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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
Paid Education: The Electrician's Path to Success
Bill's journey through the electrical trade reveals a road less traveled but infinitely more practical than the traditional college path many believe is mandatory for success. Starting as a $8.25/hour apprentice at age 20, he combined daytime work with evening classes costing just a few hundred dollars annually. Within five years, he earned his master electrician license and launched his own successful business – all without accumulating crushing student debt.
What makes Bill's story particularly compelling is his strategic approach to continuous education. After running his own company for 15 years, he deliberately took positions with specialized electrical firms to expand his expertise at their expense. From refrigeration controls to space simulators for NASA and tech giants, he built a diverse skill set while getting paid rather than paying for education. In today's Richmond area market, licensed electricians can earn around $70,000 annually – competitive with many positions requiring four-year degrees.
Beyond technical skills, Bill shares valuable insights about entrepreneurship itself. His recent relocation from Boston to Richmond represents a deliberate quality-of-life decision, focusing on service work rather than construction for better schedule control. His purchase of a vacant building in town immediately created community curiosity and connections without traditional advertising costs. Perhaps most importantly, he discusses the critical connection between physical health and business success, maintaining consistent gym sessions and strategic eating patterns to sustain the energy entrepreneurship demands.
Whether you're questioning the traditional educational path, considering a trade career, or looking to balance entrepreneurial ambition with quality of life, Bill's practical wisdom offers refreshing perspective. The skilled trades provide opportunities for financial success without student debt, and sometimes the smartest way to get an education is to have someone pay you for it.
www.themrpreneur.com
Are you trying to reach decision makers, entrepreneurs and sales professionals? Then you Can't Afford Me is your next marketing move. With six episodes a month and a growing audience of CEOs and industry leaders, your brand won't just be heard, it'll be remembered. Advertisers can place audio ads on our podcasts and even secure visual placements in our full-length YouTube videos. This is where smart brands earn attention. Lock in your ad spot today before your competitor does. Email sam at enzomediafirmcom to receive more information.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the you Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the ground Real entrepreneurs, real struggles and the unfiltered journey behind success. Let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast. Now, when I met this guy within the first 10 minutes, I'm like this is my people's man. He's a hustler. He knows how to start something up from scratch, which I'm at a fault. I like starting businesses up from scratch and getting things rolling. So I found a kindred spirit in this gentleman. So today we have Bill on the podcast. Bill, how you doing, buddy, I'm doing good, how are you?
Speaker 1:Awesome man, Awesome Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So real quick, in like 60 seconds, tell everybody who you are, what you do uh, my name is bill.
Speaker 2:I'm an electrician just moved down here from uh south of boston and starting up an electrical company here in richmond nice, nice.
Speaker 1:So when we first talked, uh, your story like really got me intrigued and I was like I gotta get this guy on the podcast. So talk to us about how you entered into this field, because the way you went about getting your education is a way I recommend for a lot of people to do to get that paid education. But you actually did it. So take us through those first steps. How did you get into this industry?
Speaker 2:All right. So getting into the industry, I think I was 20 years old. Opened up a newspaper like everybody else did back in the day. Opened up a newspaper like everybody else did back in the day, looked for somebody that was hiring as an electrician, called up, got the job and spent four years working for him learning how to wire houses, one after another.
Speaker 1:So that was an assistant job to an electrician.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's the apprentice job, and during that time you also go to night school to get your journeyman's license. So you do four years of night school while working all day and then got my journeyman's. So what can do? Four years of night school while working all day and then got?
Speaker 1:my journeymans and then? So what can an apprentice make during that time when you're learning on the job?
Speaker 2:So I started out at $8.25 an hour.
Speaker 1:You're balling.
Speaker 2:You just get abused by the older guys they crack the whip and just kick you and say get to work. But yeah, so that was it.
Speaker 1:And then how much was night school for the certification?
Speaker 2:Nothing crazy, maybe $300, $400, $500 a year back then. Yeah, it was nothing wild for sure. And then after that it was another year to get my master's license. And once you have your master's license you go off on your own and start your own company.
Speaker 1:So five years in, I bought a van and off I went starting my own company, and this is up in the Boston area.
Speaker 2:This is, yeah, just south of Boston. It's south shore which is like towards, like the Plymouth area for the most part.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, and there were some other jobs outside of electric work that you were doing. Talk to us about those other jobs that you picked up.
Speaker 2:So once I left my company 15 years later I got into some I guess outside of my comfort zone stuff, got in some refrigeration control wiring, did that for a year. We wired big walk-in freezers, big meat rooms, butcher rooms and just made all this stuff very energy efficient and automated so you can control it on your phone and see all the graphs and stuff like that and that was some interesting technical stuff that I just wasn't familiar with.
