Visit Solciety.co now! 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 1 (00:01):What's going on Solarpreneurs. I am stoked for this episode today because we have someone that, um, has been doing something pretty unreal. We've got a guy that's I got a text a few weeks ago, heard about chance here, that's with us today and you're going to hear all about them. But he said to my knowledge and industry record close 68 freaking deals in a month. Let's go appreciate it, bro. So we're going to hear, um, what was working for him and yeah, just kind of his whole story and what he's been doing to achieve that level of success. Cause I've never heard anything like it before, so a chance welcome to the show. Thanks for comingSpeaker 2 (00:40):On. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having me.Speaker 1 (00:42):Yeah. So I'm stoked to hear just kind of what led up to this. And I I'll be honest. I didn't believe it. At first when I heard I got a text from my buddy Marshall and um, he told me about this guy and I'm like, no, no way, Marshall. I got a guy that I work with that close. I think, uh, yeah, he's closed like 43 in a month. I was just telling you chance. I, I thought that was the record. Like no ways anyone closing more than, than 43, that Marshall texts me. He's like, no chance got 68. I did. I was like, all right, I got to get this show on the guy on the show.Speaker 2 (01:15):Yeah. So a little background about me. Um, again, my name is chance [inaudible] but so ever since like I grew up, I've always had like an entrepreneurial mind, of course. But yeah, when I was 13, I, I mean, I've been doing e-commerce and everything. Solar I've been in the industry for about 15 months. Um, but yeah, literally I came out here, I saw an ad. Um, I actually filed Zane and that's the CEO of better earth. So that's who I work for. But I saw an ad with Zane and I was like, all right, I'm going to apply. So I think that they had like 800 applicants. It was all housing. Um, all expenses paid for, for your first three months. And I dropped out of school about a year and a half in. I never really wanted a piece of paper that millions of people get every single year, but I've flew out here.Speaker 2 (02:02):Uh, I got the job flew out here and I dropped everything to my parents, whether you guys like it or not, I'm going to California. So I'm originally from Wisconsin. But when I was about 13 years old, I had like $150,000. So she was my room. I used to buy and resell tickets, shoes, whatever it may be. You name it? I did it. So any type of get rich quick, and I realize, of course you just got to keep putting the work in. You said drop ship, like crazy. But when I was 17 or 16 years old, I created a company called smile, big clothing. So you guys can all check that out if you want. But yeah. Um, I was going through a little different time with my parents and they actually like got a divorce and everything was hard on me just cause my brothers I'm the youngest of, I have three older brothers, but, um, yeah, so I was going through it a little different time and I've made smile, be clothing, just cause I knew a lot of people are going through bigger struggles than myself.Speaker 2 (02:54):And that's why I dropped out of school. I used to sit in a dorm room, wake up at four 30, work on websites, inventory, skip all my classes, just to go package a bunch of merch. And it was, it was ridiculous. Yeah. So I dropped everything came out to California and when I came out to California, I didn't have a car or anything like that. I put all my money into the inventory. You still order way more than I could afford just to push my paradigm and make sure that I have to, I have one thing, one option. So, soSpeaker 1 (03:21):That's awesome. Always been hustling.Speaker 2 (03:23):Absolutely. So after that I came out to California, didn't have a car used to Uber, to turf used everything, my bank account to do it and you're out there. There's no other excuse to it. Um, you're either going to sit on the sidewalk, you're going to go bang doors and get after some people. So I did that. And my first month I think I had like 16 deals in my first month in solar. Um, and yeah, we were pushing a lot of paradigms in the company. I've kind of set like that company record right away. And ever since that, like I'm always just been holding myself accountable to my goals of course. And I don't really compare myself to others. I really just keep improving. And that's the most important part and staying consistent and making sure that you're outworking every single person. Yeah.Speaker 1 (04:03):A hundred percent. And yeah, I think that's probably, we'll talk more about this, but that's probably a huge key to success is most guys they'd hit, you know, 30, 40 in a month and be like, like I was thinking, oh, this is probably a record. I don't need to do more than this. Right. Go take a LondonSpeaker 2 (04:17):Person.Speaker 1 (04:18):Yeah. So I think that's probably a lot of your success. You're was like, oh no, I'm going to beat Mike previous record. So big. And you're probably not even looking at this score, but you're just comparing it to what you hit in the other months, right? Yeah,Speaker 2 (04:28):Absolutely. Yeah. I always have a big whiteboard in my room and that's literally all I compare myself to and it's just my last day or my last month or whatever may be. But staying in the present, taking every single day, one by one every day is a sprint always just control what you can of course can control and yeah, you definitely see a lot of results and a lot of improvement as well. Yeah.Speaker 1 (04:49):So we'll get more into the solar stuff, but yeah, I wanted to ask you chance, like with your previous businesses, was that always pretty successful when you started out selling shoes and everything? Tell me about that. Was that always a big success or was that kinda up and down? How did that go?Speaker 2 (05:02):You know, it was up and down just because I was in middle school and high school and of course, like I was playing sports. My dad used to be a coach and had a lot of practices after I used to get my phone taken away and all my classes. Cause I was always messaging people back on eBay. So that was always like a struggle and staying up super late and trying to balance work like schoolwork or whatever it may be. But yeah, the shoe is, was like actually a pretty big success, especially just being young. And honestly like, even if I broke even, I didn't like, I, I did pretty well for myself being young, but yeah. I mean, honestly just like the knowledge I learned and seeing how like businesses operate and seeing like how to actually sell definitely benefits in a lot of other ways are than just business. It develops yourself as a person too.Speaker 1 (05:45):Yeah. And so I love hearing about people's background because I mean, it's like we were talking about a lot of people in solar. It's kind of the paradigm that reps get is they're lazy. They close a few deals were paid at like we're talking about before we did the show and you literally close a couple of deals a month and be making more than most average Americans make. And so like, do you think, I don't know your upbringing, your previous as previous businesses, things like that. Do you think that contributed to just kind of like the hustle mindset you have now? Or do you think that was more developed or were you born in this way or how do you, how do you develop that stuff? MaybeSpeaker 2 (06:19):That's a good question. Um, honestly I've kind of just been born that way, but yeah, I've realized, so when I first came out here, it was called the 90 day blitz and I was like, dang, like, we're going to have to go like 13, 14, 15 hours a day or whatever it is, you wake up at six, you come back at until it's, I mean, pitch black. I used to literally knock my own neighborhood until it was literally pitch black. But yeah, I think that was huge for me. And I realized that I've kind of been blitzing for the last seven years. So yeah, I kind of just like trained myself to that and I didn't realize like, of course this is like more like physical or you're walking around, but I used to be on my computer for 12, 13 hours in college and high school or whatever it may be. So it definitely kind of like trained me just to kind of, of course bring it to the doors. Yeah.Speaker 1 (07:04):Yeah. I love that. And so yeah, at better, if, um, do you guys have like a, I dunno, a set schedule for your reps? Are you, you're talking about blitzes, do you guys do mostly Brit blitzes that better? Or how does the schedule work that you guys get your reps success over there?Speaker 2 (07:19):Yeah. Good question. So honestly like you you're on your own hours. Like no one really can like tell you exactly what to do. So we don't really have like a schedule, um, a lot of like team leaders or whatever may be, might make of course, like a blitz, like a two week blitz, three week blitz for like, of course their team and have like a cool goal or whatever may be like a competition. But a lot of it is just kinda like all self jammed, like work-based performance, like of course there's you get what you put out of it? Yeah.Speaker 1 (07:44):Okay. Yeah. Cause I'm noticing that a lot. Um, a lot of companies I've been with, they just have the typical, like, all right, guys, we're going to try to go out and work from, I dunno, three to seven today. It's kind of like the hours, but then what I've also seen with that is sometimes I get like mediocre results. Cause you're not doing like go hustle blitz. Everyone's just kind of trained. Okay. Let's try to get her, you know, one to two deals in the week, a hundred percent. If we work 20 hours on the doors or something, then we can probably get like one or two deals. Yeah. But especially recently effort from wat I guess, coming on the podcast is that they're really trying to do more. This blitz. You can get people to hit, you know, high numbers. So I think it's really cool is because if you do that, then a lot of times what I've seen on teams as reps limit themselves, like, okay, I'm going to work my 15 hours, whatever I'm the doors get like, I don't know, maybe four or five deals this month, which is great money.Speaker 1 (08:37):But what I think is really cool from guests, I'm hearing, okay, let's do like a three week blitz and then guys are hitting like, I don't know, maybe 15 deals. Whoa. That's crazy. I didn't know. That was possible. Yeah. So it's kind of less also breaking the mindset too, from what I've seen during the blitz and really like working more hours and they thought they could work and getting them out of the shell because yeah. I mean, I've kind of been in that, unfortunately I think it's time for me to do a blitz, but I've kind of been in the same thing, work three, four hours a day or at least knocked doors for four hours a day. I'm in San Diego. So I'm just working kind of local areas too. Yep. And so it's yeah, it's an easy trap to fall into is I'm just going to work like, you know, kind of, not the minimum, but minimum to get a couple of deals in a week and then not push myself further. So would you say that's a big thing