SignalsAZ.com Prescott News Podcast - Sobriety, Fatherhood, and Small Business: The Story Behind Recovery Electric

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

Send us a text and chime in!In this powerful episode of Signals AZ News Podcast, we sit down with Josh Lederer, owner of Recovery Electric, to talk about business, family, sobriety, and what it truly means to turn your life around.#recoveryelectric #electician #prescottvalley #prescott #deweyCheck out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Signal's A-Z, Signal's News podcast. Today, we have Josh Lutterer from, oh, I said it. I said it so good. Josh Lutterer. Nailed it. From Recovery Electric. You, I'm assuming you're an electrician. Some days. Yeah, some days. I wear many caps. I bet. I mean, you know, you wear many caps. Everyone wears many caps. We do it, right? So, tell me a little bit about your business, what you guys do. What's going on? My 9 to 5 is I'm a commercial and residential electrical contractor serving the Quad City areas. We mostly do a ton of service work. And we have, we have five guys now.

That's awesome. Four trucks. We'll see us out rolling on the road. I see your trucks everywhere. Yeah. The unmistakable logo. Yeah, purple lightning bolts and logo. And that's recovery electric.

That's us. We're out there. Guys are working right now. Yeah. How long have you been in business? Just over two years. We celebrated two years in January 17th. Josh, most new businesses do not make it those two years. Yeah. What have you learned? A lot. Yeah. A lot. You have to stay on top of it. What I've learned, and it's really easy, do what you say and say what you're going to do. If you tell someone you're going to be there at 11 o'clock, be there at 11 o'clock, if you can't, because it's happened. Stuff happens. You just need to communicate. Communication in today's world is key.

Most things are honestly forgivable as long as we're in an open communication. I mean, it's any relationship, right? My wife, my kids, like we need to talk and tell each other how we feel and wherever we're at. Your dog. Yeah, everyone. I'm leaving, buddy, but I will come back. Yeah, I mean, right? Like communication in today's world.

like we need to know where we're at. You know what I mean? And if you're you're ghosting people and doing those kind of things, people are not. There's no reason for it anymore. No, I, stuff happens. Hey, I couldn't call you. Yeah, a text, something, like something. You know what I mean? I mean, I mean, everyone knows on my phone, business owner. So to not be able to like call or text someone and say, hey, running a little behind. Is it okay if we show up at half hour late? If not, I got you on the schedule tomorrow. Whatever that means. Let me know. Remember back in the olden days, like the cable company. We'll be there between eight and four. Could you narrow it down? Could you give me a window? That's one thing that we do do. I try to give a two-hour window. I used to hate. I mean,

can you be from 12 to six? We're going to show up at your house? It's like, no, I have a job. And everyone has kids and wrestling and cheer and football and baseball. And so it's like, no, I can't have someone sit at my house for six hours. And so that is one thing that we try to do. We try to only give a two-hour window. Got to respect people's time. window so that way and then you know we give a half hour call before we you know well it's half hour 20 minutes depending on where we're at in town yeah because you can get almost anywhere in half an hour so you give me a half hour i can be home 100 what are why would i call you what are some things that you guys do so the obvious one is you got no power somewhere um something funky happened you're plugged in your blow dryer

and something happened and now you have no power at your outlet um that's like the mostly the service work. You want to build a new house. Give us a call. We can throw you a number. So you do residential housing too. Yep. We're building a dentist office off Crossings Drive in Prescott right now. So that's our commercial side. We did the Bahama Bucks here in Prescott Valley. We had them in a few weeks ago. Yeah, Justin is the best. He's the best. He's the best. Like me, supporting the youth. That's one thing that I will pass. hang my cap on until the day I die, support the youth. They are like the future of our community, of our town.

They will be future leaders. They will be future business. Business is here. You're preaching to the choir because we talk about this all the time. I feel so strongly that we raise our kids here just to send them out of town because they got to find jobs. They have to find a place to live. They have to find.

So what can we do in this generation? to make sure that our kids are not being raised just to have to move somewhere else so that they can make it here. Yeah. And I would say even the kids that are going to take off, it's still good for us to create good morals, create like good role models for these people. Some kids are going to take off. A lot of people are going to stay. You know, at the end of the day, a lot of people are going to stay. We need more families. Yeah. We need more families. More good families. More like raising. You know what I mean? Good morals, good stuff like that. Well, and you and I, we work with kids. And so the more families, is the more kids, the more, and you're like me.

