing, like, okay, I know what I'm gonna do. You know, it's finally time to start Red Dirt Electric, and the red dirt part of it is a reference to paradise itself. And, you know, because the area is very famous for well, not very famous because it's a small town, but among the community, the red dirt here is famous. Um, and it's a it's it's kind of a funny talking point and kind of a joke among people in the community because you know, everybody's so familiar with the red dirt and how it stains your clothes, it stains your house, you can't get rid of it. And and also the red dirt thing, too. It's also an homage to my friends as well, because when we were in high school, we had a collective of musicians. We were all the weird kids that played punk and death metal, and we had a bunch of different bands. But we called ourselves. No, I never did that. I had the long hair uh for a part of it, but yeah, never did never did the little emo swoop thing. But that collective that we had was called the Red Dirt Crew, and so also it's an homage to all of my closest friends that I've played music with for the last 20-ish years. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

You know, the theme I keep hearing is that like I feel like I've known you through classes and connecting, but like even going even deeper, it sounds like the personal connections, the community, your friends, the relationships you've built along the way always seem to be part of the timeline. And there's always a homage and respect to it. I think it's really commendable for you as a person. Like, I honestly people would be lucky to be your friend if you remember them that well, you know?

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, you know, I mean, and friends and family and everything has always been really important to me. You know, I wouldn't be where I'm I wouldn't be where I'm at without my friends and my family and all the support that they've given me. No, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Um, there's a there's a saying that I live by that's uh that which is meant to hit you can never miss you, and that which is meant to miss you can never hit you. You had a very wide range of events happen throughout your life, and every single thing brought you to where you are right now. And honestly, I feel like you're crushing it. Like you've been doing so well. Like I'm we're eventually gonna transition to it, but like you started off as a smaller company, but where are you at right now?

SPEAKER_03 10:14

So it's me and three other three employees. So we have uh so we have my office manager, Menon. You know, she's yeah, she's been yeah, she's been with us for a while, you know, as far as the whole grand scheme of the life cycle of of this business. But then we also have Dylan, who's our lead installer, lead electrician, uh just absolutely great guy. And then recently we also brought on Jaden, uh, who's you know, he's been with us for about a month or something like that, and he's just been killing it. He's absolutely awesome. I love that. You know, him and Dylan have made a very, very good team, and I'm very, very fortunate for the people that I have in my circle to help out with all of this. It's a big deal to me.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah, because realistically, I know that you just had one of your biggest months last month, and that's with a team that's small. Well, you were at 58,000, I believe, correct? Yeah, yeah, that's where we ended, June at now. I'm gonna ask a question, I know it's leading, but I assume that was all new construction, correct? Because that's where you started. Like then what did you do? Absolutely not. What do you do?

SPEAKER_03 11:16

You know, I mean, sometimes I miss rope and houses, but you know, it's been it's been a long time since I've set foot on a rough and you really miss it. Every now and then I miss it, but it was just not the business. Yeah. I did not love it.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

I did I I mean you can say you missed it. I for sure did not miss new construction. I remember going into a situation where it was like this small little place and we were doing it at service rate. We was like, screw it, we're not going new construction, we're going service rate. And you're just quoting this thing out, and our price was like 37,000 to do it. And he's like, Oh, well, the next bit is like 9700. It's like, what? It's like, what are you talking about? Do you ever run into that as well, where like you want to quote something at a reasonable rate and you find someone's doing it for a third?

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Well, all the time.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yeah, it's all the time.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah, that's how the markets are. Well, yeah, you know what it was funny for me too, back as a you know, when I first started and I was trying to break into the new construction market because that was my whole goal. You know, just coming off of what I had left from the previous company where that was my specialty, you know, I went into it with the whole mindset of just like, I'm gonna be premier new construction guy around here. This is gonna be so much fun. And uh man, I had an extremely rude awakening that was so difficult to get into. You know, it's a very it's a small community around here, and a lot of the people that I was trying to get in with, you know, they've had their electricians that they've used for five, ten, fifteen, twenty years or something like that, and they're not willing to give the new guy that's working by himself a shot. And then with the people that did give, you know, did give me a shot and do some bids and stuff, you know, even at me bidding something at you know $75, $80 an hour, you know, I would still get pushback on it, and people were like, oh, well, you know, you're two to three thousand dollars higher than the other guy. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

