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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 (00:41):

What's going on. Solarpreneurs. We are back with another episode and I'm excited today because we are in the studio with Mr. Dan Dunn. What's going on, Dan? Thanks for coming on the show. You bet.

Speaker 3 (00:52):

Good. He could to be here. Okay. Well, you're

Speaker 2 (00:56):

Hearing me too. Yeah, it's, it's fun. We're hearing a Newport beach, made the drive up here from San Diego and, um, we're doing some video content too. So excited about that. So Dan, you want to tell us a little bit how you got like in the solar space and your background, where you came from and everything.

Speaker 3 (01:14):

Sure. Yeah. I should have this down to an elevator pitch by now. Um, I was born in Illinois in the Midwest. I was then transplanted, California. So I clean California is my place of growth, I guess kind of sounds a little cooler. Um, and then, uh, went to yeah, went to college in Utah. I then, uh, and I majored in music in English. We just talked about that before this podcast started. Yeah. Um, yeah. I love music nerd and music nerd. That's right. And actually, uh, the movie pitch. Perfect. I was actually telling, um, this guy to the, to the left ear off, off camera earlier that, uh, my wife and I met through similar circumstances as Anna Kendrick and the guy. I don't remember his name anyway. She was in a female acapella group. I was in vocal point male acapella group kind of came together like jets and sharks and west side story anyway. Um, so yeah, met my wife there been married almost 16 years. Uh, live in Southern California. I love this place. Feels like home will never leave. And, uh, old harness. I started the harness brands in 2017, so we're almost five years old next year. Awesome. Um, and then have a production company in the music space called prosody music. Okay. That's me in a nutshell.

Speaker 2 (02:31):

That's awesome. I love hearing guys that are like, you know, like music nerds and stuff like that. Cause I was just telling you, I was a music major myself in college, studied drums, percussion. That was the dream I was all about, you know, just graduating and being a music teacher, making my 30, 40 grand a year. And I was like, this is it. I'm going to love it. That's the dream. And then yeah, came out. Yeah. Came out, made that, you know, like in the summer or whatever. And I'm like, it's a little bit longer.

Speaker 3 (03:02):

Right. I can still picture, Hey, imagine dragons. When they have their live shows, they need some good drummers up there. Right. Have you ever been to one of those?

Speaker 2 (03:09):

Uh, I haven't been to their show, but I haven't been to, I don't know. Been to all its other concerts. Yeah. Same with maybe they'll listen to this podcast. If they're listening, give me a call and I'll be

Speaker 3 (03:19):

In the drummer. We've got a table right here. He can start anyway.

Speaker 2 (03:22):

Let's do it. But yeah, what I wanted to ask you, Dan, I mean being like music, English and all that. Yeah. Do you feel like, I mean, I don't think there's a ton of us that did music before, um, you know, solar, but the few that I have met that have, I feel like, I dunno, it's helped them in a way. Maybe like creativity. Do you feel like music has helped you in business or in any, any aspects of what you're doing now?

Speaker 3 (03:45):

Absolutely. So I mean, scientific studies have shown if you put your kids in piano lessons early on, they'll connect certain parts of their brain and think more critically. And I'm not trying to pump myself up at all. I mean, don't feel deficient out there guys, if you didn't get piano lessons, it's not your fault, but it does help. Uh, yeah. You looking at problems from multiple sides of the spectrum. And so when your brain makes those connections, you have kind of that openness to multiple solutions and seeing both sides of an argument, uh, really, really helps in problem solving interpersonal relationships, um, leading. It helps them and I think all aspects of business to me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:23):

That's awesome. Leading. Why do you say that?

Speaker 3 (04:27):

Well, because as a leader, you're going to come across the fires. We have to put out constantly. Right. And so to put out fires, you could, you could throw a huge bucket of water on it and say, it's good. Or you could kind of massage it and come at it strategically and see if there's, you know, two or three different ways to go at it. And which one's best consider the consequences. Being able to look at that, that cube from all sides, I think will, uh, it has paid dividends. So

Speaker 2 (04:53):

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. No, and I always compare it to just like, I'm sure, you know, music where you like a specific instrument. Are we just voice Canon boys in a way? Okay. Yeah, for me, it's like, I don't know about you, but all those hours you put in practicing. Yeah. That's true. That's something that I feel like it's like, I was, I was no way like a natural sales guy or whatever. And I still, like, I'm not like the top guy, but because of all those hours that I put in not being the top drummer or whatever, I'm like, okay, why don't I just use that same, you know, method of getting better at cells all the hours I put in practicing the guys are doing it. You know,

Speaker 3 (05:27):

I just made that connection. Now. That's crazy. I used to like hold myself up in a practice room for four to six hours a day just going at the keys. That's and then of course that's what I did on the doors too. That's weird. Never made that connection. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:41):

So cool. I think it's super power for sure. I agree. Well, you know, can go with a distance like that, but cool, man. So tell us Dan, how, uh, so harness you started that in 2017. Yep. Okay. And were you, uh, just working on a sales team before, how did you transition to like starting your own company and everything?

