Latest / The Home Service Heartbeat Podcast / Why Great Electricians Must Be More Than Wire Pullers | Sam Provenza of Mr. Sparky of South Texas

Transcript

Why Great Electricians Must Be More Than Wire Pullers | Sam Provenza of Mr. Sparky of South Texas · The Home Service Heartbeat Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Hello, everyone.
0:01
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to this episode of the Home Service Heartbeat Podcast.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm Joe Cressera, and today I'm excited to be joined by Mr.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: Sam Provenza, who is the operations manager from Mr.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: Sparky of South Texas, who has a uh tagline.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh you want to tell us what the uh what you say your tagline is about just to South Texas, but go ahead and tell us what is it?
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean we're America's on-time electricians.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: So forgetting time, you don't pay a dime.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: And get it done right on time or you don't pay a dime.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: And then you uh get it done right and get it done safe.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound right there?
0:38
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Sam, for uh they want to deliver an unforgettable experience to the people of uh San Antonio and the South Texas community and the surrounding areas.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh Sam, thanks for being on the show today.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate being here.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, awesome.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you having us on.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I mean I'm a huge fan of yours, so you know, really excited to be able to do this with you.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we listen all the time to your teachings and all that stuff inside the class whenever we were training with the guys.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: So it's really excited to be here.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate your support and your care and respect, Sam.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: So um, Sam, let's get started and just talk a little bit about how uh you and your company got started in the service industry and what led you to your leadership role as uh the operations manager at the Mr.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Sparky of South Texas.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about that.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: So I guess I'll start, I'll tell you a little bit about myself first, and I'll tell you about the company.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Um so I got into the trade, probably like how a lot of people get into the trade, which, you know, I was going to school um right out of high school, going to a community college here in San Antonio, and wasn't really sure what my plans were, what my goal was.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: And I had a buddy who started an apprenticeship uh here at a local new construction shop, and he was like, Man, it's so much fun.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: We just work with our hands, uh, through the house, rope houses, we put on loud music, and then afterwards we drink beer.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: I was like, sign me up.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was a young kid, 20 years old, and uh turned out I was really good at it.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: So um after about five years doing that and maturing a little bit and growing into the trade, I realized that what I really was passionate about was the service side of it, the customer facing side, not just wiring up new houses.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: So that's when I decided to make a jump into Mr.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Sparky to go focus more on the service side, customers, helping people out when they have problems and fixing those problems.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Because in electrical, you know, unlike other trades, I mean there's thousands of parts, right?
2:29
SPEAKER_00: So it's just a small puzzle that you constantly have to be going through, finding the issue, fixing it, solving it, and then just the gratitude that customers have once you fix their problem is really what fed me and drove me.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And so getting into the service industry, I started out in a truck and um found out really quick that I wasn't as good as I thought I was, because there's so much more to being a service technician than there is to just doing electrical, right?
2:58
SPEAKER_00: So that's having good relationships with customers, making them to where they can trust us.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're their most vulnerable position is inviting a stranger into their home, right?
3:07
SPEAKER_00: So understanding that, hey, I'm here to help this person understand their system more than just make a repair and fix it.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And so I ended up being pretty good at it.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Um started teaching myself, reading books, listening to podcasts, and learning how I can effectively communicate with customers, and then taking that and leading a team, team lead, and eventually moving up to the operations manager side of things.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: So here in San Antonio, George Saldania, our owner who has been operating in San Antonio for about 40 years, um he started out as doing like a large commercial project.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure if a lot of people know, but Mr.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Sparky is a franchise.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot of really good benefits of being inside of a franchise system, which we'll probably talk a little bit more about that later on in this podcast.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: But so for about 20 years, he was doing a successful commercial project, and then he decided, like, hey, I want to venture out and do something different.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's when he reached out to Mr.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Sparky and uh, you know, the the franchise or of the brands.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: And so he bought into the franchise and did all the classes, all the trainings, and all the systems that they were able to give us to be a successful electrical contracting business.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: He really took that and ran with it.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: And here in San Antonio, we're one of the first Mr.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Sparky's in the nation.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: We're actually one of the only uh original owners of Mr.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Sparky.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So we're San Antonio's uh one of the largest independent markets for Mr.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Sparky.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: And so we've been doing that now for about 20 years.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, definitely.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Um when I was down in San Antonio and I've I've done a little bit of work in the electrical area too, but some most of it in the air conditioning and heating.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: But I could definitely definitely see that uh a place like San Antonio and South Texas uh definitely puts a burden on the on the power system uh for homes and small businesses.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I mean, I don't think any conductors were ever designed to be exposed to the kind of heat and storms and surges that that take place there.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you're in a perfect uh place to do electrical, honestly.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean absolutely how important how important is it that uh you know that that the the unique challenges of that market that you solve the unique challenges at a place like up San Antonio and the surrounding areas and you know San Marcos and Austin and those you're probably heading up to that area too.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So such such a need because the electric all I've seen is electrical systems of the ultraviolet uh you know from the rays from the sun deteriorate, the conductors and everything.
