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Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:42):

What's going on. Solarpreneurs we're here and this very special episode because we're alive at, I guess it's not door to door Fest, but, um, Danny Pessy Taylor McCarthy's knock star event here live in key west Florida, and we have got someone super awesome on the show with us today. We got my man, Alex. Thanks for coming on Alex

Speaker 3 (01:03):

Daily. Thanks for having me. I'm super, super grateful to jump on. The first podcast I've ever done is exciting. Something new.

Speaker 2 (01:08):

I know. And it's well deserved too. You're crushing it. We've had conversations and I'm just super impressed with what Alex has been able to do and Alex Smith, right? Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:19):

Got to make sure that the quarterback yeah. Most injuries

Speaker 2 (01:22):

Though. Okay. Okay. He played for Utah. It's my favorite football team. So it's a good name. He's also from San

Speaker 3 (01:28):

Diego. Yeah. Alex would like the quarterback to every one of my clients, literally every time. Cause they was like, like that's not a real name. I'm like, trust me. I told my parents that made it a little too generic. That's what I got. There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:40):

Well, this guy, he's the quarterback of solar. You can call him that because he is every time you throw in a solar deal, it's getting installed up there. So he's doing some pretty awesome stuff. So Alex, do you want to start off telling us kind of your background in a door-to-door, how you first got in the industry into solar and all that.

Speaker 3 (01:57):

So I went to FSU fun school, good times. Good memories met a lot of good people, developed a lot of bad habits. A lot of friends that kind of bring me in the wrong direction. Um, but it was a good time. It was part of growing and, you know, experience. I'm happy I had. So when I graduated from FSU or was about to graduate, I didn't know what I was going to do at all. All my friends already accepted the roles like 50, 60, $70,000 a year jobs. And I thought they were crushing it because I didn't go to any career fairs. I didn't show up to anything. And I was like, man, and then the interviews I did get, I didn't show up because the people that were recruiting me, I was like, I don't want to be like those people. Like I don't, I wasn't trying to say like an arrogant way or think about it go away.

Speaker 3 (02:30):

But they were trying to bring me in. And I was just like, I don't think they are very happy with where they're at. So I never went to any of the interviews. And so luckily someone I became friends with because he worked at a bar, he just hit me up and told me about the opportunity. And he's was in California, said he made $10,000 his first month. And I was like, that's a heck of a lot better than 50, 60, 70 K a year. And then he dropped the ball. It's going to be door to door. And he just done. And I was like, man, I was a triple major. I did finance professional sales and marketing. So definitely didn't expect to go door to door. Um, but at the end of the day, I was willing to take a bet on myself for that one. And I didn't have anything else lined up.

Speaker 3 (03:07):

So I was pretty excited to get away from everyone I knew and just get a chance to kind of recreate myself rather than just being this frat star or whatever else you want to call me at FSU. I wanted to like, all right, let me peek in a different bubble. Like I did really well in this bubble. It's a small vicinity, you know, 2.3 miles or whatever. And Tallahassee wanted to bring that to a bigger area. Right. And like my career path. And so I moved out to California and started, started solar door to door. Wow. And when I, the funny thing getting out there too, I don't come from money. Um, so I had a bar of four grand for my grandma to get out there that was enough to ship the car. And then I had to pay the security deposit, which in Walnut Creek, for those who know it's very expensive.

Speaker 3 (03:46):

So my security deposit and the car, I basically had no money when I got there. So it was freezing out. I didn't have money to buy a jacket or anything. And so when I got out there, it was do or die a hundred percent. Commission-based getting paid a lot less than what we're getting paid now. So I'm always grateful thinking back to what it was before and just put my head down, deleted all my social media. Didn't talk to any girls. Didn't have anyone dragging me in the wrong direction. So it was, I was just hyper-focused and I was sleeping on a pool float, so I didn't have any furniture. So it was an expensive apartment with nothing in it, standing up eating. And then, uh, yeah, so they've got a pool full, you wake up really early. Cause those things deflate, you exceed a certain body weight, you ended up on the ground. So it just wake up. And there's the only thing I eat, slept and breathed every single day. And so that was, that was the kickoff to my career.

Speaker 2 (04:31):

That's crazy dude. And um, yeah, if you haven't seen, uh, Alex on social media, go give him a fall. We'll drop his info after, but this guy you can't tell if he has a Bulletproof vest on or if it's real life. Cause I mean, he's jacked out of his mind. So if you can imagine this guy, all pure muscle sleeping on a pool float, I think I'm sure it's the plate in pretty quick. So

Speaker 3 (04:51):

2, 3, 2, 3:00 AM start feeling the ground four or five. I got to get up every single day.

Speaker 2 (04:58):

So were you staying at like someone's house there

Speaker 3 (05:00):

Or whatever? Yeah, I was in an inexpensive apartment, so splitting it with another new guy. And so the total rent was about 3000 a month. I don't know why they put us in this place to start. That's where they told us we should live. I guess the other guys were living there. So it made sense. And then, uh, yeah, so my half is 1500 a month. Uh, but we hadn't, we had literally

Speaker 2 (05:18):

Nothing, no furniture in there. There's like we were literally

Speaker 3 (05:21):

Standing eating. We had plastic forks. You'd stand either sit on the ground for four. That was a full month. Geez man. Guess what? My first investment was

Speaker 2 (05:30):

A couch cushions, the bed,

Speaker 3 (05:34):

First thing I spent good money on and I appreciate bed so much because of it.

Speaker 2 (05:39):

That's crazy, man. I mean, I thought I was bad. I was a similar thing. Um, but I at least had a bed. We had company housing, so I didn't have to pay any rent. I had 50 bucks in my bank account, but I didn't pay any rent out there, but in California. Yeah. So I went out to

Speaker 3 (05:54):

Good. They're covering the rent that's

Speaker 2 (05:57):

But I can imagine, I mean, if you're, if you have no other options, just burn the boats. Right. I mean it's like do or die out there. Yeah. You don't get to sell. You're not, um, you're not eaten basically. So do you feel like that was one of the main things that's first helped you out success? Just like, no,

Speaker 3 (06:12):

That was one of the biggest things for me. That was when I first realized how true it is that like, you have to get outside your comfort zone. Like you have to, I don't know for everyone, you have to go to a different place. But I think for a lot of people, they want to stick around in their hometowns. They want to stay where they're at because it's comfortable. They know people and the idea of getting to where they don't know anyone. And they're just going to be with a bunch of new guys, new, new people. They're not friends with. Yeah. Essentially on their own is usually too much. Most people pull the trigger. But the fact that I did that, I wasn't even scared about it. Cause I was excited more than anything else. And like, just knowing that, Hey, I'm stuck with a 12 month lease because a lot of people will try to say like, all right, we'll get an Airbnb for a month.

Speaker 3 (06:49):

Like, dude, you're not going to make it. I already know you want to get a HomeAway place where you stay in a hotel. Like, dude, you're going to be out of here within a week. As soon as it gets hard, you like, you can just go. And so coming out there with nothing else, but solar was the best thing, best thing I ever did. So like now it's like, all right, how do I, when I see someone as a really comfortable or a new location or something that, uh, you know, as new it's like, I gotta, I gotta attack it.