Speaker 3 (06:00):

Yeah. So back in 2002, I started doing pest control for a couple of summers. Then I did alarms for eight and a half years, mostly summers, but also some year round programs built up, you know, deems and regions during that time. And then transition to solar in 2012 with vivant, when they started their San Diego office, I was in that original office that was full of all kinds of cool guys. We were, we were a cool crew. Anybody that's listening? I don't know if you are, but it was, it was cool. Everybody from that office branched out and either became at least DMS, mostly regional VPs, owner, company owners, et cetera. Um, and so, uh, helped them went up to orange county and then, uh, left for solar city Tesla. And uh, when Elan fired us all in 2017, best thing that happened to me. Um, that's when I started harness because I, I felt like I had learned enough. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:53):

Okay. Yeah. A lot of good. A lot of superstars came from that. Yeah. Including, uh, you know, Taylor McCarthy. We were just talking about that a lot too. That's cool. We've been solar though. Were you, uh, do you know Rob Brian river? Yeah, for sure. With CLL, we used to call them the bull. The bull. Was he back there in 2012 with you guys? He was, yeah, he was in that office. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. So he, uh, yeah. New power that company he used to work for, he went on to be like VP of sales for that company. Yeah. Yeah. He was my boss for a long time over there, but I know that's cool. Yeah. A lot of superstars came from that and um, I know it was like rough, at least according to Rob, he said it's pretty rough. In the beginning, you have water issues with stuff. Well, we felt

Speaker 3 (07:34):

So good about selling a 15 cent PPA for like $200 a kilowatt or 180. I think it was, we were so excited about 180 a kilowatt for a PPA. And by the way, the con the customers back then from a customer standpoint, we were setting people up with 15 cent CPAs now in San Diego. Um, you know, I think the average might be up to 19 20 cents somewhere in there. And so like just, I was talking about this with my team the other day at the companies feel at Liberty to continue to raise the prices as long as utility continues to escalate proportion with that. So yeah, it's interesting. The, the whole urgency pitch is, is real. It's not just a sales tool, like go solar now or you're going to probably pay more in the future. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:16):

I know. I love those things. It's like natural urgency that we don't like. We don't have to make it up. It's like stuff is actually happening. Tax credits. It's actually happening a lot of good reasons. I'm not at the school. And so a harness it's a 2017. Do you think, do you think you would have like went on to start harness had solar city not had they not let everyone go. Do you think you would have gone that same path eventually or

Speaker 3 (08:42):

Eventually, maybe? Yeah. Um, thing is, I was, I was pretty bought in to the vision. I was, I was a little bit of an Ilan worshiper, not a bad way. I mean, I did have a big blown up picture of him, you know, that Obama poster with the hope, you know, the blue and red and white. Yeah. I made one of Ilan and I put in progress and it was, it was a little foolish I think. But, um, I had that up in the office and uh, yeah, I just, I, I loved his vision. I was at like the Gigafactory grand opening and sparks Nevada. Um, I loved what we were doing. I felt like it was obviously much bigger than us, so everybody feels great about that. But, uh, when it stopped, it was an easy decision to do my own thing. I'd already been knocking doors for 15 years straight with no stops, you know, consistency and practice, um, and you know, running regions and divisions, stuff like that. So I felt like it was a good time, but how do you not fired us? That's a great question. I don't know. I think I was stuck with it for a while and man, it was just, it was, it was cool. Cool.

Speaker 2 (09:47):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Everything happens for a reason, so sure. Yeah. Maybe a good thing. It happened definitely in hindsight. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so like, I mean, I know it's, you know, a lot of challenges going through starting your own company, starting your own brand business, all that. So starting out, I'm sure it wasn't all like sunshine and rainbows and all that. What was, what were some of like the challenges that you had to go through to get, you know, get things rolling with harness?

