What If Electrical Maintenance Became As Normal As Oil Changes with Matthew Wright, NS Electric

0:00Welcome to Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners. Every week, we sit down with business owners, founders, and leaders to uncover the real stories behind building a successful business. The wins, the setbacks, the lessons learned, and the strategies that help them grow. No scripts, no fluff, just honest conversations with entrepreneurs who are in the trenches every single day. Whether you are a business owner yourself, thinking about starting a business, or simply enjoy hearing how successful people think and operate, you are in the right place. Let's jump into today's episode, shall we?

0:58All right, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Matthew Wright with NS Electric. Matthew, thanks for being here. We're very excited to have you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, yeah. So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and jump right into things and get right into it. All right. So for those of you who may not know it yet, you know, what is NLS Electric and what do you provide for our community?

1:30So NLS Electric's a more residential electrical company. We do anything in the community as far as troubleshooting issues you have to replace in panels and install generators. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. And who is Matthew Wright as a person? Oh, that's a hard one to answer. really man down to the core i'm just a guy that wants to do the best he can for his family and provide what i can for my kids i mean that's the the gist of who i am hey now you mentioned kids and stuff like that so what's going on in the personal life there oh not too much i got three kids and a wife we hang out do stuff you know and then they're always coming to watch me personally, I do ultra marathons and stuff like that.

2:25They're always coming out to help me crew me for that and help me out with that stuff. Nice. Now, Matthew, most people do not think about an electrician until something stops working. What is the biggest misconception people have about your industry? I would say the biggest misconception that they have is just trying to do some electrical maintenance, especially for homes. If you look it up, most There's typically, I think the last time I looked at it, like 250 ,000 house fires a year. So just getting on top of that, having stuff looked at regularly. It's not something that we're used to. Normally, it was like, oh, it works.

3:07Like, just leave it alone until it doesn't work. But that would be what I would say. It's more coming down the pipeline for people now is to look at the electrical panel, make it like double check that it actually is still functioning in the way it was when it was installed versus it's out of sight out of mind now what was the exact moment where you realized you know i'm going to better myself and build ns electric into a real business the second that i had a superintendent that did not like me for whatever reason so the story behind that is i had I was working. I had a superintendent that would lay me off every time I got anywhere near him or any on any of his job sites.

3:52Like he made it a purpose to try to find a way to lay me off. So I got fed up with that. I was doing it on the side. It's just like a I don't want to say a side hustle. It was an actual business. Like I still had insurance. I still had everything, but I was doing it weekends, afternoons, after work, whatever it would be on that end. And then finally, I broke. He said something. I actually was in the middle of an AT order for the West Virginia Guard and called my company. I was like, hey, I want to put my two weeks notice in. So we started 2000. I started in 2016. June of 2018 is when I went completely by myself.

4:35So June of 2018. Okay. Yeah, 16 was the start of the company. 18 had no income coming in other than whatever I made that out of the electrical company. Wow. So what was, I mean, you kind of said some things there about your prior supervisor there. What was the issue there, do you think? What was the reason he treated you that way? I don't really know, man. I mean, I had a couple of buddies that worked on the job site, and we have no idea. All I know is every day, if I was on his job site, if there was something that was the shitty work to do that day, that was what I was doing. But yeah, every time I got, the company was big enough.

5:21There was like four or five different crews. But every time I got stuck on his crew, I was sent back to the office every time. I didn't know how to explain it. It was a crazy thing. I was like, I don't know how you could not like somebody so much just because. Like, I don't even know what reason I gave them not to like me. That's really strange. Now, every business owner has kind of like an oh-no moment. What has been yours, maybe a job, a customer situation, or a season where you thought, how am I going to get through this? That's every winner. So, like every business, I have a bunch of friends that own businesses.

6:02every business owner I talk to ideally there's a season and everything we do which sometimes I'm like how is that possible but like for the food industry in Morgantown it's always summertime because most of the people or most of the kids going home and a large population has moved out for us it's wintertime most people Christmas is coming up Thanksgiving around those holidays as I understand, I mean, I do the same thing. Everybody wants to save their money and buy gifts and enjoy the holidays. So unless there's a dire need or something does actually go wrong, that's usually when we slow down. The only time we're called out is when it's like, we have to have this because it's not working.