There's no way. Yeah. You know, the funny thing is you start off saying, I'm gonna be the premier guy, and it's gonna be so much fun. And the narrator of iPhone is like, and it was not fun.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Yeah, it was not fun at all. He did not have a good time. And so realistically, you know, realistically, what was keeping me afloat was doing the service work. And so I'm really grateful for the experience that I had doing the service that I did, you know, and learning the troubleshooting, working directly with homeowners and stuff, because that was what was able, that was where I was actually making the money. And realistically, too, after, especially after I started getting so bitter about the new construction aspect, you know, I always really enjoyed service. I love the variety, I love the challenge it brings. It's something different all the time. I've learned so much more about the electrical trade, specializing in service, just being able to see how things fail and coming up with different creative ways in order to get you know a wire from point A to point B or come up with a new system or you know, whatever it might be. You know, I decided too, it was just like, well, you know, service is just actually a lot more fun. I've roped houses forever. You know, and this is where I'm making the money, so I might as well just go into service. And uh, but since I didn't really have any experience at that time, you know, estimating for service and just the way, you know, doing things the way that I was taught by my teachers, um, you know, working for an hourly rate, you have your materials, step on it with your 30% and do all that whole thing. And it was like okay, but I was still, you know, still a new business owner and I was very hungry. Yeah. So it was really hard to figure it all out. And then that was when I started to learn about Service Luke. Um, I just happened to stumble upon the podcast. This was back when it was still Electric Preneur Secrets. Wow. So circa 2023. Yeah, so that was when I started to learn about it, and I was listening to you and Clay and you know, hearing you guys talking about option design, serving people, you know, the stuff that we're all, you know, we're always talking about. And I was like, that's exactly what I want to do. And I'm like, this is so weird that I found these guys because this is exactly what I was looking for. You know, I wanted to find ways to come up with creative solutions to hope, you know, homeowners' problems, you know, or businesses and stuff too. You know, we work with a lot of businesses as well, you know, and then also just learning to, you know, and giving people the choice also, and having them to have that freedom of what happens in their own home, being able to control the level of quality and everything. And so it was just really interesting, you know, when I was like, man, what am I gonna do about this? I gotta figure out how to make more money about it. And then I heard the podcast for the first time. I'm like, these guys are already doing it.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

You know, I feel like you were meant to be in service because you already had the background of what not to do, you wanted to help your community, so you already had like the predisposition to want to help. You were already trying to get into the service work, but it like wasn't quite clicking. And you know, I think one of the biggest reasons is options are elusive to most electricians, like HAC plumbing, they've been on it for years. But like for us, the industry tells you, especially coming from new construction, like the customer calls for this, you are going to quote him this. Maybe you'll offer a search protector on top of it. But then now what's your experience with options? Like, if you were to say going from that, how do you view options now? Like, why do you think that they're so beneficial?

SPEAKER_03 16:43

The best way they can explain it, it's it's really beneficial because it gives people control of what happens in their own home. And so, like, some of the most amazing things that I have found from learning this process is if you give the people the choice, you know, like it just goes against every stigma about a lot of stuff that you might see online in some of these other electrician groups, you know, where you know, people are just like, ah, you know, homeowners are cheap and blah blah blah. And you know, but this just this proves that's not correct. If you give somebody the choice, you know, they will they will want most people want to be served at a higher level. And if no maybe nobody is gonna else is gonna offer that to them. You know, like there's one guy that I remember, you know, fairly early on when I was learning this process, he was having an issue in his home and uh, you know, his his furnace wasn't working correctly, and the HVAC guy that had gone out there had found that one of the breakers was melting, you know, it was like an old 1980s panel. Okay. Sounds like a good call. Yeah, and so you know, so they said, Hey, you gotta call an electrician, and somehow he found me. I can't remember. It's been a little while now. And you know, I'll be honest too, I had to kind of fight this with every fiber of my being because it was in a manufactured home, it was, you know, it was in an area where I know people tend to be a little bit more low on the income scale, you know, and the guy was worried about price and everything, he had, you know, expressed that to me. And I'm just like, hey man, you know, I'm gonna do everything that I can to help you out. Like, we'll let's work together and figure this out. And, you know, I saw a way that I could just move that breaker over to a different part of the panel and at least just get that going for him and just temp it in, you know, walk away with 150 bucks and just call it a day. But I was like, you know what, that's not the right thing to do. Um and he had mentioned some other stuff going on inside of the home, and so just I was really just listening and hearing to him. And so I sat down and I just did it all on pen and paper, and I wrote down some uh at that time it was four options for the guy. Okay, fair enough. And yeah, because he only had 60 amps feeding his whole home, and but he had the capacity to do more, so it was just like, well, if you're having other problems inside of the home, you have other things that you want to add on to it in the future that he has been telling me about. I'm like, well, let's just replace this whole panel and let's just upgrade the whole feed to it. If this is something that you want to do, you know, like obviously you can you choose what's best for you. Um I gave him the choice too where I could just move the breaker and just walk away for 150 bucks. And so that option ended up being like a little bit over $4,000 or something like that. And he's just like, I want to do that one. That's amazing. How did that what okay? So he he said, I want to do that one. Wait, do you take the top option? Yeah, so he took that top option. And I fully didn't expect the him to do that, but I wanted to at least give him the choice. And, you know, he's just like, it's gonna be really hard for me to do it, but he's like, I think that's the right thing to do, and that's what's gonna be best for me long term. And you know, he thanked me too for even offering that to him. And you know, he did express in that in that moment. He's like, I'm not sure if anybody else would have even offered that to me, just based on what what other trades I've he used to do drywall. And he's like, just based on what I've experienced from other electricians and stuff, he's like, I'm honestly really surprised that you even offered that to me, and thank you. And I was like, yo.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

