S3 EP49 How a One-Man Electrical Shop Hit a $60K Month | Bill Goldman

SPEAKER_03 0:00

You gotta have a plan, or you fall into someone else's plan. You set your whole day aside. And that seems like a lot that's in the industry when you're working for someone else, especially throughout different economies and different rises and falls. But if you have your own thing, yeah, you're going home, but at least you're putting effort in for your own stuff. And if you have time for your family and are able to actually invest in and have more time with your kids and doing all that, like that's incredibly commendable.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

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

SPEAKER_03 0:35

I'm Joseph Witani, and today's my co-host Clay New Meyer. We're here to share the secrets of how electricians sell over a million dollars in a single service bank.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Now it's time for sales. It's time for sale. It's time to become a million-dollar electrician. Hello and welcome back to another great episode of the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast. As always, with me, my esteemed co-host, Jason Jason. I almost said Jason. Jason, the sales bot Lucani. Joseph's evil twin brother is here today. Joe, how you doing today, brother?

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Jason decided that he wasn't available today, so I had to step in. But I'm feeling great. Honestly, I've been looking for this particular episode for a long time. So I'm on cloud nine. I'm just ready to rock and roll.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

We got a guest with us. Again, another great interview. Joe, why don't you do the intro today? You and Bill were uh chumming it up real good backstage. I don't want to take this from you.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

No worries. So I'm gonna come off with a level of bias because I genuinely love this guy. He's an awesome person in addition to being an awesome electric. The things that we love connecting over is he's got an amazing brain for tech and constantly rising to the occasion of how to serve in new and creative ways, which is why we've always hit it off so consistently. So, Bill, not only are you close by where I live, which I absolutely love, but you have an awesome origin story, like of how you actually chose to jump into this, which is really, if nothing else, pretty amazing. Would you be so kind as illuminating us as to how you even got here?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah, I've been doing electric for about 15 years. About half of that was um, it was with a new construction company, a lot of generators, a lot of custom homes. While I was there, I discovered how much I detest, you know, new homes, long projects. I know what to do. I just there's so much you can care about. I I would kind of get lost in it. And even within that company, I kind of became the service tech. If anyone called, they wanted to add stuff, things were broken. I kind of steered away from the project work and into that, you know, shorter project.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

I love that in and of itself because even though you're surrounded with a particular industry, you know how it's almost like the five people to hang out with inspire you and direct your course of life? You were surrounded with new construction, said that's not enough, or that's not where I want to put my passion into, and broke away what what everyone surrounded you by. Like that's pretty cool. What made you decide to have that interest or that particular passion? I love service work, but like we're not all not all of us are like that. So especially if you came from new construction, how'd you make the switch?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

It wasn't even like a oh, I I love service work. It was um maybe like the troubleshooting aspect, you know, just putting stuff together, finishing it, being done. As a kid, like I was 10 years old putting together IKEA furniture, and I know you know grown adults hate it. I didn't know how brutal it was at that point, but uh it was just you know, putting stuff together was always something I enjoyed. From there, I ended up at a a solar company doing you know, more of that short project-oriented, you know, they get a job, the meter panels broke in or rusted out, something is just not suited. They didn't want to make an investment onto someone's home with their electrical system in that poor shape. So that's where I would come in. I was not the roof guy doing panels, also not my cup of tea. I don't bring one bit there. It's not a fun installation.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

No.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

But even you know, throughout all of this, I I also grew up in a community where it was probably more common than average, where people just, you know, have their own companies, do their own thing, very entrepreneurial. Most a lot of my friends' parents had their own company, you know, just kind of that was embedded in me from a younger age. So even when I, you know, I graduated high school, I didn't want to go into a job that where I could see the ceiling. So I I kind of ended up in electrical after I went for electrical engineering, not for me. College was not the path. Interesting. I didn't know you had the engineering background, but if anything, like that would explain your interest in tech, you know? No, I I went for electrical engineering and all of the gen ed's core curriculum, you know, not my alley. I cut that out, and my mom is like, Oh, you can't just sit at home and do nothing. And just instinctively, I I just signed up for the trade school. Like, there was no second guessing it. I'm like, yeah, I was going for electrical engineering, I might as well go for electrical trade. Yeah, so that that's how I got into it, the dirty part.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Yeah, you're you said the dirty part, but I'm gonna stop you because I think it's cool what you did, right? Being able to say, like, in fact, I'm just gonna set you up for this. It's like the inspirational moment where you said, I need to do this, actually, from what I understand, wasn't directly your idea. Someone had suggested it.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Can you tell me more about that? No one suggested to go into electric. Um it was just like, you know, I I see all these people there, and again, you don't see the work that goes into it. You just see like, oh, you drive a nice car, you just came back from a nice vacation, and like, you know, all of that. So no matter how many people told me, you know, running your own business is gonna be tough and it's gonna be tiring. I believe them, I just didn't believe how true it was. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yeah, I don't believe in one bit. You know, you see someone with a business and you're like, oh wait, well, he's driving a Lamborghini, how bad could he really be doing? But you don't realize that it took him lots of situations, possibly two divorces and a bankruptcy, to even reach that level in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

