S3 EP01 How Tactical Electric Turned Options into Big Outcomes with Sherman Hatley

What if the very thing holding your business back isn’t your leads, your pricing, or your people but your refusal to move before it's perfect?

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Sherman Hatley, founder of Tactical Electric. Sherman gets real about what it takes to scale fast from learning emotional intelligence, hiring the right team, offering premium service options, and shifting from order-taker to general contractor mindset.

This isn’t a story of overnight success. It’s the real cost of going all in of being present over perfect and replacing guesswork with system.

Whether you’re a tradesperson, business owner, or leader, this one is packed with wisdom on leadership, resilience, and service-based sales.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• The moment Sherman realized options-based selling could 10x revenue
• How one cold-call turned into a $90K solar project
• Why turnkey service wins over DIY customers
• The role of CSRs and how they’re a growth multiplier
• What Sherman would tell his past self about partnerships and people
• How the Service Loop Method redefined his whole business approach
• The community support that kept him going through burnout

 ⚡️Featured Guest:

Sherman Hatley, Founder, Tactical Electric

Veteran and Leader. Known for his all-in approach, authenticity, and results-driven mindset.

🌐 Website: https://tacticalelectrical.com/ 

📧 Email: sherman@tacticalelectrical.com 

📞 Call: 208-901-8568 

🔗 Resources:

⚡️Take your electrical service business to the next level!

Join the SLE Pro App Community!

⚡️Podcast Powered by Duromax Generators.

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📧 Email: jesse@duromaxpower.com

🌐 Website: www.duromaxpower.com

📞 Call: 909-490-5789

⚡️Jump into the Million Dollar Electrician Community and connect with real business-minded sparkies! https://www.facebook.com/groups/844859526389567

⚡️If you are an electrician looking for trade-specific business training in pricing, options, sales, attraction, and marketing strategies, Then our Loop Method is your answer!

⚡️Join us and learn how to serve and earn at the highest level. 

#ElectricianPodcast #TradesBusiness #ServiceLoopMethod #ElectricianSuccess #ResidentialElectrician #FromFieldToOffice #ElectricianEntrepreneur #TacticalElectric #ColdCallSuccess #ElectricalBusinessGrowth 

Chapters

• 0:00 Sherman’s Leap of Faith – Betting It All
• 2:30 Scaling with the Right Mindset
• 4:45 The 300K Month & What It Taught Him
• 7:05 Turnkey Solutions = Higher Sales, Better Service
• 10:10 Options Over Price Books: The Game-Changer
• 13:00 How SLE Training Built His Confidence & Team
• 15:40 Culture, Community & Why the SLE Brotherhood Matters
• 18:00 Advice to Electricians: Progress, Not Perfection
• 20:30 What Sherman Would Change If He Started Over
• 22:00 Final Thoughts on Building Legacy & Leadership

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

I'm questioning whether I'm doing the right thing. I just put my entire family at risk and went all in. Is this did I make the right call? And but when you see other guys are going through that to see that, if I wasn't questioning it, I wouldn't care about my employees and their families. So it's not always gonna go perfect. Mistakes are gonna be made, clients are gonna be upset, people are human. So how do we deal with that in a way that reflects our moral compass, our company values? How do we turn that around?

SPEAKER_03: 0:27

The consequence of present over perfect is the hardship after the action. Because you are guaranteed one thing when you actually go and do something new. And the result isn't perfect either. After a 300k month, the next problem we have is we've got to keep up with everything we just hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast, where we help home service pros like you supercharge your business and spark up those sales.

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

I'm Joseph Lucani, and together my co-host Claymie Meyer. We're here to share the secrets of how electricians sell over a million dollars in a single service.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07

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

SPEAKER_03: 1:21

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back, guys. Today we've got a very special episode, and we're in season three, and this is a ton of fun. I can't believe we've been doing this for three years now, Joe. Can you?

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

You know, it feels literally like it was yesterday. I remember our first podcast getting into it and be like, what are we gonna talk about? Let's make it happen. Let's help electricians. And now, boom, that far into the future. It's unbelievably amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 1:45

Yeah, and one of the things we've been so blessed to have is just uh uh continual uh client success stories. Uh call it a fluke, call it great training. I don't know, call it anything you want, but we're blessed here today to have uh Sherman Hatley of Tactical Electrical with us and uh just really excited to get into this with you. Sorry, Tactical Electric, let me get that right, Sherman. Yes. Um, so Sherman started in business just last year. Uh just a couple of guys that were reaching, I look like about six, seven hundred K in your first three quarters of a year. But now in this year, you're on track to do almost two million, you said, with just five staff. Is that right, Sherman?

SPEAKER_01: 2:24

Uh yeah. So we have seven field employees and then myself and a business manager, CSR.

SPEAKER_03: 2:30

Okay. So a little off there. We're up to eight people total working in the business. And what are you doing for the business personally at this point, Sherman?

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

Uh, so I'm still in the field. Um I typically do most of the opportunity calls, uh, quoting, estimating, um, client uh rapport building. Um, we're still in the early stages of bringing on the training and making sure that that looks the same from me to the um the next sales guy um and and make sure that that system is put into place. Um something that we have been really successful at is making decisions whether we're ready to do it or not. I hear you guys say it all the time, like to show up what whether it's perfect or not. Um and I feel like that's a lot of the reason why I have people in the business and the business itself led by um are willing to just make decisions and make moves, and we can just clean kind of clean it up, you know, and it have at least a starting point um, you know, to to go from. So it's been it's been good, um, you know, as far as that goes. You know, me as the driving force, you know, behind kind of all that, and it's been such an evolution from you know the last year and a half, um, and really even just the last, I don't know, four months that we've been working with you guys. Um, I mean, the level of changes and improvements that I see is um it's it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03: 4:06

So well, it's like Joe always says, we're just the GPS. Uh something that may sound a little shallow, but as we've grown up over 100 clients, we don't always know who's gonna stand out right away. Uh Sherman, you've been one of those people that caught our attention very early because I think it was just a month and a half ago or so. You had a over 300k month. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. And you made 90% of those sales, I want to say.