for you guys to just um, or in anything you guys do to help reps just, I don't know, increase their potential and break past the limits, things like that. Yeah.Speaker 2 (09:29):100%. One thing that I do for like any type of my reps, like, um, so when I first started my team just cause I've only been in the industry for about say 15 months. So I brought four guys out, uh, probably my third month in and yeah, they were up at six o'clock I'd bang on their doors. Make sure that they're up, whether you're going to be reading meditating, of course, doing whatever that's going to get your mind. Right. Nine o'clock we'd have a morning meeting right after the morning meeting you're at the doors and you're not coming back until it's pitch black. There's no other way around it. Or is it going to be locked if you come back, you're not coming in. So sit in your car, do follow up whatever it is. But definitely like that was really, really beneficial. So I came in, his name was Andrew Zimmern, Betty.Speaker 2 (10:05):I came in, I lived with [inaudible] and that was big for me just to have like my routine of course down. And after that, like, yeah, like you're not going to waste your time. There's nothing worse than going to hit 200, 300 whatever. How many doors in a 10 hour period and just get nothing. So yeah, definitely just making sure like your health, like holding yourself accountable and everyone else, like being a leader, you got to lead from the front. If you're not doing results, why would I would really reps ever get results? So always pushing, like it's addictive. It's very, very addictive to push everyone else's paradigm, see like the results that you can bring to them and see, of course like when you do 60 ideals, anyone that does tens thinking, oh my gosh, like I got to get going. So it's the same thing with my team. And last, last month we did like 200 something like 200 deals as a, as a team, which is pretty coolSpeaker 1 (10:54):And credible. And yet you're what, you're 21, right chance 21 crazy say I'm here 28. And then like, man, these young hustlers coming out, it's funny, I'm on a team right now where at like my previous company as with a lot of us were like married guys and yeah. All right guys, let's close our deals, get back to their kids, whatever. But now I'm seeing these guys coming in like your age 21 and they're just like straight hustle.Speaker 2 (11:18):Right? Not as many distractions. Right. You don't have a full-time job at home with the kidsSpeaker 1 (11:22):Or whatever it may be. Yeah. Obviously you don't got, you know, wife, kid to give back to you, anything like that. Right. So I wish, I wish I would've been more like that when I was your age too though, is because like, even though I'm married now, I'm still probably working about the same as when I was like single and all that. Yeah. But if I get a go, if I could go back, I would have done like more blitz style when I had more time and I have like wife, whatever, to go back to your kids. Um, so for all like you young people listening, you young folks, not like me, 28, married and all that. I think that's a huge key push as hard as you right now, because trust me when you're married, when you have a kid and stuff, I mean, you're still gonna push, but it's not the same.Speaker 1 (11:58):Like you're not going to be able to push as hard. You still, still going to your bullets and stuff like that. But uh, I mean I'm already sleeping on them. Not like literally, but I'm already like in the doghouse sometimes with my wife, like I hate you putting too many hours this week, stuff like that. Right. So I think that's a big thing. Um, but yeah. So for you chance, like people you're training, um, do you ever get any pushback or is it like people you bring in, are you immediately saying, all right guys, we're blitzing like crazy or do you get pushback from guys? Like, cause I know obviously you're a straight killer out there working all these hours and like hitting massive things and all that. But what about for guys that aren't like you that come in, maybe they've never worked this hard in their lives. Um, anything else that you guys do to kind of like condition them to really hit big things and break those limits? Is it just kind of doing bootcamp style, like you said, or anything else that you guys?Speaker 2 (12:46):Yeah, I think like the biggest part is like setting the expectations straight right away. So, um, if they're getting pushed back or like, I don't see like them actually doing it, then I'm just not going to bring them out. So like I have a bunch of people that want to come out, but yeah, just making sure we're scaling, like of course, like a, a good pace and making sure where I can put a lot of time into these guys, but no there's really no pushback or anything like that, just because I tell them exactly how it's going to be. I tell them they have to get up at six and they're not gonna be able to come back. So they know that they're gonna be working 80 to 110 hour weeks. And that's literally the truth that month in August. Like literally I didn't have time to eat. So just being super busy and making sure that they are, and again, like that's my job. Like if they put the work in, I want to make sure that they like see a ton of results last month. Um, one of my top guys, Ryan testing her, he had like 28 deals. So it's definitely just shifting paradigms and yeah, everyone works really, really hard and yeah, we're just a big family. Yeah.Speaker 1 (13:40):That's awesome. And so let's get into a little bit like this huge month you had tell me, yeah. You talked about, you barely have time to eat in, obviously in the, you know, super busy, like 68 deals. I don't know how you do anything besides close deals. Um, literally, but yeah. Do you want to tell it, like, what was your schedule this month and did you kind of map it out? Yeah, yeah. Tell us about that. Oh, this came to be, yeah.Speaker 2 (14:02):So I mean, of course my goal is actually 70 for that month and I literally saw myself accountable. So I took a whiteboard and I literally broke down every single day and I just kept chasing myself if I'm behind, I gotta like catch up of course. But my schedule was of course I get up super early and since I do have guys, like, I seriously would not go to bed until like 12, um, going over like pitches wins. And of course, like voice memos, like you'reSpeaker 1 (14:25):Still managing a team while you're trying toSpeaker 2 (14:27):Live. Yeah. I live with 15 guys, so I brought in a whole entire squad. Um, we're actually in Orinda, California, but yeah, literally I was managing everyone and I went to Arizona. I was brand new market for me, which was definitely different. Um, but kinda crushed it there. I had 11 deals in four days there and then I ended up having to go to LA, um, which is a newer market for me as well. And I think I had like 14 deals in like five there. So yeah, just like adapting to whatever, like is put in front of you. And I did travel a lot, but it was pretty sick.Speaker 1 (14:58):Wow. That's awesome. So like 6:00 AM and then like you're talking about before is kind of like 6:00 AM then meaning at nine and then just like knocking her in Dale's still dark, dark,Speaker 2 (15:08):Basically a hundred percent. Yeah. And then I think like the most beneficial, like the, something that was really, really beneficial for me is a lot of times when people like get an appointment sad or like your time is so valuable, as I said before, but like, don't sit people out. Of course aren't worth your time. So I don't like force it anyone, like if I get, say I go get eight or nine calls in a day, like I'm probably saying only three or four of them. So I like that was super beneficial or don't like set appointments way out, same day or next day at all times. And yeah, your time is super, super valuable. Like I don't think I've ever sent an email with a proposal in my whole entire life. It's either you're going to sit with me or are you just not going to go solar with me?Speaker 1 (15:46):That's awesome. Yeah. No, I think that's a big thing. Especially new reps. I see they get kind of this, I dunno, we're rushed. They're having success when they get a lead and maybe, maybe they'll let them in the house and they're like chatting and stuff. But I know for me as a new rep, I would like get in the house with some old lady or whatever that wasn't even qualified for roofs, like wrecked. She has like zero credits, um, you know, on social security and all this stuff. And I like sweet. I just booked a solid appointment. She's letting me in. She's like telling me your whole life story. And then two hours later she's like, oh, by the way, a non-interest in solar have zero credit. I'm like all this stuff.Speaker 2 (16:21):Yeah. Just getting kind of all that stuff out of the way to start. And that, that is definitely like the most important part. A lot of people want to like set appointments that they just force it and they kind of waste an hour and a half, like an hour and a half on the doors. That's that's real are leads. So super, super important just to balance your time. And again, like, know that your time is that valuable in this industry? It's crazy. Like I always like to look at it as like an Easter egg hunt, right? Like literally you're just looking for golden eggs. So gain like the hardest people, like the hardest people look you out are the easiest to close. So yeah. And then of course like simple is better. So I don't really like talk about the product as much. Like I attach myself to the deal and from there, like it's really, really simple.Speaker 2 (17:01):You got dumbed down the deal, I'm big into analogies and just really putting into perspective on, I only can help your situation. This is something you've already been paying for. Like, all you do is you just pay a lower bill and that's kind of where it comes down to. And after that, like once it clicks or you get like that one objection or they like spilled the beans on why they didn't do it in the past and why it didn't make sense in the past. That's where you just actually tee that thing up and hit a home run.Speaker 1 (17:25):Yeah. I love that. And now I think those are super key to, um, just helping people dumb it down as in as simple as possible. I think the most successful guys I've seen in the industry are breaking it down. So basically like a third grader could understand it so simple. Like how could you not do it? Absolutely. Oh yeah. Tell me, do you have any, uh, specific analogies you use that you feel like you help a ton as you're sitting in homes? Yeah, justSpeaker 2 (17:49):Like a lot of the times, like even it's on a door most of the time like that, I really like dumb it down to them. But one thing that I always like to say is like, so of course, like they're already renting their power and now they get to own it for nothing on their pocket. But then I just like put it into perspective on like things that they actually own. Like you probably own this house. Right. And they go, yup. Probably on your car. Yup. I'll commute on your power. Pretty contradicting. You get to own your power for less than you already renting it for, for