There's not a lot of stuff for the kids to do around here. So we create these programs or be a part of these programs. Let's tell them what you, your real passion. Because I know electric is fun. Yeah, yeah. I always tell people, I do electrical because it pays the bills. I will be completely honest. I'm not one of the lucky ones that was like, oh, I love to go to work every day.

No, I love to go to work every day because it pays. for me to do fun stuff with my family. And you're good on you know what I mean. You're a good electrician and you take care of your people. Yeah, 100%. However, we got kids. I want to hang out. What are you doing?

I'm no fool that like I have now an eight and six year old and there is a small amount of time that they think I am the coolest thing in the world. And then eventually they'll be just like me. They'll get to be a teenager. Dad doesn't know anything. And they're going to run their own course. And then it'll come full circle. they'll have kids and want to hang out again. You'll be besties again. And so for me, I like spending time

with my kids and my family. It's like the most important thing for me right now is to suck all this time up. I literally bought a fire truck because of it. You know what I mean? We went to auction and there was like a fire truck there. My wife was like, we don't need a fire truck. And I was like, yeah, we do. Yes, we need a fire truck so we can take the kids in a fire truck. Like, are you kidding me? So I can take, you know, I took a half dozen kids to my son's birthday party at the trampoline park a couple weeks ago. we take the fire truck to Wrangler games with a half dozen kids. We take them to the football games at Bradshaw in the fire truck. Oh, they think you're so cool.

For now. For now. I think a little bit's going to, they're going to hold on to it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So what sports is your coach? Yeah. I help coach the Prescott Valley Big Horns.

It's a wrestling program. I also coach with the youth football program out here. And so right now we're in like the thick of it with wrestling states championships are May 6th and May 7th. So we are like in the thick of wrestling. No better time though, right? It's so exciting. I love it. You know, my oldest son, he loves wrestling.

You can't get enough of it. He has a very good chance of being a state champion if it's in the Lord's will. you know, I will say that. So I'm rooting for him. I'll be crying with him when he cries. When or news, you're going to be crying. Yeah, I'll be happy with them. I try to tell people like, I have cried tears of joy because of those boys and I have

cried tears of anger because of those boys. They are wild ones. They are not. They are savages at heart. They are out in the mud in their underwear playing with monster trucks. They are boys, boys. I can't get enough of it. They like hunting.

like, you know, we do everything. I try to do, I try to do everything I can with those kids, like I said, because I just want to suck it up why I can because we're not guaranteed tomorrow, really. You know what I mean? And I don't never, I think I lived a lot of my life in a little bit of regret, like wishing I had would done this or done that or do that. And so today in, I guess frugally, right, I don't live in regret. Obviously, I can't afford a boat to today, a $250,000 boat. A fire truck, but not a boat. But a cheap fire truck will do, you know what I mean?

And so I try to just like soak that in with those points. But I think there's something to be said that when we stumble when we're younger, it really makes us appreciate the time that we have with our families and what we're doing. I think just, I think life in general, not only with your families, but experiencing people, making sure you're smiling at people, talking to people just not being a grump. You know what I mean? Just not being a grump, being happy, trying to be joyful in the world. It's going to happen.

Stuff's going to happen where you're going to be grumpy. And you just got to get out of it. You got to get out of yourself. You got to try to help people the best as possible. The world is in a crazy time right now. You know what I mean? And so like be the light. Like straight up, be the light in the world today.

And it'll turn around. If there's enough light, you know, it's our slogan, bringing you out of the darkness and into the light. You know what I mean? And so it's like super important to me to just do my best to be not grumpy, to be happy to like try to show people that it doesn't have to always be. Doom and gloom. Yeah, you know, like a fear of impending doom. I live my life for a long time in the fear of impending doom.

Well, and I'm sure that rubs off on your employees. I'm sure your boys feel that too. I hope so. I tell my parents with cheer that your kids feed off you. We lose the most kids in the car ride home because they leave practice thinking they were just the best stuff. And maybe they got moved around over here or something happened. And, you know, or maybe they're not in jumps anymore or they're not in the tumbling. And they're fine with it.