5:35
SPEAKER_01: It's just uh crazy.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about the challenge of uh what are some of the challenges of working in a place like, you know, for an electrician to be working in a place so your consumer would know uh what are some of the challenges that happen to conductors or or make what triggers the need for your services and what are some of the challenges of working in a place like uh South Texas?
5:55
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about that.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, if anybody here is listening right now from South Texas, y'all remember 2021.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: So the big snowstorm that we had that shut off the power everywhere, right?
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Our electrical system, our grid is just not designed for the amount of growth that we've seen.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure exactly what the statistics are, but San Antonio is one of the rapidly fastest growing cities in the entire nation.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Um and the grid is just not really keeping up, and the electrical demand is just getting greater and greater and greater.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody is having solar or sorry, electric vehicles added into it.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, everything is getting smart.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, plumbing, HVAC, you know, water heaters in older homes you go by and it was so normal to see just a gas water heater everywhere you go.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, everything's getting electric.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: You've got instant hot water heaters that pool almost 150 amps per water heater, right?
6:43
SPEAKER_00: So the the demand on the grid is just getting bigger and and not a like just the elements themselves.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: The heat, if you've got you know, your panel facing on a certain wall inside the home and that sun just beating down on it constantly, it just takes a lot of beating, man.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: You've got to make sure that you're maintaining that stuff.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And electrical is one of the things that people don't realize that you need maintenance on it.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you think of HVAC and you think of your plumbing system, you know, everybody knows that comes with general maintenance that you're gonna have to do.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: And everybody thinks electrical is just one of those things that you set it and forget it.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the case.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, electricity is constantly moving all the time.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to always make sure that you are maintaining that because as it's moving, stuff's vibrating, stuff's getting looser and loose connections with electrical is not good.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Now I'll tell you this too.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: We just opened up Corpus Christi at the beginning of the year, and man, they need electricians.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: So I can imagine down there what it's like uh uh on the on the uh Gulf uh and all the salt water and everything else.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like there's a if there's a place that God created that uh would be a great trigger great needs for electrical safety.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I think uh there's a movement about uh you know electrical efficiency and you know the the heat pump water heaters and all that kind of a stuff, which are you know, in essence, just you know, to try to you know help the planet, they say.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: And then the other, but then the other aspect is hey, it could save money, but honestly, it could save your skin to have uh a power system that is efficient.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about how you know uh the power in a home, if it's not efficient or drawing too much amps, uh too much power through the conductors, is to what does that cause in a home so that the homeowners can understand uh that that you know air conditioning and heating takes a break every 20 minutes.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, plumbing takes a break all night long or all the evening when we're watching TV.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: There's nobody using the plumbing, but the electricity doesn't take a break.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's no blocking everything.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you don't stop electricity, right?
8:44
SPEAKER_00: You can only control it.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: So you try and slow it down the best you can.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And that's why like grounding systems and things like that are so important.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people do relate electricity to water.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: So you think about you know a dam or a flow of water, a stream moving really, really fast.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do is try and narrow that stream down to kind of control it to where it's in a manageable position for yourself.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's what your volts are.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: So you've got your 120 volts, your 240 volts.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: But everything in people's house is getting smarter, uh down to the light bulbs, right?