Speaker 2 (07:11):

Yeah. I love that. And um, I think you've probably seen it too, Alex, but like local guys that come in, it's like so hard to get them bought in they're reading. Cause like you're saying they can just go back to mom and pops, Allison just hanging out. They got the financial support. If it doesn't work out, but it's like so hard to get these guys getting results. If they're just still have that like lifeline, they can go back to it anytime. So I think that's a huge secret for anyone that's listening to this. If you are struggling, if you're just working in a local market, I mean, I think gets the point where you just got to switch things up. Maybe go someplace else, go to a new market, burn the boats. But I don't know if you been able to have success with like local guys. Have you S do you have any, I dunno, tips for people who maybe are like staying home, like maybe out of that

Speaker 3 (07:55):

In California, I didn't really have that much success with local guys and my power base people. I would bring people out there was from Florida. So, and that was a hard sell. Yeah. Cause even though it, I could show them my pay stubs. I changed my life. A lot of people weren't willing to move across the country, but those that did, they usually ended up being successful because they had no plan B. Um, so, but now in Orlando we actually have, uh, a couple of decent amount of local guys. And so I'm super impressed by them because I know even for myself, if I was in my hometown, I would have a very difficult time, not falling back into my old habits, not hanging out with the friends that were anchors, right. That were holding me down that wanted me to keep doing their thing.

Speaker 3 (08:36):

So I, I, I give kudos to guys on our team that are doing, and I think a lot of it is because we, our culture is really strong. So we're meeting every day. Like one of our guys Lewis, for example, he, um, you know, he left his fraternity, like, you know, he, he quit his fraternity and he was just super happy because it felt like he was in a fraternity again, just the same brotherhood, except it's more focused on getting better and making money and, you know, leveling up. So he just turned what he was doing before into something else. But similar premise just now it's focused on growth. And so he's, he's just super happy with it. So the local guys have kind of figured it out, which is awesome. And I think a lot of that comes from, uh, the daily meetings for meeting every single day. So these guys are like, you know, they have to do something different.

Speaker 2 (09:13):

Yeah, for sure. No. So we'll get to all that for sure. Um, yeah. I want to dive deep into that, but before that, I was curious to know like three in California. How long were you out there then? In total three and a half years. Three and half years. Okay. What, uh, what company was that? Where you go there?

Speaker 3 (09:30):

I started with sun grid solar. Okay. And then I went over to Coda energy group. Okay. And so that's where I spent all my time between those two companies. Okay.

Speaker 2 (09:40):

So yeah. Tell me about like when you first started out, was it like instant success? Did you have to like build up into it or what was your experience out? Just getting out there at first.

Speaker 3 (09:49):

So it would be when I started, like I said, I didn't know. I thought California is always sunny and always 70 degrees. It's not the case in the wintertime. It was pretty darn cold. And so I didn't have a jacket the first night they took us out to our first day in the morning. Um, I want to leave, just took me out to a breakfast Andrews and Betty took me out to breakfast. I ate the food there. I got food poisoning. And so I was going out to the doors, like having to throw up. And I was in fetal position every night when I got back. But I just kept thinking. I was like, no, I can't have this failure. Start this early in my career. Like, that's literally, I was thinking, I was like, no, like this cannot be me my will to survive my will to do something was way higher than like those problems pouring rain, freezing and food poisoning. Yeah. So still knocking through that and then pushing through that and made everything else easy. Like a lot of people complain when it rains is like, dude, I was in a monsoon. I was in the worst monsoon of California for like five, six years. Everyone was saying go. And so pushing through that, I got, yeah. Had some, had some quick success, but it was just cause I was, I was putting a lot out.

Speaker 2 (10:45):

Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. You're telling me this story the other day when we were talking, um, at least I think that was you about, um, how you're like running. I know this translates like all areas of your life. So Alex, he's not just like this in solar, but you're telling me like, when you would work out, you're drawn. Like what was it when you were doing 75 hard, you're done like 10 miles at night. It's doing 75 and stuff like that. Right.

Speaker 3 (11:11):

I had David Goggins via because I can't say it was all me. I had a complete, absolute beast in my ear all the time. Yeah. So 75 hard. I think a lot of people already know what it is, but my second workout at nighttime, I just turned it into 10 miles a day and it was fun to see how far you can push up. Cause I'm working out heavy every single morning and then like heavy weights going hard in the gym. And then at nighttime after work, it could be 10:00 PM. I'm running 10 miles. And so I was like, all right, what am I capable of? And half the time I would come back crippled like shin splints beyond belief, Achilles heel feels like it was ripping knee, complete knee issues. I don't even know what those issues are. I would just go into my pool and float and be like, I'm done.

Speaker 3 (11:50):

And then, so I wouldn't be able to move. I even bought those. Um, he does things like LeBron uses his compression legs. Uh, I don't know exactly what those are, but I got those because I need something. And the craziest thing was like, I kept pushing through all the pain and I like, every time I felt like I was going to break, like I was, I don't even know if I could work tomorrow kind of thing. I was like, this might be a bad idea. And then all of a sudden, there's just one day I think around like day like 25 30 something in that range where you might, my, all my pains went away. My shin splints went away. My Achilles problem went because I felt it. Kelly was like in a snap break. It had this like clicking, feeling like a rubber band. And then my knee was given out, like I had all these like compression things on.

Speaker 3 (12:25):

I looked like a robot running around and all of a sudden my body just completely adapted to it. And all the pain went away and 10 miles became a breeze. I wasn't winded tired or sore after it, there was like a flip a switch. And that just made me realize what David Goggins found out. Like he found out that if you push yourself really hard, like your body and your mind can figure it out. And so that's like something I've carried that little nugget, that reference point with me through a lot of other things. So even though that was a physical thing, like it, it definitely is a yeah,

Speaker 2 (12:52):

No, it's so true. And that's something we've talked about with a few guys here at this event is just like, I don't know at first, not going in sore. I mean, a lot of them guys in our team would only go out and knock for hours, but it's like, it came from pest control. We're knocking like 10 hours a day in pest control. Yeah. So I first came out, was guys and solar, we're only doing four I'm like, why are these guys complaining about knocking a lot to do 10

Speaker 3 (13:15):

Totally different mindset. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:17):

Like I've been in solar five years now. And so yeah. There's times where now I complain about, I'm like one of those guys sometimes where I'm kind of complaining about knocking for hours, but then we get guys coming to our team that got back from alarms. It's like, same thing that like, you guys only knock four or five hours here. And it's like, it's just adapting because we can do so much harder things. Um, if we condition our minds, like we knew we harder things, but guys get complacent. It's so easy to let yourself be like, oh, this is hard. This is, I can't, I can't do more than this. That's like a max effort. But just like the same thing. Once the first guy hit the four minute mile, it's like

Speaker 3 (13:54):

Those a little bit. And do you recall it after that a lot of people from alarms or pest then into your business, have you felt that yeah,

Speaker 2 (14:01):

Yeah, we do. And like, I'm work, I'm out here with Jason newbie's team now and he's obviously alarm backgrounds. He brought tons of people from alarms.