Speaker 3 (10:13):

I had the team from solar city pretty much. It was easy because there was no like non-slip stations. They fired us. So we just started, you know, it was no big deal. Uh, so I started with a T a sales team that was nice, but partner wise, um, a lot of companies, you know, instantly become dealers for other installation companies. And that was the, that was the thing. I'm a diligent student of who I'm going to be hopping into business bed with. And I did, I remember to this day I did 17. I interviewed 17 different EPBCS, which are, uh, installation companies went through it, got it on a PowerPoint, did like a, you know, a risk benefit analysis of it. Um, and I even presented it to my team like, Hey guys, this is what I've been going through to make sure we're going the right direction, settled in on one. I won't mention their name, but I sailed in on one and uh, on paper they were the best. And then in reality, they had horrible.

Speaker 2 (11:08):

Yeah. They leave me alone.

Speaker 3 (11:11):

Lost me a lot of money. Yeah, exactly. Interestingly enough, I hope I wish that the story was different, but, um, but what it did teach me was, uh, again, you can look good on paper executions, everything when you're in a partnership a lot of times too, and those go south like that, um, you can, you have to cut your losses. There were definitely some losses early on in the business first year, but I also came into the business knowing like all the stories I had read, that's pretty common. It's pretty common in your first year to anything, but in the five-year range. Yeah. It's common to, to have some struggles, have some learning lessons, some big ones. Um, and yeah, it's about it really tests your metal of if you're serious about the business and the long-term aspect of it or not. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (11:53):

No doubt about that. And so something that, uh, while I'm sure you've struggled with it too, like your teams just, I mean, commissions are so high in solar right now. Um, people are making 10, 15 grand on single deals and stuff, especially out here in California. Like how have you in your teams? I don't know if it's changed as time has gone on, but how, what, what are some things you're doing to like, keep your guys motivated earth stuff that you like passed down to like yourselves managers for our listeners,

Speaker 3 (12:21):

Uh, considering what they make, is that what you're asking?

Speaker 2 (12:23):

Yeah. And we'll just, that's one obstacle. Yeah. Yeah. That's like the curse of solar, right? It's like guys make 10 grand on a deal and then three weeks I'll be back next month. Right?

Speaker 3 (12:33):

Yeah. That is a, that is an interesting question. And it is something of course that we grappled with one way is to constantly have them expanding their idea of themselves. So, uh, it's, there's an income thermometer in every single person. And so once you've reached that thermometer top of a hundred thousand dollars a year, if that's essentially what you think you're worth, or I don't even know if it goes that far in your head, usually you're just like, this is where I'm comfortable. I love freedom and I love taking off and going on experiences. And now I have the freedom to do that. That's all fun and games. And I think everybody deserves to have that time in their life. But if you mentioned this concept of expanding the idea of yourself, often enough in meetings, which I try to, then you can, we actually have a, an archetype I created, uh, so Chad, the cheetah or Chad DRA for the women.

Speaker 3 (13:24):

Um, and, uh, so there's a, there's a turtle, Tom, the turtle there's Harriet the hair. And then there's Chad that cheetah. So essentially like how fast can you accelerate your progress towards semi-retirement towards being like a, you know, a 10 or a 20 or a hundred door owner properties, et cetera. And, you know, you can follow Dave all or some of these guys in the industry that have made it and have done that. Yeah. Um, and, uh, and it's, it's a reality for us in solar. Like we can get there quick because of the money, for sure. So do you want to just kind of live at this range, which I understand is extremely enticing and fun, but you could also make a million dollars in the next few years and accelerate your progress and, uh, do a whole lot more with your life. Right.

Speaker 2 (14:06):

Okay. So it sounds like just basically helping them see a higher vision and set bigger goals for themselves. Yeah, I have to. Yeah. That's huge. And so what are some ways that you do that for your reps? Is it like you personally sitting down with them or you like having your managers sat down and I don't know, I'm like quarterlies or anything you guys are doing to help them actually like see those bigger goals and visions for themselves.

Speaker 3 (14:27):

All of that. We started doing quarterly submits this year, which I don't know why we didn't do them before. They're extremely, they moved the needle a lot because we all get together and have that memory together. This, this quarter we're getting together at Pirate's Cove in Henderson, Nevada overlooking lake Mead. Oh yeah. I've heard about that.

Speaker 2 (14:43):

Yeah. Our, yeah. Cool. Same thing.

