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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Master of the NEC podcast, the ultimate

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destination for anyone passionate about the electrical trade. Whether you're

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a season electrician, an eager apprentice, or just someone who

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wants to dive deep into the world of electrical work,

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you've come to the right place.

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Speaker 2: Join your host, Paul.

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Speaker 1: Abernavi, a true authority in the industry with over thirty

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eight years of trade experience, as he electrifies your mind

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with in depth discussions, expertips, and valuable insights that will

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keep you ahead of the curve. Each episode, Paul will

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illuminate the complexities of the trade de code, the National

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Electrical Code, and share the latest industry trends, all while

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empowering you to take your electrical career to the next level.

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So hear up, plug in, and get ready to supercharge

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your knowledge because with the Master of the NEEC podcast,

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the power is in your hands.

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Speaker 2: Now get ready. Here is your host, Paul. What's up, everybody,

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Welcome to another episode to Master the NEC. My name's

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Paul l Abernathy, your host. Thanks for joining me today

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on this episode where we're going to talk about grassroots

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gorilla marketing for electrical contractors and electricians. Whether you're doing

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some side hustles and you want to learn how to

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make a little bit extra money, obviously doing it legally,

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you know how I am about that, but also growing

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your business. If you're an owner of a business and

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you're trying to grow it and you're thinking, dude, I'm

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heading into twenty twenty five and I want to think,

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how am I going to leverage my marketing without spending

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a fortune? And so there is many ways that you

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can do it in guerrilla marketing, but there also is

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a mental state that we need to put you in

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so that you can take your business to the next level.

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Or maybe you're working for somebody and you're thinking, look,

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I want to branch out. I want to do my

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own thing, and so there's ways to do it, and

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all you need to do is start getting your hooks

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in the mart marketing game and realizing that everything is

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marketing everything. And as much as I tried to resist

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this for years and tell people, look, I'm just an electrician.

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I don't deal with marketing. I don't deal with any

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of that type of stuff, you really do have to

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realize that as an owner of a company, marketing is

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very crucial obviously licensing get everything right. But once you

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get everything set, the next thing that you got to

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worry about is how am I going to market this thing.

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I'm going to get this thing out there so that

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I've stopped spending money out and I start bringing income

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and money in. And again, one of the biggest misconceptions

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that I see out there with people that tell you

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or maybe give you business advice on how to start

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your business, one of the biggest mistakes that I see

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out there is that they tell people that you got

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to pay yourself first before you pay everybody else or

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pay other things. I don't Seepas are famous for this shit.

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They will tell you, well, if you're going to be successful,

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make sure you pay yourself first, dude. They obviously have

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never been in business where you actually have. It sounds

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like their business is almost nearly one hundred percent of

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income and zero expenses, so they're just rinking in the money.

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They don't have any expenses going out, so they can

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easily say that, well, they can't relate to what the

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plumbing contractor or electrical contractor mechanical contract They can't relate.

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Although they try to give you great advice, they cannot relate,

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so you really shouldn't listen to their advice. Now you

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can listen to their tax advice, you can listen to

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their those types, but they don't know anything about how

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your business runs. Now, if you're an electrical contractor, and

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I've been an electric contractor, was in multiple states for

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many years before I decided that it's better for me

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to teach it and explain it than it is to

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do it. Get an old fatten and lazy should not

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be a career path for me. So I started going

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into teaching and educating and expanding that type of area.

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And I realized that, you know, as a contractor, I

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have to pay my vendors. I have to pay my help,

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I have to pay my contribution to the taxes. I

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have to pay all of this stuff first before I

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pay myself. And that's why so many people struggle, is

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because they don't realize that, and they take their money

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first because they've been listening to that advice. And yes,

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you got to live, I get it, but you've got

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to make sure that your people are paid, your vendors

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are paid. You don't want to incur debt just so

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you can pull a meager paycheck when you're starting out.

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And so one of the things that we talk about

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is the fact that you need to know how to

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do marketing, whether it's again low cost gorilla marketing, why

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it's important to do it. And many of you heard

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the little stories of me taking business cards and actually

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sliding them in the boxes at home depot and lows

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right in the lighting aisle, in the ceiling fan aisle,

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And it's a true story. It is one hundred percent

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true that I used to go in there if I

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was in there for something anyway, that I mean, I

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didn't just go there to do it. If I was

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in there for something, then I would take a business card.

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And usually when they seal the lights and the fixtures,

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or they seal the fans whatever, it still leaves opening

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in the side to cover to slide your card in

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there so that when they cut it and open it,

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the car will fall out first because it's not in

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the box. It's basically just under the lid. And I

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did get calls from that, And you know, it costs

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literally nothing but the business card. That was it. That's

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all it cost. Now, don't go out there saying Paul

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told me to do it. And you go get caught

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and then you blame me. I'm just telling you that's

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what I did. And if it gives you an idea

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to do that, that's an example of some really grassroots marketing. Also,

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I will say it and we'll cover some topics here.

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I've got some topics I want to talk about. But

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I also was famous for anytime I went to the

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grocery store. Anytime I went it to to basically take

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a business card and slide it down in the seal

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just above the door lock where the handle was. I

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just would slide a business card right there. I didn't

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put them under the windshield because I was more worried

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that the that the they would go and it would

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blow off and somebody would see it, and then I'd

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get calls about littering. So I'd slid it down right

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there under the seal where the windshield wiper was. I mean,

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not which whoever, where the door lock was a handle.

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That's how I used to do it. But you know,

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to each his own. But the point was I would

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do that to cars on the left and to the

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right of me when I was in the shopping center,

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I was in the grocery store I was hungry as

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a contractor. I did everything I could to realize that.

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And it was part of those neat things like coupon clippers.

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You know, coupon clippers, and they get this really this

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this big high when they got a bunch of coupons

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right and they are able to get everything on their

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grocery list for nothing. That's like a euphoric high for them.

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That was the same way for me as a contract

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I was like, dude. I would ask them, I'd say,

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or I'd write on my business cards in the bottom

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right HD if I did it at home depot or

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l and that type of thing. And in my business cards,

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I had unique business cards made up. I got them

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at Vista Print. They were always cheap, and I would

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have if I gave a five to ten percent off

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the first news service or whatever when you present this card,

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and then i'd have so I knew where it came

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from if they wanted it now, if they called me

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and didn't present the card, then they didn't get the discount, right.

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But I always ask where'd you get it from? Where'd

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you hear about us? Because I was always wanting to

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know where my efforts were working. That type of scenario.

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So there's just some grassroots stuff that I used to do.

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So let's get into today's episode and try to cover

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a few things here that we want to talk about.

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So one of the things that we're going to do

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here is we're going to explain and highlight some of

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the challenges that electricians or electrical contractors face when marketing

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on a extremely tight budget, or maybe it's not tight,

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but maybe you created a or you've imposed a tight

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budget for let's say a certain length of time to

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see what your ROI is or returnal investment is for

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that effort, maybe like a subdivision, maybe you're targeting that

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type of thing or whatnot. And so you've got the

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labor of the people that are door hanging or putting

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up the cards or hanging out the cards. So you

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want to track your reternal investment, and a good way

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to do that again is to put something on the

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card or the advertisement or the marketing material that allows

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you to see if you're going to give somebody a

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discount or a new customer discount or something like that

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that you can actually keep track of that. So, again,

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I like to keep track of all of my low

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budget grassroots marketing because I wanted to see what's actually working.

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And to be honest with you, if I door hung,

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I had door hung door hangers made at Vista Print,

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very cheap. You could actually use their thing and design

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it right there. But I always had the ability to

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do software, so I did my own designs and uploaded it.

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I believe in door hangers, not flyers. Door hangers.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 2: There's also fifty five Print. I think that does mass

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doorhanngers for a really low price. And when I say

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low price, I mean it's going to be three or

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four hundred dollars. But again that's just part of the marketing, right,

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it's still cheap. I could just I could tell you

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digital marketing for example, and we market it on Google

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and it was shit. It was it could be four

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or five six hundred dollars a day, and there was

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no guarantee on anything. At least there's no guarantee with

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door hanging. But you're putting it right there on the

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customer's door. Uh. And so again there's a high probability

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that that'll least see it. And I'll talk about in

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an episode. I'll give you guys a tip on how

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you design your Doorhanngers, I got some great tips on

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how you can design them so that you can get

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a really good impact when somebody sees it and it

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lingers around. In other words, it doesn't go straight into

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the trash. I'll give you some insight on that too

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in a future podcast. All right, let's do that. So

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what we're setting stage here for you, we're going to

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be talking about tight budget marketing for electricians and electrical contractors.

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We'll be we're gonna emphasize and really focus on the

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importance of the marketing because even if you already have

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income coming in, you already have customers, you already have clients.

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You should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, I don't

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even have something for this ever, stop your marketing as

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an owner. You never want to get to the complacent

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stage where you think you got enough business coming in,

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like I don't need any more work. That is not true.

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It's just what work are you trying to achieve? And

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direct or maybe you're saying, Okay, I want this type

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of work versus this type of work. Maybe you're not

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doing any more rough ends, but you're thinking, hmm, I

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can still do smart homes. I can still do some

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Alexa stuff or or Google device stuff, or I could

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smart house some stuff I could do, you know, change

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lumina airs and change receptacles for real estate agents and

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freshen up a house. There's other things that you know,

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there's different areas I could do generators. I could do generating.

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There's a bunch of different energy management systems. So there's

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always ways that you can, but you never should stop. Right. So,

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marketing is something that keeps your name out there, keeps

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your company out there, keeps your relevant. And the old

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thing is that it takes usually six to seven times

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I think that's the number, six to seven times putting

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your your service or your widget in front of somebody

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for them to react. It takes at least a certain

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amount of time for for them to react and actually

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buy something or call you for a service. Right, So

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it takes that time that you have to be aware

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of and so you have to be persistent that type

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of thing. Okay, Now, next we're going to talk about

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why budget marketing works, and you know, we're going to

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explain how low cost strategies can deliver a again an

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extremely high ROI when you properly plan it and you

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execute it properly right, and we're going to be focusing

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on the consistency of our low budget marketing. Okay, so

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low cost big volume, that's what we're talking about, low

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cost big volume. So that's what we'll be focusing on

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today in today's podcast. Okay, So let's start out by

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talking about free or low cost digital marketing tools, things

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that we can utilize. We're trying to grow our business,

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trying to grow our side hustle. We're trying to we're

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trying to take our our Saturday and Sunday to make

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it our Monday through Friday effort. Or maybe you already

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own a business and you're trying to free up your

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weekends but you want to maximize the time during the

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week and you have some downtime. Then this is stuff

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that you need to focus on, right the very first

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thing that I'll tell you, And it doesn't become more

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evident than when you see everybody freak out about TikTok

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going away social media. This sheer number of people on

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social media is crazy. Now, advertising on social media is expensive.

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If you want to have some type of ad campaign,

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I tell people in the low cost budgeting marketing, you

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do not want to do that. You do your own,

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You start to gather your followers, you start to gather everything.

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Do it yourself, create your own ads, make them very quick. Again,

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remember those social media TikTok's and all those which, by

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the way, TikTok currently is banned, but it'll be back.

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I don't think people really believe that it's going to

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stay away. Trump loves it, People love it. One hundred

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and seventy million people use it. It ain't going anywhere.

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It's just temporarily on a hiatus. But this should be

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a mark for you, all you out there in your business,

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This is the perfect time. If you're a big TikToker,

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this is the perfect time for you to die. Versify

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your social media presence. Go to Facebook, go to Instagram,

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go to LinkedIn, get your business profile. Don't be afraid

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to establish what you want it to be. Like me,

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I use it master the NEC on all my platforms

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except for LinkedIn, which is business. So I use my

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full name on that one, Paul Abernathy. But everywhere else

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I kept it consistent, and you should too, keep it consistent. Now,

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if you already have accounts in all these and it's

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all muddled up. But you don't have that much of

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a following or you haven't built it up up. Then

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I encourage you to get new accounts, create your user

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name that is consistent with your business okay, or if

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you're using one for personal, go again and establish one

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for your business and keep it consistent through all of

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your platforms. Now, what you're gonna do is you know

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you're going to do things like share short clips of

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projects you've done, testimonials, short tips, things like that. But again,

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you're not there to get TikTok famous or YouTube famous

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or Instagram famous for that's for those people who want

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to do that. I don't care about that. I never

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care about it. It's funny how we go to these

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shows and people come up and they go, have you

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seen somebody over there? Oh, I've seen him on TikTok,

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And I'm like, dude, you're enamored with somebody that just

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does videos and shares them on social media, and all

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of a sudden, now they're an influencer. Like I give

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a damn about them. I really don't. I don't. I'm

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just a guy sharing code stuff. It's all I am.

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And And so what you want to be focusing on

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is for your business, is focusing on your name, your brand,

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how you're sharing it out there, and you're looking for

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local customers in your market. It's not going to do

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you any good. If you're in Kansas City and you're

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trying to put something on social media and you're trying

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to pull people from Nebraska, doesn't do you a bit

300
00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:24,919
of good. Focus. Focus, focus. I'm not the guy you

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come to if you want to be a TikTok or

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Instagram or LinkedIn or YouTube, whatever whatever influencer, because I'm not.

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I mean I'm not. I don't care anything about that stuff.

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And if I did, why would I create fast tracks

305
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:42,960
Tube and pull people away from those platforms. Think about

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00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,000
it for a second. I don't care about that stuff.