SPEAKER_01: 4:35

Yeah, because yeah, I'm so you know, early on I was able to uh subtract myself out of the field, put my bags down, so to say. Um, I still do a lot of the specialty work. I don't, you know, because we do some solar and some um green energy type type things. And so I'm kind of the subject matter expert up for some of that. So I do go out there and I really do enjoy doing installation. So I, you know, if I'm having a hard time in the office, I will, you know, go out on an install and just you know go out there. But yeah, that 90% was you know me um quoting and then you know, selling all of that work.

SPEAKER_03: 5:16

Were there a couple of big projects that made up the 300k?

SPEAKER_01: 5:21

Uh there was a few um larger projects, but I would say a majority of that is going to be uh we did have a a multifaceted um solar project um that was you know a considerable chunk of that. It was about$90,000. But that was, you know, that was a cold call. Um that was early on in me building options and serving in a different way. I mean, I I was a little familiar with it. So um, you know, to backtrack the story a little bit and give a little bit of context, um, I knew that I was missing something, and in order for me to replicate our success, I either needed to have, I thought, a price book or or something that people could copycat because that's the model that I knew. Although a lot of times I would build, you know, at least some options in the field because a lot of the price books that I've used um and the experience that I've had was it there's just not enough of a menu to be to cover everything. So I was always modifying things and kind of building options. So I was kind of familiar with that. Um and then when I settled on working with you guys, um and and and really the determination was there was the price book is a shortcut to not train people. Bingo. It's it's just a shortcut to not train people. And I was it's really made us slow down and slow the process down and make sure that we're doing it in a way that uh is authentic. It's it's it's it's the service loop method, but you know, we take what works for us, our market, our brand, and and really just kind of change the language a little, you know, we follow the process, but you have to make it your own. It can't be scripted. Um, so it's a learning process, but that was early on. That that project was very early on. So I didn't do the full six, you know, options, and I've never done that. It was probably one of the earliest projects where I'd done anything that large. Um, so originally he called me out there for was uh I think he wanted a generator, and then maybe he had something else. So I looked at the whole project. He had a piece of paper and a really generic sketch of kind of what he wanted. And I looked at the whole property. We ended up pretty much renovating his entire electrical system. I posted a I think I posted on it, it's on our Facebook. I mean, it's a it turned out great. So we did a battery, uh, uh, you know, a generac generator, you know, like a 32-panel solar array on a shop, wired a shop. We did a lot. Um, but I provided him with multiple options for the solar array, the battery options, and the rest of the work. And that was the first time I've ever done that. Um, and really walked him through um, you know, like 100% offset, like different battery options. Um and that was like the first really big win, I would say, uh, as far as like, you know, I was a little skeptical, like, you know, to to really be honest, like six options, really, that seems excessive. Um you know, I I was like, I I'm I was a believer in the options, but the six, I was just like, man, this is a hard pill to swallow. Like, you know, but you know, just willing to go show up, at least try it. Um and you know, it was a hybrid. It was kind of a hybrid. I couldn't do an uh, you know, an in-person presentation, but I was able to do it through, you know, eat you know, walking him through it and like emailing back and forth, walking him through what the um you know the options meant. And it was just a lot of you know, really just follow-through, follow-up. And yeah, so that was a big chunk of it. But you know, there was a lot of other projects that um I think included in that, which I we seem to attract a lot of, is like it'll always be like, hey, I got this GFI that's tripped, right? And you think, you know, low ticket call, you know, uh whatever. We show up and it turned into um you know a full house rewire because of just the full scope of issues that were found, um, and it gave them the full options, which included, you know, full dry roll repair, you know, just all the things that um I think a lot of other and it really even in my past, I'd be like, well, we're just electricians. Um, you know, we can take care of all the electrical, but the rest of that you're gonna have to deal with. I never really thought of it in a way where your turnkey, like, hey, if you want that level of service, I'll provide it, I'll remove all barriers. And um, that's where we started developing relationships with um, you know, uh local drywall contractors and just different people. So I know that they're gonna serve our clients in that way. So there were several, you know, bigger projects, but they all started by using the service method where you're doing it in person, you're providing options, and you're looking at not just what they called you for, um, which I never did before. I I never did that. I would, you know, and uh during some of the early training where you're diagnosing a call on your way, so you're already putting your blinders on. You're like, oh, I already know what it is, they lost the neutral, this, that, I'm gonna go right to it, I'm gonna fix it. And then you cut out all of the um the display moving in yeah. And so it really doesn't work when you do that. So having to retrain myself continually through interacting in the classes, interacting with other electricians in the app, like sharing wins, sharing calls, um, asking for feedback, like, oh, I didn't think about that, or I didn't even realize I was talking in a way that doesn't um articulate why this even matters. I know because you know, I've been doing it for a little while. But um, so that's been great. Um, and all of that can be accumulated with, I know that won't be every month. You know, there was some huge wins that month. That won't be every month, but I mean, none of that would have been, I would have overlooked a lot of that, you know, prior prior to. Like we would have still had some wins. There was some stuff that happened there, but um, you know, that was a couple of months in, and just doing what we could and just willing to try and and refine. Um, you know, and a lot of that was, you know, just you know, even though the guys, they had some some add-on stuff, um, and we haven't fully gone through that process yet. With, you know, hey, if you're on a call, um you're do you're working on sold work, the customer asks about some other option or some other thing that they probably didn't we had discussed. Um, so it's ongoing, you know, some of it's still messy, some of it's a little fumbly where they're you know, the training isn't 100% done, but you know, uh all the guys are willing to at least try, they'll call me with questions. Um, you know, we're still a pretty small company, and I really feel like this is a good size for us um because I the feedback that we get um with somebody live answering the phone and Shayla connecting with people, finding some way, right? Just there's always something um that she can connect with them on the phone for, and she sets me up to you know be a 10. Um you know, you got I hear you guys say it all the time, like you know, the CSR sets you up as a 10, and then I show up and we've already got this connection, and then we're doing something they've never seen before where we're spending an hour, two hours with them and walking through their entire property and going through all the options. Um, you know, so the owner's coming out, which it probably won't be forever, right? I'm not gonna be on every call, but they know everybody's name. Uh, it's just a nice um small town feel, small company. Um, people really pre people really like that.

