Episode Number: 104

Date: September 1, 2025

Duration: 49:02

Host Contact Information

Host: Justin Deese

Website: JustinDeese.com

Contact: Justin@JustinDeese.com

Guest Contact Information

Guest: Josh Crouch (Relentless), Tersh (Service Business Mastery Podcast; Trade Automation Pros)

Company: Relentless; Service Business Mastery; Trade Automation Pros

Summary

Justin sits down with Josh and Tersh to dig into practical automation for home service companies—think Trello-based install workflows, warranty tracking, AI-assisted review replies, and turning your “external brain” into daily to-dos. They preview their Tap Into the Future conference in Savannah (Oct 3–5) with a Savannah Bananas game and hands-on “speed-dating” build sessions where attendees implement real automations before Monday. The trio tackles pricing turbulence, bloated tech stacks, and why optimizing processes before automating is the only way to win.

Takeaways

• Optimize → Automate → Delegate: Don’t automate broken processes; fix them first, then layer in automation and handoff.
• Hands-on beats hype: Their event features interactive build tables (e.g., Trello job flow from “sold” to “permit/equipment ordered”) so you leave with working systems.
• Control overhead with connectivity: Too many disconnected apps drive up costs and complexity—map data flow end-to-end.
• Review engine flywheel: Automate empathetic Google review replies and spin those into cross-platform social posts.
• Build an “external brain”: Capture ideas in a single place (e.g., Google Sheet) and auto-convert them into prioritized daily tasks.
• AI ≠ set-and-forget: Models change; prompts and workflows need periodic tuning to stay sharp.

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome, Service Business Mastery & Trade Automation Pros, Savannah Bananas love

01:18 — The Bananas effect: from pushback to sellouts

06:26 — 2025 market weirdness: costs up, conversions down; why efficiency wins

08:36 — Why run an event in October (and how the Bananas inspired it)

10:50 — Format: mixer, ghost tours, interactive Saturday, automation speed-dating Sunday

11:58 — Build-live demo: Trello job/permit/equipment workflow

12:49 — Warranty claims automation (order → return → credit tracking)

16:38 — Humans + automation: free people from low-value data entry

21:05 — Prompt engineering today: still helpful, less mystical

26:31 — Search is shifting; AI browsers, agents, and what’s next

32:49 — Toward agentic, connected companies by decade’s end

34:12 — Centralizing comms vs. scattered texts/emails

38:51 — The “external brain” system & scheduled daily tasks

43:30 — Skool community for step-by-step Zapier/CRM templates

46:23 — Event info & speaker lineup; where to learn more

47:12 — Closing thoughts

Keywords

#HomeService #HVAC #Plumbing #Electrical #TradeAutomation #Zapier #ServiceTitan #HousecallPro #Trello #AIWorkflows #GoogleReviews #CustomerExperience #Operations #ProcessOptimization #MarketingAutomation #Relentless #ServiceBusinessMastery #TradeAutomationPros #SavannahBananas #TapIntoTheFuture