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I care about electricians and helping them get their game

308
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to the next level. But you, as a business, you're

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00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,200
thinking about how do I reach that local market? Okay,

310
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so think broader than the generic Facebook, Instagram. So you

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00:17:00,759 --> 00:17:03,039
need to be on next door if there's a next

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Door in your area, because that's a local business marketing

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tool that's local. Follow their rules, don't get in trouble

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for spamming or whatever it is. But again, next door

315
00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:18,000
Facebook marketplace in your area, they have groups that are

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specific to your area. Make sure that you follow the

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rules that they have. You don't want to be spamming

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your business in somewhere that you accept the rules it

319
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,160
says you won't spam your business. That wouldn't be good

320
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,079
for your business, but there are avenues for you to

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do that. Also, when you're creating this content from a

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local standpoint, not trying to be an influencer, but local,

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trying to get business from local because that's where your

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00:17:42,799 --> 00:17:45,880
bread and butter is. Make sure you show before and

325
00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:51,279
after pictures of projects that is impactful. But I'll give

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00:17:51,319 --> 00:17:56,240
you some advice, especially to electricians, stop showing videos and

327
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pictures of code violations because it makes it people that

328
00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,480
do know everyday person doesn't know. But you open yourself

329
00:18:04,559 --> 00:18:06,920
up to be a target people like me who see

330
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this stuff and want to post it. And what it

331
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:12,480
ended up doing is it taints your It taints your

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feed from a bunch of people just harassing you in there.

333
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I'm just saying, Okay. The other thing that I tell

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00:18:19,319 --> 00:18:22,319
you is don't be afraid to do short videos. As

335
00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:25,160
a contractor. You don't have to be professional, don't be

336
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afraid to do little a day in your life type

337
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of videos, like a three minute, two minute, one minute

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video of like something like Philly Kaso does. He says,

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can I have a kid? And he shows you something

340
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:40,400
in his day in his life. That type of thing

341
00:18:41,079 --> 00:18:44,359
really works good. But for local customers to build your

342
00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:47,680
local business, to get money for doing actual work, make

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it relevant to them right say you know, for example,

344
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say hey, we're going out on a project here in

345
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so and so city where you are, be very specific

346
00:18:57,599 --> 00:19:01,240
to the viewer right away, where you're at at. Don't

347
00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:03,160
give the name, don't give the name of the people.

348
00:19:03,519 --> 00:19:05,799
But that's the key, biggest key I can give people

349
00:19:05,839 --> 00:19:09,759
when they're doing local marketing is make sure that within

350
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the first ten seconds of somebody watching that little video

351
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,839
about you and your company, that you say where you're

352
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at and what you're doing today. That is so critical

353
00:19:21,319 --> 00:19:23,720
that people forget when it comes to the gorilla marketing

354
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and using these social media platforms. Let them know. If

355
00:19:26,759 --> 00:19:30,359
you're trying to get local business, installing receptacles, installing illuminaiirs,

356
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:35,240
doing rough ends, finishing out basements, whatever, do these little

357
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videos put them on your social platform that we just

358
00:19:37,759 --> 00:19:43,640
talked about, and focus locally. Do things like nextdoor and Facebook,

359
00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:47,880
market places and things like that. Share them that way.

360
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But within the first ten seconds, let them know what

361
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you're there, who, where you're at, where you're doing business,

362
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and what you're getting ready to show them. Let them

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know up front, so at least if they click off

364
00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:04,160
of it, they know that you're servicing this market in

365
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,319
this area, and this is what you do. Get it

366
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out there as quick as you can. Okay. I'm just saying.

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The next thing that you got to do. If you're

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a local business, you have got to take advantage of

369
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any free listings that you can take advantage of, like

370
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:28,319
Google Business, those type of things, anything, any of those

371
00:20:28,839 --> 00:20:33,880
services that are being being local things like that. Get

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00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:36,960
your free listings. But when you go into it, don't

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half asset. I mean, go into it professional. Don't just

374
00:20:40,559 --> 00:20:44,680
go in throw a picture up. No, look, make sure

375
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,160
you already have a logo that you like, okay, make

376
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,160
sure you already have able to give a good go over,

377
00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,119
a good script basically in you know, i'd say fifty

378
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:59,440
words or less what it says about your company, Show

379
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,079
your logo, show some pictures, of your work. Preferably do

380
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:07,240
a half screen shot before and after. It's great and

381
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:09,039
it only takes you a second on a job to

382
00:21:09,039 --> 00:21:10,680
take a picture of something and then take a picture

383
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,119
of it after, even if it's something simple as changing

384
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,599
illumina air and outdoor light. Just take a picture before

385
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:17,680
what it looks like crap, take a picture after it

386
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:20,160
looks like good, and say we can freshen up your

387
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:26,960
look on your house quickly. Things like that. That's how

388
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:32,039
you should be doing it from a local standpoint point right. Okay,

389
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,200
so what you want to do is you do your

390
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:37,279
business with Google. It's free now. Granted, they're going to

391
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,079
hound you to death. Okay, let me tell you. Once

392
00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:42,160
you list and get your free listing, they're going to

393
00:21:42,279 --> 00:21:48,079
call you and ask you constantly for verification, you know,

394
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,359
wanting to upgrade you and get you to advertise locally.

395
00:21:51,599 --> 00:21:53,880
And I'm not a big believer in those things like

396
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,680
Angie's lists and all that kind of stuff where they

397
00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,160
want to negotiate a price with you, or you've already

398
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,599
got to pay money before you even got the first lead.

399
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:03,640
I am again, I don't believe in any of those

400
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:05,599
type of things. I don't believe in any of that.

401
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,880
It's a waste of money in my opinion. But anyway,

402
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,279
Google my business or any of those local business things

403
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:15,119
you definitely want to do. You want to make sure

404
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,359
that you pop up in Google Listening, also Google Maps.

405
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:22,559
Make sure you're in Google Maps as well, and you

406
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,920
go in and read about getting your free listening and

407
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:28,440
just get the free one. Get it, but make sure

408
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,119
you're not going and putting your cart before the horse.

409
00:22:31,559 --> 00:22:33,319
Make sure you have the name you want to use.

410
00:22:34,039 --> 00:22:36,319
Make sure you know and we can talk about choosing

411
00:22:36,319 --> 00:22:38,960
a name for your business, because that's important as well,

412
00:22:39,839 --> 00:22:43,599
but to you know, make sure that you have everything

413
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,720
in place before you go set up these profiles, because

414
00:22:47,799 --> 00:22:50,200
once they get set up and they start getting out there,

415
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:52,400
I don't know what happens when you go in and

416
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,519
you start mop changing things. It just seems like I've

417
00:22:55,559 --> 00:22:57,880
watched it, it's like your traffic drops off, and it

418
00:22:58,039 --> 00:23:01,799
just something happens that initial push. Make sure you get

419
00:23:01,839 --> 00:23:04,440
it right the first time, So take some time. If

420
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:06,359
you've got any questions on how to do that, I

421
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,880
am always here. You can just go to Paul Abernathy

422
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:12,880
dot com and submit a question. I handle literally thousands

423
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,640
of questions a month from people on the code, on business,

424
00:23:16,839 --> 00:23:21,720
on recommendations, hiring, firing, you know people. Some people just

425
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,200
want a motivational pick me up they're struggling. That's what

426
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,640
Paul Abernathy dot com is all about. And it's paid

427
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,039
for by Wix. You know, it doesn't cost anything, so

428
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:32,920
jot that down. It's also in our mobile app. We

429
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:36,039
have a free mobile app that allows you to be

430
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:38,920
able to get to let's ask Paul with one click,

431
00:23:39,319 --> 00:23:41,319
and so it makes it so easy for you to

432
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:43,680
do it while you're there. Just ask the question and

433
00:23:43,759 --> 00:23:46,160
we'll either do it in a podcast or we'll respond

434
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:48,759
back in an email as time permits that type of thing.

435
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:51,759
So anyway, that's what we got going on for that.

436
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:56,200
So again, be very specific on your Google business listing

437
00:23:56,279 --> 00:23:59,240
or any of those business listenings right now. The next

438
00:23:59,279 --> 00:24:01,880
thing I will tell you is, right out the gate,

439
00:24:02,559 --> 00:24:09,240
start asking your customers right away for reviews. Ask them

440
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,960
and a lot of those things like my Google, my

441
00:24:12,039 --> 00:24:14,079
Business and all that kind of stuff have the ability

442
00:24:14,079 --> 00:24:15,799
for you to share a link so people can give

443
00:24:15,799 --> 00:24:19,559
a review. Now here's my advice. You're not going to

444
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,920
have a situation you're not gonna be like my brother,

445
00:24:22,519 --> 00:24:26,319
who everybody loves is a contractor. But everybody loves my brother,

446
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,039
me not so much. So what happens is when you

447
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,519
solicit these reviews, you have to get used to where

448
00:24:33,519 --> 00:24:36,319
you feel comfortable with the person that's going to give

449
00:24:36,319 --> 00:24:39,200
you a review, and you can develop that as you're

450
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:41,559
doing the service call, as you're working with them, as

451
00:24:41,559 --> 00:24:44,359
you're doing the job, you'll get a good feel whether

452
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:46,319
or not this is somebody's like, you know what, they'd

453
00:24:46,319 --> 00:24:48,799
give me a good review. And they're the ones that

454
00:24:48,839 --> 00:24:51,119
you want to share the link or give them a

455
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:52,680
link and say, hey, can I text you a link

456
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:54,680
for you to be able to do a review? Can

457
00:24:54,759 --> 00:24:58,359
I send you this? That type of thing, And a

458
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:02,480
lot of times people will even use are NFC cards

459
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:04,400
that we have that you can just simply tap on

460
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,359
their phone and put this information and even a survey

461
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:09,119
can just be tapped and it comes up right on

462
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:12,000
their phone. We have customers of ours who have what's

463
00:25:12,039 --> 00:25:15,160
called the just the NFC Survey card. When they say

464
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:16,559
can you give us a survey and they go yeah,

465
00:25:16,599 --> 00:25:18,920
they just pull the card out and tap their phone

466
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,400
and the survey thing pops right up on their phone

467
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:23,839
and they fill it out right there, and now you've

468
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:27,799
captured a review. Because reviews on those type of things

469
00:25:27,839 --> 00:25:31,839
like the Google my businesses are key. Get as many

470
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,960
good reviews as you can, right, but only ask for

471
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,119
the reviews if you know you're gonna get a good one. Again,

472
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,559
as a fine science to that, you'll get the feel.

473
00:25:39,599 --> 00:25:41,720
If you go through a job and you feel like

474
00:25:41,759 --> 00:25:45,640
the guys are just a real dick, then probably not

475
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:47,680
the one you want to ask for a review. Okay.

476
00:25:47,759 --> 00:25:51,079
So again people say, well, no, that's filtering reviews. Damn right,

477
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:54,799
it is. This is your business we're talking about, dude,

478
00:25:54,799 --> 00:25:57,759
it's dog eat dog world here. You only want the

479
00:25:57,799 --> 00:26:04,039
good reviews. Okay, Okay. Next, I want to talk a

480
00:26:04,079 --> 00:26:10,240
little bit about on one other before I talk about websites.

481
00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:13,599
I want to talk about a resource. For example, if

482
00:26:13,599 --> 00:26:16,440
you're if you do your shopping at home depot. If

483
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,640
you shop at home Depot, they have an app and

484
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:20,839
a process that you can get set up for where

485
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,279
if you're buying some products there, you create a number

486
00:26:23,319 --> 00:26:26,960
of credits. And when you create these credits, you can

487
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,000
have them refer work to you. Because there's a lot

488
00:26:29,039 --> 00:26:31,480
of people that go to these places that buy illumina airs,

489
00:26:31,799 --> 00:26:34,160
buy ceiling fans. I used to do quite a few

490
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,279
of these, and you know it's it's and what happens

491
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,640
is they will share that with you and it comes

492
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,640
off of the credits, So you're buying product there anyway,

493
00:26:44,079 --> 00:26:46,799
So you might as well get in that program. And

494
00:26:46,839 --> 00:26:49,200
if you get in that program, and I think Low's

495
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,400
has that too, but I always found Lows a little

496
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,839
bit tougher to deal with. And I don't even if

497
00:26:53,839 --> 00:26:55,680
they still do it, but I know home Depot does,

498
00:26:56,079 --> 00:26:58,480
and it's really cool because they will, actually they do

499
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:00,960
send you work. You may not get all the work

500
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,319
that gets sent to you, but I used to get

501
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,480
my fair share, and and it was just really easy

502
00:27:06,519 --> 00:27:08,960
work too. It was like putting in illuminator here, putting

503
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,599
in a ceiling fan here. Okay, prices today are a

504
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,319
lot better than it was when I was doing it.

505
00:27:13,759 --> 00:27:15,359
Put in a ceiling fan. Now you can get one

506
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,160
hundred and fifty tw hundred fifty three hundred bucks for

507
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,440
about an hour's worth of work. I'm just saying, even

508
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,640
if you just send one of your guys to do it,

509
00:27:23,279 --> 00:27:25,400
that you know what I'm saying, and you don't do it.