9:13
SPEAKER_00: So all these things, these smart things, they have little microchips inside of them with little diodes and small connections and small wires, and those are really susceptible to power surges.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Most houses, if they're built before 2020, don't have whole whole home search protection on the house.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: And that's something that a lot of people don't realize is that every single day you're getting a constant beating to the system.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: So that could be and it comes from internal inside your house as well, these power surges.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: So when you're every time your garage door opens and that motor kicks on, it sends a little power surge through your system.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Every time your AC kicks on and there's a motor, your ceiling fan, any of those things send little transient surges through the house that can be damaging to your smart, like really sensitive electronics inside the home.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, your TVs, all your computers, anything inside the house that has a microchip in it needs to be protected with a surge protector.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think um well when did you for when did George first realize, or when did you realize maybe when you since you joined the company, that um, you know, these three great things have come together.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: That the the the special needs of a state like Texas with the heat and the uh you know the the growing uh burden on the grid, and then a great company like uh Mr.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: Sparky and George and your team, well the people of your team, all three of those things kind of came together in a perfect uh I will use the the the term perfect storm, but honestly, it is it's kind of a per you guys are a perfect team and a perfect place uh to help the people of South Kaz.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: When did you realize that the strategy of going uh to help uh residential people is a strategy compared to just uh doing all kinds of big jobs and stuff like that uh was working?
10:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, when did you any stories you can tell when you realize that hey, this is people really need this service?
10:59
SPEAKER_01: This isn't just a uh something that I'm doing just for myself or my money.
11:03
SPEAKER_01: This is something I'm doing because I have in my heart that the people really need this.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, any stories you can tell about where people are you seeing people who really need this uh kind of a thing and it kind of triggered like, yes, I'm in the right place at the right time with a stuck company like this.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, we are huge in our community here.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: We try and do everything we can to give back to the people that take care of us, right?
11:24
SPEAKER_00: We can't do anything if it wasn't for the people inviting us into their home to do an inspection on the house.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: So we're constantly uh doing as many causal events as we can, you know, uh toy drives, you know, work with Pets Alive.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're constantly doing anything we can.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: We work with the local news stations to do any kind of charitable event.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: And so when we go to these things like the home shows, which we do twice a year, it's just so great to have the community come up to us and thank us and talk to us and just have conversations with us and our technicians that are there volunteering at the home show.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: And some of the those are some of the best things.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you can have a customer come up to you that, you know, you've done a small job or a big job or you've worked on their neighbor's house or their friend's house, or they just saw you on the news talking about some charitable event, and they can come up and say, like, wow, that's really great what you guys are doing.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's a great feeling.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm in this industry, that's why I chose to work with a company like Mr.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Sparky, because of the impact that we have uh with the community and take care of them.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: And that boils down to our people.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we hire people, we take our core values, our mission, our vision seriously.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, our core values are Apex, which is you know, ambition through drive, persistence through resiliency, elevated through humility, and exemplified through integrity.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: And we make every decision based off of those core values, which integrity is huge.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been around for about 20 years as Mr.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: Sparky now, with nearly 5,000 five-star reviews on Google, and we wouldn't do what we do if it wasn't for those core values, uh integrity being huge, right?
12:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, staying ambitious in our pursuit of excellence and taking care of customers.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: I think that's uh and the core value is uh it doesn't make it easier to make decisions, but it does make the decision more correct.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
13:05
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's uh so many contractors in San Antonio, like what I told you when I first started.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, we were drinking beer after work every single day and you know, doing other things.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, just in the trades, that's that's basically the uh stereotype that you get.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's a stereotype for a reason.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: And here at Mr.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Sparky, you know, we drug test and background check every single employee that walks through the store.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: And so that alone eliminates more than half of the potential and usually really great candidates that we can hire.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: But we do that because we want to benefit.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: We want to know that we have people that can live to our standards, because the standard is a standard and we don't move the standard for anything.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: So when our customers have someone in their house, they know that, hey, I'm getting a top-notch professional and not just a normal contractor.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, let me ask you a question.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: That does bring up a good point there, Sam, uh Sam, which is that um I think in today's world, as a service electrician, uh, you know, there's a lot of consumers that think uh electricians are just the guy who pulls and can and connects wires.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: It's just a broken wire, just fix the wire, right?
14:06
SPEAKER_01: That's all I but honestly, uh there's like electrical engineering uh to look at the entire system, look at the whole picture.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what's the biggest challenge that there is in today's world when you know back in the old days you could have hired some spark Mr.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: Sparky, uh quote unquote, uh to kind of just pull wires to my swimming pool.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: And uh yet how important is it that uh the technician is in too touch with the design of the system and how that conductor going to the pool uh works in the whole system overall?
14:38
SPEAKER_01: How important is that is that one of the biggest challenges uh that uh all the as you see competition and I know you're not uh you're friendly with your competition, you're not being you don't look at competition as anything bad, but what would you think looking at the big picture?
14:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you ran an electrical business today, what's the biggest challenge as it is of keeping up uh as opposed to just pulling wires?