They're talking about testimonial right there. You know, those are like the aha moments that like shift our brains because we were taught by the industry, once again, just do the thing. And most electricians, I mean they'd say a lower income neighborhood, drop it down and be like, all right, you know, it is what it is, not really worried about it. They got no money. But at the same time, you resisted that urge. Like, was there any part of you that was like just let me just get out of here? Like, I'm wasting my time making these options. Well, yeah, there totally was.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

There totally was, you know, but it just yeah, the urge, you know, the urge had definitely crossed my mind, but you know, before giving into it, I just decided I'm like, you know, that just doesn't feel like the right thing to do. I love that from a moral standpoint.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

And the coolest thing is he's right, very few electricians would offer those things. So the fact that you stood out not only solidified the options or the way, but you only had offered four options. Could you imagine what would have happened if you stepped that up by another two? Yeah, I mean, who knows? Yeah, we it could have been anything, right? So you know, question, because I know we've been working together for a while, and your current close ratio is really astounding for lack of better words. It's 55% at a $3,800 average ticket, correct? Now, first off, hats off to you, man. That's great. I know you've grown so much. When you first broke into residential, right? Like, I want to try and have some comparison because clearly you're following the service process, you're creating options, you're serving customers at a high level. What was it originally? Like, if you could say, like, I'm walking into a call, a residential service call for whatever, what would your usual average ticket be and how often would you actually close it?

SPEAKER_03 21:45

So it's hard to say because in the very beginning, I just worked for, you know, I started at $50 an hour because I'm like, I'm gonna be the best and cheapest service guy in town. Cheers to that the mission of everyone right now, right? And uh, you know, then I was like, I could. barely afford gas. You know, so realistically, yeah, on an on the average call, like I probably might walk away with a couple hundred bucks or something like that. You know, but that was when, you know, that was like in the first, you know, four to six months of the business. You know, I didn't start switching into doing a flat rate until I learned about service loop. And then, you know, before before I got involved with you guys, I was just adapting as much as I could and absorbing as much as I could um you know just from listening to the podcast and picking other bits and pieces out of like the reps group on Facebook and just kind of seeing how other people are doing things and you know just trying to absorb as much as I possibly could because I'm like I gotta figure this out. You know, it's really hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

But you literally had a 10x because you're saying a couple hundred dollars, like what three, two, three hundred dollars kind of thing. But you're at 3800. So even if it was a 380 dollar ticket, you just 10x that and that's your average. Like if you don't want me asking what is your highest service uh residential ticket been if you don't want me asking so it's about in total it was about $24,000.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

So it's it's pretty much an yeah it's an entire whole system renovation. It started out as a actually it started out as a a call for adding a switch for a garbage disposal. Okay I gotta hear this.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