Speaker 1:But you got a paid education for that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean, they held my hand and walked me through it and made me learn it all. And once I learned it all, you just master it. I mean it's something you love. And then, yeah, we did that. I gave them a year and then there I moved on to, I believe, space simulators. So, uh, company, how to hang a mask. They wire space simulators to simulate going into outer space. So if you have a satellite you have to put it in the simulator before you can send it up.
Speaker 1:And with the heat and the cold, and I wired that, they taught me how to do that so was that for, like, the general population, to test out and see what it would like being in space, or this was like for NASA? This?
Speaker 2:NASA was a huge, huge customer of theirs, but then Facebook, google, meta. All those places started sending stuff in not so everybody had it and then it turned into car dealer, car makers and stuff like that. They want to simulate that what cars are going to be like going through the heat and cold. So you'd build simulators that are just huge. So I learned how to wire those, but quickly got out of that when I realized that it was just a skill that was only used for space simulators.
Speaker 1:Yes, how long were you at that job?
Speaker 2:Under six months, for sure. I mean it was quick. I mean they were all over the world. They wanted to send me to australia and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:It was just uh like remote australia yeah no yeah I've seen the videos of people waking up with spiders this big like no, thank you yeah, I wasn't feeling it, so I moved on pretty quickly I think that's where the most deadliest animals in the world are is aust Australia.
Speaker 2:I believe it. Yeah, I believe it Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody thinks they can box a kangaroo man. Kangaroo's nothing to play around with.
Speaker 2:I wasn't going to test it.
Speaker 1:So you did the space stuff, then where did you go from there?
Speaker 2:I went to a company doing HVAC controls they do for buildings and stuff like that, that where most of my career was like homes. I wired homes and then so, going into buildings, into the control work with the HVAC, we learned how to automate the heating and air conditioning, just like in every building that you walk into where it feels comfortable, they. That's all automated through a system. So I wired all that for a long time and then, uh, moved on from there. They taught everything.
Speaker 1:So was that the job that you told me? Like you were like hey, pay me this, or like I'm moving on, type thing.
Speaker 2:So that was the first job. That was the refrigeration job. They patented their own controller so nobody could do it and they could just afford to pay you and it was all energy savings paid by the government. So once I learned it, I mastered it, I crushed it and they just kept paying me to stay and it just got to the point where the numbers were getting so high I knew I had to get out, otherwise they were going to get me.
Speaker 1:Yep, you'd be stuck there for life. Yep, so yeah, and that was that, the last job before you started your business.
Speaker 2:So these were all prior. So the business started shortly after my five years. Then I went 15 years on my own and then after the 15 years I started all these businesses to further my education after the fact, gotcha, yeah. So I think the last one was I got into lighting controls so they taught me how to program lightings. I did a big school up north. I had to program 4,000 lights and you had to program them with the sensors and what level to come on, when to come on and all stuff like that, and it took. It took a year.
Speaker 1:Pretty much, jeez, yeah so, like all these jobs, like biggest thing I want people to take away from that that small portion of your story is that a lot of these things, if not everything, you didn't have any experience in. You hustled your way into a job said teach me, I'll be the hardest worker that you ever hired, built this massive skill set in various different ways. Now you've been able to take all those skill sets and put them into your own business and provide these services.
Speaker 2:You nailed it I 100% hustled my way into these jobs. Luckily, my fiance is a great resume writer and.
Speaker 2:I would just show up to these interviews with my resume and they would hire me and I would go in there with little to no knowledge of programming or control work or something like that, and they taught me everything I need to know and just learned as quick as possible. And you said did you go to university? I didn't, no, just night school. So right from high school went into the trades and from the trades went right into night school.
Speaker 1:See, that's the piece I think is missing from society now, and I think we're starting to go back that direction. Because now there's a massive decline for people with your skill set getting in the marketplace and being able to provide these services. And when you're in high school and you're talking to your guidance counselor, they never once say hey, maybe you should look at just getting this certification instead of going to a four-year school. I think the allure of a four-year degree is not as much as it used to be and I actually read this the other day is that 75% of the jobs that are currently available do not require a degree from a university. Majority of them, I think, require a certification of some sort. There are only 25% of the jobs out there right now that requires you to actually go to university.
Speaker 1:So I was going to say, like that piece of your story, like I want to encourage people, like don't feel if some 17-year-old is listening to this right now, don't feel like you're a loser if you don't go to school, Like I dropped out of school at the junior level, Like it ain't for everybody and it's not the direction that everybody needs to go, and then if you need, if you see a need for it later on in life. You can always go back to school if you see a need for it, but I think more people just need to go straight into the workforce, start honing in on a skill and start making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, instead of going hundreds of thousand dollars in debt yeah, I mean, that's 100, true, I mean, I was the same thing, I think, junior.
