Chop the fat off the steak so it's lean enough to bring to market. Welcome to Simplified Sparky Marketing This is an extreme milestone for Simplified Sparky that I had the pleasure and honor of being on Alan Dib's podcast, Lean Marketing. If anybody knows or heard of Alan Dib, he is a two-time bestselling author in regards to Lean Marketing and The 1-Page Marketing Plan, two books which have had a huge impact on both my business, and you will find out a lot more about that in this podcast. It will actually take you right behind the scenes of Simplified Sparky, what's involved in it, how my electrical business operates as well, I'll put some links in the show notes for Alan Dib's books if you wanna go out and grab some of those. And once you listen to them and you go, "That's fucking amazing. Imagine if that was for electricians." That's basically what I've built. Enjoy I sought coaching and that's where I kind of stumbled across your stuff as well, and I just gripped onto the one-page marketing plan . It spoke to me and, , this makes so much sense of having a pathway, and I'm a very systematic person as well. I basically follow that model, implemented a lot of that into my electrical business, and what I've seen was with your model, I tweaked and adjusted it to my service-based business, and that essentially is predominantly my model today, is what I've learned from you. And I am now passing that on to people that I work with today, which is, it's gone full circle. Welcome to the podcast. I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time, for a couple of reasons. So first of all, you've had massive success, which is really, really cool, but you've done something which I get asked about all the time, which is, "How do I monetize my knowledge, my experience, my skills, in a particular field, and make a living out of it? And even more than make a living out of it, do really, really well out of it?" So you've done that, you've cracked the code, so I really wanna go in depth and talk about, you know, how you did that, what you did, what you're charging, all of that sorta stuff. But before that, uh, maybe what's your background? Who are you- Yeah and what do you do? So, um, what I do is I'm an electrician. I've got my own electrical business in Sydney, and at the same time I work with electricians. So essentially who I help is people that are employed and they're looking to jump across into starting their own electrical business, predominantly within Australia and New Zealand. I am dabbling with people in Ireland as well at the moment. Um, but that, and then guys that are kind of, they've started the electrical business, kind of winged it a bit- Mm-hmm ... and then they've got a bit of a flow of leads, but it's just the business is a mess, they've been winging it- Yeah ... and just need a little bit of help. So you're helping solopreneur- Yeah ... electricians kind of scale, get new clients, all of that sort of stuff? Yeah, and, and my huge thing, which I think I, I'm relatable to you with is I obsess on lean. Mm-hmm. Like, I, I want a lean, systematic business- Yep I, I speak about a lot where electricians will be out there and they'll look at the, the big companies with the big trucks and stuff. Yeah. But it's like the big companies and the big trucks have got big headaches- Yeah ... and the bottom line isn't that fat. Whereas- Mm-hmm ... with the small businesses, what I obsess about is, like, being profitable and that bottom line being chunky as well, and basically have a business that you enjoy running as well, not a stressful one with 10 guys on the road. Yeah. Okay, so this is your reality today. Now, it wasn't always like this, so talk me through that. And we met a few years ago when I remember you attended one of our workshops. You just had your own electrical business. You weren't doing any of this coaching or anything like that. Where did you start? So it's, started my apprenticeship in 2005, uh, back in Ireland. Yeah. And back then it was the boom was happening, the Celtic Tiger, and it was just like every farmer became a builder. There was work flying out the door. There was houses flying up everywhere. That all came tumbling down in 2007. Mm-hmm. And 2007, '08, '09 were just declining, and then 2009 I finished my apprenticeship in Germany, and I knew it was really bad in Ireland, so a guy I was working with was like, "You should give Sydney a crack." And so came out here 2010, and then f- spent two, three years kind of faffing around in between jobs and stuff. Mm-hmm. Fell on my feet with a company which I'm very good mates with the guy that's still in charge of that company. And we, I did my time there, decided I wanted to do my own thing, started my own business in 2016. Kind of winged it a little bit, like I see people doing, electricians doing. And after about two years, I so- sought coaching. Mm-hmm. And that's where I kinda stumbled across your stuff as well, and I just gripped onto the one-page marketing plan as well. It spoke to me in, like, this makes so much sense of having a pathway, and I'm a very systematic person as well of like, okay, well if without that you don't have this bit, and without that bit you don't have this bit. So I basically follow that model, implemented a lot of that into my electrical business. And what I've seen was with your model, I tweaked and adjusted it to my service-based business, and that essentially is predominantly my model today, is what I've learned from you. And I am now passing that on to people that I work with today, which is, it's gone full circle. Love that. Um, but yeah, it's, and then so basically I've d- been running the electrical business for about 10 years, and then I've always wanted to do this coaching. I've always wanted to do the coaching, and I, I was afraid of imposter syndrome a lot- Yeah ... to take the leap. So I basically was like, I'll just stick a toe in the water. Started doing my podcast, sticking out short, digestible, like 10-minute episodes. Mm-hmm. And then what happened from that was a lot of people started to reach out to me on Instagram and stuff like that and say, "Hey, love the podcast. When are you doing your own thing?" Mm-hmm. And it took- Five or six people to finally go, like when you're doing your own thing, to go, let's start something. Let's see what happens here. Mm. So the start of the financial year, last year, this year that we're in now, and I set out with a target of working with 20 people. I was like, if I can get to 20 people, I've proven my model. Mm. So we've, we've currently got like two, three months left in the financial year, and I'm at 26 members at the moment. Oh, congratulations. So, um, it's onward and upward. So my end game is to dial my electrical business in even farther. It's, it's pretty systematic, but even farther so that it's juicy for the sales. So that's the, that's gonna be the next chapter is get rid of my electrical business and focus purely on the, the coaching. Love it. So, um, tell me about your journey, because, I mean, you had imposter syndrome in terms of, hey, I maybe haven't dialed in my own model yet, so I'm not gonna start teaching, which I love that you kinda dialed in your own business. You made sure that this actually works. You're not making up bull crap- Yeah where you haven't done the thing. So many people are coaching stuff that they've never actually done. What were some of the key- things that you changed in your business to go from, as you mentioned, sort of faffing around, it's sort of working, sort of not working, to, hey, now it's systemized, it's highly profitable, I'm getting clients. Like, what were some of those things that you implemented? Okay. So the number one thing, and any electrician watching this, I would say is just have a look at your pricing. Mm-hmm. Your pricing is huge. Pricing and your target market. Mm. That if you have the right clients, they will pay the money. I think it's, it's a, a big myth that people won't pay for the service. I think you are a, a prime example of somebody that will happily pay over and above if somebody does a good job- Yeah ... and comes to your house and they do the electrical you want. Yeah. But some of the biggest levers I pulled were dialing in on my target market, niching down. I only do residential service and maintenance work. Mm. I do not work for builders. I work directly for moms and dads in my electrical business, just homeowners in general. Having my admin delegated out was huge. Mm. Like, so systemizing that, handing over my phones, and handing over my admin as well. So just very basic things that were monotonous, repetitive, handing those over so I could concentrate on actually doing the work and bringing the money in. And yeah, just getting my pricing dialed