No, it's real. Once I'm in it, like, I don't want to go back. Even just me and myself right now, I'm the only one at Goldwire installing and doing estimates. I'm able to, you know, make a good amount of money and have more time at home without having to worry about all this other stuff. Like at the solar company, if they were slow on work, they would be like, all right, just come to the shop in the morning, we'll figure something out. So I it's a 40-minute drive to the shop, unpaid. Talk to someone, all right, go to this house, reroute a pipe, call me when you're done. Like 11 o'clock, I'm done. Hey, what's going on? Um, all right, that's it. So I got paid for two and a half hours that day, go home, and that was my day. I I reserved my entire day for them. There's not a lifestyle that was worth keeping.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Play, what was the quote that Jim Rohn made about other people's plans? I know you you always say it better than me, I kind of mess it up a little bit. Can you I think it's perfect for the situation?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

You gotta have a plan or you fall into someone else's plan, you know what they have planned for you. Not much. Not much.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

Because it seems like that. Like you set your whole day aside, and that seems like a lot that's in the industry when you're working for someone else, especially throughout different economies and different rises and falls. And it's like, well, I don't have time for him. Okay, we'll just send him home. But if you have your own thing, yeah, you're going home, but at least you're putting effort in for your own self. The fact that you have time for your family and are able to actually invest in and having more time with your kids and doing all that, like that's incredibly commendable. There are not enough people who view it from the family aspect. And every time I've talked to you, it seemed like that was a really big motivating factor.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

As I mentioned earlier, I was listening to Connor's podcast, and he was talking about how he um he takes his boys to swim class. I'm like, you know what? I can do that. I have you know everything set up, I have my jobs lined up, everything's rolling, block off my first appointment on Wednesdays and take my son to swim class. So for the past month, I've been doing that.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

This is really big, and I need to just drive a stake in the ground right here and plant a flag because often entrepreneurs, myself included, all of us here, if you're listening to this, likely you too, we put ourselves through the ringer. We forget, we forget to put health family then business, and we let business fully take over and cast a shadow of who we are. And that's really important to realize, Peter Penn, because you go chasing this thing and you find there's no time left for the family. There's no time left for yourself. But the truth is you make the schedule, the truth is you quote the jobs, the truth is you control the whole positioning of your whole world, and yet maybe we don't have the skill set yet, maybe we don't have a friend to help us see this, yet we put ourselves in these situations, like I did, guys, and that's why I'm so passionate about this, because my daughter turns 18 in May. My time for the development is up at 17. I already see where I try to push dad, daughter, you know, lessons and knowledge now. I get a hard wall most times. Like those days are over. I already missed it with the projects. I already turned down too many weekends, lost too many nights. You can't get it back. This is the message. I need that to be drawn in here. You can't get this back. Bill, I'm so proud of you for making time to do that, man. What an important and just just a great thing to do. Thanks for hearing me out on that. Yeah, massive, massive. So, anyway, you heard that from Connor, and that inspired you to do this, or you're already on that path.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

No, I don't know. Uh like my my father-in-law's been taking my son. I mean, he's he's 18 months now, my and he's been taking him for about, I don't know, eight months or so. You know, it's you're holding him floating, like he's becoming comfortable in the water. He's not a swimmer.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

No, he knows how to bob, and that's the most important thing. Water and children terrify me to my core. So, like, I understand why you would do what you do. I'm upset I didn't even think of that before. It's never too late. They're in swimming now.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

I just didn't think at that early. Yeah, but uh, and I I always said, like, oh, if I'm free on a Wednesday morning, I'll I'll totally join you. You're never free on a Wednesday morning. What is that? Like, you have to block off your weekends, so you're free on the weekends. So, I mean, once I heard Connor, I'm like, I I actually messaged him on Facebook. I'm like, I just listened. Thank you. That's awesome, and I'm gonna start doing it. You know, it's just cool. I get to spend time with my son and my father-in-law, two relationships right there, and I get to see my kid swim.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Two words, Joe. Two words. Circular economy. Bill listened to a podcast, took something from it, one aha moment, made a difference in his own life. Now he's here to do the same for someone else.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

The thing that I love as well, like one, I 100% agree with you, but like what really brings a great amount of joy to my heart is when we put together this podcast, it was to do similar things. We had no idea who'd receive the message. But the fact that Connor did his thing and then he took the inspiration from it and said, All right, I'm gonna go work with it. I just love the fact that he was even available for people to take that inspiration from. Like, thank you, Connor, if you're listening as well, man. Like, it's great how these things happen. And Bill, I'm really excited to hear what you're gonna share. Not to put you under too much pressure, but like, you know what I mean? Like, what what life-changing moments are you gonna share? I'm just gonna repeat everything I heard on the podcast from other episodes. If you won't hype yourself up, I'm going to, because I have an immense amount of faith in you. I've seen you in numerous options classes and role play classes and process training classes, and everyone that we've developed, you've always been a constant person. And the thing that I love as well is you're always so quick to volunteer and share knowledge. Now, is that something you've always been like, or is it something where you've acquired that drive to put more out into the universe?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Because you do it in every class we interact with, which is why I'm so happy you it's definitely I've been doing it way before I joined SLE. You know, I mean, you guys can tell I'm a little technical.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