It starts over how do you go from switch to like let's gut the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Well so well yeah so this guy he's an absolutely wonderful person. You know especially yeah absolutely wonderful person. But he called because he wanted to have a switch added for his garbage disposal he's been making made slowly making some upgrades in his home and uh you know so we did the thing for him but he had also mentioned along the way he's just like hey you know he's like I am really interested in getting uh these panels taken care of and you know they're old Zensco panels it was really weird how it was set up and it was like custom somebody like that was like inside of the home but somebody flipped cut a hole in the back of it and put the guts for the meter in there and it was like partially in a window and covered with sheet metal that somebody had tacked together. It was like one of the craziest things I've ever seen you know um and he's like yeah I'm really concerned about the Zinsco panel you know he's like can you can you give me a price for that as well and I was like yeah you know I'd be happy to do that for you. So I built him six options and he ended up taking a $9,000 option platinum option uh for doing the whole uh for doing the whole service renovation and it got pretty involved you know we ended up having to relocate the service because of where the overhead wire was with the roof it wasn't going to be code and uh yeah so we had to relocate the service and install a new 200 amp panel inside and we added in all of the arc fault protection we brought the whole panel system up to modern safety standards. Yeah and then you know but he had a lot of older wiring and stuff too so as things started moving along you know he's like I want to get some of the wiring done and he just when he's like I do want to just get the house rewired and so we worked with him on that. And then so it just kind of kept cascading and cascading and in total it was ended up being about $24,000. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

And you know I love the fact that it's almost like how to best describe it it seems like you're very humble with it. You know it's like well you know it was only 24 but really think about what happened like let's let's break this down. Previously old bill prior to SLE prior to options prior to price like guy calls for one switch what are you walking away with 75 bucks we'll say so so we went we went I'm gonna wants the switch change like cool yep I will I'll do it for 75 bucks. I'm gonna do some math right now I was gonna say so we're at 24000 divided by 75 so it's a that's massive so pretty much 320 like that's absolutely nuts. It's like it's like okay well how'd you do I did a 320% increase it's like all right I could take that it's pretty solid. Yeah when you put it like that you know honestly Joe I didn't think of it that way before. Well it's pretty cool because obviously I'm sure my math is wrong here because it sounds like it sounds even more astronomical if you're thinking 75 divided by 22 like that's nuts. But the cool part is is that he chose it. And I think really what comes down to it is you gave them the dignity of choice which seems like being a consistent theme with you. Give him the dignity of choice and we're gonna get into that a little bit but that it also you didn't push anything. You're like I'm here for this if you want it sure I'll quote you for that and then here's some ways we can quote you for that and oh by the way you take my platinum wonderful you want more you say okay well I can help you with that like I I love that it's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

Well yeah well how am I gonna say no to a great person you know somebody that's great to work with how am I gonna say no to them you know if they want us to do the work and they're a good fit for us to work with and by all means I'll come to your house 50 times in the next two months you know I love that man.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

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SPEAKER_02 27:55

So at the end of the day it seems like really building options has been like transformative for you. Like what would you want to teach the average electrician? I mean obviously it doesn't have to be about options but like if you could go back to yourself you know back anyway in 2023 like if you could start back then what would you tell yourself?

SPEAKER_03 28:11

What would you want to teach yourself myself is to I guess really just kind of just believe in myself more because I think that was one of the things that I had really struggled with in the beginning you know especially after you know coming out of that experience from the fire and you know all of the stuff and just having to kind of deal with all of that and heal through all of that. You know it was hard in the beginning because I was just like man what did I get myself into this business thing is like so much harder than I thought it was going to be because I had a completely different perspective where you know I had helped a friend who was really spearheading it and he did an amazing job build up this for electrical department from where you know from just two people and I think at the top end of it it was like 14 guys or something like that. And it blew up. So you know I went into it I was like yeah this is gonna be awesome. Maybe two weeks I'll get it done don't you worry and I was like God this is really hard like can I even do this and you know but it's like just stick to it and just don't give up on it and put in the work and like collect the data and you know don't worry so much about the outcome of it. Figure out what the main steps that you need to do to get to the point of where you're gonna be is you know how to get there. Like you need to have the inputs in order to get the correct output. I think that's probably the thing that's helped me the most over the last you know maybe year, year and a half or something like that. You know, is just don't focus so much on the outcome. Just figure out you know focus on the steps of getting there first. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