510
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,519
But either way, that's something you should look into, especially

511
00:27:29,559 --> 00:27:33,480
if you're growing your business, because what happens is is

512
00:27:33,519 --> 00:27:35,720
what I found is that put me in contact with

513
00:27:35,759 --> 00:27:39,200
a customer who bought something at home Depot. But then

514
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,880
I used to get that loop effect whereas they would

515
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:45,599
send me their cousin. Once I did a good job

516
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,759
for them, they would send me their neighbor would call

517
00:27:48,839 --> 00:27:51,200
me and they didn't have to go through home Depot

518
00:27:51,319 --> 00:27:54,440
or the app. They would just call me. So I'd

519
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,200
go to them and I'd give them five or six

520
00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:00,000
business card and say please share it with some friends,

521
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,000
and that type of thing I really appreciated. I'd explained

522
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:03,880
to them that I'm you know that I'm a contractor

523
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:05,880
and I'm trying to build my name, and I appreciate it.

524
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,039
They would do that. You know, some people will and

525
00:28:08,079 --> 00:28:09,640
some people won't. But what did it cost you? It

526
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,640
cost you a couple of damn business cards? That's it,

527
00:28:12,279 --> 00:28:14,400
you know what I'm saying. So I mean, hey, ain't

528
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,400
no shame in my game. I have no problem giving

529
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,640
that stuff out. So again, check out home deposts if

530
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,039
they still have that service. I haven't looked to see,

531
00:28:23,079 --> 00:28:25,599
but they had it just when I was in Texas,

532
00:28:26,079 --> 00:28:28,400
and again I was a contractor in Texas as well

533
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,559
as well as Virginia and they had it. So I'm

534
00:28:30,599 --> 00:28:32,720
pretty sure it's still out there, so go check it out.

535
00:28:32,839 --> 00:28:35,640
Doesn't really, it doesn't cost you anything. You're already buying

536
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:39,599
it home depot anyway some things. So anyway, good to

537
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:44,119
check that out. Okay, let's talk about websites. Now here's

538
00:28:44,119 --> 00:28:46,759
where people tend to turn out. They end up think going,

539
00:28:46,759 --> 00:28:48,960
oh God, here we go. I don't want to get

540
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,920
into a big old website. Dude, you don't have to today.

541
00:28:53,039 --> 00:28:55,599
Websites are so easy with the templates. All you got

542
00:28:55,599 --> 00:28:57,240
to do is fill in a little bit of information

543
00:28:57,279 --> 00:29:02,319
about your country company and add a couple of pictures. Wis,

544
00:29:02,359 --> 00:29:06,039
for example, is probably the easiest I have ever seen

545
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:10,039
to get you started. And you can even buy a

546
00:29:10,039 --> 00:29:13,519
domain directly through them, and if you already have a domain,

547
00:29:13,599 --> 00:29:16,039
you already should know how to hook up and forward

548
00:29:16,079 --> 00:29:19,599
that domain to whatever your wis account would be. But

549
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:22,640
at the end of the day, everybody should have at

550
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:27,599
least one page landing page about their services at a

551
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,680
company that you can use to expand on it. It's

552
00:29:30,759 --> 00:29:34,079
all about the cost per character. Folks. You heard me

553
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,400
talk about this. If I've got to run an ad

554
00:29:37,599 --> 00:29:41,720
on let's say I'm running an ad in even Craigslist,

555
00:29:41,839 --> 00:29:44,279
because I'll talk about that later a little later. But

556
00:29:45,359 --> 00:29:48,480
even if I do that, I'm going to pay or

557
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,279
I'm going to be limited to the amount of information

558
00:29:50,319 --> 00:29:53,359
that I can give. So I need to get them

559
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,799
somewhere as quickly as possible, to capture them in order

560
00:29:57,799 --> 00:30:00,119
to be able to then hold them with a with

561
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,759
an engaging video. And it doesn't add to be professional video.

562
00:30:03,799 --> 00:30:06,039
It just has to be you being honest about what

563
00:30:06,079 --> 00:30:08,599
you do, your service and what you can do for them.

564
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,599
Everybody wants to know what you do for me, Okay,

565
00:30:12,799 --> 00:30:15,000
So you know, as much as they might sound like

566
00:30:15,039 --> 00:30:17,839
they want to help the world, everybody, believe it or not,

567
00:30:18,039 --> 00:30:20,759
is somewhere inside or like, well, I get it, but

568
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,400
what is in it for me? So I'm gonna have

569
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,519
to I have a limited amount of time to explain

570
00:30:27,559 --> 00:30:29,400
to them what's in it for them? What I can

571
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:34,079
do for them, beautify their home, make it safer, offer

572
00:30:34,119 --> 00:30:39,240
them a good price, reliable service, local licensed. Maybe I'm

573
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:42,119
a CMECP, and I'm going to market myself over everybody

574
00:30:42,119 --> 00:30:45,519
else because I've been through some extra training because I can.

575
00:30:45,599 --> 00:30:48,559
I can put it in code compliant. But I'm also

576
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,920
raised my game and i want them to know about it.

577
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:54,480
It's up to you to sell yourself. You're always going

578
00:30:54,559 --> 00:30:57,119
to be selling yourself. But the amount of time that

579
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:01,960
it takes to capture that customer and keep them, I

580
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,279
can't put that in print everywhere. It costs a fortune.

581
00:31:06,559 --> 00:31:08,240
So that's why you do the same thing, and your

582
00:31:08,279 --> 00:31:10,599
social media you do the same thing, and your physical

583
00:31:10,599 --> 00:31:15,079
ads get them to a place, get them to a

584
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,680
place where you can share about what you do. Now,

585
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:21,920
that was so great about when we had the Sparks card,

586
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,039
we had the mobiles, because again I could tap their

587
00:31:25,079 --> 00:31:30,359
phone and send them directly to a concise thing that

588
00:31:30,519 --> 00:31:34,039
explained everything about my services, even a video, even this

589
00:31:34,119 --> 00:31:39,599
type of stuff, coupons, things like that. People didn't understand that,

590
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:41,119
and I was a little ahead of my time, I

591
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,960
think for something like that, but that gets people the

592
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,200
information they need quickly. And today we have attention deficit disorder.

593
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,359
People just don't want it to drag on much like

594
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:58,960
this podcast is Dragonuly okay, all right, so you got

595
00:31:59,039 --> 00:32:02,160
to have a landings. Now you can go to Wicks, Squarespace,

596
00:32:02,359 --> 00:32:05,160
word Press. They have templates, very simple, fill in the

597
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,680
blank quickly, but you need to do it. If you

598
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:09,720
don't know how to do it, then you need to

599
00:32:09,759 --> 00:32:11,759
find somebody that can do it. It's well worth the

600
00:32:11,839 --> 00:32:16,920
investment to have a simple one page constantly scrolling that

601
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:21,839
you can add stuff to template. Simple and easy for that.

602
00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:26,119
But you have to have a web presence, okay, because

603
00:32:26,519 --> 00:32:29,640
again I can use ten words and get you to

604
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,000
somewhere that I can use a thousand words in a

605
00:32:32,079 --> 00:32:34,920
video and engage you than it is to try to

606
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:38,759
put fifty words on an ad and then people aren't

607
00:32:38,799 --> 00:32:40,880
going to read past the first ten to fifteen words

608
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,079
and you've lost them already. So again, try to get

609
00:32:45,119 --> 00:32:47,519
them over to a web presence, get them over to

610
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:52,079
whether it's your my Google, maybe it's your Google listing,

611
00:32:52,519 --> 00:32:54,920
maybe it's a Yelp listing. We haven't talked about Yelp.

612
00:32:55,039 --> 00:32:57,480
I should have mentioned that you should always have a

613
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:03,799
Yelp listing. Also, folks, these are local things, okay, you

614
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,640
need to have all the things that are local. And again,

615
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:11,319
before you go signing up for these things, make sure

616
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,200
you've already written down very structured. This is what the

617
00:33:14,279 --> 00:33:16,920
name I'm going to use, consistent, This is what my

618
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:19,400
message is going to be. These are the images I'm

619
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:24,079
going to use. Be think about it. Just don't go

620
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,079
do it. Think about how you want to do it,

621
00:33:26,119 --> 00:33:30,119
because this is all about a mindset. Okay, all right,

622
00:33:30,599 --> 00:33:34,759
next door, talk a little bit about local networking and partnerships.

623
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,119
You've heard me talk about this on other partnerships. I'm

624
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:41,880
a big believer in finding other plumbers, HVA, technicians, general contractors,

625
00:33:42,839 --> 00:33:45,480
people that you can develop a network. Now, we used

626
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,440
to be called BE and I Business Networking International, where

627
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:50,680
you could pay some money and you'd be the only

628
00:33:50,799 --> 00:33:54,160
trade in that group. So the goal was that everybody

629
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,279
else that's doing work will end up sharing your business

630
00:33:57,279 --> 00:34:00,480
card with them. And the problem with that is some

631
00:34:00,519 --> 00:34:02,200
of them, even though you're in the group, they don't

632
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,200
know you. They haven't formed a relationship with you, and

633
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,559
so it takes a while for you to go to

634
00:34:06,599 --> 00:34:09,800
these meetings and speak. You get like you get, you know,

635
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,960
one minute to speak and tell everybody about your company

636
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,159
every week and hand out business cards and then givers

637
00:34:16,199 --> 00:34:19,119
gain you give other referrals to other people. But my

638
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,519
experience when I started with that and I was in that,

639
00:34:22,519 --> 00:34:24,480
that it took a while for people to warm up

640
00:34:24,519 --> 00:34:26,599
to you. Once they warmed up to you, or they

641
00:34:26,599 --> 00:34:28,360
called you out to do a little work for them

642
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,239
and they liked it, then they would be very enthusiastic

643
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,199
about sharing you with other people. But you had to

644
00:34:34,519 --> 00:34:36,719
That was a curve you had to get passed. It's

645
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,400
like a good old boys club still is. I don't

646
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,519
care what anybody says. It was. It was you got

647
00:34:41,559 --> 00:34:43,960
to get past the good old boy thing and once

648
00:34:44,039 --> 00:34:47,360
you're accepted then they will do that. Well, my concept

649
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:51,880
is just screw that shit. My concept is skip it.

650
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,000
Go straight to the people that can make you money.

651
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:56,760
Is the people that will be on a job and say, hey,

652
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:58,800
I know electrician that can help you out. I know

653
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:00,320
a plumber that can help you out. I know an

654
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,159
HVAC guy that can help you out. So for me,

655
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,880
I would say I targeted the plumber that what I

656
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,760
felt was a well established plumber, not a little Jimmy

657
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,119
plummer who maybe has one helper and doesn't do very

658
00:35:12,159 --> 00:35:16,239
much work. I looked and try to target established plumbers,

659
00:35:16,599 --> 00:35:22,880
established HVAC contractors, general contractors, established real estate agents, established

660
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,760
home inspectors. What I did was I tried to create

661
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,199
my own network. And they might say to me, well,

662
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:31,519
I've already got somebody I recommend, and I would say,

663
00:35:31,519 --> 00:35:33,960
that's fine. Can I give you a couple of business cards?

664
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,760
You know, case they get booked up and they can't

665
00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:39,440
help your customer. I'm right here, give me a shot.

666
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,840
I'm not asking to be your number one. I'm asking

667
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,400
to be possibly your number two. And they might say,

668
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:50,280
but what happens is people get busy and they can't

669
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:53,360
get something done, and everybody's impatient that you might move

670
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,599
up to the number one spot. It's worth It costs

671
00:35:56,639 --> 00:36:01,079
you nothing but your time to form these relationships, and

672
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,800
in turn, you're going to agree to say, you know what,

673
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,639
if I see some plumbing issue, I'm going to give

674
00:36:07,679 --> 00:36:10,760
I'm gonna give you a call again. And if they

675
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,599
tell you that you're not the number one, say, you know,

676
00:36:12,679 --> 00:36:14,719
he it's cool. I've got plumber friends I know too

677
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:16,679
that I really like. But I want to make sure

678
00:36:16,679 --> 00:36:19,400
that your name is in the mix. And I'm willing

679
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,400
to put your name in the mix. You'll buy them

680
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,480
a cup of coffee at Starbucks. I mean, don't be

681
00:36:23,519 --> 00:36:26,880
afraid to be rejected. I think that's the number one

682
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,199
thing that I see for young entrepreneurs today is that

683
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,559
the pride is so damn deep rooted that they're not

684
00:36:34,679 --> 00:36:39,360
willing to accept rejection. Like if I go to electrical

685
00:36:39,599 --> 00:36:41,599
plumbing contractor and I say, hey, man, I love what

686
00:36:41,639 --> 00:36:44,000
you do, I love the volume you do. I would

687
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:47,639
like to recommend you to my customers. And I'm growing

688
00:36:47,679 --> 00:36:49,920
my business and I'm building a network of people that

689
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,880
I can trust, and I think you can be somebody

690
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:54,679
I trust. And if they go and I'm not interested,

691
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,280
it's okay, move on to somebody else, because there's going

692
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,239
to be somebody else out there that is hunger, that

693
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,800
gets the concept and understands it. And you don't lose anything.

694
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,079
What do you lose a cup of coffee? And it

695
00:37:08,119 --> 00:37:09,960
doesn't always mean that you have to talk to the

696
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,599
person that's the owner, right It might be the project manager,

697
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,800
business manager, it might be somebody. You'd be surprised how

698
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:19,280
many project managers for companies that are not the owner,

699
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:21,920
but are the ones that do the day to day legwork.

700
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:26,880
They're the ones that hire the subs and things like that.

