when I'm at parties I now tell people I'm a gynaecologist as it stops all the" oh I have a problem with my ............."

I tell them a custom installer is a poor son of a bitch that took the wrong career path.

The custom installer can be the proof of the phrase "do what you love and the money will fall out."

Or maybe I got that expression wrong.

This is what a custom installer is:

A friend of mine from highschool (i havent seen for 20 years) contacted me about a house hes working at. He sends me a pic of an inwall mounted AMX wi-fi panel. He wants to know how to get it working. I ask him about the "rack" and he says "looks like the old owner took the speakers from every room and all the stuff from the basement. There is a ball of wire down there".

I tell him the touch panel is pretty much worthless without everything else. He wants me to meet with the homeowner about options. Seems like a total waste of time because people who move into these homes (foreclosed) have no idea what it costs. "$25000! are you insane". Oh sorry i meant $25000 for discovery and design. The system total is mid 6 figures. "click...dial tone".

Then i think...its only an hour drive on a Saturday morning...at the very least i get to catch up with an old friend...and you never know. Maybe this is the one guy whos like "hell yeah lets do this!".

It doesn't matter what YOU call yourself, you will be called "The cable guy" at some point.

Very well said

I have been working with a client on their huge Crestron system and updates changes for 12 years now and his wife still calls me "The Stereo Guy". I guess it's better than the TV guy or cable guy.

TRUTH!!!!!!!
You nailed my life to a tee!!  lol

I moved up to being a partner in the business...  probably a mistake - too much time and stress, I feel like I make 3 bucks an hour for all the time i put in..

BUT when someone asks me if I do side work I say sure, my rate for side work is $250 per hour,  I usually get a blank stare and an offensive remark... I follow up by saying, if u wanna take me away from my very limited free time that I can be spending with my kids its gonna cost you...  Sometimes they get it...

I have a friend that is pretty huge in the tattoo world.  He charges $275 an hour and is moving his rate up to $300 soon.... He has a 2 year waiting list and people fly in from all over the world to get his work.
Wish I woulda kept drawing when I was a kid.  Those are #s id like to be billing out!!!  

"And I'm offering FREE inspections this week." LOL

"Embrace the suck."

That's a great phrase that reminded me of this thread. It's in an article about 31 phrases fully understood only in the military, at [Link: businessinsider.com]. There are probably a few other phrases there we could adopt!

For instance, "Breaking it down Barney-style," which means explaining things in so much simplicity that a pre-schooler can understand it, a useful tactic for showing clients how to operate their systems. Purple dinosaur not required.