Speaker 2:I dropped out of high school, went to night school and continued my night school for seven years after that and just kept going nope and uh. Like the best move I've made was picking electrical, and the only reason I picked this because I didn't like plumbing. So I went into being an electrician and once I saw what these older guys were making, my jaw hit the floor. They were giving me 200 bucks and they walked away with two grand and I was like yeah, so this is the job for me, so talk to us about that.
Speaker 1:Like if somebody's looking, so number one. If somebody wanted to start their own business as an electrician or something like that, would you recommend that they go work for somebody else for a period of time prior to?
Speaker 2:100%. Yeah, I mean you have to learn it. You have to learn as much as you can from who you can, and everybody's going to teach you something more. So I mean you just absorb whatever you can. Keep an eye on the boss, look how he reacts with customers, interacts with everybody and how the business is run. And everybody has their own way of doing it and you're going to have your own way when you start out, but you have to start somewhere. By learning from other people's mistakes is way easier than making your own and cheaper.
Speaker 1:So in 2025, today, if someone's listening to this and they're like man, I've always wanted to start up my own electrician business or HVAC or anything like that for that matter what can they expect in the first year? What's the salaries going to look like? What's the salaries going to look like? What's the hours going to look like? Not in terms of them starting their own business, but working with someone else.
Speaker 2:I mean salaries is going to range. It's your clientele, your skill level and stuff like that. The way I say it, if you're just starting out, you just got to get out there and work and just work as hard as you can and the money ends up coming. Just keep pushing, pushing. One job will lead into the next job and before you know it, you can just start raising your prices and your jobs get better as you go. As you get better, I guess, is the way to put it.
Speaker 1:I mean If I apply for a job with another company. I want to be an electrician, I'm working with them. What's a base salary starting out I could look at?
Speaker 2:So in the Richmond area you're not making a lot of money as an electrician. I don't know if it's because you don't have to have your license or not, but I mean a good salary for a licensed electrician in the Richmond area is about $70,000 a year and that's a good salary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and especially coming if it's somebody coming straight out of high school or like coming out of college, like to start. I know plenty of people that came out with a master's degree and they weren't making $70,000 their first year. So to start out with a base like that, that's pretty awesome. What made you decide on the Richmond market? Because you've been up in the Boston area for years, majority of your life. What made you say Richmond's a good place to set up roots and start this business?
Speaker 2:So we put ourselves in Beaverdam, which put me within distance of Fredericksburg, Charlottesville and Richmond, in case I wanted to go in any direction. And when we saw the whole Shul pump area and down there like we go there every weekend. We love it down there. Uh, it's just, it's a very chill environment. Everybody seems relaxed and those are the customers I like. Uh, coming from Boston, there's nothing chill about Boston. You go into the city, you chill with the weather.
Speaker 2:You'll be driving around for hours just looking for a parking spot sometimes and then you'll find one and you'll get a ticket or you'll get towed. So that's the. The boston environment was not chill like yeah, it was the furthest thing from it in the richmond, it's just. It's just such a chill environment that working here wouldn't be a problem give it.
Speaker 1:Give us some insight in terms of and in full transparency. Bill is coming on with us as a client. We're going to be helping him with his marketing. So you moved here in November. Talk to us about how it's been getting things up and running in terms of getting your footing, starting to meet people, starting to get the business coming into a fresh city. What was one of the first things you did to start getting your name out there and started tracking some clients?
Speaker 2:I bought a small building in the town. So I bought a little small building that's been vacant in town. Put my signs up. Everybody would stop in and say what's going on here? What's coming in here? This used to be the old bank and right there we just had to meet people because I mean, like I said, it was vacant for like eight years, so everybody just saw it as an old building. Now it's all restored, redone, with that sign out front. So that was one good way of doing it. Real estate's another one. We bought a house, getting it with the real estate market, getting it with the realtor, the home inspectors and stuff like that. So that's been very helpful. And now it's where I want to ramp it up and get everything going. Here I am with you, good. And now it's where I want to ramp it up and get everything going. Here I am with you, good stuff.
Speaker 1:So one nugget in there, I think and you and I didn't really discuss this before Sounds like you're pretty good with finances, because to move here and immediately say I'm buying this building, I'm putting money into it, I'm restoring this, we're buying another house, blah, blah, blah, talk to us about, because that was something I struggled with, for we're buying another house, blah, blah, blah, talk to us about, because that was something I struggled with for years, starting out as an entrepreneur, where I think I was better with the business finances than I was my personal finances. But sounds like you have some systems in place in terms of like not everything that comes in is going straight into a checking account where you can ball out. Kind of talk about how you look at finances as a business owner.
Speaker 2:So most people look at it as like investments in like the stock market and stuff like that. I see investments in real estate Like everything I'm handy with is real estate so where I see where the building was assessed at so much and I bought it for half that price. I saw it as not being able to lose and it gave me something to do while I was starting up the business. I just fixed it up and gave me something to do, a place to go every day, and now I have an office in it and stuff like that. And as far as me being good financially I wouldn't say I'm the good financial one I would say my fiance is. She's got the CPA, she's got the MBA.