701
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:30,000
The owners might not, but if you're hungry and you're

702
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,320
able to do it as an owner, then you're out

703
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:34,679
there hustling to get your business grow. At some point,

704
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:36,719
you may have a project manager that you're going to

705
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,039
train to do the exact same thing that you just did,

706
00:37:39,639 --> 00:37:41,719
and they're going to be constantly out there for you

707
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:46,440
as your mouthpiece. It trickles down, buddy, and if you

708
00:37:46,559 --> 00:37:48,639
get if you get an employee that's not willing to

709
00:37:48,679 --> 00:37:51,760
promote your business for you as as you would, then

710
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:54,880
you need to get rid of that cancer in your company.

711
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,599
I know some people hate to hear that, but look,

712
00:37:58,639 --> 00:38:02,119
if your employee is not willing to speak as highly

713
00:38:02,119 --> 00:38:04,079
of the company that they work for as you are

714
00:38:04,159 --> 00:38:06,199
that own the company, then get rid of their ass

715
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:10,920
and move on. Okay, I'm just saying. If that's all

716
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,719
they care about is a paycheck and they don't want

717
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,039
to help you make more money so that they in

718
00:38:16,079 --> 00:38:19,519
turn can make more money, then you need to weed

719
00:38:19,519 --> 00:38:21,760
them out find somebody else. Trust me, there's people out

720
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:25,960
there that will so anyway, that's what we're talking about.

721
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,480
So build your network, don't be afraid to get out

722
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,039
there next thing I'm going to tell you to do.

723
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:34,960
Some people may be uncomfortable with this, and this is

724
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:42,119
community involvement. Don't be afraid to sponsor a little league

725
00:38:42,159 --> 00:38:45,280
team and have the name on their jersey or banner

726
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,039
at the ballpark where everybody will be sitting at the ballpark's.

727
00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:50,800
It sounds like a lot, but in most cases these

728
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:54,679
are one time, five hundred buck things that'll put a

729
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:58,559
banner on the baseball field at the end zone. And

730
00:38:58,559 --> 00:39:00,559
when you design that banner or you talk to them,

731
00:39:00,639 --> 00:39:03,360
just make sure one thing, they make your name as

732
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:07,519
big as possible, your big as possible on that banner,

733
00:39:07,559 --> 00:39:10,400
within their guidelines, and make sure it says on there

734
00:39:10,519 --> 00:39:13,280
exactly what you do. God, I don't know how many

735
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:15,960
times I go and see these banners and see this

736
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:17,840
stuff from people, and I look at it and I'm like,

737
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:21,159
what the hell do they do? Their name is terrible,

738
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,320
their logo sucks. I don't even know what they do,

739
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:27,199
and so I don't give them any peace of mind.

740
00:39:28,199 --> 00:39:31,199
Comes to mind a commercial that I've seen on Newsmax.

741
00:39:31,559 --> 00:39:34,639
It's this Joe Lee thing and it's basically you have

742
00:39:34,679 --> 00:39:37,559
to go research it. It's about a shower head. But

743
00:39:37,639 --> 00:39:40,960
they spent so much money doing a commercial that it

744
00:39:41,079 --> 00:39:44,039
took about fifteen times to me watching that damn thing

745
00:39:44,079 --> 00:39:46,000
to say, you know what, let me go google what

746
00:39:46,079 --> 00:39:49,119
this hell? This thing is not everybody's gonna do that.

747
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:53,719
But they're commercial. You might say, well, they're commercial. Worked,

748
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,039
didn't it, Paul? You finally did it? No, But that's

749
00:39:56,119 --> 00:39:59,599
not a good return on my investment because every time

750
00:39:59,639 --> 00:40:02,840
they run that ad, it costs money. So they got

751
00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:06,039
to watch that ad over and over again before they

752
00:40:06,119 --> 00:40:09,440
know what to do. And that's just not a great

753
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,480
way to do it. I don't believe that's a great

754
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,119
way to do your marketing. You need to get it

755
00:40:14,199 --> 00:40:17,000
up front what you do, and what your name is

756
00:40:17,119 --> 00:40:19,920
and your number. That's it. Get it out there so

757
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,280
I tell everybody else. I don't care about the other

758
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:24,800
shit around the banner. All I want is my name

759
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,840
as big as possible. I want to be what I

760
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,079
do as big as possible in respect to the layout,

761
00:40:31,519 --> 00:40:34,239
and then I want my phone number on there. That's it.

762
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:37,679
That's what I want. I want people to know at

763
00:40:37,679 --> 00:40:39,880
first glance what I do. That's the other thing I

764
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:41,800
hate about people that do the market you know, do

765
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:46,239
the stuff on their vans and their trucks. I've seen

766
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,400
companies with the name of their business on the side

767
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:51,960
of it, but they don't put underneath it electrical contractor

768
00:40:52,079 --> 00:40:57,280
or a mechanical contractor or whatever. That is the stupidest

769
00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:01,199
thing I've ever seen. You have just wasted a rolling

770
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,800
marketing idea because you only have a brief amount of

771
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:09,159
time for somebody to be engaged. And to me, if

772
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:12,519
anybody recommended that, I don't know where their head is at.

773
00:41:12,719 --> 00:41:15,159
Because you want it to be right in your face,

774
00:41:15,519 --> 00:41:18,800
what you are, what you do, and who you call.

775
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,239
It has to be in the face for somebody because

776
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:26,559
it's only a brief moment. Okay, all right. Anyway, so

777
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:31,599
community involvement, school programs, charity projects. If the cost is right,

778
00:41:31,679 --> 00:41:34,960
it's not real expensive, and you look at it and say, well,

779
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,800
you know, basically this event, if I sponsor it, if

780
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,320
I get one sale, it'll pay for the event, so

781
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:43,440
it's a net zero so I didn't cost me anything.

782
00:41:44,639 --> 00:41:47,719
Then it's worth it and it helps support your community,

783
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:54,000
and people think about that. Okay. Also bundling in this,

784
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:56,840
we'll talk about again those local business groups like B

785
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,920
and I's. If you have a business or commerce, trade commerce,

786
00:42:01,079 --> 00:42:06,760
that type of thing, trade organizations. Example, I'm here in Louisa, Virginia,

787
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:10,079
that's where our offices are now, and I don't join

788
00:42:10,119 --> 00:42:14,239
the local commerce because there's from my perspective, there's nothing

789
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:17,719
that it can give me because I'm not a local contractor. Right.

790
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:20,599
But I could join it if I'm trying to get

791
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:25,920
people that are possibly wanting to pass an electric exam, right,

792
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,480
But mine is a little broader because I'm trying to

793
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,320
get people all over the state, not just one local area,

794
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:36,920
which may have a very small return on investment. So

795
00:42:37,159 --> 00:42:40,159
for me, it wouldn't make sense. But if I'm a

796
00:42:40,159 --> 00:42:43,440
local contractor and I'm doing work in this specific area,

797
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:46,320
then it makes all the sense for me to join

798
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:50,840
that chamber of commerce, so that local marketing group or

799
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,280
something like that in order for me to network and

800
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:58,559
build relationships. And you never go to these events, folks,

801
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:02,719
without you wearing something with your company name on it.

802
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:08,840
Always promoting yourself always. You know how you know how

803
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:11,639
people used to say, God, that guy's self promotes all

804
00:43:11,679 --> 00:43:14,400
the time. He's all full of himself. You know those

805
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:16,599
people that say that, and they say that about me,

806
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,360
They say about Mike Cold they say about others, you

807
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,679
don't get it. I remember years ago I came up

808
00:43:21,679 --> 00:43:29,039
with the it was the Electrical Guru, and I took

809
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:32,880
so much crap from people on Mike Holt's forum from

810
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:35,280
other places saying and this is their own thing, and

811
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,519
this is this is coming from their inside inadequacies. Is

812
00:43:39,519 --> 00:43:42,360
what they would say is boy, he thinks he's the guru.

813
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,360
And it would drive them crazy. They would start topics

814
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:48,320
on message boards. Go google it, you'll still be out there,

815
00:43:48,679 --> 00:43:50,599
to the point where I finally got rid of it.

816
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:53,400
But I got to thinking about it years later and

817
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:55,280
I was like, you know what, they did not get me.

818
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:59,440
It wasn't about me thinking I'm the guru. It was

819
00:43:59,679 --> 00:44:04,000
it was marketing, and it was working. I had an

820
00:44:04,079 --> 00:44:07,159
awesome logo, I had all this type of stuff that

821
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,559
was focused around the Electrical Guru and all this kind

822
00:44:10,559 --> 00:44:13,079
of stuff. But it's all marketing. I'm still just Paul

823
00:44:13,079 --> 00:44:15,920
Abernathy trying to educate people on the National Electrical Code.

824
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:18,440
Whether you like what I put out or you don't.

825
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:21,400
You agree or disagree, you have that prerogative. We don't

826
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:23,639
always have to agree. You can do your own thing.

827
00:44:23,679 --> 00:44:25,920
You don't have to watch my videos, listen to my podcast,

828
00:44:26,039 --> 00:44:28,920
take my courses, watch our videos on fast tracks too.

829
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:32,320
You have that freedom to do whatever you want. But

830
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,400
if you choose, then it's up to me to make

831
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:39,119
sure I market it properly so that you know exactly

832
00:44:39,199 --> 00:44:41,320
what I'm presenting to you. And that's what the electrical

833
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,679
Guru was all about. So here's what's so funny is

834
00:44:44,679 --> 00:44:46,800
when I let that domain go and you go back

835
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,960
years later to get it. Now they want ten grand

836
00:44:50,039 --> 00:44:54,000
for the URL. I'm just like, really, but it's like,

837
00:44:54,079 --> 00:44:55,960
you know, I should have kept it. I broke my

838
00:44:56,039 --> 00:44:58,760
cardinal rule. My cardinal rule is when you buy domains

839
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:01,679
that you buy all of the three mains. You buy

840
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:04,480
the dot com, the dot net, and dot org because

841
00:45:04,519 --> 00:45:08,880
it's cheap. It's cheap real estate. Cost you about fifteen

842
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:12,559
bucks a year for each one. That is cheap real estate.

843
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:15,519
If you don't believe me. If you don't believe me,

844
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:19,920
ask Dustin from Electricianne why he doesn't have dot net

845
00:45:20,039 --> 00:45:23,920
dot org from Electriciane. You know why he doesn't because

846
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:26,719
I own them, okay, and I got them before he

847
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:31,800
was incorporated, before that was anything that's changed. So they're

848
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:35,000
not for sale. They're free. I would never sell them

849
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:38,039
to him. Here's a message to Dustin out there. If

850
00:45:38,039 --> 00:45:42,000
you ever watch my podcasts or listen to my podcast Dustin,

851
00:45:42,079 --> 00:45:44,559
if you want the dot org or the dot net

852
00:45:45,079 --> 00:45:49,320
for Electricianne, all you gotta do is reach out to me,

853
00:45:49,559 --> 00:45:53,280
call me. I'm willing to forgive and I'm willing to

854
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:57,360
give them to you. I don't need them, Okay. It's

855
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:00,400
just principle, is what it is for me. I'm saying.

856
00:46:00,559 --> 00:46:05,119
And every business should own their dot net, dot com

857
00:46:05,159 --> 00:46:07,960
and dot org. Okay, that's your tip of the day.

858
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:10,079
You get your business if you're lucky enough to get

859
00:46:10,079 --> 00:46:13,280
a URL and it's available in all three of those, dude,

860
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:15,559
that's just part of expenses, your yearly expenses.

861
00:46:15,599 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 1: Dude.

862
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,760
Speaker 2: It's under fifty bucks for three domains. What you do

863
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:22,079
with them, you can have them all forward like mine,

864
00:46:22,119 --> 00:46:26,079
the nets and orgs, they all forward to the dot coms, right,

865
00:46:27,119 --> 00:46:29,239
and so it's like real estate. Once you own it,

866
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:31,679
you own it. All you're doing is paying a yearly

867
00:46:32,519 --> 00:46:35,920
tax if you will on it to keep it. Nothing's free, folks.

868
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:38,880
I own my home, it ain't free. Every year I

869
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:43,400
pay property taxes and all these other day nothing's ever free, Okay,

870
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:48,360
just saying, so get out of that mentality. Okay, let's

871
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:55,480
talk about content marketing on a very light budget educational videos.

872
00:46:56,039 --> 00:46:58,679
One good way to get in with your customers is

873
00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:02,800
to produce quick videos. They don't have to be professionally produced,

874
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:07,519
just use your smartphone, very simple, but do very quick

875
00:47:07,559 --> 00:47:12,239
tutorials or safety tips to position yourself as the expert

876
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:16,400
in the industry in your local market. So again, things

877
00:47:16,559 --> 00:47:19,840
like even if you're going you're going on a job

878
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,559
and you're just replacing illumin air, if there's one little

879
00:47:22,599 --> 00:47:24,880
tip that you can give somebody, like calking around it

880
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:28,079
or sealing around it, or or pushing the wires back

881
00:47:28,119 --> 00:47:29,840
tightly so you know that they're not going to come

882
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:33,119
in content. It doesn't matter, just a minute or two

883
00:47:33,639 --> 00:47:37,360
that you can have where you're teaching somebody something. And

884
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:39,719
I think the problem that people have is they and

885
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:42,199
I struggle with this, is that I do so many

886
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:44,480
videos and the moment that I think that if I

887
00:47:44,519 --> 00:47:47,320
do a training on something that somebody will go or shit, Paul,

888
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:49,559
that everybody knows that, and I'm like, dude, why did

889
00:47:49,639 --> 00:47:52,679
I waste my time? I have done videos on something

890
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:56,480
that is the very simplest concept, and I get people

891
00:47:56,519 --> 00:47:59,679
sending me emails and texts and all this going, that's brilliant,

892
00:47:59,679 --> 00:48:01,320
thank you, That's what I needed. And I'm sitting there

893
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,719
going you should have already known that. I mean, I

894
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:07,000
could do a video, for example, on explaining the twenty

895
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,800
five ms or less in the ground rods and all

896
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:15,480
those rules. But I'm sitting there thinking everybody should know that, right,

897
00:48:16,199 --> 00:48:19,360
but they don't. You'd be surprised how many people are

898
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:22,760
electricians that are licensed that don't know those rules. And

899
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:24,800
the reason for that is they're used to putting in

900
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,280
the stuff. They're not so necessarily used to the code.