SPEAKER_03: 13:39

So you said a couple things we want to call attention to uh right off the bat. One is uh one of the later comments, you've only been in this for four months. Uh it's gonna take some time. This is the kind of thing that you'll be rolling out, working on for years, I'm sure, Sherman, to get it just right for Tactical and for you guys. But you also reminded me a little bit earlier of something actually Christian said in one of the classes, and we're excited to get Christian on here too for an interview. He said, it's like we became the general contractor. We stopped taking orders and stopped being the ones whose schedule was getting rammed around and forced to show up with an hour's notice and getting paid the low dollar, and we started being the manager of these projects and making sure that we were handling everything. And that was the biggest difference. I love how he said that, Joe, jump in, brother.

SPEAKER_00: 14:31

Yeah, there was a lot I want I felt like we could take away from that conversation, German. And do you mind if I give you a little bit of praise here? Because something something you said that really stood out was first off, your first jump into providing options led to a 90k sale. That's a heck of that's a heck of an award at that point, right? Like, hey, I'm not really familiar with it. That's what we call being present over perfect. You didn't have it mastered, but it didn't keep you from trying. And because you tried where no one else would have, and how no one else would have, you're able to get a result that no one else got. So, first of all, I think that's amazing. Secondly, um, the same issue that you just mentioned, where people don't want to do the painting, they don't want to do the patching. I personally believe that turnkey service is the key. It's the thing that separates you so differently. Because as a consumer, I could imagine someone coming into my home and I'm gonna put 30,000 into the renovation, and then you're gonna say, Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna be cutting up your whole ceiling and your walls. Do you have a painter that you know? Because I don't. That immediately makes me want to be like, well, maybe I don't want to do this project at all. But if you had another$5,000 built into it, where you're like, I'm actually gonna re redo the whole thing, you won't even know I did it. Yeah, good. That's my concerns you don't have to worry about it. And the last thing was you had mentioned about actually driving and diagnosing on the road. I personally believe that's actually the one way that you can kill your reputation as quickly as possible. Because have you ever had this situation happen where you like customer calls and said, Hey, my kitchen countertop's out, I really don't know what's going on. I checked the breaker, breaker's not tripped, but you know, my my freezer's not working, I had to put an extension cord to it. What are you immediately thinking as a technician happened?

SPEAKER_01: 16:17

Yeah, TFI somewhere is tripped.

SPEAKER_00: 16:19

Exactly. So you're thinking, oh, you're driving the whole time, you're just thinking about it, you know exactly where to go, you skip the panel, you go, all right, click, boop, and the fridge comes back on, and you've been there for about five and a half minutes, and now you're gonna want to collect your 300 diagnostic, and they're gonna be like, What? That's ridiculous. But instead, going through it all and being able to explore that finds the concerns in the panel which caused the trip in the first place, and you get to serve them at a higher level, right? Problem solved, customers happy, invoice is high, everyone are pocket, everyone walks away as friends.

SPEAKER_01: 16:54

Yeah, yeah. I think it's that it's that value that you're building, right? I mean, I had a it's the it's the value, it's the taking the time, it's the walking the through. Like, and it might you might not find anything, it might just be, you know, and sometimes it is, and that's fine. It's but you know, when you're not trying to sell people stuff and you're trying to serve them, and you're just trying to, you know, figure out exactly like we're you know, the worst thing is you know, you if five minutes you reset it, and it's they're like, well, why did it cost this much? You reset it and then it trips again and they come back, and they're like, Well, I just paid you, and now it's not fixed, and you know, so then it's just a bad look, and then they got a bad taste in their mouth, and um, and you didn't take you, you know, you didn't take any of the time to figure out, oh, well, the motor compressor in your freezer is going out and you know, ground faulting, and you know, who knows what it is, whatever. Um, but yeah, it's the value, it's the taking the time to you know open up the panel. You know, maybe you're you know, we we anytime we open up the panel, we're vacuuming it out and getting any of that debris out, we're looking at it, like all those things, right? It's just that little bit of you know, that other people may or may not, you know, be doing, but it's just all those things that give you the opportunity to, you know, how did you hear about us? Like, have you read our review, you know, review? Oh, I saw you on Google. Oh, great, you know about our reviews. Like, you know, did you know that we offer a lifetime craftsmanship guarantee? So you never have to worry, like all that stuff, you can't do that in five minutes.

SPEAKER_00: 18:22

You're right. The relationship needs to be cultivated. It can't just be something that's just copied and printed and pasted. It has to be cultivated and built and nurtured. And once you do, you've got a client, not a customer. And that's what we're really all looking for. We want clients who are gonna have to repeat business, who will tell us about their friends who need our services, and will happily refer us because we did right by them rather than just trying to sell what we could.

SPEAKER_03: 18:47

That's the loop method, that little bit extra for future serviceability. Sherman, if we could time machine back to when you first booked a call with us, even just interested in getting help. What do you think were the top few things that were really driving a wedge for you that made you want to book that call in the first place, that that opened you up to even the the possibility of support in your business?