nothing out of your pocket. You literally could have $0, your name to do this. My mom always says when it sounds too good to be true, it usually is right. What's the catch there. Isn't one. And that's why I moved all the way from Antarctic, Wisconsin for this. Do you get your bill online or in the mail?Speaker 1 (18:30):The assumption love it. And that's awesome. Um, ask you. Yeah. And so like for guys, uh, another thing I was going to ask you a chance, um, especially for newer reps, like I've seen just recognize someone that's super qual qualified versus someone that could be possibly a waste of time. And when you close these 60 deals, I'm sure you had to be like, you know, super, super good with your time. So how did you recognize, like maybe someone's going to be waste of time or like filter all these people they're going to be felt credits or they weren't good leads. How do you filter out the holes and just spend your time with as many good prospectsSpeaker 2 (19:04):That's possible? Yeah. Good question. Honestly, I usually like kind of qualify them on the door. Um, I asked them questions after like get the bill and everything, like start talking about like them talk about myself for a little bit. And then after that, like if I see like something that may be a concern, like a roof or whatever it may be, I kind of get it out of the way, but what I usually do, and I dunno if this is like the best strategy I, it works for me eyes. I always just double book appointments. So ones that are like iffy or like, um, maybe they won't sit cause it was like a one-legged or whatever. It may be. Alice have two appointments. So I get to pick two, one doesn't show the other one's going to show. So that was something that I always like, felt like was really, really beneficial, but all our part two is just mapping out your schedule. So before I go out to Tara for out to of course, knock, I always have like my schedule plan. So like there on my time, I'm not on theirs. So making sure that I'm not putting an appointment right in the middle of the day, all my appointments would be at like 4 30, 6, 7 30 and nine. So that's where I always would do I have four appointments, I got to fill them. And that's what of course leaves you open for some same days. But yeah, that, that definitely works for me, um, at almost always. So yeah.Speaker 1 (20:10):Yeah. I like that. Yeah. I don't feel this in the grant cartoon much, but it talks about like new problems. It's good to have new problems. Right. Like double booking appointments. That's a problem. Right. But it's like, like, especially in solar, how many appointments fall through or stuff happens. Right. So I think, especially if you're trying to do volume like that, you gotta have like some deployments just stacked all day. Absolutely laying them up. And so for our doubters out there chance tells like how many of these were self Jan's? Um, like, I don't know. It's almost like a little bit of the stats forSpeaker 2 (20:40):Yeah. They were like almost all self gen. So, I mean like in Arizona, like that 11, um, was also of gen I one the days in California at six same days and our dad five same days and those are all door knocks. Um, and so Cal I had those 14, those were self gen, but yeah, like almost all of them, herself, Jen, of course I have to help some of my teammates like out, um, if they ever need like help on a deal, but a lot of times, like I'm always rescheduled in my appointments for it. So it's kind of like a sacrifice, but of course, like their production is more important to me than mine. So yeah, for sure.Speaker 1 (21:12):Yeah. That's a good mindset to have. And then how many, uh, at a little 60 for Lozar Blanco, bro, he probably had like 40 of those cancers come to St. John'sSpeaker 2 (21:21):When you think you can look at my commission summary. Um, now I've probably had like transparently. I probably had like six to eight, cancel, maybe nine. Um, and I mean, sometimes you just can't control it. Two of them were after the sites for it came out, the roof didn't qualify and they didn't want to do a reroof, but that's just the honest, transparent truth, but people can think whatever they want, I guess. Right. Yeah. You can shadow me on the door thenSpeaker 1 (21:43):That's seriously. We all go out the mouth. It's more video footage. Yeah. But no, that's still incredible. I mean 10% was at 10% or something maybe. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate that. Super incredible. Um, so yeah, but no, I like how you're still rep focused. Like most guys they're hitting huge numbers. I see like, all right guys, I'm not going to take any deals. I'm not like focused on anything and they just have to go all in. But the fact that you did this all while still like leading a team and training guys and still going to other people's deals and that makes it, uh, you know, even more incredible. It was crazy. Yeah. Um, what did your guys think when you hit this really? Like, just like, like blown away orSpeaker 2 (22:24):Not really? Um, or they saw,Speaker 1 (22:26):You said you hit been hitting some big numbers.Speaker 2 (22:28):Yeah. I was hitting like a lot of big numbers before and like I was really like rep focused then like a lot of times when you have new reps and they don't know exactly like what's a really good appointment or wherever it may be like there I'm sitting with people that would know show or I'm driving an hour just to go to an appointment that doesn't sit or whatever it may be. And I would still do like 40 some or whatever it may be. But yeah, a lot of my guys weren't really surprised. Like I set that goal in our morning meeting and I kind of like spoke it into existence. I like just telling someone or the team what I'm going to do. And then I already put it out to the world, so I have to do it otherwise I make a fool out of myself. SoSpeaker 1 (23:03):Yeah. That's awesome. And yeah. So like leading up to that, you had a few months, you were saying before we started this a few months at like 40, right. And yeah. And then you just like anything that led to you wanting to like hit 70 or just like, I'm just want to have a massive month and just go all out. I think the,Speaker 2 (23:18):I guess part is I didn't have like a brand new like waiver recruits. So a lot of these guys have been out here for like two months beforehand or two and a half months I would say. So like they were kind of on their own doing all like solo production where then I really got to like blitz on my own. Okay. So that was nice. And of course, like I had some people, like they I'd knock with a couple of people just for fun. Um, just cause they always like to knock with me and I always like to get some deals from, so yeah, again, like very unselfish. Like I love, literally change other people's lives. That's the most important part to me. And like, that's my why. And so the more people I can bring out, the more differences in life, second change, like that's a big, big win.Speaker 2 (23:56):It's not even about the dollar science, not about the deals, not about the numbers, nothing like that. It's about really just like of course, like switching their paradigm and changing their lives and their family's lives. And that's why my why's like to have a billion dollars to make a bit like a billion differences. So it kind of goes back to like smile, be clothing for every order we get, we donate a t-shirt to a child in the hospital. So yeah. So I've always just been a big giver. My mom's always taught me that and we used to sacrifice our Christmases for other people's Christmases. So it really is just like, that's the coolest part about this industry is like, we only can help someone out, literally every single house that you see. It makes sense for them unless they sit in the dark with like a flashlight. Right. They're going to have a high enough electric bill. Yeah,Speaker 1 (24:33):Yeah, yeah, no, I think it's yeah. All the successful people. I know they have sort of that same mindset and Hey, you probably read some of those books, you know, like the Zig Ziglar, Zig Ziglar and you know, greatest salesman in the world. It's not their book. And that's something that key points of it is like the more you can care about other people, the more you're going to get back, the more deals you're going to get back in your life. Absolutely. So big key. I think Fran, when Jane have success, don't like, look at it. How many people can you serve this this month? How many people can you help? How many lives can you change? And uh, I think that's, there's a big thing speaking to in existence. Do you like your saying? Absolutely. Um, and so yeah, another question I just thought of too, like you mentioned, you're double booking appointments, things like that. So let's say you have you show up to one, they sit then the other one. What do you do with the other one? I just show them what time.Speaker 2 (25:20):Yeah. It's true. My texts really quick and say like, Hey, my meeting's going a little bit longer than already. Like of course it plans to say, I didn't have an appointment after the seven o'clock work or seven o'clock probably will work for you. Right. And then after like a lot of times, or I can just reschedule it for like the next morning, like 8:00 AM or at late night, again, like nine o'clock, eight o'clock. So I always like to set up appointments early, early morning or late at night. So I always want to keep that window where I can go hit some doors. Yeah. Okay. Pipelines always got before.Speaker 1 (25:46):Yeah. That's awesome. And so yeah, for, uh, same days, how, yeah. Um, to go into a little bit of like your clothes, how long would you say your typical clothes works? And what's kind of like your closing process, if you don't mind sharing?Speaker 2 (25:59):Um, honestly I would say my typical clothes is like 30 to 35 minutes. Okay. So I get to the numbers, um, probably in like five minutes and after the numbers, I'm probably getting to the forms in 20 minutes tops. So keeping it really simple, like we were already talking about, but yeah, when you keep it simple, like once you're like a lot of people like to overexplain the deal and you're just shooting yourself in the foot and you're over analytical then of course like you keep telling him all this like nonsense then of course they're going to say, yeah, I might need to do some more research instead. You're just paying a lower bill. Hopefully don't have a problem with building equity in your property, owning your power instead of renting it. And that will be good. So yeah. That's like how long my closing takes, but yeah, I've talked about like a couple of main points right away.Speaker 2 (26:40):Um, probably like for five minutes, just like information, um, just to give me like a better feel. What's your biggest concern? What's your biggest goal? Have you ever looked in going solar? And a lot of people, what they do is like they, oh, my biggest concern is I don't want to lease my power. I don't want to pay anything out of pocket. Like, yeah. I wouldn't want to either. And I keep going and I want to use all of that as ammo. Like once I get to like the numbers, after that, I can just tee up