Speaker 1:So she's the one, that's the smart one, that will correct me when I'm going in the wrong direction. Gotcha, talk to us about let's stay on that financial track. Talk to us about one of the biggest financial mistakes you've made as a business owner.
Speaker 2:I mean there's probably no short of 100 of them. I mean I've done jobs that have actually cost me money for bidding them wrong. For bidding them wrong, I've sent out final bills and then realized later on that I shorted myself 20 grand on missing this service. Change or missing this.
Speaker 1:And there's no 20 grand.
Speaker 2:that ain't no short change, I mean some of them were bigger jobs, but or you missed a line in the plans that was sent to you and that was a big mistake on my part and sometimes that hurts. Like I had one job that took me almost a year to get out back from underneath it True, because I made no money on it and it's just the way the job went. So I mean, getting into the business, you learn a lot really fast. You've got to learn how to bid really fast, really quick, good at it, not make mistakes, because mistakes are very costly. And yeah, I mean mean just always push through, never give up, because once, even though you made the mistake, that's your own mistake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you still want that customer, so you got to get through that mistake to get the next money to make up for it so what did you do like following a hiccup like that, where you cost yourself $20,000?
Speaker 1:what was it that you did to make sure something like that never happened again?
Speaker 2:you just go through like line from line, highlight and stuff and just make sure it doesn't happen. And when it does happen, it's because you're too busy and you overlook something and you just didn't have the time and you didn't put the time and effort into it because your head was somewhere else. Yeah, and that's what happens, because you get so busy at times, and I guess one of the biggest things I would do before I sent out invoices, proposals and spits like that, I always sat on for 24 hours mmm.
Speaker 2:I'd finish it sit on 24 hours new headspace. Go look at it again and a lot of times you catch stuff doing that, just because your head is now in a different place where you're looking at it that's interesting because a lot I'm sure a lot of guys because, I mean, we're service based business as well too.
Speaker 1:A lot of times, especially when we know that there are other companies that are bidding for the job, one of our goals is, man, how quick can we get this out to them? Blah, blah, blah. But the fact that you're willing to pause. Do you ever get flack back from clients saying like, hey, we needed this. Like, or are you setting the precedent up front and being like, hey, I got the information I need. You can expect the bid from me in the next 48 hours, or something like that, yeah, I mean once.
Speaker 2:Once it's locked in and I know what it's going to be, I'll give them a warning saying, hey, it's going to be coming in the next day or so uh I'm always late with my bids because you're always busy not so much now, because it's a new company, new starting out but there's always 10 to 15 bids that you have to put out there. So you're always late and you just bid the jobs that you want. You make sure the bids are right. That's just usually the way it is.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, how about in terms of like scaling the business? Like when you and I first talked, it was this brand, where you have it now, like you want to keep it at the solopreneur level because it's like well, man, I can pay myself healthy if I don't have to worry about a bunch of staff members and all this overhead and things like that For this type of business. Where is the point where it gets to? Where you're like okay, I need to start hiring a crew, I need office assistance. Where does it get to that point?
Speaker 2:With me. It's different with every person. It's how much you can handle on your own. I guess With me it would be three employees. What happens when I have three employees? It has to take me out of the field and go make sure that they have plenty of work and make sure the bids are all going out timely so they can stay busy. Yeah, and once that happens, now you need somebody back in the office that's doing all the billing and stuff, sending those out and answering the emails. So there's like that three, four or five person employee type thing, depending on your person, of when you have to start scaling up pretty quick gotcha.
Speaker 1:And then what's the largest in terms of like? Uh, I don't know. This can vary amongst like, the different business owners. What's like the height of like, where you're willing to go, because I know right now most of the focus is on residential could be some commercial work, but like, where is like, the peak of like? Hey, I'm not taking a half a million dollar job because I know I don't have the capacity to deal with that like. What's your, what's your peak right now?
Speaker 2:uh, so I'm heading a different direction now. Before, when I was um construction gear, like I was doing big homes, big buildings, stuff like that where the jobs would last.
Speaker 2:Some of them would last up to two years. Now I want to go strictly service. I want to go help that customer, add a couple of lights, be in and out two or three days, paperwork done on to the next one. So I want to keep it on the simpler level with the paperwork, not dealing with the architects, not dealing with builders and stuff like that, and just have a handful of guys. I mean I'll run 10 guys if I have to, it's just. I want to keep it simpler with the keep the builders out of the process, I guess is the best way to put it.
