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Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
2025 Recap for Service Business Owners to Learn Real Growth Wins and Apply Them in 2026
00:55:17
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- [00:00]
Tersh Blissett
AI has been a buzzword for a couple of years now, but a lot of companies are really going into the AI. They're fitting, they're hitting the AI space hard. We've spent so much money on testing out AI and automation tools just to see how they work because other people, when we recommend something we always want to make sure it works properly. So there's been a couple of them that have been complete busts. And like I had a video recording tool and it was cool in concept but it was so janky it didn't work. The batteries died.
- [00:40]
Podcast Narrator
Are you looking for valuable business advice to reach that seven figure revenue mark? Do you want actionable tips to properly navigate through every business challenge you encounter along the way? Let Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch be your guide in getting you to the top here at Service Business Mastery. Tune in as they sit down with world renowned authors in business leadership and personal growth who share valuable insights about management, marketing, pricing, human resources and so much more. Let their nuggets of wisdom gold guide you in owning a thriving, profitable and ever growing business. Here are your hosts, Tersh and Josh.
- [01:26]
Joshua Crouch
Today's episode is powered by Ciro Systems.
- [01:28]
Tersh Blissett
Sarah is all about removing the clutter and unnecessary touch points to run your home service business profitably.
- [01:34]
Joshua Crouch
They use AI dispatching to get the right tech to the right call automatically and job time efficiency to ensure your entire team runs like a profit generating machine.
- [01:42]
Tersh Blissett
Get a tech upgrade for your business at Get Sarah Tech Forward Slash Service Business.
- [01:51]
Joshua Crouch
Okay folks, listen up. Pricing transparency is taking over the home improvement industry. More and more of your competitors are now offering instant online estimates and price ranges on their websites. So why is this happening? For one, homeowners are demanding this transparency. Every shopper today wants at least a sense of what they're going to pay for your services. Two companies that add a pricing estimator see a 3, 300 to 500% jump in leads and three AI tools like ChatGPT are now more likely to recommend contractors who show pricing online instead of hiding behind a call for quote button. Still skeptical? So were a lot of folks until they tried Price Guide, the tool my friend Marcus Sheridan built specifically for home improvement companies. The results? More trust, way more leads and more AI visibility. You can have your estimator live in under an hour. Less than $30 a month. This is the future. Check it out at www.priceguide.AI. now back to your episode.
- [02:55]
Tersh Blissett
Hello everyone out there in podcast world. Hope you're having a wonderful day. You're listening to or watching the service Business Mastery Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Tersh Blissett, sitting virtually next to my co host, Joshua Crouch. And what a year it has been as we wrap up 2025. Josh and I wanted to sit down and look at everything that has happened. The wins and the lessons, what's coming next?
- [03:17]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah, and honestly, when our team and I were pulling these numbers, we literally were blown away. As you guys know, Terse has had the podcast for eight years now, which is crazy to think about. And these numbers, every year we look at these, they just keep accelerating, which says a lot. And obviously we're so appreciative of everyone that watches, listens, comments, DMS us, texts us, whatever way you communicate with us. We're super for all of your support. Without listeners and people that actually tune into our show, this wouldn't be possible. But with that being said, let's get into the numbers.
- [03:52]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah, let's start with the stats because they tell the story of the community that we built out. This year alone we've had almost, we're sitting at just under 4 million downloads of all times, nearly 50 episodes released. Over 50 guests were interviewed this year.
- [04:07]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah, and that's also picked up on YouTube too. I mean we've had over 129,9000 views of our videos, which are obviously almost all podcast related, which is an 18 increase over last year. We've had over 2, 000 hours of watch time. It's crazy to think about that. People have watched our ugly mugs for 2,000 hours and we've had over 4,400 new subscribers this year, which is almost a thousand percent increase. And it's all thanks to you guys. The journey, sharing the message, sharing our voices to other people that, you know.
- [04:38]
Tersh Blissett
It'S people like you that are listening and learning to help grow their business and experience things that others have had challenges with sometimes and learn from others. Lessons. I was literally just talking to someone this morning and we were talking about best practice groups. One of the things that we were talking about is, you know, which best practice group is, is works for you. And some of what we were talking about, all the different ones that we really know and have trusted and, and experienced over the years. And some of the things that we were talking about is like you can have, I could say, you know, take company and they could join this best practice group over here and they have amazing success. But then company B does the same thing and they don't have quite as the same amount of success. And a lot of what you'll Find. What I've found over the years is the engagement and the interaction that they have with each other, like, how much you pay attention, how fast you implement. And the things you implement, they really help you to grow. And that's one of the biggest things, is like listening to the podcast and us having experience and talking to people who have experienced, you know, the good, bad, and the ugly and use their pains as a gain for yourself. And that's what the reason I started the podcast was originally. That exact thing. Like, I was able to talk to people about the things that they're dealing with. And it was really good experience for me because I was able to skip over a lot of the potential pain points because I learned from their lessons themselves.
- [06:05]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah. And it's so true. Like, I even think about the clients that have more success with digital marketing with us, versus the ones that implement the things we talk about. There's so much information out there. You guys all know if you've been a part of the podcast, online circle and Facebook and everything else, you know who the influencers, for lack of a better term, are in the space. There's good ones, there's bad ones. But the thing is, find one that you resonate with. Find a coaching group, whoever you res, and just focus on whatever it is they're teaching. Because there are a million ways to grow a home service business, or any business for that matter. You just have to focus. But if you're listening to them for one thing, then you're distracted by another thing and you're distracted by another one. You get too many mixed signals, so you end up. What happens is you get confused. And so just like when your homeowners don't know which system to choose or which company choose, they're confused because there's too much information. You have to simplify it for them and just focus and just do the thing that is in front of you. We talk about this at conferences because we're going to get into some of the numbers of events that Tertia and I have gone to this last year. We actually did not travel as much as last year. I know some of you guys probably like, well, you guys travel all the time. Like, we actually traveled less in 2025 versus 2024. But we see people go to those events and we almost always with our breakout sessions and speaking gigs that we have, we always tell people, find two or three things, the entire event that you are going to go home and immediately implement. It's no different than when we have a guest on the Podcast, find one thing that guest gave because all of our guests give a tremendous amount of value and we're so appreciative that people want to be on the show. Find one thing and implement it. If you do that every single time you listen to an episode, every time you, single time you go to a trade show, you're going to look back and like Tersh and I, we talked about eight years. I mean think of the things that you've implemented since day one. I bet you if you went back and listened to your ugly ass 8 years ago on the podcast, you'd be like, who was that guy?