901
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:30,280
And they may have gotten their license to grandfathering, or

902
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:32,920
they took an exam, and some exams aren't created equal

903
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:34,679
as others. And there are a lot of people that

904
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:38,400
pass electrical exams because they're good test takers. There's people

905
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:42,280
that get their license and pass an exam. Just because

906
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:44,360
they pass an exam doesn't mean they know the code.

907
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:47,000
They just knew enough to pass an exam. And that's

908
00:48:47,039 --> 00:48:49,079
what exam prep is all about. It's trying to give

909
00:48:49,119 --> 00:48:51,199
you the tools to get you passed. We can't teach

910
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:55,039
you everything about the NEC and an exam prep course,

911
00:48:55,440 --> 00:48:58,360
you'd never finish the damn thing. Y'all know how thick

912
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,360
that codebook is. But the goal is to give you

913
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:03,840
what you need, the low hanging fruit that most test

914
00:49:04,039 --> 00:49:07,079
locations will put in their test or at least teach

915
00:49:07,159 --> 00:49:09,920
you the skills on how to maneuver the NEC in

916
00:49:10,039 --> 00:49:13,119
order to be able to answer these questions. And as

917
00:49:13,159 --> 00:49:16,159
you move through our courses, for example, you will learn

918
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:19,000
different things that you will retain and that's going to

919
00:49:19,079 --> 00:49:21,599
help you. Okay, So that's the whole concept here. So

920
00:49:21,679 --> 00:49:24,920
don't be afraid to do educational videos and share them

921
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:30,000
on your Google's, my Space, your your yelps. You're all that.

922
00:49:30,079 --> 00:49:33,639
The next doors little tips that may help the general

923
00:49:33,679 --> 00:49:37,119
homeowner to the point where they go, oh crap, you know,

924
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:39,480
let me just hire this guy. Like maybe you're hanging

925
00:49:39,559 --> 00:49:41,920
up a ceiling fan. Maybe you have a little tip

926
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:43,639
that you like to use when you're hanging up a

927
00:49:43,639 --> 00:49:47,519
ceiling fan or something. You don't have to show the

928
00:49:47,559 --> 00:49:51,119
whole thing, just to tip. The point is you will

929
00:49:51,159 --> 00:49:54,599
become the expert in that local market and when people

930
00:49:54,639 --> 00:49:56,760
see it, they'll be like dude, I'm gonna hire this guy.

931
00:49:57,519 --> 00:50:01,559
Because again, everybody that sees some body on TikTok LinkedIn

932
00:50:02,159 --> 00:50:04,280
all these others, they see the videos, they see them,

933
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:08,079
they think that there's some influencer or whatnot in that

934
00:50:08,119 --> 00:50:10,400
type of thing, and it's just it's crazy to me.

935
00:50:11,519 --> 00:50:13,960
I appreciate going to events and people coming up to

936
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:16,960
me and and and you know, seeing how how they

937
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:19,159
love our content and all this stuff. But my next

938
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:22,199
question to me is did you learn something? Because all

939
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:25,320
this other shit doesn't matter. Did you learn anything? That's

940
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:28,679
what I'm focused on. Did you learn something? Okay, So

941
00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:32,440
do some quick videos. Pick it so that you look

942
00:50:32,639 --> 00:50:35,719
very intelligent, okay, be very selective on what your tip

943
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:40,159
you're giving, okay, and just get it out there in

944
00:50:40,199 --> 00:50:43,519
your in your market and share it again next door,

945
00:50:43,559 --> 00:50:46,960
all those local driven types of stuff, but also on

946
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,639
your even the stuff that's broader like your YouTube's and

947
00:50:50,679 --> 00:50:54,079
all that type of stuff. Just stay consistent. Okay. Now,

948
00:50:54,079 --> 00:50:56,119
the next thing I'll tell you to do is and

949
00:50:56,159 --> 00:51:00,199
it's become amazingly easier today than it used to be. Uh.

950
00:51:00,199 --> 00:51:02,440
And it doesn't matter whether or not it seems like

951
00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:06,760
a cheesy response. When you do this, but it does help,

952
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:12,119
and that is start thinking about writing some blogs. Blogs

953
00:51:12,119 --> 00:51:16,519
can be educational as well. Ask some tips your local markets.

954
00:51:16,559 --> 00:51:20,400
Stay specific to your local market with these tips. There's

955
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:23,280
no sense. For example, if I'm an electrical guy and

956
00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:28,280
I want to get business in let's say Louisa County,

957
00:51:28,679 --> 00:51:31,920
it doesn't do me any good to do some blogging

958
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:37,000
on national things or blogging on the national electrical code.

959
00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:39,119
It doesn't do any good because those people don't care

960
00:51:39,199 --> 00:51:42,360
about that. Remember what you're focusing on, not trying to build.

961
00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:45,159
I'm not here to build somebody as a you know,

962
00:51:45,199 --> 00:51:46,880
to do what I do on the internet, that type

963
00:51:46,920 --> 00:51:50,280
of thing. I'm trying to help the contractor. So your

964
00:51:50,599 --> 00:51:53,840
your blog should be very focused to your market. Like,

965
00:51:54,599 --> 00:51:57,360
for example, if you write a blog about the temperatures

966
00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,239
like right now, next week it's going to be down

967
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,960
eight degrees in Virginia. Maybe if you're a plumber, you

968
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:05,280
write a quick thing on the tips to keep your

969
00:52:05,320 --> 00:52:08,559
plumbing pipes from freezing or whatever that you can share

970
00:52:08,599 --> 00:52:12,760
out there on your social media. Very local specific like

971
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:15,800
next door is great for this type of thing. Your

972
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:20,800
yells give them something that locally they can take away

973
00:52:21,159 --> 00:52:23,159
and then at the end of it, add into what

974
00:52:23,199 --> 00:52:25,199
you do as far as your company, and you'd love

975
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:28,440
to earn their business. That type of thing that's what

976
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:30,880
you're going for. Is no sense in most of you

977
00:52:31,639 --> 00:52:35,119
trying to gather a national audience when your real money

978
00:52:35,119 --> 00:52:37,440
for you is your local audience. So that's the biggest

979
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:40,400
shift that I tell people all the time. I'm not

980
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:42,920
here to educate influencers. I'm not here to create people

981
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:48,360
to sell online stuff. And no, my focus is for you,

982
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:54,079
the contractor, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, general contractor or whatever. Build

983
00:52:54,119 --> 00:52:56,880
your market local. And these tips are going to help

984
00:52:56,920 --> 00:53:03,199
you build it local. Okay, So blogging and also in

985
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:07,639
that tip that you do, make sure you include keywords

986
00:53:07,639 --> 00:53:12,239
in there like affordable electricians near me or emergency electrical repair.

987
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:15,400
Write that in your verbage so that it gets picked

988
00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:18,639
up by search engines. Okay, as it's put out there.

989
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:20,400
That type of thing, and this is the kind of

990
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:22,400
tips that you're probably going to put over on that

991
00:53:22,519 --> 00:53:25,440
web page, that one page web page that you're going

992
00:53:25,519 --> 00:53:30,360
to do. Okay. Next is email marketing. You should be

993
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:33,840
collecting a list from all your customers on all of

994
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:36,360
your things that you do. You should ask to join

995
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,320
the newsletter so that you can send out a newsletter

996
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:44,960
or maintenance reminder or updates or whatever. So capturing emails

997
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,199
are very important. So however you do it, make sure

998
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:49,719
you're capturing and retaining emails. You know, we do this

999
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:53,679
through our websites where you register and then people say, well,

1000
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:56,199
why'd you email me this? Because when you registered, did

1001
00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:58,320
you read the fine print? The fine print says we

1002
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:00,320
could email you stuff. If you don't don't want to

1003
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:04,880
get emailed anything, don't register. Hello, Okay, So that type

1004
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:10,840
of thing. So next is a word of mouth. So

1005
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:12,800
some people have said out there that says what is

1006
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:15,840
the most popular or what is the most effective form

1007
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:19,920
of advertising? And it is obviously word of mouth or

1008
00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:22,400
a good referral strategy. But I will tell you the

1009
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:24,559
problem with word of mouth is if you do great

1010
00:54:24,599 --> 00:54:26,679
for somebody, they tend to maybe tell one or two people.

1011
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:29,280
If you do something shitty, they tell fifty. They go

1012
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:31,920
out of their way. So this is why I always

1013
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:34,440
tell people in my leadership class that I do the

1014
00:54:34,519 --> 00:54:40,800
mentoring masterclass on leadership that the leader's electricians take, masters take,

1015
00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:43,880
or whoever's going to be interacting with the customer. It is

1016
00:54:44,079 --> 00:54:48,320
so important that you don't realize that the first impression

1017
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:51,400
means a lot. But you can overcome a bad first

1018
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:55,239
impression with how the rest of your encounter goes with

1019
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:58,679
that customer. So maybe you started off in a fad impression,

1020
00:54:58,719 --> 00:55:02,199
maybe something happened, but don't give up. And a lot

1021
00:55:02,239 --> 00:55:04,880
of what I used to see with electricians, for example,

1022
00:55:05,679 --> 00:55:08,159
in those masterminds that we would do, is they would say,

1023
00:55:08,159 --> 00:55:10,480
you know, after the first when I realized that customer

1024
00:55:10,559 --> 00:55:12,280
didn't like me or whatever, that I just was there

1025
00:55:12,280 --> 00:55:14,320
to get the job done and get the hell out. No,

1026
00:55:15,079 --> 00:55:17,920
you have got to build skills. Okay, these are called

1027
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:20,639
soft skills. You have to be able to take a

1028
00:55:20,719 --> 00:55:24,639
negative and turn it into a positive, and you have time.

1029
00:55:25,559 --> 00:55:28,760
So I hear people say first impressions are hard to overcome.

1030
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:33,760
They're tough, but can it be overcome? Absolutely? Should you

1031
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:39,239
be training your staff specifically in techniques to overcome a

1032
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:44,360
bad first impression? Absolutely, you should be, absolutely, And there

1033
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:47,199
are ways to do that. And I hold a webinar

1034
00:55:48,039 --> 00:55:52,719
on that how to overcome a bad first impression. Everybody

1035
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:58,599
in the company should watch that video, everybody, everybody, because

1036
00:55:58,599 --> 00:56:02,440
there are ways to overcome a first impression. I'm not

1037
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:04,679
talking about on the internet. I'm talking about not talking

1038
00:56:04,679 --> 00:56:07,079
about saying something bad on the Internet, and people go,

1039
00:56:07,159 --> 00:56:10,599
I don't like this guy, he's a prick. No, no, folks.

1040
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:15,760
I work with people to build their local business. I'm

1041
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:18,280
not worried about building your Internet presence. When it comes

1042
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:22,360
to nationally getting somebody from Illinois and you're in Maryland,

1043
00:56:23,079 --> 00:56:26,760
that is not it. There's many facets to this, but

1044
00:56:27,079 --> 00:56:30,760
every company should have every one of their electricians that

1045
00:56:30,880 --> 00:56:35,840
interact with a customer take a course on soft skills

1046
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:40,119
so that they understand how to overcome a bad first

1047
00:56:40,119 --> 00:56:42,039
impression or how to make sure that you set a

1048
00:56:42,079 --> 00:56:45,679
good first impression so that you can even grow on

1049
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:49,400
that during your interaction. Right, and then during that interaction,

1050
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,480
that's when you can ask for the referral. That's what

1051
00:56:51,519 --> 00:56:55,159
you can ask for testimonies because you have built this up, folks.

1052
00:56:55,199 --> 00:56:56,639
It's not brain surgery.

1053
00:56:57,280 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 1: Now.

1054
00:56:57,519 --> 00:57:00,119
Speaker 2: Look, if you have a shitty attitude and you're always

1055
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:03,800
then this is gonna be tough for you. This is

1056
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:05,840
gonna be tough for you. It's not gonna work for you.

1057
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:07,519
And if I'm the owner, I'm getting rid of you

1058
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:09,960
unless you're just such a good ass worker that I'm

1059
00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:12,639
gonna say, you know what, I will send you out

1060
00:57:12,639 --> 00:57:15,440
there to do the work. But you are forbidden. You're

1061
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:19,679
a forbidden to talk to customers. You are forbidden. I'm

1062
00:57:19,679 --> 00:57:23,280
gonna send somebody with you. Okay, maybe the helper is

1063
00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:25,639
not the one that's the electrician, but maybe the helper

1064
00:57:25,679 --> 00:57:30,880
is more can interact with the customer better than I

1065
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:33,599
want him talking or her talking. I don't want you doing.

1066
00:57:33,639 --> 00:57:34,960
I want you there to do the work, Get in,

1067
00:57:35,039 --> 00:57:37,800
get out and go. I want somebody else talking. Okay,

1068
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:40,199
that's up to you, But I can't that. Those are

1069
00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:41,679
the kind of people I'm like. You know what, you

1070
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:43,880
have to be able to turn a frown upside down.