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Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of times I think, as entrepreneurs like we can, we see things kind of stacking up and like we feel like we're being forced like to grow to a certain point and taking a pause and realizing like this thing doesn't have to be any bigger than you want it to be. Everybody everybody has in their head I mean, I got to build this hundred million dollar business. Like, well, no, that's not for everybody and if it doesn't fit the lifestyle that you're looking for, like there's no need in doing that and stressing yourself out. Yeah, um, you said something to me interesting during our first meeting is that you don't lose clients, and by that I think you meant like the relationships that you're able to build with people when they need something. They continually come back to you on that. Talk about what techniques you use to like build those deep relationships with clients.
Speaker 2:I mean for the most part, you're in these people's houses for over years. Sometimes I mean I have customers that go back over 20 years, back when I was an apprentice. I mean just adding lights or adding switches or something like that. So you get to know their dogs, you get to know their kids, you get to know everybody while you're there working. I mean sometimes I'm there for breakfast, sometimes I'm there for lunch, sometimes I'm there for breakfast, sometimes I'm there for lunch, sometimes I'm there for dinner. It depends on the job that you're doing. So you get pretty close with a lot of these people, just like seeing their new cars, seeing what sports they're going to, what kind of new boat they have, and just relating to them in all those ways and then just making sure you're doing good work.
Speaker 2:I mean, as long as you do good work, good rate, and just be friendly, be clean, I mean, and why would they want to go anywhere else?
Speaker 1:I mean so that's a great point and that people have to understand. Like when you're building a business, it's not all about the bottom line. Like you could have gone various places in Richmond and found a team like us that could, could meet your needs. But it's once you make that connection with someone and someone feels that level of trust with you and they like you, like. I think it's more important to have somebody like you than to be the best of the best in town, because sometimes that's not the barometer that they're, you know, scaling things by.
Speaker 1:It's not necessarily I don't need the best guy in town, I just need a guy that can get this done to a certain level, um, but when you take the time to stop and say you know, let me take 10 minutes from doing this electrical work, let me get to know this person, to have a real conversation, they look forward to you coming back the next day and be like, oh man, because it may be like you guys are fans of the same sports team and there's a game that night and you're going to come back the next day.
Speaker 1:That client's going to want to talk to you about the game for the next 15 minutes, um, so it's taking those moments to to really be able to focus on that. Um, advertising wise, I know one thing that you're doing straight out the gate, um is you're doing these vehicle wraps talk to me about, because I've never had for my businesses, I've never had to have vehicles, let alone have them wrapped. Do you see a lot of conversion from that? So, like, when you're in Boston and you're driving those vehicles up and down the road, are people calling saying, yeah, man, I saw one of your trucks.
Speaker 2:So everybody always said, yeah, I saw your truck, but I never had it so they could call it because I was always so busy that I didn't want strangers calling because I always had my old customers. But yeah, so I do buy the biggest truck. I try to make the wrap most recognizable. I try to stay away from everything everybody else is doing and go in my own direction and you can't miss it, like if I'm going down the highway you're going to see it. It's recognizable. I mean the wraps are unbelievable. I mean we used to do the vinyl lettering and I would try to get you know, I guess technical with that vinyl lettering, but you really can't Now the wraps. You can do anything you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm changing the color of the truck from black to gray just with a wrap, which is cool.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, cause people don't realize it's literally a mobile billboard and people typically aren't looking at the billboards that are on the side of the highway, but they're looking at the car that's going right past them, or if you're doing a job somewhere and that's parked out there, that's basically just a billboard sitting in the parking lot while you're doing the job.
Speaker 2:It is, and it's huge yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you ever do? I know this has been a I want to say an inexpensive form of marketing with some other clients that we work with that may do roofing and like driveway pavement and things like that. They have these signs that cost them probably 90 cents a sign and they stick that in the yard after they're finished with the job and then people in the neighborhood start calling them. Do you ever do anything like that?
Speaker 2:I just recently did it for the building that I bought, just because we couldn't get the sign out front. But I don't normally stick people my signs in people's yards. I don't think I would want one in my yard, so I wouldn't ask to put one in somebody else's yard yeah uh, I don't think you need it.
Speaker 2:I think it's just, like, uh, an add to all your other advertising, like it's just somebody recognizes the sign, they recognize your truck, they recognize your website. It just adds to it yep, I don't think anybody sees your sign and is calling that sign because they saw it yep, it's a good point and they blow around and stuff like, yeah, they definitely do and it's only I mean.
Speaker 1:People are only going to keep them in the yard, at most a week before. It's like next time you get the grass. That sign's coming out. Exactly Talk to us about and I think this is a little fictitious in terms of work-life balance when it comes to being a business owner.
Speaker 2:What's a typical week for you now, like, how many hours are you running, like during the week, I mean my day starts at about six every day and it doesn't get dark around here till like 8, 830, which I'm not used to because I don't stop till it gets dark and I don't stop till 8, 830. I work on the building or I work on the house, or I work on the yard. If I don't have jobs going on, I just always stay busy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean.