6:47Yeah. I hear that a lot from different trades businesses, you know, wintertime, especially like HVAC, stuff like that. They don't, you know, Things slow down quite a bit for the wintertime. You know, you don't have to use the air AC much. You have to use the heat. Nobody cares about that until it stops working, like you said, right? Same thing. Yeah, I got a buddy that has an HVAC company in it. Yeah, it's funny because it's the same way, like you're saying. Summertime is his go-to as it starts getting hot. Now, the data summer, if it hasn't been hot, his company role, If it hasn't been hot or it hasn't been too cold, it has its slow peaks.

7:29It may not be a season. It may just be a couple weeks or so. Now, Matt, owning a trades business means long hours, constant problem solving, and your reputation being attached to every job. Have you ever thought about quitting? Every other week. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's always a thing where you don't want to do it. And when something goes wrong, I always find it that every time something goes wrong and you're like, I don't really want to mess with this anymore. Then something comes up and you're like, oh, this isn't too bad. And then later on, it goes, you're like, I don't want to mess with this anymore.

8:10I always think it's a constant battle. I would never quit just because it's not the person I am. But I always say it's a constant battle. Be like, this is not what I wanted. Oh, this is what I wanted. This isn't what I wanted. And just being back and forth with it. Yeah. Kind of just a constant cycle. Yeah. Now, if you could wave, and you know, this is kind of hypothetical, but let's say if you could wave a magic wand and instantly fix one part of NS Electric tomorrow, what would you fix? Me? You? Okay. Can we do that? Can we just make it like we just fix me for everything? I don't know, man. Man, I really, my business does good.

8:51I have great employees. I think that's the number one for me is I have really good guys that work here. So as far as fixing, it really, if I had to fix one thing, it would just be getting more phone calls and have more people know about us. That's what I would fix, truthfully. Yeah, getting the word out more about who we are and what we can do. So kind of like the marketing side of it looks like. Yeah, pretty much that side. Yeah, because marketing is one of the things that I'm not the greatest at. Only because there's so many things you can't do or you can do that you don't know if it works, if it doesn't work.

9:33So you don't know if you're spending money for nothing or if you need to spend more money on it. That would be where my downfall, I think, comes in on that aspect. okay that's fair now what is something people underestimate about owning an electrical company i don't know it's underestimate about owning it i'm not for sure about that one i don't think i've ever come where i thought that was a process of somebody when i was talking to him okay okay now is there anything about you personality wise or you personally that had to change in order for and it's electric to grow? The only thing, well, I would say the thing that I had to change is just, how do I want to say, just being aware and understanding.

10:26I mean, I constantly, so I'm big into self-development. I'm constantly trying to change my thought process and how I view things or how I want to say attack things. That's not really what I want to say because that sounds way worse than what I'm talking about. i would just say having like the thing i had to change to be more opening be more understanding i think as a business owner we all think everybody should work as hard as we do or why is this not the way i would do it or something that way so just understanding that everybody that does something even if it's a mistake is they didn't intentionally do it so being able to look back and use it as a as a training lesson other than being aggravated, mad and yelling and screaming, which gets nobody nowhere.

11:15Okay. I like that answer. I like that answer. Now, if someone, let's say if someone shattered you kind of followed you around for like a full day or even a full week and watched everything you kind of did on a daily basis, what would you say would surprise them the most about how you operate your company? I would say probably how I treat the guys and how, how good our culture of people are that work here we have a like and i this is not i mean i'll i don't even take credit for it like i somehow lucked out in the universe and have awesome guys that work here they they care about each other they want to help each other when something's wrong like they want to help me if something goes wrong super super awesome culture of guys would be, I think, what would surprise most people.

12:04Because a lot of people, do I think it happens? Probably. I'm sure some of my guys at point in time are like, man, this sucks, blah, blah. But overall, we're always having fun, always joking. And you can tell when you walk into work here that it's not like working at Walmart or Lowe's where you're only there to hurry up, get stuff done, and leave. You don't want to be there. You don't like nobody there. I think that's what would surprise people, the culture we have behind the company. Okay. Now let's get into that a little bit more because I hear this a lot from, you know, entrepreneurs that it's tough to find good people.