whatever, like of course there, my biggest concern was, and that's how I go right into my clothes. Really like harping on the things that they're concerned about. And then from there keeping it simple. It's just like, this is an absolute, no brainer. Nice.Speaker 1 (27:13):So, so you don't go, like, I don't know. What about for people that are like have checked out solar are more analytical, things like that. Do you change your presentation much? Or is it pretty much the same with what those guys do? I go chance we've gotten like four quotes now. Like just show me the numbers, whatever.Speaker 2 (27:29):Yeah. So I'll never go right to the numbers no matter what. Um, I always just tell them like, we'll get to your number. So like, if they say like they have three or four quotes or whatever, it may be right away. What I'll always say is like, okay, like I'm going to keep away from the whole entire, like sales spiel. But I do want to go over like, like a couple of things. We'll take two minutes, we'll get right to your numbers. Absolute like that. They're actually open-minded. But a lot of times, even when people get quotes, they don't even know what like net energy metering is or whatever, how everything works. And then they ask that and literally just like kills like your momentum and the deal. Yeah. So that's something where I get everything on the way they have to have full understanding before I show them their numbers. After of course the numbers are going to make sense. I'll tell them why we're different. And then from there I'm going to reach the close.Speaker 1 (28:08):Nice. Nice. So it sounds like even before you even get an appointment, it sounds like they already kind of pretty good, pretty good idea of like how the process works, how the solar works and like, like with your analogies, things like that. Cause you don't, you don't get into a ton of like descriptive stuff in the presentation. A lot of that stuff they know before.Speaker 2 (28:25):Yeah. Um, they know like a lot of things, like, I don't really like get into like equipment as much. Of course I'll tell them like how many like modules I have and I'll tell them like the brand of the inverter, but from there, just like, honestly I could put a stuffed animal on your roof. And since he ever preferred like a production or performance guarantee, like either he doesn't matter, like the system's going to produce. So that's where like I kind of stay away from that kind of stuff. But yeah, I kind of get right to the numbers right away. And then it's just going for the clothes. But honestly their clothes, every, almost every single time I sit down with.Speaker 1 (28:56):Yeah. The big part is just your mindset. I can tell you, like I can tell just from the way you're talking, like every deal you sit in, it's like, you're, you're telling yourself they're close. As soon as a slam dunkSpeaker 2 (29:06):Every, every time. Like if you have any doubt or like any doubt in your mind that you're going to a deal and they're not going to close, like yeah, you just spoke that into existence. Every single time I go to a door or every single time I go to like a meeting. Yeah. Like my number one, like my mindset slurry, just like you're closed. Yeah. Like yesterday, like for instance, both of my people were like, yeah, we're just looking around. Um, we're not gonna sign any papers. And after him, I was just like, you know, tell me that in about 45 minutes, buddy. Exactly.Speaker 1 (29:34):Yeah. It's a Champion's mindset and every high producer has exact same mindset that you have, um, take taking their McCarthy. Um, yeah. He came on the show and he's seen a lot of the same stuff that you said, it's like this one's going to close a hundred percent, a hundred percent. This one's closed. He'd snapped him as he's walking up to the doorstep. Absolutely. Just based on stuff. So it's like, he's speaking in existence. You have that. And then yeah. Another thing that, uh, I can grant Cardone talks about too, you're just looking at, um, stuff that they've already bought. It's like they were bought this nice car. They already bought a house like white, white shouldn't they buy their electricity. Why shouldn't they own their lectures direct. Yeah. They're not going to do it. Yeah.Speaker 2 (30:08):Yeah. Literally rather like you're already paying for it, you know, literally just makes no sense not to do it. Yeah. So,Speaker 1 (30:16):And so if you're, that's another key for our solar printers listening, if you're not like a hundred percent sold on your product and a hundred percent sold that you're helping people out a ton and just like, don't have that complete confidence, just figure out a way to get that. Cause that's going to be the difference maker. Like probably for you. I'm going to guess that like when you first started, you closed, you said you closed 16 deals, right? Yeah. You probably know new, barely anything. It's the lawyer at that point, right.Speaker 2 (30:40):At you, 70% of the company better earth. And that was more about sorta to me stale. So yeah, literally you don't have to get like super descriptive and it makes sense. So that's all it matters.Speaker 1 (30:52):Yeah. Yeah. So that's the mindset you got to have for our listeners. Figure out a way to develop that and that's going to help you have this success theater trying to hit for sure. And so at chance, tell us, um, like for people that are having a high cancellation, I know that's another thing we deal with. Sometimes that a lot of reps, especially in California, it's been hit so hard. There's like so many comparisons, anything you do that helps to have like have so many of these push through and actually go to install. Yeah.Speaker 2 (31:18):I mean, there's always like a couple of things it's always different. Like for every like situation, but one thing maybe like take a picture of the homeowner Senate right after, just to like, of course, like when they go to your text messages, like they see them smiling. But another thing too is like, stay at the house, like build value with them. Like they can't like think you're actually selling something. So if I put a girl Pearl on my body, every single time that I do in FC, after I leave it, literally we're friends. So it's not like, oh, thank you for helping with the solar. It's just like, thanks brother. You're the man. You know? Like that's just kind of how it is. And it's just like, I always like put it into perspective, like talk to people like they're your best friend? Like your parents' best friend.Speaker 2 (31:52):Yeah. So doing that, it's just like, your tonality is not sales. Like my tonality and the FC is just like this. I sit back, relax, whatever it may be. But yeah, I think the biggest part is of course like do follow up, but don't do too much. And with it, take a picture with them at the very end. So they always have that. And then in our thing I was to do is just of course, like we still got to make sure the site is going to qualify too. So if the site doesn't qualify, like literally you're Sol you know, then you're stuck with PGNE. But as long as you don't have a problem with paying a lower bill, bill and equity, and of course using more electricity instead of chucking it down the gutter every month, like, man, this makes sense. Right. Nice. Yeah, absolutely. And then from there, yeah. Then I'll maybe bring up a testimonial, provide them with a reference if they really need it, but you always have like that feel. But a lot of times, like the people that I have, like QL a lot of times are people like no one else really like will QL. So it's clearly new to them. Qualified lead. Yeah.Speaker 1 (32:45):Yeah. Okay. No, that's helpful. And so you're saying you're taking a picture with them and then texting it to the homeowner right after and just seeing like congrats, something like that.Speaker 2 (32:53):Yeah, absolutely. You can't wait to start saving your wallet in the planet. Nice. Let's get to it, you know, and then with it, other than that too, sounded like a $5 Venmo. Here's a taste of your solar savings, whatever it may be. Yeah.Speaker 1 (33:03):That's cool. That's big. And yeah, a lot of people, uh, you know, do the videos. I mean video picture, that's a big thing. That's been a game changer too is because you can get like a video or a picture. Um, I mean, especially if they're explaining back to you, like why solar is a good thing. Yup. Like sums in hell with me. Hey, let's grab a quick video. Just tell me like, if you like the experience, whatever, it's be like 30 seconds. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Like, sure. And then they're having to sell me again on why they even wanted to go like solar in the first place. Yep, absolutely. So, yeah, that's huge. And then like, um, another big thing you're seeing are same day appointments. So I get a lot of questions asked about that from people I go, how do you, I think that's kind of a newer thing. I didn't like when I first started in the floor, no one that I knew of was doing same day appointments. Yeah.Speaker 2 (33:47):That was the same thing with better earth. My first starting to, we were definitely a lot smaller and I remember people were posting like same-day Q or something like that. And when I first started, but um, same days and everything, like, it's not too difficult. Like of course, like make sure like both decision makers are there, even if they're not like a one-liner and everything, like, they're not hard, but with it, like, I always just like say, Hey, I'm going to send this over to our engineers. We'll be back in 30 minutes. You're free. Right. Yep. Okay, cool. And I just go right back. Um, every single time I don't really like same, like knock it and go right in. I do that sometimes, but a lot of times, like, I want to be like, Hey, I'm actually going to take about 30 to 45 minutes to drop your custom plan.Speaker 2 (34:22):So it doesn't look like I just like put these panels on their roof. Where the heck did you just get your numbers? It like makes it look like I put a lot more time into their plan. So that's why I do that. Um, I realized like, and then of course, like I'll send them like give them like the website. They can look at like this little training course, just so they have a better feel for it. And then I come back and like, they're somewhat knowledgeable about it. Or they looked at our reviews or testimonials or whatever it may be. Okay. But I don't get business cards or anything like that.Speaker 1 (34:47):Yeah. That's I think a big camp scene dues, just like there's something Missy did you're Hey, you're going to be, you'll be here 30 minutes. Right. Someone will take me. Cause like, especially reps that I see newer reps, I'm training and stuff like that. I go, what am I getting? Not getting same days. They're going. They never free. But the way they're asking me is like, Hey, are you guys going to be here? Like here? But like notice the difference. You're just like, you're, you'll be here 30 minutes. Right. We'll be right back with it. Absolutely. That most people are going to be here if that's the only option in their mind. Right. Cause you didn't saySpeaker 2 (35:16):Right. And then also