The Air Conditioning Podcast

Hey guys! Welcome to Episode 27 of The Air Conditioning Podcast and wasn’t it a beauty! This week we were up bright and early to Welcome Author of The 7-Power Contractor, business and life coach and all round nice guy, Mr Al Levi. If you haven’t already heard of Al Levi, you need to. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Al started out working in a family HVAC & Plumbing business before eventually selling his shares of the company to his brothers and heading out in to the big wide world on his own.

Fast forwarding to current day, Al Levi has gone on to become one of the most successful mentors to some of the biggest names in the Home Service industry, including Tommy Mello. We had a blast speaking with Al and tried to cram as much of his Gold Nuggets into the episode as time would allow! But don’t despair, we didn’t get to cover anywhere near as much as we’d hoped to, so Al has kindly offered to join us on the Show again in the future for Round 2. (Ring-a-Ding-Ding!)

We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we did bringing it to you and be sure to grab a copy of his incredible book The 7-Power Contractor, available on Amazon, Audible and where ever else you get your hands on it!

Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite.....

> Al, can you take us back to where it all began and share with our audience how you got started? (3:00)

> Running a company as you did with some 70 odd employees, how difficult was it to introduce systems? Were you met with much resistance from your staff? (7:00)

> For someone just learning about systems and starting out, it can be very overwhelming. What would your advice be around exactly where and how to get started? (14:00)

> In your book you cover the 7 power points for a successful business, can you expand on those briefly to give our audience a taste of what you cover? (19:00)

> You refer to marketing and advertising as being two different things, can you elaborate? (27:00)

> When it comes to hiring good staff and then retaining them, can you tell us how you went about doing that? (31:00)

> When it comes to handing over the operation manual to a specific staff member for a specific task, do you just hand it to them and they go through it at their own pace or do you coach them through it? (35:00)

And guys that was just the tip of the ice berg!

You must get yourselves a copy of The 7-Power Contractor, even if you’re not keen on reading, its sharp and to the point. More gold than Kalgoorlie and what’s more is available on Audible so you can listen on your way to and from work, between jobs and mowing the lawn!

We’d like to sincerely thank Al for joining us as our guest on the show and are already looking forward to speaking with him again.

To get in touch with Al, you can reach him at [email protected] or hit his website at https://7powercontractor.com/.

Until the next Episode folks...Catcha!

Howdy folks and welcome to Episode 26 of The Air Conditioning Podcast. This week, we sat down with Darren Hill (Business Development Executive) and George Parashis (Sales Account Executive) of Actron Air.

Actron Air have been a household name in Australia when it comes to climate control in your home for many years and Darren and George helped us to understand a bit more about their product and their business.

Here’s a sneaky peak of what we covered.....

> Where and how did Actron start? (2:30)

> How long have you both been working with Actron and where have you worked previously? (5:00)

> Having worked with other Manufacturer’s we tend to become very passionate about the brands and advocates of their products, how did you go shifting your mindset from one brand to another? (8:50)

> You mentioned being able to wind down the fan on your variable fan indoor ducted units so you can operate a single zone, does this apply to a specific control system? And does the compressor wind back as well? (10:15)

> With the Inverter Technology that you’ve now adopted, can you see that you will be moving in that direction or are sticking with digital scroll compressors? (13:30)

> Actron ducted outdoor units have traditionally been top discharge units, are you looking to introduce side discharge? (16:15)

> Within your range, what unit capacities do you go up to? (17:40)

> Can you tell us more about your Package units? (19:30)

> Where is the technology developed? Is it here in South Australia or interstate? (22:15)

> Actron seem to be doing great things with their wall controllers, do you think this is because you’re an Australian company that you are catering for what appeals to the Australian market? When compared to other international manufacturer’s they don’t seem to place as much emphasis on their controllers because it appears that they are not of great importance, would you agree? (26:00)

> Can you control your zoning through the wall controller? (30:10)

And much more.

We’d like to thank Darren and George for joining us on the Show and if you want to get in touch with the team at Actron Air, you can visit their website https://www.actronair.com.au/ and check out their sleek looking “NEO” wall controller.

Until the next episode peeps....ta ta.

G’day guys and welcome to Episode 25 episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast. In this episode we Zoomed with CEO, Michael Steckler of Job Management System, TRADIFY.

Based in New Zealand, Tradify is a one stop shop for Tradies who want to stay organised and being used by over 15k Tradies in Australia.

Tradify has been designed to benefit those not only working in HVAC&R but Electrical, Renovation and Maintenance, Plumbing, Construction, Security, Landscaping, flooring, Carpentry, Roofing, Painting, Concreting, Earthworks, Fencing & Decking and.....um....have we left anyone out?