in, because after that it was like, obviously you can charge, let's just say $100 an hour and work 40 hours a week and make four grand. But if you're doing, if you put your hourly rate up to $200 an hour, you've only gotta do 20 hours a week to do that. Yeah. So it was a, it was a big mind shift for me to actually just change my pricing, work for better clients. And then I started tweaking, doing things, and just methodologies of how I quote as well- Mm-hmm ... is very unique, and I've stolen some things from other avenues and integrated into my electrical business for quoting purposes, and it just skyrocketed. So essentially that's what I teach my members now, is just simplistic systems that they can plug into their electrical business to make more money and get more time back and freedom as well. I love that. And I, I remember years ago we had that conversation around should I be doing residential or should I be doing some of the commercial stuff, and we talked pricing a lot. We had some of those, uh, different conversations. Were there any key moments that kind of like- Something clicked. Like, you're, you're like, you know, I'm, I'm gonna try this and wow, this thing worked. I was changing with the messaging on my website, and I was very afraid to do so. Mm-hmm. Because I was sitting there going, am I gonna lose work if I change my messaging? So I changed the messaging, took this big risk, and then lo and behold, I started getting the work that I wanted to get. Yeah. And I was like, that worked. And then that's, that's something as well that I emphasize so much with the mentees inside the mentorship is dialing your messaging for the work that you want, and then the work will come your way. Yeah. And I remember we also talked about you were working different areas and starting to target more affluent suburbs, right? Yep. Being very, very intentional because a lot of people are like, you know, we'll do anything for everyone, right? Yeah. And anyone who calls, and then there's people who call in and, like, you know, they're super price sensitive. They're just price shopping. Whereas as you mentioned, you know, some of the people who are in the affluent suburbs value speed, quality. Price is not their number one thing. I'm not saying price doesn't come into it, but it's maybe number three, number four down the ladder. Yeah, I totally agree with that. What you'll find is it's not even the affluent suburbs. Like, you'll find... Where I service in Sydney is the Inner West, and, like, there are some very nice suburbs in that area, but I work for some fantastic people. To what you're saying is, like, price comes maybe third or fourth down the line. Not saying that price isn't a factor. Price is always gonna be a factor. Yeah. But it's just, it's somebody that shows up. It's somebody that keeps them informed with the communication along the way of their quote's accepted, when would they like to book in. There's a tracker on arrival, so when I go to a job, it will literally send them a tracker like Uber just to say, like, "We're on the way." Therefore they can go, they can grab their coffee, come back, and be like, "Okay, the electrician's coming in five minutes. I can see him on my tracker." So it's those little one percenters that will leave that five-star review. And that's what I say to my members is, like, I call it getting your five stars of your review, and the very first star starts when you pick up the phone and you give them that experience- Mm ... on the phone, the good experience. And then it goes along the way to the fifth star is concluding the job. But in between is, like, how you do the work, how you wow them, and then you basically go on your way. You get that five-star review. That very first star comes from the communication when you pick up the phone and you- Handle them and treat them with respect, and they're like, "That was a great interaction." Because some people are rummaging around on a roof or under a house. Yeah. And there's a, yeah, and they can hear a drill in the background. Yeah. Whereas my phones are delegated out, so it goes professionally to an office. It's all about the experience. So it feels like we're almost moving through each block of the one-page marketing plan. Yeah. We talked, we talked target market, okay? Num- I've got a suit here, right? Number one. No, no, no. Th- that's fantastic. I love when people implement this- Yeah ... in their business. So we talked target market, which is block number one. We talked messaging, which is now we're fishing in the right pond. Yeah. Right? So we're saying stuff that's attractive to our ideal target market. We're not just saying, "Hey, we're electrical. We do everything in any, for anyone," right? Yeah. So then you're reaching them through advertising media, which we'll talk about in a moment. But talk us through from start to end, what does a five-star interaction look like? Like, so you mentioned the end result is they leave a five-star review, super happy. Where it starts is that phone call. So walk us through that five-star experience. Okay. So what would happen would, would be they call up, they get a professionally answer, either online- Yeah ... they will get a template banged out to them straight away from my assistant online. Or else if they call up, they will run through the system. They'll ask them if they wanna do an onsite quote or if they wanna do a virtual quote. So then 90-odd percent- So what, what's the, what's the template? So I've got templates built into my job management software, so just email templates, very short. Oh, right. Gotcha, email tem- So let's say, for instance, you wanted an induction cooktop installed. Yep. Or you want- Yep ... um, a TV wall-mounted. There's a specific form for each one of these, so it's just got generic questions that are gonna be asked 95% of the time. So you're sending them what, like, a text message and saying, "Fill in this form?" Both. Or, or you're ta- over the... So, like, if I ring and I say, "Hey, I want my TV wall-mounted," what, uh, how do...? Okay. So there's, there's two different ways. So you've got, like, the inquiry comes in and we go to phone- Yep ... or we go to email. Yep. So if it comes in to, like, an email or if- Yep ... it's an online inquiry through the website- Yep ... it will then go through, like, we'll focus on the, the, uh, online here at the moment, so it goes through that. That arrives into the job management software. They get pinged with a text message and an email that we have received it on our end. Then that will move into our system where, depending on the job, the virtual assistant will then find the correct template that will then get sent out to them. They will then come back with the photos. I'll be able to quote it over the photos, and then send that back out to them again. They will then accept it or decline it, either or, and then we'll book in a date, notify them of the booking. They'll also get a reminder before the booking, as well as 24 hours out, and then a tracker on arrival. Do the job, and then obviously, like while they're experienced that little things like not parking in their driveway. Mm-hmm. Letting them know that they, we're, we're not gonna park in your driveway unless we can, kinda thing. That they're like, "Okay, that just shows they've got respect for our driveway. What are they gonna be like inside in our house?" Yeah. So then you do the job, keeping them informed along the way of if, you know, if you're about to drill a hole somewhere that you might not get the cable through there or something, make them aware that- Mm we may have to patch that little hole or something like that. And just keeping them informed along the way as well of how the lights are going, how the power points are going. Because if they're in the other room, the other end of the house, and you're rummaging there all day, they're kinda like, "I wonder how he's going," kinda thing. Mm. So that's massive as well, and then obviously just wrapping up, and then taking payment on completion, depending on the client, and then you can get the review there and then. But the simplest way to get a five-star review is ask. Like, some people are just- Love it ... they're like, "How do I get this review? What's the secret code to it?" I've almost, I think I've tipped over 600 five-star reviews- Right ... for my electrical business, and the simplest thing to do is ask. But then sometimes people get relaxed, they don't do it, and that's why we've got like a three-step follow-up sequence where they get slight jabs along the way of just to like, "If you didn't get a second to leave a review," kinda thing. Yeah. So that whole system is built in as well, and that would be the five-star, the five-star experience. But if it was a