Speaker 3 (14:09):

It brings a ton of like lifeblood to the team. Yeah. Just they're exposed to the people that have done it at a high clip. They're like, oh crap. I'm really not working that hard. That is valuable. Having those people like come in, cause they're like, I was doing this for 10 hours a day, unless they revert to the, what you guys are doing. But hopefully they bring in, you know, that leadership there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:27):

Yeah. So I think it's super important. Just bringing in guys that are from maybe different industries, guys doing different trainees, keeping it fresh. None of that's something you've invested a ton into and we'll talk about, but just bringing in like Taylor McCarthy, trains, your teams dropping a ton of money on just keeping your team motivated, working with other guys and you know, going to events. We see all your guys here. Um, but yeah, huge. Yeah. That's huge. And then I guess last thing I wanted to ask you about California, Alex, what was your biggest struggle starting out as you like, you know, first started hitting doors. What was the biggest thing you struggle with and how did you overcome it? And honestly,

Speaker 3 (15:03):

The, I, I did a really good job when I started out. So like by deleting all my social media. Okay. Not talking to any girls, like just head down. I didn't think about anything else. There's literally nothing else I thought about. Yeah. So I think I gave myself the best start possible. So there was nothing. I, I felt like I really struggle with the beginning cause I enjoyed it, doing it every single day. Yeah. Like it was, it was a good time and I was working from morning. I literally saw the other guys, they were getting out at our meetings were at 8:00 AM every day. Wow. So you're knocking. So I, other guys, I was waiting, I didn't have my car cause it was getting shipped out. So I was waiting until 10 30, 11 they're dragging their feet. I didn't understand. I'm like, I need to get to the doors.

Speaker 3 (15:39):

So when my car got shipped out, dude, I was out to the doors. As soon as the meeting was over. I didn't go back to my apartment because the office was right across the street. Just go to the car, go straight out turf. And I was there until it was pitch pitch black. And so, yeah, I think at the beginning, if anyone's new getting into this, but you don't need social media, you haven't gotten to the point where you need to share anything. Probably it's probably not that much stuff for success to share. Yeah. And so, um,

Speaker 2 (16:03):

Well, so no, that's a super awesome though. I think three's and for your success is just like burning the bridges, just getting rid of everything. Um, I mean, honestly, probably most of the problems that people have can be solved by just like working insane amounts of hours. Would you agree?

Speaker 3 (16:18):

Yeah. I think that's really, it. One person told me like any problem I had, whether it was customers, cancels, installation, cause all that stuff happens. The solution is at the next door. Like it will literally solve whatever probably have the next door will solve it and thinking anything else is going to do. It won't happen. Like it just won't work.

Speaker 2 (16:35):

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. How many hours would you say you were hitting then? In the beginning, like

Speaker 3 (16:40):

In the beginning, in the beginning I was there nine 30 till whatever dark was like really dark, like rain, shine, anything. It was the entire time. And that was my big advantage because all the other guys are veterans there. Yeah. I jumped well like way past them for anyone that's new in the industry. Like I don't think any company operates based on a hierarchy or in a structure where it's political, it's all based on production, effort results. And for anyone that's new into the business. I think the biggest thing you can do is separate yourself early because you can either take three months to get incredibly good or you can take three years. A lot of people take the three year out, then they're gone within a year because they don't realize without that early success without really grinding the beginning, it's going to, you're going to be four or five months and you're not producing you're out. You're going to leave because you never went down head first at the beginning.

Speaker 2 (17:27):

I agree for sure. What about, were there guys where you like the hardest worker at your company starting out or was that kind of like the culture was everyone like doing those amounts of hours and you're just following

Speaker 3 (17:38):

Along. There's only one other, guy's got a manual that was a new guy with me that was working just as hard as me. Um, so that helped having someone else working really hard too. But everyone else is funny. Like within a month all the veterans were asking to go knocking with me and I literally told them, no, I was like, I can't go out knocking with you because I can't my goals. I won't hit my goal if I'm splitting commission with someone. So everything flipped and like, this is weird. Like you guys have been doing this for awhile and you know, they're still cooking lunch and staying out of the apartment and whatever they did, I was just basically doing the opposite. And then they started wherever I would go and turf, they would draw a circle with sales rabbit right next to mine. Cause they thought wherever I was was just like this magical bubble. So everything, everything changed pretty, pretty drastically. They had just started trying to do whatever I was doing and then, uh, try to hop on the train and it seemed

Speaker 2 (18:21):

Like, yeah, geez. So you've changed. The culture sounds like and gotten, kinda got their button to gear probably because they were like, dang, gotta keep up

Speaker 3 (18:27):

With this guy. Yeah. It exposed a lot of people. A lot of people that are veterans are sliding by to expose them. And so, you know, based on their time and effort they put in, you know, it seemed like they should have been the next person to be a manager in office. But other than the first month I was asking, what's going to take for me to be a manager because I knew I wanted more out of it. And uh, so yeah, I just passed all of them.

Speaker 2 (18:49):

That's awesome. So what would you say for guys, like maybe the inner company where yeah. It's like people aren't working much and culture. Isn't great. Um, maybe you had times where you've had to, I dunno, like maybe on your team guys, aren't working as hard. Do you have any experiences or ways that you think are good to change that and kind of turn it around and then I'll inspire guys to work more.

Speaker 3 (19:09):

Yeah. I think the number one is, and this is the cliche lead from the front. That's the easiest one. Yeah. But the thing you can always do. And I think even me, I didn't really want to do it for a while. A lot of companies we'll meet, do correlation once, twice a week, maybe do something zoom. And so for any new guy or anyone that's feeling burnt out those days where you don't have a meeting, you don't get dressed. You don't put on your superhero outfit. Right? Like you don't play the part and you don't act it like you don't do it. So meeting every day has been crucial. So we meet every single day, either at 9:00 AM or 12:00 PM. We do team buildings when we're doing like a sport. So football, basketball, Frisbee, golf, bowling, you name it. We do a sport from 10 to 12 and then Saturdays we're meeting at nine.

Speaker 3 (19:47):

So we're with each other six days a week, sometimes seven, if we're doing other activities on Sunday. Yeah. And so at the end of the day, anyone that wasn't working when you're seeing the numbers every single day and you have to put up a bagel, you have to put up a zero. Cause you're, you're going the numbers every day. Not just what you did the last three days recapping that, that right there alone. I think can, if any company adopts that, I think that's the easiest, quickest solution to boosting production because then your guys get dressed and ready to go. They're not gonna want to go home the dress. They got to the office, they just ready to roll. Man. Put them in a car group, put them in a car group. That's number two, put them in a car group, have a leader in the car group, call him the commander, general, whatever you wanna name and make them feel important because yes, have him running the show, let him be a leader for his group of guys. It could be three guys. See what he's capable of. You might empower him. And then all of a sudden, you know, like he's the guy for the job. He's gonna run the next office. And so that also is critical because now these guys are forced to go out. Um, I was against hardships for awhile, but once I started doing them, I'll never go back to anything else. Just let the leaders have a chance to shine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:43):

Well I know it works because we were just talking yesterday about how like they pretty much the same schedule you're doing. It's what Jason newbie in our squad here is doing, doing. I mean, he's I think how long have you been? How long have you started your like dealer out here? Uh, March. March. Okay. Jason started about the same time. Um, and yeah, he's got a team like 40, 50 guys. I know your team's crush an hour. So it's like success is leaving clues. These are the top guys are

Speaker 3 (21:09):

Doing they're meeting everyday too.

Speaker 2 (21:13):

Um, we meet at 1130 right now. So 30 minutes,

Speaker 3 (21:20):

30 minutes on these guys. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. It's funny to hear that because you guys are crushing it rain a ton of momentum. Everyone I think sees what you know, Jason and you guys are doing over there, so yeah. Yeah. You're right. Success doesn't. Yeah. And I mean,

Speaker 2 (21:32):

I mean, I, I didn't implement this so I should have done it earlier. Cause I had my own squad out there and we weren't doing daily meetings and our production was for sure suffering because of it. We were just meeting like once or twice a week. It's like you said, those two days we were seeing guys produce, you know, pretty good. But then the rest of the days it's like guarantee you guys were getting out at least two hours later than they would have just because yeah, they didn't have, in my opinion, like 90% of the purpose of the meeting is just like to get the guys to get it together and go out there. And there, cause like, you know, you can only do so many trainings. I mean, trainings are good, but it gets to a point where you're just getting out, you're building the team, building the momentum and getting out there. So

Speaker 3 (22:11):

Yeah, no, it brings some energy to the meetings. Give him, give him some boost. Yeah. Give him a little boost. Give him some shout outs, give him some recognition. Let them jump some ranks of other people on the leaderboard. Yeah. That's it. Get out there. They have a fun time getting together and it's fun to see that you're doing that too. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:24):

And it's fun. And I see, I see your means. You guys are like screaming and shouting and getting guys fired up and stuff do. Right.