- [07:58]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah, that's cringe worthy stuff for sure. But I actually, there were things that were put out. I remember having guests on the show and I was like, oh, this is so much gold. Like should I release it right now or should I wait? And I was like, nah, I can't hold it, I can't gatekeep. And then some of those things are, are things that I hear you talk about on, on your videos and, and your shorts and reels. There are things on there that I, I've listened to, I've gone back and listened to because I was like, man, there was, there was something that was gold. I can't remember exactly what it was. And I, and I went back and listened and immediately it was, it was about your, my business account or Google business profile. And it back then it wasn't, it was called the, you know, my business or whatever. And it's had a few, yeah, it's gone through a few iterations but it, I was like, oh shoot, that's still gold. Like way back in the day. I mean it's, and it's something that people still don't do with their business profile. But that being said, if you're listening in on this and you've listened to multiple episodes, which episode helped you the most this year? We're interested in that and we'd love to hear your feedback on the one that you really got the most value out of because we'd love to just, you know, create more, more content that's going to help you.
- [09:21]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah. In, in our, our entire plan. Because we're doing year end planning just like every other business is to beef up our team so our content is better and it's more relatable. It's things that you really want to see in here or need to see in here. And we have real benefit of the podcast and this media channel is that a lot of really smart people want to share their story or help other people. Like, honestly, I feel like if any, out of everyone that probably listens to our show, I feel like I've bought the most stuff by having these guests on the show. I buy software and different things, services from our guests all the time. Because I'm like, yes, I need that for my business. And immediately as we're talking, like, yep, I'm going to talk to him afterwards, I'm going to get a demo and I'm going to sign up. It's not what I envisioned when I came on as a co host about four and a half years ago. That'd be buying a bunch of stuff from people I'm interviewing. But it happens to be that way because the information is so good and it's something I needed to hear at the time. I needed to hear it.
- [10:26]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah, you're 100% right. So speaking of events, you know we went to, you mentioned we didn't go to as many as we did last year, which we still hit like 20, 20 events or something like that.
- [10:38]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah, we hit over 20. And I feel, I mean, October, I don't think you and I were home at all. I literally think we lived on the road, which was, was. And not only did we live on the road, normally we just go to other people's events. We, for the first time ever, with the help of Carol, our podcast manager, Julie, which is Tersha's wife that you guys know, and a couple other people, managed to host our own event for trade automation pros. And we had over about 120 people there, which was. Once you run an event, you realize just how much work and effort goes in behind the scenes that a lot of people don't ever see. So we had that in addition to the travel and then during the same time period, Tersh and I also had hired a really well known keynote speaking coach so we could improve the way we present and how we deliver information from stage to make a bigger impact when people listen to us. Which of course rolls into podcasts and everything else that we do. But it's, it's a lot of miles, a lot of handshakes and a ton of really, really good conversations about what's happening in the trades. What, what do you feel is going on? Where do you think things are headed? Ahri shipment data, like just all over the board. We got such good information, which of course, we try to do our best to share as much of that as possible.
- [12:06]
Tersh Blissett
With that being said, Josh, which, which events do you think stood out the most to you? Because there's a couple events that, you know, we go to every year, and we absolutely love hanging out with the people. The networking is great. And they. I mean, Spark. The BDR Spark event was a really good one. The. The keynote there, man.
- [12:31]
Joshua Crouch
What is his name?
- [12:31]
Tersh Blissett
I. I'm drawn to.
- [12:34]
Joshua Crouch
Great story.
- [12:35]
Tersh Blissett
Oh, gosh. His. And he went viral on Tik Tok. He was selling T shirts in high school, like a serial entrepreneur. And that was. That was really cool.
- [12:45]
Joshua Crouch
He created the, like, the fake marathon or something.
- [12:48]
Tersh Blissett
The fake marathon, yeah. That's my kind of guy right there.
- [12:51]
Joshua Crouch
He, like, sold it out. And it just. It was all about how to. How to position your brand differently and think differently. Because a lot of times we look at the competitor on the street, know they're offering a $49 tune up. So we're going to offer a $39 tuneup. Right? Because we're. We honestly do a disservice to ourselves in the industry. We just keep driving down the price because the competitor. We want to be $100 cheaper than the competitor. And instead of how do we think differently? So people position themselves and are looked at differently. For me, I mean, I'm going to be biased because I mentioned. All right. It's our event. It was so cool to see that come together. It was really awesome to see the impact that it had on people and how they realize that there's a different way of thinking that can. Can lead to even better results where they don't hate their business. They don't get burnt out by their business. They're not doing all this monotonous stuff that they hate doing every day. And then, of course, we had Marcus shared in there. Marcus is fantastic when he talks about online pricing. Everyone like, Tertian, I can talk about it. And. And yeah, you got to do this and why and all this stuff. And he talks when everyone's like, oh, okay, I got to do that. I'm like, yeah, I slap you in the face right now because I've told you 10 times you got to do that and you haven't done it yet.
- [14:06]
Tersh Blissett
Isn't that always fun?
- [14:07]
Joshua Crouch
What else stood out to you this year, Ter, as far as 2025? Because I know October was a blur, but what else stood out to you this fall that was really impactful?