It's like, whatever, because we talk to them. They get in the car and it's like, what happened? Yeah, you got a little bit of daddy and mom ball going on. Yeah. So it's like, you know what? Just let your kids do their thing and doom and gloom and get it out of there. Let's be honest, if my kid doesn't win state on Friday, he's eight years old. You still going to love him?

Yeah, 100%. Like the same. And like... You're walking away from wrestling? No. And like none of this really matters at this age. Eight years old. None of it.

You know what I mean? Like when we get older, we get into high school, those things. Sure, if you have a chance to go play football, baseball, cheer somewhere on a scholarship, wrestle on. I mean, there's so many opportunities nowadays to go on scholarship, academic. You know what I mean? Then let's focus on that. Right now, we're just trying to do.

trying to stay busy. Right now. Yeah. And we're dipping our toe in a lot of different ponds. Like, what are we good at? What are we raising our kids? You know, I, who knows, I could have been, you know, a ballerina, but my parents never put me in belly. I blame you, Mom and Dad. But so I think it's great what you're doing with the kids. You touched on Recovery Electric. And, you know, we talked about the little bit of stumbles and, you know, to see somebody that stumbled and turn their life around and building a thriving business. I sometimes, you know, not always, but I think that it makes people so strong and it makes you really appreciate just you're a business owner now.

Yeah. You're responsible for guys on your crew. And I think you're such a good role model to these guys and these boys that you're coaching and, you know, just I've enjoyed talking to you today so much. It's, like, I've been on the gate to hell. You know what I mean? I've been there. We can talk.

I have 16 years clean and sober. My sobriety date is February 9th of 2010. Literally just got 16 years. I say congratulations. Thank you. And it wasn't always this way. I was always searching through it for acceptance my whole life. I want that, you know, out of boy.

Good job, son. From my parents, from my teachers, from my friends. You're always looking for acceptance. I mean, to this day, I'm still that puppy dog with my tail wagging. when someone says like, good job. I think there needs to be a lot more of that. I think we need to, we're always coaching. We're always coaching, whether it be sports or life, right?

But we have to remember to say good job on the small things. You got eight out of ten on your spelling test. Dude, good job. You know, I don't even know if it was raised that way or what, but like I remember like got eight out of ten, you should have got two more. That seems like it's always the thing. Like, how come you didn't do better? And we forget to like, hey, great job.

Eight out of ten, dude, that's killing it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, and I think we've gotten so far away from the participation trophies that it's like, nobody wants the participation. Oh, you showed up here's your participation trophy, but there's got to be a balance. A hundred percent. You know, it's like you didn't get the participate.

We're throwing out the participation trophy, but you didn't get 100 percent. You failed. There's got to be a balance. There has to be some sort of reward or no one's like me. I'm not going to want to come back if everyone's always hard on me every time. I'm not going to want to do anything. It's just kids, the adults, you know what I mean? Like we need to start telling people like, hey, good job.

I try to do it with my guys like, man, you guys crushed it today. Thank you. You know what I mean? And who would think grown men working in a job that they are getting a paycheck? They want to hear that they're making you proud. They want to hear that you're doing a good job. 100%. And they're going to be.

And like one thing I strive on is like I think it's important is like guys are going to mess up. Stuff is going to happen. How I handle that as a business owner is important. I mean, my kids are going to mess up. You know, things are going to happen in life when people mess up. And so like why do I need to harp on it? Like if a guy messes up, I don't need to call him a dumbass. He probably already feels like a dumbass.

And so there's no reason to like, hey, hey, hey, oh my God. I remember when that guy did that to me when I was working for something. someone and he demoralized me more. And it's like, you know what I thought? F you dude, I don't want to work for you. I don't want to try anymore. Here's the thing. You think I'm going to work harder tomorrow? No. No. And so like it's very important like with everyone, with my employees, with my wife, with my kids, with friends that like you don't harp on all this negative. There's so much negative. And it's like we try to stay in the positive. You got to be in the positive. In the positive. Keep keep going. Keep going with life. I lived a lot of my years.