Speaker 3 (14:46):

This is one of those things that gets tossed around in the industry. So we rented it out for three days and we're, we're taking, uh, our top producers there for the three days. And then we're taking the rest of the company. We'll meet there for like a half day at the summit. That's awesome. And, uh, yeah, getting together and having those memories, having the comradery and the culture come together super important. And during those seasons, of course, we address that topic among many others. That's one needle mover. And the other one is, uh, yeah. Having, uh, you know, we have weekly calls with our leaders of course, and we disseminate what's most important. And there are things that we talk about over and over. Yeah. That's, that's one of them. So

Speaker 2 (15:25):

That's huge. It's communication. Yeah. It's funny. I'm so I'm working down with, uh, uh, Jason, I don't know if you know, Jason newbie squatting down there, but sure. Yeah. He's talking about the Pirate's Cove too. He said, yeah. I think he said Vivian got like banned from it or something like

Speaker 3 (15:38):

That. That doesn't surprise me. No, it doesn't surprise me though.

Speaker 2 (15:41):

He's like, but I didn't get banned, so yeah. Right. Yeah. There's no longer associated. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:47):

That's funny. I went there with Trevor, uh, Trevor in the top. He he's winning the cup every single year on the alarm side. Uh, I wonder if their group did it cause they're pretty

Speaker 2 (15:56):

Wild. Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, I guess that's a story Jason will have to tell black guys. Nice. No, that's cool. And so, yeah, I like the quarterly summits idea. I think that's huge for probably, you know, the culture and things like that. Anything else that you guys are doing just like build the culture of working of like going out every day, if not getting lazy reps, what else are you guys doing?

Speaker 3 (16:18):

That's a good question. So we have, um, we started a prime program prime, and I think this industry is moving in this direction anyway. Uh, prime is essentially our, uh, senators. So, you know, we have centers in most of our offices. Now it's a very structured program at keeps. Uh, I wouldn't say that keeps people not lazy and they may even contribute to a little bit more, but I don't, I don't think so because it's very dialed in. And of course we have it structured to where we give the most appointments to the highest, highest skilled closers. Um, and so I think that helps a little bit, but also, uh, just the, the, the cadence of accountability. And I don't know we to be Frank, this question is interesting because we, as a company we're, we're not high high, like, um, what's the best way to put this.

Speaker 3 (17:09):

I'm not super super concerned with being the, like the top sellers in the whole country. Uh, as far as solar sales, I'm concerned with quality mostly. And so I would take honestly, uh, you know, a hundred installs from a group a month versus 300. And I know that sounds rash, but I would take them if they were super quality, uh, you know, the, the sales were done with trust and, uh, and not sloppily and not creating a whole bunch of stress and extra stress for people. Yeah. That's just me. That's the way I want to run the business. Um, one of the things I noticed with publicly traded companies is they're always making decisions based on their stockholders. And, uh, I never wanted to have that again as just a, again, an archetype of what I want, I didn't want, so in this company, we're, um, more principles focused, I think, just trying to always do the right thing. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2 (17:59):

No, that's huge. Yeah. I talk with, you know, some of my friends that own their like EPC stuff like that, I mean, they deal with some of these dealers who it's just like, they're pushing through deals no matter what, on any type of roof, getting guys the same, like roof waivers and stuff, and just throw them panels up there. And it's crazy and, uh, [inaudible] cells, but yeah, it's like 25 years people

Speaker 3 (18:20):

And that's a long time.

Speaker 2 (18:22):

It's like, yeah, you throw on these roof waivers and then just put the panels up. Stuff is going wrong. And it's like, what's that? What's that gonna look like down the road for customers and things

Speaker 3 (18:30):

Like that. It's literally the roof over somebody's head. They worked their entire life to buy their house and make sure it's good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:38):

So, no, I definitely appreciate that. I think that's the, you know, the only way really to build long-term and make sure you're focusing on your customers and your clients,

Speaker 3 (18:49):

That brings up a point. I mean, because there's so much money to be made in the solar industry. There's, it's naturally attracting fly by night people. So it's, it's an, it's an unfortunate fact, the industry right now, I feel, uh, needs a huge pivot towards integrity based sales and installs. And I think on the installation side, especially, yeah, there needs to be a big step up in quality and, uh, and customer service towards, you know, uh, sales partners.

Speaker 2 (19:18):

I know no doubt. And it's like, how many times have you heard it? Um, I hear it all the time where like, oh, what's the reason you haven't gone solar. Oh. Cause our neighbor had a bad experience. So cause their friend know, cause our uncle's roof is leaking. Like how many more customers could we all have? We were just doing quality work and know, you know, not lying to people. So yeah. Ripple effect. So yeah, it's definitely super frustrating, but I know, so yeah. That's good to hear that, um, you know, that you're passing that onto your leaders and it's your company. Cause I think that's really what the industry needs. Um, but yeah. So how many teams do you guys have? So you said you're in, uh, California, Utah. Where else?