- [14:16]
Tersh Blissett
AI has been a buzzword for a couple years now, but a lot of companies are really going into the AI. They're fitting. They're. They're hitting the AI space hard.
- [14:28]
Joshua Crouch
You almost feel like now because we're like three Years into this, that's. There is probably starting to be a little bit of. What's the word I'm looking for? Just like overkill. Like people are tired of hearing about it already.
- [14:41]
Tersh Blissett
Oh yeah, like the fatigue.
- [14:42]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah, fatigue. That's the word I was looking for.
- [14:45]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah, I can definitely see that for sure because it's, it's everywhere. I mean, like I said, it's the buzzword. And there's so many, there's so many people out there that are like, yeah, okay, well I, I bought, I paid for that product, that's an AI product. And come to find out it was just an automation product or blah, blah, blah, you know, this, that and the other. So I could totally see that. And there's. As contractors, we're jaded anyways, I feel like, because we've been burnt by so many vendors in the past. And so for me, like I've signed up for. Oh man. You know, with the podcast and with trade automation pros, we've spent so much money on testing out AI and automation tools just to see how they work. Because other people, like, like we just want to, when we recommend something, we always want to make sure it works properly. And so there's been a couple of them that have been complete busts. And like I had an AI video recording tool and it was cool in concept, but it was so janky it didn't work, the batteries died. Like it, it was just, you could record for about two hours and it was supposed to be like something that you could record for two weeks without recharging it and come to find out that's far nothing further from the truth on that one. And I won't say who it is because I won't, I don't want to say anything negative about a product, but there was a, there's another one that actually Bill Brown recommended at our event and it's called the B and it's B dot computer. And there's no referral or anything like that, there's no affiliate marketing associated with it. But it is a really, really cool product for the cost of what it is because it's like 45 or 55 bucks and it's like a Fitbit size bracelet and it geotags where you're at. It takes notes like all day long and sends you a summary of what you talked about throughout the day. And if you have an iPhone, I know, and I don't know about Android, but I know for a fact on iPhones, it'll actually take and add to your to do list items into your to do list inside of your phone, like the app itself. So if you're talking about something I've. I've done this, like, and said, hey, we need to order paper towels. Like somebody in the. The. The. The house was. We were talking about it, and it said it adds this little checklist on the app and it says, do you want to add this to your to do list? And it's like, order paper towels. I was like, oh, yeah, I completely forgot about that. And so then it adds it to my to do list to order.
- [17:37]
Joshua Crouch
Brittany would love if I wore something like that. She would tell me and I'd actually remember what she told me.
- [17:42]
Tersh Blissett
Right. And the thing about this is, like, at the end of the day, I get a full summary of. Of all the different conversations that I had. If I want to listen to the whole, like, the actual conversation, like, I can click on it and get the full transcription and listen to the whole thing and. Or I can just have this, the summary of what. What we were talking about. And then you could actually go back and ask it, like, questions pertaining to things in the past. So, like, I had. I asked the question one time. I was like, when's the last time I ate steak? And it went through the history and it was like four days ago you had steak. And I was like, dang. Like, it just the things it tracked, even though it didn't notate it, it still was keeping track of it.
- [18:27]
Joshua Crouch
And it's almost creating your own library. Like, it's. It's a. It's like an outside or an outside your own brain's brain. I don't know, probably a better way to put that, but, like, it's like your own external brain.
- [18:39]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah. 101.
- [18:41]
Joshua Crouch
That recalls everything, not just the things that we remember. Right?
- [18:45]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah. We're so guilty of doing things. Like, because, you know, your brain's associated. It's associated with some smell and. And. And different sounds. So like, you listen to a song and you remember something or you smell something, and then it brings back a memory. But you don't always remember all of the details. You remember it the way you perceived it at the time. And a device like this, it's just black and white. It's going to remember all the details. And so it's really cool to see a different perspective after the fact, because there were things that I asked it because this. I made. Actually made a post on social media that I literally just copied and pasted from this app onto Facebook because it has like, little prompts. And it says, am I a good dad? And I was like, that's gonna. This is a tough one here. Like, this is gonna be a gut punch, you know? And it went through all the things, and it was like, you know, your wife's moved halfway across the country, and you're stepping up and know you're going to soccer practice. And a lot of things are the same things that we normally do, but we don't ever give ourselves the credit. And we do the same thing in business. Like, there's so many wins.
- [19:59]
Joshua Crouch
We're always looking for what's next.
- [20:01]
Tersh Blissett
Right?
- [20:01]
Joshua Crouch
It's. Yeah, it's hard.
- [20:02]
Tersh Blissett
And we don't, like, stop and say, good job. Like, you've done a good job. And that's exactly what that did. And I was like, all right, so I'm not completely failing at this right now. So. Yeah, I mean, to have that. That AI device, like, really to be cost effective and not some crazy, like, monthly subscription. Not that that the other devices have crazy monthly subscriptions, except for one device that I will complain about that just got purchased by Meta. I. I'm not a fan of it. And it's expensive, so you can put the.
- [20:41]
Joshua Crouch
You can put the pieces together on which one that is.
- [20:44]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah.
- [20:44]
Joshua Crouch
Ter, I want to talk quickly. Well, quickly.
- [20:48]
Tersh Blissett
Ish.
- [20:49]
Joshua Crouch
Because we never really talk quickly ish about the first keynote we had this year and how it felt like stepping on that stage with I don't know how many people in the audience. 3, 4, 500 something. You know, we didn't count, so several hundred people. What did it feel? What do you recall while we were sitting in the back before stepping out for the first time ever, to really get in front of a large group to try to change their mind about something, which we all know is as hard to change, to change someone's thought perception.