SPEAKER_01: 19:14

Um, probably the top three was. Well, I knew that what I was doing wasn't sustainable, um, wearing so many hats and doing uh and not having a process, right? I had no process to get the way that I was doing it to replicate it to make sure that um the next guy was gonna do it the same way to make sure that we were profitable, that we were consistent, that we were fair, like um I adapted things that I and had seen and done and I knew that it would work, and prices that I thought were, you know, based on what my, you know, I thought my you know costs were. So that I knew there I needed clarity there. I knew I needed clarity there. Um, and every other thing that I looked at were just trying to sell me a cookie cutter um price book, you know. It it it and it it wasn't really what I was looking for. I mean, there's the you know, the big, you know, the big players out there, the service titans, and then you know, like that's great, but you you can't, I couldn't tailor that to um do what I wanted it to do. It would have, I would have, I was trying to take that and recreate it. And then when I found this, I was like, oh, this is interesting. This is very similar to kind of um what we're doing, you know, now I like the in-person. So when I was on the call and they were explaining kind of what the service loop method was, uh, I mean, it just was like, oh, this is so this sounds very familiar. I feel like this could be a really good fit. I like the options. There were some things that I was like, I don't know. Um, I don't know if that's gonna work for us. Um, but I was willing to like, okay, yeah, I I think this could be good. Um because not only are we weren't just buying a software, we're getting a training. I mean, a whole pro a whole training program that like once you have the knowledge, like that's yours. Like that, you know what I mean? Like, so and there's just a lot more um interpersonal. Um, I'm a verbal processor, so ta having these conversations, um, you know, talking in the community was huge too. I was like, wow, that's really cool. Other entrepreneurs other electricians that are doing the same thing, we're pulling in the same direction, which is very um, I'm not used to that, right? Like, like other electricians in the air, it's just not common for you, you know. Like, I think we should be rooting for each other. Like, I want you to win. 100%. You know, I I want your business to win, I want my business to win. And having that, I thought I was like, wow, that's really cool. Like, there's people ahead of me, there's people behind me, like we can kind of all row the boat in the same direction and feed off of each other. Um, it was very familiar to me because of my military experience and the camaraderie. I I thought that was cool. I haven't seen anything like that. So just kind of all those things where I was like, okay, if we learn this training and the and the system works, like I can replicate this, we can, you know, um I can take some of this pressure off of myself and make sure that we're doing it in a way that you know is gonna grow the business in a sustainable way. Um, so that that was really what I was like, okay, I'm I think this investment is worth, you know, worth it.

SPEAKER_03: 22:46

Yeah, I like to talk things out verbally too. And you actually just helped me do that in and position this in another way because what you said was we're getting to use now or leverage these skills, the knowledge and experience that we have. But it's not just what what people learn in our community from each other and from the training, it's also about the leverage of the skills you have as an electrician. You already know how to do everything that was in the top option that you were suddenly presenting. That skill was just not leveraged because the option wasn't tall enough to to offer all of that, or there wasn't enough options for them to have the choice. That's maybe the most important thing that you've even helped us realize is it's not all about new skill. It's actually about utilization of the skills you already have through a process that puts those in the right place. Does that make sense to you?

SPEAKER_01: 23:46

Yeah. I mean, uh no, it's it's very interesting. Um if when you're trying to be a premium service provider, um to you know, to do the things that I'm not necessarily comfortable with, or or really have, you know, the community and really the system building emotional intelligence, talking to people, you know, up, you know, really like learning what um people are talking about when they're asking things, the active listening. I feel like the service loop method is less about being a technical electrician, it's more about like interpersonal communication and and and really it's the service part. I was like, oh, that's you know, like we're we're pretty good electricians, we know what we're doing. It's the everything else. It's the um, you know, the options, the service, like it's the things that you I didn't know anything about, and just the different ways of serving people. Um, that I never even thought I was it never even crossed my mind, like to offer some of these things. Like I was just like, oh, you know, you want a switch or a plug or a hot tub? Great, we can take care of that. But um, you know, I think it's it's everything else that's made me kind of question my own objections, like, oh, just because I wouldn't buy it doesn't mean they don't want to buy it, you know. So like not prejudging people. I mean, there's just it it gets real deep and psychological, and you know, um, especially in some of the, you know, listening to some, you know, some of the classes and some of the stuff that other people are going through, it's like uh it just puts a new, it puts a new spin on it or a new, you know, different take for me. So um it, you know, teaching me how to be a business owner and look at things in a different way. Um it's it's it's you know, one percent better every day is what I tell the guys like, hey, we don't need to be perfect today. Like, if you could just be 1% better, whatever you guys did on the job, if you're talking on the way back, like what could we improve? Like, how could we have, you know, either installation or the way we dealt with the customer or whatever? Um, so that's what we you know are trying to implement um not only with this, but just you know, in general.

SPEAKER_00: 26:04

Um, so you know, the thing that made me stand out that I really love that you're saying was that you know, I tried different options. There are a lot of things. First off, I appreciate the kind words and I appreciate the positive feedback. You know, was there a particular job or particular option that really gave you that aha moment? Like, you know, uh offering the painting for the home or the emergency backup lighting for your portables or the dynatrap systems for your hot tubs and pools. Like, was there a particular one where you're like, oh, I never thought of that? That really kind of stood out in your mind?

