Al Levi - Post Production

Post-Production

1. OVERVIEW:

Name of Episode: HSE {Number of Episode} - {Name of Episode}

Guest: Al Levi

Topics covered: Operating Manuals, Communication, Efficiency

Format: Q&A

Estimated length: {Sum of each time of all sequences}

Link to raw files:

● Intro File
● {Main File}
● Outro File

Link to final audio: {Add Edited Audio Here}

 2. Detailed Information:
Suggested Sequence:
Sequence
Podcast Intro
Guest Introduction
Question 1: Tell us a little
bit about what you've been
up to lately, and a little bit
about how you got started
in the manual-making
business.
Audio Timestam Show notes Potential insights Quotes from guest Resources
File p for article Mentioned
Intro File Whole audio
2:37 [REMOVE 0:00 to 2:36] The 7-Power
-Al Levi Contractor
-Wrote The 7-Power Contractor
-Helps hundreds and hundreds of businesses get
organized
-Worked as a contractor in the HVAC plumbing business
for 25 years
-He's been rated one of the 25 most influential contractors
in the United States by Plumbing & Mechanical Magazine,
for which he is also a columnist
4:06 -Did plenty of one-to-one consulting, seminars, and “The great question that’s E-Myth
webinars over the last 17 years of his second career - always asked to me:
Came out of his own family business Where does my day go?
-”We figured out the secret that was always alluding us. Where'd my week go?
We were in New York City Union shop and we just couldn't Where'd my months go?
get guys to do stuff. If we can get people in the office do I'll tell you where it all
their stuff, it was always a problem. And you know, it's very goes. Five minutes at a
frustrating because I was really good at sales and really time. People coming up to
good at marketing and then my team was really good at you and you answering
blowing stuff up behind me. So I had to come back and pull questions off the cuff and
myself off and create systems. letting them just try to run
-It wasn't what I was desiring to do, but it was something your company on a word
that eluded me for a long time. of mouth. It doesn't work.
-So it started out innocently enough as I was in my truck It's not a sustainable
one day. I just realized while I was running a call that I'd be model.”
running calls forever if I didn't really start to document that
process

Question 2: So tell us a little
bit about what you did with
Jim Criniti and the changes
that that was able to do with
Zoom Drain.
-So that's where it began. And then I realized that this was
really good to start, you know, copying about how we do
our work. I took it to the office as well, how we answer the
phones, how we dispatch the accounts receivable,
accounts payable.
-We needed to have a manual to cover the 80% of what
we do. Otherwise you just find yourself going through the
same thing.
-Spent considerable time and money trying to write the
manuals, but paid for that investment within two years
through more efficient business processes
-Eventually reached the point where he could go on
vacation without being interrupted by the phone ringing
10:43 -He followed in the footsteps of what I did years ago at my “You can't multiply Jim Criniti
own company. yourself. You can't clone Zoom Drain
-Jim came out of the air force and he loved the idea of yourself.”
manuals and he recognized that the only real platform for
the company he envisioned would be getting the operating
manuals in place.
-Defining things like how you get dressed and how you
have meetings and what you do.
-They had the same problem I had had, which is guys
couldn't get dressed right. So they kept on lowering their
standards, you know, beat up jeans, meet up shirts and
sweatshirts.
-We put together a reason for exactly how they have to
dress, and took photos of them so that you know they
knew what to do. And then the funny part is people
stepped up, which is surprising. They want to be in a team
where there are some standards.
-One of the ways that he took really control of his
company: He once asked me, “What do I do if they come
to my meeting late?” And I said to him, “You close the door
on them and don't let them in cause they need to know that
meetings are sacred.
-So he calls me up about a week late. One of the guys was
late and he kicked the door closed in his face. And then I
went on with my meeting and I opened the door up and the
guy was on the other side of the door. And he started to
say “Well, I was only five minutes late. He goes, “You know
what? Open up the technician manual, turned to where it