- [21:18]
Tersh Blissett
I think we nailed it. By the end of the presentation, everybody could. Could say, exactly. Optimize, Automate, delegate. And to the point to where it was almost comical, or it was comical at the end of the presentation. But I honestly, I enjoyed just watching you being nervous, because I wasn't nervous at all. Like, during those times, those periods of time, I. I am. I think it's probably my military training that during times of pressure like that, that's whenever I'm just. I could go take a nap.
- [21:59]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah. It's so interesting because Tersh was sitting, so we were on opposite sides, and we did that on purpose coming up on stage. And this is. This is. We're explaining this. So the guys that weren't there can. Can picture this. Ter was sitting in his chair, and he probably watched me. I was just pacing because that's what I do. I do the same thing when I talk on the phone. I just. I pace. And I was just pacing. I went over to him a couple times, and he's like, he's ready for a nap. And I'm like, dude, I'm, like, sweating. I'm, like, ready to go and throw down. And he's. It just. It was comical, like, how unique different people can be in the same exact situation. But that's what I remember just backstage, because it was, like. It was just that nervous, anxious energy, and I was just ready to get it, like, start, because I knew as soon as we. We landed the first bit, we were gonna be fine. I just wanted to land the first bit and get it going. Like, I don't like the. The preparation beforehand. It just. It makes me anxious. And that's what I remember. Sitting back. It was just that. The anxiety of, like, okay, let's just get it started. I know the content's good. I know we've rehearsed this. We practiced. We paid a coat. Like, we're good, but let's just get it going. Like, stop. There was, like. There was a couple presentations and awards ahead of us. I'm like, all right, come on. Like, let's go. I don't want to sit here any longer.
- [23:18]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah. And the thing about this is doing a keynote on a large stage like that, you really can't see the audience either. You can see, like, the. The first row of tables, but the other than that, you can't see, you know, to the back. Towards the back of the room. And so as. As long as the. The front tables were engaging and would laugh when they were supposed to laugh and not laugh when they're not supposed to laugh, then I was like, okay, we're good. We're. I'm not. I'm not sweating it. It almost made it so that it felt like you were talking to, like, 20 or 30 people, which is pretty cool, too.
- [23:52]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah. So we do have a. A question. All these questions that we're asking, because as we're recording this, we're. We're actually not recording this, where we're, like, super live on social and then prepared. So to get, like, audience engagement, which we do sometimes. But as you guys are listening to this, what events are you planning to attend in 2026? That's something we'd love for you to let us know because that's a way for us to stay connected with our audience and also have a chance to talk with you guys. Because a lot of you guys, we meet in person and you guys know who we are and we don't like, we can't, we don't know we might have seen you on Facebook. We don't necessarily know you face to face. And it's always good to have those face to face conversations about things that are you're going through in your life and your business and stuff because, because of what, I don't know, 6, 700 episodes that have been on the show, we have so many connections that typically within a quick conversation we're able to connect you with someone that can solve the challenge that you're going through. And that's why it's so powerful for us to be able to get out at these events, see you face to face, and learn more about what's also going on in the industry.
- [24:54]
Tersh Blissett
Hello home service Professionals. Do you want to maximize your marketing budget? Then you need to be using call tracking from CallRail. Let's say you've noticed a spike in new leads this month. To find out what's driving them, you just log into your CallRail dashboard. Is my new Facebook ad outperforming my other ads? Or is paid search knocking it out of the park? Or maybe it's time to retire those newspaper ads. Since CallRail assigns a unique phone number to each of my marketing efforts, I know where my best leads come from and which efforts to scrap. CallRail shows you your most cost effective marketing channels so you can get back to business. Go to CallRail.com sbmpod and try it for free. Today's episode is brought to you by one of our show partners, upfrog.
- [25:41]
Joshua Crouch
Upfrog is the OG when it comes to pricing transparency online. They find system replacement leads through paid ads and have developed an entire system to drive those hard to find system replacement opportunities. Nurture the leads and book them into sold systems before your team arrives to.
- [25:57]
Tersh Blissett
Help you grow your business. Learn more @UpfrogIO I want to give a huge shout out to Market Storm for sponsoring today's episode.
- [26:03]
Joshua Crouch
You've heard of Google Ads, Facebook ads and SEO, but did you know that there's an entire ecosystem like each 80% of the Internet that ads can be served on that you've barely heard about?
- [26:11]
Tersh Blissett
That's where marketstorm operates.
- [26:13]
Joshua Crouch
They leverage data, science and AI to build customer profiles for your ideal customers and get your ads in front of prospects before they are ready to hire a pro, planting your brand in their minds early and often.
- [26:24]
Tersh Blissett
To chat with a team about how they can help you grow your business, visit MarketStorm AI. If you're a contractor with multiple CSRs, check out this service. Business Mastery podcast partner Lace AI. Lace uses Cutting Edge AI to analyze your phone calls, uncover lost revenue opportunities and empower your CSRs to convert more leads. You can significantly increase revenue without spending extra on marketing or hiring. By using LACE AI to boost your conversion rates for the first time, you can gain deep insights into customer needs at scale with minimal effort. Elevate your call center to achieve industry leading booking rates and revenue. Visit www.lace.AI to book a demo today. Now back to the show. Yeah, 100% like, with that being said, like out of like 50 plus interviews that, that we did this, this year, let's talk about some of the favorite moments that you had in just in the interviews in general because there's a couple of them where I didn't think I'd be very interested. And then about halfway through I was like, huh, okay, that's pretty interesting. And obviously the ones that are more recent we're going to remember a lot better than the ones that we, that we, we've seen or we talked to earlier in the year. But like what, what conversation surprised you the most? Like I could, it's easy to say which one did you enjoy the most? But which one did you get the, the biggest surprise out of, do you think?
- [28:05]
Joshua Crouch
There's probably a little bit of recency bias with this one and I don't even know if this one's live yet, so if not, and by the time you listen to this, keep an eye out for it. But we had a conversation with a company called Mantle.
- [28:15]
Tersh Blissett
That's the one that surprised me too. Yeah.