SPEAKER_01: 26:37

I mean, there's a couple of things. I mean, definitely being the turnkey solution. So I mean, I can think I I can give you a couple of examples, like, you know, so you know, when we're doing when we're doing turnkey generator installations, I would just be like, well, we don't, you know, the gas, you gotta have to get that figured out. We don't do it. Right? I'm not I'm not a licensed plumber, I can't do it. Um, so now we just I mean, I've no contractors, we have guys, we you know, so we just take care of it. I partnered with a a propane company, so now if they don't have a propane tank, no problem. I'll get your lease taken care of, they'll set a tank for you. You don't have to do anything, we'll do it all. Like, so I just, you know, that takes care of that, like the patching. Um, you know, as far as like when we do whole house rewires or if we're doing any level of uh uh cutting, that was I just never thought about it. And I I think I it was first introduced. You guys were talking about doing um exhaust fans or something, and you know, patching around. And I was like, oh, I yeah, that makes sense, like you know. Um and then just there's a few other things like the you know, like Wi-Fi GFI, you like smart devices, like, oh yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Like, you know, if you have a sensitive uh, you know, your freezer plugged in and it has to be GFI protected, wouldn't you want to know before all your food spoils that you're like that thing has lost power without like going out to grab a beer out of the fridge and it's all you know? So there's every day there's something, you know, we're always trying to sharpen our axe by learning new technical skills, new customer service skill. There's a lot of it. Um, but with the options, it was like I just when you're getting into those premium platinum level options, there's just so many things that you're like, if you follow the if you follow it from start to finish and you've already talked to them about all these things, I just it it just really opens up the door, um, which is it just blew me away. Like I mean, there's just a lot. I mean, there was a couple of things like that, especially we do a lot of rewires, knob and tube and stuff like that. Um, and being able to offer the you know, the patch and the paint and and kind of all those upgrades. And like anytime anybody does that, now we you know, automatically you're getting a portable option. Like we're already changing the whole electrical service, we're just gonna add that on at that higher tier. Um, and people love, you know, they love it. Like, yeah, you know, and if they want, we'll provide the you know, portable generator too. Um and then service it. So I just never, yeah, I just never thought to really um, you know, recommend or even just bring it up. Um, but you know, just opened up my eyes to first of all, not prejudge how people want to be served, um, just based on uh you know personal bias or economical, you know, if you if you you pull up to a house and you're like, you know, you're you're judging how this person wants, you know, you think that they're gonna buy, and then they're certain, you know, you're not serving them the same way. So we just serve everyone. Million dollar house, you know, tiny house, doesn't matter. We're we're doing the same thing. We're gonna we're gonna touch all the same things, we're giving them the same six options. Um, I might qualify them a little bit and say, hey, yeah, we're gonna look at everything. I'm gonna tell you the good, the bad. Bad and the ugly. Um, and and is it okay, you know, and this was one of the things that was huge for me was asking permission. Hey, I this is what you called us out here before. If we see anything that is of concern, is it can I have your permission or is it okay if I bring it up? And I think Joseph, you're I th you were the first one. I I heard that from you, and I was like, I don't know, that seems, you know, that seems I don't know if I'm gonna, but you know, when it when it's genuine, and you're like, hey, if I see something that's concerning, like, is it okay for me to bring it up? And if they're like, no, I only care about this, great, that's fine, you know, but then you know, like, yeah, they want to know if there's any issues. Um, and that's led us to, you know, just yesterday, if I were to pre-judge, you know, the call, they had a few outlets that were out and and a couple other concerns. And I went out there and you know, probably previously I would have been like, you know, in and out, quick little diagnostic. Um, but I looked at the whole property and there was a laundry list of code violations and hazards, and um, you know, they had small children, there wasn't shock protection on multiple circuits, there was some alterations, so you know, wiring was overbreakered. Um, there's some, you know, just a lot of stuff. And and I let them know when I first looked at it, I said, Yeah, I'm gonna look at this, we're gonna figure out what's going on. I'm gonna, I'm just I I explained to them how I was gonna serve them. And so they already knew what to expect. You know, I spent an hour going over everything. I I was able to temporarily fix part of it, and I said, hey, let's sit down, let's talk. Um, and I just preemptively told them, I said, this could be overwhelming because I'm gonna tell you everything that I saw. And if you have any questions, stop me along the way, and I'd love to talk to you more about it. I have pictures of it all. Um, and if really this makes no sense for you right now, I completely understand. I just want to be totally transparent and tell you everything. And we can just skip past the you know, whole home the whole property upgrade, and we'll just get down to brass tacks, and I'll just serve you at whatever level you want to be at, you know. Regardless, we're gonna give you a lifetime, you know, the whole thing, right? And just educating them on how we operate, what we do. Yeah. Um, and something that I've implemented um uh on a few. So I gave them the whole rundown, I gave them the platinum restoration. Like I walked him through my whole observation summary. This is what I saw, this is why it matters, this is why you should be concerned about it. You know, just it was it's pretty long. I mean, there's this stuff everywhere. And I said, you know, if we were to want to look to to to renovate this to be turnkey, no issues, this is what that would look like. And I don't remember, I think it was in a comment or a post that I read, and I've used it two or three times now, and it's very good. It's you know, what do you think this level of investment in your property would look like, just for fun, right? And he was like, gosh, I don't know. It would be, you know, X, Y, and Z. And I was like, oh wow, okay. Um, you know, I'm gonna surprise you and tell you that you're way over what it would take to fix all these things for you, and this is what it would be. And they're like, Wow. Um, I've you know, just you know, this is just and and to solve all their problems. Um, they they were just super grateful that I would took the time to even give them all the options. Um, and they decided that to leave it would far outweigh the investment. So they called in this morning, paid the deposit, we're gonna fix it all.

SPEAKER_00: 33:36

Nice, yes, platinum sale. That's my guy.

SPEAKER_01: 33:41

Yeah. So that was uh uh before military discount. I think it was like right around 16,000 for you know, meter main change, some panel work, um, total redevice, um, new circuit for that altered um lighting circuit that they came off the kitchen countertop and and did an addition. Um there's a bunch of sheds outside that we're just gonna gut and just make sure that everything's safe, shock protection on all that stuff, get rid of the extension cords, get rid of the all the you know, all the dangerous. Um it's a couple days worth of work. It's gonna be a full property, you know, restoration to fix everything. Um just give them total peace of mind. And then all at those two you know higher tiers, we uh you know started implementing the service plan. We have a co, you know, a coalition service plan, right? You know, so they get you know, they get that for a year. So if anything else comes up, they get priority booking and after hours support. And um that's been a game changer too. So I was that was one of the other things that I was looking at, sorry to backtrack, was that service plan. I was like, man, that's a great reoccurring um that's a great reoccurring, you know, revenue stream and a way that you can serve people. I'd seen it before, and I was kind of consecutively looking at price book and service plan, and you know, I'm just all over the place with all these ideas when I was looking into service loop, and then you guys, you know, had that too, and I was like, okay, validation, like this is a good idea. We should be doing it. Um and again, that was just one of those things that we've implemented not perfectly, uh, and we're still working out all the tracking and the kinks and all of that, but um it's it's been a huge value, I think, for people that are looking to invest in their property in their home, and we've built the the in um rapport with them. They want us to come back because they know that we're gonna take care of them. So they're like, absolutely, yeah, we want that. We want the annual safety inspection because I've already looked at 90% of their property, we're gonna replace everything, you know. And then as we're sitting at the table, one thing I did miss, I looked up and I said, you know, during our annual safety inspection, we're going to look at these things. I look up, oh, and you're you're missing your you know, carbon and smoke detectors. I see they're they're removed from the wall, so we'll get that taken care of too, right? Um, you know, we're not perfect, I don't hit everything, and we're trying to refine you know our our step-by-step process and checklist to make sure that we're systematic in our approach. Um but not so systematic that it feels not personal. Um, so it's it's an ongoing process.

SPEAKER_00: 36:25

Authentic authentically autopiloting.

