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Manager Advisory, 10 founding seats

Every people problem in your shop still ends up on your phone.

Manager Advisory is async help on the people situations you’re actually stuck on: the lead who won’t hold the standard, the tech you’re about to lose, the new manager who texts you every decision. Send it in ten minutes. Inside two business days you get what’s really going on, what to do, the exact words, and what to do when they push back.

Apply for a founding seat

$997/mo founding rate, locked for as long as you stay. Month to month. No call.

Built for this shop

Under $3M, your bottleneck is almost always lead flow, not leadership. We’d be taking your money for the wrong problem.

Annual revenue
$3M–$12M
Field employees
12–45
Crew leads under you
1 or more
Trades
HVAC, plumbing, electrical
Service
Residential

What running it all yourself already costs.

Nobody puts this on a P&L. It comes out of the same account every year anyway, one seat at a time, and the only visible symptom is that you still can’t take two weeks off.

Replacing one techWhat it costs to backfill a seat your supervisor ran off. Recruiting, onboarding, truck time, callbacks, rework.
$34,750
The truck sitting idleRevenue that never got booked because the seat sat open through season.
$150,000
A peer group, every yearAnnual dues plus travel, for meetings you attend and systems you still have to build.
$14K–$30K
Manager Advisory, 12 months at the founding rateRoughly a third of one lost tech.
$11,964

Ten minutes from you. Two business days from us.

  1. Send the situation.

    Write it up in your private client portal: what’s happening, what you’ve tried, what you want. You or a manager you designate.

  2. Get the answer.

    Inside two business days: a written plan you can forward straight to your lead, plus a short video when the tone of the conversation matters.

  3. We check back.

    Every answer ends with a follow-up date. Tell us what happened. Follow-ups on the same situation within 14 days don’t count against your four.

Every answer. Same five parts.

What’s actually happening
The real gap in plain words, including your part in it.
What to do
Numbered steps, with when and where.
What to say
Word for word, written to pass one test: would you actually say it to a tech at 7 a.m. in the shop?
What to do when they push back
The two to four things they’re most likely to say, and your move for each.
When to check
A date, and exactly what to look for.

No theory. No personality tests. No “it depends” without the rule that settles it.

Here’s what an answer actually looks like.

Illustrative examples. Names and details changed. Pick the one closest to your shop.

What the owner sent

“$6M shop. Tyler, senior tech, 8 years, top revenue. Late 4 times in the last 2 weeks, 15 to 40 minutes. I told him ‘gotta be here on time, man’ about ten days ago. I want it fixed without losing him.”

Situation 1 of 4

Top tech running late

What’s happening

He’s been on time for eight years, so he knows how. This is a will problem, not a skill problem. Your part: the first mention was a hint, not a conversation. No standard, no commitment, no follow-up. So this is the first real conversation.

Do this
  1. Tomorrow before dispatch. Private, ten minutes, not in front of the crew.
  2. Use the script below.
  3. Ask one open question in case something’s going on. If it’s medical, stop and call your HR provider.
  4. Get a specific commitment out loud.
  5. Same day, text a two-line recap: the standard and the check-in date.
Say this
“Tyler, got ten minutes? You’ve been late four times in the last two weeks: the 9th, 11th, 15th and yesterday, 15 to 40 minutes. Start time is 7:00 at the shop, loaded and ready to roll. When you’re late, your first call runs late, dispatch reshuffles the board, and the new guys watch the senior tech skip the standard. I need you here at 7:00 every day, starting tomorrow. Is something going on that’s making mornings hard? … Can you commit to 7:00?”
If he says
  • “I’m your best tech.”“You are. That’s why it matters more coming from you. The standard doesn’t change.”
  • A real life change, like a school drop-offYou decide whether a start-time change works for anyone at his level. No one-off exceptions the crew will cite later.
  • Late again within 30 daysSecond conversation, with a stated consequence.
Follow-up

Next Friday, check his start times. On time all week? Tell him: “You’ve been here at 7 all week. That keeps the board clean. Appreciate it.” Reply here with what happened. Follow-ups don’t use your allowance.