So it's almost like let's start at alpha because a lot of times someone will come into a home and they'll see the big home and they'll see the big project and they'll be like all right I'm gonna start at the end of like all the stuff that's included. Whereas it sounds like you are like let's start with connecting with the client. Let's figure out what's going on. Why do they want this? Who's affected by it? Why now all of a sudden and leading yourself through those where they're just throwing a number and the number may be great you're gonna be at a premium but they got to experience your character they learned your personality became friends with them as you go. So I think that's really commendable you've been able to pull that off so consistently as well. I mean obviously I think you're easy to talk to but like you know at the same time it's good to see your clients do the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Yeah thank you. You know yeah I mean I like to think so you know I do the best that I can to you know to just listen to people. I think that's also really one of the biggest things with it is just listening to people. And you know when somebody says something you know listen to that feeling in your brain or in your gut that says that like you know whatever they might have just said might be important. And ask another question about it. You know or if somebody has something broken and you know say somebody saw sparks flying out of the wall just ask them you're like you know well what was that like you know get them to talk about it more and figure out what what they want as a person and then serve them the best that you can to what they're telling you.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Man after my own heart. It's almost like the closest example I can think of is a customer calls and says I want an interlock and the other situation is like all right I'll get one interlock at one inlet you know maybe maybe 50 amp maybe 30 amp depending how cheap I want to go in out three hours. But the question is well why do you want interlock? Like you how long have you lived here? How long have you been without it? Like why did you just wake up and say you know what I haven't burned enough money on the electrical system. Let's add something we don't need. And then finding out it's like well the reason why I want it is I travel for work and I've got my wife and daughters who are home and I want to make sure they're taken care of because we get freaking power outages now the whole scope has changed. Because it could have been let's just slap it an inlet but now actually I'll even ask you I'm gonna put you on the spot here if you have a homeowner who wants a portable generator system and they're concerned because you know the guy is traveling for work and you have a spouse and two children at home what are some in cre what are some includes that you feel would be appropriate for that kind of generator system um system. What do you think would be appropriate to quote okay putting you on the spot but at the same time I I trust you I know you can pull this off you know for sure.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Yeah I mean realistically I would want to do whatever's going to be easiest for them. So if they if they absolutely want a portable and portables are my favorite type of generator to install honestly 100%. I think I mean we had a big thing we had a big wave of standbys and since the utility company has moved all of their infrastructure and everything underground standbys are just not as helpful as they used to be you know people around here just don't really lose power that often anymore you know depending on the area there's still a lot that do. But to answer your question though the goal would just to be is make it make it as easy as possible. So I would say like on the top end of it, you know, 50 amp inlet, mechanical interlock, those are so hard to screw up and they come with the instructions that you can stick in the panel if you ever forget, you know, you can just follow the bouncing ball so to speak and get it done. You know but then also like what I've also done in the past is like do kind of like a consultation with people and be like okay what are the circuits in your home that are the most important to you and then I'm gonna take like a red marker or red nail polish or something like that or green whatever's going to be easiest for you to remember those are the ones that are going to stay on when you turn the generator system. Like these are your emergency ones you know so I kind of go like I tend to push more green because it's like green means go. Yep. You know like we want to do green because green means go. So those are the ones that stay on you know so doing that consultation figuring out what the most important ones are and then I've also offered to you know provide the generator myself and be like okay like here's one that has a you know an electric start on it. You're not sitting there when the weather sucks or anything like that, ripping pull courts trying to figure out what to do. All you need to do is just flip a switch flip a switch hit a button hit a few more switch you know just try to make it as easy as possible. Anything that I can come up with you know as far as the location for the inlet to most of the time put it right in front of the panel so then that way you can start the generator everything's all next to each other you're not walking back and forth those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

I love that so the thing that stands out that I think would help the most people break it down is get into the mind of what they're gonna have to go through when this thing happens.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Exactly yeah you know and then also you know yeah I mean if it's just uh you know if it's just like a stay-at-home mom with her kids and she's got to operate this thing, you know, got to make sure too like how's she gonna get the generator in place? You know they're not exactly light.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

You're not curling it in the back of the shop no yeah you know I I love that skill that you have because at the end of the day we have to design it as if they're gonna go through it. So having automatic backup lights that come on over the panel over the generator and having electronics protection and having the propane notification outages if it's on LP, you know, I think all these things are super helpful. So now that we've tested you on some options so you know right so going let's go further into it. So I know that a lot of electricians get stuck like and they feel that options can be salesy or that they could be pushy or things like that. What would you say in in defense what would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_03 35:29