- [28:17]
Joshua Crouch
Well, and so what's interesting is there's not like a lot of industries do a lot of surveys, but the home service industry just doesn't have a lot of data from, especially from homeowners. They have a lot from contractors and manufacturers and marketing agencies and stuff like that. But the, the data that he was sharing because AI search is an AI, everything as we already alluded to, is dominating headlines. And those conversations always get more engagement online. But the, the fact of the matter is it's not actually driving a whole lot of revenue and conversions for contractors at least yet.
- [28:56]
Tersh Blissett
Will it?
- [28:56]
Joshua Crouch
We don't know, but it's not yet. And that conversation was really good because they surveyed like 420 or 430 homeowners and asked them a series of questions. Where did you find someone? And actually one of the most surprising things on there was referrals and word of mouth were like number two and three after Google from where they find contractors. It was. Which is crazy because like, think of how much money we spend in marketing in, in general in our businesses. And if you just get referrals and word of mouth, right. You got two of the top three ways people buy new systems. The mat. Like imagine that all the stuff, all the stuff that gets put out there, all the stuff I talk about, all stuff Terse talks about our guests, referrals and. And I'm sorry, referrals and word of mouth are kind of the same thing, but it was referrals. And if they knew someone previously, I think is how they worded that. Like if they already had a previous relationship with a contractor. Imagine if you doubled down on the people side of things, made people feel a certain way about your services and then nurtured them so they talked about you and remembered you when somebody else needed you. Those two things alone. You don't have to worry so much about AI search and Google. You're still going to grow or at least have enough opportunities so you can at least, you know, keep your business at a certain level. So those are probably some of the more surprising things. And I, I still have that data actually up on a tab on my screen because I keep referring back to it to kind of figure out how I can use that and some content and stuff. What about you, Church? Which conversation? Let's do this. If. Because it's a lot of episodes and I know we have a lot of questions. We also have other means later today. So I. We could probably talk about like three hours on this episode. If somebody was new to listening to the podcast, let's say they found us. Cause actually we. We had a friend share that he put in a prompt. This is a quick, funny story. He put in a prompt. He was driving four hours and wanted to know which podcast he's listening to. And we were, we were number three on AI search on ChatGPT, which was really cool to see. But. So let's say somebody like him didn't know us found our podcast. What episode would you tell them to start with? That's a tough question.
- [31:05]
Tersh Blissett
That is a really tough question. Actually, I would have to go with whatever topic is their biggest pain point at this moment. So it's easy for us to pick out our favorite ones, the ones that we had the most engagement with or the ones that we, you know, enjoyed talking about a lot because of, you know, it's something that we enjoy like a topic that we enjoy. But as a listener, honestly, whatever you're dealing with right at this moment, like for me it's dealing with an overload of just. Redundancy. Like as an automation guy, you shouldn't, like you. I shouldn't be saying anything about like redundancy and having a lot of repetitive tasks going on, but that's what I'm dealing with right now. So I would honestly search right now, just search on the website on service businessmastery.com and say like automation and see what pops up. Now there's a chance that a lot of things are going to pop up because we talk a lot about automation. But if someone was dealing with the same thing that I'm dealing with right now, I would all. I would also probably lean towards a mindset and let me think who did we talk to? I feel like it was at, at one of the events. Oh, you know what it was? It was at the Rilla Masters. That was this year, right?
- [32:48]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah, that was February or March.
- [32:52]
Tersh Blissett
So that feels like a long time ago. But it was. Oh, what's his name from, from Utah. Dustin.
- [33:04]
Joshua Crouch
Dustin Van Norman. That was a great conversation.
- [33:08]
Tersh Blissett
That was a really good conversation. That was, that was solid. That conversation and the conversation that we had with, with.
- [33:21]
Joshua Crouch
Mike. David from David. Sorry, I'm trying to think of the people.
- [33:25]
Tersh Blissett
Mike was a good one too. Mike is a good. Mike is a great one on Mindset too.
- [33:29]
Joshua Crouch
I mean he's got a great story.
- [33:31]
Tersh Blissett
He does have a great story. All those guys have a great story and those two were, were probably the best. One of the, some of the best mindset stories that we. Conversations that we had. I think the one with, with David from Pika, that was, that was a really good one on, on just industry in general and AI and where it's going and, and where it's. It's come so far in the trades. But yeah, those, those two mindset ones with, with Dustin and, and Michael were. Those were some solid conversations for sure.
- [34:09]
Joshua Crouch
Thank you to companycam for supporting today's episode.
- [34:12]
Tersh Blissett
These guys are changing the game for contractors with their smart photo app.
- [34:15]
Joshua Crouch
Keep your projects documented and streamline your team's communication with even your most complicated jobs.
- [34:21]
Tersh Blissett
Try that for free for 14 days and get 25% off of your first two months@companycam.com SVM yeah, absolutely.
- [34:30]
Joshua Crouch
So our, our question for you guys because we, look, we haven't really talked about. We don't have enough time to talk about like 2025. A lot of ups, a lot of downs this year. I would. In my opinion, this was the hardest year for contractors since pre covered. I, I almost without a doubt, like, I don't, I don't even know if I would get in too many arguments about that. A lot of different things happen this year. Tariffs, price increases, new equipment, regulations, AI search, just the consumer behavior. It's all hitting at one time, which makes it feel so incredibly overwhelming. But we'd love to know because we want to end the year on a High note. Into 2026, what was your biggest win in 2025? Feel free to share that either on our Facebook group Service Business mastery or message us directly or email us whatever way is easiest for you to communicate. We'd love to know what your biggest wins are so we can share and celebrate those and be your biggest cheerleader.
- [35:30]
Tersh Blissett
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Josh. I want to slide into like something a little bit fun. Like so for those who don't know, I built an automation several years ago that sends Josh a dad joke every day. And thankfully I was quick witted enough to build this automation in my personal Zapier account, not our business Zapier account. So then Josh can't get to it to turn it off. Um, and so this, this dad joke gets sent to him every single day inside Slack and then in on Facebook. With that being said, out of all those dad jokes that you really didn't like, how which one?