Keep handling it, or hand it off. Both work.

You keep handling it.

You want to stay the one who runs your people, with a plan and the words for every hard conversation. We won’t push you to hire or step back.

You’re handing it off.

You’re building a lead or service manager to own it. Every answer comes in two layers: what your manager does and says, and how you coach them without taking it back.

Your managers can send situations too. All four are shared across the company.

Read both columns before you fill anything out.

Most of what gets sold to shop owners is access to a calendar. This is access to an answer. That difference decides whether we’re a fit.

What you get

  • Written plans your lead can run without you in the room
  • Scripts and decision rules, not principles
  • Async answers on real situations, in writing, with video when tone matters
  • The exact words for the conversations you keep putting off
  • A founding rate that never goes up for as long as you stay

What you don’t

  • Weekly calls you have to show up for
  • A mastermind, a retreat, or a mastermind about a retreat
  • Someone else managing your crew for you
  • A discovery call before you’re allowed to see a price
  • Motivation. You have plenty. You need process.

What we’ll take. What we won’t.

We’ll take

  • Holding a standard and following through when it slips
  • Coaching a struggling tech, or a manager who asks you for every answer
  • The hard conversations you’ve been putting off
  • Keeping good people: flight risks, raise requests, competing offers
  • Conflict, including field vs office
  • Setting expectations, delegating, running one-on-ones
  • New managers: the role, their authority, the first 90 days, whether someone’s ready to be promoted

We won’t

  • Legal and HR calls. Harassment, discrimination, injury, medical, leave, wage and hour. We send you to your employment attorney or HR provider first, and it doesn’t use one of your four. Once you have their direction, we help you plan the conversation.
  • Recruiting. Job ads, sourcing, hiring techs.
  • Pay plans and commission design. We’ll help with the conversation. The number is yours.
  • Firing decisions. We’ll check that the management steps were done and help you prep the conversation. The call stays with you and your counsel.
  • Sales, marketing, pricing.

One offer. Ten shops. Then the rate goes up.

We’re taking ten founding shops at a rate that never increases for them. In exchange, you let us publish what changed: real numbers, your name on it. That’s the trade.

Real numbers means lines like “on time 5 of 5 days” or “routine texts down from 12 to 3 a day.”

10 founding seats. Then the rate goes to $1,500.

Not sure it’s your problem yet? Take the free score first. Six minutes, and it’ll tell you what’s actually broken before you spend a dollar.

10 founding seats

Manager Advisory

Send us the situation you’re actually stuck on: the lead who won’t hold the standard, the tech you’re about to lose, the promotion you don’t know how to make stick. You get a specific plan back. No calendar, no call, no hour of your week gone.

  • Four situations a month, fresh every month, shared by you and your managers
  • Answers back inside two business days
  • A written plan you can forward straight to your lead, plus a short video when tone matters
  • The exact words for the conversation, and what to do when they push back
  • Follow-ups on the same situation don’t count against your four

$997/mo

  • Goes to $1,500 after the tenth seat
  • Your rate never goes up, for as long as you stay

Founding seats are for residential shops doing $3M–$12M.

Apply for a founding seat

Month to month. Cancel from your account anytime. Applying takes about three minutes, and you’ll hear back by email within one business day.

Why this exists.

Every shop I look at has the same bottleneck, and it is almost never the market or the pay scale. It is that one person knows how to run people, and there is no way to clone him. He is reading this right now.

I came at this from law enforcement, where selecting and developing people is not a gut read. You define the behavior the job actually demands, you build something that surfaces it, and you run it the same way every time. Get it wrong and the cost is not a bad quarter. That is also where I learned you cannot motivate your way to reliability — not in a person, not in a working dog. It comes from written standards, consistent handling, and correction that happens the same way no matter who is doing it.