You know as far as like feeling salesy and not being able to go through that process.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Why can't I just offer the one thing why can't I just slap in an interlock and walk away like why do I have to offer these things what why can't I just get in and out because I'm a lot of like you really wanted to I mean you you really could if that's what you wanted to do.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

You know it's kind of like we've been talking about I'm all about giving people the choice. If that's what you want to do then more power to you. That's you know it is what it is. I can't stop you on that one. You know but also too you know and just you know as far as listening to people too you know and just just listening to people and if if you get the impression that you feel like you're gonna be coming off as salesy you know just ask them. Just have a real conversation with the person that you're with you know we're all we're all people and you know and if you're feeling uncomfortable you're getting a weird vibe just be like hey you know just time out you know I feel like you know there might be a little bit of a gap between us you know have I done something wrong you know and get down to the bottom of it and if they straight up tell you like you know I just I don't really want any options and you know you can pry a little bit and just be like well you know I I gotta at least let you know about some of the stuff that I found. I don't expect you to do anything about it. I feel like it could be doing you a major disservice by at least not explaining it to you but hey at the end of the day it's your home and it's your choice if that's what you want then that's what I'll do. Yeah you don't want to you don't you don't want to be pushing all that stuff. You just treat it like a real person. Exactly yeah you're giving people the choice you're not pushing anything on them.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

You know the whole goal is to educate yeah the consistent theme that I've seen is just authenticity. Like you're real with your friends you're real with all of us you're real with everyone you meet with your clients and then every defense is like go back to the humanity of it. Learn how you can help them. How do I serve you? How can I really serve you? Not just I know what you're asking but I gotta know why you're asking it so I can actually solve that emotional problem. And I think actually it comes to explain why you've been winning so much. Like from my understanding you had your record was what like 3839 and then you broke it again in April at like 44000 and you broke it again in June at like 58000. Like that's amazing. What do you think has led to those kind of record breaking sales month after month?

SPEAKER_03 37:49

I think it's just I I think it is just a lot of giving the people of doing more of you know making the offers bigger I would say is one thing. We've had a lot of bigger opportunity you know like with the 58000 month a lot of that came from just several really big opportunities that have been kind of cooking for a while but also too you know it does come down to the options design on that and being able to go in and make those bigger offers for things like doing a whole standby generator system you know doing full panel renovations doing whole system renovations things like that where you know some people may go into it being like crap you know there's a Zinsco panel I don't want to touch this thing you know I just want to get out of here but it's just having an open conversation with somebody because that's realistically most of our work is doing Zinsco panels. God bless you man that's what I for some reason there's so many of them around here and we've just become that's our reputation is we're the people that you're saying we fix Zinko's I mean could you couldn't ask for better reputation than that.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Like we don't actually have Zinsko's in New York we I find a lot of federal Pacifics still there's still fuse panels you know rolling around that you occasionally you'll run into but like the old colorful Zinsko's not all the time then so it's cool that it seems like more of a a Western thing.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

For sure. Yeah which is really interesting to hear that we have tons of Zinsko's I've seen maybe two federal Pacifics in my entire career. It's okay they both explode and catch fire so like it doesn't matter. Oh yeah they have to rip it yeah but you know I feel like we're maybe before in the beginning where I may not have said anything to somebody and been like oh you know that's I know that's not safe and you know that's gonna suck if it does fail I might mention it to somebody but it's like as far as actually offering the education and being like hey I just want to have an honest honest conversation with you. I don't expect you to do anything about it but I do feel like I should at least bring it to your attention you know just in case something does happen then you're not caught off guard by it. You know and just being able to approach people honestly and also offer too it's like you know and it's like okay you know that is something that we can do. I encourage what I always tell people is I encourage you to do your own research on these panels and just because I have personally see what happens when they fail and it is not pretty yeah I mean that that reality is such a level of authenticity because it's one thing to say like you know if you don't do this I hate using the word fire.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Like I try to I say the F-word when it comes to the fire and like listen I don't want to say the F word like like you you you what do you think is going to end up happening? You know so I love that we can kind of go there but you have the experience you can't argue with someone who's like well you really think it's gonna happen well here's what happened to me and this is something I want to prevent and therefore that's why I'm offering it. Well damn all right well I guess like it makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Yeah well for sure too and then it's like with those things specifically like some of the things that I always like one the one thing that I hear all the time you know is like well it's been there since the 80s and we've never had a problem with it. And it's like well that's the thing about these systems is that they always seem normal but you don't know what's going on behind the scenes and behind the walls and in the boxes. You know that's where you know that's where the major problem is going to be you know you may never know that there's a problem that's just how these things are it's a really unfortunate issue that they came up with on that one.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