Speaker 3 (19:56):

California, Utah, uh, New Jersey. Um, a little bit in Nevada and a little bit in Florida and then we've got a team in Puerto Rico as well. Okay.

Speaker 2 (20:05):

That's awesome. How many reps do you have for the whole company? Um,

Speaker 3 (20:09):

We're around two 50. Okay. All right.

Speaker 2 (20:12):

Okay. And so what do you see? I don't know. I'm sure some, obviously some teams are better than others. What do you see in your great teams, your best team versus, you know, teams that are struggling, anything you see that's um, is, you know, helping contribute to a good team or is it the teams that are struggling?

Speaker 3 (20:27):

Yes. I think a good team obviously starts with leaders so you can have a good team without good leaders. It's obviously, uh, a again, a ripple effect. I hate to use that phrase twice, but, um, so if the leaders aren't dialed in, you can, you don't even need to see or meet the leaders. You can tell by the team if you just met the team. But anyway, once that's dialed in and this is part of what the leaders do, having the team have an identity, a name, and even a creed, something that they can coalesce around as a principle or principles that they live by once they have that and identity as a group, then it's about having fun, which is part of culture is kind of what we think about with culture. Like, yeah, you want a yacht somewhere. Um, so having fun and then, uh, getting into flow.

Speaker 3 (21:13):

I was listening to Aubrey Marcus podcast recently and he had a guy on there it's supposed to be the master of flow. Um, my VP Owen recommends to me anyway. He says there's steps to get into flow. And, and uh, the first one is curiosity. So as if the leaders can create curiosity, uh, with their people somehow, I mean, there's, we can brainstorm around that for a while, but we've, we've had ideas about it and we're looking to increase this constantly because when people are in flow, they don't have to think too much. They just feel, and they're feeling great about what they're doing and, you know, flows. Like we just went surfing this more in the morning and got tossed around in the water, positive ions flowing all around. Yeah. And that was the best way for me to start my morning before I got here.

Speaker 3 (21:59):

Yeah. So activities like that, if we can, if we can make, um, sales and solar as flowy as, as the way I feel when I'm surfing. Um, then I think we've, we have hit the jackpot. So our best teams, they feel that they don't feel like they're going to work. They feel like they're just in a, in rhythm with a bunch of their friends and they're making a ton of money together, which is awesome. But it's, they want to show up to meetings. Yeah. It's fun. You know, so there's good quality content being shared in the trainings, the bad teams, um, again, bad leaders or it's hard to say bad, uh, ineffective, ineffective leaders. Yeah. Not doing some of these things, no identity. Maybe, maybe they missed on the culture piece. Um, they're not having a much, they're too serious. Not having enough fun. Yeah. Uh, and it's the fun is not just like throwing out incentives and let's meet a Jamba juice it's it's like, right. You know, it's making jokes and having actually vernacular having like inside jokes around your work. Yeah. That kind of, stuff's fun. Yeah. So that's, it's all about. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:04):

That's cool. And yeah. Be a big struggle with like companies I've been a part of, um, I mean that's a big struggle is starting new offices, especially like when it's far away from your home base. Right. Or what have you, it's like sometimes it's tough to keep that same culture and expand and ensure, you know, find good people. Cause yeah. I mean, one of the first companies I was with it's like we expanded to, I think we opened up five offices in a year, but then, um, the next year all of them closed down except for like one, it was just like, because they didn't have like solid leaders in place. And I don't know, it was just tough to grow in too fast. Yeah. Keep it going.

Speaker 3 (23:39):

So, one thing that we've we've found is to bring like, use your best office and bring your leaders that are struggling or new leaders for sure new leaders bring them into that office and by osmosis the learn and feel the culture. So in fact, we just hired a new Vegas manager today. I just got off a zoom call with him this morning. And uh, he's coming in for two weeks into San Clemente where our top offices, uh, and he'll be learning by osmosis what they're doing. And it's not even just because you could describe to them what to do, but it's, you got to feel it. And you got to meet the people and see how happy they are and talk to them and like all that's going to be super valuable, invaluable. And he'll bring that back to, I guess, have a much better start.

Speaker 2 (24:21):

Yeah. That's awesome. So that works pretty well. They kind of see what the other people are doing and like, oh, I'm going to go implement that in my

Speaker 3 (24:26):

Office. It's pretty basic, but I don't think on a lot of people are doing it.