like of course, like put it like bill and scarcely behind it. Like we're only picking out two more homes than the zip code. So like, this is a big opportunity. Like again, I don't want to waste your time. I don't want to waste my time. But like hopefully you guys are on the right rate schedule. If you're not. Or if it's like this doesn't make sense. I'll just shoot you a text and say, Hey, this is not going to work for you. But I'm actually meeting with the Benson's like four homes down. You probably even know them. They always walk the German shepherd at seven. But with that, I'm actually going to be back at seven or eight, which one works best. And just like a multiple choice answer. Like they have to pick one of them. It's not your, or you forget seven. Now they can make any excuse. You know, like now I have to go to my kid's game or whatever it may be. Yeah.Speaker 1 (35:54):Yeah. That's awesome. And then you get the takeaway in there too. Only picking two more homes in the zip code on the street, um, are big, so chance, some awesome stuff. You've been, uh, Sharon Yan. I can see why you're having success. It's just like all these little things, nothing like crazy think people think they're going to hear some crazy lanes you're using her. Um, some of the same, but really I think it just comes down to you're working more hours than I think probably anyone has in a month. And so it was like, I don't know. Do you, do you have an idea of how many doors you knocked or how many total hours you put in that month? If you had to guess?Speaker 2 (36:28):I mean like doors are knocked like a lot hours, a ridiculous amount. Like seriously. Like I didn't do anything fun, you know? Like I just worked and like, I love doing that. And I wanted, like I told myself, I want 70, I fall short by two, but yeah, it was a ridiculous month, but honestly I'd say doors wise, I don't really have to hit like a crazy amount of doors. It sounds like kind of dumb, whatever it may be. But yeah, I really don't have to hit that main doors. Like with Ryan, like testing her, we went and knocked and I think we knocked for probably 45 minutes and we had four same days and like, um, but yeah, like when you, when you said that too, it's just like, yeah, everything's super simple. The biggest part about anything is just attaching yourself to the deal.Speaker 2 (37:09):Like if it was the company there, there's a reason why reps have four and one has 40 or one has 10. Someone has 60, whatever it may be. It literally just comes down to your conviction and how much you believe in the product and how much you believe in yourself. Once those two things add up and they're in line, there is no reason you can't like double or triple your production that you're doing right now. And so that's the biggest part. And that's the thing that I knew I could control. It was like how hard I'm going to work. And every single day, like there's not one person like out there that will outwork me. And I work when others don't I knock when others don't and that's why you get those results. But yeah, it's super simple, but yeah, just dumbing down the deal, keeping it, like you literally could tell, like tell us like a third grade and they would do it. You know? So honestly that is something like I found myself likeSpeaker 1 (37:56):Pretty good at it. Yeah. No, no doubt about that. And I mean, in your you're working like zero days off in the month, right? Third 30 days, same schedule 6:00 AM till dark every day for that month. So usually every daySpeaker 2 (38:09):And that's, that's the truth. I mean, sometimes like of course, like around the holidays or maybe there's a day. Um, but like when it comes to a blitz, like my first 90 days I did not take one day off. Yeah.Speaker 1 (38:20):Yeah. And so like with your guys' blitzes, um, cause I mean that's crapped on hours that guys are working, so I'm sure, you know, guys, when you do your blitzes, you're working straight hard, but yet for you, do you have anything like to re kind of rejuvenate yourself or you get yourself back in the flow? Cause um, I mean, I don't think you're gonna work that day. That schedule, I would see like 365 for sure. In a year, but like what do you do on your off days? Let's say your months, you're not trying to hit 70 anything you do to kind of like refresh yourself and yeah. Get yourself back back to new, to do another blitz or anything. Yeah. That'sSpeaker 2 (38:54):Um, on my off days and everything, like, I'm still like doing a lot of personal development, like helping everyone else, but maybe I'll go hit the links. Maybe I'll go get a round of golf. And um, I really don't golf much anymore. I used to work at a country club back home. So I used to golf every day when I was like in high school. But, or like in the summer days, like I used to play a little bit of golf, just free golf, but yeah, maybe like going out to dinner with some of the guys, um, like top producers hanging out with some friends like here and with that, like honestly, like it doesn't really feel like a job just because my house is like a college house. It seems like, well, we just all have like that same mindset where it's not like drinking and stuff. Like no one drinks in her house. Like of course, like we'll have one night out or whatever it may be in a month. Yeah. But yeah, it's just like everyone just surround yourself with people that have the same mindset and like gets fun.Speaker 1 (39:43):15 dudes you got now it's yeah. It's aSpeaker 2 (39:45):Pretty big house, but it definitely got a little more crammed with, so we're actually splitting back up. So like two Airbnb's. Okay.Speaker 1 (39:51):That's awesome. Well, good stuff, man. Will a chance. Yeah, you're crushing it. Dude ends. We appreciate your having on the podcast before you kind of start wrapping up here. Do you want to tell guys where anything can kind of connect with you more or find you on social media and all that good stuff? Yeah.Speaker 2 (40:04):Yeah. My Instagram is chance Pran. So C H a N C E P R O N. And that's kinda like my main thing. So yeah. Find me on Instagram or you can file smile, be clothing on Instagram, wherever it works for me. But yeah. Anyone on this podcast appreciate you guys listening. And from there, like if you guys ever have any questions or interested in having like mentorship, wherever may be like, you guys can always reach me there. Yeah.Speaker 1 (40:27):Yeah. He'll probably be on the doors when you hit him up. Probably. Huh? Maybe it'll take a couple minutes. It's funny. That's incredible, dude. And um, yeah. For your clothing, do you guys, uh, do you want to tell us a little bit about your clothing stuff? Is that a like, well door knockers, like this clothing or you got any ed door knocking gear or anything like that yet?Speaker 2 (40:44):Yeah. I mean like smile big, like your solar savings. Get it like for like, of course, like a family, um, on install day. I mean literally and your smile is contagious, so yeah, like, honestly it's it's playful brand. It gets pretty sick. Like it's all comfy clothes, all the best like materials I used, I went to Las Vegas to make sure I got all the best materials. It's all American made. But yeah, I honestly, I think like our clothing is literally good for anyone, any age, any gender, whatever it may be.Speaker 1 (41:12):And it's your customers or anything like that? She saw the sun smiling or something. Yeah.Speaker 2 (41:17):Or shirt on smile big. But yeah, a lot of that stuff, like I had designed all of it and definitely being able to put a lot more capital into it and we got a lot of big things coming, so hopefully everyone will follow along. Yeah.Speaker 1 (41:27):Oh cool man. So just before we wrap up here, what's next for you, man? You, you trying to hit past that goal or surpass your goal or any big thingsSpeaker 2 (41:34):We've got coming. So I took like the new position with better earth. So now I'm like the VP of sales. And um, honestly, like right now I'm going to be kind of going back and forth to Arizona. So Cal Norco with my team and of course like training a lot more people in the company. Definitely like my number one goal is to have every single person on my team, in the company to one beat the record, but to everyone needs to get into double digits. So that's kind of what I'm going to be focusing on. Yeah. Like I'll probably end up like having a lot of deals, but I'm going to do a lot of stuff where I'm not going with them trying to like, of course, like shift paradigms and make sure that they're going to be financially free as well. I mean, that's literally the most important part for me. So yeah, after that. Yeah. Maybe one, one of those months, I'll try to break it, but from there, I'm going to make sure that I can keep focusing on my guys. Yeah.Speaker 1 (42:17):That's awesome. So, yeah, I don't, I think that record or stand for a little bit for our listeners, I guess, let us know if you hear of anyone that's creeping up close and then we'll tell chance, say, man, you gotta, you gotta up there.Speaker 2 (42:28):If someone is someone broke it though, then, then yes, next month, the month that I'm going to go get it. Okay. Yeah.Speaker 1 (42:33):We'll be in touch, but I cool. It's a chance. Appreciate you coming on the show. And then last question. Do you have any, like, I dunno, final words or anything like for a newer rep that you, uh, would want to leave with them before we end here? Yeah.Speaker 2 (42:47):At work every single person, like do the personal development, listen to yourself on like voice memos. Like sometimes like you're always gonna be saying like a word that you don't even notice. It's just like your unconscious competence. So that's one thing. Another thing that I always just like to say to you is just like, stay level-headed like, again, control what you can like control you. Can't control who's behind that door, but you can control your mindset. So every like the doors are just a game. So honestly, my number one thing was keep the door open as long as possible that any other rep couldn't. So that's one thing for me that was really, really beneficial. But the other part too is just having that conviction. You gotta be able to find like that passion behind the product and you have to believe in yourself and literally attach yourself to the deal. If you see like your FCS or like your closings going about like an hour, hour and 15 hour and 30. Yeah. Shorten that up. Literally shorten it up. I promise you, you will see a lot more results. Yeah.Speaker 1 (43:37):Love that whole cool chance. So yeah, Solarpreneurs make sure you're keeping it super simple and make sure you're outworking anyone. Cause that's really what it takes to succeed at the level of that. I'm sure you want to hit in the industry. It's what Coby Bryan was dealing. So Michael Jordan, all the greats they're putting in the hours and they're combining an app with their SQL and then that's how we're going to have success. So thanks again, chance for coming on. We'll keep in touch and make sure you hit them up. Let them know. You're grateful for him coming on the show today and we will talk with everyone soon. Appreciate it, man. ThanksSpeaker 2 (44:07):So much, Taylor. Appreciate you bro.Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now!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 up Solarpreneurs. Today, we're going to be talking about how to plan your week like a boss, how to plan your week, like a Solarpreneur, how the top solar dog has do it. So we're going to jump in and up. But before we get into the topic, I want to invite you to tune in to next Tuesday's episode, because we have a very special announcement. We've been working on a top secret project. I know you guys are gonna love it. So make sure you tune in to next Tuesday's podcast. So let's jump into the topic today. It's going to be a quicker one, but the reason I am thinking so much about planning lately is because as some of you know, I'm in the Knockstar training, which talked about it before highly recommend, then Pepsi came in, Rick, Curphey those guys over there, they do some great training.Speaker 2 (01:33):So go follow them on Instagram if you're not already, but I am in there a coaching group right now, we have calls every week. And this last call, we had the opportunity to listen to someone that's if you've been endured or for any amount of time, you know, this guy he's like the guy, one of the godfathers of door to door sells his name's. Jeff Mendez walked to get him on the podcast here, but he talked about, um, just some keys that he's had to six his success. But one of the biggest takeaways that I got from that call that he and a lot of other top guys are doing is they are planning like insane amounts. They plan their days, very specific. They know what they're doing every 15 minutes. And again, another thing, um, I went to this conference about a month ago and a lot of the top guys there, a lot of the, you know, business leaders, entrepreneurs, um, they were talking about the same thing that if you don't have clarity in, if you're not planning, if you don't know exactly what you should do every 15 minutes, then you're probably not clear enough on your goals on the directions you want to be taking.Speaker 2 (02:45):And I'm not to that level yet. And maybe you're not either, I don't know. I'm not to the level of clarity where I know what I should be doing every 15 minutes, but hopefully I'm going to get there. And that's the goal. But as I was listening to Jeff Mendez, talk about all this stuff. I realized that man, I plan every once in a while, you know, once probably once, twice a month, I'll go and do some planning, but it's not a consistent thing. And as they listened to him, talk about all this, just like, man, I'm letting my days just basically tell me what to do. I'm reacting to events, every phone call that comes in every customer that hits me up. I'm just reacting. So what if I flip the script on that? What if I made it? So the day reacts to what I tell it to do?Speaker 2 (03:32):And this is what Jeff was talking about, how we need to get to that level, where we tell our days, what did you wear? We are the ones being proactive, not reactive. And so I decided to try it out this last Sunday, Mike, all right, Jeff Mendez talked about it. I'm going to get a little deeper in that planning session. Watch some YouTube videos studied some books I had about the topic. And I want to share with you guys a few things I had forgotten about that were really effective for me as I plan my week. And matter of fact, happy to report that as I did this time session, I, that next Monday, I got probably three times as much done as I had the other Mondays. So pretty cool. So if you haven't been planning that I want to invite you to start in the most important thing with this is to do it consistently for me.Speaker 2 (04:29):It's yeah. I just noticed a huge difference. Um, as it's consistent versus not consistent, like I've been doing once a month, isn't really gonna cut it. These things need to be weekly and then daily, right? You need every weekly and daily planning sessions. So I'm talking about weekly today. And then on a future episode, we'll talk about some daily planning tips, but your weekly planning session, couple of things with it here. Um, there's a great video. My guys over at art of Manliness. It's another cool podcast. You don't have to be a man to listen to it, but anyone can go take some cool, um, tips from this it's by Brett McKay, he does just kind of like men's lifestyle, tips, tricks, and secrets, but he put out a YouTube video on this and highly recommend it. In fact, I'm going to link it here on the episode.Speaker 2 (05:22):So go check out the show notes on wherever you're listening to this, but he breaks it down. So I want to give you a few highlights that I took from him. And then you can go watch the video. If you want to get more in depth, another tool and resource with this, I would definitely suggest you go read the book. Seven habits of highly effective people. It's one of the classics of self-development, uh, by my man, Stephen Covey, go read it. But he breaks this down in his book. And if you want to take him to an extreme level, he goes like in depth, I'm not doing it the level he does, but that's how you can really plan out your entire like life direction, where you want to go. Stocks talks about things like that. So I would suggest going first, go check out this video on weekly plan, but then go read seven habits of highly effective people if you haven't already.Speaker 2 (06:15):So here's the weekly planning session, couple things there. Um, first things first, you need to set aside the time to do it. And so whatever you're using, I use Google calendar. Just put a recurring event. That's going to happen every single Sunday I do them on Sundays. So I would suggest Sundays, but you could do it any day. So set a time and make it recurring in your calendar and then make sure you stick to that and then, um, pick your calendar tool. So I like to go digital. Some people use the paper stuff, but, uh, digital is cool. You can have all your obviously customers showing up on there. So if you're not having some sort of calendar sync with your, you know, solar appointments and all that highly suggest that as that's the first two steps. And then the another, another huge thing with this is make sure you're performing what people call a mind dump.Speaker 2 (07:11):So this is where you just take all the things that are on your mind. Just put them on a piece of paper, slap them down, anything that you need to do. So for me, it was like, I didn't get my oil changed. I need to fix one of the lights on my car. That's out. I need to, uh, go. Yeah, well, a lot of stuff on there, but all the things you need to do, just perform a mind, dump all the tasks you need to do. Um, so this podcast, it was on there. Every single thing in the think I've put it down and then this is another place I would suggest doing it, like on your phone or something, maybe in a notes app, because if you're like me, you're going to be probably have add like most salespeople have, okay. That's that's the, uh, curse and the blessing of being a salesman.Speaker 2 (08:00):A lot of us have very short attention spans. If you don't then, then great. I mean, you're one of the lucky ones, but put it in a place you can always access because chances are, you're going to forget to add things to the list. And you're going to think of something now, or, oh, I need to do this too. And then what that does it frees up your mental capacity, your mental space. So you can focus on what you really need to, and this is crucial because then throughout, as you go throughout your week, you're not just, again, reacting to things, you have it all written down and you know, what needs to be done. And then after that, just for you review your goals, review your life plan again, if you want to get more in depth, this is where, um, obviously before even doing all this stuff, if you can have like a life direction, then even more so effective review those goals though, and then review the previous week and then the planner I've been using for this, um, hour, once again, linked to it, but it's called the best self planner.Speaker 2 (09:04):You can go get [email protected]. I use the one called self journal, a lot of other great ones. And I don't think it's as important. You know, which planner you use. A lot of them are great ones. I've used brilliant cartoons, 10 exponent or in the past. Um, I've used Brendon Burchard is high performance planner. Think you use that one for a little bit. Um, this one I like, I just got off Amazon actually from, um, suggestion from Taylor Turnbull, one of the, uh, regional managers over it, Vivint Solar, I guess Sunrun. Now he actually suggested this one to me. So I picked it up like it a lot. So we can go get this a best self.ceo. It's the self journal, but what's really cool is they have weekly review sections in there where you can review everything, how it went for the week. And then you can track habits.Speaker 2 (09:55):You can set daily targets. So I think it's cool because you can set, you know, your numbers for the week weekend and set yourself goals in there. Put how many contexts you want to make, how many appointments you want to sit down with for the week, how many closes? And like we've talked about on the podcast before, this is how you really make cells. Not so much, I guess, in game, but as science is, you start tracking those numbers. So it set some goals around that, but get some type of planner that you can use. So I'll link to that one. If you guys want to go check it out, that's the best self planner. Hey and so review the previous week makes it easy. If you have a template set some weekly goals, and this is going to be a lot easier when after you've done the mind dump, right?Speaker 2 (10:40):You know, which tasks you want to take from, um, pretty easy usually to recognize what are the most important things, what things are not so important, you can go and put, I don't know, EBC, if you want focus on the most important ones first and the things that are going to actually move the needle. And then, like I mentioned set some cells goals that were solar sales people. So you can set, recruit recruiting goals in sets. Um, how many homeowners you want to talk to every day and maybe you want to talk to 15 homeowners a day, set that goal and then track it to every day. That will be a difference maker for you. And then after you figure it out, all the things you need to accomplish for the week, the non-negotiables put those in the calendar block out the time, as soon as you can.Speaker 2 (11:26):And that's where you can just throw them in your Google Calendar, right? If you know, you need to get your oil change, figuring out what's the day that you can do that. What's the morning you have free and then go ahead and put it in the calendar. And, um, yeah, Stephen Covey, he talks about the concept of big rocks. So if you haven't heard that, um, analogy he talks about, it's just putting in the big rocks, the most important things first, and then you imagine them in a jar, you pour the pebbles around them. You're going to fit room for everything, right? Where if you put in the pebbles first, you're not going to fit the big