The Successful Contractor Podcast

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Two years ago he drove home from Oregon broke, unpaid for seven weeks of work. Last year he sold and installed $1,011,000 in electrical — out of one van. 

Mike Howie is a service technician at Travis Electrical Service in Clarksville, Tennessee. He does the selling and splits the installs 50-50. He did $612,000 one year and $1,011,000 the next — two years into residential service, in a middle-America market. 

He had about ten years in electrical first: an industrial apprenticeship, then a service shop that, in his words, “threw you out in the wind.” A three-week job became seven unpaid weeks in Texas and Oregon. He nearly lost the house, his wife’s car was impounded, and he lost his mom in the middle of it. He found Travis on Indeed, emailed the owner’s wife from Oregon, and she kept telling him one thing: “Just get home.” Then six months of ride-alongs and CertainPath training before anyone handed him a van. 

What changed between $612,000 and $1,011,000 was operational as much as personal. Travis added installers halfway through the year, anything over $1,000 started handing off, and Mike got into more houses. The rest of this conversation with host Bob Houchin is his entire service call, line by line. 

In this conversation, you’ll discover: 

• Why adding an install team took him from $612,000 to $1,011,000 

• The six-month onboarding most owners skip — and what that patience actually bought 

• Why he never finishes the troubleshoot, and the one question he asks instead 

• The chain-link analogy that makes a backstabbed outlet obvious to a homeowner 

• How he positions financing before the sticker shock lands 

• “First person that talks loses” — and the fifteen minutes he sat in total silence 

Whether you run an electrical, HVAC, plumbing, or roofing company, Mike’s process shows how one well-trained technician turns ordinary service calls into a million dollars a year. 

Watch on YouTube or listen on your favorite podcast platform. And don’t forget to subscribe to The Successful Contractor for more interviews that move the needle. 

About the Show 

The Successful Contractor is a podcast for residential HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing contractors. Hosted by Bob Houchin, each episode features real contractor growth stories, hard-won business insights, and practical takeaways for building a profitable home services company. 

Meet the Host 

Bob Houchin has spent 20+ years immersed in the home services industry — listening to, learning from, and serving the people who run it. As host of The Successful Contractor, he’s interviewed hundreds of the brightest minds in the trades. Beyond the mic, Bob is a Senior Strategist at CertainPath, building the training, onboarding programs, keynotes, and playbooks used by 1,200+ residential service companies. His motto: smart contractors learn from their mistakes; wise contractors learn from the mistakes of others. 

About CertainPath 

CertainPath is a business coaching and training organization that has built successful home service businesses for more than 25 years. We serve 1,200+ member companies across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing with professional coaching, training for every role, software solutions, and a vendor partner network that delivers millions in member rebates every year. Doubling your sales with a 20% net profit and an inspiring company culture is ALL possible. With CertainPath, Success is Made Certain. 

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