Speaker 2 (24:31):

Yeah. I know. We definitely weren't when we were having that problem though. Right. That's that's a great idea. Um, and yeah, like as far as like, uh, your inspiration and everything, what's what are the things that like motivate you to keep it going through all the challenges? And I don't know when their struggles, ups and downs, what are some things that,

Speaker 3 (24:51):

Um, that's a good question. Multiple things. So I've thought about, what's been driving me since I've been a kid and it's actually hard to put my finger on it. I have some kind of motor in me that won't stop. I feel I've seen the musical Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just the Disney plus version. Yeah, exactly. Me too. I haven't been to a live show, but you know how there's a song in there that there's, the lyrics are like he's running out of time. He always felt he was running out of time. I've always felt that way. I've always felt like, Hey, this is a very, it's a short life. Um, you gotta, you got your time to make a mark on it. And uh, and so I think that's ever present in my mind. Yeah. And I, that drives me. I mean, I actually just heard, you know, some of the most successful people in the world, art are both running away from something and running towards something.

Speaker 3 (25:38):

Yeah. There's like two motors driving them. Yeah. And so, uh, I can certainly agree with and relate to the running away from things. Um, you know, came from a divorced family. Dad died when I was young bunch of interesting, you know, storyline items that I could bring up, but running towards something I'm running towards really excellence. I'm trying my best to just be excellent because at some point along the road, the way I got the idea in my head, that being excellent is just so much more fun. And it's a choice. So why not? Like why would you choose not to be excellent? Yeah. I know it's hard and I'm certainly not good at it, uh, all the time. But, uh, I think I've developed that skill over time to just, you know, achieve excellence in certain areas of life. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:24):

Yeah. It's sweet. I like animals. I remember when I first listened to it watched the Disney plus palms and I was like, listen to that, that same song, I think on the way to my, like my deals and stuff like that run out of time. Nice. You know, I guess it's the sweet, but it's true. I mean, especially in solar, that's like a real thing. Cause you don't know, like, I don't know what your thoughts, but it's like solar is probably, probably not going to be, oh yeah. It is profitable

Speaker 3 (26:47):

For a long, I mean, yeah. Not, not 10 years from now. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna, it's going to hit critical mass. It's already doing that in certain markets and uh, in California specifically where we are right now, I'm not gonna make a prediction, but you know, we're, we're living on borrowed time for sure. He thinks though. I mean with, yeah, with the, with the level of commissions that we're getting, um, the way and just modeled it off of any other industry in the way it's matured, you know, it's still young. Yeah. But we can model this off of a lot of other industries and you can, you can predict what's going to happen in the next five years. Pretty well. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:22):

Yeah. So yeah. I mean, that's what we're trying to tell our listeners too, is like for those that are listening to this, make sure you understand that and take Dan's words you're living on borrowed time. So push as hard as you can right now be present. That's right. So it's like the days where you're making huge commissions, probably not going to be around forever. So no. So I invest in yourself, invest in coaching and get as good as you can right now. So you can reap the benefits and make as much as possible. Yep. I think is something huge and something I'm sure you, you know, share with your reps. Do I

Speaker 3 (27:53):

Bet? Sure. Again, I mean, we've been on the wave of starting out 2012, just nine years ago, making 185 bucks kilowatt or whatever. It was 180 and being so excited and then it just kept going up every single year, but it's just like the real estate market. You can't just keep going up. It's got to crash at some point. Right. So I don't, I'm not saying we're going to crash, but we're certainly going to see corrections in the market. Uh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:18):

It's funny. I feel like the grandpa and solar, I started in Soren 2016. So coming up on five and a half years or so, but yeah, like I don't know all the new reps coming in. They're seeing these seats commissions. I the grandpa. I'm like, oh, back in my day, I was only making two 50. I know it's real.

Speaker 3 (28:36):

Yeah. And the opportunity arrogance is there. It's like, uh, you know them, like you said, those numbers, you mentioned earlier, they think that's normal. That's not normal. This is not normal. I

Speaker 2 (28:47):

Know. So it's like, guys, you got to understand. There's like, solar's the gold rush right now. Go take your pick and hammer and all that. No, get it now and

Speaker 3 (28:56):

Get it now and do it. Right. You know, don't ruin it for the rest of us. Don't be that. Don't be that guy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:01):

For sure. Well, Dan, I know we're going to wrap up soon here, but yeah. Last question or two, I wanted to ask you, like from your reps that are, um, seeing a ton of success out there compared to reps that are struggling and whatnot, what are you seeing? What's separating like the super successful reps versus the ones that are struggling or new teams,

Speaker 3 (29:19):

The super successful reps have their schedules dialed in. We've got a motto at harness called win the day. You'll see it on our Instagrams. Okay. Um, it's on, well, it's actually in the back of my shirt, right? Is it on the back of my shirt?

