Start here
Four short listening paths, picked by the problem you've got right now: price competition, a dead website, wasted ad spend, or the bigger picture.
See the listening pathsThe podcast archive · hosted by James Wrest
Get found.
Make an offer.
Stop competing on price.
Fifty-six short episodes for properly trained, licensed electricians who want to own a successful electrical business — without cheating, cutting corners, or charging peanuts. Every episode has the audio, the show notes and a full transcript.
56Episodes
13h 49mOf audio
2019–2020Recorded
56 episodes · 2019–2020With James Wrest
The question the show set out to answer
How do normal electricians compete with the big guys?
“How do normal electricians like us — who are properly trained and licensed, who are not willing to cheat and take shortcuts, and who want to own a successful electrical business — compete against the big guys who own the market share, or the guys that charge peanuts for an electrical job? On top of that, we want to employ the best electricians so we can get off the tools and have plenty of time for other areas of life.”James Wrest, episode 1
Choose your route
Start with what
you need today.
Every episode
All 56 episodes in the order they were recorded, each with a player, show notes and a searchable transcript.
Browse the archiveMeet the host
From apprentice to electrical contractor, a franchise, and the marketing mistakes that led to this show.
Read James's storyGood places to start
Six episodes
worth your first hour.
Short, practical, recorded from the van and the office. Pick one and press play.
Episode 1
How I failed marketing my electrical contracting business - and what I know now that I didn’t as an Electrician!
James's origin story: five years on someone else's tools, starting Be Electrical with mates, buying into a franchise, the first job that went wrong, and why he sold up and discovered sales funnels in Europe.
Episode 3
How to make your electrical business STAND OUT from the crowd WITHOUT competing for the lowest price…
Selling the same service as every other sparky makes you a commodity. James turns a $140 smoke-alarm install into a $197 offer worth $410, bonus by bonus.
Episode 41
Don't be boring and the same! Stand out by making an offer.
Don't be boring and the same. Building an irresistible smoke-alarm offer live on a spreadsheet — from a $100 inspection to $639 of value.
Episode 54
How much do you want to make as an electrician?
How much do you want to make? $200k a year becomes 13 jobs a week, a $100 cost per customer, and a marketing budget you can turn on and off like a switch.
Episode 2
Why an Electricians website does not work!
Why a normal electrician's website is a menu that confuses people — and a walk-through of a downlight sales funnel that educates, pre-sells and takes the booking before you arrive.
Episode 31
$1 dollar in & $1.66 out, what is your marketing budget?
One dollar in, $1.66 out: mapping the giveaway funnel page by page — share page, order bump safety check, upsell, launch emails — to set a marketing budget.
Looking for a specific topic?
Explore every episodeBy topic
What the show
keeps coming back to.
Offers & pricing
Stop selling the same service as everyone else — package it, price it, stand out.
- 03How to make your electrical business STAND OUT from the crowd WITHOUT competing for the lowest price…
- 15An Electrician's solution to the problems at hand… plus create an electrical services membership site from them!
- 18Electricians business plan, a simple version!
- 30If all you focus on is price than that is what you will get
Websites & funnels
What your site actually needs to say and do to turn visitors into booked jobs.
Ads, traffic & targeting
Getting eyeballs on the business, and testing before you spend.
Customers & positioning
Who the dream customer is, what they struggle with, and why they'd pick you.
Interviews
Conversations with electrical contractors and service-business owners.
- 07The unaimed arrow rarely hits it's mark…. The answer to Parker Worth's question.
- 12What do Roofers and Electricians have in common? Find out in this interview with Sean Olson from Olson Roofing
- 32Home based service business how you can make millions with Tommy Mello - Part 1
- 33Home based service business how you can make millions with Tommy Mello - Part 2
Running the business
Goals, plans, mindset and the lessons from James's own contracting years.
- 01How I failed marketing my electrical contracting business - and what I know now that I didn’t as an Electrician!
- 05MASSIVE electrician shortages, yet electrical contractors STRUGGLE… to find work
- 06Are you the best electrician in the world… Prove it and win $70k!
- 17Marketing Ideas for Electricians - How you can use practically anything to help you stand out…
Your host
An electrician
who had to learn marketing the hard way.
James Wrest did his apprenticeship in Australia, worked five-plus years for someone else's electrical company, then started his own with a couple of mates — and found out that being a good electrician has almost nothing to do with getting the phone to ring. This show is what he learned next.