Speaker 1:I will tell you in the fall it starts to get dark around 5, 5, 30. All right, I can handle that.
Speaker 2:You got here at the right time that gives me a little bit of a break. But yeah, I mean, if it's light out, I'm usually out working doing something, uh, with the electrical. I'll get carried away if jobs, especially with service calls, if they just keep coming and coming and come in and I'll just keep going until, yeah, until dinner time. You know what I mean. I'll just until it stops.
Speaker 1:So how do you balance that with? I know the relationship me and my wife have, and we have children as well too, so like six o'clock is normally the cutoff. Like I need to be home by six. Like get some time with the family, get some time with her before we put the kids to bed With you and your fiance. Was that a conversation that you guys had early on? I'm like, was that a conversation that you guys had early on?
Speaker 1:I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this on the podcast, but my first date with my wife was blind date and I told her this is when I first became an entrepreneur. Like our first date. Like I was literally a week into being an entrepreneur and I told her I was like look, I've been dating, talked to a lot of other girls that say they want a man that's like this and like that. Let me paint the picture of what this really looks like. They're going to be some days I'm home for dinner and they're going to be some days you're going to be in bed by the time I get home, like if you're the type of woman that needs a man by your side 24 7.
Speaker 1:Hey, it was nice meeting you. I hope you enjoyed your meal, but if that's something you can deal with, I'd like to take you out a second time. And she said get-go. She knew there was never any coming back from you, never told me it was gonna be like this. No, I told you it's gonna be like this on the very first date. What's the conversation you and your fiance have had in terms of, like that work-life balance piece?
Speaker 2:uh, so, coming from my old company it was, I didn't stop. It didn't matter what was going on, it could have been an anniversary, it could have been anything I didn't stop by work, yeah, I just that I did. Now, if she wants something to do, if she wants to go somewhere, if she wants to go out to dinner, it doesn't matter what I'm doing, I stop and go, not for the reason that I don't want to make her mad, for the reason that if I just work forever, you just don't do anything and that's that's the reason why I can't move down here was to relax a little bit more.
Speaker 2:So she pretty much knows if she wants to go out on the boat or something. We just go out on the boat. I'll drop my tools right where they are and we'll go. Fortunately, she works a lot too, so it allows me to work a lot, but at some point You're like, oh, you're still at the office.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was going to come home, but I'll stick around here a little bit longer. Exactly, I was like oh, I wanted to do something, but yeah, so she pretty much knows that whenever she wants to do something, I'm willing to do it at any time.
Speaker 1:So how do you feel? Because a big part of success and it was years into my journey as an entrepreneur where I realized, you know, it's not all about building, it's not all about the money. There is certain things that I need in my life in order to maintain a happy balance and there are certain things I do, like you know. You mentioned the boat, Me and my wife. We love taking the kids up to Lake Anna, getting on the jet skis and the pontoon boat. I love golfing, just getting outside and enjoying myself there. What are you seeing in terms of, like your level of happiness, in terms of what your work life was like in Boston compared to life here now in Virginia?
Speaker 2:My life in Boston wasn't a life, it was work. That's all it was. I mean about all I got to do was go to the gym, and the rest of the time it was work, it was stress. I had a boat. It just sat there because.
Speaker 2:I never got time to use it Once in a while on the weekend. You might get a good weekend up there and use it on the 4th of July, but down here, we moved here to relax a little bit more. So I mean, hopefully, the boat. We'll get the boat in the water and we'll just be able to go out and spend our weekends like my weekends were spent working before, like there was no. There was no work-life balance.
Speaker 1:It was work are you giving yourself that? Is it seven days a week? Or are you saying like, hey, sundays are off limits, or like the weekends for me and my fiancee? Or I know, right now, when you're first starting to build, it's just like you've got to take jobs where you can, yeah, but what's the ideal setup for you?
Speaker 2:So the reason I went with the service work is because of the scheduling, so nobody's ever in immediate danger of not getting electrical work done. When it comes to service work, yeah, so you can always schedule anything at any time. People will wait weeks, some people will wait months if they're a good customer. When you're on the construction side of things, there's deadlines and there was no waiting, so that was the problem. But yeah, now it's just so. Once the service work, I can just schedule a day off or two days off or a week off, and hopefully that'll fly.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Like by design, like recognizing the fact that you were working yourself to the bone when you were up north, coming down here, that you want a little bit slower pace in life, you strategically put yourself in an area where it's like, okay, I'm easily going to be able to shut this off and enjoy my life and have a good time down here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm not getting any younger. So working like that it takes a toll on you. Like I tell my fiance a story that I was on a job and the plumber goes how old are you? And I told him my age and he started laughing because he thought I was so much older.
Speaker 1:I mean, I was busted.
Speaker 2:I was working so hard and I was just like we've got to reverse something here.