15:00
SPEAKER_01: And some of the challengers are to grow into the kind of role that is really needed to evaluate a home electrical basis.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: So kind of going back to where I started, right, in new construction, I became their warranty guy uh for a long time because I knew I was good with customers.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, as a warranty guy, it's a brand new house.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: You go in there, you fix it, and you move on to the next one, right?
15:20
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not finding the root cause of the problem.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And so when I walk in and there's a customer, and let's just say it's something simple as a GFCI receptacle tripping.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know what that is, it's the one typically in your garage, a utility room that has a little button on it that you press to turn stuff back on.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: It prevents electrocution.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: It prevents electrocution, yeah.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: By by by shutting it off before it harms the occupants or children in your home, right?
15:44
SPEAKER_01: So a lot of people see those things like what's that thing?
15:46
SPEAKER_01: It's like it protects the life of your family.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so fun fact, fun fact, in the National Electric Code, which is a book about this thick, which is a section out of the National Fire Protection Agency book, um GFCI outlet, ground fault circuit interrupter outlet, is the only thing listed to protect personnel.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: And that is you, the person using it.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Where everything else in the NSC in the NEC is listed to protect equipment and materials and breakers and things like that and the wire, where the GFCI is to protect the person, right?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: So it's extremely important.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: And people see this stuff and they're like, oh, you know, it's just a button I have to press.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, as an electrician, you go in there and you think, like, oh, I just got to reset this GFCI, problem solve, it's fixed, I'm moving on.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not doing a benefit to the customer whatsoever because what's gonna happen, number one, is it's gonna trip again, and then I'm the jerk for not fixing it.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: I have to do a callback now, go back over there.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Where as a professional, and what I tell our guys all the time is that we are electrical consultants, right?
16:45
SPEAKER_00: We have to go in there, find the root cause of this problem.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, it might seem a little bit more in depth to some of our customers, like, hey, I just need my power back on.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, why are you diving to my entire system?
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, because I want to know that when I leave here, number one, your home is safe.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: And two, you're not gonna have this problem.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Again, next time you call me out here, it's because you want to do some fun stuff, like under cabinet lights, putting some lights in your bedroom, things like that.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not doing a service to my customer if I'm not finding what actually caused this thing to trip and preventing it from happening in the future.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people, especially electricians, don't really understand that.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: They think that they're doing the right thing by just coming there and doing a quick band-aid fix.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And then a month later, two months later, somebody gets hurt or the problem happens again.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: And then at that point now you are the bad guy, right?
17:28
SPEAKER_00: So it just understanding that we're consultants and professionals and we're here to solve a problem, not just fix a problem, right?
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Usually the the what you're seeing is a symptom and not the actual problem.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think sometimes like when you put the house under this tremendous uh power load that I mean, houses and I've seen a lot of houses in San Antonio that were uh you know uh built in 1978, 1988, uh even going back in the 70s, a lot of older homes that um that were designed, there's no way an electrician could ever know what would be needed today.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense, right?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: So I mean I always say I just I won't get too technical, but I do want to talk about something that maybe you can alert homeowners to about uh you know, the thing called the series versus parallel.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: So I would say that you can always tell the homeowner that if only one thing goes out, like the one the one outlet is bad, that's a good sign that the rest of the outlets are still working.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: You might have a decent wiring system as opposed to if the whole circuit goes out.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: Like what is what's what what can you tell homeowners about that issue?
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Like if you uh see the whole like your your your swimming pool GFI went off and now swimming pool's not working, but then that makes your kitchen and bathroom now work.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh well what what does that indicate?
18:42
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell the consumers of South Texas about uh the dangers of that kind of a situation and what they're sitting on top of there?
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: So a super simple way to explain it is think of you know Christmas lights.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Every year you pull your Christmas lights or your holiday lights out of the garage and you plug them in, hang them up, and hopefully you check them before you hang them up, but you hang them up and half that string's not working.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Now you have to go through that entire string, find the one bulb that's out, replace that bulb, and now the whole string works.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's how a lot of houses, that's how the majority of houses are wired.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, especially here in San Antonio.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: I've worked in Houston, Corpus, and it's all the same, right?
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the quickest way of doing it.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And so builders obviously want to get jobs done fast.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And so the way that you should wire things up is you know, parallel.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: So they're not in a series where if one goes bad, the other one goes bad downstream, downstream, downstream.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: But you tie them all up, you pigtail those outlets together, those connections, because within your electrical system you have thousands of connections, right?
