Ep 30 - How to Find Clarity and Motivation Beyond the Woodpile

Clay shares a powerful fable about two lumberjacks that reveals why taking breaks to sharpen your tools leads to dramatically better results than non-stop grinding. The story illustrates how stepping away from daily operations to think strategically creates exponential growth for electrical contractors.

• The lumberjack who took an hour break to sharpen his axe consistently outproduced the one who worked non-stop
• Breaking monotony and changing scenery stimulates creativity and better strategic thinking
• Success story from Erwin who grew from $15-30K months to a record $60K month using our strategies
• Sunday morning routines and dedicated thinking time can transform your leadership approach
• Building your business is like writing a book - focus on the long-term legacy, not just immediate results
• Finding balance between consistent work and strategic breaks creates sustainable growth

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Million Dollar Electrician
• 1:09 The Lumberjack's Fable
• 7:09 Breaking Monotony for Better Results
• 12:26 Win of the Week: $36K Sale
• 15:00 Writing Your Life Book
• 19:46 Pricing Tool and Episode Wrap-up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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. I'm Joseph Lucani and, together with my co-host, clay Neumeier, we're here to share the secrets that have helped electricians sell over a million dollars from a single service van. Now it's time for sales, it's time for scale, it's time to become a million dollar electrician. Hey you guys, welcome back. We've got a great show today. In fact, it is Sons that's the French Canadian in me it is Sons, my partner, joseph Lucani, who's super, super busy this week, but he's been busy helping our clients in classes and I've got a great win for you today and a great show to help motivate you, not just to finish this week but, as you're probably hearing this for the first time on Friday, to help motivate you well into next week and to give you something to think about even this weekend as you get ready for next week. This is some big time stuff. It really comes from a habit of mine that I want to share with you, which is I focus on. I tend to focus on the psychology and leadership of the sales for the electricians that we help, but also the growth of the teams and the bigger companies that we're able to support, as well as even the smaller guys. Management and just how you approach the day can make all the difference between getting enough done and getting not nearly enough done. And next week and every week after that, we want to make sure that you're motivated to be the one getting enough done to make the difference. Is it wrong of me to want to do that for you? If not, and you're an electrician looking to get motivated, then stick around. Let's go through this together. So, as I'm constantly seeking additional inspiration for our leadership, to help grow our team and to help lead and inspire the electricians within our network, thank you, guys, if you've been following, if this is your first time for electricians by electricians, and we're here to inspire that. But we're looking to inspire those within that network and within our own team, and so one of my favorite times and favorite places to do this quite honestly, is a book or a YouTube on a Sunday morning, and I'll explain why, and I'm going to give you a little hint, just a bit of a nugget, to let you know that I've got some knowledge that I'm about to kick here. It's not going to take long and it's a little fable about the lumberjacks and if you're listening or if you're watching, you're following along in your favorite app. Let me know right now if you know the story of the lumberjacks. Story of the lumberjacks.

Speaker 1: 3:08

For me, sunday mornings is the time because I'm someone who follows the six days labor, one day rest philosophy. I've heard some pretty powerful people follow that philosophy. You can let us know where you're at. Do you follow the six days labor, one day rest philosophy for your work-life balance? Now, for those of you that do, I get it. It's a grind. However, if you're going to work that extra day, put that little bit extra time in, even if it's weekend, week on, week off, this can be extremely, extremely valuable for you to get ahead. Now, the one day we will not work around our house is sundays. Sundays are family days. I'm absolutely sworn to take the family day, that sunday, off for for family, for spirituality, for just good health. We all need a break, and you know what a big piece of this and what I'm about to share about the lumberjacks and this fable I'm reminded of is actually about the break. It's about the time we aren't working and how valuable that is Now for a client with us, then you just experienced me in Mexico on our classes, because this is somewhere I go two to three times a year.

Speaker 1: 4:20

I love to spend time there. It's our home away from home, and one of the things I love to do is just completely blank out my schedule, and that doesn't mean that I don't work. What it means, though, is I don't take on any additional meetings. There's no new work that comes on my schedule during that time, and I'm going to tie all this together for you, and I think this is going to help you big.

Speaker 1: 4:44

So let's get started with the lumberjacks. There's lumberjack A let's call him Alan, and lumberjack B let's call him Bob. These two lumberjacks start work at the same time every day, and all they do is chop wood. Do is chop wood. They start at the same time and they finish at the same time. Alan chops, chops, chops. He never stops until the day is through, and what he's left with is a big old pile of wood. Day after day, week after week, month after month, the wood adds up.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Bob, however, does things a little different and sees a little bit better of a result. Bob also chops wood, except Bob takes an hour off every day. He leaves the wood pile for an hour a day and what's crazy is Bob's wood pile seems to be always a little bigger than Alan's, and day to day you notice a bit of a difference. But weeks and months up and the difference is exponential. Over time Alan's noticing this and starts to become frustrated with Bob and with his own efficiency with the wood chopping. Finally he breaks down. Finally he says you know what? Know what? I gotta ask bob about this, because I work harder and yet bob's producing more fruit here, more wood, literally.

