Contractor Evolution

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP109 One of the most common questions we get is: how should I pay my people? This makes sense when you think about how influential your compensation plans are to the success of your business and the people inside it. Is what I’m offering compelling enough to attract the talent I need?   Am I using incentives and bonuses effectively to get staff focused on the right things?   Is dolling out cash at the end of the year out of the goodness of my heart the right way of going about it? The value in answering these questions can’t be overstated, and yet, you don’t hear people having money conversations like this all that often - at least not openly. “Performance Pay” is one of the best ways to align the goals of the individual with the goals of the organization - share the gain, share the pain.   Shane Bannerman, one of our incredible Breakthrough Academy coaches,  is here today to explain how to set up performance pay for the archetypal roles most contracting businesses have: production managers, field staff, salespeople, and administrators.  Shane coaches over 40 different BTA companies.  He’s seen firsthand the comp plans that drive results and those that FLOP! Listen to this episode for deep dive into performance pay for contractors!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, Click Here Check Out Marcus’ sales & marketing training company: www.impactplus.com Order His Book They Ask, You Answer: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119312973/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3 Our guest on the show today is globally renowned speaker and consultant: Marcus Sheridan.  Author of They Ask, You Answer and The Visual Sale. Marcus is the go-to guy for content marketing and inbound sales (especially for contractors and home services). His philosophy is simple but powerful:  If your customers are asking about it, you should be creating content around it.   Getting out in front of the concerns and questions of your potential buyers is the easiest way to build authority and elevate your company from “one in a sea of options” to “the only one” they want to do business with.   Expect to Learn: How to build trust and transparency through your website’s content using “The Big 5” framework - turning visitors into buyers while exponentially increasing site traffic Just how educated the modern buyer truly is and why relying on uninformed clients is no longer a viable marketing strategy (if it ever was) Marcus’ insights on navigating through a changing market, having carefully steered River Pools through the 08 financial crisis and into one of the most successful pool franchises in the US Making great content doesn’t have to be hard, you just have to know where to start.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here, Click Here To download our printable DORAGI framework for your job sites, Click Here Download the BTA Training Checklist Contractor Quick Tool, Click Here  Don’t know if you’ve noticed… but new employees often come with more skill gaps than advertised.   How many times have you hired someone you thought had certain skills only to find out on-site that they, in fact, do not have said skills?  The reality is when it comes to the talent pool, almost no one is truly “plug and play.”   There are hundreds if not thousands of intricacies and nuances about how YOU do things, and that doesn’t always line up with how your new recruits have been trained via their previous employers, experience, or education.   See… transferring skill is a SKILL in and of itself, and it’s one we see contractors struggle with. Today’s episode is about DORAGI, a framework for skill transfer that dramatically compresses learning curves.   If you want better-equipped crews in less time, listen to this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, Click Here Use The Scrollers To See Dan’s Brand Transformations (srsly cool): https://www.kickcharge.com/portfolio/small-business-rebranding-before-after/ Dan’s Book “Branded, Not Blanded:” https://www.amazon.com/Branded-Not-Blanded-KickChargeTM-Service-ebook/dp/B0BBL1CCJ9 If you’ve ever wondered whether wrapping your fleet of vehicles is worth the cost, this episode is a must-listen.  We’re suuuper lucky to have the “G.O.A.T.” of vehicle wraps, Dan Antonelli, on the show today.   His agency KickCharge Creative has built brands for some of the biggest home service companies in North America: A1 Garage, Goettl Air Conditioning, and Absolute Airflow, just to name a few.   Today’s conversation is about outdoor advertising in general but, more specifically, the 5 rules that all contractors and home service business owners need to follow when designing a vehicle wrap that pops and drives results.  We also talk about his new book Branded, Not Blanded. It’s the best book I’ve ever read on branding for our niche.  We’ll link it in the description.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, Click Here Matt’s Build Show Network: https://buildshownetwork.com/ Risinger Build: https://risingerbuild.com/ The Build Show Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-build-show-podcast/id1560010348 My guest on the show today is Matt Risinger.   Matt is one of the most recognizable thought leaders in the construction space. His Youtube channel, which has over a million subscribers, is dedicated to all things building science, and he’s parlayed that into the creation of an entirely new platform called Build Show Network - Picture Netflix, but all the content is for construction nerds. Pretty awesome! His actual construction company, Risinger Build, is one of the most sought-after in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his family.   Today’s conversation is about his entrepreneurial journey… Why he chose this industry, how he built his construction empire, and became the household name he is today. He shares some of the life-altering mistakes he made along the way, plus I get his take on the future of residential construction in North America. I really look up to Matt and deeply admire everything he’s built but, more importantly, the values he embodies. For all his success, he’s one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met. We need guys like Matt, and I consider myself blessed to have gotten to know him a bit over the last year. Listen to this episode to hear the full Matt Risinger story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, Click Here Learn More About Jeff’s Work And His Book Here: https://www.jeffskipperconsulting.com/ Ideas are the easy part.   