phone call, it's essentially the same way except they'll grab the details over the phone, and then they'll tell them they'll, before they get off the phone they'll get an email, um, and, and the, the form sent to them. Then they'll hang up the phone, and then they'll enter that sequence as well. So unless they want a job site or a job site viewing, which I, I quote about 95-plus percent of my work, uh, remotely. Amazing. So I don't actually go out to site. Well, that's another really powerful friction point, because it costs you money to go- It does on, on site. It's time-consuming- Yeah ... and, you know, they may or may not accept and- Yeah. It's huge. It's such a, a time suck and inefficiency and w- it's what I see and what I used to do, like early doors, is go out to every single job. Yeah. And I didn't really understand qualifying leads as well, whereas with this system it acts as a qualifier. Because if they go through the first few steps, they don't send the photos, we follow up. They don't send the photos, follow up. Don't send the photos, bad fit. We're like dead, they're dead in the water kinda thing. Yeah. Yeah. So it's essentially a qualifier, and I must admit, I, I think, like the majority if not all the clients we work for that come out the bottom of this funnel are all fantastic clients. They're just the best clients, and it's because- The messaging, the reviews, all of... it all comes together that, um, that yeah, it's, it just, that's why they pick up the phone and give us a call. Yeah. And I'm assuming you've got some nurturing sequence as well, like if you've sent a quote and you haven't heard back- Yeah there's s- something that, that fires there? So all automated as well. Yep. So once we ping the quote and they a bit pesky, they get a five, five follow-ups, one every three to four days. I think every three days, four days, and yeah, it just touch points again and I'm like, "Look, if you want a quote, I want a yes or a no." You know what I mean? That's awesome, and it, I don't think it's pesky at all. It's, it's like- You know, if you think of yourself as one tiny thing in that person's day, I mean, just have a think about- Yeah ... how much goes on in a person's day. Their kids, their parents, their whatever they work. They're busy. You know, 100 different emails, you know, so you're one little tiny factor and probably the least important factor in their whole day. Yeah. I mean, unless they've got a major electrical issue, right? Yeah. And then you, then you become a lot more important. And so, people underestimate how much nurturing you need to do to really become top of mind with somebody. Yeah. Well, it's funny because in, in your marketing plan, it's in the middle. It's in the kinda during phase. Yeah. I don't have a during phase nurturing- Yeah ... which is weird. Um, my nurturing gets shifted down to segment nine. So once we've got the payment, that's the trigger that they then get entered into the nurture sequence. Mm-hmm. So they did come back for more work, because with the type of work I do, service and maintenance, it's very like, I need it now, I need it within a week or two or maybe a month. So it's not a case of we can nurture them for a year or whatnot. Well, maybe not a year, but, uh, I mean, if you've sent a quote, that is the during phase. That's like- Yeah, yeah ... that's like they've raised their hand, they're like, "I'm interested." You haven't heard back from them and that, and that, so that is during phase nurturing. And for you, it's, it's shorter. For other businesses, you know, sometimes if they're selling B2B SaaS, it could be a six-month cycle, right? So it depends on, on the business, but for you, you've found the- Yeah ... appropriate time length. So yeah, I think they get, yeah, about three to five follow-ups in that nurture sequence, I suppose. And then they would then, yeah, make a choice out of that if they're gonna go ahead or decline. And then, um, and then yeah, we either part ways or they become a, a client for life, uh, I like to call it. I love it. I love that concept of clients for life. That's something I learned early on, because, uh, I mean, if one client can become two clients, three clients, five clients, I mean, that massively decreases your cost of customer acquisition. And that lifetime value, that is what makes a business valuable. Yeah, absolutely, and it's so powerful when you do give those experiences well, because that's where they are chatting to their friends out for dinner or whatever, and they're like, "We had the most amazing experience with electricians." Yeah. I've noticed I've ended up like a, just through circles, I've ended up in, like, WhatsApp groups- Mm for building blocks, WhatsApp groups for, like, old ladies that are just- ... like, in a gym class together. That's cool. And it's just like, I just did a job, uh, a week and a half ago, and it was, like, a very elderly lady, she's like maybe 70s, and she was like, while I was there, 'cause I don't get to use power t- a s- a saw that chops branches very often. Mm. And it's because it's not, like, electrical, it's like a novelty of, like, a kid just wrecking stuff. Yeah, yeah. So I had to chop a few branches to get to the cables that are up the side of the house. So I was like, "Mary, do you want me to trim more of your tree?" She's going, "Oh, I seen you trim the tree." She's like, "They're getting a bit overgrown. Do you want me to trim the trees?" And so I was like, eh, and I was just like, I went out and I like chopped like half her tree down, and she's like, "Oh, that's magnificent." And I was just there going crazy with my little saw, and, uh, she was, like, blown away and she's like, "Thank you so much." I know that little touch for chopping down her trees is gonna be- Very, very powerful in regards to, like- Mm ... people are looking for electrician or ask for electrician, it's the trees at the end she's gonna be talking about, not the electrical work, you know? Totally. Well, a bit of both. And what I love about this is there's nothing here that requires you to be a genius or to have some trick that nobody else knows or whatever. It's what I call doing the common thing uncommonly well, right? Yeah. So, a- and I mean, we've all experienced that. Like, I've called up trades before. One guy comes of s- smelling of alcohol. Another guy traips in dirt through your house. So anyone who's kind of just doing basic common sense stuff is a, a leg up, you know? They, they've got a massive advantage. It's so crazy, is as, it's just the basic things. Like, I, I carry boot covers in the van as well. Yeah. So I'll ask, come into their home, it's like, "Would you like me to put on boot covers coming into your home?" Yeah. And it's like, it's common sense on my behalf as well, if, if like, if we got a carpet that's beige-y or it's white or something. Mm-hmm. There's people that will take off their boots, and I think you look very rookie when you take off your boots, and you could stand on anything, and it's dangerous with all H&S. Yeah. And if you have staff members that are careless that are gonna stand on something pointy, that's where you can get these multi-use boot covers. Nice. Slip them on, and then just walk through their home, leave them at the door, go back out to the mucky outside, put these covers back on. And just it, it is carrying vacuums, drop sheets. I've got a little template that I just started using with my members, and it, it's essentially a little PDF that I send to my clients as well, just stating what to expect- Mm um, when, when we work with them as well. 