Speaker 3 (22:29):

That'd be a little ridiculous. Try to make it a little different. Every single time we like to do energy exercises. A lot of stuff. I picked up from other people in the industry. It's nothing I created on my own. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that stuff works as a cheesier. Weird. As it sounds running around an office and yelling random stuff just creates energy.

Speaker 2 (22:45):

Well, yeah. I don't know if you've been to like Tony Robbins events, but it's like the same stuff Tony Robbins is doing. You're like standing up screaming and shouting and all

Speaker 3 (22:52):

That. You've been to a Tony Robbins event.

Speaker 2 (22:55):

I've seen him speak like two or three times, but it's pretty exact same thing. He's like his big thing is you're changing your state. And if you change your states, it's going to like, you need to change something about your state in order to change your like, you know, momentum and change what you're doing, change your state. So I mean, it's something I forgot about because yeah. I'll be honest. Like I was a lot of, sometimes I would run some pretty boring meetings, just like, all right guys, what's your goals. Cool. All right, let's get out there. Clap. And then that was it.

Speaker 3 (23:24):

I've done that to men too. But

Speaker 2 (23:26):

Yeah, the stuff works. The fact that the same thing that Danny, Danny and Taylor are doing here, then it's like, they're having to stand up scream, shell, whisper, yell, and really, uh, get after

Speaker 3 (23:36):

It. Yeah. I'm guessing the ma it's funny with, with like Danny and Taylor, one of the main things I was taking notes on was exactly how they're handling us. Yeah. Like how they getting our energy, bringing us the present, you know, the snaps snap three times. If you can hear me. Okay. Snap four times and then eventually the homes aren't now be quiet. Yeah. I was taking notes, all that stuff because that stuff is like super effective. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:57):

That works. It works. So yeah. Any boring sells managers or company owners out there, if you are not getting your guys fired up, I think you're doing them a disservice because even if they don't like it, but it works and you need to get your guys on a different level because then they can take that out on the doors too. If they're feeling like at a low state on the doors. I mean it's the same stuff. Yeah. Do some jumping jacks, get your guys fired up and teach them how to change their state when they're out there on the doors too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:24):

How do you, how do you cheat him on that? What do you do to rehearse, to change their state on the doors?

Speaker 2 (24:29):

Um, I mean, just like the affirmation stuff. I'm sure you've taught your guys. Just like, you know, the brain Tracy stuff. I liked myself. I like myself and I love my job. It's like repeating that between the doors works for me. And I know for me, if I've gotten like a hard rejection, it's just like affirmation affirmation before the next door that in popping on my, a little sideway

Speaker 3 (24:48):

Thing lately. Yeah. It's funny how cheesy it sounds though. Like I think a lot of people listening in like, man, if you haven't ever done it before you think self-talk affirmations, like that's just for, gazy for Godsey because I thought the same thing. And then you hear people like Taylor doing it every second, we can be playing tennis. Taylor McCarthy's out there just talking to himself, always talking positively, come on, Taylor, you got this really good at this stuff. And so it's yeah. It's one of those things until you actually try, if you haven't tried it and you're listening to this, absolutely. Try to love my job. My job is easy. Yeah. All they do is write a line down a piece of paper. So your current situation, what your new situation would be, just keep saying that kind of stuff out loud. It surprisingly works. And then just smiling. Just smiling to just remembering, just to smile. That'll change your state too, for sure.

Speaker 2 (25:32):

I know. Yeah. It works a hundred percent. So yeah, definitely go out and do it if you haven't tried that for all our listeners. Um, so I'll see. I want to jump into now. Like, I mean, like I was saying, you have what? Seven or eight guys here though, man. Yeah. Include me. Okay. And you have what? Like around 20 guys or something in your office

Speaker 3 (25:50):

Right now? Yeah, I think we just went up to like 23. Okay.

Speaker 2 (25:54):

So grown a ton. Um, but yeah, that's pretty, pretty impressive to have that many guys here. And I know it's just, uh, you know, shown what you guys have built. I can see that your guys are like hungry to learn, want to grow a ton and like just eat this stuff up. So, um, any company I've been with even, you know, how to like 50 guys with my company, we only got three of us here, not to say they don't like learn in, but pretty impressive that you can bring like a whole crowd here and get them all excited about these things. So yeah. What do you, um, how have you kind of built that or how do you get your guys to buy into this whole, like culture of learning ins and get them to show up for these things?

Speaker 3 (26:30):

So these kinds of trips are basically incentive driven, right? Like there's always good to do incentives for prizes. Cool watches, a segway, whatever it is. But the most beneficial, and these they're fired up to just have the opportunity to come here and be able to expose them to higher level people. Even if we're losing three, four or five days of production is going to pay off tenfold. Yeah. So just having guys that understand the value, personal development, and if you're not working on yourself every day, like they don't see you becoming better. Like I'm always posting when I'm reading books, I'm always writing quotes. I'm always like showing things. I'm learning on social media so everyone can see it. And part of the reason I do, it's not because I just, you know, have an ego for it. It's because they're going to see what I'm doing on a regular basis and realize that personal velvet getting better is really part of the process to be happier.

Speaker 3 (27:20):

If you're becoming better every day, you're going to be happy. Yeah. That's like, I think that the easiest way to boil it down, if you just feel like you're becoming better, it could be in fitness, health, business relationships. If you just feel like you're getting better, learning more stuff, you'll be happy. So just having the whole culture based around that. And then in the past, I used to think like whatever, whatever leaders I had in my circle or in my company, I could get everything I wanted from them. Yeah. That was like, what I thought of you like felt that too, like, Hey, this is like, I'm good. I don't need to pay for anything else. Yeah. And once I realized that paying to play is the most important way. Quickest way to hack time. Yeah. It's, it's like been a game changer for me. I'll pay for all my guys, good ticket. Anyone that's working, putting the time I'm gonna invest as much time and money as possible into them. Because if they can understand the same value of like what what's like the CAC time and pay to play and just get a few shortcuts, a few nuggets from these things will do it for the rest of your life. That'd be happier. Guys are going to come back more motivated, hungry, and then bring that to other guys and bleeds over. It just keeps bleeding over. Right.

Speaker 2 (28:20):

I love that. And I think it's important that you're saying like do it as an incentive too, because it's like, I've been, I remember my previous company I was with, they like, you know, bought a bunch of bunch of people, like take us to go see grant Cardone. Yeah. Um, but then I, I don't, I can't remember if it was an incentive or if it was, maybe it was like a really easy one. So we went there and then half the guys like showed up for half the events and you know, half the time they're like on their phones. And I dunno if like, like not like appreciating it. It's like people when people pay, they're going to pay attention. Right. So it's like at least get them to like earn it. So they're going to come in and show up.