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And now if one outlet were to go bad, because that outlet costs a couple bucks, they manufacture millions of them every year, it's normal for something to to get damaged and and break.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: And if that one outlet breaks, the rest of the home is going to continue to work safely.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And now an electrician can come back and much simple much more easier troubleshoot that and diagnose it and find the problem.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: To where, like with your Christmas lights, you have to go searching to find that one bulb and where it's at to find that break.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, Sam, let's go move toward the uh the people in the company and how you find such good people.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: Every time I meet, uh I mean I mean I met you guys at a trade show and it was just uh in a delightful time.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: We had a great evening that night.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I must have spent a couple hours with you guys just uh uh just talking about uh how to be successful as an electrician.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of fun.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh how do you approach building and leading a high-performing team and you know what qualities do you look for when you are hiring top talent uh that can do this kind of job?
20:38
SPEAKER_01: Is it got to be somebody who's a grizzled little electrician or somebody who's got more of an open mind?
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about the kind of person who would fit great into a place like Mr.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Sparky of South Texas, if you don't mind.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so obviously you want to hire electricians with great experience, right?
20:52
SPEAKER_00: We want to have the best electricians in the entire city, but a lot of times we want to develop that too.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, most of the guys that we get from other service companies come in with, you know, bad habits or bad attitudes and things like that.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: And so when we hire, I actually prefer the guys that have been in new construction, have done commercial, that have electrical experience, they know the trade really well, but have never been in the service industry.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Then of course, you know, we we it's always a three-part interview.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: They come in, they do a phone interview, then they come in, they sit down with me and one of my partners, and we do an in-person interview.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: And then the third interview is going to be with our technician.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: So we actually send them out in a truck, they can sit with one of the technicians, go to a couple service calls, and have a real candid conversation with them to see if it's one a good fit for them, but also if they can fit within the team.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Because if the team will ultimately have the final say on whether or not we bring someone on.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we're always looking for our core values, right?
21:42
SPEAKER_00: In every single interview, we talk about our mission, we talk about our vision, we talk about our impact in the community.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: I always want to know, you know, what are you doing to develop yourself personally in life?
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, are you studying?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, what are your goals?
21:53
SPEAKER_00: What are your ambitions?
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Something that I know that they have kind of a good foundation that I can build on top of.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Right.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And then when I get somebody in here, you know, it doesn't just hire a great person and then we say, Fantastic, here's an iPad and a van, go make customers happy.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: We train every single day, right?
22:11
SPEAKER_00: So every single day from 7 a.m.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: to eight a.m.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And that's to ensure that when we go to our customers' homes, that they have the best electrician in San Antonio.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I think that's a part of it, right?
22:23
SPEAKER_01: How do you balance uh, you know, if you were an employee and you're a client, and then you have you, uh George is the owner and the investors in the company.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: So you got a three, a three-sided uh situation here where when it uh when it does get busy or you have those uh it seems like uh the disaster of the month in Texas, whether it's over or unbelievable twenty hundred and twenty-five degree heat, whether it's uh uh tornadoes, whether whether it's a uh ice storm or whatever you guys are gonna get, you just never know what's gonna come, but it's always something.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: It's never like, hey, the weather's it's got two days this month, the weather's perfect.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh but uh so all these things are putting a burden onto the system.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: But how do you balance the um need to serve the internal client, like your electrician and the people who work there, versus the external client, and then versus the owner who's got to make sure we do have a financial uh outcome that makes the company uh profitable so we can keep growing and be and be there for the community?
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, how hard is it to balance that that uh those three things?
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Because you're in the operations manager, you're the you're the one in the hot seat who is gonna balance those things there.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Tell us, tell us tell us what your what's your process there when you look at all three of those things and how do you balance those things?
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that you hit it you know right on the head of the nail.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: That is a huge challenge, especially for operators, right, is balancing those.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: And though really the only way that you can do that is with accountability.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Um and everybody gets so afraid of that word accountability, you know, especially managers and operators.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, you have a high performing technician that maybe is is taking care of a ton of clients but can't show up on time or doesn't come to training at all.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, all that's gonna do is hurt the rest of the team that is there at 7 a.m.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: that respects you know enough of their time.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: And so having this accountability, having standard operating procedures, making sure that you have the right person in the right seat for that job.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, so we are a franchise, right, which is great because we're also extremely competitive.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: We like to talk with the other franchises.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: We do a convention once a year where we go up and meet with a lot of other uh franchise owners and see what they're doing.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: What can I learn from you?