1071
00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:45,760
You've got to be able to learn it. And that's

1072
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:48,000
a skill that can be taught, but you have to

1073
00:57:48,039 --> 00:57:49,679
be open to it. If you're just an a hole

1074
00:57:49,719 --> 00:57:51,519
from the beginning, it's not going to really help you much.

1075
00:57:52,119 --> 00:57:53,599
If you don't want to interact with people, or you

1076
00:57:53,639 --> 00:57:56,559
hate people. I mean, I don't like people. I love animals,

1077
00:57:56,559 --> 00:57:58,119
I don't. I don't care much for people, But when

1078
00:57:58,119 --> 00:58:01,280
I'm interacting with them, they would never know, you know,

1079
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:05,280
what I'm saying. So anyway, it's it's a it's a process.

1080
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:07,920
And if your company is interested in that, webinar, let

1081
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:11,320
me know, we come out and uh, we will do

1082
00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:15,000
it at your location, at your facility, and uh, it's

1083
00:58:15,199 --> 00:58:19,079
basically about three hours and we teach you. We do

1084
00:58:19,119 --> 00:58:22,599
some one on ones, we do some examples, we do

1085
00:58:22,679 --> 00:58:25,559
some peer to peer uh, and then I explain how

1086
00:58:25,639 --> 00:58:28,360
you have to go at it as a mentality. Uh

1087
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:30,599
and uh yeah, if you're interested in that, reach out

1088
00:58:30,639 --> 00:58:35,599
to our office. It's it's basically it's a soft skills training.

1089
00:58:35,639 --> 00:58:38,280
That's what it's called. If you're interested in that. Okay,

1090
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:42,480
So word of mouth can be great and then sometimes

1091
00:58:42,519 --> 00:58:44,760
it can be very bad. But you can minimize the

1092
00:58:44,800 --> 00:58:50,039
bad by that first impression and understanding how to build

1093
00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:54,360
how to repair a not so good first impression. The

1094
00:58:54,400 --> 00:58:58,000
next thing to do is really all contractors should be

1095
00:58:58,039 --> 00:59:01,440
thinking about a loyalty program. I know they don't. I

1096
00:59:01,800 --> 00:59:03,639
can tell you this that I did not have one

1097
00:59:03,679 --> 00:59:05,519
when I was in Virginia. I did when I moved

1098
00:59:05,559 --> 00:59:10,159
to Texas, especially if you're doing grassroots marketing. If I'm

1099
00:59:10,199 --> 00:59:12,159
going to let me give you an example why this

1100
00:59:12,239 --> 00:59:15,480
is important to do loyalty program. So one of the

1101
00:59:15,519 --> 00:59:19,239
things that I would do with door hangers, okay, is

1102
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:22,599
it is I would go around when I would target

1103
00:59:22,599 --> 00:59:25,039
a neighborhood that I knew was between five to ten

1104
00:59:25,119 --> 00:59:27,639
years old. Okay, I would go Google Maps, I would

1105
00:59:27,639 --> 00:59:29,760
look at it, Google Earth, find out where it is,

1106
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:32,960
look at it. And then what I would do is

1107
00:59:33,000 --> 00:59:37,440
when I was targeting that subdivision specifically for my door hanger.

1108
00:59:38,840 --> 00:59:40,800
One of the things that I would do on this

1109
00:59:41,480 --> 00:59:44,400
is that when I would go out there, is when

1110
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:48,400
I would get work, I would say, look, those projects

1111
00:59:48,519 --> 00:59:50,679
usually meant that they had more than one thing that

1112
00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:54,000
need to be fixed. I'll give you an example my home.

1113
00:59:54,039 --> 00:59:59,079
It's in McKinney, Texas. You know, the roof probably needs

1114
00:59:59,119 --> 01:00:02,039
to be redone, it needs to have some other stuff

1115
01:00:02,119 --> 01:00:05,800
done or whatnot. It needs to this or that, and

1116
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:09,159
you know, and so chances are for the most of

1117
01:00:09,199 --> 01:00:11,079
these homes that if you get the initial call to

1118
01:00:11,079 --> 01:00:13,639
put in illumina air or to add a circuit, or

1119
01:00:13,639 --> 01:00:16,800
add some recess lights or do something, there is a

1120
01:00:16,880 --> 01:00:20,519
high probability they're going to need something else done. And

1121
01:00:20,599 --> 01:00:22,199
so you want to be able to say, you know

1122
01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:25,760
what if you call me back, you'll get a five

1123
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:29,199
percent discount on any future work you want done. You

1124
01:00:29,239 --> 01:00:31,760
don't have to no special code, just let me know.

1125
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:34,960
I'll keep track of you and keep this card. I'd

1126
01:00:34,960 --> 01:00:36,840
have a loyalty card and I'd say keep this card

1127
01:00:36,840 --> 01:00:39,079
and just show it to us and you'll get five

1128
01:00:39,119 --> 01:00:42,719
percent off or whatever you feel comfortable with. Maybe you

1129
01:00:42,719 --> 01:00:45,039
set a minimum threshold of how much they spend. It's

1130
01:00:45,119 --> 01:00:48,719
up to you, but give the customers a discount if

1131
01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:52,440
they repeat and want you back out there. Okay. Another

1132
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:54,280
thing that you can do with that is get those

1133
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:57,159
people that we talked about, you met with that, if

1134
01:00:57,159 --> 01:01:00,000
you refer them as far as your network and say, look,

1135
01:01:00,119 --> 01:01:02,440
I would like to be able to offer my customers

1136
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:06,400
a five percent off for your services. Maybe there's a

1137
01:01:06,440 --> 01:01:08,519
money threshold. Maybe they don't feel comfortable with that, but

1138
01:01:08,559 --> 01:01:11,320
maybe they're like, well, if they spend five hundred with us,

1139
01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:14,039
we'll give them this discount or whatever. Maybe it's a monitory,

1140
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:17,760
it doesn't matter. It's worth a shot, it's worth a try.

1141
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:19,559
If they say naw, I'm not going to do that,

1142
01:01:19,599 --> 01:01:22,599
then don't. But you should be giving a loyalty program

1143
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:26,480
because I want to squeeze as much money as I

1144
01:01:26,599 --> 01:01:31,920
can out of every opportunity. So for example, when I

1145
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:34,599
used to do the home depot stuff, which again is free.

1146
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:36,920
I mean, as long as you're buying product from home

1147
01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:41,960
depot in what I used to do with that is Man,

1148
01:01:41,960 --> 01:01:44,920
you'd be surprised in how many returns that I got

1149
01:01:44,960 --> 01:01:47,320
that I would they would call me back again. Dude.

1150
01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:49,599
I had some houses that I was called out there

1151
01:01:49,599 --> 01:01:52,159
to put a ceiling fan in, and then two weeks

1152
01:01:52,199 --> 01:01:54,239
later I got called to put another ceiling fan in

1153
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:56,079
and they didn't even go through home Depot. They already

1154
01:01:56,079 --> 01:01:58,000
just had my number. They were They loved my work,

1155
01:01:58,159 --> 01:02:01,159
they loved what we did. So I had one job

1156
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:03,519
where I can just remember in my mind, this was

1157
01:02:03,559 --> 01:02:07,239
in McKinney that I bet. I bet that woman caught

1158
01:02:07,320 --> 01:02:12,119
us out there probably ten times to do I mean

1159
01:02:12,159 --> 01:02:16,199
to replace some switches, to add a light, to change illuminair,

1160
01:02:16,320 --> 01:02:19,320
to put in seeling fans, and dude, I had to

1161
01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:23,599
give that woman a discount, a loyalty discount. She was

1162
01:02:23,639 --> 01:02:27,519
making me money, and guess what she shared it with

1163
01:02:27,599 --> 01:02:29,800
their friends. So I used to tell her, I said,

1164
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:32,119
you know what if you share this with your friends,

1165
01:02:32,519 --> 01:02:34,880
I will give them the same discount I'm giving you

1166
01:02:34,960 --> 01:02:39,159
five percent off. Just have them take a picture of

1167
01:02:39,239 --> 01:02:42,159
your card so that they can show us when we

1168
01:02:42,199 --> 01:02:46,159
get there. That way they were engaged in that type

1169
01:02:46,159 --> 01:02:48,159
of thing, or just refer it and I can go look.

1170
01:02:48,159 --> 01:02:49,320
All they have to do is tell me. I mean,

1171
01:02:49,320 --> 01:02:51,320
if they didn't have that, I would say, just who

1172
01:02:51,360 --> 01:02:53,400
are you talking about now? I used to have a

1173
01:02:53,400 --> 01:02:55,840
little book of the loyalty customers in it that type

1174
01:02:55,880 --> 01:02:57,840
of thing. So anyway, however you want to do it.

1175
01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:03,119
But again I have no problem giving a discount because

1176
01:03:03,159 --> 01:03:05,840
I did not have to work for that. I can

1177
01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:08,199
already figure that it would have cost me a freaking

1178
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:11,760
fortune in the advertising to get that customer or maybe

1179
01:03:11,880 --> 01:03:14,880
or you know, if I had done more marketing. But

1180
01:03:14,960 --> 01:03:18,480
I just got it for free. So anyway, that's a

1181
01:03:18,519 --> 01:03:22,159
loyalty program. I lastly, one thing I'm going to tell

1182
01:03:22,199 --> 01:03:25,480
you is with every job you do, leave your mark.

1183
01:03:26,199 --> 01:03:29,719
And what does that mean? Leave your mark whether or

1184
01:03:29,719 --> 01:03:32,039
not you come up with stickers that you if I go,

1185
01:03:32,239 --> 01:03:34,960
for example, when I would go to do a service call,

1186
01:03:35,840 --> 01:03:37,400
whether I had to go into the panel or not,

1187
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:39,079
and usually I did because I'd have to turn the

1188
01:03:39,079 --> 01:03:41,000
panel off because I ain't working on anything live. I'm

1189
01:03:41,039 --> 01:03:44,199
not trying to be a hero. I took an opportunity

1190
01:03:44,280 --> 01:03:47,760
to put my sticker on their panel. They didn't give

1191
01:03:47,800 --> 01:03:49,840
me permission. I didn't ask for permission. They can rip

1192
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:51,400
it off if they want. I don't care. But I did.

1193
01:03:51,480 --> 01:03:54,000
I went and I would put my sticker on the

1194
01:03:54,039 --> 01:04:00,280
inside door or somewhere on that panel. Okay, hell, I

1195
01:04:00,320 --> 01:04:01,760
didn't care if I put it on the outside of

1196
01:04:01,760 --> 01:04:03,719
the door of the panle I put my little state

1197
01:04:03,800 --> 01:04:07,639
wasn't big, A small little sticker that said Electrician and

1198
01:04:07,679 --> 01:04:10,039
it had my number on it. Ain't no shame in

1199
01:04:10,119 --> 01:04:13,000
my game. You can do that with magnets. You can

1200
01:04:13,079 --> 01:04:16,360
do that with labels. I knew a lady contractor who

1201
01:04:16,440 --> 01:04:17,920
used to do a lot of work, and all of

1202
01:04:17,920 --> 01:04:19,480
her work it was above us. When she would do

1203
01:04:19,519 --> 01:04:23,360
above suspended ceiling work, she had those little tags that

1204
01:04:23,440 --> 01:04:26,719
looked like h like ID tags for like trash bags,

1205
01:04:26,760 --> 01:04:28,840
you know what I'm saying. It's like a square rectangle,

1206
01:04:28,880 --> 01:04:30,480
and then it had little tail on it that you

1207
01:04:30,639 --> 01:04:33,239
feedback through it and tighten it like a tie wrap

1208
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:36,159
with a label on it. She had those with her

1209
01:04:36,239 --> 01:04:39,480
business name Everything Electrician, you know, all that kind of stuff.

1210
01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:43,239
And she would put it randomly on the MC above

1211
01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:46,239
the ceiling or other areas around raceways or whatever. And

1212
01:04:46,280 --> 01:04:48,239
I used to see she used to come to my seminars,

1213
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:50,119
and she's also the lady that used to do her

1214
01:04:50,159 --> 01:04:53,360
color coding for her services and everything. She'd use all

1215
01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:56,880
kinds of wild colors like pink and lavenders and whatever.

1216
01:04:56,960 --> 01:04:59,400
Because everybody thinks black, red, blue, and brown or yellow

1217
01:04:59,719 --> 01:05:02,599
is a requirement. It may be something that the local

1218
01:05:02,719 --> 01:05:06,360
jurisdiction requires, maybe something in the specifications, but it's not

1219
01:05:06,440 --> 01:05:08,880
in the NEEC unless you're talking about a high leg.

1220
01:05:08,920 --> 01:05:11,119
And if it is, it's a high leg, it's orange.

1221
01:05:11,119 --> 01:05:12,639
If you're going to color code it. If you don't

1222
01:05:12,639 --> 01:05:14,079
want a color code and you want to put labels

1223
01:05:14,119 --> 01:05:15,920
on it, that's fine, then it doesn't have to be orange.