With Tradify, you can easily track jobs from quote to invoice and everything in between, get paid faster with online payments, scheduling, professional quotes, timesheets, Profit & Loss analysis and it talks to the major accounting platforms.

Here’s some of the stuff we covered....

> Can you start by telling our audience more about Tradify and how it came about? (1:40)

> Being based in NZ, do you have many clients from Australia? (2:50)

> What sized businesses does Tradify cater to? (3:20)

> Besides the HVAC industry, what other industries would Tradify be suited to? (3:50)

> What differentiates Tradify from other similar platforms? (4:40)

> What does the average person need to do to get the platform set up and usable? (6:10)

> What devices and operating systems are compatible with Tradify? (7:15)

> Can you share with us some of the main features that a tradie might use on Tradify on a daily basis (8:10)

> What Accounting platforms is Tradify compatible with? (12:20)

> Is it difficult to connect Tradify to your Accounting Package and done by an Accountant or is it straight forward so that the tradie can set it up themselves? (13:30)

> How do you come up with the features? Is this via an online suggestion platform? (14:00)

> Job tracking is a feature, can you tell us more about it? (15:30)

> Do you come across many roadblocks in terms of features or technology and how do you prioritise in order to overcome them? (16:30)

> How often are you releasing updates with new or improved features? (18:00)

> How have you set up the pricing, is it paid per job created or on a monthly payment cycle? (19:10)

And we covered heaps more....

We’d like to thank Michael and Tradify for coming onto the Show (and Richie for arranging it!) and if you want to get in touch with the team, you can visit them at www.tradifyhq.com/au

And....Michael and the team at Tradify have kindly put together a special offer for our loyal Air Conditioning Podcast listeners!

When you sign up to Tradify, simply use the Discount Code “ACPODCAST” and you’ll receive a massive 50% off Tradify for 3 months! You must get onto Tradify and take advantage of this offer while you can, and until the next episode guys......catcha!

Hey guys, welcome to EP24 and boy did we bring home the bacon on this one. If you haven’t already heard of Tommy Mello and The Home Service Millionaire, you’ve gotta get on it. Tommy started out in a humble landscaping business and eventually started a Garage Home Service business in Pheonix, Arizona with some $50k in debt. Today, Tommy has turned his business into a very tidy $30 million dollar a year company with over 300 employees in 12 States of the US.

Not only has Tommy excelled with his various businesses, but is also the host of a hugely successful podcast called The Home Service Expert (with some 25k downloads per month) and is Author of an exceptional read called The Home Service Millionaire. (Tip: If you’re not into reading books, get it on Audible and Tommy himself reads the book word for word.

We were like the cat that ate the canary for this one guys so make sure you have a listen to the episode, subscribe to his podcast and get a hold of his book, you won’t regret it.

Here is a taste of what we covered....

> Can you share with our audience where and how your journey began? (3:30)

> What was the motivator that got you started? (5:15)

> You are a great believer of running your company with a “turn key” approach, incorporating systems and procedures, for someone just starting to look at this approach, where would you recommend they start? (9:15)

> How detailed are your manuals? (12:00)

> How many employees are you recruiting on a regular basis? (17:00)

> How do you find and keep high calibre employees? (20:00)

> You mention in your podcast that you look to the HVAC industry to explore ways to scale up and grow your business is this the case? (22:15)

> Do you still lean on your mentors for guidance? (24:00)

> Being so successful in your business and having a bank full of coin, why do you continue to do this, why do you continue to help others when you could easily take your money and sit beneath a palm tree smashing Mai Tai’s? (25:30)

> What are your thoughts around techs trying to win jobs on being the cheapest price? (29:15)

> What was the main motivator behind writing your book? (33:45)

And that was just a snippet of stuff we talked about. As usual we could have spoken to Tommy for days but unfortunately time constraints. Jump onto homeservicemillionaire.com for a ton of resources and info and don't forget to check out his Podcast, Home Service Expert. Thanks so much to Tommy and his team for joining us on the Show!

G’day guys and Welcome to another Episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast. In Episode 37, we were very fortunate to have our first guest on the Show for 2021!

We were joined by Peter Darley, who is the Regional Director (Asia Pacific) for simPRO. In his role, Peter heads IoT for simPRO globally, and is also heading simPRO's expansion into Asia.

With a strong background in sales, marketing and operations in the field service sector, and extensive experience in the IoT space, Peter’s key focus in business management is exceeding customer goals and entering new markets.

In this episode, Peter covers just some of the features and benefits of simPRO and how they can help your business. He also discusses IoT? What the heck is that?? You'll have listen out find out!

If you’d like to reach out to Peter and the team at simPRO you can get in touch at www.simprogroup.com/au/contact-us you can connect with Peter on LinkedIn here.

But until the next episode people...catcha!