24:31
SPEAKER_00: What can you learn from me?
24:32
SPEAKER_00: How's it going this year?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's a really fun time and great.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: But uh one thing that I've noticed is that they they are they're afraid of that accountability and they don't have these processes.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: And one thing that they tell us is that we're really admin heavy, that we have way too many admin staff.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: We've got too many managers, uh, too many people doing administrative stuff.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: We have an internal warehouse where we have four guys on there, we have one guy dedicated to just maintain our fleet.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: So his whole job is to make sure there's air in the tires, uh, we've got oil and all those, make sure that the vans are not breaking down, make sure they're clean, right?
25:00
SPEAKER_00: I think a clean van is important for a customer as well.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh that just shows that we respect ourselves and we're gonna respect your home.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: So maintaining all that stuff, but this heavy admin that we have is a great benefit for our customers and our internal customers, which is our technicians.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Our heavy admin is what gives them the support that they need to be successful when they're out there.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, as a service technician, we don't punch the clock at 5 p.m.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: and go home.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: If your power's out, we're gonna stay and get that thing fixed until the power turns back on.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: I had a guy working last night until about 11 p.m.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: to restore power to a customer's house that had a major emergency, right?
25:37
SPEAKER_00: So making sure that we have that admin staff and the right person in the right seat and holding them accountable.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Each person has their own playing field that they stay within, right?
25:46
SPEAKER_00: And making sure that they're doing what they need to do inside that playing field at a high level.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: And it all works and coincides together.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: It gives the customer great experience, it gives our technicians a great experience and a good place to work in, and it gives obviously makes George happy because when everything is working the way that it should, uh obviously he's gonna be happy, he's gonna get you know his return on investment right there because with uh payrolling and heavy admin staff, we have to make sure that in return he's getting taken care of as well, right?
26:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I heard uh when you said you're uh it's kind of n neat that you're able to mix and mingle with hundreds of other uh Mr.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: Sparkies that are in the same kind of position in different markets and able to learn from the mistakes that they make or the uh achievements that they have uh to kind of bring that information in.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the uh to get to grow a company like this into places like Corpus Christi and you know, all through South Texas, uh it takes uh a lot of training, right?
26:43
SPEAKER_01: And how do you uh how I mean how much is how important is it that uh there's a lot of there's a lot of contractors, I said the ones that are struggling are the ones who say that you know, we don't got time for training, we gotta get to work.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh the problem is though, when you're working and you're untrained, you wind up creating callbacks, right?
26:59
SPEAKER_01: So how do you uh prioritize the need for training and how important is that?
27:03
SPEAKER_01: If you if you worked at a place like Mr.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: Sparky or if you hire a Mr.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: Sparky electrician of South Texas, uh can you count on them to be uh trained fully?
27:12
SPEAKER_01: And what's that what's the dedication to training?
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's the most important thing.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: I will never practice on my customer's house.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: Never, not once, right?
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Practice is going to happen inside the building.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just on technical skills.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: We have a day dedicated to technical skills, which is Tuesdays.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Then Mondays are usually motivational Mondays, everybody gets together and does their thing.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Wednesdays are fan safety, safety training and uh truck inspections.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh Thursdays are usually like role-playing scenarios with them, and then Fridays is some kind of a team-building training thing.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: But it's so important to have everybody come together and train to perform at a high level because one, our customers deserve that, and that's what they have come to expect, especially here in San Antonio and Corpus Christi is a professional.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're everywhere.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: We've got billboards all over the city saying how we are the best of the best.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: And I can't just say I'm the best of the best without actually being the best, right?
28:06
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna have a relentless pursuit for excellence, and that's gonna come with training every single day.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's a lot of owners out there that we talk to that say exactly that, oh, I don't have time to train.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, make time.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: You have to do it.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: It it has to be part of your daily schedule to train and get better.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: And not only is it gonna make your team better, but it's gonna make you better as a leader as well.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna help build your culture.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: So your team, when they can see each other and they can train together every single day, it is gonna build that friendship.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: We operate a lot like a sports team, in my opinion, where you know we practice together, we play together, and then we go work together.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: So when I have a guy out till 11 p.m.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: last night working on this job, he's got a buddy he can call and say, like, hey man, I'm trying to build this thing up right now.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: It's getting really late.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Do you think you can swing by and help me out with that?