'Cause what I find is a lot of clients will say, like, "I need, um, do I need to move the bed? Do I need to do this? Do I need to do that?" So this, I've been along, been around so long know I know what they ask. Yeah. So now I'm, I'm getting into their head before they can even think about it, to be like- Absolutely "How does he know that?" You know, it's just, but it's just common sense to me, but it's gonna give them a great experience. Yeah, so all of these things, these small little things, and they s- each one seems small, and each one is small, but they add up to basically delivering a world-class experience, which is kinda that, that last bit of the one-page marketing plan, is delivering the world-class experience. Then that leads to people having a remarkable experience, and remarkable means people are going to remark on it. They're gonna tell their friends, they're gonna tell their family, they're gonna do all of that stuff. But I think it's interesting that despite you delivering that world-class experience and that remarkable thing, you still ask for the review. You don't just hope and pray, you know, I, I, I hope they leave me a, I'll do a really good job, I hope they leave me a review. You still ask, you know? Asking is the beginning of the receiving process, right? Yeah, and it's, I don't know if it's an ego thing. They're just scared to ask. But so if you don't ask, you don't get. There's so many examples of that, even in, like in my electrical business or my coaching business. Yeah. That like, I've just asked questions. Of course. It's just if you don't ask, you don't get, so the biggest, the biggest thing is just ask and you'll get a review, provided you've done a good job. Yeah, of course. Of course. And I think that's so powerful. So that's so awesome. I, I, I really love that. And now you manage to run a very profitable- Personal business, right? You don't have a lot of staff, you don't have a lot of overheads, you don't have all the offices, you don't have to go out and, and quote. So you've kind of cracked the code on, hey, how do I run a solopreneur electrical business focused on residential? Which is something that a lot of people want, right? So how did people start asking you about, "Hey, I'm an electrician, how do you do what you do?" Like, how did they start, I guess, you know, asking, picking your brain and going from there? So what I did was I started with a podcast. Kinda that, it's funny, if I look back, took me about a year and a bit to start getting any bit of traction on the podcast. The traction only came when I started working with the coach I'm working with now, and I then moved across to promoting it on Instagram, and then I think through Instagram it sent traffic across to the podcast, and word of mouth started traveling as well within the electrical community. Then people would listen to the podcast. I actually had nothing to offer when I launched the podcast, it was just, just trying to build up my authority, and just so people would see me as an authority that when they start listening to the podcast they can relate to stuff that I'm speaking about or stuff that they need to implement in their business. Um, so yeah, essentially then it was people came from Instagram, just purely two sources, Instagram and the podcast, and just started messaging me, asking me when I was gonna start, and then give it, yeah, couple of months in, I just started up the Simplified Sparky mentorship and then got people in that way. And who is it for? So who it's for is the electrician that is currently employed wanting to start his electrical business, his or her electrical business, or the person that started a business with no idea and they're about a year or two in with maybe sub five staff that they're just getting by, spinning wheels, completely unsure of if they're making money or not, completely unsure of their, their marketing, or stuff like that, that needs to get squeezed up and dialed in. Just start running a, a proper business. Because what happens is people take staff on, they actually scale a loss. Mm. They don't know their numbers, they don't know what they should be charging, so then they actually put fuel on the fire by getting a staff member in- Yeah ... probably paying that staff member more than they pay themselves- Yep and then they end up shutting the doors and going back working for wages. So that's kind of, my job is to prevent that. Amazing. And so talk me through that pivot that you made. So, or I guess it's not a pivot, it's an extension of what you're doing is, okay, you've got the electrical business, it's been a proof of concept. You're not an imposter now, you're doing the actual thing that people really want to do, and now you're starting to teach other people to do that. So what did client one look like, client two, and then what model did you choose? Like, are you doing stuff for them or are you just coaching them or are you just doing courses? What does it look like? And then I guess we can talk about future scaling of that model as well. Like- Yeah ... uh, what's that gonna look like in the future as well? Yeah. So I had, um, a very specific type reach out to me. They all ended up in the same kind of demographic of, they were all solo operators and- Some of them were a year or so into business and then, yeah, just spinning wheels, and then others were thinking about making the leap across, and then they, once they came, reached out to me, I was kinda like, "Okay, I need a model. I need to put something together that I can actually educate these guys, give them a great experience, and mentor them in the way that they need to be mentored." So what I ended up doing the wrong way for my coaching business was I actually built a course, and I thought selling a course to many people and just hoping for the best would be the way to go. This is how you teach them and implement it. Yeah. After then working with a coach, I realized that I can have a very simplistic coaching model where we only do one live call a week, all the content that they need is built into levels, and they've got to go through the levels to get to the next level is the key. So to, I, slightly different to you, I start with niche. Mm-hmm. So I want to be very specific on the work they, they need to do. And an example of this, why they need to know their niche and target market is, one of the members that joined up just this week, he is targeting level two electrical work, which is essentially the guys that jump up the pole, they do the metering. Mm-hmm. They're not just base electricians, they're a step above. So he wants to do more of that work, but at the same time he wants to do residential work. So his target market for the level two work would be electricians. Mm. Whereas with the target market for residential work is gonna be your moms and dads. So that's where on the likes of Instagram, if you take a picture of a switchboard or a picture of a light fitting or something like that, it will appeal to the electrician, whereas to the likes of you or anybody else that has no real interest in electrical, it's not gonna stop the scroll. It's just gonna keep you going. You're just going, "What the hell is that?" The example I like to give is to, to guys I work with to get them away from that mindset or mentality when they need to reach clients is think of a gardener. If you're following a gardener and he's got a picture of a garden bed and he's showing you his new irrigation system, so all it is is a picture. There's two hoses going through the garden bed, of this brown garden bed. Are you gonna stop and look at that? No. Yeah, no. Of course not. So that's where I think it's very important that they get very granular with the target market and stuff. So yeah, basically what it is, is when they come in, they get onboarded. They then move through the levels. The levels are locked down, that they go through level one, two, three, et cetera. There's nine levels. So level one is your niche. Mm-hmm. Level two is your target market. Yeah. Level three is your messaging. Mm-hmm. Level four is your media. Level five is your lead handling. Level six is your lead converting. How do they know, like at each level, whether they did it right? So how do I know I chose my niche right, or how do I know I chose my media right or? I've got a proof of implementation at the end of every module. So at the end of every module they'll have a little simple few questions. Mm-hmm. And then they submit that to move to the next level. It just shows that they've done the work, or they at least understand it. Mm-hmm. And if there's any queries or anything like that- That is where I would s- then step in and have a look at their, their plan that they've laid out to see if, if they have filled it out correctly or if I can see any holes that it's like you still don't grasp the concept. I'll then step in and help them, um, and just guide them along the way with that. Do anything proactive in terms of, like, they signed up but they didn't do the work? Let's say they signed up, they maybe did level one of the work, and then they're up to level two. They got stuck or they got busy or they got distracted or whatever, and they just didn't- Yeah they just didn't submit it. That's unfortunately where they plateau. It's like I, I tell them coming in, I tell them that, like, this isn't a silver bullet. Yeah. This is not a silver bullet. If you don't do the work, you're not gonna get the results. And again, just like going to the gym and stuff, you're not gonna get the, the body that you want, the muscles that you want. You can walk into the gym, but if you don't do the work in there, it's not gonna happen. Yep. So it's up to them to do that, and some people are genuinely in there and they're just busy, but they're gonna come back around. Mm-hmm. But then it's just, like, there's been one or two that have probably fallen off the wagon a little bit just due to circumstances. But