1224
01:05:16,639 --> 01:05:20,559
But the point was, she made it a point, and

1225
01:05:20,599 --> 01:05:22,519
one of the guys in a seminar one time said

1226
01:05:22,639 --> 01:05:24,679
to her, and this was back when I was in

1227
01:05:24,760 --> 01:05:28,199
Virginia doing these seminars. I'm back now, but they said

1228
01:05:28,239 --> 01:05:29,960
to her, they said, well, you're just making it easier

1229
01:05:29,960 --> 01:05:32,679
for the lawyer to find you. And she came back

1230
01:05:32,719 --> 01:05:35,599
with response so dagon quickly. It was incredible. She went

1231
01:05:35,639 --> 01:05:37,360
back and said, you know what, that lawyer might need

1232
01:05:37,440 --> 01:05:39,800
electrical work done too. I don't have a problem with that.

1233
01:05:40,639 --> 01:05:43,480
And she would elaborate and say, look, I stand by

1234
01:05:43,519 --> 01:05:46,840
every bit of my work. I don't care if a

1235
01:05:46,920 --> 01:05:49,360
lawyer sees my name on the work or somebody contact me.

1236
01:05:49,440 --> 01:05:51,559
I'm going to do it right the first time. And

1237
01:05:51,599 --> 01:05:53,119
then she looked up at me and she said, that's

1238
01:05:53,159 --> 01:05:56,239
why I'm here, that's why I come to your webinars.

1239
01:05:56,280 --> 01:05:59,159
That's why I take the training of mister Abernathy, because

1240
01:05:59,239 --> 01:06:01,800
I want to learn the code, because I take this

1241
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:05,400
job serious. It's my profession, no different than a doctor,

1242
01:06:05,440 --> 01:06:08,519
a lawyer, you know that type of thing. She took

1243
01:06:08,519 --> 01:06:11,679
it very serious, and so she didn't have a problem

1244
01:06:11,719 --> 01:06:16,400
putting her name branding her stuff everywhere. And I was like,

1245
01:06:16,480 --> 01:06:19,960
you go, girl, that's exactly what a successful entrepreneur wants

1246
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:24,400
to do. Those things are cheap, getting things printed with

1247
01:06:24,440 --> 01:06:26,440
your name on it like that this to print another

1248
01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:29,400
place that says so damn cheap. But all you have

1249
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:30,920
to do is have one person see at one time

1250
01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:34,880
and remember it and boom it paid for itself. Okay,

1251
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:38,400
so leave your mark, always leave. You know, magnets are

1252
01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:41,440
a bit expensive. Leave a sticker to put a sticker.

1253
01:06:41,440 --> 01:06:44,039
If you get an opportunity to put a sticker on

1254
01:06:44,079 --> 01:06:47,360
the panel or something like that, then take that opportunity,

1255
01:06:47,360 --> 01:06:49,599
but brand it. Make sure that you leave your mark

1256
01:06:49,679 --> 01:06:55,480
before you leave. Okay, let's see cost effective advertising that

1257
01:06:55,559 --> 01:07:02,280
will go over local classifieds and online platforms craiglists, Facebook, Marketplace,

1258
01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:05,320
next door. You've already heard me talk about those yard

1259
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:09,840
signs and vehicle branding. Get some yard signs made up,

1260
01:07:10,480 --> 01:07:13,960
and when you're doing work for customer, ask them if

1261
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:16,280
you can put you get those cheap ones, you know

1262
01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:17,840
what I'm saying, like the one of the political ones

1263
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:20,079
that get made up. They're not overly expensive. I used

1264
01:07:20,119 --> 01:07:24,920
to get these things made up cheap, and ask them

1265
01:07:24,960 --> 01:07:27,079
if you can put a yard sign in the yard.

1266
01:07:27,440 --> 01:07:30,840
And again, be very clear, name of your company and

1267
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:36,960
what you do, and a phone number. Dude, don't be

1268
01:07:37,239 --> 01:07:41,760
over crazy, straight up put what you want. Often tell

1269
01:07:41,800 --> 01:07:45,320
people all the time about sales, the zig ziglar approach

1270
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:47,840
to sales. People say, I have a hard time closing

1271
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:51,400
my sales. I have a hard time getting the sale.

1272
01:07:51,480 --> 01:07:54,280
When I'm rattling on to somebody and where he and

1273
01:07:54,360 --> 01:07:56,679
han back and forth, and what I ask him is

1274
01:07:56,719 --> 01:07:59,920
I say to him, I say, well, did you ask

1275
01:08:00,119 --> 01:08:02,079
for the sale? They go, what do you mean? I

1276
01:08:02,119 --> 01:08:04,280
was telling them about my service? I'm like, did you

1277
01:08:04,480 --> 01:08:07,880
ask for the sale? Did you tell them? I'd like

1278
01:08:07,920 --> 01:08:09,559
to earn your business? What is it going to take

1279
01:08:09,559 --> 01:08:12,920
for me to get this done for you today? Or

1280
01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:14,159
can we go in and get you in the books

1281
01:08:14,199 --> 01:08:16,399
for next week or whatever's commeding for you. I really,

1282
01:08:16,520 --> 01:08:18,600
I really think this can benefit you. I really want

1283
01:08:18,600 --> 01:08:22,239
to earn your business. You seem interested in what we got.

1284
01:08:22,479 --> 01:08:26,920
When can we make this happen? Well, if they say, well,

1285
01:08:26,960 --> 01:08:28,359
I got to talk to the wife, then what you

1286
01:08:28,399 --> 01:08:30,840
say is that's no problem. Is she available? I'd love

1287
01:08:30,880 --> 01:08:34,000
to explain this to her too. It'd be great. You know, again,

1288
01:08:34,039 --> 01:08:35,520
you're going to have a number of people that are

1289
01:08:35,520 --> 01:08:38,840
just going to push you off. But if you don't

1290
01:08:38,880 --> 01:08:41,000
ask for the sale, you're never going to get it.

1291
01:08:41,199 --> 01:08:43,039
So if I ask somebody, can I put a yard

1292
01:08:43,039 --> 01:08:44,880
sign in your yard? And I'm really trying to grow

1293
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:47,680
my business in this area in your neighborhood, Can I

1294
01:08:47,720 --> 01:08:50,680
put a sign on there and tell them say you

1295
01:08:50,720 --> 01:08:53,680
know what, and be very specific, you know, say look,

1296
01:08:53,680 --> 01:08:55,720
can I just do it for a week. I'll come

1297
01:08:55,760 --> 01:08:57,640
back to the end of the week and pick it up. Okay,

1298
01:08:57,680 --> 01:08:59,640
And you make sure you set a reminder on your phone.

1299
01:09:00,479 --> 01:09:02,600
You know. Now today we have phone reminders to say,

1300
01:09:02,600 --> 01:09:05,079
go pick up sign at this address and that type

1301
01:09:05,079 --> 01:09:07,359
of thing. But ask if you can put a sign

1302
01:09:07,439 --> 01:09:12,199
for a week, maybe two weeks. Ask it. Also, branding

1303
01:09:12,239 --> 01:09:14,399
of your vehicle, Dude, I'm not saying go out and

1304
01:09:14,399 --> 01:09:16,840
spend thousands of dollars on a vehicle wrap, but you

1305
01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:20,760
should at least get magnetic lettering. A magnetic signs Vista

1306
01:09:20,840 --> 01:09:24,399
print makes them cheap. You don't need to letter your

1307
01:09:24,399 --> 01:09:27,159
whole vehicle, but if you're in a van, you need

1308
01:09:27,199 --> 01:09:30,079
to have something that says what the hell you do

1309
01:09:30,159 --> 01:09:32,720
on it. Don't just put your name on it. Nobody

1310
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:37,000
cares about your name. They want to know what you do.

1311
01:09:38,319 --> 01:09:41,359
And I'm gonna put on their Abernat the electrical services

1312
01:09:41,439 --> 01:09:43,880
it says right in the name would I do I'm

1313
01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:47,319
gonna put under an electrical contractor, and I'm gonna put

1314
01:09:47,359 --> 01:09:49,600
under it. No job too small, No job too big

1315
01:09:50,199 --> 01:09:51,720
and now I'm gonna put the biggest I can in

1316
01:09:51,760 --> 01:09:54,319
my phone number, and I'm gonna put that on the sides.

1317
01:09:54,359 --> 01:09:55,720
But I'm also gonna put it on the back of

1318
01:09:55,720 --> 01:09:57,600
my vehicle if I have a vehicle that can have

1319
01:09:57,720 --> 01:09:59,359
me put it on the back like the like a

1320
01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:03,880
van door. Because people are stopped at a stoplight behind you,

1321
01:10:03,920 --> 01:10:06,359
they can see it. They can snap a picture of it.

1322
01:10:07,199 --> 01:10:09,239
Now a lot of people even put big QR codes

1323
01:10:09,239 --> 01:10:10,920
on it so people can do the QR code. And

1324
01:10:10,960 --> 01:10:12,960
that's fine. It's not gonna work on the side of

1325
01:10:12,960 --> 01:10:15,319
the vehicle really too much. But putting the back when

1326
01:10:15,319 --> 01:10:19,479
somebody stopped behind you, why not. It's not gonna hurt anything.

1327
01:10:20,760 --> 01:10:22,760
And that's when you send them to your website or

1328
01:10:22,760 --> 01:10:25,239
that one page that you can capture them. Now you

1329
01:10:25,279 --> 01:10:28,960
have got them now, and that's where you can do

1330
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:31,600
a quick intro video says hey, thanks for coming to

1331
01:10:31,600 --> 01:10:33,359
my life. I'm a big believer of that. Folks on

1332
01:10:33,359 --> 01:10:36,000
those little one page things say hey, thanks for coming

1333
01:10:36,039 --> 01:10:38,239
to my thanks for coming to my website. I'm a

1334
01:10:38,279 --> 01:10:41,520
local contractor trying to earn your business. I'm very proud

1335
01:10:41,560 --> 01:10:43,239
of what I do and I think I can you know,

1336
01:10:43,800 --> 01:10:45,760
tell them a little bit about a story, but let

1337
01:10:45,760 --> 01:10:49,800
them know right away the market that you're serving. God,

1338
01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:53,359
so many people don't listen to that. It's local. You're

1339
01:10:53,399 --> 01:10:55,960
not trying to be national. You're just trying to be local.

1340
01:10:57,279 --> 01:11:01,399
Stop thinking big, think very microscope in your area. Okay,

1341
01:11:02,479 --> 01:11:05,359
all right, so that's what i'd say. Please get something

1342
01:11:05,399 --> 01:11:08,119
on your vehicle and you can take them off if

1343
01:11:08,119 --> 01:11:09,760
you don't want it on your vehicle in the evening

1344
01:11:09,880 --> 01:11:11,479
or whatever. You just pull them on or pull them off.

1345
01:11:11,520 --> 01:11:15,840
It's fine. And then lastly again flyers and doorhanngers. I

1346
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:19,960
am a big believer in those. I believe in segmenting

1347
01:11:20,039 --> 01:11:23,600
your locations. I mean I will go, for example, I

1348
01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:25,920
would sit down as a contractor and I would say, Okay,

1349
01:11:26,279 --> 01:11:28,640
I'm going to target this subdivision. I know there's probably

1350
01:11:28,680 --> 01:11:30,960
three hundred and fifty homes in this subdivision, or four

1351
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,680
hundred this subdivision. Okay, this one's about five years old.

1352
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:36,840
So they're starting to have problems. Switches to stop working,

1353
01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:40,680
illuminators need to be freshened up. Things. Okay, Maybe they

1354
01:11:40,920 --> 01:11:43,079
want to add an EV charger, Maybe they want to

1355
01:11:43,119 --> 01:11:46,520
do something. Maybe they're adding a basement addition or finishing

1356
01:11:46,520 --> 01:11:49,600
off an attic. I don't know. I don't know, but

1357
01:11:49,680 --> 01:11:52,079
I'm targeting that. Maybe they want to put in a generator,

1358
01:11:52,119 --> 01:11:54,199
maybe they want to maybe they want to cost effective

1359
01:11:54,279 --> 01:11:57,119
GIN ready set up. Maybe they want an energy management system.

1360
01:11:57,119 --> 01:11:59,319
I don't know. I used to have multiple types of

1361
01:11:59,319 --> 01:12:02,359
flyers and doorhanngers depending on what I was targeting for

1362
01:12:02,479 --> 01:12:08,199
that area. So anyway, I target that area and I

1363
01:12:08,199 --> 01:12:11,840
hang those door hangers, and again I put a referral

1364
01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:13,520
code on it. I put in so that I can

1365
01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:16,319
track it. If I'm going to give a new customer discount,

1366
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:19,000
I make sure that they give me this flyer so

1367
01:12:19,079 --> 01:12:23,760
that can track my ROI. But again, it's inexpensive. Doorhangers

1368
01:12:23,800 --> 01:12:26,359
are cheap, And I'm not just saying use this to print.

1369
01:12:26,640 --> 01:12:31,800
You go google it and you google cost effective door hangers,

1370
01:12:31,920 --> 01:12:34,159
and you're going to find companies that will printers that

1371
01:12:34,199 --> 01:12:38,600
will make these things for hardly nothing nothing. In fact,

1372
01:12:38,680 --> 01:12:40,720
you may even have a printer that's local to you,

1373
01:12:40,760 --> 01:12:42,319
and you want to keep the business local. Go to

1374
01:12:42,359 --> 01:12:43,720
them and say, hey, I'd like you to do some

1375
01:12:43,760 --> 01:12:45,840
printing for you, and what's the best price you can

1376
01:12:45,880 --> 01:12:47,359
do for me? Don't be afraid to ask for that,

1377
01:12:48,039 --> 01:12:51,520
you know what I'm saying. So anyway, those are just

1378
01:12:51,520 --> 01:12:53,199
some tips on that type of thing. So let me

1379
01:12:53,199 --> 01:12:57,119
give you some real quick pro tips to help enhance

1380
01:12:57,159 --> 01:12:59,359
your success. And we'll kind of do that and we'll

1381
01:12:59,359 --> 01:13:04,880
conclude this number One, track your ROI okay, make sure

1382
01:13:05,000 --> 01:13:08,920
that you either write a reference, write a number, uh,

1383
01:13:09,039 --> 01:13:10,760
you know, keep an effort so that when you do

1384
01:13:10,840 --> 01:13:13,039
have a customer call, you know where it comes from,

1385
01:13:13,279 --> 01:13:15,600
whether you get the specific cards and you have a

1386
01:13:15,640 --> 01:13:18,760
little space a box, a white box that you manually write.