When I was in high school and you know, everyone had cars, not everyone knew how to fix their cars, and who would get the call? You know, that was me. I'd be happy to walk them through it. Like, oh, it could be the XYZ. If you want to bring it over, uh, you know, I have tools, whatever it was. Definitely happy to help people. Yeah, I don't know. It was it was nice to see people, you know, learning stuff. Bill, does that mean you're a car guy or just an engineering type? A buddy of mine, he was telling me about like a new Lamborghini, and I'm like, you know what? I love cars, but I'm not gonna like drool over the net newest hypercar. When it comes to you know fixing stuff, taking stuff apart, I can wrench pretty well. So I guess you know, there are a lot of electricians and there are a lot of different car people.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Okay, well, I have a very electric car question for you. It's not what you think.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Because I have an electric car.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I don't know if that's no, I didn't even know that. I was actually gonna go a different route and just make this a bit of a double entendre. But if you were to look at the success of your company and be able to say, I made it based on a single car that you get to drive around on your best day, what's that car for you? I've never asked that question before, but I just get the feeling it might land you. We're gonna get to know Bill by his choice of car right now. That's what's happening. Or truck or SUV, could be your choice.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

He's gonna want a double tractor trailer with double hitch. It's like real drive to double big big as he picks up the groceries.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah, or you're gonna answer my last question by saying, Ah, there's not really a car that I equate to success, which case I would just know, yeah, this is the engineer type guy.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

I would love to have, you know, a smooth rolling Lexus or something. I I don't think that's me, though. I don't I don't know. I've never been like, oh, if I make 400 grand this year, I'm gonna get a certain car.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

That's not this is not Nick Cage with yeah, yeah, okay. Very different. Anyways, uh, we can get off cars, guys. That's fine. Detour, pun intended. Uh what's your electric car though? What are you driving?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

So really it's my wife's car, but I'll take it if she's not using it. She has a Chevy bolt. Okay, do you like that thing? It handles like a go-kart. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It's got enough space for like we fit a stroller in the back, it's really cramped. I know a guy who could install a car charger, so that was uh pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And by the way, this is Bill's sense of humor. I've always appreciated that about you, Bill. Kind of dry like mine. You don't always recognize when the joke's been late. Except, wait, was it you joking about talking about me being funny looking? That was like that was one that landed flat. I think you felt you were out on a on a limb on that one just to make me feel good when I came into a class a minute after him. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah, it was uh me and Jericho before you uh hopped on in. If anything, does it show the amount of time I've spent with Bill? Because you know my concept of humor is very black and white. So the fact that I can register the sarcasm and humor means we have spent a lot of time together learning to translate what he's saying. Every class has been enjoyed though, man. It really has. Been your pleasure to work with.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Bill, why did you even decide to work with us in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

What hooked me was uh a post you made on on the Rebs page. Must have been March of 25 or so. And it was just, you know, do you want to serve less people, be more profitable, you know, leave a customer with a smile on their face? Like it was something I'm probably mixing it up a little bit, but those three points were definitely in there. And I'm like, that would be so cool if I could healthily profit and someone want to call me back. Uh so that was definitely what got me to talk to Austin. Through that, you know, initial interviewing process, I said something like, Oh yeah, I really want to learn how to to market myself to the more affluent neighborhoods. And he's like, That's not really what we're about. What are you talking about? How do you do this? Um and you do it.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

So your original thought was, Oh, these guys will hook me up with rich people, and that's what's gonna be the breakthrough for me, focusing on a certain demographic.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Because I didn't know any other way to provide that better service and get paid more because everyone's like, Oh, I I want all this, but for cheap. So that was the only thing in my head. I had no idea about the options and how to articulate the value you're providing.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

So, Bill, I gotta ask then, you're coming off a month where I think you've just doubled your record. You hit like 62k, great month. Was that just all rich people?

unknown 16:23

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

It was not. Was it because you're substantially better looking than me? Was that what it was?

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Uh they they did say something like that. I wasn't gonna bring it up. Yeah, you're just a better looking guy than the last electrician. We're gonna pick you. You know, even like outside of me and uh, you know, just other people who not even in service loop who are absolutely killing it in the service industry. I'm like, they're by no objective means are they, you know, a great looking person. It has it has nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

That's actually a really important point. I'm not gonna name drop, but sometimes we meet someone that's like, I don't know, maybe it'll work. And they listen and they try and it works. It doesn't really matter what you sound like, what you look like. It matters, I think, that your heart's in it. That's actually been one of the things I've constantly had my ear to the beat of that drum trying to figure that out too. It's not just looks, it's not just charisma. I really think it's authenticity and heart in a big way. What are your thoughts on that, Bill?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

I totally agree because um I'm definitely not the best-looking electrician out there either. And uh, I've been able to, you know, provide great value, and people are super happy. A to sign with me. No one's happy to give a deposit, but you know, they're happy to know I'm gonna be doing the work for them. And I've gotten so like a woman gave me a hug two weeks ago. Congratulations. Was that your first one?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Number one uh shots are fired here, Joe. I don't know if you could tell, but this is now a war.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Ah! I know that.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

No, someone uh broke into their home. They just called me up to install some ring cameras, and you know, that's it. And through the you know, discovery process of what's making you do this, they weren't gonna mention this to me at all. Oh, we had someone break into our house last week. I'm like, oh my god, like that's major. Like, we're gonna make sure your house is safe, we're gonna get all the corners covered. You know, the husband and wife, the husband was a little bit more calm during the whole process, and reasonably so, she was not because she just had someone break into her house. By the time everything's said and done, she's like, I just need to give you a hug. You know? Was this before or after you installed the roof mounted turret? But it had nothing to do with my haircut, it had nothing to do with I didn't discount my price at all. She was stoked.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

What was the call originally for? How many options do you offer? Where do they choose? What is the layout like?