other than that, it's just that is the roadblock is, like, if they wanna move forward, they've got to progress through the levels. Gotcha. Okay, so they're progressing through the levels. And so are they, what is your model sort of look like in terms of are you charging them a one-off fee? Is this a recurring membership? How does, how does that work? And then are you coaching them one on one or in a group, or how does that all look? Okay, so how it works is there is a monthly fee- Mm-hmm ... um, and you're in for 12 months, and if you do the annual, you save on a month or two. Mm-hmm. So that way, like I tell them at the start as well, it's a 12-month commitment- Mm-hmm that you're coming in and nothing's gonna happen overnight. What was a barrier for entry for me as well is my price started too high, I wanted too much upfront. Mm-hmm. So I was basically doing half the annual, but I found that, like, old me back in the day would have not paid that money, so I look at that now being like, okay, the, the entry point is quite low, but you're in it for 12 months. So it just makes it a, a good model that it's extremely affordable for the startup businesses and what I want to do and achieve. And, I mean, if you watch one of the live recordings back once you get in, you'll return your investment because there's just little golden nuggets of one live session they'll pick something up that they can essentially compound over and over again. Because it just, on the way down the plane, I looked at a guy, one of the members, he had a real estate. He said he's been in this building several times, but just something that I said on the live session, he then investigated the switchboards, and now he's got, in the pipeline, he's got seven levels of three switchboards that could possibly be, it could be like a 30,000, 20 to $30,000 job- Wow just by observing. He's like, "It's something I just never would have thought of doing." Mm. Amazing. And how are you delivering? So you've got, like, they're going through the course levels. Is there, like, a weekly group call, or are you coaching them one on one? What does that look like? So yeah, you'll have a few calls with me on the duration of it, along the pathway. One after level three just to make sure, just to course-correct if anything is wrong or off or you need help with anything, and then we'll have another one down the track as well just to make sure that you are, you know, you are still implementing, you need help with anything. And we've got one live call per week, just to keep it extremely simplistic, because selfishly, I've built this business that I don't want my time sucked- Yeah on Zoom calls. I agree. So, and what I say to the members coming in is, You can either join one of these coaches that are out there, and you can, you know, fall for the shiny object of, like, we've got an accountancy call this week, we've got that call next week, we've got a numbers call the other week. Mm. And they're getting overwhelmed and freaking out, and I'm like, I like to keep things extremely simplistic, and if you wanna chat to me, ask a question on Slack, and I can answer it in 30 seconds. Because what happens is- If I had that model, they join up, they're busy at work, it comes to our live call time or our one-on-one call, and they're like, "I don't even know what I'm meant to ask on this call." Mm-hmm. And I've seen that happen so much in all coaching platforms that I've been a part of in the trade space, that you kind of end up on these calls with nothing to say. But- Mm ... you can get that answered in 30 seconds to a minute on Slack. So that's why I keep it extremely simple. And so to pass through each level, are they watching course material or how do they know what to, to do? So the, the modules are very short and sweet. Like, all of my content is, like, kinda straight to the point. I cut as much fluff as possible. Yeah. But they will just go to, each video is probably under three, maybe five minutes. Yeah. And there might be an hour's worth of content to an hour and a half per level. Mm-hmm. And then it's just a case of implementing it. So like when we get to the lead handling, that would be where we would start implementing the templates that I spoke about on the five-star experience, stuff like that, building your pricing, building the correct bundles, as it's called in the software, to start deploying that in your business as well, to make sure that your pricing's on point. And then, yeah, just start implementing it that way. Love it. So you've got the weekly group call, they've got a couple of calls with you that they can use along the way, there's course material that's kind of gated once they pass each level, and then there's questions that they can ask you on, on Slack. Yep. Okay. So again, we s- see a lot of the same recurring themes now. Very select target market, right? It's not like just anyone and everyone doing electrical come, come join us. Just do the simple things, the common things uncommonly well, deliver a great experience, right? Yeah. Absolutely, and I think before I started working with my coach, because I think you hit fight or flight mode and desperation, I was like, I started off working with all tradies, so my podcast was called Simplify Tradie Marketing. Mm. But now it's Simplify Sparky Marketing, and I started off anybody that entered anyone's home was who I worked with, so cleaners- Yeah ... carpenters, plumbers, whoever entered someone's home. Yeah. Because the model is, like you can replicate this model into... You just unplug the trade and plug the other trade in. Yeah. It's, it's extremely replaceable with any trade, and my coach was like, "Dude, just go all in electricians." Like, how many electricians are out there? And like, yeah, right now we've, we've got 20 s- work with 26 guys. Yeah. Um, or companies, and it's only scratching the surface at the moment of like, this is the first few months of the, this business, so there's plenty work out there. And it just goes to, I wanted to practice what I preach. Yeah. I practice niche. Love it. And then I was like, I know niche, and it, it was extremely fulfilling that in slight desperation at the start, a plumber reached out to me, he goes, "Love your stuff," and like I said, it's adaptable. So he was like, "Can I come work with you?" So we went through the whole sales call thing, which I don't do anymore, and he was like, "How much is it?" Or whatever. So I sent through my document, and he was like, "Oh, you're a bit too expensive for a new coach," kind of thing. So lo and behold, about a month ago he reached back out to me and he said, um, "Hey, man, been listening to your stuff. Keen to come in now." And I was like, "But I only work with electricians now." And he basically made that decision happen as well. I said like, the proof's in the pudding, just stick to electricians. And I'm so glad I did as well, because I can talk electrical jargon all day. I think you have to be somebody else around plumbers. You have to be like, all right, I can't just talk about electrical the whole time. Yeah. I have to divvy into plumbing or cleaning or whatever. It's a good, it's a really good environment, good community. Like, the guys I'm working with are absolutely A1, and it's because they've had enough of my content that that's the best kind of clients that come to me. And I don't run, I don't run ads. I don't run cold ads to a cold audience and then have a sales team bring them on. I just let the podcast stuff do the sales, and they'll naturally come to me, and then yeah, if they're a good fit they're, they come in and, yeah. Love it. Implement it to their business. Love it. Yeah, we were talking earlier over lunch about a concept that a friend of mine, Taki Moore, calls brand width, which is how much time have they spent on your content, and that makes a huge difference with- how good they are as a prospect and as a customer. So in your case, uh, it was interesting you mentioned if someone's only listened to a little bit of your content, you actually get them to go back and- Yes listen. Tell me about that. I think it's a very, uh, to them it kinda gives far more that, "Why is he rejecting me? Why is he not twisting my arm to get me on a sales call?" Mm-hmm. Whereas the, the team's saying like, "If you don't sign up, where are you gonna be 12 months from now?" Mm. Kind of thing. I'm like, I don't let them in unless they've had enough of my content, because I don't want a shitty client inside there. Yeah. And I haven't had that yet. Everybody that's come in has been the exact client that I want. And as I mentioned that one of the members that joined up was like, "Hey, I've made a lot of money from listening to your podcast. It's now time to see what's on the inside." So