rocks in there. Okay. So that's really the essentials of this main thing is just get a planner and make it consistent. Hey, it doesn't have to be some complicated, long thing with it.Speaker 2 (12:16):Just be consistent, whatever you do set aside time. Every single week. I remember when I did my, uh, church mission, we had their two year mission in Columbia. I was on their plan and in Spanish had no idea what people were saying, but they made us do this. Every single week. We had to set plans for who we're going to visit, how many people were going to baptize. And then every single week we had to do this two hour long thing where you apply on your entire week. And then you did this thing. We were in companions there. Um, so I was with, you know, Mexicans, uh, you know, Peruvians, all different, all different walks of life down there. They pair off with one of them. And then you have to like say what you liked about that person this week, and then bringing up the stuff that was bugging you, pretty intense sessions.Speaker 2 (13:07):Okay. So, um, if you're married, maybe do that to maybe get your spouse down and, uh, get them to do some planning with you. Hey, but I promise this will pay dividends. If you're not doing that already, I noticed a huge difference. So I'd love to hear what other systems you guys have. What other planners have worked, go and shoot me a message or post it in the Solarpreneur or Facebook group, if you're a part of that. And that's pretty much it guys. So just a crash course on the weekly planning. They'll let me know if you like this kind of stuff and we can go more in depth on the weekly and the daily plans and then get digging some deeper stuff with it. Let me know what you think though. And don't forget next to today. We're going to be dropping the big announcements. So tune in next Tuesday, tell your friends, tell your mom, tell your grandma, listen to the podcast. Next Tuesday. You will not want to miss out. So with that being said, thanks for listening. Appreciate you guys. Love you guys. And we will see you on the next episode.Speaker 3 (14:10):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now!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):Today's episode. You're going to hear about the mistake that cost me over 30 grand in commissions and how you might be losing money without even realizing it, all that and much more in today's episode of the Solarpreneur. Let's jump into it. My name's Taylor Armstrong. I'm here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much more enjoyable time in the solar industry. It's a great day today. It's raining outside here in San Diego, California. Hopefully wherever you're at, don't let the rain scare you away. We get some of this winter weather. I'll admit I am a sucker for not for not wanting to, you know, work in the inclement weather. That's why I live in San Diego because let's be honest. San Diego has pretty much the best weather in the 60 to 70 degree range, basically all year round.Speaker 2 (01:36):So if you're sick of knocking in that brutal heat or those winter storms, then come on over, we got a job for you, but in all seriousness, sometimes it is an advantage to knock in those inclement weather conditions. I've got friends that are out in Colorado, friends in Arizona, knocking, knocking in snow, snow storms. And the advantage you have with it is people are usually going to be more sympathetic and let you inside the house. And I was talking with one of my friends in Colorado saying that when they're knocking in the winter, it's so cold outside that people just let them right in half the time. So that's your advantage if it is raining or if it is hurricane weather or whatever, then people are probably going to let you inside either that or tell you you're crazy and not listen to you at all.Speaker 2 (02:26):Right? But with that being said, let's jump into the episode. So before we get into that, I wanted to just remind everyone that I was on the solar objections live stream. If you didn't have a chance to go check that out, go head on over to the solar objection, Facebook group, and obviously join the Solarpreneur Facebook group. We actually posted a copy of it in there, but make sure you're part of both of those Facebook groups. Cause we got some cool stuff going on. You don't want to miss out on them and you can see every play of yours, truly dropping some heat for y'all. So go check it out. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you liked the content we had in there and maybe we'll start doing more stuff like that. So that's once again Solarpreneur Facebook group in the solar objection group with my friend, Solar Joe over there.Speaker 2 (03:20):So today's episode, hopefully that got you a little intrigued. I did lose out on about 30 grand in commissions. And I want to tell you guys some mistakes I made with that, how I could have probably prevented it. Nothing's hunted a hundred percent preventable and just some steps that you should be taking yourself to ensure that you are getting paid, what you're worth. Okay. And so I'm going to preface that with a little story. When I first started out in pest control, as many of you know, started out my first summer in Dallas, Texas, this was back in 2012. So while back I'm one of the old guys here, back then, we, it was all paper hay. We carried around our clipboards. Um, I assume the pest control guys have like digital stuff. Now, digital contracts, um, been awhile since I've been in the pest control game, but that's how it was back then we literally carrying around paper contracts, just stacks of them in our clipboards.Speaker 2 (04:21):And then we had just this chunks of chalk. There was no sales rabbit. There was no canvas. There's no knocking app like that. We're carrying around chunks of chalk. Every time someone rejected us or was a follow-up follow-up we'd put an X on the sidewalk. If it was someone that said no, not interested. And then we put just a straight line down the middle, um, of the sidewalk, if it was someone who said to come back and then I'd put the time next to it that go, husband's not here, come back after five, I put 5:00 PM next to it. So you got a lot of people looking at you. Like you're crazy walking around with a piece of chalk, just drawing all over the place, but that's besides the point. Um, anyways, what happened back then though is we had one of the reps in our office.Speaker 2 (05:10):His name was Corey. He was our top rep. And he was getting, I don't know, like usually four to six deals a day in pest, which is pretty decent. I know there's guys bowling numbers like that out of the park today in pest control. But back then is pretty phenomenal what this guy was doing. And he had already, I think two kids, he was one of the more mature kids on the team, mature guys on the team. He's probably like, you know, I don't know, 28, the age I am right now. So I don't want to call him an old guy because that would make me old, the old guy right now. But Corey, he was having a ton of success. He was closing a lot of deals. Number one thing that stood out to me is he always was insane. The organize with these deals, every single contract he signed, he kept a copy of the paperwork and he put it in these folders.Speaker 2 (06:05):He had stacks and stacks of these copies of the contracts. And once he put that copy of it in a folder, he would, um, make a spreadsheet. I think it was a spreadsheet or I dunno, some sort of binder. And he kept record of the name of the customer, their contact info, exactly how much you sold them for and exactly how much you supposed to make on this deal. So one time I saw him doing this and I said, Corey, why are you keeping track of all this stuff? What's the deal. I mean, you sign up a deal and you get paid. Why are you keeping track of this? That's for the office people and what you told me. He said, Taylor, you'll learn in this industry. People make mistakes, no matter how many deals you think you closed, no matter how organized you think the office, people are, mistakes are going to be made and you're not going to get paid on things.Speaker 2 (06:54):If you don't keep track. And if you don't keep records yourself, it's that kind of brush to the side. I'm like, eh, I've always gotten paid. You do your work and you get paid for it. Whatever. And I only closed, you know, hundred pest accounts, whatever. So what do I know? Right. But I didn't listen to them and what happens? I didn't get paid as much as I thought I did, but I had no proof of anything. Hey, when they went to pay me, they said, Hey, you had deals, cancel this. And this happened, I had no records. So I'm just like, okay, well I'll take whatever. And they probably were right. But I learned an important lesson. That's going to transition into how I lost 30 grand in commissions. And that is that you need to be keeping records of your accounts. You need to be keeping track of who you signed up.Speaker 2 (07:45):You need to keep track of their progress. You need to keep track of they're still active because if you don't, you're going to get short cut. You're not going to get paid. And inevitably, you're not going to get paid at some point, what you thought you were owed. You're going to have people mess up on a commission. Maybe you're supposed to get paid 20 grand. You won't get paid two grand. Hopefully not that drastic, but things are going to be inaccurate. At some point. I don't care how organized your company. It is at this time I was with, uh, Aaptiv, which bigger company, but they're, you know, probably the biggest door to door pest control company at the time. So I thought there's no way they can mess things up, but come to find out, lots of people had things that weren't right with them selfish and happy.Speaker 2 (08:32):The big companies. I don't care if you're with a big company, if you're a well established dealer or whatever, you should be keeping track of your accounts. Okay. And so here's what happened to me. Here's how I lost about 30 grand in commissions. So I signed up two accounts. One was a, um, they're both around 15 kilowatt systems. Okay. And so out here in California, for me that equal about 30 grand in commissions. So pretty huge systems, the Wells as we call it, and one was a referral from the other. So there's several problems with this. And like I mentioned the beginning, even if I would have done the deals perfectly, I don't know if, I mean, who knows if they necessarily would have gone through, there's a couple of issues, but I'm going to talk about the things that I could have prevented. And if I would have been organized, then I probably would have at least one out of these two accounts installed.Speaker 2 (09:36):Okay. So the first one, his name was Hutch, signed him up. Everything was good. He was super excited to go solar. He said he checked it out once before, but the company couldn't help them. For whatever reason. They said they didn't like his roof type. I don't know, but it was fine. Um, we got them approved, but the issue was we had switched to a new installer. Um, we're a dealer here in San Diego, future home power. I'm working with, we switched to a