Speaker 1:This isn't good.
Speaker 1:Talk to us about the health piece too, because I don't talk to people enough about that on this show, where I would say, like two years ago, I really I mean, I've been an athlete through high school and there were times where, like you know, when you're single, you're always trying to like be chiseled, make sure you're gonna attract the right mate, um, and then we started having kids and COVID happened and you're stuck in the house and you're just eating and I started gaining all this weight and then two years ago, like I got real serious again about my, my health journey.
Speaker 1:I found that I'm much more productive as an entrepreneur. I see entrepreneurship as a sport. You got to be in shape for it because you can't work those late nights. Your mind isn't tuned to where it needs to be if you're not putting the right stuff in your body, if you're not maintaining things. So, number one, talk to us about your gym schedule and the benefits that you've seen, because you look like the type of guy that hasn't missed a day at the gym in the last 10 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean 20, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I started when I was about 19, 20 years old and just really never took time off.
Speaker 2:I always pushed through the injuries, even the bad injuries. If I hurt the upper body, I went to the lower body and worked out. The biggest thing is just getting to the gym. I mean, no matter what, make sure you get to the gym, because your head coming out of the gym is way better than if you don't go. And even on your worst days sometimes you have your best workouts.
Speaker 2:So, I just make sure that the gym is part of my week. I mean four or five days a week is about all I can do. Now my body just says that's it. Yep, I mean back in the day it was six or seven days a week, but as you get older your body says that's yeah, and then just with food.
Speaker 2:You just, you just learn what to eat, what, what gets you through the day. I mean, I'm not rolling into mcdonald's and eating that because I know an hour later I'm gonna want to crawl into a hole and go to sleep so I mean I just eat what my body likes and just keep with that, Just so my energy levels are always up.
Speaker 1:Are you doing meal prep and things like that? Because your work day you're all over the place all day long. So like, how are you preparing things to make sure that you don't stop by McDonald's or Arby's or any of those places?
Speaker 2:I will starve, before I I mean before I eat those.
Speaker 1:It's just better off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'll bring most. I usually bring chicken or something like chicken and rice with me, just pack it up, usually leftover dinner. I make sure whatever we make for dinner we make a ton of it, because I'll eat four or five times a day throughout the day, just so you don't eat that one big meal and you just keep that energy level going.
Speaker 1:See, I'm trying to get myself on that train where, like buddy of mine, he just started his own personal training business, got certified. So I've been on a program with him for the last four weeks and I think the most difficult thing he's having with me is me eating enough. Like I'm like you, I can skip a whole day of eating if I have to. Uh, just to avoid the bad stuff. But he's like dude, we're trying to bulk you up. You got to get more protein in your system, so it's been hard for me. Just breakfast has never really been my thing during the week, so now I get like some Greek yogurt, I'll get a protein shake, I'll get quick things like that. But eating four to five times a day sounds extremely hard to me. Your body just gotten used to it that it craves it every two, three hours.
Speaker 2:No, you're not eating meals. You're eating quarter meals. So take your lunch and divide it by two or three meals and then eat it two or three times throughout the day. Take your breakfast and divide it by two or three meals and eat it two or three times throughout the day.
Speaker 2:So I'm not eating something big and heavy. You don't even know what you ate after day, so I'm not eating something big and heavy, you don't. You're like, you don't even know you ate after you're. Just it just turns into energy. Uh, on your side of things, you need to force feed yourself, and that's that's hard. The only way for me to gain weight is to force feed myself.
Speaker 1:You have to eat everything in sight it's a tough piece like these guys, like I've a friend of mine. She was in a bodybuilding competition she's been competing for like the last two or three years and every year that she finishes it she says I'm not doing this again, like this is a great goal. And then I just saw her on Facebook the other day. She's back in another competition. So I've seen what those people have to put themselves through and it's actually pretty unhealthy what you have to put yourself through to prepare for competitions like that.
Speaker 1:One point I wanted to hit on with you with.
Speaker 1:That is like I've read this article years ago and this is I think this was the kind of the kick that I needed to get back in the gym. Um, when you're in business for yourself, the better and more healthier you look, the more successful you can be in business. Now, obviously there are outliers to that, because I've had mentors over the years where these guys are multimillionaires and they're like 150 pounds overweight and they're still getting their money, but this portion of their life is suffering. But when you step in front of a group, when you meet with a potential client, they're looking at you and your presentation and it's not what you're wearing, it's just like who you are. When they look at you and see that you're in shape and you're healthy, I think that gives them some level of uh you know comfort, knowing that, hey, if this guy is willing to pay this much attention to his body and health, then I'm sure he's going to give that same attention to detail when it comes to the job he's doing with me.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree. I've always said going into meetings or potential like big jobs, if you look like you know what you're doing and you act like you know what you're doing, all you've got to do is figure out how to do it that you usually get the job. So if you're going in there and you don't look like you belong, you're probably not going to get the job. Yep, and just going in there put together in shape and being well-spoken a lot of times will just get you the job and they don't even I walked in.