Shops do not lose techs to pay. They lose them to a lead who got promoted for wrenching and was never taught anything else. And that same lead is the reason you cannot put another truck on the road. It is one problem wearing two faces.

So that is the whole business. Not motivation, not a mastermind, not a weekend in Scottsdale. Written systems that get what is in your head into the person running your board, so he knows what to do on Tuesday without calling you.

If that sounds like your shop, apply below. If you’re not sure yet, start with the score. It is free, it takes six minutes, and it will tell you which part is actually broken before you spend a dollar with me.

Chris FaulknerFounder, Propel Alliance

The part most people bury in a footer.

Cancel anytime. But tell us before you do.

Cancel whenever you want, right from your account. No call to sit through, no notice period, no retention pitch. Billing stops at the next cycle. The month you’re in runs out, and that’s the most you ever have at risk here.

Cancelling just shouldn’t be your first move. Almost nobody who walks away from a system like this was failed by the system. The install stalled at one specific step: a supervisor who never got brought in, a weekly one-on-one that quietly stopped happening, a standard nobody enforced after the second week.

Tell us and we’ll find it, then build you a new plan of action to get past it. That’s included, it doesn’t expire, and it doesn’t cost extra. We’d rather fix your install than process your cancellation.

Questions owners ask before they apply.

Is there a call I have to sit through first?

No. The price is on the page. Apply in about three minutes and you’ll hear back by email within one business day with your checkout link. No call, no salesperson. Calls happen after you’re a client, and only when a written answer isn’t enough.

What counts as a situation?

One distinct people problem: one person, or one conflict between the same people, and one outcome you want. Three problems in one message count as three. Our clarifying questions, your follow-ups within 14 days, and anything we send to your attorney don’t count.

How much of my time does this take?

About ten minutes to write up the situation. That’s your whole obligation. What comes back is a written plan, plus a short video when tone matters. The plan is built to be forwarded, so it goes straight to the lead who has to run it.

What if it can’t wait two business days?

Every submission gets an instant reply with holding moves: what to do and not do today, so nothing gets worse before our answer lands. If anyone’s safety is at risk, call 911 first.

Can my managers send situations?

Yes. You decide who. All four situations are shared across the company.

Is this HR or legal advice?

No. Anything touching harassment, injury, medical, leave or wage law goes to your employment attorney or HR provider first. Once you have their direction, we’ll help you plan the conversation.

Plumbing and electrical, or just HVAC?

All three. A lead who won’t hold a standard is the same problem whether he’s running a condenser swap or a panel upgrade. What changes is the detail, and the plans you get back are written for your trade, your board and your crew, not lifted off a template.

We’re under $3M. Can we still buy?

Not a founding seat. Those ten are reserved for $3M–$12M shops, because the results they produce are for owners that size. Under about $3M, what holds a shop back is almost always lead flow, not management.

If you’re the owner and still want someone to think through your people problems with you, you can join at the standard $1,500 rate. Apply and say so.

We’re already in a peer group. Does this replace it?

No, and it isn’t trying to. A peer group gives you benchmarks and a room full of owners once a quarter. This gives you a specific answer to the specific problem sitting on your desk this week. Plenty of shops keep both. This one costs a fraction of the dues.

What if we start and it isn’t working?

Tell us before you cancel. Nine times out of ten the system stalled at a specific step, like a supervisor who never got brought in or a one-on-one that quietly stopped happening, and we can name it and give you a revised plan. If you still want out, it’s month to month. Cancel from your account and the next cycle doesn’t bill.

Do unused situations roll over?

No. Four fresh ones every billing cycle.

Apply for a founding seat.

About three minutes. No call. You’ll hear back by email within one business day, and if it’s a fit, you get a link to claim your seat.

10 founding seats at $997/mo. Then $1,500.

Seats aren’t held until checkout.

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$997/mo founding rate10 founding seats

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