12:45So the fact that you found good people is that's you're actually ahead of the game to be completely honest with you. I hear I mean, I talk to entrepreneurs all the time and I hear the same concept. Oh, my God, it's so hard to find good people that are that have the same integrity I can have fun with. How'd you luck out and obtain great people? Any secrets you could share? I don't know if it was lucking out. I think the biggest thing goes back. I think as business owners starting out, that we get caught up on mistakes and things that are going wrong because that's what we tend to want to steer away from.

13:21All my guys, I've had way more guys work for me that work here now, and I have just lucked out and got the guys that are good people. I think, let me go back. That's where I'll start with. I think the biggest thing is when I hire people, I hire most people for the person they are. As far as personality, having fun, you can tell they're a good person deep down versus what skills they have because as a residential electrician, I can teach you. My guys can teach anybody how to be an electrician. I've told 100 people I can't teach you how to be a good person. So that's where I think, if you want to say lucked out, that's where I think I lucked out.

14:06I hired the guys due to their personality and not what they knew at the time that they walked through the door. Okay. So you're basically, I guess your advice is to not be so caught up on what's on that piece of paper that they hand over, that resume, right? yeah i mean you got to be caught up on that something a little bit i understand that but even not even so much that is if you got a good person you know they're a good person and they're trying is to be able to grace them with the ability to to grow with you and like understand that they're going to make mistakes and not be willing to fire them every two seconds that something happens because everybody's going to make your best guy is going to make a mistake so I would rather have somebody that has a you know a good heart and is a good person deep inside and grace them with the ability to keep growing themselves than somebody that has a ton of skills that can care less about anything other than themselves I like that I like that now what would you say Matt is is one thing NS Electric is doing today that kind of gives you kind of an unfair advantage over other electrical contractors out there.

15:19Man, the one thing that we're doing is going to go back to what we just spoke with. The guys that are going to come to your door care about what you do, care about your house. They want to make sure when they leave, it's just as good as it was when they got there and that whatever project you wanted is done to the best quality that they can do. That's where I think we shine over a couple other companies. we just care i feel like we care more and if you look at like the google reviews and read them it it comes through with the customers that we have that we work with like and that's another part of that like i always say if you look at our google reviews we don't have the most in town which not hard to see that but what we do has if you read it like every technician that works for me like instead of just going to google and be like oh yeah ns did a great job ns did this blah blah blah they're like hey this technician the name name them by name came here and they were awesome this technician you know andy did a great job bryce cleaned up after self jake did phenomenal and redoing my panel like that's where i think we shine they actually it's one thing to get a customer to go to google and hit five stars and four stars or whatever they're going to rate it at it's another thing to get them to go there and actually name you out for how good of a job you did so well that they remember your name how many technicians come to your house do you actually remember what their name was when you go to leave a review or call the company and tell them how good the technician did yeah very true that's very true and i've been thinking this the whole time Does NS stand for anything in particular?

17:06So NS, when I first started, was my two kids. It stands for Nathan and Stella. It was just, it's way easier to say NS. Good deal. Yeah, I was thinking of it this whole time. I'm like, man, what does NS stand for? I'm just going to ask him. All right. Well, it's funny because people used to call me. They used to be calling Nathan and Stella, and we changed it up. And I was like, yeah, that's way too long of a name. It's kind of monotonous. So we changed it to NS. but I get people calling me like, hey, is this Nathan? I was like, years ago when I started, I'm like, buddy, if you want to talk to Nathan, you probably have an issue because the kid is a seven-year-old kid.

17:42It's not me. You've not done your due diligence to look to see who owned the business if you're calling for the kid that it's named after. I love it. Love it. That's hilarious. Now, and you dropped some really, really good nuggets here, But what would you say is the hardest leadership lesson you ever had to learn while building and growing your business so far? The hardest leadership I ever had to learn is leading people. I've never managed anybody. I've never been a manager of people. I'm a really good electrician. I'm really good at my trade. But until I started the company, I never really managed or understood what management really went through to get people to when mistakes happen.