Question 3: Tell me a little
bit about the triangle of
communication, the three
main essential things in any
home service business.
Question 4: Which areas of
says about attending meetings,” and he made the guy read
it out loud. And when the guy read it out loud, he looked at
Jim and he said, “I will never be late to a meeting again. So
the next week comes along and the guy was in his seat 15
minutes early.” And I would say, believe it or not, that was
one of the first big turning points for this company.
-It was tougher in my shop, which was, there was me, my
two older brothers and my dad and I only. Nothing was
objective, nothing in writing. And the guys hated it.
-What are the standards for how we do our work?
Whatever work you do, whether you're a painter,
carpenter, condo builder, kitchen cabinetry guy, garage
door guy... We have standards, and they have to be
objective.
16:56 -The ability of the customer service rep to answer the “Don't put anything in the
phone manual that you're not
-To build enthusiasm to get all the information right willing to enforce with
-And then turn it over to the dispatcher. each and every person.”
-The best shops have the CSR and the dispatcher
separate because they are two totally different skills.
-How do I maximize the day? How do I manage, minimize
windshield time? How do I get the productivity? How do I
maximize billable hours? How do I make customers
happy? Because all of this is about making customers
happy. So now they pass the information off to the
dispatcher who does all of that, working with the service
manager.
-And then they get all of that great information out to the
technician so that the technician can run the call with the
blinders off.
-Those are the three key manuals that fit pretty much every
business out there. That's in the home service business.
-There are times where you know, you either put too much
stuff in it or you could put stuff in there that you have no
desire that you're ever going to.
I've got a lot of different manuals up to 28 different
manuals, but nothing is more important than these three
key manuals and watching the videos and learning the
lessons.
22:29 -Plan, operations, staffing, sales, sales coaching, Quickbooks
the business do you find
that most owners have
trouble then when it comes
to fixing what's broken?
Question 5: What would you
say are the three most
common problems that the
operating manual can fix?
Question 6: What do you
say to people who think that
they don’t need an
operating manual because
their company’s doing just
fine?
marketing, financial: the seven things you need to do Servicetitan
-There are two things you have to focus on. More calls and
more techs.
-More calls: the right amount of calls from the right
customer at the right time.
-More techs: techs who can talk to a customer and make
them satisfied.
-If you don't have manuals, you don't have your own
training. You don't have your own set of standards, you
don't have a training center. How do you think that they
would magically know how you do work at your company?
They wouldn't. They just do it the way they were trained. -
We originally put together a tuneups, a big thing in the
HVAC business.A manual about how we do our annual
tuneups.
-Now the other part that's really important here is these are
like the 10 commandments. You come out, you go, Here is
the law and you must obey.”
26:50 -The absence of rules serving as building blocks in the
company
-The ineffectiveness of memos and verbal reprimands
-How to differentiate yourself from your competitors
31:25 -If you're really looking to grow your company beyond “Money is not the most Zig Ziglar
yourself, that's an issue. precious commodity.”
-If you ever tried to sell your company and you're not
systematic, why would I buy your company? If you're the “Once you know how you
magic sauce and you're not going to be around, that's kind create a manual, how you
of an issue take that manual, build a
-How is it that your company functions? It's not that you training center, how you
can't overcome it with a lot of sweat, but it's becomes build training curriculum,
exhausting and it becomes a limited quantity. then you can be in any
-It's how much time, energy, and money you’ll spend, and trade.”
where you’re going to spend it
-Money is not the most precious commodity. You can
borrow it. You can get a part or you could do a lot of
different things, even time you can leverage it through, but
your energy, where are you going to spend your energy? If
you have to micromanage your company? How do you
plan on growing your company? How do you plan on going
into the other segments that make sense? How do you,