SPEAKER_01 18:58

It's a a two-story home, attached garage on the left-hand side. They originally called me for a ring camera, a ring doorbell on the front. And he said he, you know, he did want some type of like motion sensors on the sides of the home. And I'm like, well, you know, why do you want motion sensors instead of cameras? And you know, we kind of evolved from there. And now we have, you know, it's not like every nook and cranny of the home is covered, but if you're gonna approach their home, you're gonna be caught on camera. The lights are gonna go on with motion. The ring cameras have like an AI built in to distinguish between animals, people, and cars. So he's not getting, you know, alert, alert, alert for a squirrel. Black bear at the door.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

We're not we're uh actually they might have had woods over the bears over there recently, but typically not. I gave him it's either five or six options while I was explaining the platinum, he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't need any of this. And then we ended up, you know, he built something on his own, and it ended up pretty much aligned with the gold package.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Out of curiosity, because he just said something, did you first introduce, hey, I don't expect you to take this, but it does include everything that line? And he still said whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yeah, so I told him, you know, this is the ultimate, the best way I could give you the coverage. Ring also has some glass break mod sensors that are in their ecosystem. Like, once I said the glass break sensors, which it's a $30 part, like it's not the money breaker. But once I said that, was when he was like, I I really don't need those. So I don't know, it probably came off a little bit richer than his taste. But uh, that's when he was like, Alright, I just want to do you know these five points, let me know what it is. And I'm like, Well, actually, I have those five points ran up right here. That's how it kind of tumbled.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So, gold, based on what they called for two gold, if you had to assess the difference in value, what do you think the price should have been uh for the average order taker who didn't ask why, who just did what the customer said, which is 90% of electricians today, 95 maybe, 99 maybe, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

If I just did what he said, talking at the ring doorbell and three motion lights around the house, probably looking at like 1400, 1500 in that range, and it ended up being close to four grand for that one.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Really well done, like three X, pretty well done. Yeah, yeah, just by offering more. You got a hug after the sale. Is that right? After the payment, like wow, and yeah. So this is proof. Maybe this is the aha moment for someone, you know. Bill had it about the swimming pool. Maybe for someone else, it's about not just being an order taker. Maybe throw that why question there. It reminds me of I think it's episode 134 because I recommend this one a lot, Joe, where we went into how the why tells us what to offer.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

I like that a lot. And the thing that comes to mind is because I always like to encourage people to say, if I'm going to design the best solutions, I have to think like the person you're trying to avoid. So if someone's trying to sell a house, I have to think like the inspector to catch the thing. If you're trying to design a home security system, I'm going to survive your house and say, How would I break into it? And then offer solutions to contradict what I think someone could break into.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Love it. So they weren't rich, suffered a break-in, you got the hug after, on top of a 3x, not just a sale, guys. I think this is important to say. One of the ways I position this in night school now, maybe you've heard it before, Bill, but I just say like 2x, 3x.5. That's kind of the easiest way to remember the track that we're on, which is yeah, we're going to probably be somewhere around twice the price as the market, the way that we're set up. But we're going to present three times more value. So we can feel good about that. And we're going to do that for half as many people. Obviously, and I'm sure you have your own experience to judge that already. Obviously, there's many cases where you're not two times the price. There's many cases where you're probably 10 times the value. And there's many cases where you're doing much more than half of the people that you go and see. However, just a great way to look at this and say, wow, if I really give more time to someone and increase my price accordingly so that I could survive and not only survive, but sustain, thrive, not survive, and focus on fewer people, that seems to be kind of what attracted you in the beginning, as you said. So do you feel that's true still for you today?

SPEAKER_01 23:29

A thousand percent. Before, you know, when I was doing service calls with other companies, if I ever ran into a house, oh, it's a trip GFI, that's gonna be $185. Amazing, you know, you extrapolate that, and it's like I just made $900 an hour only in that 10-minute span, and then you still have to drive somewhere else. If you don't have anything lined up, you're not making more money. You still only have that $185 in your pocket. So spending that time giving them value gets you value and a relationship. These people also wrote me a raving review. I told her about my referral program, and I'm like, you know, if you refer me, you get credit to any future work you want to do, and so does your friend who you referred. She's like, no, you keep that referral money, it's yours. You work for it. I'm like, like, I would have to pay Google or another ad service, and I'd rather give it to you. Well, we're gonna pass your name around and you're gonna keep it. I'm like, okay. Yeah, like I was so blunt with her. I'm like, it's it's really, it's not my money anyway. Like, I'm I'm happy to do this, but it didn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

You know, I think that really tells a lot about the interaction as a whole and who you are as a person. Because your first instinct, like the average person who's like, hey, I want to give you money, it's my obligation. And like, no, you keep it. Most people are like, oh, sweet, thank you for that. But the fact that you almost followed the Italian three-no rule, which is I can't say yes until I've heard no three times. I don't know if any listeners are also like that, but anyway, the fact is that you genuinely wanted to do this for someone, and she genuinely did not want you to have anything other than all the money in your pocket. Like it's so weird. Some people are like, oh, it's a unicorn customer, but I think you developed that through the character you are and your dedication to serve them at the highest level. Because that showcases a genuine thing that most people don't see in their providers the care and desire to actually serve and take care of them beyond the dollar.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