Speaker 3 (28:59):

That's that's so funny. It's it's true. But people don't pay for it. It's like you give someone a book, they won't read it. You just give it to them for free. Like one of the guys, Mike, Mikey that came to talk to us, he was like, Hey, we're putting this code and you'll get a book for free. I'm like, dude, I want to pay for this book. No, don't, don't give me this sort of for free. If I, if I don't pay for, it's going to sit on the shelf a lot longer. And then they, you know what they did with telling everyone to silence their phones or put their phones in the room. I'm doing that. Any of these kinds of ads, I grabbed everyone's phone on my team and put it all in the room. Everyone's everyone's phone was gone. And so, uh, yeah. Cause every, when everyone takes a ping or check something else, there's so many of the things going on. So like when there was at the grand Cardone event, that's just like, makes you not want to do it again. Like why would an owner want to bring people out to another event where no one's paying attention.

Speaker 2 (29:41):

I know. So super important run, figure out a way to get these guys they're bought in. And yeah, I was telling you about, I mean, we have this sole society app, we launched the training platform, which will be all of our listeners are on, but it's like, I can't remember. I told you, but all the people I gave free access, we did kind of like a trial period gave like, I don't know, 15 people free access. And it's like, guess how many of them logged on like three or four of them at something like that? And then probably two of them have actually like, you know, done something with it.

Speaker 3 (30:10):

So yeah. And then what about the people that paid? Yeah. What about those people that were paying?

Speaker 2 (30:16):

Um, yeah, I mean, they're going through it. They're the ones that are actually getting results. So that's awesome. It's like, yeah. And it's what Danny do. We're talking to these events. They're super expensive, but if people don't pay their lights, like they're doing us a disservice. If they don't charge us because we're not going to take it seriously, we're not going to appreciate the content. So, um, yeah, no, I think it's just getting your guys to buy in with that. And if you are, I don't know, using some sort of training platform, figure out a way to get them like skin in the game. Cause if not, yeah,

Speaker 3 (30:46):

Yeah, yeah. That's right. You show me your app. I'm pretty excited about it. I felt like that was the one thing. Um, I really want a smooth transition from when someone gets onboarded, the content they consume that I can actually track and measure all the way to when they start and then for the next month. Right? Like I've always thought I need to get a good source of content for that interactive engaging. Yeah. And um, I mean, I'm not here even plugged down and this is like legit. What I think about what you showed me, super interactive, super engaging, and be able to bring in my own content to it on an app on their phone where people are glued to already, I'm excited to white label it, bringing those content, have your content on it. And so I could have that part of the standard operating procedures dialed in from the second a person gets onboarded. They have to complete all this all the way until they start for the next month. I think that's going to hack time too. So that's really quick. Great that it looks clean. It looks,

Speaker 2 (31:34):

I appreciate it, brother. I didn't tell him to do that. So

Speaker 3 (31:36):

Look looks, it looks clean, man. And it's good. It's good,

Speaker 2 (31:39):

Bridget. That, yeah. We'll get your team on it for sure. Um, but yeah, man, so no, it's just super impressive. What you've been able to do with your team and get them bought in and really get them, uh, coming to these events. And it's like, it's not really a secret. I mean, I'm another guest. I know, you know, Mo in his crew, but yeah, they're doing pretty similar things. You guys are both doing, he showed up at door to door con with like his, basically his whole team there and they're all getting up on stage. So doing all these things that as a team getting guys bought in, um, it's just helped you grow a ton. So yeah. How have you, uh, so you started in March. How many guys did you start with back in March then?

Speaker 3 (32:15):

So March was just me and one other person. Um, and then I think it was mid March. I got two other people and uh, then we S it was, I was just meeting my house and that was a pretty slow growth in the beginning. Brought in a couple other people. Um, obviously didn't have any systems or anything dialed in. Yeah. And then what was it in, uh, April? I think we were at nine people did a, we experiment with different stuff. Like hearing it from other people was working. I got some, some tips from Mo, so shout out to Mo flaw. Like he was, you know, providing some help on that side of things. I really appreciated that. Cool. Um, so blitz was effective as fun, getting everyone around each other. Um, and then we brought in, we got up to like 20 guys in June and brought a guy has got an office space.

Speaker 3 (32:59):

Office space was huge. Uh, you know, that was big. And then, uh, we actually went on a hiring freeze for like a month and a half, two months. We just started hiring again because I didn't want to plug people into a model that wasn't fully developed. Nice. And so I've done that before where I just bring people in and it's not where it needs to be in, you know, in your heart, if things are good to go, when can you bring it someone in? Are they going to be successful quickly or is it only gonna be a few people that are going to survive because it's only, you know, designed for the people that are ready to go on their own. And so waiting for that, hiring freeze, get everything dialed in our systems, our processes, how we do business. And now it's like, all right, let's open the flood gates. That's why I hired like, started creating these guys to do everything else. Nice.

Speaker 2 (33:36):

Yeah. Shout out to Serge. He's here. He's Sarah, I'm recording this right now. So you're going to see some video with this episode. I

Speaker 3 (33:43):

Appreciate it. I'm laughing.

Speaker 2 (33:46):

You're laughing. It's these Russians laughing at us. Um, but uh, no. So another thing that's been cool is you've invested a ton just in your growth and your team's growth. I mean, yeah, you're missing in surge. He's doing content for your team. You missed in Danny and Taylor. They're blowing things up. So I know a lot of, a lot of companies listening to this, maybe a lot of like team leaders, they're nervous to like invest in themselves dropping money. I mean, some pretty serious money that your job to work as closely as you are with Taylor

Speaker 3 (34:15):

And Dan, it was the cheapest thing I ever bought. No, I was kidding the cheap

Speaker 2 (34:20):

Stuff. No, but, um, so it's gotten you crazy as old, but I know you're telling me you're pretty like nervous to like invest in that. So what's been, I dunno, what's helped you, I guess, have confidence and like Joplin that kind of money and, um, just seeing your game grow.

Speaker 3 (34:33):

Yeah. I just saw other people doing it. And then I was like, they're dropping all this money. And like, not everyone, very few people are doing it, but I saw the people that were doing it, showing up all these events, bring the teams, doing this stuff. We're seeing a lot more success. Yeah. And I just realized like, yeah, I got to start paying. I got to start paying to get around the right people to expose myself, expose the team. And man, when I dropped that money for DocStar star select, it is, it is it's, it's, it's a decent amount of money. And in the beginning I was super nervous. I was like, man, did I just blow this much money right now? Um, because in the first month or two, I didn't really know exactly how to get what I wanted out of it. And the main reason I did it was because I to tell them McCarthy, like all the money was made, mostly just like even the master of it.

Speaker 3 (35:14):

I was even thinking about that. I just want to tell the McCarthy to be in my office for three days. Yeah. And so he came and blitzed with our team for three days and it completely changed everything. Yeah. Like it's one thing to show people how great this lakes are and like to use little tactics, um, myself. And then it's another thing to have someone that knows how to use it to the highest level, like highest technical level. Yeah. They see that stuff and you just realize what is possible with what you can do. And so just those three days pay for the entire thing without a doubt. And then having this mastermind events and everything else on top of it, one of the best decisions I've ever made. That's awesome. I'm going to keep doing it. That kind of just sparked it. I actually, the first thing I invested in was Knox our bootcamp, which Allison was hesitant to pay $5,000 for it.