The truth is getting implementation projects across the finish line is ALWAYS harder in reality than it is in your mind's eye.     You’ve, no doubt, fantasized about the business efficiencies made available by new technology, the rollout of SOPs, a new sales methodology, whatever… and then been met with blank stares from your team when you excitedly announce these grand visions: “Why do we need to do this?” “This seems complicated!” “What's wrong with what we're doing right now?” As today’s guest, Jeff Skipper, says: the easiest thing for an employee to do when confronted with change is NOTHING.  Jeff is a Change Management consultant and just authored a new book called Dancing With Disruption (definitely check it out).   If you need to get your people doing things a new way, adopting a new system, or dropping an old one, the fundamentals of Change Management can help.  At its core Change Management is about guiding organizational changes all the way from conception through to implementation.   Jeff gets hired by companies like IBM, Suncor, Cenovus, Bayer, Molson, and Sport Chek to help them make monumental internal changes, and he’s here today to help us do the same.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, Click Here If you’ve ever wondered:  How do I set up performance based pay for my Production Managers? Is it possible to effectively interview for “coachability”?  (cuz saying “I’m great with feedback” and actually taking it are two different things) Or, how do I make my field staff accountable for quality without my direct supervision? In Today’s episode of Contractor Evolution Igor and I tackle five tricky listener questions head on.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To register for BTA's Staff Accountability Secrets Masterclass, CLICK HERE The late and great Arnold Palmer asserted that golf was a game “predominantly played in the 6 inches between the ears.” Business and life are no different.   Your mental game - what happens inside that head of yours - influences reality to such a profound degree it's difficult to measure.  Where you set your sights, how you feel about yourself and your work, what you think is possible for you and your team, and how you handle massive setbacks; all of this and more are 100% dictated by the thoughts you allow (or do not allow) through your mind.   The contractor’s formula for a high-performance mindset exists, and Shawn Feurer (Shawn Feurer Consulting) is here to break it down for us.  Shawn has built a mindset framework specifically for contractors and actively coaches about 60 individuals through it.  On today’s episode, you can expect to learn: The most common self-limiting beliefs contractors struggle with and where they come from How to distinguish “what you truly want” from “what you think you can have” A 3-step daily mindset routine that magnetizes your brain for prosperity (I’ve already started it and am loving it) So if you’ve been looking for the fluff-free, non “woo-woo” approach to disrupting your thoughts and reprogramming your mind for success and abundance, watch this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP101 To Download Contractor Dynamics Testimonial Guidelines, click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP101 If you, like me, are always looking for inexpensive but effective brand upgrades, look no further than client testimonials.  Simple videos of your happy clients talking about how pleased they were with the experience they had with your company are one of the best assets to start collecting, and here’s why. The modern homeowner doesn’t put much weight on what you have to say about your own business or service.  And why should they?  You’re biased.  It’s your business, after all!  Of course, you’re gonna say how amazing it is.  Fifty years of constant bombardment from advertisers and brands have made today’s consumers a bit more scrupulous and a bit less gullible.   This is why getting clients to sing your praises is orders of magnitude more effective than singing your own.  It’s just that simple. Here’s what I love about client testimonials: They’re cheap They’re versatile as hell (you can put them on your website, social media, in your sales process, and about eight other places too) People watch video content more than they read Social Proof from actual customers is way more persuasive Today on the show Joseph Hughes, founder of Contractor Dynamics, is here to unpack why they work, how to capture them, and where to put them.   Listen to this episode to get these low-cost, high-conversion videos working for you!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/PCEP100 To download Benji & Igor's 10 Commandments of Contractor Success, click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP100 We want to hear your feedback after 100 episodes, click this link to complete the survey (3 min): https://trybta.com/100 Yeehaw! That’s 100 episodes down (and goodness knows how many more to go!) We’re blessed and humbled to have spoken to some incredibly smart people over the past two years and have noticed some fundamental commonalities among them. Belief systems, habits, and tactics the best of the best all seem to share.   Today’s episode is an amalgamation of the 10 things we’ve observed about success in the contracting and home service space after 100 episodes of Contractor Evolution. Huge thanks to both our guests and you listeners. We couldn’t do it without you! Tune in to find out why: No one at the top of their game is a ___________. The labor market is a challenge, but___________. ___________ matters more than working hard. Listen to this episode to fill in the blanks on these three and the remaining seven!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.