It does. And even, you know, if people get referred to me and uh they know, you know, you give my name to your friend, and they call me, no one knows anything about the referral program. Because I did work for you ten months ago, you totally forgot, you just remembered I had a great experience with Goldwire. They'll call me up and I'm oh, you know, since Clay referred you, you get money off of your total bill. Like, oh my god, thank you so much. That's so awesome. Uh just like walking into that, you know, that money falling out of the sky, that's great. But going back to this woman, she's Italian too, and that's why she wouldn't let me have it.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

Alright. You know what you should have done? You should have gone at least to the fours, and then she would have been obligated to give it to you. That's Italian culture, man. Like it's a whole vibe.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I'm gonna hit her up. She's on vacation now. That's why they wanted to push for the security, but I'm gonna reach out to her when they come back, see what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

I'm really happy for you, man.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

It sounds like you really blew their minds. I mean, you could go break a window and then call them an offer the platinum.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Well, you know the cool thing? I'm just gonna speak to the glassbreaker for a second because it actually provides a very functional idea that not a lot of people consider with security. Because if you think about it, the average sliding glass door is very actually easily broken into, provided you have a crowbar and a proper lift. But more people are gonna be lazy and they're gonna break it and not trigger the sensor. So the glass break would be the only thing that sets the alarm. So you have to ask yourself if I were to break into this home, how would I do it? One hit through the glass, sensor doesn't break, home is now compromised. So the glass break almost seems like the ethical option to offer if you truly want to see it through the deniance. And the fact that you offered it gave her the complete experience. They declined it, but it wasn't because you didn't put it on the table and give a reason why.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

They got what they wanted and they knew what was available. That was the other part. Because at one point he was just gonna go for the, you know, we just need some motion sensors to scare people away. But now they have full recording around their whole home.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

One day, Bill, one day we're gonna design an auto turret to be on AI programming like they have for uh for air defense, and the camera will be programmed person. All right, no problem, set the alarm. Just start scanning.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

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. So, Bill, biggest month, July. Crushed it over 60k. Do you remember what your close rate was on that one?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

I know it was north of 50%. I don't remember exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Yeah, record show 55. Yep. Again, we talked about the 2x3x.5. So Bill closed 55% over 60k in sales himself. You're also doing all the installs still, right? Still a small, humble, one electrician shop.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Your average ticket. What do we have on record, Joe? Do you see it?

SPEAKER_03 28:59

We have six thousand eight hundred and seventeen dollars and ninety-nine cents.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

So yeah, you're over sixty, eight hundred, right? Yeah. Average ticket. Incredible. 55% close rate. Almost as many people said yes to you as said no to you, or or didn't answer it all in the in that short term. How do you deal with that? There's a lot of points. How do I deal with which part? That all the no's. Like half your people just did not decide or said, you know what, no, we're gonna go with someone else.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

I mean, you know, the people who ghost me, they uh I I go to my Haskell Pro and they get the checkbox that says do not service. You know, that helps me mentally, puts a smile on my face. For anyone else who, you know, if you're up front with me, like if you tell me you know, I totally understand where you're at and your pricing and your value, like, because they see it. And it's not like, oh, we we're just gonna hire a handyman. If if you could tell me, like, I want to go with you and it's just not in the budget, or we you know, it's just we're gonna go with someone else, I'm fine with that. Like they know what I'm capable of doing, and they chose to go with someone else, that's totally fine.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

I think it's really cool that you put it for do not service. Because I agree with that logic. Don't get me wrong, but there's a certain satisfaction in someone not going with you and not calling you, and then them calling you a few weeks later and be like, hey, you know, you remember the project that we had you come back with? Well, there's something we got it done, but something's not quite right with it. And then you get to come back and find a whoever cobbled it and then we fix it, and it's like, oh, well, here's what we're charging, and then here's what it costs to fix everything you already tried doing yourself.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Maybe I could push my ego out of the way for a situation like that. You know, if you tell me, uh, oh, I'll get back to you tomorrow, and then I call you tomorrow, we just have to uh my wife or something, another excuse, and then the third day I call, we ended up going with someone else.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Do I really want to go back and forth with that kind of person? It's not necessary. And the cool thing is, is that you're surrounding yourself almost, it's just like a future projection. The people that you serve replicate more people who are like them, right? If you're in a situation where you pursued those people who are ghosting you, they will eventually refer you to those who are similar to them and their friends and their networks. So because you're avoiding that and taking on people who can appreciate you, who can respect you, and can enjoy the level of service providing, you're actually creating a tribe of future customers who have similar values and will all have mutual respect for you. That's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Yeah, no, it's it's building my circle. It's great.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Call it a tribe, if you will. But like the people who you surround yourself with, whether they're your friends, whether than your family, whether your clients, they be get more of the same. So if you choose to be around the right people, you'll just end up with more good people.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

It's a great system. It really is. Like from the beginning, you know, that first phone call, you know, all right, let's get you taken care of, showing up. People know that they're getting served at a higher level before talking to me.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

What do you think is the number one thing? Like, obviously, I love working with Harold. I think he's phenomenal. I think he's really good at what he does. What's the kind of feedback that is given that makes you feel that like, oh, they know that they were served from the beginning? Like, what are you hearing as a result from that?