SPEAKER_01: 36:28

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really good. Yeah. I mean, another uh one of the other customers I had yesterday, um I it just seems like we continue to get validation that we're on the right path. Um the only opportunity, I don't know if we're gonna win, you know, win hit win his business or not, but he said the only reason we got the opportunity to even come look at his project was because we were five-star ready Google um reviews. He'd already looked at him. The only reason we got the opportunity to come out was because of that, because we focused so heavily on that since the onset and really automated it and implemented a lot of the suggestions from the community and you guys on um continuing to build that with with clients and make sure that they we get their feedback. Um, I mean, it's we've gotten so much work from that reputation alone. It's been huge. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_03: 37:26

Really good share. Before the interview, Sherman, you were asked what three things really were the big catalyst of your newfound growth or success. You've shared a ton of this already, but there was a couple points in here that you made actually that I thought really fit this interview, if I could bring those up. You've got something in common with a number of people we've had here. Uh, reminds me of Dan Totten, we've had on a couple times. It reminds me of uh Dorian Hayes, it reminds me of Billy Harper, more recently was on, and others. Your number one, you said we went all in. How important is just jumping rating fully committed uh to your success, do you think? And to anyone uh who wants to uh make improvements at your level?

SPEAKER_01: 38:16

Um, I mean, you can get paralysis by analysis and do nothing, right? There's just, you know, here we are, and you're looking at everyone else and they're successful. And um, I wouldn't even have started this company if I would have done that. You know, like there was just so much, so much to do. Um I think the willingness in the in the background in the military to just make a decision. Um, make a decision and and and you we can all always alter course. Um, but as long as we're making some kind of progress, um, I've just been so blessed to attract and retain people that have that mindset. Um you know, our our first hire, Shayla Riggs, our business manager, CSR marketing, um, payroll, literally the she's developed all the systems. She's the sounding board for my crazy ideas, um, all of that. I mean, she was all in, quit a corporate job of 15 years to bet on a company that was only six months old at the time. Um, and she's been here over a year now and has been has helped build this from the ground up. So when I hear you anybody asking about CSR or any of that um in the chat, I'm just like, you have to do that. Like, we would not be where we're at without her doing all the things that she does that I'm just not capable of doing. Um sorry, I would I diverted there. What was your question? No, that was good actually trainer.

SPEAKER_03: 39:54

You went right into number two on that list of three things, and that was uh Oh, that was number two? That was number two, man. You said the right person in the right seat, and you just justified number two. Um number three is super important too, though. Was there something you wanted to add about uh about her position there?

SPEAKER_01: 40:14

Oh no, I mean it's just so vital. I mean, the first person that people talk to, the follow-up, the follow-through, the you know, it's um, you know, that is yeah, it's just paramount. Like we just we can't you can't scale without that.

SPEAKER_03: 40:30

Yeah. Yeah, the third one actually surprised me as it uh surprised you as well. So I thought it was really vital to this conversation. You said number three was the SLE community. And one of the things you pointed out was what you didn't expect is when guys share the hard stuff too, but how vital that's been to your success. What did you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01: 40:57

Well, okay, so just a little backstory. Um prior to being a business owner, I wasn't even on social media. I've only had a Facebook account for like 60 days at this point, right? So we had so I just didn't I didn't believe in it, I just didn't see the value in it. Um so it just when you see guys, you know, that are they're not just sharing the wins, like, oh, you know, we we you know, this sale or that sale, or hey, we're you know, growing, it's like it's just been really hard. We we're in a drought. Like I'm you know, behind. I'm you know, I'm maybe questioning whether I'm doing the right thing, and you're like everybody's thinking it, right? Like we had a really fantastic month last month, but that wasn't our story from the beginning. There was months where I was like, why am I doing this? Like, you know, I just sack I just put my entire family at risk and went all in. Um like, is this did I make the right call? Am I you know it? But when you see and you walk through that in the community and and you see other guys that are going through that, um, it's just a blip, it's just a moment, it's a season. Um, if I wasn't questioning it, if we weren't um, I mean, I would have a problem if I if you didn't have any of those thoughts, right? That means you wouldn't care, right? I wouldn't care about my employees and their families, and like the reason why that all matters is because you know, uh the clients that we said and promised that we were gonna do certain things for, like, those all those things we take very seriously. So, you know, that it's not always gonna go perfect, you know, mistakes are gonna be made, clients are gonna be upset, we're not gonna, you know, fulfill um uh all of our promises, like you know, people are human, like so. How do we deal with that in a way that reflect um our moral compass, you know, our our company values, and like how do we turn that around? Like, so when you see other people, uh other electricians and other company owners sharing that and how they've walked through that, and you're like, dude, yeah, this is what I did, you know, keep work, you know, keep you know, just keep trucking along. Like it's you know, so I that's super vital for me. Um, I'm pretty active. I try to be very active on you know, just the different chats, and um, I just think that, you know, not only just taking, but also giving back, you know, um information or just whatever you know, you never know what people are is gonna find value in. So um I just find it the collaboration I really enjoy um with other people. I I find a lot of value in that.

SPEAKER_03: 43:42

What's key about what you said is nobody realizes this. We actually did a podcast similar to this, and we could fill another hour just talking about this one concept. The consequence of present over perfect is the hardship after the action because you are guaranteed one thing when you actually go and do something new, and that thing that you're guaranteed is a result, and the result isn't perfect either, it never is. There's still work to do. Yeah, I I admire your guys' courage to stand up, like you said, commit, go all in. And I mean, even your results haven't been all great, right? After a 300k month, the next problem we have is we've got to keep up with everything we just sold. Have you felt that well, Sherman? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 44:34