in the negative, you know, and I can honestly say now from getting sober, I've turned the leaf, right? And there's some cool stuff that when I got sober that were like promises, it said you'd be rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence and you will know heaven. It's going to make you cry. And like 16 years, I can say like I know heaven. I have like a family and like I get to enjoy life and be present, have these feelings, you know what I mean? Like, it's okay to cry. It's fine. Like, it's not a big deal. Like, it's cool. You're alive. Like, it shows me that I'm alive. I use drugs and alcohol my whole life to not feel. And so, like, to have these feelings, it reminds me that I'm alive and, like, I'm normal. And, like, this is 100% normal. Like, it's good to have

this, like, emotion. And, you know, I got sober and they told me, like, anything's possible. And if you're like me, like I dream like really big, you know? And so like I thought my dreams were like owning a private jet and never having to wear the same shirt twice and like silly silly little things. Had I known what I know now my dream is like house, kids, wife and able to spend like a life and just like grow old and that's like my dream. you know what I mean like that is it and I'm living it and like I really believe it's just because

like I turned my life around I was in the literally on the gates of hell um heroin alcoholic thought about taking my own life you know what I mean thought about it many times um and uh I'm here now you know and uh I got sober through a 12-step program and it taught me a lot about myself. It told me like, quit being selfish. The one thing I learned in life is, like, I am the most selfish person there is. It's always about me. It's never about anyone else. It's what you can do for me. If I get a resentment, it's because you didn't act the way that I wanted you to act, but I can't control everything. And so, like, the hardest thing for me do it, it's still hard is, like, turn my will in my life over to care God and, like, let him control my day. Let it just

happen. Yes, you're going to have to adjust and do things, but you can't control it all. Like, I can't, like Friday night when we go down to state. If it was up to me, we'd win every match. I'd have a state champion. You know what I mean? And that might not happen. And it's okay. It's okay because I think so much, we learned so much from those losses. And it's, you want it so bad and it doesn't happen. And it's how are we going to, how, especially with these kids, And adults, he didn't win. So what does that mean? Yeah, yeah.

We're done? Yeah. No, we got work to do. Yeah. Yeah. And that's like 100% with adults. Like stuff's going to happen. It's how we handle the happen, right?

Life is, here's the one thing I know. Life is going to knock you down on your bum. There's no way it's not. It is one of the hardest things to to navigate, right? You add kids. You had a wife. You add dogs. A house. Jobs, life.

Workers, right? Like a business. Like, stuff's going to happen. How are you handling it? Who do you have around you to help you stand up? My wife. She's like the one. My boys.

They might not know it. But like, I can't fail. Like, I can't fail them. My parents, other, like, confidants, other men. And it's weird because, like, I have, like, a crew of men around me that, like, one might be really good at business. And one is, like, really spiritual. And, like, I wish I can attain that, like, spiritual side that he has.

And so, like, I surround myself with winners. You know what I mean? To be honest, I don't have any losers in my thing. I don't have, I'm going to be 40 next month. Like, I don't have time for losers anymore. Like, I did it for a lot of years. If you're not, like, in my life, making my life better spiritually, mentally or physically, I hate to say it. I don't, I don't need you. Like, it sucks. People will always try to pull you down to their level as opposed to, I want to rise up to this level. Yeah. Those people that are here, they're always going to try to pull you.

down. Yep. So you have to. I have like a select few of men, women, friends, family. You know what I mean? That like I hold dear to me and I don't know all the answers. I think that's like the most important thing. But you have people reaching out to you too. Yeah. I mean, outside of, you know, electrical, you have, you've created this life for yourself that people admire and it's like, help me make these right choices. And what are you doing that has kept you here? And I think that is such a testament that you take the time, with everything you have going on to answer these people and to talk to people that just need just some guidance for a minute. Well, it also helps me with, like, distracting myself with my life and my business and my

things. Like, I used to call one of my first sponsors and I first got sober and I would talk to him and I'd be like, oh, my God, this is happening. This is happening. He's like, who have you helped today, dude? Good, good. And I'd be like, what? You know what I mean?

Like, I don't think you understand. Like, I don't think you understand. Like my life is falling up. I'm going through it, man. And he's like, have you, have you talked to anyone and ask anyone else how their day is going? It's about me, bro. And I'm like, oh, shoot. You know what I mean?

And so, like, taking those time and talking those people and learning about their lives, like, takes me out of myself and my own hamster wheel that's going on in my head about, do we have work next week? What do we do? You know what I mean? Like, all these things go through your head of life. Like, my son said the F word. Oh, my God. You know what I mean? Like, what are we doing?

He's eight years old. You know what I mean? It's like, well, I say. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's all those things, right? Like that you like harp on and like in the reality of it, it's not that serious. Like you need to help others.