Speaker 3 (35:58):

I was in it with you, we're in the same bootcamp. I was like, man, five grand for one zoom a week. Is this going to be worth it? Yeah. That was that paid for itself within three, four days, just got the motivation, got the competition going. And then it's like you, I think the biggest thing is just taking the first year, invest in like books. Then you might invest in some little training platforms and then you level up, you invest in, you know, something like $5,000 ticket item. Yeah. And then you just start to realize that at each level you're unlocking the next level. You're like, okay. I spent 5,000, so now I can spend 50,000. Yeah. Okay. So now I can spend a hundred thousand dollars on getting better working with the right people. And you know, even, even, uh, uh, Jerry that was talking today spending $400,000 on his coaches and he said he he'd pay more. If you could find more coaches that could help him out and level them up, we thought they could. And so it's like, yeah, like all the, all the real G's out there doing that. So it's just keep, keep, start small and keep growing that for sure. And it's cool. I think that's been,

Speaker 2 (36:55):

Yeah. And I don't know if you heard Jerry, but he was saying like, some of the programs seems in the mastermind groups, he didn't even like invest in it to, for the training. He just did it to be around like the other high level people. I was like, all right. If I'm paying 150 grand, there's going to be some people pretty committed in here that I'm going to be able to like, like make connections with. So he said that alone is made, I'm like millions of dollars just being able to network with those.

Speaker 3 (37:17):

Yeah. He said 150,000 made him 2.2 million. Yeah. Just being around the right people. That was a pretty aha moment. It's like, you don't even need to pay to get the training. It could just be purely the circle. Yeah. It was just the circle of people could change your life. So that was another aha moment with just like how far you can go with this thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:33):

Yeah. No, that's awesome. And if you, have you ever made any like bad, I dunno, investments on the business that you regret making or has it all been a pretty, pretty good?

Speaker 3 (37:43):

Don't think I've made any bad investments on the business. Um, I think the only thing I didn't do is invest enough. Like in the past I think that was the biggest thing. I just didn't invest enough. And I think the worst investment I made was just not spending the money. Yeah. That was, that was the worst thing I did with the cash is put it toward dumb things. Yeah. You know, rather than back into the people, back into myself. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:02):

Yeah. Well, yeah. No, and it's pretty easy. I mean, you just look at the results. Like he's a mess then surge surge is getting massive results with his video clients and then Danny and Taylor, they get massive results for everyone they work with. So it's pretty simple. I mean, just look at this. I was asking Mikey this same question. Cause he's in all of these mastermind groups, I'm like, Mike, you, when you invest in so many, like you're in like four different mastermind groups, like that's not how you can track that. It's like, how do you figure out that they're all going to be worth it? So yeah, he just saying, I dunno, it's like Jesus said right by, by their fruits, you will know, um, what's going on with it. So for anyone that's doubting on investing in things like that and training, just, you know, go look at the results, see what other people are having success with. And I mean, it's just gonna come down to the work. You put into it too and apply it, which is what you guys are doing.

Speaker 3 (38:50):

One thing, one thing I heard that always stuck with me, there's three steps and basically laws to constant human improvement. The first one is you have to add knowledge. Second one is you have to act on it or apply it. And the third one is you have to evaluate how that went. Is it something you're gonna keep doing? A lot of people just add the knowledge. Like they'll come to these kinds of events. They get hyped up about it. And then they don't reflect on it. Right. They don't spend the time polishing or learning and studying what they just learned and then acting on. And then one thing I always left out of the equation, I was pretty good at acting on it. I left out of the equation, the evaluation part, like evaluating how that stuff get. Did it, did it make the, there was a result of worse? Like did not help me out or is it like something? Okay, this is really good. I need to fine tune this. So evaluating and reflecting on that, falling those three steps with reading a book with anything else, any mentorship, if you just follow those simple three steps, I think that's the key. That's the key to

Speaker 2 (39:42):

Improving. Yeah. That's fire ad knowledge. What was the ad knowledge evaluate and then reflect,

Speaker 3 (39:47):

Add knowledge, act on knowledge. Evaluate.

Speaker 2 (39:51):

Okay, bye. Right. That's awesome. That's super good stuff. Fire. Um, well, yeah. And so, um, I know you're you guys are what, uh, uh, I was talking to some of your guys and they're telling me you're closing like 70, 80% of your deals, which is like super good. Is that just been working with Taylor? You guys just implementing all this stuff and that's, what's taking you to the next level on the closing.

Speaker 3 (40:16):

Yeah. I, I can't take credit for that man or working with Taylor, just getting little tips and tricks, something as simple as his hypothetical, he throws in, you know, hypothetically, sir, if you already had the panels on your roof, you just have this, it's been three years, you just have this fixed payment of $150. So you've already added, you know, $4,500 of equity, $6,000 of equity to your home. And it's never going up. And then you have duke energy or whatever, utility knock on the door. And they try to convince you to rip all those panels off. They want to extract those three years of equity. So that four or $5,000 back to the CEO's pocket, and then go back to a variable rate. That's, you know, pretty high, much higher than what you're paying today. What would you tell duke energy? And so like just little things like that, just even the most simple one on the doors.

Speaker 3 (41:01):

This is a nugget everyone should take and apply to me to like, because it's so easy getting the appointment or even getting the clothes. My job is super simple. I just draw a line down a piece of paper. I show you what your current situation is and then what your new situation would be. Now, if this doesn't make sense, I wouldn't expect to do it. In fact, I won't even come back, but if it does make sense as logical, you're going to do it, right? Like it's not going to be a thing that you have to think about it. Just going to be a side-by-side comparison of your current and your new situation. And at the end of the day, if it ends up costing you less to own something, is there any reason you'd want to continue to rent it duke and pay your energy landlord? So just little, little nuggets like that.

Speaker 2 (41:38):

Boom. That's that's the thing I'm coming to these events. You just pick like I started making like a notes, just folder of all like the one-liners. So it's like all that stuff. It's just a game changer. And I know people have gone and listened to Taylor's podcast episode just on repeat and yeah, I think several year guys were telling me they've done

Speaker 3 (41:56):

It, but they posted, posted every day. Like you guys got to listen to this thing again. Let's do it again. Listen to the car. Yeah. Cause

Speaker 2 (42:03):

It's like that kind of stuff. It's yeah. It's just changing everybody. Those things. It's the little buy in the customers it's taking. What was your closing ratio? Would you say before you started working with those guys?

Speaker 3 (42:13):

I would say my closing ratio was about 40% or so I would say it's about 40%. Um, so it significantly went up. Yeah. There were just a lot of little tactics I used at the end. There's like a lot of people, like they'll a lot of new reps or they just started closing. They'll say all these objections that happen in. And like, they want to think about all these concerns. It's like, that doesn't happen to me anymore because all the little jabs I throw in that I've learned from Taylor and other people in the industry all along the way, by the time I get there, it's purely just, is this the correct spelling of her name? Okay, great. Is this the right last name? Okay. What's the last four of your social? Like there's no, there's no questioning what they're doing. There's no like pauses or breaks. And if you are having people throwing stuff at you at the end, when you get into numbers, it's because you haven't dialed in your technique before that point. So dialing the word tracks, getting the technique, thrown in enough jobs to where it makes complete sense for them. And it's just a no brainer. Yeah. Is something that a lot of people don't do and you have to get training from the best people to do it. Otherwise you're just going to try to figure it out on your own. It's going to take forever. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:16):

Fire. So yeah, guys, I know, uh, I know it sounds like knock star paid us to do this, but we're doing this for free Danny. And we promise that Danny and Taylor don't have a gun to our heads telling them to sail. Just kidding. But no, it's true. So yeah. Learn from the best and just yeah. Implement it, memorize those lines. Cause I think that's been a game changer for all of us. So last thing I wanted to ask you, Alex, before we kind of wrap up here is you have obviously huge social media following. I know it's probably 99% chicks to just want to, you know, feel your abs and all that stuff, which is yeah. But, uh, so you're big on social media and all that. And I know you've recruited a lot. How, um, how, how many followers you have on Instagram? Like a hundred, a hundred gay,

Speaker 3 (44:00):

Like 100, 105. K yeah. Hopefully that's going to go upsurge. Yeah. Right, man. We're going to need 200,000 or something or blows up. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (44:07):

Let me go up. But yeah. So how has that, uh, as far as like recruiting goes, is that been a big thing for you? The social media, or do you have anything else that's helped you kind of like recruit these guys and bring on more people.