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And someone's gonna say, absolutely.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: Not because they're gonna get anything out of it, but because that's their battle buddy they want to help out.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: They and they also want to help that customer.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: So it just makes us better, it makes the team closer, and it's everything.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Because I have worked at other shops and other Mr.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Sparkies.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the only Mr.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Sparky I've worked at.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I was a technician in another location, and we trained maybe twice a week, if that, one week, and then when we got together, it wasn't really training, it was just like a meeting.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really know any of the other technicians because I took the van home, I'd dispatch it from my house, I'd go out to the customers' homes, maybe we'd get together on like a text or a phone call, but I never got that face-to-face experience with the rest of the team to know that, hey, all these guys have my back and I've got their back as well.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: And I never really felt like I improved myself as an electrician either, because I want to have the smartest electricians, uh, ones that know the trade the best as well.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And just practicing on that communication with the customers because, you know, they're usually when they call us, there's something broken and they're in a very stressful situation, right?
29:53
SPEAKER_00: So how can I teach somebody who's only been a construction worker for their entire life to have that empathy, to put themselves in that customer's shoes to understand, like, hey, this is a stressful situation for them.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: We have to make them feel comfortable with having us in the house, right?
30:06
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's so important.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: It's the most important thing.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, Sam, let me ask you a question.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Here's a here's a fun one.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're gonna shift uh focus on something a little bit more fun.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: And this is dreaming.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh dreaming about the future of electrical in homes today.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: What are the trends that are when you guys electricians are you're probably tied into some of this new technology?
30:29
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everything from these big uh uh AI power centers that they have to power air AI coming up in the future, and uh, you know, uh and what is shaping the future of electrical service and how is your team preparing for this change?
30:47
SPEAKER_01: Because there's uh you know a lot of changes.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: Help the public imagine uh how electrical distribution and storage and production of power uh will be uh different in the future.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: Tell us like if you can help us imagine, like say 20 years from now, when you'll still I probably I may not be here, but you will.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about that.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about that.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: We're both here in 20 years, you know what I mean?
31:10
SPEAKER_01: You never know.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about what do you think in the uh the power of production, the storage, the uh what it what can people expect?
31:19
SPEAKER_01: Um if you want to help us dream a little bit as consumers and as electricians too.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: What do you think uh electricians who are on the forefront of this uh high-tech uh situations that are going on?
31:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's what is what's gonna shape the future of electrical in this business?
31:34
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: It is nuts because you know it moves so fast.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: So it's hard to say what it's gonna look like in 20 years because it it just moves so quick.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you think about it just five years ago, you know, there weren't that many EV vehicles or electric vehicles.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, we're installing 10 a week, right?
31:53
SPEAKER_00: And so with these data centers coming up, that's just that's such a demand on the electrical grid itself, which is already being strained, right?
32:01
SPEAKER_00: So you know I can only imagine the amount of protection that they're gonna need.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: I do know coming down in the pipeline that um it is gonna be a code requirement for electrical management systems to be installed on homes, and so which those are already around, but they're not a requirement.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: What that does is it it manages your load.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: So as you have heavy demand things, it's going to use a computer to slow that down.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Let's say you're charging your car, taking a hot shower, and cooking a Thanksgiving meal all at the same time.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna slow that charge down on the car.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: It's probably gonna turn down the water heater a little bit, it's gonna slower your electricity to allow for, you know, to manage the demand on the house.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh they already have those on AC units, uh soft starts, right?
32:45
SPEAKER_00: So these things, I think it's kind of similar.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm not an HVAC tech, but so if I'm talking out of the water, but uh, consumes power.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: And now even heat pump water heaters are uh a thing.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: So it's so much, you know, it's like everything is connected to power now.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: It's not like uh used to have a gas water heater, we didn't need any power, but now even the water heaters, uh state all the states are moving towards even all the gas furnaces are moving.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, you know.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, the way that we're using it, which you kind of see more on the the customer facing side, is you know, we use a ton of AI inside of our organization here in San Antonio, and that's all for customer experience, right?
33:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, and there's so many owners out there and people out there that are just so afraid of artificial intelligence.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: And to me, it kind of doesn't remind me, because obviously I'm only you know 35 years old, so I wasn't like through the whole bang of it.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: But the people that didn't want to use the internet, right?
33:38
SPEAKER_00: That were so like, ah, it's only gonna be around for a little bit.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, no, the internet's everywhere.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, where you are, you're in California, right?
33:44
SPEAKER_00: So um we're so far away, we're having this conversation right now.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: The internet is a thing, it's staying.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: So is AI.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna stay here.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: But it's such a good asset for us to use to make the customer experience so much better.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: And personally, we haven't lost a single employee due to AI, but we use it as a tool for our customers.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: We live in the age of Amazon, right?
