No, you can't use my toilet. Go piss in the hedge like a professional.

Welcome to Simplified Sparky Marketing.

Many years ago I did a job, and the clients were a bit weird. They were a bit odd. I had to do some lights, I had to do some power points, I had to do some ceiling fans and some other bits and pieces in their house, and they were out of my service area.

They're in the North Shore of Sydney, and the lead came in, didn't look too bad. I quoted it and did the job. That day, it was a Monday morning, I'll never forget it. Squeaky clean new uniform, brand new out of the box boot covers went on as I went into the house, and agreed with the clients, all good.

Put down my drop sheets, was doing the work. As I was walking the hallway, I looked ahead and I seen a sign on the door saying out of order. I was like, that's a bit weird.

So the day continued, and a few hours had passed, and I was like, I need a piss. So I usually will try go stealth mode to the toilet. Duck in, duck out, as a business owner does.

If you're an employee, you will just pebble dash the toilet and not care, because you don't really know that this is what is going to backlash on the business owner. That is besides the point.

So I went around the house doing my bits and pieces, was like, wonder where the toilet is? So I looked for obvious signs, walked down the hallway, walked around. It was a pretty big house. So I was like, that must be the toilet.

And I eventually just went to the client and said, sorry, do you have a bathroom here that I could use? And then they replied with, we do, but we don't usually leave tradies use our bathroom. Which was a bit weird, and I get it, but at the same time I was highly offended. And I was like, okay, yeah, cool, no worries.

They're like, there's a servo, a petrol station down the road, that you can use. And I was like, okay, you piece of shit, I will do that.

So anyway, I was doing work, and the best thing was they didn't have a particular globe for that job, for these light fittings. It was like an E14 or an E11 or E14, I always fuck that up, type globe. And they didn't have it for one of their fancy light fittings on the mantelpiece that I put up these sconces.

And I was like, okay cool, I'll just duck down the road, no worries. So I was going out the door and he goes, oh by the way, there's actually a Coles next door. Would you be able to just duck into the Coles and get some of these globes that we need? That'd be brilliant. And I was like, like a fuckwit, yep, I'll do that, no worries.

So I went and I got the globes, and went to the toilet, came back and all that, and I was like, fuck me.

The best thing about this was his partner, his wife, was one of our own. She was from Fermanagh in Ireland. Disowned from Ireland. And I was like, you're no longer Irish. That is not something an Irish person would do. Irish people are courteous, they're kind, they're nice, they're polite. You're no longer one of us.

Anyway, that's my rant over with that. But this is what it's going to be about in this podcast. Your Dream 100 clients, and selecting your Dream 100.

Where the phrase Dream 100 comes from is the 2007 book by Chet Holmes, The Ultimate Sales Machine. He was actually a salesman for Charlie Munger's companies, and instead of chasing a list of thousands of advertisers, he literally cut it down to a small amount of huge ones that actually mattered the most, and he went after them relentlessly.

That became the Dream 100. So basically, he focused on 100 people that were his best clients. He then no longer had to focus on volume. It was focusing purely on the Dream 100 clients he would love to work with, that were the best kind of clients to work with.

Whoever called your phone or sent an enquiry over the last few years, that's your client list, and that's what your business is built on. And you had no say in it.

So basically, if you've been shooting blind, people have just been coming in from referrals, random acts of marketing bringing people in, that's where your client list starts to get built from.

And this is where you need to get clear. If you focus in on those best clients that have come through that list, this is where the magic happens. This is just a turn of phrase of 100, but your business could potentially survive on 20 clients.

20 of the right best clients can probably make you as much money as the volume amount of clients you're working with, if you focused on the 20.

To start figuring out your Dream 100, what you really need to focus on from the start is who isn't in your Dream 100. Who's the not? Who do you not want to work for? Because once you get very clear on who you do not work with, it becomes a lot easier to tailor your marketing around who you do work for.

If you circle back to the very start of this podcast, the very start of these episodes, you will notice that I mentioned Simplified Tradie Marketing. I also wavered in between trades. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters. I mentioned a few trades, because when I started this business I was trying to be all things to everyone, and I said, fuck it, I can work with any trade.

Then I realised after much thought that I need to practice what I preach, and I only wanted to work with electricians. So the not for me became plumbers, carpenters, tilers, et cetera. I didn't want to speak their jargon. I didn't want to try and please everybody and everyone.

