He Was the Top Electrical Rep in the Country at 21. Here’s Why He Still Left.
Garrett Harms was making multi-six figures as one of the top sales reps at a major electrical franchise – at 21 years old. By the numbers, he’d arrived. By his own measure, he’d hit a wall.
In Episode 5 of Surge Ahead, Garrett talks to Forrest about what that wall actually felt like, the morning his boss fired him for something he hadn’t decided yet, and how he turned two weeks on a couch into the Austin branch of Keil Electric – which went from zero to $175K in a single month.
Here’s what stood out.
Why Succeeding at Someone Else’s Company Wasn’t Enough
Garrett describes his ceiling moment with unusual clarity. When you’re climbing – closing jobs, hitting bonuses, getting better every month – it’s exhilarating. Then you reach the point where you’ve extracted most of what the role has to offer.
“You hit a ceiling because whenever you are the one putting in work towards something, your time equals what you make. You can still hit a ceiling in terms of how much you can make if you’re just one guy.”
The math was fine. The opportunity wasn’t. He had a skill set he could see building into something – something he could control. So he started thinking about leaving.
Then a coworker told the wrong person.
The Morning That Forced the Decision
Garrett had told one co-worker – someone he trusted – that he was considering starting something. Not that he was leaving. Considering.
Two days later, he finished an emergency overnight install at 6 a.m. Fell asleep. At 8 a.m., his manager called: “Come in. Now.”
He drove in. Got pulled into the office.
“He said, ‘So, you’re going to go off and start your own company.’ I said, ‘I’m considering it. I haven’t made that decision yet.’ He’s like, ‘You’re done. You can go.'”
Garrett asked if he could at least give two weeks’ notice. No.
His manager drove him home in his own van, threw his gear on the driveway, and pulled off. Garrett stood there, staring at his equipment.
“That was a very awakening moment. I said, ‘Screw this. I’m going for it.’ I called Andy and I said, ‘Let’s do it right now.'”
For the next two weeks, he sat on the couch and built – the price book, the process, the systems. Everything he’d carry into the company.
What Elite Reps Actually Do Differently
Before the launch, Garrett spent years studying what separated the best reps from the average. His conclusion wasn’t about natural talent or charisma.
Two things set the best apart:
- They sound like a conversation, not a script. The process exists – but a great rep runs it the way a great speaker delivers a speech. Not reading word-for-word. Hitting the key points while sounding natural. That only comes with reps.
- They have no ulterior motive. Garrett watched reps get frustrated, even angry, when customers pushed back or said they needed to think about it. That frustration reveals the real priority: the sale, not the customer.
“That kind of shows that their priority isn’t electrical. Their priority is make the sale, make money, go to the next.”
The reps who stayed focused on delivering real value – including finding problems the homeowner didn’t know they had – closed more jobs and kept more customers.
You Can’t Be Just One Thing
One of the most useful things Garrett says about sales in the trades: the belief that a great salesperson can sell anything is wrong, and so is the belief that a great electrician can automatically present and convert.
“You can’t just be a salesperson. On the flip side, you also can’t just be an electrician.”
The role – what Keil Electric calls a “safety advisor” – requires both. You have to know the work deeply enough that nothing can trip you up in front of a customer, and you have to know how to communicate with people clearly enough that they actually understand and trust what you’re telling them.
Most electricians are strong on one side. The job is to build the other.
From $0 to $175K in Seven Months
The Austin branch of Keil Electric launched in August with almost nothing – one sale, roughly $1,000, from a friend of Andy’s.
By March, the branch did $175K in a single month. Last month: $150K with healthy margins, while still growing.
Garrett’s explanation for why Austin’s margins held up while scaling faster than expected comes down to one thing: the process, followed on every single call, with no exceptions.
“There isn’t one call that’s skimmed over with the process – because I know the process works. I’ve ensured we’ve trained as hard and as accurately as we can on it, that we stick to it, that we try not to go off script.”
The companies that bleed margin while growing usually do it because they compromise the process when things get busy. Garrett didn’t allow that.
The Real Answer to “You Were Too Expensive”
A customer called Garrett after a job. He had a list of things he wanted fixed. He also mentioned he thought the price was high.
Garrett’s response:
“Part of the price that you’ve paid also ensures that I answer the phone and I get my ass out there to fix every single thing that you’ve mentioned, no questions asked.”
He didn’t hear another word about price.
His framework: a price objection is almost never really about price. It’s about a gap between the value the customer perceives and the price they paid. Close the gap, and the objection disappears. The way you close it is by being exactly as good as the premium price promised.
What He’d Tell the Top Rep With No Equity Right Now
Garrett speaks directly to this audience because he was this audience.
“Find a way to make it to where you are setting yourself up for success. If going off and doing something on your own is something you want to do – set yourself up so you can take that leap of faith.”
He’s not saying quit tomorrow. He’s saying: know your number, build toward it, and stop waiting for certainty that was never going to come anyway.
“There’s no greater feeling or adrenaline rush than being in the unknown for a period of time building something to eventually taking off. It’s worth it.”
Watch or listen to EP. 5 of Surge Ahead for the full conversation – including the couple who almost said no, how he handles price objections in the room, and the billboard message he’d put in front of every electrician in Texas.