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Like if I want something, I want it right now.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Like I need that immediately.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: So speed, the lead is like critically important.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: If a customer texts in because they have a problem and they want something done, they don't want to wait an hour to get a response from a contractor.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: They want a response right now.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Um they don't want to be calling up an electrical contractor and have that ring for 30 seconds.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: If it rings for 30 seconds, they're hanging up and calling the next person, right?
34:27
SPEAKER_00: We want to give this great experience to our customers, so we leverage AI in that aspect.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, we use a company called CHIP for our speed delete.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: If a customer texts in uh a lead aggregate or anything like that, our customers get an immediate response back to where they're gonna be able to get taken care of instantly.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: And that's all through AI, and it's great, it's amazing.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And then AI internally as well, making sure that our, you know, I think, yes, I want my internal customers, my technicians to get into this trade and this design because they want to help people, but obviously we're all in here to make a paycheck, right?
34:58
SPEAKER_00: That's how you take care of your families.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Payroll is extremely important.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: Um we now have AI that handles our payroll as well.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: So there are zero human errors and mistakes in payroll at this moment.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing, right?
35:10
SPEAKER_00: So using it to our advantage to make sure that you know we are taking care of our internal and external customers with AI, you've got to embrace it because if you don't embrace it, you're gonna get left behind with that technology, and that's just how everything's moving.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: Sam, this is a personal question now.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: Um we're gonna we're winding down to the end here.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: They always say a good podcast starts on time and a great one ends on time.
35:33
SPEAKER_01: So um this is we're gonna end this one on try.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: I think we're past time, but it's okay.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: We'll get a lot to talk about here.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about what personally motivates you every day to get up and go to work every morning to kind of serve the community of South Texas.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, what motivates me is just one, my team.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these guys, they put in the hours, they put in the work, they all want to make themselves better.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: And so that drives me to want to be successful.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: I also have two wonderful, amazing children at home and my amazing wife that depends on me to support them and be that rock for them.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: And so making sure that I can do the best job I can, take care of my community, which my family lives in, is is so motivating and so important to me to make sure that one, my team does the same thing that I do, where we just care so much about these people.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, Sam, uh what advice would you give to your younger self if you could go back and talk to yourself when you were, I say, 19, 20 years old, or just getting just getting out there?
36:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh what advice would you give to yourself about uh uh just about life in general?
36:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh what kind of advice would you give yourself if you could go back and talk to your younger self?
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: You're not the smartest, you are not the best.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: There's so many people around you that can give you great advice and help you along this journey, pay attention, take notes, learn just everything, right?
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's great.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, Sam, how can the listeners or other people in South Texas connect with you or learn more about uh uh utilizing your service or even working with your company?
37:09
SPEAKER_01: How can people uh connect with you?
37:11
SPEAKER_01: Is it is it is it hard to get a hold of somebody over there to be able to maybe look into employment or uh find a qualified electrician to come out and help me?
37:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh what's the what's the secret to connecting with your company?
37:23
SPEAKER_00: It's we make it easy.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole thing, right?
37:25
SPEAKER_00: Make it easy to get a hold of us, make it easy to do business with us.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh do a quick Google search.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can also find me on Facebook or you know, I'm gonna go even a step further.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh take my direct number down if you want to reach out to me.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's 210-260-9498.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Shoot me a text, give me a phone call.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: I have it on me 24-7, so I'll be happy to answer any questions.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: If you're an electrician, you're listening to this, and you want to come and work with a team that really cares about our customers, that cares about training, that cares about developing ourselves and getting better, definitely reach out to me and call me because I'd love to have you on the team too.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Great.
37:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, that was another great conversation with Sam Provenza from Mr.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: Sparky of South Texas.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: Sam, we really appreciate having you on the show.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming on.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it, Joe.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: And uh thanks everyone who's listening to this for sticking with us until the end.
38:13
SPEAKER_01: If you gained value from today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: And if you know someone in the service industry or anyone who's looking to scale their career or business, send this episode their way.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh, take care, everybody, and we'll see you.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh what I want to say is take the one key insight from today's uh podcast and put it into action.
38:36
SPEAKER_01: Let us know how it goes.
38:37
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to hear about your progress.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Thanks again, everyone, for joining us, and we'll see you uh on the next episode of the Home Service Heartbeat Podcast.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: Goodbye, everyone.