that's why you just, you give away your good stuff on the podcast, and naturally it's reciprocity, they'll come back and- Uh, and a core teaching in my book, Lean Marketing, and really everything that we teach is around having marketing that's so valuable that people would potentially pay for it. Because a lot of marketing is kind of annoying, interruption, spam, all of that stuff, and now we're seeing that a lot more with AI, and it's just completely refreshing when someone is just really generous, gives their best stuff, and whether they become a client or not, they become better off. And that just creates such a cycle of goodwill and, uh, this virtuous cycle of people who come in because they saw your stuff. And some people maybe will see your stuff today but won't sign up for, you know, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, a year, maybe two years' time, but it's building a massive pipeline of goodwill that you may not monetize for a long time, but it will come back to you. Yeah, I definitely agree with that, and I'll never, ever know that. And look, maybe the guys or girls won't have the money. It, it's the long game. It's reciprocity, isn't it? Well, it's the long game, but it's also you're choosing what game to play, which I really like. And you are leaving money on the table, right? Yeah. So, if you had a sales team, yeah, you'd probably close more, but now you've gotta manage a sales team, and you gotta have people on the phone and all of that sort of thing. And you could probably gate a lot of your content so that you can't get it unless you pay and all of that. But you're very generous with your content, and it's creating positive externalities. You know, so e- economists call side effects of economic activity an externality, and usually externalities are negative. It's like, you know, the pollution from a factory or whatever, right? And we see that a lot with marketing. There's a lot of pollution out there. There's a lot of spam. There's a lot of annoying stuff. But you're creating a positive externality, which is kinda like if my neighbor has a beautiful garden, right, that benefits me, but I didn't have to pay for it. I didn't have to do it. Yeah. But it elevates the whole neighborhood, it creates a lot of goodwill, it makes everyone feel good. Yeah. And so that's exactly what you're doing. I like that. So yeah, I think it's a massive knock-on effect, and it's, it's fulfilling for me as well, because in this business, it's like, yes, I'm changing their electrical business, but the way I see it as well is, like, I'm genuinely changing their life as well. Of course. Because I went through such a shitty time when I started the business. I struggled for, like, two years and just, like, horrible clients. Yeah. I've PTSD about builders. I don't work with builders. Yeah. And look, there are fantastic builders out there. Yeah, of course. Don't get me wrong. But I seem to have picked up the bad ones. I love helping people, and money's a by-product of what I do. I'm building this business because I, I like to get back to Ireland as well, like, once a year. Mm-hmm. And, like, my electrical business parks up when I go back. With this, I literally bring my laptop and a camera, and away I go. Love it. Hey, it's Alan here. Ready to dive deeper into today's marketing insights? Head over to leanmarketing.com/podcast to get a full summary of today's episode, including all of the resources mentioned. Go to leanmarketing.com/podcast. Now back to the show. I w- I wanna double click on that as well, right? So your, you've built this business around your lifestyle, not your lifestyle around the business. And I think a while back there was, you know, people would kinda say it in a derogatory way, "Ha, you've got a lifestyle business," right? Yeah. But more and more I'm seeing, myself included, people building really lifestyle empires, right? Because, you know, that cute little lifestyle business, you know, you make more money now from that than your electrical business. I make orders of magnitude more than I did other businesses as well. And it's funny when- alignment around your lifestyle and around your business, so many things get easier. Your relationships get easier because your business is now not opposed to your lifestyle. Uh, your business is supporting your lifestyle. You know, money things get easier, travel things get easier. Got alignment between your business, and that does require you to leave money on the table. You have to have a list of stuff that you're saying no to. In your case, I'm not gonna have any sales people, I'm not gonna have all of this overhead, I'm not gonna have extra trucks and all of that. So for sure you're leaving money on the table, but being intentional about that and saying, "No, this revolves around me and my business," I think that's super powerful. That's the thing is, like, I love money, but I'm not massively money driven. Like, absolutely I need money. Money isn't my number one thing. It's time and freedom and travel and family is my number one thing. But- Well, but when people talk about leaving money on the table like it's a sin, but what about leaving... Money is one of the best things on the table. Like, some people leave peace of mind on the table, some people leave relationships on the table. Yeah. You know, so definitely higher priorities. And again, look, everyone's different. Some people are like, "You know what? I'm just gonna squeeze this lemon. I'm gonna go as hard as I can, I'm gonna make as much as I can, and I'm gonna exit. I'm off to my private island." That's okay. That's one strategy. Others are like, "You know what? I'm gonna run a business around my lifestyle, and I'm just gonna run it forever, and it's just gonna be my rules," or, you know, that's it, you know? Yeah. And look, I think personal brand has become such a huge thing as well. Yeah. I've only really started to get my bearings personal brand, like, the last two years maybe. Yeah. So, like, I don't operate under Simplify Spark on- Perfect ... the platforms, and people get to know me, and you look at, uh, Elon Musk has got more followers than Tesla. Totally. So it's like people associate the person first, and then the brand comes second. I think that's such a big thing as well, where I lean in on that to be like, I'm just a knockabout guy like you. As in the electricians I work, I'm just like, I'm in the trenches as well. Like, I- Yeah ... I've got cuts on my hand. Like, you know, it's just like I'm, I'm one of you guys, and, like, you get a down to earth guy that's like, I'm exactly like you. I'm in the podcast or in real life. I'm an electrician, and that's leaning in, and I'm just a knockabout guy that they can learn from. I love it. All right, so you got 26 clients on, you've got the business that's surrounding your lifestyle. You've kind of replaced your income and even exceeded it. What's next? So I've spoken about this before loosely, but I'm- Exiting my electrical business is the next step, because with the members we've got at the moment, everything's working, everything's good. Mm. But I, to grow the Barsta brand and Simplify Sparky, I need to more content, I need to be... The podcast just goes out, it does its thing, and then people come to me, so it's not a time suck on me. Plus, I'm doing the electrical. But in my passion and my heart, I want to go all in on Simplify Sparky, so therefore something has to give, that being my electrical business. Yeah. And I would say in 12 months, well, it might be a bit beyond that, but ideally I'd like to get rid of it sooner rather than later. 