And even crazier like I remember going to a service call where some people just don't care. They know and don't care. Like I remember going to a call and we get down to this basement an old house and the panel has got like arc marks and water entry points and like this is like short of stuffing it with grass. Like it really this thing was gonna blow and I remember talking to the homeowner and kind of explaining what the observations and he's like oh it's fine we're good I was like why like why why are we good? Like there's not a concern he's like yeah I have a fire extinguisher at the top of the stairs you should be good and I remember like can you show me the fire extinguisher he's like yeah it was an old antique one that had no fluid in it it was like circa 20s or something it was like it was so old like like you'd see it in a museum and I'm like you do realize like they need to be charged regulated he's like the expiration dates don't make sense like that's not a thing but so occasionally I'll find someone who doesn't care but that's the far minority I love that you're exploring and at least giving the dignity of choice and they're rewarding you as a result. Thank you for telling me Bill I didn't think anyone would ever offer it. No one would offer this thank you for at least making the suggestion like that's huge.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

For sure yeah I mean and then for those people too because I do run into that fairly often too where you know I mean people do care about safety and everything at least on a minimum level you know but if somebody doesn't want to do something about it and they're not concerned about it I'm not gonna push it on them. You know that's it's their house it's their choice you know the best that I can do is to just at least educate them as best I can and at least offer to do it but you can't help those that don't want to be helped.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Yeah like if they got a hole in the floor and they're like hey just walk around it and you're like okay I'll walk around and we're not gonna dress okay we'll just hug the wall okay cool it's no problem. So I guess there's one last win that I want to get into and it just I correct me on my knowledge because I'm trying to best to remember there was a win where you got something like a 30x return on one of your ad spends right and I know recently you got a higher one where it was like a 10k return for like a 50 $5300 job you spent spending like $400 $500 in it. Can you tell me about like how does that work? Like how have you been able to make that happen?

SPEAKER_03 43:34

So I'll admit that's been a that's been a challenge to figure that out so I believe what you're referring to was was a meta ad that we had put out. Yeah talk about that one. Yeah so what we had done was we we actually hired Dylan's partner because she has a lot of experience in marketing and everything. She had she helped us build this ad and she did A fantastic job with it. She came up with this really cool concept where it was a still image of a Zinsco panel, but it was like a newspaper style thing. Like it said, like Zinsco panels are so old news, don't wait for the has. You know, it was really cool how she put it together. And we decided to run it. And yeah, I mean, like the first lead that we got from it ended up turning into, yeah, it was like a $5,300 job because somebody saw it and was like, hey, I have one of those in my house. And so they reached out and they're like, hey, can you give me a consultation for it? And it's like, yeah, absolutely. And so we just went in and we just ran the play, and that was it. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

And you know, the coolest thing is I like the fact that you have the humility to be like, well, we're still trying to figure that out. Because sometimes even the best ads, the ones that perform best, are the ones you didn't think were gonna work. Like you can make a Facebook and be like, like, hey, I'm just I'm putting out filler, and it's like a hundred comments. It's like, wait, what? Like, what's going on here? So I I love that you got that, man. So is there any is there any other marketing or expertise or anything you'd wanna you'd want to share with any electrician, or is that just not uh an area hot topic for you?