Speaker 1: 6:14

What do you guys think bob does with his hour? An hour a day? He leaves the wood pile, yet he produces more wood chopped at the end of each day. What is he doing with the hour? For many guesses on this. Alan asked Bob Bob put in the hour. What are you doing in that time that you're not at the woodpile? And Bob says Alan, I just go home and sharpen my axe. And Bob says Alan, I just go home and sharpen my axe. I just go home and sharpen my axe.

Speaker 1: 6:51

See, bob, for an hour a day focuses on the break from the monotonous task that he's been trying to drive, that Alan's driving so heavily thinking. If I'm just on the tools, maybe for you is the analogy here, the parallel right, but if I'm just on that tool and chopping wood, then it must be that at the end of the day there's more productivity. But that's not the case, and you see how this ties into everything we started talking about. What is the case is that by taking a break and by changing the task and by focusing on a different part of it, by grinding the axe, bob was able to come back with not only a sharper tool but a sharper noodle. He was able to come back with some difference, some break in the monotonous grind that Alan finds himself in every single day, and for that reason it adds up to an entirely different outcome, a different trajectory. Everything is different and greater for Bob because of that. So reflect on your own workplace and your own schedule and you tell me if that is worth thinking about for you.

Speaker 1: 8:09

As I mentioned, we do the Mexico thing. My partner Meryl and I. We go to Mexico, we do the thing, we stay there, we just we enjoy a different culture, a different style of life, the language challenges, the different weather. All of that is a break from the monotonous. For me, all of that is the grindstone. All of that frees me, it clears me up to think. And so Mariel said, when we got back to Canada she actually asked me in bed.

Speaker 1: 8:45

She said, clay, do you ever be a holiday where we do nothing? And I paused and I mentioned this story of Alan and of Bob and I said, babe, you see, we could do nothing. We could, we could take a holiday and just cut it all off, have zero schedule, and yes, it would stress the company and no, it's not perfect. Perfect, but we could do that, we can make that decision. But the thing is, do we really want to?

Speaker 1: 9:25

Because even just by limiting the schedule to the things already there, to just focus remotely on the things we know and live up to those sort of half-time commitments, that still gives us halftime free. That's more ax sharpening time than ever before. It's more time to refresh, to break from that monotonous and to think. And I'm telling you, there's no time that I'm ever clearer than when I step away from this desk and I change my scenery, whether it's I grab my golf clubs and I go to the driving range, like one of our clients, austin, did today, and attended a class from a bench behind his bag of golf clubs, or whether we go to the forest and go for a walk on the river, or whether you jump in the truck and just go four by fouring for an hour, or you go out and you go for a run around the block or there's things and they break up the continuity and they give you time to think. Whatever that thing is for you.

Speaker 1: 10:25

I encourage you to do more of that thing, because none of our best ideas, the reinvigoration of our visions, of our leadership, the breakdown of that monotony, the great spikes in our influence don't come from the moments or the the times, or we're trapped on the tools. They don't come from those back-to-back meetings, never-ending calls ran, or helping someone I'm firefighting. That's not where the great stuff comes from. It's where good stuff gets done, but it's not where the great stuff comes from. It's where good stuff gets done, but it's not where the stuff comes from. So, whether you're managing your own schedule when we're talking about this or you're thinking about your team schedule and that constant battle between should I really be training an hour a day or half hour a day that's valuable sales. Call time you might be thinking to yourself that's valuable sales call time. You might be thinking to yourself.

Speaker 1: 11:24

I love this fable because it reminds us that you know what else has value Not practicing on our customers, actually breaking out, have a breakout room and do some training as a team, make it fun, find new and creative ways to enjoy each other. And sometimes it's not sales training at all, training at all. It's just going for breakfast and talking about how things are going. It's just going for breakfast and asking the guys hey, what went well last week for you and what didn't? And even if it's just you, allow yourself that space to have that thinking time, which is something we talk about once in a while here, but not often enough, no matter the storm that's out there. If that's you, then you ought to take an hour a day to walk away from the woodpile and go sharpen your axe. All right time for the win of the week we have and this was actually recorded. I thought about playing the recording for you. It was about six minutes long. I just thought you know I'm going to speak through it.

Speaker 1: 12:37

We have another repeat I want to say offender here, but the terminology is kind of bad Erwin, who is a recent Win of the Week member. The thing about Erwin is he's just such a humble, fun-loving, good guy and he's been just working so hard and really joined us, you know, with the average 15 to 30K months and there were struggles in there and I remember personally meeting with him on several occasions and I remember when he came into the program. I remember the deep and honest conversation we had where he literally said Clay, I don't have money to mess around, this is not something that is a luxury for me. I do not have the luxury cash to throw at this. This has to work for me. This is a very serious investment for me and I love that Erwin took that chance and I love to see that chance pay off for people. So can I share this with you? That chance, and I love to see that chance pay off for people. So can I share this with you?