Speaker 3 (44:18):

I'm glad you brought that up. Cause that, that is like the key I've used. Uh, I've restarted multiple times for anyone else. That's like grown a business or grown, uh, you know, like just talk about solar and you've grown a sales team and you leave that or something happens and you know, you have to move out and you're starting from square one. I've done that multiple times and that's gave me confidence that I could do it again. Like I know at the end of the day, I've always been able to do it again. So like, I keep that as a reference point that no matter what's going on, I can do it again. And the way I always did it was through social media. So I would simply find a better opportunity. I can offer other people. And then in the day that's what I'm always was always chasing.

Speaker 3 (44:52):

Like what's the best opportunity. Not for me. Like, that's a cool part, but like, I really want to find the best opportunity to bring guys in because the end of the day, if I have a better offer for them, I have a better culture. They're going to join me in the only way they're going to see that is if I'm posting stuff about it. Yeah. So that's all I've ever done ever since. And I've been consistently posting my lifestyle. I used to share my own success. And I think in the beginning you share your own success, right? Like how much you made. And it's not about ego. It's not about being arrogant. A lot of people think it's like that, but I can't tell you how many guys I brought in to this business because they said they saw their, or someone shared my story with them.

Speaker 3 (45:26):

And they exposed like, Hey, I just made $20,000 in a week. Like they got exposed to that. And they wanted to reach out because if I didn't do that stuff, which a lot of people steer, cause it is weird in the beginning, like sharing financial stuff. A lot of people steer away from that. But if you post that out there consistently over time, some people will hit you up immediately. Like there's going to be people that are ready for change right now. Just like Taylor says, the hardest part of my job is timing. And that involves social media too. Then I've had people three years later, like, Hey dude, I followed your journey for three years. Like, what you're doing is awesome. Yeah. Actually I just saw that you moved to Orlando. Like this might be perfect for me. I'm over in Tampa. Right? So those things start happening three, four years later and you don't realize it at the time that it's going to be that way.

Speaker 3 (46:08):

But it's just like the, just like investing. Like if you think about like, okay, I'm only going to make 8% this year. That's not that much more money, but it's like compounded over time. You keep doing it consistently and sharing success versus my success. Then I really now only focused on other success. So I share what Liam's make and I show what Will's make. And I started Sawyer, Jake, all these guys, they're closing all these deals. I shared their success because they ended Dave. You just keep talking to yourself. That's not going to be much family because they just think you're a one-off. Yeah. So showing new guys success in the industry on social media has been pivotal to growing all my businesses because that's where my teachers always used to tell me, LinkedIn, man, the LinkedIn is going to be a thing. You gotta be able to network and you need to, and have people write out your, you know, your level 10 or you're excellent at communicating Excel.

Speaker 3 (46:52):

And like, dude, that is from gazing from Gaza. If I've ever heard it. When I heard that stuff, I literally thought I was like, this is BS. And the fake platform in the world, people are just putting on a face and a front. I was like, they're not real. They're reaching out like, Hey Alexander, I really liked the things you're doing. I think it'd be great to connect. And you could be great for this opportunity. Like this is, that is dead. That is not the way it may work for some businesses. But I already knew that wasn't gonna work for mine. I didn't know Instagram was going to be the thing, but that's just where I shared my life on. And so, uh, yeah, it was, it was funny just reflecting on like the teachers were completely off for this business for sales and everything is social media. Man. Look at grant Cardone, look at anyone. That's good at high scale. That's where it's at.

Speaker 2 (47:29):

Yeah. I know one year taking advantage of it. I mean, I just started doing, doing this stuff. Like semi-recently, I mean, I got like 700 followers growing long, long ways, but you know, consistent stuff. But even with my 700 followers just by posting these videos, testimonial, videos, stuff like that, like I'm getting referrals, I'm getting people like reaching out. I'll be like, oh, Hey, I didn't know you do solar just from like doing that with like 700 people so

Speaker 3 (47:53):

I can get referrals for solar, for solar. Yeah. So, so I think that's an interesting, I think that's an interesting point. I don't have that at all because I think you could approach it two ways, either a it's going to be customer facing or B it's going to be sales rep facing, right. Like new guy facing recruiting facing. Yeah. It's pretty hard to do both. I think you can. Yeah, but I know for a fact, if my clients follow me on Instagram, there's going to be some cancels. There's going to be some problems that they can follow me on Facebook. Facebook is separate. Facebook is like, okay. Old people hang out here. This is a good platform to be friends with them on. Even though I don't really want to because they'll see my old college days. So yeah, I think it's like, you can go one or two ways about it. And for me, I picked like, okay, my lifeblood is bringing in new people. That's what makes me the most happy. I love selling deals. I love selling deals. But at the end of the day, like my lifeblood is bringing new people in bringing new people in sharing their success, helping them be successful. That's really what, what I want to

Speaker 2 (48:49):

Focus on. Yeah. No. And I think you gotta have a focus. I mean, this was kind of like a lucky thing because it wasn't, it was like a friend from Utah that just recently bought a home. So it, that go Hey on the out.

Speaker 3 (48:59):

But yeah, that's awesome. I know some of my friends are good at that part too. They get like friends and stuff through social media, so everyone, everyone could do differently. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:08):

Yeah. But now it's a huge tool, so yeah. And we'll have to have a Mr. Serge creator on, in another episode, he can share more about the social media part, but uh, yeah, man. So no, I appreciate you coming on Alex and dropping some fire for us and for our listeners. So yeah. Speaking of social media, where can people connect with you and hang out with you on social media and find out more about what you're doing?

Speaker 3 (49:28):

Alex H. Smith. Okay. Alex H. Smith on Instagram. I don't think I have anything else. Just Instagram man. Uh, but surge is going to add some platforms to that. Right. I'm going to tick Docker. And I would say, I would say one last thing I just wanted to bring up just because it was so pivotal in kind of creating a hockey stick trajectory for me. Yeah. And I don't know who this is going to lay to or who it's going to help out. But for the longest time you're in the sales cycle, you roll, you can ride the roller coaster. I had a lot of ups and downs. Yeah. And I even got to a point, you know, where I cleared my first a hundred thousand dollars in a month. And I, I literally was not happy. Like I wasn't feeling it. Like I was like, what is going on?

Speaker 3 (50:07):

I have all this stuff's going. Right. But I just didn't feel good. And there were just a couple bad vices I had, I always knew for me, and this is different for everyone, but I was new for me. Like drinking was one thing that always like caused me to go into a downward spiral. So like I would drink and then I would be depressed for three or four days. So if I drank on the side, I wasn't drinking everyday, venturing on a Saturday. I wasn't into myself by Thursday. And by then I was feeling good. It's like, okay, now I can do it on a Saturday. Yeah. So every time I would show up for my team, if I did that, I would go to every weekend. But if I did that I'd would be, you know, 40% of who I am. Yeah. And I always knew that was a problem.