So basically, my not also consists of electricians, surprisingly. Some electricians that are too established, they're too advanced for me, I am going to be no help to that person. So they have fallen into the category of not. I'm talking businesses that are established. They're running many years. They're pretty successful. They've got loads of staff. I am useless to that company, so they're a bad fit for me, so I rule them out.

Now, by not knowing who isn't in your Dream 100, this is where issues arise downstream.

Now, something that I always mention, always speak about, is messaging. And some of the most powerful messaging is messaging that deters. When you craft your messaging for your website, for your people, your actual Dream 100, what we want to do as well is repel the kind of clients you don't want to work with. And this is a good thing.

People are afraid to lose clients. But if you think about the whole theory of this podcast, it is to find the most ideal clients. Now, if you can speak to those ideal clients and get them into your circle, get them into your electrical business, and you can deter the shitty clients, the tyre kickers, the cheap ones, the horrible clients that you don't want to deal with, the kind of clients that don't let you take a piss in their toilet, that's what we want to do. Get rid of all of that from the start.

Let's speak about selecting your Dream 100. Now, this is a bit of a tricky one and a bit of a dilemma, because if you're an established business, or even if you've been in business for six months to a year, you will start to see patterns of your best kind of clients.

Now, the best thing is if you haven't started your business yet, or you've just started, this is where you can actually start tailoring your messaging to attract your ideal clients. Or if you're established, you need to start reconsidering how you're attracting your clients.

One of the major places people go wrong, particularly if you've just started a business and you're in a little bit of a dreamland, you will most likely start thinking about your Dream 100, and you'll go to the usual. They've got a massive house in an affluent suburb. They've got two sports cars in the driveway. And they've got loads of money.

Now, what can happen is these jobs can be some of the worst you'll ever do. Pedantic people beyond belief. They'll pull apart your work. They'll be pissed off because your switch plate looks like it's two millimetres out. However, it's actually the curve of the wall. They're going to be extremely slow to pay you, because people with money didn't get it by handing it over, put it that way.

I find that the best kind of clients are working class. The kind of clients that I love to work for are just average knockabout people that are working class. I've never had any issues with them. It's the wealthy that I have had issues with, and this is the issue with selecting the wrong Dream 100, and some of this takes time and experience.

So you will go through different types of clients when you're working in your electrical business, and you will be like, fuck, if I had seven Susans I wouldn't need one Richard with his Lamborghini. Like literally, I know there's some of you listening to this podcast that will resonate with that and be like, Richard sends me some work, but he's an absolute fuckwit, and I do not like working for him. I want more Susans in my life.

This is the kind of shit that you hear from people that either haven't run a business, or it might be like a digital marketer that's a hype bro that doesn't have a clue, and it's like, oh of course, let's target the affluent suburbs, they'll have the money. But it's like real life lived experience will tell you that not always the people with money are the best kind of clients.

It's the average people in the average houses are some of the very best clients out there.

Each business is really different. It really depends what you do and who you work for. Maybe your best clients are the rich, and that's entirely up to you and your business model. But at the end of the day, you're looking for 100 people that are glad you turned up, very thankful for your work. They've paid you, they didn't haggle, and you're the first person they ring when they've got a problem.

That's the kind of people you want to aim for, and that's why it's very important that you figure out your Dream 100 clients with a methodology, and you get them into your system, and then those Dream 100 refer more people, and it just builds and builds and builds.

What I want you to do is think about the jobs that you've done this financial year. Just limit it down to that. Maybe you've worked for 100 clients, maybe you've worked for 50 clients, maybe you worked for 15 clients. Let's say for instance even if it's 15, and of the 15 clients, you might have had three absolute standout A grade clients.

What were the similarities and commonalities with those individuals? What made them unique, and why did you love working for them? What were they into? Were they into the same sports? Were they into the same hobbies? Were they into knitting? What are they into? Because when you figure all this out, that is where you can start tailoring your correct messaging that hits home to those individuals.

And if these people don't let you use the toilet, that's a serious red flag.

If you haven't left a review for the podcast, please do. I don't push that much, but it greatly helps with the podcast. I know a lot of you have taken a lot of value from this, and I'm greatly appreciative of the people that do listen.

Whatever you listen to it on, Spotify, Apple, et cetera, there'll be some stars there somewhere. Please tick that. There's also more links in the description to speak to me if you do want to speak to me directly about helping your business and finding the right clients for you. All those links are underneath, and I'll catch you next week.