Josh, you were like the coolest dude that I've like ever met. Like I just, you know, from coaching, I already bonded with you the moment you walked in the door. And you're like, oh, I'm a wrestling coach. I'm like, dude, I coach. I love this. So if I need electrical, I'm calling you, dude. I appreciate it.

I mean, if even if I don't need electric, I'm like, I don't go find. mine, so I'm going to go break something and go plug in every outlet and pop some circuits or something. But, you know, and I think, you know, people are recovery, electric, whatever. And some people may think a certain way. I hope after seeing this, they see the man that has built this business and you're trustworthy and you're, I would call you for anything, dude. I would call you for, but I have a flat tire. I'm calling you.

I'm calling you. I'm like, gosh, we've got a flat tire. Come home. I honestly, we've helped people where, like, they don't have a ton of money. And I'm like, baking some cookies, dude. Like, it's all good. You know what I mean? Like, I make some mean chocolate juice.

Yeah. I believe what goes around comes around. I believe in karma. I believe in all these good things. Like, do good, feel good. As much as it's about the money, it's not about the money, right? Like, really at the end of day. We have to have it, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can't just do everything for free, but stuff's going to happen. You know what I mean? and we offer payment plans and it's not like through a credit card. I just like, it's like an honor system. You know what I mean?

As long as it goes back to the communication, right? Like, hey, I can get you a little bit of money. Okay, cool. Like, it is what it is. You know what I mean? And I'm a firm believer in those things. I'm a firm believer in community. I spend my money here.

I want to be here. I'm very into like economics, right? Like the more we spend our money in town, town, guess what gets bigger, the town. Guess where all that sales tax goes? Like, it goes back into the town. It provides new roads. All these roads are tearing up right now that we hate, but it's going to be so much better when it's going to provide a high school when we need it. It's going to provide a hospital when we need it. These are all things in a growing economy that we're going to need eventually. And if I take my money elsewhere or spend it elsewhere, then we're not going to have

those things. Higher local, shop local. And the other thing is like, yeah, if you don't, then guess what? the sales tax is going to go up. The taxes are going to go up. We're going to turn into a different state. You know what I mean? You and I frequent once or twice. Yeah. And so those things will happen here if we don't like spend time in our community,

get to know our neighbor, making sure we're taking care of like our own, you know, and like really just lifting each other up. Like it's like the most important thing to me is like we just have to help one another, like no matter what that means. We're in, like, a weird, dark time in life and in the world and, like, be the light, man, like, be the light, be that person, be the shining person that, like, no one else is being. You know what I mean? It's hard, like, drive around, get road raid. You know what I mean? Like, all these things are, like, tough and, like, life is tough.

It's a choice. It's a choice and how are we going to handle it? Yeah. So, Josh, I could talk to you for for weeks and I probably will after this but I just your be the light um I I just adore I just I love talking to you however I want people to call you how do they call you if they're looking for an electrician so the easiest way is like it's my cell phone it's 928 9105527 you can find us on recovery electric az.com we have a you know a page where you can fill out and it'll go straight to my email if you don't want to call Do you have to talk to them? You could text.

Why would you not? Yeah, you could text. I text. We're on all the socials, our Facebook, Recovery Electric, our Instagram, Recovery Electric underscore AZ. You can find us on all that. We've been doing like a feature Friday thing on our social medias of trying to feature local businesses. Giving back again.

Yeah. So the one thing for me is like if you're a local business and you want to be featured on our platform, like please just reach out. We'll come out and we'll say what's up and talk and we can see what you have to offer to the Quad Cities. I mean, really, that's like the whole point. I want to be on your show now. Yeah, let's do it.

That's awesome. Josh, thank you so much for coming in. I have enjoyed the time I've spent with you this morning. And just looking forward to talking to you again. I just, I cannot tell people enough. Call Josh. He's going to take care of you. 928-9105527.

I'm cheating looking off the fire truck on your shirt. I know. We got fire truck shirts because I felt like it had to happen. You have a fire truck. It had to happen. Fire trucks make everybody happy. Like the kids run around on them. We're taking to the parades.

Keep doing what you're doing. You're an awesome dad, awesome coach, business owner, fellow community member. Again, just love talking to you today. Thank you for having us. All right. We'll see you next time, guys.