Speaker 4 (29:32):

Not this one.

Speaker 3 (29:34):

Cool moment. Anyway, you put it on the back of our swag. Uh, when the day came from Owen Santos, RVP of execution, it's a, it's something that he came up with in his own life, basically to win the morning. He wakes up every day at 5:00 AM. I was disciplined guy. I know, um, gets his workout and gets his healthy eating go and gets the surf on surfed with him this morning. Um, basically does more than a lot of people do before 8:00 AM is over. And so winning the day is what our successful reps do. They have a pretty regimented schedule that they stick to live and die by it. And, um, that makes all of their targets time-bound, which has, if you listen to Tony Robbins, you got to have smart goals. S M a R T the T stands for time bound. So, uh, I think that's critical.

Speaker 3 (30:20):

And then they are students of the game, a students of the game. So they're constantly curious again, way to get into flow state about how to get better and what's happening and, you know, stay on top of their stuff. Yeah. So I mean, those, I could say a lot more than that, but that separates them again. If you want to look at the, the flip side of the coin reps that aren't being successful are treating this, like, you know, they'll come to a meeting and they'll expect the meeting to kind of fill their cup and uh, other people to give them all the knowledge and the skills that they need instead of taking that bowl by their own bull, by the horns, with their own hands and, uh, doing homework, you actually do have to do homework to be great at this. Yeah. So I know one of the best things I can give you is when I first started, I had, uh, an approach that I would record in my phone every day when I was driving out to the area.

Speaker 3 (31:10):

And I would listen back to it to hear how I sounded to myself and put myself in the customer's shoes. Like how would I react to this guy coming to my door? And I would do that over and over and over and over and over, like, I just became obsessed with like the right words and the right cadence and my meta verbal and nonverbal communication. And it probably took me like two and a half to three months, uh, right when I got into solar to come up with an approach that I felt was hitting on all the psychological principles that you would need to have in place to make sure the customer responded in a certain way. Yeah. And that's, that's what you do. You dial that in so that you're hitting on all those things, the takeaways, the questions, the, the motion creates emotion, all that. Stuff's so critical. I

Speaker 2 (31:49):

Love that. Yeah. I can tell, let's go back to your music days. You're probably doing the same stuff and you're practicing piano, right. Recording yourself here and what's going on. That's what I'm saying. It's like so many parallels be doing it. Oh yeah. And top guys are doing it. They're recording themselves in their closes at the doors. It's just like so many things that we didn't think were doing there. Courtney is not going to lie. Right. Like it's like stupid, but I was actually sounded like that actually said that. Yeah. So yeah. So yeah, no, I think that's a huge separator and lots of people I've had on the podcast actually brought that up. That's one of the number one things that reps can do that most people aren't doing it's yeah. I didn't do it for years either, but I'm hearing it so many times. Good recording yourselves, getting feedback and just, you know, analyzing what went wrong and looking in the mirror. Yeah. That's huge. Um, well then we appreciate this secrets you shared with us today and um, yeah, I guess last question or two, I had like, what's been your biggest, uh, I dunno, is there any time at harness that there was like a, a down point or like a big struggle you had at harness and then what, what did you do to get out of it or any, or maybe there hasn't been any, but I

Speaker 3 (32:58):

Don't know. Uh, I mean there was the installation misfire in the, in the early year, the most recent one was actually online leads, man, I'll tell you, I can go off for an hour about this. So many companies sprung up during the pandemic saying that they were experts and gurus on lead gen. So many dollars were lost to those companies. Not only by me, but others. Uh, but yeah, that was definitely a struggle. Um, we, we, I think we were shut down for probably, uh, I don't know, maybe a month and a half or two. And then we kind of rebounded with the idea that we were tied to the utility company. And I think everybody in the industry agreed we were essential services, but it's still, you know, um, had our best year during the pandemic, which is cool obviously, but spent a lot of money on online leads that didn't pan out. And again, I could name some companies, I can name some names, but I won't yeah. Blacklisted names. Uh, but I would just caution any, any of the listeners to be very, I would never go with an online lead company that hasn't been vetted by somebody, you know, that can show you proof of the results. Yeah. I just, it's such a trap right now, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:06):

And that's huge. I don't know if you've seen it, but there's like groups on Facebook now, like blacklisted, solar online leads. I follow people just go and follow them. Yeah. Talk crap on all the people that screwed him over.