SPEAKER_01 32:17

I mean, I've I've had customers in their homes tell me, oh, it was it was really a pleasure speaking to Harold. He really, you know, he he followed up, he didn't let me fall through the cracks, uh, he you did what he needed to to get me to get you here today, and like we're just going through this, you know, the the oven's not working. Like that's horrible for a home. Like four kids in the house, you need to work an oven.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Yeah. Take out only go to you so far, man.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yeah. So I've gotten some direct feedback. Uh, I do, you know, the the calls are recorded. I also go back for the most part. Everyone's, you know, hangs up in a better mood than they called.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

You know what? Next time I see him in CR class, I'm gonna give him some special love and be like, hey, I came from the source itself. You're doing a good job. No, he's great.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Uh I got really lucky getting paired up with him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Before the show in our notes, I had this bit of a philosophy that you hold. Prioritizing what matters was number one. Focusing on the bottleneck instead of the wildfire was number two, and maintaining mental state, number three. When you said focusing on the bottleneck instead of the wildfire, what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 33:29

There are so many things I can work on that will improve the business. If I focus on all of them, nothing's gonna work out, and I'm just gonna end up, you know, five percent of this is done, seven percent of another task. You know, I just need to worry about what's stopping me from refining my process or growing, and you know, just focus on that one thing that is gonna yield the most result.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Sounds like focus was a big piece in that.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

There was a class we had a bit of a breakthrough together, it was pretty fun. You might remember the one I'm talking about. I think you came and said, I think my conversions might be too low. Do you remember this class? I do. What did we dive into? What did we pull from that that became an aha moment for you?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

My conversion rate, I think that for the month we were talking was close to 70%. So that was not the problem. Those Friday classes are full of revelations for me, by the way. You open my eyes, you tell me, look at the numbers you're writing down, and just analyze them for three minutes. I was in a much better place than I really thought I was, and I just needed a few more appointments. That day, my average ticket was um like close to 2400, 2300, 2400. Yeah, just knowing where to put that energy. You know, mentally I I thought I was in much worse shape than I was.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah, there was a particular thing, and you nailed it exactly. I recall too, you were at 2400, but there was another nugget hidden in here that I think could be an aha moment for other people, too. You had one particular sale, but because you were tracking your sales data with the KPI book, we could see that you had been to this one place for not a two-call, which are free by, by the way, right? Like the two call close, but you had done a three-call close. And it stood out amongst others because the ticket was over ten thousand dollars. Do you remember this one, Bill? Yep. And so the exercise became well, what's your average ticket? Let's justify the three calls. And so you had said, Well, let's look. And you looked at your data and you found the 2400 number, and we went, okay, well, what's 2400 times three? Well, about 7,200, right in there, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

But this ticket over three free calls, all that time spent hours and hours, was well over $10,000. In that moment, I know that you felt justified for going to three calls. Have you doubted those before, though? Like, is it really worth it to keep putting time on my calendar to see the same person over and over when I could go and have a shot with someone new to make a sale?

SPEAKER_01 36:15

It is a horrible feeling going back. But deep down, I know that if they're inviting me into their home for a third time, it's not because they're they're price shopping anymore. It's not because they just want to nickel and dye me or you know, get something, you know, talk to me. If I'm going to a house for a third time, I know I'm very much an option for them.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Yeah, that's what I hear too. Common feedback is actually guys tend to really enjoy the second call. Heck, third call. If you know you're invited like that, maybe I got cookies and milk waiting for me, even at this point. Like you're kind of friends, right? Were you friendly with those people at the third call?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yeah, really cool couple.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yeah, that's awesome, man. You've had some great sales successes. Obviously, July was big for you. That's amazing. What's next for Goldwire? What are you working on next? What's the next uh thing to grow or bottleneck to fix?

SPEAKER_01 37:07

I am uh I'm looking to hire a journeyman right now.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Nice installer.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Very cool. How's the search going?

SPEAKER_01 37:16

It's tough. It's so much easier to do everything myself, man. Huge kudos to everyone out there with employees.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Yeah. What do you think is the biggest challenge you're having right now? Maybe we can unblock you live.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

The biggest challenge right now, getting to that conversation with the qualified person. For the most part, everyone I've been speaking to is, oh, I'm just feeling out my options. Uh, you know, wanted to see what kind of work you do. And then, you know, I'll I'll use the kind of loop method during this process as well. And I'm like, well, what's making you leave? You know, my boss is really good. I just, you know, something much better came about, and I'm like, I don't, I don't even want to like, if you're happy there, do you want to jump ship? And they're like, Yeah, you're kind of right. And like, what's gonna happen then?

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Yeah, absolutely. So it sounds like then you have unqualified prospects already, they're just not quite a fit. Where are they coming from for you, Bill? Where are you finding them?

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Some indeed monster and some Facebook posting on like local pages and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Nice, really good. If you're open to it, and actually let me make sure you're keeping up with it, it's just not qualified yet. You're not finding a qualified prospect yet.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yeah, okay. So if you're open to it for fairly cheap, we can do meta-ads, and that has now worked for several individuals. Uh, most recently, Andy Craig, who's also in interloop with you. Do you have Andy's information?