'Cause the- I love electrical, I love the industry- Yeah ... but the flame is burning out in the electrical business, because this is my new toy. Yeah. And I absolutely love doing this work, helping people. Yeah. True. So then, yeah, like with the moving towards AI and stuff like that, we spoke about that earlier, that- Yeah ... um, there's some crazy stuff going on at the moment with AI, and I'd like to know more about your setup as well- Sure ... with how you've got your... Do, do you have agents in the- Yeah. So we use AI multiple ways. So we run similar businesses now. We- we've got multiple coaches, we've got a lot of clients, so the model is a little bit different. I don't run the day-to-day of the business. I've got a CEO, she runs the day-to-day of the business. But I'll share with you a few things because it's one thing to get someone into a program, that's the easy part is to get someone into the program. To get someone to go through and do the stuff in the program is, that's the harder bit, right? Because exactly as you said, it's like a gym, right? It's easy to sell a gym membership, then three months later they cancel, they're like, "Ah, this doesn't work," right? So, and they will never blame themselves. They will be like, "Oh, I joined s- Sparky program. It didn't work." Yeah. Right? So. Oh, 100%. Uh, so- So you've gotta have a customer success model, but then also dovetailing into that is what we've done with AI. So we had a program that took 12 months to complete. You know, someone went through their messaging, they went through their target market, we worked through what their website should look like, all of the nurturing and things like that, and that was a 12-month process. Now, using AI, we've been able to shrink that to four months, right? So now we've taken a 12-month program and made it a four-month program, and so now that's a more valuable program because if you can get the result that you want in four months instead of 12 months, that's way more valuable. And for us, it's now easier to deliver because we've got that AI component that helps automate a lot of that. So they'll... We created a tool where they can input a lot of their data, they can- it'll go scan their website, it'll go through, and it'll help them get their messaging maybe not to 100%, maybe to 80%, 90%, but then they can edit and they can do the stuff, and it will help them generate copy. Because b- prior to that, we would say, "All right, great. Alan, let's put together a five-step email sequence." And of course, I don't know what to write, I don't know what to do, I'm not sure, I get stuck, it'll edit it forever. And whereas now, this, the system will generate it for them based on their specific business, based on their custom one-page marketing plan, and now that they get to 80%, 90%, then they can just edit the last few and then, boom, they're off to the races. So what I'm seeing with AI is we can get a result faster, right? So it's an acceleration tool. It's not gonna replace coaching, it's not going to, you know, do stuff instead, but it's an accelerator. And part of acceleration is also retention. It's more of an implementer tool of what to be built, and I think when I started this, yeah, you had just the most generic kinda crap going. Yeah. It's very robotic. Yeah, exactly. But now we're dealing with, right now at the time of this recording, Claude's probably gonna be old by the time this is recording. Yeah. So, but, um, I've been playing around with Claude a bit- Yeah ... and it excites me a lot, and I can't say too much about it in case members watch this, but I, yeah, I'm brewing something up in there which is gonna be like a plug-in implementer. So each module is gonna have something to complete- Yeah ... and this is gonna make life a lot easier, and it's gonna make it easier to implement. As you said, then that will accelerate results and just get stuff implemented into their business quicker. Yes. The magic of AI, like, if you just go into AI and say, "Hey, make me a marketing plan or improve my message," or whatever, you're gonna get shit, right? Yeah. It's gonna look like crap. The magic happens when you have a clearly defined framework, and we do, of course, with our lean marketing framework and with our one-page marketing plan framework, but then the real key is context. It's now if it pulls in all the details about your business, it knows how many staff you have, what industry you operate in, what your target market is, and your ideal avatar, it's gonna give you stuff that's- Orders of magnitude better. Like, still not perfect, but way, way better. What's your tone of voice? We help people put together tone of voice guides. So right now, when I write copy, I still don't get the AI to write all the copy for me, but I'll get it to do a first draft, or I'll get it to draft a paragraph. But I've got a skill in there that tells it how does Alan Dibb write? You know, I've got certain types of sentence structure, I've got certain types of phrases I use, all of that. And so it now can write Similar to me. As I said, it still doesn't get it to 100%, but if I can get it to 80%, that's a massive, massive win. So in the stuff that we do, which is helping people have transformations, there were really three main models. There were DIY, which is a buy my course and do it yourself, right? And then there's done with you, which is kind of our business model and sort of your business model, which is, hey, let's do it together. I'll show you how. Right? And then there's done for you, which is kind of agency, hey, I'll do your website for you, I'll do your marketing for you or whatever. But now there's kind of a fourth model, which is DXY, which is done accelerated with you, and that's AI-enabled. And that's what we've been able to do with our launch program, go from 12 months to four months and get better and faster results using some of these tools, but importantly using frameworks and contexts. That's the key thing. Yeah, I think it's the garbage in, garbage out scenario. Yeah, exactly. If you think- 100% ... there's a really funny guy on Instagram, he asks AI stupid questions. Oh, yes. I've seen that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he just, he did a marathon thing the other day- Yes ... where he was like, "I'm gonna run a marathon." Yes. "Okay, I'm back." And he's like, "How long was it?" Yes. He says like, "Seven minutes." Yes. He's like, "No, no it wasn't." He goes, "Yep, it was seven minutes." I think, um, Sam Altman- Yeah ... was actually, he reacted to the video as well. Yes. Yes. Which that just goes to show how undercooked it actually is, unless, in that situation, slightly different, but same with context that you give it. If you don't give it enough context, it will just spit out garbage back at you. Yeah. And even an example of this was one of the guys that reached out about m- my mentorship the other day, and I got his inquiry come into my inbox. So I just immediately emailed him back and just saying, "Okay, just prepping for the live session today, mate, blah, blah, blah. How can I help you? What are the issues with your business?" Et cetera. And it came back and it was like, "See you on the live session later." I was like, "The hell's going on here?" Kind of thing. And then I respond to that email and I was like, "Live session's just for the paid members, ha ha." And then he's just like, "Sorry, that was the AI assistant." So I was like, that just showed how undercooked it was- Yeah ... of just like, it just grabbed something and ran with it. And I've got another mate that's got a successful business in Sydney, and he tried AI phone answering and stuff. Mm-hmm. He calls it the lead killer- Yeah ... of, um, like a actual robot answering the phone and booking the job in, 'cause people are kind of like, "I just wanna speak to a human." And they're- Yeah ... there's a specific pause that happens with the AI phone answering- Yes ... as well that you're like, "This is fake." Yeah. Like, it can sound like 80% real, but then it's just like you'll get the pauses and stuff that it's, it's just not fully there. And he reckons that, he tried it with a specific software, and he was like, "It was horrible experience for my clients," and how they tried to sell it is they'll take the one or two good phone call reactions where someone's like, "Oh, that was amazing- But the majority of people are like, "That's horrible. I don't like it." Well, especially if you misrepresent what it is. I think it's totally okay to have an AI answering the phone, as long as you say, "Hey, I'm an AI. I can help you immediately, or if you'd prefer to speak to someone, just hold or leave a message or, and we'll get back to you," whatever. So in that case, you can make a decision. You're like, "You know what?" Right? So- I think, I think after hours is a big acceptance for it. Yeah. If it's like, you know, 10:00 PM at night and- Yeah ... and someone answers the phone and say like, "This is an AI answering service." Yeah. And I was even saying to members, because the software I use has got this integration as well, phone answering ability. Yep. But you've got to tweak and adjust your prompts. Yeah. What I was even saying to them, in this situation, I'd almost disarm the situation. This is an AI bot, but don't worry, I'm actually smarter than Alan. And just kind of disarm, a little bit of banter and break the ice. Yeah. And then be like, what I can do is get Alan to give you a call back first thing in the morning, or if this is an emergency, you know, as you said, press one and I'll put you through to him. Yeah. If this is a job regarding changing light fittings or something like that, let me know and Alan- Yeah ... can give you a call back tomorrow. Yeah. And I think in those situations, if you disclose what it is, you're not misrepresenting, trying to pretend that it's a real human or whatever, I think most people will be fine with