The archive
56 episodes from December 2019 to November 2020. Each page has the audio, the original show notes and a full transcript you can search.
Episode 1
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 2
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 3
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 4
The antenna guy who sent James work the next day: how to build an 'electrical tribe' of other trades that refer customers to you, in three steps and one hour a week.
Episode 5
There's a shortage of electricians and we still undercut each other. What cheap-price customers are really like, and why it's fine to let the cheaper electrician win.
Episode 6
What a tool company's 'best electrician in the world' competition teaches about picking one ideal customer, finding their problem, and giving them a solution for free.
Episode 7
Answering Parker Worth's question about his blog: the same person at different stages of the journey needs different content, so pick one stage and go deep.
Episode 8
Traffic comes from content. The 30-second van video script, why 260 pieces a year beats a list of services, the fear of the camera, and the seven-day content challenge.
Episode 9
Behind the scenes of a $5 Facebook test: a keyword-driven title, a curiosity hook, 37 cents per registrant, and the maths that makes paid ads pay for themselves.
Episode 10
Most electricians throw money at marketing without measuring it. SMART goals, the 50-leads-a-month number, pricing from profit backwards, and the start of the findelectriciansnearme experiment.
Episode 11
You can't serve everyone. Meet Liz and Fred — James's two customer avatars — and the 'what would Liz do?' test for every marketing decision.
Episode 12
Roofer Sean Olsen on free inspections as bait, maintenance packages as recurring revenue, becoming their roofer before they need a roof, and not doing the marketing yourself.
Episode 13
Where marketing starts: listening to customers on site, the three lenses (health, wealth, relationships), pain versus pleasure, and the three layers of problems you can solve.
Episode 14
The nine things customers hate about electricians — not showing up, bad workmanship, the apprentice doing the job, surprise charges — and a solution for each.
Episode 15
Turning the nine solutions into marketing messages, then into an electrical services membership: no call-out fees, a 24-month warranty, priority service and recurring income.
Episode 16
The 13-step sales letter James wrote for his own site in an hour: headline, shocking statement, problem, agitation, solution, bullets, credibility, proof, offer, bonus, guarantee, call to action, P.S.
Episode 17
The green-tea electrician: how any genuine interest becomes a story, a branded gift, and a reason customers think of you every morning.
Episode 18
A business plan you'll actually use: the value ladder from free content to your flagship job, with a recurring maintenance package underneath, and why amateurs focus on the front end.
Episode 19
Free quotes cost your most valuable asset — time. A pre-qualifying video-quote funnel, and the better answer: a lead magnet you make once.
Episode 20
Start with why. Simon Sinek's golden circle applied to an electrical business, and a weekend process to find your own why with a partner.
Episode 21
Two lives, ten years out: the road well trodden versus the marketing electrician. Shiny-object syndrome, learning just in time, and a central hub for everything you publish.
Episode 22
The invisible sales funnel: when you publish, people Google you. Own your name, get on Google Maps, get reviews, and make sure page one is yours.
Episode 23
Your backstory adds value — the $7 boomerang that sold for $20 on eBay. How to tell how you became an electrician so customers connect before you knock.
Episode 24
Marketing with no extra time: a waiting page before you build, recording between jobs with Anchor, turning one recording into video, audio and a blog post.
Episode 25
Build your well before you're thirsty: why every job should add a contact to your list, and what to send when tomorrow's diary is empty.
Episode 26
Blog versus sales funnel — the blog is the start of the funnel. Where each lives, and why the Facebook pixel and retargeting matter.
Episode 27
You can talk six times faster than you can type. A thousand-word blog post in ten minutes with voice typing, then hand the SEO polish to someone else.
Episode 28
Growth hacking a local electrical business with a giveaway funnel: what James used to pay per lead, the share-to-win viral loop, and a $200 ad-spend partnership.
Episode 29
Designing the giveaway: bronze, silver and gold prizes, why a $1 raffle ticket separates buyers from freebie-seekers, and getting an ad account unblocked.
Episode 30
If all you talk about is price, that's all the customer can compare. Get on a call, walk the job, build the relationship — and record it as content.
Episode 31
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.
Episode 32
Tommy Mello of A1 Garage Door, part one: specialise, start with the end in mind, revenue is vanity and profit is sanity, and why most home-service businesses are worth nothing at sale.
Episode 33
Tommy Mello, part two: manuals as the playbook, inspect what you expect, always be recruiting, the customer's three wants (pick two), and charging your scary price plus 20%.
Episode 34
Tommy Mello, part three: focus, one bad system ruins a hundred good people, selling financing, and the first-customer trick every new technician should do.
Episode 35
Headline templates from a real copywriter's review of James's ad — how to, in as little as, which of these mistakes, warning — and why you test them on customers, not mates.
Episode 36
Andrew Sly of Sly Electrical Solutions, part one: starting after a redundancy, boss versus leader, a good business rather than a big one, and the interview question that reveals character.
Episode 37
Andrew Sly, part two: the broken back, the switchboard he finished anyway, the trip to Hong Kong, and the hire that turned the business around.
Episode 38
Andrew Sly, part three: job-management software, a task app for the whole business, knowing your numbers, using customers' names, and asking for the review.
Episode 39
Chris Hunter of ServiceTitan, part one: the GO TIME formula, growing five locations by developing leaders, and why electrical is a tougher business than HVAC.
Episode 40
Chris Hunter, part two: touchless service, tracking the electrician like a pizza, the office manager who never charged the memberships, and budgeting for training.
Episode 41
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 42
Why they click: a Facebook test of four images and eight headlines, the burnt-out power point that won by a mile, and putting the winner in your share metadata.
Episode 43
The three S's for any post, video or ad — shock, share, solution — with the story of the customer who fell asleep in a shed with no smoke alarm.
Episode 44
How to get the result without the thing you hate doing: a headline formula, a spreadsheet of ideas, and testing with a few dollars before spending thousands.
Episode 45
Before you run the ad, decide who sees it. Thirty interests, one layer versus three, and a tool that finds audiences Facebook doesn't show you.
Episode 46
Scott Holt of HP Elecom, part one: starting out to be there for his kids, burning out, the job he priced at £10k and did for £6k, and the builder who never paid.
Episode 47
Scott Holt, part two: recovering in a year, why customers pay for a quality service, the danger of one marketing pillar, and keeping in touch with your list.
Episode 48
Websites for electricians with one direction: building a lead-magnet funnel live, and a challenge to work out your own site's opt-in rate.
Episode 49
Running the Facebook test: cold, warm and hot audiences, and a three-layer versus one-layer split test on the same thirty interests.
Episode 50
Results are in: five dollars per ad set, four leads from the three-layer audience and none from the single layer. What to turn off and what to test next.
Episode 51
How to test the audience, not just the ad — the same flyer on three noticeboards — plus conversion ads for the ready-now and video-view ads to warm the rest.
Episode 52
Review of the free stuff: $100–200 spent, ten to fifteen opt-ins, about $13 a lead, and the follow-up email sequence most electricians never build.
Episode 53
Changing the service into an offer, round two: the home safety challenge — checklist, guide, firefighter stories, first-aid training, $50 cash-back — for an email address.
Episode 54
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 55
Are you the local electrician or the random one? Why the before-and-after video on every job is the difference between being thought of and being priced.
Episode 56
Free marketing ideas: turning your personal Facebook profile into a local billboard, and cross-promoting with the pizza shop until you're the electrician everyone's seen.
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