Speaker 1: 13:39

Erwin says you guys remember the day Joe helped me create six portable generator options from a platinum customer. Well, I'm beyond excited to say that we ended up selling another gold option. Customer didn't want to stand by systems. We offered them multiple portable options. The platinum option had backup lighting but the customer said they had plenty of flashlights and he even joked about that in class like 100 flashlights, he said. So they went with the gold option instead. Without the backup lighting, the gold was still just shy of $8,000, and that was on top of the original of $28,307. That puts this client's value alone at $36,000. Erwin goes on to thank us. I'm not going to go through that, but you know what it means so much to us, erwin, and if you're listening to this now, you know we're blessed for you too, brother, and we just appreciate that you're an action taker who shows up and does the thing. Erwin goes on to let us know that he's having a record month right around. I believe he said 60,000 already, so doubling revenue from his earlier average, which is incredible, erwin. We're so proud of you.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Guys, if you want a routine like mine, if you want to learn more about the Sunday morning routine and why I go that way, I'm always looking for, like I said, youtube or books. If you want to share some of your inspiration with us, if you want to hear more of the inspirations from me different books or YouTubes I follow. This specific fable today actually was inspired by a Simon Sinek leadership video that I managed to find on a Sunday morning. It's my favorite space because, even though I'm not supposed to work, I'm the first one up in the house. So I still wake up at 5.30 or 6 am on a Sunday morning and I'm not the guy to roll around and waste time in bed. When I wake up in the morning, I'm ready to go. Maybe you're like me, maybe this would be a useful play for you too, but I love to go right book or right onto that YouTube and grab myself a nice warm cup of coffee and just start the intake, just start to be inspired for the week ahead and this week. I couldn't be more thankful for that exercise, that habit, because that fable and adapted slightly for our services and for our market for electricians everywhere I know it's already moved so many people and been able to help us recenter our focus on what really matters.

Speaker 1: 16:27

There's a bigger picture here, and I'll tie this back to Meryl's question about why I wouldn't take a full holiday off, why I work some. Because it's not about this week and it's not about the next two weeks. It's not about next month. It's not about the next two weeks. It's not about next month. It's not even about 2025. It's not about the three to five year plan or the 10-year plan. If you guys are thinkers like me and you're that far ahead, let's go even even further out for a minute. Let's zoom right out here together. It's not about these little chapters. It's about a whole book that we're writing.

Speaker 1: 17:11

I think that marketing has become exceptional. In the time that I've been alive, the marketing has been teaching us how to feel and what to want in our life. And just like I think it misrepresents retirement for many people that idea that we end up at 65 doing nothing I think it misrepresents holidays and what it means to step away from the woodpile too. If you're someone that values just a hard, stop, do everything too much, too much too much, and then nothing for a couple weeks and then go right back to everything, everything, everything. Hey, I don't fully understand it, but I can't blame you for that. That's your style. I won't cramp it. What it really means to step away from the woodpile and sharpen the axe.

Speaker 1: 18:10

I'm perfectly happy to keep working that halftime and to free myself and my thoughts, to regain that freedom to think, be inspired, influence and reset the trajectory on this big vision and this big mission that we're on. I love that for me and I would love that for you. And if you think about it, as this is just a chapter today's, just a paragraph in a page of a chapter, the book that I'm writing here is a hundred years long and it goes from 1986 to 2086, I hope and in that book you will see evidence of someone that didn't stop, that never truly stopped. To just what do the commercials tell us? Lay on the beach with a six-pack of Corona in an ice-cold bucket and read what? Countless books for two weeks. Don't you get bored of that? For me, I know I do, and it's unrealistic for me to attain and even to want. So I love writing in my book. I love the possibility of the impact that follows writing so well and writing so often.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Let me know your guys' thoughts. On a side note, guys, our price tool has been out there and any channel that you're on, whether you're on YouTube with us or our Facebook group at Million Dollar Electrician, on our website, servicebyelectriciansianscom, anywhere that you are there's never been a more important time to get this price tool and put it to use because, as you know and we don't get political here, but with the tariffs and the changes in the world right now, especially between these brother countries, canada and the united states. You know that's going to affect electrical supply. You know that's going to affect electrical supply. You know that's going to affect the cost of our goods sold. And so it's more important to be able to present value and help communicate to our customers the nature of the markets and be able to continue to thrive in those markets. And being able to set your pricing and set your value and still get chosen is absolutely a skill that anyone can learn.

Speaker 1: 20:24

We believe that that's why we're here with this Million Dollar Electrician podcast. So if you haven't gotten that yet, all you got to do is a message saying price tool again on our website, our Facebook, instagram, youtube, anywhere else that you're hearing this Spotify or your podcast channel, your preferred podcast channel, and guys, thank you for hanging with me. I hope that helps you get clear on your next goals your next quarter, your next year, your next three to five and everything beyond that is you write your book and make a real dent in this world, something that's a massive impact in your community, that's meaningful to you and your family. Cheers to your success. We'll see you next week. Bye for now, and that's a wrap for today's episode of the Million Dollar Electrician Podcast. We hope you're buzzing with new ideas that charge up to take your business to the next level, so don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share the show with fellow electricians Together. We'll keep the current flowing.