Speaker 3 (34:18):

So the names that have scorned me have shown up, so it wasn't just me.

Speaker 2 (34:23):

Okay. Yeah. No, that's good to observe. I know a lot of people are looking, thinking, oh, online leads. That's the wave. Never going to have to knock the door again,

Speaker 3 (34:30):

But yeah. Yeah. They think it's a panacea. It's really not. Yeah. It's a supplement. It always should be treated such as such.

Speaker 2 (34:37):

Yeah. A hundred percent. Um, well Dan, thanks for coming on the show today. Um, where can people find out more about your teams and what you're doing and kind of connect with you on social media and all that? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:47):

Luckily, uh, there's this great guy named Serge. That's been, uh, managing our social media recently and, uh, anyways, you can find us on, you can find it on Instagram at harness your future. Okay. Uh, we also have harness power official. That's kinda more of a customer facing Instagram. Okay. Easiest way to find us. And you can slide into our DMS and have some conversations. Yeah. Okay. I love it.

Speaker 2 (35:06):

And speaking of surge, I mean, I know surge comes at the price. He's not doing this stuff for free, but, uh, w w what's driving you to kind of invest in like the social media side of things. And what's the goal with that?

Speaker 3 (35:17):

The goal with that is really because we were a closed loop before, like we were growing mostly organically by referral. And then late last year December-ish of last year, we just decided, you know what, we're going to do some, we're going to make some more efforts to grow. Uh, not just organically, but you know, get ourselves out there a little bit more and show the world what we've got going. We feel like we have something very special here. It's not contrived. It's a special culture of great people that want to be part of this because it's fun. It's special. We create a lot of cool programs that are proprietary to us. So nice. Um, so we wanted to get that out there a little bit more. And Serge is just such a charismatic gentleman came to me. He's like, Hey, I can do all this for you. And he made these massive promises and, uh, now he's, he's delivered quite well so far. Um, yeah, he does a great job, great content, uh, very organized. And he's got some automated systems that are pretty impressive. So yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:10):

Yeah. Surges them in. He said, we've gotten smiling on the sidelines there. So yeah. Give him a shout out. He's in the room, but no, so yeah, social media definitely important. I know if there's a building brand and also recruiting helps a ton just recruit your ideal salesperson.

Speaker 3 (36:26):

Yeah. Yeah. And I've been averse to it, to be honest that I haven't been on social media in a while. I took a hiatus for a Facebook for like a, I dunno, a year, year and a half or something. But I think the resistance to social media was like, I just don't want to feel obligated to put myself out there with something contrived. I want it to feel authentic. And I want to feel like, I don't know that we're not trying to like manipulate people into anything. So luckily surges give me free reign on what to put on there. Um, and has worked with me on, um, the way I want to do things, which is, has been awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:59):

That's awesome. Cool. Well, Dan, appreciate you coming on. And before we wrap up here, any final, I guess, words of advice you want to share with our solar printers with RS or guys that are listening on the show here today? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:10):

I would just say something I say often there's magic in the mundane, which is, goes back full circle to what we talk about. Like if you, if you practice piano for hours on end or, you know, parlayed any kind of musical talent or any other kind of rhythm, maybe from athletics, when you were young into knocking doors, you know, that the magic is in doing the same mundane things over and over and finding the magic, which is the income, the success, the, uh, the leadership, eventually all the things that you kind of want and are going after it's it's in the consistent daily. Yes.

Speaker 2 (37:44):

Yeah. Love that. And yeah, I'm sure you read the two book compound effect slight edge, but yeah. It's just like, if you haven't read those for our listeners, go read those for sure. I mean, that's yeah. That's the key to success. Most people aren't willing to do the little things everyday over a long period of time. Anyone can do it for one or two days, but the guys that are having success in this industry, or really anything they're doing the little things that no one wants to do for, you know, day after day after

Speaker 3 (38:09):

Day formula was written long ago. I just gotta follow it. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

Speaker 2 (38:14):

Love it. Dan will links were coming on the show. Guys, go give Dan a shout out soon, a message a DM on Instagram, Facebook, let them know you appreciate him on the show. And Dan, thanks again. We'll talk to you soon. Cool. Thanks Taylor. Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (38:28):

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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.