Sam Kessler's favorite referral started with bad news.
In February, Kwame Asante was inspecting a 1978 split-level on the east side of Marysville for a first-time buyer. When he took the cover off the electrical panel, he found a brand that inspectors flag on sight because its breakers have a long record of failing to trip. He wrote it up, photographed it, and texted Tasha Greene, who was quoting the buyer's homeowners policy.
Tasha already knew the answer. Two of the carriers she works with won't write a policy on a house with that panel until it's replaced. Closing was set for the following Monday at Dave Pruitt's office, which left the buyer four business days.
Tasha passed the referral to Sam that afternoon and marked it hot. Sam looked at Kwame's photos that evening, pulled the permit the next morning and swapped the panel the day after. The inspector signed off that afternoon, Tasha bound the policy, and Dave closed on time.
"Four members touched that deal, and nobody had to chase anybody," Sam says. "That's the whole point of the group."
From apprentice to her own shop
Sam went through a union apprenticeship right out of high school and spent twelve years wiring commercial jobs before she opened Kessler Electric in 2019. Her crew of five handles panel and service upgrades, EV chargers, whole-house generators and basement finishes around Union County. About a third of their calls now start with someone who just bought an electric car.
She still gets asked if she can put the electrician on the phone. "I tell them they're talking to her," she says. "Then I look at their panel, and they usually stop worrying about who I am."
Her Surge numbers
Sam joined Surge Marysville in its second week, in December 2025. Since then she has:
- logged 34 one-to-ones, 6 of them with members of other chapters
- given 23 referrals, 9 of which have been marked won
- written 7 testimonials
- earned the Super Connector, Rainmaker, Deal Flow, Hype Machine and Cross-Pollinator badges
In April she became the first Marysville member to reach the Surge level at 1,000 points. Her weekly streak goes back to early January.
How she works the room
Sam's approach to 1:1s is practical. She books them on job sites when she can. "You learn more about a plumber watching him work for ten minutes than you do in an hour of coffee," she says.
Her strongest referral partners are the people who walk through a house right before or right after she does:
- Kwame on inspections, where old wiring and undersized service show up first
- Ryan Hartsock, who is often in the same basement for a water heater or a well pump
- Tyler Beckett, when a new patio needs outdoor lighting and a circuit for a hot tub
- Aisha Rahman, whose new-build clients need lighting plans before the drywall goes up
Her advice for newer members is short: "Find four people whose customers need you a week before or a week after they need them. Meet each of them twice. Then go watch them work."
What a good referral for Sam looks like
Her ideal referral is a homeowner who just bought an EV and was told their 100-amp panel can't handle a charger. She's also the right call when:
- an inspection report flags an old or recalled panel before closing
- someone is finishing a basement or adding a garage workshop
- a small business wants a backup generator after one too many outages
- a previous electrician stopped returning calls halfway through a job
You can find Sam through her member profile, or at the Marysville breakfast. She's usually the one with a coffee in one hand and her phone in the other, logging something.