- [36:09]
Joshua Crouch
You know, I wish I would have looked at these ahead of time because I feel like you've updated the prompt somewhat recently because the jokes are getting better. Like I actually commented on one like last week. I'm like, oh, that was pretty good because sometimes it gets a little repetitive. I'm like, yeah, I've seen that one, I've seen that one. I've seen that one. And some of them, at one point they were all like Halloween themed.
- [36:30]
Tersh Blissett
I know it was goofy. And it was supposed to be smart. Like this is the, the epitome of AI. So it was supposed to know the date and it was supposed to talk about the next holiday. And it kept thinking it was October and it was not October. It was doing it during the middle of the summertime, like May, June, July. And I'm like, July 4th, that's a, I mean that's a softball right there. And you're still throwing like, why is the scarecrow in the field? Or whatever. I don't remember what it was. Skeleton ain't Got no guts. I remember that. That joke being sent like four or five times. I was like, okay, next.
- [37:11]
Joshua Crouch
So, yeah, I feel like as far as jokes, Tertia and I kind of. We can. It's a little hard when we do presentations. We've actually gotten feedback not to do so many jokes in person because not everyone gets our sense of humor. So we do a lot more on air on the podcast, and we're able to kind of do that. I know I get made fun of a lot for my age, even though. And I'm setting the record straight here. Tertia's older than I am, and his birthday is coming up in like two days or three days or some. Something soon he's gonna be. He's a year older than. You're 40. Gonna be 41, right?
- [37:40]
Tersh Blissett
I'll be 40.
- [37:41]
Joshua Crouch
Knew you're. Shut up, dude. You are already 40. I know you're older than I am. I may seasoned, but I not older.
- [37:49]
Tersh Blissett
Why was the math book sad? Because it had too many problems.
- [37:52]
Joshua Crouch
What would you say the most embarrassing moment we had on air on stage this year was?
- [37:58]
Tersh Blissett
I don't know, dude, because I don't get embarrassed very easily. I just roll with it. What about you?
- [38:06]
Joshua Crouch
I feel like we're a little past some of that, like, embarrass. It would take a lot to embarrass us in front of a bunch of people. I almost feel like we're better at embarrassing other people when they talk to us than we are getting embarrassed.
- [38:22]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah, that's. That's. We're guilty of that for sure.
- [38:27]
Joshua Crouch
If you got. If you had to describe this year in one word, what would it be?
- [38:35]
Tersh Blissett
Man, Is that a word?
- [38:37]
Joshua Crouch
Is that a word?
- [38:39]
Tersh Blissett
That's the word I'd use. Sure.
- [38:42]
Joshua Crouch
I would say growth, I think. One, all of our businesses have grown. Two, Tertia and I went outside of what our comfort zone had been to grow further with how we present ourselves and how we speak, which that was challenging. Like, we really had to dig deep into some of that stuff. And, like, because being a podcast guest host is a lot easier than people think it is. Like, sure, you still have to ask questions. You have to think of stuff on the fly and be a good conversationalist. But you can bounce all over the.
- [39:15]
Tersh Blissett
Place anytime and naturally inquisitive, like we always are. Like, oh, well, that's interesting. Let's dive deeper into that.
- [39:22]
Joshua Crouch
Yeah. And on stage, when you have to deliver something that builds on itself and you have to stay on task, that is for people that like to bounce all over the place. That is a challenge to rein us in along enough to do that.
- [39:36]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah. And you have to do it within a certain time frame while educating and motivating people. It's completely different. And even like we had been killing it on breakouts because we. The previous year we did 32 breakouts and so we were. I feel like we were pretty good in the breakout section. But we could show like, okay, this is how you fix your problem. Okay, this is your problem. This is how you fix it. And like if you have any problems, just ask us questions after the, after the presentation and you could show like step by step, here's a zap. You know, here's what make.com is, here's what n8n. And then we go to. All right, now we need to motivate people into doing what needs to be done in order to make all of these automations work, work properly. And so yeah, that was a massive transition.
- [40:30]
Joshua Crouch
We'd love to hear what your guys's favorite podcast episode, your favorite moment, if you saw us in person, was just your favorite moment overall that impacted you enough to remember it when we ask you that question and send that to us because it'd be super cool to see what you guys retain and remember versus what we remember and retain throughout the year.
- [40:54]
Tersh Blissett
Oh man. Which episode didn't. Almost didn't happen? There was a couple of those.
- [41:00]
Joshua Crouch
That's hard for me to remember. I feel like because we're not really in the day to day of scheduling these anymore. Carol almost always.
- [41:09]
Tersh Blissett
Carol does a great job.
- [41:11]
Joshua Crouch
So I mean I see stuff get rescheduled all the time and whatnot because it's, it's kind of the nature of being in the podcast industry. Like you can venture to guess that like 25 of our podcast episodes will probably be revenue rescheduled at some point.
- [41:23]
Tersh Blissett
But Steve Scarborough, that was a, a great conversation that almost didn't happen.
- [41:29]
Joshua Crouch
And Steve is the. He's president of lg.
- [41:33]
Tersh Blissett
LG America or us. You.
- [41:36]
Joshua Crouch
I think it's. Yes. Think of, think of lg LG as a company like LG America.
- [41:40]
Tersh Blissett
That's.
- [41:41]
Joshua Crouch
It's a pretty big deal.
- [41:43]
Tersh Blissett
Yeah, right. And he's such a down to earth guy and a really just a. Hey, he's like Marcus Sheridan. Like it's just a great person.
- [41:52]
Joshua Crouch
It happens so fast, you know. You know what else is really cool this year? We got to interview. Interview Danica freaking Patrick, dude. Most. Almost every. Of course I couldn't ask her why. Why she broke up with Aaron Rodgers. It Broke my heart when they broke up when she was with the Packers.