SPEAKER_03 45:09

No, I'm happy to talk about it. Uh I'll admit I don't have the most experience in it, but I freaking love marketing. It's super interesting. I know the one thing that the biggest thing for us is Google. Okay. That's really just always been the biggest driver for us. Just getting involved with having a good business profile, uh, getting signed on with LSA. That was, you know, now we've moved more organic, but LSA was the biggest driver forever. That was the bread and butter. So it's nice to be able to kind of move away from that and go more organic and not be paying for leads all of the time. It's safer too.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Like if you can generate if you can generate your own leads, like that goodbye slow season.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Exactly, yeah. And so that's one of the things too, you know, and then as far as generating two uh leads, you know, also having membership programs and referral programs. That's the the membership thing has been a really good thing for us, and uh some of our branding is kind of built around it. Like on the back of my shirt, it says first class service, because I really believe that's what we do, and we have our first class members and everything. And uh so having that as a recurring source, and you know, actually, we just uh I went to go visit one of our first class members yesterday. They had called us back to do some uh some lighting in the backyard and some additional outlet points and stuff like that, and they're just super great people to work with, and so I'm really happy to be you know working with them again and you know building those relationships and those memberships really help with that. But so one of the our our next thing is really building up like a referral system because we do get repeats, we do get referrals, and I would like to get a lot more of that. So that's our that's gonna be our next kind of big adventure on that. So we've kind of done our thing on Meta, you know, we're doing the best that we can on Google. There's always ways that we can do better, do more, and improve that. And so, you know, we'll always be pouring our resources into that, but then we also need to kind of have these other streams too, so that we always have consistent leads coming in.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

I love that, man. Do you mind if I ask you? I uh personally, like I genuinely think you're a good guy. Like you're good to talk to you, you've got a lot of experience, you care about your community, you want to serve. Let's say there's someone here listening who wants to partner with you or wants to work with you or wants to work for you. Like, how would you be open to giving your contact information? So there's someone out there is like, you know what, this sounds like a kind of guy I want to work with. Would you be open to doing that? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 47:41

So yeah, I'm always open to conversations and yeah, so you can always reach out on the website, red dirtelectric.com. You can find us on Facebook. We do have an Instagram. I mean, my name is Bill Whiteman. You can always try to find my profile on Facebook and message me directly. You know, yeah, email red dirtelectric at gmail.com. Yeah, if anybody ever needs anything help, has any questions, um, you know, wants to know more about us, know more about what we do, different things, you know, anything. Even just to have a conversation, just say what's up, you know, always happy to talk to people. I can vouch that he's good for conversation.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

I personally, I personally vouch for that, man. Well, well, thank you. I really do appreciate it because I really do feel like after hearing your story, there are going to be people who want to connect with you, are going to want to learn from you, want to be like, how did you get there? And I'm honestly, you're having an amazing pace. You're doing really, really well. You've grown immensely since I first started knowing you. And I couldn't be more proud of you. I just want to say in front of everyone here, like I am genuinely and truly, from the bottom of my heart, so proud of who you are, what you represent, and what you've built. You deserve all the good things in the world, man.

SPEAKER_03 48:47

You really, really do. Thank you, Joe. That really means a lot coming from you. It really, it truly does, and I'm really honored to hear that. You've been an amazing teacher, and I I can't thank you enough because without your guys' help, none of this would even be happening. And so I'm really glad that we were able to find each other and work together. And, you know, it's been truly an honor, and I appreciate you guys. It goes both ways.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

You know, I like to say we're the GPS, but it's you who put your finger put your foot on the gas, right? Like I'm telling you to turn left. You could have turned right, but you followed the advice and you drove the car there. So I love that. Yeah, you gotta give yourself credit too. All right, awesome. So before we wrap up, is there any last-minute closing things, like anything you'd want to say? You got the mic, you got like the whole world listening. Is there anything you'd you'd want to share? Or anything else you'd feel would be helpful for someone in?

SPEAKER_03 49:33

I think if I was gonna say anything, it's just if you're gonna go into the mindset of or if you're gonna go into service, really go into it with the mindset of serving people. I think as long as you, you know, if you're new to business or you have a business that you want to niche into service and do all that stuff, like if you if you make the business about the client, there's absolutely no way that you can fail. Which I believe I stole that from Alex Hormozy. But it's okay. That's but he's absolutely right.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Yeah, hormosey is like a giant now, and I love everything he's been teaching. He's honestly got a lot going for him. So if you want to quote some hormosy, you have my blessings to do so. It is totally welcome here.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

Yeah, and it's a hundred percent true. If you make the business about the client, you cannot fail. It's it's that's basically it. You know, that and have fun and make people smile.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

There you go. All right, Bill. Well, I want to say thank you so much for having bring giving us the opportunity to have bring you on here. I know your story is not only touching, but it's gonna help inspire a lot of people and seeing what's possible, like going from here's a $75 ticket to here's a $9,800 ticket. Like, I love that you were able to go there. So, again, you know, Bill, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to serve you. And for everyone listening, I wish you peace, mercy, blessings, abundance, and may all the good things in the world be upon you. Take care, friends, and all be blessed. Cheers.