Speaker 1:We were at a conference last week and the conference wasn't that packed and there were all these big name speakers and a buddy of mine that was there. Like I keep, while we're at the conference, I'm pulling up Instagram and I keep seeing him getting pictures with all these famous people. I'm like. So eventually I ran into him again at the conference. I'm like dude, how are you getting all these people like around? He's like dude, anybody checking badges, just walk backstage. Like checking badges, just walk backstage. Like, just look like you know what you're doing. So, like the biggest speakers of the the week were just coming off stage and I grabbed my boy, I was like yo, we're going back there, just follow me, just walk with swag, don't say anything, we're gonna get back here. Security standing right there. They didn't give me two glances. Like you know, I have a blazer on popping.
Speaker 1:I just walked in, I'm having a conversation, I'm just walking back, acting like I supposed to be there, and then I'm chilling the rest of the conference just sitting backstage. So there is a lot of truth to that. Yeah, let me ask you this as we wrap up what, what got you in entrepreneurship? Because I truly do feel that entrepreneurs are born, they're not built. What was it that made you say like, hey, I can step out on my own and do this? Did you have like a parent or father figure or someone in your life that was an entrepreneur? What made you go this route?
Speaker 2:No, it's just me. Nobody in my family. They all work state jobs, the federal jobs, they're all employees. I've never been an employee. I always saw it as a stepping stone to go do my own thing. And it's just, I look at the boss and I'm like why can't I do that, no matter where. I am like why is he better than me, that he can be the boss? I'm like I want to be the boss and I don't know if it goes back to me just not being able to deal with authority. You will listen to people and stuff like that back when I was a kid. But I mean, growing up I always had the paper routes and running around delivering the newspapers and making money and collecting money and doing that thing. So it's kind of always been there and like I just never felt right unless I was doing my own thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, once I got the chance to do it and did it, I was like I couldn't ever see myself working for somebody else unless it was a really cool job and I was learning stuff. But then it was, there was a timeline on it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Most entrepreneurs, I feel, were mainly unemployable.
Speaker 2:It would take a lot.
Speaker 1:I mean somebody would have to pay me like a half million dollar salary for me to go work for someone else, and even then I'm not even sure how long I could stomach it.
Speaker 1:But it's just that there's an old saying that behind every great entrepreneur is a horrible boss. Where it was like I looked at a few of my bosses, I'm like, if this idiot can do this, what am I sitting here working for him for? And I don't think it's ever been speaking more for myself. But, like, just as a general observation for most entrepreneurs, I don't think most of us have stepped out because it's like man, I hate taking orders from people, blah, blah, blah. It's just like you got stuff you want to do, you want to do it a certain way, and if there aren't systems out there that allow you to work within that capacity, it's like all right, well, I'll just step out and do my own thing. Like it's no point in me trying to like fit a circle into a square peg here, like if I don't fit, I don't fit, and if I don't fit in all these different places and something's telling me I probably need to go out and start my own thing exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I always started like they would tell me how to do it one way and I would be like, well, why can't I just do it this way? And I always thought my way was better. But I wasn't the boss, so that was always a problem. And uh, through my whole like apprenticeship, that was it. They were just like, well, you're gonna do what you want to do anyway so just go and do it.
Speaker 1:and then there's some, some level of that, like, I think a lot of people and I've always tried to make sure that I didn't end up being that old guy at my company where it was like, well, this is the way we've always done it, we're going to keep on doing it this way because it's work, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, it also worked putting ads in the yellow pages back in the day to get clients, but that's not going to do much for you now. Um, so if you're not willing to change with the times, if you're not willing to progress, then you know, eventually you'll get pretty stagnant there. Man, this was awesome, like I knew immediately when you and I first talked, like I was like I got to get this guy on the pod Because that mentality and that thought process, like that's a hustler's mentality and I like sitting with other dogs like me, man, people that got some fight in them. If people want to learn about your services I know we're doing a lot of things right now, but throw out the company name, uh, so people can search online as we're developing these things yeah, I mean so everything's brand new right now.
Speaker 2:We really just went, I guess, live a couple months ago uh it's your electrical solutionspro is the website. Uh, companies out of beaver dam. There is a your electrical solutions out of boston. Don't go that way because it won't get you anywhere. Uh, you can find me on Facebook or you can just look for the S truck that's going to be driving around Richmond daily now.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. And if people can't find you by the time this episode goes live, then that means my team was doing something wrong.
Speaker 2:So we're going to make sure that that's easy to access.
Speaker 1:Awesome, man, we appreciate you being on the pod with us today and we will see you guys on the next episode.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
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