Question 7: What’s your 43:50
take on business owners
who are getting confused
about the difference
between their salary and
their actual profit?
you know, duplicate yourself? How would you open up a a
spoke shop, you know, an hour away from where you are
today without repeatable systems?
-So many people have tried to build a grain business,
electrical business, you know, kitchen cabinetry business.
And what they do is they find one great person, but then
the one great person looks around and goes, “You know
what? It's just me. So who's in charge? Me or him?” And
the answer is they are. And the other thing is what
happens again, if they get sick, get hurt, or leave.
-If only one of us can do it, it's a hobby. And if all of us can
do this, it’s a trade.
-What's best for the customer is best for the company, is
best for the staff.
-” You have field supervisors that are not just riding around
all day, but that they can go out and make these guys
better. And because they have manuals, they have
something that they can hold them accountable to.”
-The four reasons that I care about your org chart is: -
Where am I today?
-Where can I go tomorrow with your company? Because
you said you offer a career, not a job.
-And then who really is my boss?
-If I have a question or a problem, who do I go talk to about
it? Do we have objectives and measurements for that?
-Once you have that, it changes your company and how
you operate and gets people to stay in and play.
-The organizational chart improves the communication and
visual accountability.
-You are the first person you're supposed to pay. Alan Ferguson
-One of your line items is to be in the budget about what Frank Blau
you're going to get, pay yourself and then what are you Ellen
looking for?
-When I come to a company, whether it's large or small or
whatever, the first thing I need to know is what is your top
line? And the second thing I need to know is your gross
profit. Cause you could have a high gross profit and not
enough dollars to cover everything?
-And so then we began to boil it down as to what it is that
you want to do.
-Everything comes from the budget.

Question 8: How time-
consuming is it to build your
own operating manual?
Question 9: What can you
say about keeping our lives
organized and how we
spend our time, money, and
manpower?
-Hey, by the way, if you don't make enough money, who
gets punished? Your customers. Yeah, that's true. Your
customers get punished first and foremost if you don't
make enough money.
-You are charging the price you need to charge. And that
comes from the budget. That is really in the customer's
best interest first because we've got to serve them in a way
that really benefits them.
-So if I don't make that either a package to replace all that
and explain why I'm doing it, I'm doing a disservice to the
customer. And if you think, well, I'm going to save a couple
of bucks, I'm just going to do the garbage disposal
tomorrow. When it's plugged up and the garbage is coming
back out of their sink, you think they're going to think that
it's has anything to do with the garbage disposal? Yeah,
they're going to think that that didn't need that thing. So
you are not doing a customer favor if you don't end. The
funny part is how it ties back to the manuals, which is n
even in Tommy's manuals, there are good conversation
starters in there about best practice or code requires
because there are things that code requires Tommy's
garage doors, safety dies.
-It's just so much stuff today and you have to be
accounting for this stuff in your budget and your money.
51:22 -You could make an org chart, make a list of tasks with “It's not about what you
posted notes and put it in. can roll out. It's about
-You have one page for each of the boxes or job what sticks.”
description. You are better off than having nothing.
-That means as different tasks come in and things have to
change, your manual changes, which means your job
descriptions change. It's far more flexible that way
-Otherwise it's going to come off like a law book. You'll feel
good for doing it and nobody at your company is ever
going to follow any of it.
54:02 -Time, energy, and money are the three things we manage “People want to win. It's
in the universe and the most precious is not the money. It's just our nature. We want
not even your time, it's the energy. to win.”
-You only have so much emotional energy in your wallet
today. Where did you squander it? Are you talking to the
same people about the same stuff? Are you putting out the

Question 10: Tell us about
your online training course.
Question 11: What insight
would you like to leave the
listeners with?
Podcast Outro
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fire that you thought was out yesterday that's going to
break out tomorrow because you really never got in and
dug in and put the things that really get this problem
addressed once and for all?
-Long time ago, I realized if I could build the path to better
techs that would stay on board with me and build a career
and the rest of it, everybody else has to try and catch me,
not the other way around.
56:57 -It took me a year to put together the the 28 videos to stitch http://www.7powercon
together all the pieces, the workbook that goes with it. tractor.com/build-
-We started out with the three key manuals for a couple of your-operating-
reasons, and because the triangle communication and manual-online-
CSR dispatcher tech is where companies need to be course/ref/tmello/
solidified.
-http://www.7powercontractor.com/build-your-operating-
manual-online-course/ref/tmello/
1:01:02 -Ask yourself: Right now, without documented policy and
procedure for the 80% of what goes on, you have to accept
how everybody at your shop does the job. Because until
you define it, they're free to do what the hell they want to
do.
Outro File Whole audio
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