1387
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:20,720
Because if you want to buy a bunch of cards

1388
01:13:21,359 --> 01:13:22,640
and you don't want to have to put a separate

1389
01:13:22,680 --> 01:13:25,039
number in each one, that's fine, get a maide, but

1390
01:13:25,119 --> 01:13:27,079
put a little area in the bottom right or in

1391
01:13:27,119 --> 01:13:28,840
the back where you can write a code on it

1392
01:13:29,239 --> 01:13:31,439
so that you can track your efforts, like I use

1393
01:13:31,520 --> 01:13:35,119
this code for this neighborhood, so you can see what's

1394
01:13:35,119 --> 01:13:37,560
your returnal investment. And you can always ask the customer

1395
01:13:37,560 --> 01:13:40,039
what is the code that's on your card and they'll

1396
01:13:40,039 --> 01:13:42,960
give it to you. That's like saying how would you

1397
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:45,239
how did you get how did I? How did I?

1398
01:13:45,800 --> 01:13:49,199
How are you referred to me? Well, you're doing it

1399
01:13:49,239 --> 01:13:52,960
because of the card. That's the thing. Keep track of

1400
01:13:53,000 --> 01:13:57,560
it and things that work for you, rents, repeat and

1401
01:13:57,640 --> 01:14:03,560
do it again again and again. Okay, relationships, build other

1402
01:14:03,600 --> 01:14:06,920
relationships with the other trades that are in your market.

1403
01:14:07,399 --> 01:14:10,760
Try try try to find a good plumber, good hvac

1404
01:14:11,279 --> 01:14:14,640
and vice versa. If you're a mechanical guy, find somebody

1405
01:14:14,680 --> 01:14:16,760
that y'all can refer business back and forth, and you

1406
01:14:16,800 --> 01:14:19,079
can create your own little network. It takes a little work,

1407
01:14:19,399 --> 01:14:21,119
but it will pay dividends in the end when you

1408
01:14:21,119 --> 01:14:24,000
have somebody that's out there selling for you when you're

1409
01:14:24,039 --> 01:14:28,119
not even out there. Business Networking International is a great

1410
01:14:28,119 --> 01:14:30,279
example of that if they have it in your area.

1411
01:14:30,319 --> 01:14:32,000
But it is a bit of a commitment. So you

1412
01:14:32,039 --> 01:14:35,640
can do this yourself by building your own little reliable network.

1413
01:14:35,880 --> 01:14:39,079
Reach out. And if you already have a company that

1414
01:14:39,119 --> 01:14:41,600
does plumbing and mechanical, then you need to treat them

1415
01:14:41,640 --> 01:14:45,920
like separate entities, and you also grassroots market between each

1416
01:14:45,960 --> 01:14:48,800
one of your entities. Separate. In other words, if you

1417
01:14:48,880 --> 01:14:52,319
do plumbing and mechanical and electrical, don't do a flyer

1418
01:14:52,439 --> 01:14:56,800
that has all three of these services. Okay, if you're

1419
01:14:56,800 --> 01:15:00,720
focusing on electrical. Just do one for electrical mechanic. And

1420
01:15:00,720 --> 01:15:04,239
the reason for that is people will throw things away

1421
01:15:04,439 --> 01:15:06,880
unless it's geared towards what they need, and it kind

1422
01:15:06,880 --> 01:15:09,039
of makes them trigger. So rather than doing a flyer

1423
01:15:09,039 --> 01:15:12,800
that tries to cover everything, you do, make it very focused,

1424
01:15:13,079 --> 01:15:15,119
like this week, I'm gonna hit this neighborhood of five

1425
01:15:15,199 --> 01:15:17,600
hundred homes. I'm gonna be focused on my electrical business.

1426
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:20,960
That way, I could also come back a month two

1427
01:15:21,000 --> 01:15:22,720
month later and do the same thing with a different

1428
01:15:22,720 --> 01:15:25,840
looking flyer. I can focus on my mechanical business. Okay,

1429
01:15:26,000 --> 01:15:29,800
I don't want to burn up my leads with one

1430
01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:32,079
flyer that's gonna get so cluttered that people read it

1431
01:15:32,119 --> 01:15:34,119
and they get confused, like I don't know what the

1432
01:15:34,199 --> 01:15:40,399
hell you offer. So again, I like to be very targeted. Yes,

1433
01:15:40,439 --> 01:15:42,880
it costs money to buy these flyers. Yes, it costs

1434
01:15:42,920 --> 01:15:44,640
some money to do all that, but it's not nearly

1435
01:15:44,680 --> 01:15:46,840
the amount of money it would cost you to get

1436
01:15:46,880 --> 01:15:51,199
into an advertised marketing campaign. Somewhere I've done it. I

1437
01:15:51,199 --> 01:15:54,039
can tell you through the years of experience. Okay, that

1438
01:15:54,119 --> 01:15:56,479
type of thing. Don't do the Angie's lists. Don't do

1439
01:15:56,560 --> 01:16:02,439
those type of things. Okay. Now, also be consistent. So

1440
01:16:02,479 --> 01:16:04,520
if you're gonna do social media, you're gonna be doing

1441
01:16:04,560 --> 01:16:08,279
those those little you know, tips videos whatever. Be consistent.

1442
01:16:08,359 --> 01:16:10,640
Try to do it at least one a week or

1443
01:16:10,680 --> 01:16:13,439
two a week. Be very consistent. If you want to

1444
01:16:13,479 --> 01:16:15,079
do you could probably get ten of them done on

1445
01:16:15,079 --> 01:16:16,960
one job. Then you can keep them in the can

1446
01:16:17,319 --> 01:16:19,319
and that way you can you get already taken care

1447
01:16:19,399 --> 01:16:21,279
of and you use them that type of thing. Like

1448
01:16:21,319 --> 01:16:24,039
maybe you're an HVAC guy. Maybe one tip that you

1449
01:16:24,079 --> 01:16:25,920
do is how to read the name plate on an

1450
01:16:25,920 --> 01:16:29,119
outside unit. Maybe another little tip video is how to

1451
01:16:29,159 --> 01:16:31,840
know when a capacitor needs to be replaced, and you

1452
01:16:31,840 --> 01:16:34,119
know that type of thing. There's so many things that

1453
01:16:34,159 --> 01:16:37,640
you can do as as electrician as well. You know

1454
01:16:37,640 --> 01:16:40,199
it's like like, oh, you're using too much quattach. Would

1455
01:16:40,239 --> 01:16:43,279
it benefit you to think about installing LEDs. Well, we

1456
01:16:43,319 --> 01:16:45,279
can help you because we can show you which LED

1457
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:48,159
fixtures will look the best in a certain application. You

1458
01:16:48,199 --> 01:16:51,479
want to get that interaction started, okay, but be consistent

1459
01:16:51,520 --> 01:16:55,800
on it. Okay, So let's conclude with this. Summarize now

1460
01:16:56,800 --> 01:17:01,399
marketing marketing marketing business cards. Make sure you're listed on

1461
01:17:01,479 --> 01:17:05,279
all of the local channels, Yelps, my Google, my business.

1462
01:17:05,319 --> 01:17:10,399
Make sure you're doing the next door. Make sure you're

1463
01:17:10,399 --> 01:17:12,880
doing all of that. Be consistent. Make sure you already

1464
01:17:12,920 --> 01:17:15,239
know your name and everything before you go setting up

1465
01:17:15,239 --> 01:17:18,359
these accounts so that they can be consistent through all

1466
01:17:18,439 --> 01:17:21,000
of them. Make sure you get your facebooks, make sure

1467
01:17:21,039 --> 01:17:23,720
you get your TikTok if it comes back. Make sure

1468
01:17:23,720 --> 01:17:28,840
you get your Twitch and Instagram and Facebook. Be consistent.

1469
01:17:29,359 --> 01:17:32,560
Don't have a bunch of different names. Be consistent with

1470
01:17:32,640 --> 01:17:34,199
that so that you can be very like I do.

1471
01:17:34,359 --> 01:17:37,479
Master the NEC is consistent on all of my platforms. Okay,

1472
01:17:39,600 --> 01:17:44,319
all right, folks. That is it. That is all we've

1473
01:17:44,319 --> 01:17:46,479
got to talk about. When it comes to the marketing

1474
01:17:46,960 --> 01:17:51,399
in the grassroots marketings that I can think of, Just

1475
01:17:51,439 --> 01:17:54,640
get out there and make your business successful. And I

1476
01:17:54,640 --> 01:17:57,439
think you will follow those tips that you'll find that

1477
01:17:57,560 --> 01:18:01,439
you can get a good firm hold of low cost

1478
01:18:01,560 --> 01:18:05,520
marketing in your region, grow your business, stop thinking national,

1479
01:18:05,880 --> 01:18:11,279
thinking local, and really focusing on the people. And again

1480
01:18:11,760 --> 01:18:15,880
we're not talking about just just getting the accounts. We're

1481
01:18:15,880 --> 01:18:19,039
talking about actually using them, actually getting your banners made,

1482
01:18:19,039 --> 01:18:22,039
your flyers made, your doorhanngers, made your business cards made

1483
01:18:23,119 --> 01:18:26,000
doing those little things at home depots and lows and

1484
01:18:26,000 --> 01:18:28,640
putting them in the windshield or putting them in the boxes.

1485
01:18:28,720 --> 01:18:33,800
If you choose all those things, you have to constantly

1486
01:18:33,840 --> 01:18:37,199
be marketing yourself. If you're the boss and you got

1487
01:18:37,239 --> 01:18:40,760
people that work for you and they don't understand soft

1488
01:18:40,760 --> 01:18:43,279
skills when dealing with customers, and how to overcome a

1489
01:18:43,319 --> 01:18:47,279
bad first impression. If they don't understand any of that stuff,

1490
01:18:47,399 --> 01:18:49,000
or do you feel like they won't listen to you

1491
01:18:49,439 --> 01:18:52,079
because you're the boss and you're having trouble, and then

1492
01:18:52,159 --> 01:18:54,479
I'm more than happy to come in and do a

1493
01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:57,199
training session on them and lay down the law for you.

1494
01:18:57,840 --> 01:18:59,560
And if they don't want to follow it, get rid

1495
01:18:59,600 --> 01:19:02,960
of them, get somebody else. Or if you have a

1496
01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:05,960
really good worker who's untrainable in that area, then just

1497
01:19:06,079 --> 01:19:08,199
make sure that they're focused on working and that they

1498
01:19:08,279 --> 01:19:11,680
do not interact with the customer. It's sometimes that's easier

1499
01:19:11,680 --> 01:19:14,479
said than done, but it can be done, all right. Okay,

1500
01:19:14,920 --> 01:19:18,560
first impressions are important, but they but a bad impression

1501
01:19:18,680 --> 01:19:21,479
can be overcome if you know how to do it.

1502
01:19:21,680 --> 01:19:23,800
All right, All right, folks hopefully got something out of

1503
01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:26,319
the day's episode. Until next time, Stay safe, God bless them.

1504
01:19:26,319 --> 01:19:29,000
We'll catch you on an upcoming episode of Master the

1505
01:19:29,079 --> 01:19:31,079
NEC podcast. Till then, take care.

1506
01:19:32,119 --> 01:19:35,399
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning into another electrifying episode of the Master

1507
01:19:35,600 --> 01:19:39,800
THENEC podcast. We hope you're feeling more powered up and

1508
01:19:39,880 --> 01:19:42,439
ready to tackle the electrical world with the knowledge and

1509
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:47,199
confidence you need to succeed. Remember, in the electrical grade,

1510
01:19:47,479 --> 01:19:50,079
knowledge is power, and we're here to make sure you

1511
01:19:50,119 --> 01:19:54,560
stay plugged into the latest inside chips and code up days.

1512
01:19:55,119 --> 01:19:58,960
If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave

1513
01:19:59,039 --> 01:20:01,560
us a review, and share the podcast with your.

1514
01:20:01,439 --> 01:20:03,520
Speaker 2: Fellow electricians and industry pros.

1515
01:20:04,880 --> 01:20:08,720
Speaker 1: Until next time, keep your tools sharp, your circuits clear,

1516
01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:11,600
and you're my focused because here at the Master of

1517
01:20:11,600 --> 01:20:17,119
the NEEC podcast, we're all about sparking your success. Stay safe,

1518
01:20:17,319 --> 01:20:21,640
stay smart, and keep mastering the trade. From all of

1519
01:20:21,720 --> 01:20:24,399
us here at Electrical Code Academy, thank you for all

1520
01:20:24,520 --> 01:20:26,399
your support and we will see you on the next

1521
01:20:26,439 --> 01:20:31,399
amazing Master of the NEC podcast episode.