it. Yeah. So, um, I think in those cases it can really work. The other place where we're using AI right now is, and we're telling clients to use them, is look at all the places where there's a lot of inefficiency and a lot of manual review. Like, for example, in our team, we had a head of coaching. She was spending hours and hours and hours doing manual review of client calls to make sure the coaches are delivering the right thing, saying the right thing, working with clients in the right way, because that quality control is super important, especially when you start to scale. And because if someone's saying the wrong thing or giving bad advice or whatever, that can be a major problem. So she was doing that manually. She'd review random calls and things like that. Now, we have an AI that processes that whole call and says, "Hey This coach kind of said something weird, or the, it tests client sentiment, the client seemed unhappy for whatever reason. And now she can just see that flagged in the system and address that, rather than having to listen to hours and hours and hours of calls. We can do now every call, and we've got a bit of a dashboard. And then you can start to see trends. You can see, hang on, this coach always seems to get, like, a lower score than the average coach or whatever, right? And then maybe there's a training issue or a people issue or whatever. Now w- with that system as well, is that, like, a self-built software, or is that, is that part of, like, uh, GoHighLevel or something like that? No, it's, it's a self-built workflow. So we use tools like Fathom to do the call recordings. It'll pull the transcript. I think we use n8n to pull the transcript. It analyzes it through a large language model. I think we use Claude. It'll check certain things, and then it will score the call and put a, a green, orange or a red i- in a Notion database. So it's basically- Yeah ... like a workflow. And we are now building custom software as well, so we've got one person on the team who's pretty much his job, and we're just hiring another person who's k- who's gonna support him as well. Yeah. I'm just getting my bearings with Claude, and Claude and ChatGPT and that is described. And then the- Mm-hmm ... the other platforms out there, like your n8n and, and Automate and Cloud code, or, like, your Fighter Jet as such. Yeah. I wouldn't even worry about the tools. Look at the workflows. Look at w- w- where are the inefficiencies? For example, in your sales process, where are people falling off? Okay, people are falling off after I send the quote. A whole bunch of people are not responding. Okay, m- maybe I have an automated SMS bot that, that pings them. Or you know what? I'm spending hours and hours reviewing calls. How can I fix that inefficiency? So we talked about constraints and lean. You know, think of your business as, like, a customer and revenue factory, right? So we have leads that come in, then we have sales that we wanna make, then we have got delivery, then we've got reviews and referrals. So in a factory, how you identify inefficiencies is materials start piling up and people start waiting around, right? And then we know we've got some constraints, some inefficiency there. And so that's where you wanna analyze your whole business and say, "Oh, man, we've got a lot of leads piling up and sales people just standing around doing nothing," or whatever. And so that's where you wanna start identifying, here's a constraint. And so every business in the world is constrained somewhere, right? From a startup doing zero to multi-billion dollar businesses, there's always a constraint. And as the leader of the business, your job is to identify that constraint, identify the current constraint, and then unblock it, and then move on to the next one, move on to the next one. So some businesses it might be we're not getting enough leads. Okay, you fix that constraint. Now sales is constrained, you know, or delivery is falling over or whatever. So it's a constant cycle of moving from whatever the current constraint is to the next one Yeah, identifying it is, um, is the, the biggest thing. And like, just I can see so many opportunities, like you were saying, of just like little gaps or little- Yeah ... little constraints that can be fixed. Yeah. Um, and I've start, yeah, as I said, I've started playing around with, with Claude at the moment, and Claude Code, and it's like there's a lot of stuff in the pipeline that is gonna absolutely make, accelerate, and just give them an all around better experience as well. And yeah, just to, to figure out where those holes are and just to plug them predominantly utilizing AI, because as I said, I like, I wonder what it's gonna look like, my business is gonna look like in 12 months- Yeah ... your business is gonna look like in 12 months- Of course ... with the, the rapid pace of AI. But it does scare me a little bit. I love AI and it's gonna make my business fantastic, but with the rapid growth of AI and job replacement, like what's it gonna do to the economy? And like for, say, my electricians, are their clients now gonna be made redundant that's gonna be meant to be- Yeah ... in their electrical business kind of thing. I think it's just gonna be reallocation. Have you heard of Jevons paradox? No. So back in the 1800s or whatever, whenever steam engines like become more efficient, we're gonna need less of them, right? Because they were really inefficient. And then what they found was actually now that steam engines became way more efficient- usage increased, right? Not decreased. So what they found is where you wouldn't have spent the money and time and effort to use a steam engine, now that they're really efficient and cheap, we use them, right? And so I think the exact same thing is gonna happen with AI. You probably would never have built your own platform or whatever, but now that coding is easy and cheap- Not me whatever, you're gonna do it. Yeah. So usage is actually gonna increase- Yeah ... as a result of inefficiency, and I think we're gonna see people do a lot more output and do stuff that they wouldn't have done before because now there's more efficiency, more things. Now, of course, some people are gonna be displaced. Someone who was maybe spending hours and hours on data entry or fixing data, whatever, their job is now kind of redundant, and they've gotta re-skill and move somewhere else. And in my business, I'm not looking at saying, "Hey, this person is... I can get rid of them." I'm like, "No, I've spent years training these people from a culture perspective, from a skills perspective," or whatever. I'm like, "What greater value can we now extract out of the existing people that we've got, rather than just remove them and save a salary?" It's kind of like, you speak about this a lot, of like the Iron Man suit. Exactly. Like, you're putting, you're putting an Iron Man suit on your- Exactly ... your staff. Yeah. Um, just to be like, okay, you've got your ability, but basically got a sidekick now as well- Exactly ... that's gonna accelerate your productivity, that you mostly can work a little bit, like, hands-off and just delegate that out to your basically literally robot assistant. Exactly. We're gonna augment your abilities. Yeah. We're not replacing, we're not completely automating, but we're just augmenting your ability and putting on that Iron Man suit. Yeah, it's exciting. It's not necessarily replacing people, just making my Simplify Sparky business or your coaching business, like, make it an absolute machine- Yeah ... to just get results. Totally. And that's all that matters. Totally. Well, man, super fun talking to you, and super great seeing your trajectory and where you've gone and where you're going to go. So I'm, I'm super excited. Where do people find you and find out more about your stuff? So, um, just basically jump on Instagram, type in Alan Collins, spelt different to you, A-L-A-N. Nice. I'm greedy with the Ls. Alan Collins, and then, yeah, podcast is Simplified Sparky Marketing, so just search that on any of the regular Spotify or Apple or whatnot, and you'll get me there. And all the links are underneath inside the podcast, and- Awesome ... just DM me on Instagram. Awesome, man. Well, it's been such a pleasure connecting with you again and seeing what you're doing, and if you're a Sparky and you wanna make a lot of money, um, join Alan's program. Really appreciate that, being on, Alan. It's very humbling to be here, 'cause I've been following your stuff for nearly 10 years, and, um- Oh, that's cool ... to see myself in this chair at the moment is a bit surreal for me, so really appreciate being on the podcast, and looking forward to seeing you in possibly a year's time, the differences. Amazing. Thanks, man. Thank you.