Speaker 3 (50:40):

And it took, it took a long time. I tried to, you know, stop drinking because I used to say like, I can't drink. That was like kind of thing. Cause I started out just FSU, gave me some habits. So I would say, all right, I'm just kidding. You know, it'd just be like, I could pound forever and still keep my demeanor. I'm not going to be a menace out there. Um, and so finally it was like two, two and a half months ago, two months ago or something like that. When I was around a group of, you know, my whole team, we just got the office and for me, and I think a lot of people can relate to this. Like you see the opportunity in front of you and you see other people doing big things. And I felt the overwhelming weight on my shoulder of how we're gonna, here's like 20 guys that relying on, like I need to be here for them to be successful.

Speaker 3 (51:18):

Like I need to be showing up a hundred percent focused, a hundred percent clear every single day. And when I showed up for the first meeting, I was still hung over from going out and St. Pete. And I was like, man, like I had brain fog. I wasn't clear, I was tired. I had no energy. I was feeling sick because my immune system was down. And I just remember that exact moment looking at everyone. I was like, I'm done, I'm done. I'm Alex Smith. And I don't drink. I it's not that I can't drink. I don't drink. And when I made that decision, it no longer became, cause I think anyone can decide at any moment to change who they are. Like, it only takes a second to change it. Like you can decide, you know, I'm Alex Smith. I don't drink for me. I'm about to it.

Speaker 3 (51:55):

And I knocked doors for four hours a day. I knocked doors for six hours a day. I closed at least five I'm Alex Smith. And I closed 20 deals a month. Like I set that for myself and anything else is impossible. Like I can't do anything less. Yeah. And so for me, that was drinking. And when I stopped drinking, it was, it was crazy. Like focus, never lost. I never lost any focus, never got distracted. And so for me, that was like the biggest thing I made a change on. And if for anyone having bad vices that bring them down into, you know, being depressed or anything like that, I don't usually talk about this stuff publicly or to anyone. Um, but that was a big problem for me. And so I was happy, unhappy, wanted to stay in bed for like, you know, an order reads three times in a day and I'll just go back to bed and eat it. And I'm like, man. And so cutting, figuring out what those vices are for you that bring you to that bad state, those energy drainers, and then learning how to just make a decision. It's how you can't do it. It's you don't do it. Or it's just like who you are now. Um, that changed my life.

Speaker 2 (52:50):

I love that. And I'm glad you brought that up because yeah. I forgot to ask you that. But yeah. Another thing I remember you telling me yesterday, just like, as you did that now your entire team is basically like, you know, kind of cutting it out and I really integrate following your

Speaker 3 (53:05):

Lead. I never fully believed it when I heard it. But like they always said, you know, the, your guys will do half the good you do. And twice the bad you do. And I never fully believed that. I'm like, whatever, I'm just going out drinking. Like I would like to go with them too. Cause it turns out everyone I hang out with are people I work with. I don't hang out with anyone else. Like, that's it. That's my people I work with are my best friends. Yeah. So I love my job because of that. And so I was definitely showing them, you know, going out drinking. And so, and then I wasn't doing my morning routine and everything kind of falls away. Like if I would go drinking, okay now I'm or waking up early. Okay. Now I don't have time to read. I may have time to go to the gym, but now I don't have time to write goals and all these other little things to help myself in the morning have a good energy go away.

Speaker 3 (53:43):

And so when I stopped doing all that stuff, like I, I felt a ripple in the office because a lot of them started thinking about what they were doing, because if I'm doing it, I'm the guy in front of them. I'm the leader. Then it's okay for them to do twice as much. Right. That's the bad they're going to pick it up. And so that ripple effect was, I didn't even think about that when I did it, honestly, that wasn't, that wasn't a reason for it. But now I just realize how important it is as a leader to make sure you have the right habits. Make sure you're doing it on a regular basis. If not for your, for yourself first and foremost, if you can't help yourself, you can't help anyone else. But more so for everyone else, like at the end of the day, they're going to see what you do every single day. Like, they're see whether you're on the doors. They're going to see if you're reading books. If you're bringing them new information. Because if you're reading books in the morning, there's going to be a chance you find nuggets, you share with the team and the meeting. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you're adding value that you wouldn't be able to add before. So just doing those things every single day, it has a, I think it's compounded in the whole team.

Speaker 2 (54:37):

Yeah, yeah. No, a hundred percent so love that. And I think that's a great way to end. Just like, you know, do be the leader and for all our listeners, if you're managing, you're managing a team, your guys are out partying, weekends, whatever. I mean, do the good. And then it's like, you're saying, they're going to do, what was it? Half the good and twice the bad. Yep. Yeah. So I liked that. I never heard that. But um, so yeah, for everyone listening, be the example, be the leader on your team, go out and do these things that Alex is doing. I know another thing we talked about too is just a 75 hard. It's a good place to start and give yourself. And he talks about a lot of this similar stuff you were saying. Yeah. So maybe if you're doing stuff like that, go trade thing, like 75 or 75 days cut out the alcohol, get the solid routine. See what happens. Cause I know that's been a game changer for you and your guys.

Speaker 3 (55:23):

Yeah. And you completed it, man. You completed it. So kudos for you. That's that's a, that's a mental. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:28):

Well, Hey man, if I look like you, I don't think I would have even done it in the first

Speaker 3 (55:31):

Place pounds dropped at 75 days. Yeah. It's kind of ridiculous you man. That's awesome. Yeah. That's that's what was the biggest thing you took away from? I got asked that question because I think a lot of people think second of ours is just about getting into shape, but for you, what did it could have been that, but what did you get most out of that?

Speaker 2 (55:48):

Yeah, just the consistency honestly. And I'm sure most like if you listen to Andy, Frisella talk about it. He's he says it's not a fitness challenge. Right? That's not the purpose of it. It's more a mental thing to see how much you can stay consistent on just these little things. So it's really not that hard. Like anyone can go out and do 2 45 minute workouts in a day and read a book and you know, whatever the steps are, don't drink, drink their water, raise the progress pictures, which is the stupidest thing ever. Most people actually woke up in a one night. I mean maybe I cheated a little bit, but I forgot to do it one night. But then I woke up at like three in the morning remembered. So I agree. And random guy, it was like day 70 though. So I'm like, I'm not, I'm not counting.

Speaker 3 (56:30):

So that's clean, that's clean the sun didn't come out there. Wasn't a new day yet. I'm

Speaker 2 (56:33):

Like send that out. So yeah. But, but yeah, no. So just staying consistent and same thing we were saying with everyone, just all these little things you do consistently that social media, that working out, the leading your team from the front, the doom meetings every day. I mean, that's, it sounds like that's basically your entire like to success, right? He's not a lot

Speaker 3 (56:51):

And it's not super complicated. Yeah. A lot of people make it out to be more than it is, but it is pretty simple. It just hard. It's hard to do it. Yeah. Just got to just realize that she's got to do it and hopefully, hopefully there's some something you guys can take away from that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:04):

No, I love it. So yeah. Stay consistent. Go out and give Alex a fall on Instagram. Let them know you appreciated this episode and Alex, thanks again for coming on brother. And we'll look forward to connecting with you more and uh, keep crashing it.

Speaker 3 (57:17):

Taylor grew up super grateful of your man. Super nice.

Speaker 2 (57:20):

Awesome receipt. Your brother. Okay. Peace.

Speaker 4 (57:23):

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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.