SPEAKER_01 38:49

I don't think I know who Andy is.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Yeah, Andrew Craig, he just recently jumped back into classes. I think he just went quiet for a little bit. But yeah, he's in the in the app. We can set you up with him. And just if you want feedback, he's literally going through this process right now. It was like a blink of an eye. A week went past, and he had a bunch of qualified candidates and was trialing a guy that Monday. I haven't checked back in. I don't know if he's completed that hunt, but also uh Jacob used this, Jacob Dombeck. Uh, he had like what was it, 90 applicants in seven days, 10 interviews, picked one. This definitely works. The thing about the meta ads is it gets in front of guys who are driving someone else's van right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

And the apex players are one of three places, right? You remember where they are?

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Well, they're they're at another company. Yep. They could be in in your company.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Technically, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Or in school. Fresh out of it.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Could still be in school, yeah. Or in business for themselves, but feeling the pains that you're not feeling right now. That makes sense?

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Sweet. So knowing those three places, the one place the A players aren't is the one place they aren't is definitely not in my company. Oh, that's awesome. They typically they'll maybe go fish on Indeed, but often they just end up more depressed. Because A players should have a lot of qualities that don't necessarily translate to paper either. Sure, there's the unicorns, the Apex player that's already done 2 million in sales, but they're also going to come to you wanting 150,000 plus a year, right? So, not saying that would be a bad investment or something to ignore, but that's much less often the case. They're likely, though, on Facebook, like most of us are, once a day, maybe a couple times a week only. But if your ad lands in front of them and they go, Oh, that's interesting. Sounds like maybe this would be more of like I could be the number two guy there with Bill instead of number 27 here at Mr. Sparky or wherever they are. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Yeah, it's definitely valid.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

So more of like uh interrupt versus an intent search. Maybe we could put some stuff in front of them. A good joke. Do you want a hug? Do you want a hug? Do you want customers to give you hugs? I got one just last week. Listen, you want to work with the hugmaster himself? Just click the link below and apply.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

One thing that we'll definitely do is the autistic and neurodivergence will be like, wait, I gotta touch people? Uh-uh. No, no, no physical contact.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Yeah, Joe's not going to apply. I have a particular question I wanted to ask you, Bill, about options, if I could. Currently, just finishing a night school uh camp 004, great success, ton of wins, ton of great people. Alex was one of them on the podcast as well on his journey, just starting 005. And one of the most common things I find in that first month of this process is like, how do I accelerate my options learning? I'm curious, how did you and where are you on your options journey today? Does it feel easier now than it did? Are you able to do it fairly quickly if there was a time in the beginning that it took versus time now? Could you help uh to use Joe's words, illuminate that for us a bit?

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Yeah, oh man. In the beginning, I would probably spend an hour and a half on one option set. And mind you, it would pay off. Like people still loved it, even if you spend that much time, it's really the best practice. But it definitely does get easier as you follow the process and as you really invest in that customer, you care more about their outcome than your bottom line, and that's gonna show through. But it's also gonna make you listen in a different way. Like, I'm horrible with people's names. You know, I'll you guys I know we've been in class a bunch. If I meet you for the first time somewhere, it's gonna take you know six, seven, eight handshakes until I really remember your face and your name together. But if you're listening to that customer because you really want to serve them the best, you're gonna remember it right away. You're gonna know, like, someone broke in, she, her hairdryer circuit trips all the time. Like these little things, just having that natural flowing conversation, keeping the customer in a place where they don't feel like you're trying to upsell them and they're not gonna be on guard, because we've all been to someone's home where it's like, I just need the EV charger, that's it. I don't want you to come into my house. I don't just this is where I want it. We're still gonna get those people, but if we can, you know, for anyone else, if we can have a normal, flowing conversation, you're just gonna hear things that you can solve for them. You know, it's not always gonna be the the cameras and the ring doorbell, a broken light in the shower. I replaced the trim for these people. He's like, Oh, did you get my message? I'm like, oh, it's already done. I threw that in. It was a ten dollar trim. Like, I'm happy to do that for you. Tony knows I care about it. So I guess my advice to building a Options is really focus on the customer and it'll come much easier.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Pretend the wizard of options isn't here listening to you, looking at you right now. And tell me if you're training your next guy on options today, what are a few of the hacks, a few of the things, the shortcuts, if you will, that you would teach to help them expedite that journey? No pressure. No, I just have full pressure. Full pressure.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Option wizard is right here. Again, I think it just comes back to you know wanting to help. Again, the same way I'd help people with their cars. Like it's the same sentiment. Now I'm just an electrician and I have more uh more tech at my disposal.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Okay, fair enough. So I'm hearing that that why is very much a big part of it, and that you've just maybe repetition has has helped you get to a place where now it doesn't take you an hour and a half. If you got to do six options today for the security people again, like what did that take you? Where does that take you now?

SPEAKER_01 45:08

If if I'm just building options with you know common material, 15-20 minutes, it'll be written up, priced out. If you know, with the ring camera specifically, I'm oh, there's some for $50, you know, pricing out those special materials adds a little bit of time, but you know, a portable generator range 20 minutes tops.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Wow, really good stuff. I had another question on the tip of my tongue. I never ask this, but it's so important. Like, just please be honest on this one. Do you ever wish you just had a price book full and you could just click a button and just give your customers templated pricing?