- [42:06]
Tersh Blissett
And then we started talking AI at the. @ the end of our conversation, and she's like, oh, we're starting to talk about something interesting. And then her person was like, all right, let's go. Let's get off of.
- [42:14]
Joshua Crouch
Here. You think people like that are going to be kind of stuffy and. Because they're. They. She has, like, a. For lack of a better term, a handler, right? That, like, hey, go here, go. And like, she was waving us down. And Danica, like, finally. You could tell she finally gotten to that point where she was, like, really getting into the conversation, and then we had to cut it and. Which was disappointing, but it is what it is. We're. We kind of knew that going into. We had about 15 minutes, and we tried to squeeze, like, 20 out of her. But that one. That one was definitely a. A difficult one for us to get. Like, that's not common for us to get, like, celebrities on the show. So that was. That was a really cool moment this year. So let's look ahead to 2026, because I know I'm looking at the time on my screen and we're. There's already, like.
- [42:56]
Tersh Blissett
Another. Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh.
- [42:58]
Joshua Crouch
Yes. Sorry, Justin. Sorry, Justin. But, so what are you most excited about. Excited about for.
- [43:07]
Tersh Blissett
2026? 2026. We. So Josh and I, we've been developing an AI product, and we've. We've been struggling with managing it properly, and we were very fortunate to have a partner come on. So we have a third founder that has come on, Bill Brown, and I'm excited to see what. Where PhoneTap goes this year. It's. It's a great product, and it has the potential to be amazing for contractors who. I feel like they get overlooked sometimes. I feel like the contractors who are just starting out all the way up to like, a couple million dollars a year in revenue kind of get stepped over because they're not. That's not the profit, you know, they're not the profitable contractors to be, you know, get money off of. So this product is going to help take care of them, and I'm excited to see where it goes. I'm excited to see what Bill does. I was. I was in meeting with him today and just listening to him interact with our developers. It's just like, oh, yeah, this is what we needed right.
- [44:23]
Joshua Crouch
Here. It was. He was kind of the missing piece for us because Church and I are not software developers, but Bill has a background in software engineering and that's why we're so excited. And it came together really fast actually. And again, it was being at these events. We had talked multiple times at Service World Expo and at the end of the event we're like, should we just partner up? It was literally like that. Like, yeah, let's set a call and let's talk about it. And of course we figure out the logistics. And sometimes I think people think those conversations take months or years and sometimes they take minutes because it just makes sense. But that's super exciting. I'm also excited about our TAP accelerator. TAP stands for Trade Automation Pros. We started because we have a DIY course and community which several of you guys probably know about, but we have a more of a done with you. Because the thing is with automation and AI and this technology, you need a guide. You need someone that can help you through the journey. And we're hoping that you guys know enough about us and trust us enough that that's us and we can help you and your company get there. So you guys start thinking about how you can save not only your time, but your team's time. Because at the end of the day, and I actually, we just had our annual planning session for Relentless Digital. I told my team this too. With AI, we're going to go heavy into the technology, but I want our team to focus on being better people and people first, because that is going to be the differentiator. As everyone goes to AI voice and AI chat and AI selling and everything else that's coming. Your difference is going to be your people. And in order to have people that aren't overwhelmed, overburdened, burnt out, they need more time to do the things that they are exceptional at. And in order to do that, you have to automate some redundant things in the background. And so that's super exciting. We've actually are in the mid. We're like halfway through our first one and it's been great so far. We actually have people already wanting to sign up for the one in January. So if you're listening to this and that's something you're interested in, please let us know so we can get you the information. So that way you can get your company started for the new year on the right track and automating tasks inside your.
- [46:35]
Tersh Blissett
Business. Yes, absolutely. With that being said, if you're listening to this and you have something that you want to hear more about, what is that? What topic would you like to hear us cover in.
- [46:50]
Joshua Crouch
2026? Yeah. And in addition to that, and I We're going to throw a couple things at you guys here because we want to hear from you. Like, there's a reason we're asking all these questions on this recording. If you could have anyone on the show next year, who would it be? Don't worry if they're famous or not famous or they're super tiny town. They've never been on a podcast before because we've had guests all over the spectrum, but anyone that you can think of that would be, like, really cool in the show because now with our team and the expanded reach, we're able to start trying to get some of those people on the show. So we'd love to hear from you guys who that is, so that way we can go to work and try to reach out to their. Their PR team or whatever that looks like, or just get in touch with them so we can have them on the episode and share their.
- [47:34]
Tersh Blissett
Story. My vote is Joe.
- [47:37]
Joshua Crouch
Rogan. That would be amazing. You imagine. Can you imagine cross pollinating, like, with his audience and, like, because he's got millions of people per day, listen to his.
- [47:46]
Tersh Blissett
Show. I would love to have Mike Rowe, man. Mike Rowe, if you're listening, that.
- [47:52]
Joshua Crouch
One actually could potentially happen because he's keynoting. He's keynoting an event or two. I saw. So. And usually when they kind of do the circuit and stuff is when they try to get some of the word out and get on these shows and stuff, so. Carol, Carol, we have a personal.
- [48:08]
Tersh Blissett
Request. Theo.
- [48:10]
Joshua Crouch
Vaughn. I don't know who that.
- [48:11]
Tersh Blissett
Is. Oh, gosh. Oh, you're so out there. You're so lost. Oh, my gosh. I got. I gotta. I gotta educate this guy. Yeah. Oh.
- [48:21]
Joshua Crouch
Man. Edit that.
- [48:22]
Tersh Blissett
Out. No, don't.
- [48:24]
Joshua Crouch
Edit. Don't edit out. We don't.
- [48:25]
Tersh Blissett
Care. What's one thing that you're changing in your business in.