18:26How do you deal with that? What do you do? Do you yell, scream, and cuss at them, which isn't going to change anything? Or do you figure out how to train and move past the mistake? But leadership itself, I would say, has been a task in its own. Yeah, it is. Yeah, definitely. And they don't train you how to do that. Like in school and stuff, you don't get trained how to do it. You kind of just need on-the-job training, right, on how to manage people. the mansion part i definitely will say is is is on the on the job like you're just figuring it out the leadership part truly i think you can i mean you in life you take it from different things like i had leadership or i was in the military i was in the national guard for eight years but even like that was the one thing i remember one of our drill sergeants saying and he was not the greatest nice as a guy but he always said he said leadership is is shown to you every day like if you got a coach if you got managed upper management or an owner of a company depending on how big the company is it's shown to you every day like you can see you follow leaders that you like and you see stuff that leaders do that you don't like so when you get in a position to be a leader you take what you know the ones that hopefully you take the the vice of the leaders that you like to follow and replicate that and then try to minimize the qualities that you get from the leaders that you didn't like following to begin with.

20:00Exactly right. Really right. Now, what would you say separates a great electrician from someone who simply knows how to do the technical work? Man, a great electrician, I mean, in my opinion, a great electrician is somebody that takes pride in their work and their craftsmanship and can take the same project and make it look 10 times more pleasing to the eye being that like the easiest one would be a panel replay or installing a panel upgrade or installing or upgrading a panel like you can have two people do the same thing it's the same task you've got 20 circuits you got a panel and then you know look at one and it looks like a a rat went in there and swirled everything together and it works when it looks the same when the cover's on or you pull the next one off and then all you know everything's perfect you can follow exactly where it goes it's nice and crisp when it comes in that's what i think the difference is i mean as far as if the technicians have the same exact knowledge and the same understanding of what they're doing i think the only difference between a great electrician is taking pride in his work and the quality of work that he wants to leave behind.

21:16Okay. Now, Matt, have you ever had to make like a tough call, like saying no to a job, walking away from a customer or correcting a mistake or protecting your standards that ended up being the right move long term? Every time that I have to let someone go, it's usually due to a standard thing. Like I said, as far as a personality thing, not, not, not being pleasant to be around or just not caring enough like i said the quality go back to the quality of work that's one of my biggest pet peeves that's my hardest decision every time i have to make it that's been and is the hardest decision for me in a business is to have to fire somebody as far as customers i mean we're humans we all make mistakes i mean my guys aren't perfect They'll be as perfect as possible, but they're not perfect.

22:10So anytime you have to go minimize a mistake at a client's house isn't a fun time. But I think as long as you let them know that you made a mistake and you're willing to fix it, it isn't as bad as it could be. Yeah, I love it. Love it. All right. So now we're going to head into what's called the quickfire round. So how this works is I'm going to give you one word. and I just want you to give me the first word or first phrase that comes to your mind when you hear each word in regards to running your business and then kind of give me like a small blurb like a small paragraph on why you chose that word or phrase does that make sense yep all right first word is safety that's a big quality safety is number one key to every everybody's going home to their family and enjoying life.

22:58Trust. Definitely a key and factor of having a good culture work relationship. If you don't trust with clients and trust with my guys and them trusting in me is second biggest thing. Emergency calls. oh i'm that emergency calls or i mean we do them they're all they they definitely i don't know i think that's one of the things i like doing the most is because you're there to help somebody in the need in the time they want they need it the one thing about emergency calls is my personal opinion is sometimes they're not as emergency as as one would think unless you don't have power smart homes i'm a fan of it i'm a fan as long as you're considered a smart home is wifi switches i have a google alexis stuff i'm cool with that i don't use it but i'm definitely a fan of it ev chargers i that is way more than i thought we were there are way more than what we thought we would do personally in this area we do a ton of ev chargers hiring it's a fun process You get to learn something new about somebody and see if they're going to fit the culture of the company and if they can hang with the guys.