Yeah. So um, you know, following that month, it just, you know, I was so inundated with, okay, we just, you know, with some of those projects, you, you know, now I'm project managing. I'm, you know, you're fulfilling on those promises. You have to manage everything. And then we're, you know, we got guys on vacation, life's happening, people are, you know, we lost, you know, we were down a crew. We, you know, somebody had left the company um to move away, and you know, trying to maintain cohesion, quality, and like fulfill all these obligations. And it was like everything happened like perfect storm right now. Um, it it was, yeah. So, you know, I had to, you know, prioritize some things. Like I had to step back from, you know, going to some classes, and I had to put my bags back on, and we had to, you know, again attract more top talent. Um, we got two new guys on, they've been on for a couple of weeks now. Um, yeah, it was like all at that time we're you know, doing a 3,000 square foot custom home, the solar project, four duplexes, uh a rewire, and like all these things. And we it so yeah, it was wild. It was um, you know, stress, everyone was stressed out, everyone's working overtime. Um, everybody's, you know, so it was a little wild there for a little, you know, probably up until about two weeks ago. I was just like, you know, drowning a little bit. Um, but through that adversity, you know, the team gets stronger. We see what chinks in the armor we have. I start learning how to say no to people. Um, no, we can't do that, you know, which is hard was you know, it's an ongoing process for me. No, we can't, you know, that doesn't make sense for us. I'm not gonna be able to serve you. Um, instead of yes, yes, yes. And then it's like, oh gosh, how are we gonna do, you know, because then it that also can it's been a learning process, you know, it's just always. Um, but yeah, we're in a pretty good place right now. Um, ask me again tomorrow, that might change. Um, that's kind of the way it goes. But uh, you know, we're feeling really good about the team, the culture, um, the process, you know, and really just kind of where we're at as a company, kind of figuring our, you know, figuring our niche out. Um it's yeah, it's been it's been a wild, you know. A little bit of a side note. So right when I um it's a funny story. So right when I brought um Shayla on, literally empty office, empty warehouse, just got this space, um, brought her in on a Saturday. I'm going a million miles a minute, um, you know, writing stuff on a whiteboard, like trying to get her up to speed on what this is gonna look like. She's never been in the trade before, never done, you know, a lot of the things that I was gonna ask her to do. Right after that, uh, I felt called to do this charity auction. So a close family friend of ours, um, something happened, and I just was like, hey, we're gonna do this charity auction. Um, and so she I was like, hey, what I need you to, you know, and we were growing rapidly. So, anyways, that we we did that, which was fantastic, um, a great experience. Um, but some of that work was coming up too, where we had auctioned off a package, and you know, this was all kind of spearheading right around, you know, this time because it's almost been a year since we did that. Um, but you know, even through all that, and you know, we grew through all of that crazy stuff um and just piling on all those new things. Um, so it's just been, you know, I feel like we're finally starting to level out. Um, but I'm excited, you know, we have uh a cool opportunity for uh a family a company family event. We got we bid on um this cool uh dinner package at a flower farm at that charity auction that we did. And so we're finally gonna do that here at the end of the month. We got this, you know, all the team together. We're gonna have their you know significant others. It's gonna be um super cool opportunities for it kind of reflect back on where we're at, you know, where this journey's gone. Yeah, it's really cool. Really exciting.

SPEAKER_03: 48:50

Could I kind of summarize and share a bit of an insight with you? Something that I had to learn and a mentor of mine taught me. He said, uh his name is Carl Bryan. He said, Clay, the real successors in business have this one quality above all else, and it's resilience. It's the ability to get punched in the face and still try to stick with the plan to kind of spin uh Muhammad Ali's words on him, right? Um, so what that really means though is if you think about this and a recap of your journey and what we've talked about today on this call, is you went from a company that did 700K in your first three-quarters of a year, which is exceptional, by the way. Congratulations on your commitment to just go all in and make it happen. But still, 700k, you almost made 50% of that in a single month two months ago. That's that's a three and a half million dollar run rate if you were consistent in earning 300k a month. Now, if I just asked you this question, which we would never ask at that point because we're not looking to deflate you, you're gonna need all the inflation to get through what comes, which is the inevitable, oh crap, we've got to install all this, we've got to do all this work now. But that question would have been are you a three million a year company? When you think about yourself, is that the size of the company? And if you reflect on that, we could easily answer is is intuitively well, no, but we're reaching. Yeah, right? There's no such thing as perfect implementation. That's the big thing that most people don't understand. That's why Present Not Perfect is powerful and it's driven this organization and yours. Because if we waited for perfection, nothing would get done because there's no perfect implementation. The exact process is I'm gonna do things above my pay grade and watch the pay rise up to it. Then I'm gonna learn a crap ton of lessons and get knocked back down. Then I'm gonna quit the things that knocked me down, a couple of them at least, and we're gonna step back up to another pay grade again. Does that make sense? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Through that, you will become with resilience, back to my mentor's words, if you're resilient enough to keep getting punched in the face and keep stepping up to that next pay grade, you'll become the three million dollar organization faster than anyone else has ever done it. Major mic drop moment there. I want you guys to sit with that. Sherman, if you had to give advice to anyone listening to this who's still at the plate, they're still looking at what what if, what could be. What advice would you give to that electrician from your standpoint now? So are they already in business or are they thinking about going into business? You can speak to both if you want or choose one.

