Episode Number: 104

Date: September 1, 2025

Duration: 49:02

Host Contact Information

Host: Justin Deese

Website: JustinDeese.com

Contact: [email protected]

Guest Contact Information

Guest: Josh Crouch (Relentless), Tersh (Service Business Mastery Podcast; Trade Automation Pros)

Company: Relentless; Service Business Mastery; Trade Automation Pros

Summary

Justin sits down with Josh and Tersh to dig into practical automation for home service companies—think Trello-based install workflows, warranty tracking, AI-assisted review replies, and turning your “external brain” into daily to-dos. They preview their Tap Into the Future conference in Savannah (Oct 3–5) with a Savannah Bananas game and hands-on “speed-dating” build sessions where attendees implement real automations before Monday. The trio tackles pricing turbulence, bloated tech stacks, and why optimizing processes before automating is the only way to win.

Takeaways

Optimize → Automate → Delegate: Don’t automate broken processes; fix them first, then layer in automation and handoff.
Hands-on beats hype: Their event features interactive build tables (e.g., Trello job flow from “sold” to “permit/equipment ordered”) so you leave with working systems.
Control overhead with connectivity: Too many disconnected apps drive up costs and complexity—map data flow end-to-end.
Review engine flywheel: Automate empathetic Google review replies and spin those into cross-platform social posts.
Build an “external brain”: Capture ideas in a single place (e.g., Google Sheet) and auto-convert them into prioritized daily tasks.
AI ≠ set-and-forget: Models change; prompts and workflows need periodic tuning to stay sharp.

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome, Service Business Mastery & Trade Automation Pros, Savannah Bananas love

01:18 — The Bananas effect: from pushback to sellouts

06:26 — 2025 market weirdness: costs up, conversions down; why efficiency wins

08:36 — Why run an event in October (and how the Bananas inspired it)

10:50 — Format: mixer, ghost tours, interactive Saturday, automation speed-dating Sunday

11:58 — Build-live demo: Trello job/permit/equipment workflow

12:49 — Warranty claims automation (order → return → credit tracking)

16:38 — Humans + automation: free people from low-value data entry

21:05 — Prompt engineering today: still helpful, less mystical

26:31 — Search is shifting; AI browsers, agents, and what’s next

32:49 — Toward agentic, connected companies by decade’s end

34:12 — Centralizing comms vs. scattered texts/emails

38:51 — The “external brain” system & scheduled daily tasks

43:30 — Skool community for step-by-step Zapier/CRM templates

46:23 — Event info & speaker lineup; where to learn more

47:12 — Closing thoughts

Keywords

#HomeService #HVAC #Plumbing #Electrical #TradeAutomation #Zapier #ServiceTitan #HousecallPro #Trello #AIWorkflows #GoogleReviews #CustomerExperience #Operations #ProcessOptimization #MarketingAutomation #Relentless #ServiceBusinessMastery #TradeAutomationPros #SavannahBananas #TapIntoTheFuture