24:27Competition. Don't believe in it. Not in this area. There's enough work here and enough people here that I don't see anybody as a competition. Either my personal opinion is whoever gets there first. I mean, there's enough good electricians, including us, that I don't believe in it. Leadership. One of the hardest things to do. I think leading people and trying to manage and get the right outcome for some things is definitely more taxing than I ever thought it would be. And the last word is legacy. That's what we all wish we'd leave behind. I mean, I think that's the reason for most people in life is to leave a legacy behind, whether it's for the family or whether it's for the world, depending on how big of a person you are.

25:17I love it. I love it. All right. Perfect. So, yeah, appreciate you getting through that quickfire round. So, you know, Matt, with EV chargers, smart homes, solar and AI becoming more common, how do you think technology will change the electrical industry over the next 10, you know, even 15 years from now? i'm waiting to see that i mean there's a lot i think with the new ai stuff coming out i could see things happening i don't know i'm waiting to see what we could do different i'm not for sure i mean obviously anything wi-fi that we're going to get hooked up to the wi-fi is going to be something different control with your phone like i have a smart printer on my home and i can literally turn the breakers off i can see how much voltage amps watts like everything that's used to it so i'll be curious to see what it does i'm not for sure outside of devices switches i'm not really for sure what they can change or what they're even working on to change as far as that goes now where do you see you know your particular business ns electric by 2030 i know people hear 2030 and it sounds like a big year but man we're only three and a half years away from 2030 where do you see your company by then?

26:31I still see it doing the same thing, being a little bit bigger, being able to serve more of Morgantown faster and just providing our community with the best electricians we can find. Okay. I don't know exactly how many, how many guys do you have working for you now? I have five at the moment. We have a couple of guys after they're working with us that are home from or away from school. And then I got three technicians that are been with me for two years plus. Nice. Now I want you to be, I want you to be as candid and as honest as you can on the answer to this next question. So, you know, let's say a young, you know, let's just say an entrepreneur or smaller entrepreneurs listening to the podcast episode with you today, Matt, let's say they're having just a stuck, you're just stuck or overwhelmed, having just a tough go of 2026.

27:22And we were already more than halfway through the year now. You know, somebody is listening to the podcast episode with you today and considering the trades instead of college, but they just don't know how to go about it. What advice would you want them to hear from you? If it is a person wanting to get into trades, if that's the question you're asking, I would say try your hardest to find the trade that you want to do and somebody that's a small business owner that's willing to take a chance with you and go that route. I'm not a full fan of going to the colleges or technical schools. If you're in high school, absolutely sign up for technical school.

28:00But if you're an adult, I would say find I have many friends, plumbing, HVAC and electrical that would love to have somebody that wants to learn and come work for them versus somebody that went to school that you have to figure out what they do and don't know. I love that. I love that. I think that's great advice. And finally, you know, what is next for NS Electric? What should people be excited about coming up in the near future for the company? The biggest thing for us coming up is going to be, as I said a little bit earlier, the maintenance stuff, trying to get out the understanding that the panel, your electrical panels and stuff should be looked at.

28:40So we're working now and trying to find a great maintenance contract for the better. I don't really like to say it that way, but just a great way to get, you know, be able to come in yearly and take a look and change stuff out and keep all your electrical stuff up for safety reasons. Make sure we can try to minimize the amount of electrical fires that happen in our community. Nice, nice. And finally, what's the best way for someone to connect with you or learn more about what you all do? For us, the best way to do it is either give us a call, talk to us, if you need work, schedule it. If you're looking for work and you want to get hired, call us.

29:22Or you can go on our website if you're more of not wanting to contact, not wanting to make the call. The phone's real heavy to call and you're like, I don't really want to do that. You can always go on our website and leave a contact form and we'll be the first ones to reach out to you. All right, beautiful, beautiful. All right, Matthew. Yeah, this has been fantastic. So, yeah, thank you for coming on and sharing your story and your perspective in your real behind-the-scenes of building NS Electric. Any last words you got for the public before we go ahead and sign off? I mean, anything I have, man, is I always appreciate the community in Morgantown, Clarks, or Morgantown, Harrison County.

29:58I guess Maughan, Harrison, and Preston County for always supporting us and believing in us. Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, man. So, yeah, really, really appreciate you coming on again. And, yeah, I wish you and your business continued success in the future. Thank you so much. Thank you.

30:13Matthew Wright:Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly.

31:01Matthew Wright:Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.