- [48:30]
Joshua Crouch
2026? That is a super interesting question. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on that, because I. I have a feeling a lot that's be technology or, you know, maybe they're scaling up, scaling down because of 2025. I'd love to hear what that looks like for you.
- [48:43]
Tersh Blissett
Guys. A lot of people scale down already. I'm curious if they're going to scale back up or if they're just going to keep just rolling with.
- [48:50]
Joshua Crouch
It. Grind through.
- [48:50]
Tersh Blissett
It. Grind, baby.
- [48:52]
Joshua Crouch
Grind. With that being said, that's. That's kind of what we had on the docket for this. This episode. We wanted to recap the year, share some of our favorite Stories and things that we saw this year, but we also have a lot of thank yous to people this year. So, church, do you want to start? And then we'll just kind of pick it up from.
- [49:08]
Tersh Blissett
There. For me, I want to say a huge shout out to Josh and putting up with all my crap for this year. We've done a lot of transitioning. You know, Julie moved to Washington, D.C. from Savannah, and so that transition has taken me away from work a little bit, and Josh just picked up the slack on that. I want to give a huge shout out for making. Making that. Making all that happen, and huge shout out to Julie for being willing to go alone across the country, leaving her kids and trusting me with her.
- [49:46]
Joshua Crouch
Kids. Julie, that's asking a.
- [49:50]
Tersh Blissett
Lot. That is a lot of trust and.
- [49:52]
Joshua Crouch
Faith. And I've seen Ter screw with his K, like, with the apps on his phones and, like, turn the lights off on them and blare music and all kinds of other crazy stuff. He's got connected to his.
- [50:03]
Tersh Blissett
Home. So watch him on the.
- [50:05]
Joshua Crouch
Camera. Your.
- [50:07]
Tersh Blissett
Husband. And also Carol and. And, you know, Carol's just killing it, and she is. She's a godsend and brought so much freedom, time, freedom to us. And, you know, I don't want to. I don't want to say anybody's name because I know that I'll miss out about half of them, but everybody that has had faith in us and willing to trust us with their dollars, with their pocketbooks, their purses, and willing to spend the money to support us along the journey of teaching them how to better optimize, automate, and delegate their operations inside their business. And I'd be amiss without saying, you know, one name that rises to the top of that, who trusted us before anybody else was Billy Stevens. You know, we had some sponsors here and there, but Billy's the one who stopped me a couple years back in Las Vegas. Yep. At Profit Rocket, you need to be charging for what you're doing. And I was like, yeah, man, this is kind of like a hobby. It's like, you know, you don't understand the value that you're putting out there. You need someone to support you financially. With him saying that, I didn't realize how much, you know, what he meant by that necessarily. But I was like, yeah, heck yeah. If you gonna give me money, I'll take it. You know, ultimately what he meant was, you can't get better if you're gonna keep trying to do all the work yourself. And you can't becomes the first thing you get rid of whenever it's something that costs you money. Don't necessarily see a return on investment because keep in mind, like, I have an H VAC company and like there's not a benefit for me going around talking to people other than having, you know, getting best practices and ideas and things like that. But for Billy to say that and to say, hey, you look, you need to be start, you need to have sponsors, you need to spend that money on making the podcast better. And that's how the podcast has grown.
- [52:06]
Joshua Crouch
Significantly. It's allowed us to do the things that we like to teach about, is to optimize a process, either automate it or delegate it. In this case, a lot of it's been delegation and of course Carol and the team do a lot of automation and other tools in the background to help them. But we're always investing in those things to make sure that their job is easier too. Because we're saying anyone do is just keep throwing, dumping work on someone's plate because at some point somebody will have enough and they'll leave. And your team members, if you're listening to this, are the same way. So following that process and having sponsors like Justin with Upfrog, who's been a sponsor for probably almost three years now, Market Storm, Lace Rillos has sponsored us in the past. Company Cam Call rail. Probably going to forget somebody, like you said, but we really appreciate what you guys do. For us to be able to allow us to take a passion, helping other people, sharing information and turn it into something that actually makes sense for us to spend time on versus just doing it for free. It also helps us make a bigger impact on the trades because we don't know what this wave of AI is going to look like. We have no clue. Everyone's got opinions, nobody knows what's going to happen. So we all need to stick together and we need to share information and we need to continue to grow through each other. How we do that is media outlets like this and other shows that are really great and being willing for people to guest, to come on and share what's working for them. So we really appreciate all that support and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention our team. Most of our team is not managed by Carol, but Carol does a fantastic job of making sure that we have what we need, such as questions for this show and things to talk about, because without that, we would just riff on whatever was on top of.
- [53:45]
Tersh Blissett
Our head all over the.
- [53:46]
Joshua Crouch
Place. You need great people in your life. We are so blessed that Carol came in our life and we have some more really great team members on the way that we're really excited about, which we'll share later. But it's going to allow us do more and make a bigger impact. And that's all what we're trying to do in 2026 is just make the biggest impact possible on as many people as possible.
- [54:04]
Tersh Blissett
Possible. With that being said, we are super thankful and then we're appreciative the viewer and the contractor and the vendors, everybody that make the podcast possible. Without watchers, viewers, listeners like yourself, we wouldn't be doing this just wouldn't make sense. So with that being said, we hope you have a wonderful a safe holiday, a safe new year, and thank you again for hanging out with us. And honestly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for putting up with.
- [54:33]
Joshua Crouch
Josh. I knew it was coming. I knew.
- [54:35]
Tersh Blissett
It. Until we talk again next time. I hope you have a wonderful and safe week. We'll see you.
- [54:39]
Podcast Narrator
Later. Thank you for listening to this episode of Service Business Mastery. Now that you are equipped with essential business advice from this important, impactful conversation, you are one step closer to becoming the successful owner of your dreams. If this episode has been helpful to your business journey, don't forget to subscribe to the show, leave a rating, and share it with other owners as well. Visit servicebusinessmastery.com to learn.