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Yes and no. It would definitely be easier. But just yesterday I was I replaced the ceiling fan and half a dozen smoke detectors. And she's like, Alright, I want to go with this package. Could you just you know break it down for me? Like, how much for the fan, how much for the smoke detectors? I'm like, I don't price it by the fan, and I don't price it by the smoke detectors. I take the full job, put it all together, because if I split it up, it would probably be more expensive at the end of the day. So, like that that kind of leans into now I'm serving, I'm getting paid what I'm worth. I'm serving this customer at a better price, which you know, who doesn't love that? Would I like to have a price book? It would be amazing if it could just, you know, I put in what I'm doing and I come out with a profitable number, but it would have to adjust for so many different factors in different people's homes that I don't think it would ever really replicate this method of pricing.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Yeah, a big trade-off on the custom, and like you said, kind of listening and making sure those words are in. There's this old marketing guru, he wrote like the OG book of marketing way back. I can't quote the name of it or even his name right now. It was literally Chat GPT telling me you need to study this guy, and here's the main principle that he said marketing is not something you make up, it's something you reuse, you recycle. And that's very important with options, too. I think it's not options that you just create. It's not, oh, here's some technical jargon I could throw on a paper, and maybe they choose that because I could justify it. It's literally taking what are they feeling? What is their why? What sensory do they have around this, like you've been explaining so well, and reusing that language and just positioning your knowledge and experience in a way that benefits that? So many people miss that, and I just love that connection. So I wanted to bring that too. Bill, if there's anything outside of options within business realm, you're giving advice to your younger self or a little brother out there who's gonna maybe go down the same path as you. What would you recommend to help them succeed in their endeavor?

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Figure out your problem, figure out what's gonna fix that problem, and then do it, do it right away. Because uh, I'm speaking to myself right now. I know there are so many things that I could be changing and doing differently, and you know, maybe it wouldn't help, but what I'm doing right now is also not helping. So figure out what you need to do, and if that doesn't work, figure out something else you need. But the lack of action is not gonna change anything.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Hmm, I love that. Fire, aim, fire. Results, results equal direction, at least. Kind of what I'm hearing there. You were a little hard on yourself in that statement. Can we explore it for one minute?

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

When you said uh what I'm not doing right now, what were you thinking about when you made that statement?

SPEAKER_01 48:47

What I'm not doing right now, I mean, just in the back of my head, I know I'm not following the you know the sales process as well as I can be. When I come to you know some of the classes with Joe and I, you know, I ask him a question, he always hits me with like, well, what did they say during this part? And I'm like, oh well, I didn't say that during that part. But like it's all pivotal information that affects how I should proceed. So I mean, just printing it out, repeating it, role-playing it, that's always lingering in my head. Yeah, just process-oriented gains is really where I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Does that also mean that you're indirectly upset with Joe?

SPEAKER_01 49:31

He really points out the worst in me, and it's not only out of love, though. I know. But that's what I mean. You just gotta figure out what's gonna help you and then do it.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Okay, very cool. Any other advice? Uh, anything else you wanted to bring up? And if someone wants to reach out to you, Bill, are you open to uh helping someone else out get an aha, maybe like when you reach out to Connor?

SPEAKER_01 49:56

Yeah, uh Facebook, I'm Billy Goldwire Goldman, Goldwire Electric in New Jersey is me. You can find me online again, very happy to lend any guidance, whatever I can pour out here.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

Amazing. Anything else from you, Joe, today?

SPEAKER_03 50:14

You know, I like to just at this point, I feel like uh I don't I don't even want to use the wrong words, I almost feel like a proud dad. Where I'm here and I've seen Bill grow so much. I know that I'm gonna be in options class in six minutes and you're likely gonna be there. You know, I've seen you grow from not knowing all the ins and outs of customer service to having a very respectable closing ratio and average ticket, but more importantly, that you understand the core principles of service and compassion that I think is the most important lesson to impart. And I think that's one of the best things people can learn from you. Because if we can have more people with good hearts, I'm gonna even use uh an acronym here. If they had more gold hearts, they would be a better world.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

I see what you did there. That's awesome, really good. I couldn't agree more. Uh, Bill, you're a pleasure to have in class. Absolute pleasure to have on this podcast. I know that you're hard on yourself, like so many of us are. Um, but the good news is the stuff you're talking about only affects speed either way. We know that uh you're going up, man. Uh people care about you, they love you, and uh love buying from you and working with you. So you've shown that, you've proven that. Thanks so much. And guys, if you're listening to this and you want uh some help diagnosing in your electrical business, like Bill was talking about, there's actually a link below every one of these now where you can go to the service transformer. I got like a 30-minute presentation on some ways you can start to look at your leads, your sales, your installs, your office, and your overall plan to work through these things. That's really helping some people out. So please click the link, go do that, help yourself out. Follow Bill on Facebook, follow us, give us a subscribe if you don't mind. That could really help you out in the future as we keep bringing you some of the greatest interviews, some of the best tech with Joe's masterclass, and invites to our great events like the boot camps or night school if you want to learn the whole business. Thanks so much, guys. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

Be blessed friends. See you then.