SPEAKER_01: 51:52

Um yeah, no, I you really need to know what your why is, you know, for you know, what what is it really what you want to do? Um, what is it that you're trying to achieve? Um, because really that's for us, it's a compass. Like, what what are we trying to do? You know, um if we're just trying to stay busy, we would have gone into production, you know. So like really understanding what the business model is, how we're trying to serve people, um was pretty important for us to, you know, as a as a as a guidepost, um especially for those resilient moments, like when you're like, you know, like what are we doing here? You know, so we are I already established that. So um I think also just be willing to um for me having an open mind to uh changing the plan as we go, because new information, um new information about you know what business and um what it looks like as it goes, my mind changes about you know realities or you know, I just have to be willing to grow through that. Um and I think that you know, progress progress not perfection or or just being willy to start, um, you know, what's the logical next step, right? Like you don't need to have you know the final product, but if you backwards plan that, um, you know, what does that look like? You know, is it the CSR? Is it you know a process? Is it um, you know, whatever that is, and not not taking a step because it feels overwhelming. Um, I think if you have all these conversations ahead of time um and maybe get into some chats and some forums, maybe have a uh uh for me, like you know, the Chamber of Commerce or or just different um other men, men's groups um to have those mentors is huge. Um, you know, prior to having the the community and SLE and just other electric electricians that are doing the same thing as me, it's just having these conversations and continually um not trying to fight the fight alone, you know, having a sounding board um and say, hey, this is what I'm doing. Is this what do you think about it? Like, is this am I on the right path? Do I need to make adjustments? Um, probably leave your ego at the door. Um, you know, like it's been very uh very humbling experience, um, this journey, you know, going from you know, working for someone to employing people. Um it's it's it's a pretty it's I would I definitely wouldn't go back um for sure. Um but it's you know it's not easy for sure, you know, it's not easy. If it was really all about the money, um, you know, I could go back to working all kinds of overtime and stuff. But for me, it was about building something um for me and other like-minded people where we could have a work-life balance. I could be at home with my wife and kids, um, and really kind of control the process. Um and it's been, you know, it's been a journey. So like just buckle up because, you know, it's it's a bump, it can be a bumpy ride, um, but there's a lot of great opportunities. Um there's a lot of, you know, we've had we've had so many opportunities to serve our community um by just being present and um being willing to like show up and and just put ourselves out there. It's been fan, it's been really great overall. So I this is such a cool opportunity too, because a lot of this stuff I haven't thought about in a while because it's just been a rocket ship, you know, from from then to now. And it's like, wow, this is where we were, um, you know, starting from a truck that I had bought from, you know, a van that I had bought from the solar company, it was the foreman out as they were downsizing, you know, wrapped it and got all this stuff ready, was working out of my garage, you know, to today, you know, we have you know multiple, you know, a few trucks on the road. It's um, but thinking back through the struggle and the you know, failures and the mistakes, like at any point we could have quit, but like you said, you just you know, if I'm just the last guy to quit, I'm gonna win. Right. And I can endure a lot of um, you know, as long as you're willing to um look at you know the process, make those few adjustments and keep um, you know, continue to improve, um it's and be willing to show back up. It's been you know um a lot of conversations like, hey, are we you know on the right track? Um and I think overall, I think we you know we really are. Um and it's been it's been really nice. It's been such a good journey serving, you know, just being in the community. So um great chairs, you know, and having the the people that we have here is super, super blessed. Thanks for that, man.

SPEAKER_03: 57:02

Thank you. I've got one more question for you, and this one's another reflection one, a little more specific to you, though. If we jump back in the time machine, Sherman, you could go back to you and your business or before your business, any time you choose. You get to set the dial here. But you're only gonna have just the time of like this podcast to impress upon your former self. You've got to give some advice, something that might change the direction or the trajectory of your business. Is there a time you'd go back to? Is there a change that you would make? And if so, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01: 57:40

Yeah, I would go back to the founding um and be a lot more thoughtful about um the you know, the the starting of the company. And you know, I was all in, but there there could have been some adjustments there about um, you know, uh there could have been some adjustments there. So mixing some some friends and and stuff in the early parts of that, um, you have to have a lot of it can get super messy. Um you have to have a lot of emotional intelligence to be a business partner, and you know, um and if you can't separate that, it's just not, you know, that was that was you know, that was a little, you know, and I even you know employed some you know people on, and um you know, being able to that was uh still an ongoing process learning how to remove your emotions out of certain business decisions and just purely from a hey, is this what's best for the company? Um because I was I wanted to I wanted to um be I was always thinking about other, you know, like okay, is this fair to them or you know, whatever? Like I want to be gracious and and giving, um, which is is good as a per in a personal standpoint, but I didn't always make the best business decisions early on from that mindset, um, which some expenses uh or some you know education is expensive, and I learned I paid for a lot of education early on. Um I I wish I would have asked a little bit more questions, like maybe sought some you know better advice. Um but just you know I I I don't know that I've you you might go back and change that, but it's really it also it's shaped where we're at today, too. So like every experience, good or bad, um you know, although you know some of them are painful and cost, um, also shape you you and the others around you to where you're at. So, you know, yes, I would probably tell myself to think a little bit more and be a little more. Thoughtful, thoughtful about some of those things. Um I don't necessarily know that I would change that because I don't know if that put them on the right path that they're also supposed to be on now because of the things that happened. Um I don't know. That's getting into a little bit more like um deeper, you know, deeper things, but I you know that would that would probably be what it would be. Um just you know, some of those early emotional decisions and stuff.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:31

Thanks so much, man. Joe, any closing questions for Sherman today?

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:36

You know, less of questions and more just statements of admiration, because a lot of times people will say, you know, it's I need to be present over perfect, and they'd be right. But it's very rare to find someone who's so committed to it right from the start. That you're like, you know what, I wanted to do this. I recognized I'm in a field that I may not be fully familiar with. I'm gonna find the help. And then once I find the help, I'm just gonna do the things that need to be done. Like that's a rare quality that I feel is this what's helping you pull the spring back. Because now that you're ready and you've got all the momentum that you needed over the time you spent learning and growing and having these hard lessons, you kept going through it, and now you've gotten far enough that when you'll release, you're already on a high trajectory.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:25

No, I appreciate it. Yeah, I really do think that uh you know what you said, Joe, is is is right on point. Like all of those lessons, all of the stuff that we had that happened early on is really um the the catalyst for what where we're at today. Um so I'm excited about the future and and and you know, um, if we can you know just continue, even if we stayed this size, I mean it's just like if we just refined where we're at and stayed, you know, the crew stays right where it's at. Um that would, you know, this is it's it's been fantastic. I love it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:02

Yeah. Well, thanks so much for your uh time and really going the distance, going deep your vulnerability today, Sherman. Um, you know what, guys, if you're watching and listen to this, right to the bitter end, I wouldn't blame you. This one's been gripping. And if you want to grab that same call that Sherman grabbed and see if it could be life-changing for you too, we'll leave the link down below. Just go ahead and click that book in. And uh, I believe you met with Austin. Is that right, Sherman?

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:28

I did, yeah. Austin was, yeah, we did onboarding together and um awesome. And then Raina after that, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:35

So Austin's still taking calls there, guys. You can book a session with Austin as well. Other than that, uh, thanks to our sponsors, Duramax, helping us with all those portable generators. If you're not part of the SLE Pro app already, getting on the inside, getting all the deals, all the community stuff Sherman was talking about today, then there's a link below for that as well. We can't wait to see you guys there. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Sherman. Thank you. Be blessed, friends.