different installer. Obviously we have multiple installers we can choose from. But our primary installer, we had switched to a local one that had really great reviews, uh, great warranties, 25 years on everything across the board, including like the roof, the workmanship flavor, all that stuff, something, man, that's pretty awesome. And they got good reputation. They're a local company. So we all start slinging deals through this.Speaker 2 (10:30):But the problem was all of us thought that they're going to be smooth as butter, just deals fighting through installs happening. What I didn't know behind the scenes is that there were a lot of issues going on that they didn't know how to handle all this new business. We were giving them, I close these accounts probably like the first week we started using these guys. And so all of a sudden they're getting dozens and dozens of deals sent to them. And guess what? They didn't know how to handle the volume. I didn't know this at the time. I just thought, okay, if I sign them up, it's just going to be about like the same as all our other installs. They'll go quick. They'll do their thing. They get installed and no problem at all. But what happened was pretty much the opposite. It didn't go quick.Speaker 2 (11:16):There were mistakes made and come to find out about two months after I signed up Hutch, the first customer they had gone and they didn't even have the correct site survey pictures. I found this out two months after, after they did their original site survey. And after I signed all the documents, so Hutch was a chill guy, but the other mistake I made the other, the second account that I closed, that was part of this whole thing. It was actually hutches girlfriend. And he had referred her and she liked me when great. She was a little more skeptical. She was a single mom. So she was pretty hesitant to sign up, but apply it a little bit of pressure. Um, soft, closed her and boom. She was good to go. But then what happened with her is they went and they missed again. They miss pictures on the site survey.Speaker 2 (12:18):So the first mistake made is I call her back. She was already, you know, a little bit on the fence. So I called her back and I'm like, Hey, um, so the missed some pictures. We're going to need to come back and go through this. This was probably two and a half weeks after I had closed her. Which at this point, anyone that closes a deal, you should, it should be a done deal. You shouldn't have cancels unless it's maybe in the first couple of days, because everyone has the three-day or cancellation. But after that, you should not be having cancels. So I'm thinking for both of these smooth selling, they're not going to cancel. It's going to be good to go, but she hears me say this and just cause the fact she's already on the fence. She's like, you know what, Taylor, um, yeah, if I'm going to have to do this, I just, like I told you from the beginning, I still feel like I should just take it a little slower, get some more quotes.Speaker 2 (13:13):So why don't we just put it on pause? So that's why I say it wasn't a hundred percent because of this, but the fact that I had to call her back, I had to try to schedule a site survey again. She cancels and this was kind of the first domino that falls. And then of course Hutch, the one that I closed originally that was a lot more saw, a lot more excited about it. We go through the similar stuff and I don't know this for sure, but I assume that he probably talked to his girlfriend and um, you know, maybe she was in his chirping in his ear a little bit, but similar thing happens only with Hutch. It was two months after the fact, right. Two months after the fact, we had to try to redo a site survey and similar thing happens. He says, Taylor, yeah.Speaker 2 (13:59):You know what? Um, I just feel like nothing's really happened. And it's been taken a long time and site survey that was already done. Seems like there's mistakes being made. So yeah. Why don't we just go ahead and put this on hold. I want to go ahead and get some more quotes due to deals lost cause this stuff. So here's what I could have done better. If I would have been number one, checking in with the installer, making sure they were doing their stuff, making sure we had all the right pictures two months wouldn't have gone by, um, because two months the site server, that should be like the first thing that happens. Right. And after two months, we're back to square one. We have to redo a site survey. Ridiculous. Okay. And obviously a lot of this, you know, the installer had to figure out some stuff and we've helped them improve their processes.Speaker 2 (14:53):So I know I'm probably going to get messages from people saying, why, why are you using this installer? Okay, well, they look good at the time. And most installers I've dealt with know how to figure that stuff out, but people make mistakes. So what I should have been doing is I should have been keeping track of the progress. What I've since done is I've created a spreadsheet of all my accounts that I've closed. And I've got my assistant doing check-ins every week, just following up on the progress, getting an update on this. So do you think that would have happened if I would've been having her do that from the beginning? Checking on my accounts. Probably not. You don't necessarily have to have an assistant do this, but for me it saves me time. It's something I've talked about before getting a virtual assistant. That's my first suggestion I would make.Speaker 2 (15:45):No matter how organized you think your company is, maybe you don't need to do weekly check-ins on your accounts, but just create some sort of system. Okay. I use a app called Trello is a good one. Maybe you can put your accounts in there or just a good old spreadsheet. Google sheets, put your accounts in there. Just keep track of them. Okay. Even if you haven't had any mistakes in the past, keep track of them because who knows maybe one day he switched companies for whatever reason, at the very least, you want to be keeping track of all your customers. Hey, because think of how many referrals you could be getting, think of how much follow you could be doing. That's important data that you just want to keep track of in general. So that's the first tip. But then the second thing is in the story that goes with, this is actually last week we had a rep in our company.Speaker 2 (16:40):Um, I closed an account for him about yeah. A couple months back got installed. Things were good. I got paid on the account, but the rep didn't okay. The rep in our company didn't and he was the one that said it wasn't our company. We do splits, you know, he said the deal, I closed it. So we split it. So this deal for whatever reason, the people in the office didn't keep track. I don't know what happened. I got paid the full amount. He got paid nothing. And this rep, he actually wasn't even keeping track. So it went by probably about a week and a half before I even like dug into the numbers. I was like, oh, well I got paid a lot more than I thought I was supposed to on this. And then come to find out he didn't get anything. A N S I dunno, hopefully you're the kind of rep that would, you know, report this.Speaker 2 (17:30):Obviously, if you're getting overpaid, you know, report it, you want to make sure your guys are getting paid. Okay. So definitely don't just take the money and run with it. Obviously. That's a thought that probably crosses everyone. My know they paid me extra. Um, yeah. I don't know what happened, but I wanted to make sure this ref got fade. So I told her office people and they had no idea that it was this rep's account. So luckily we got them paid. We got to figure it out. But imagine if I hadn't reported that he probably forgot about it altogether. He wasn't getting paid on an account. This was like three grand that he got paid. That if you know, I hadn't reported it, he might've forgotten about it. And yeah. Who knows what happened? So lesson learned, and this has probably happened to me. Okay.Speaker 2 (18:20):Cause there's been lots of times where I haven't been organized and keeping track of this stuff, but that's the lesson here is just keep track of your accounts. Keep track how much you're supposed to get paid. Because again, people will make mistakes. Things will happen. And if you're not going to keep track of it, who will, okay. So you need to be keeping track to the dollar, the commissions you're owed, and then make sure you get paid. What you're worth. That's the lesson today. Don't be like me. Don't lose the 30 grand in commissions. Number one, make sure you're keeping track on the progress of your accounts. Okay. If I would have been doing this, this deal probably would have been installed. I mean, our installed time usually takes like a month, a month and a half here in San Diego. So the fact that took two months any cancel up that cause the issues we were having, I would have got that one installed at the very least, because I mean, any other deal would have been like a month and a half and you're not canceling after it's installed.Speaker 2 (19:18):Right? So keep track of your progress and then keep track of how much he need to get paid. If you want a spreadsheet I've been using to keep track of that stuff, hit me up and send you a copy of it. But don't be like me. Don't lose 30 grand in commissions and send this to someone that needs to be more organized. And we're going to be having more trainings about this, on how you can implement an assistant if you need to or ways to be more organized, but it's costing you money. I'm telling you. So get organized. Don't forget. And we will see you guys on the next episode.Speaker 3 (19:54):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now!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 happening. Solarpreneurs. We're back with another episode in this time we have the Brazilian master himself, my man Christian coming on the show. So we got Christian Maru and I thanks for coming on the show with us today, Christian.Speaker 3 (00:56):Oh man. Thanks for having me. I'm I'm super excited actually. It's my very first time speaking in public like this and, uh, I'm super stoked to be, to be here on the show.Speaker 2 (01:08):Yeah, well it's well-deserved because, um, if you haven't seen, if you haven't followed Christian yet, he's been just one of the most consistent like solar sales reps. I've seen, he's consistently hitting big numbers. Um, and we're going to talk about all that today. So he is the number one rep at affluent, right? Is it fluent? Yup. Okay, cool. Making sure I got the name right. And yeah, been doing awesome. And you're soon to start up an office there in Houston. You're telling me here in what 3, 3, 4 months, something like that. You're going to go down there. Yes.Speaker 3 (01:42):Yes. I started, I started with flowing on May 7th and I, after a month and a half, they say, Hey, I feel like you got a lot of potential. There wants to, to expand the company. And they showed me a few places and I chose Houston to be the place to go. Right.Speaker 2 (02:02):Well, my cousins down in Houston, so maybe I'll, uh, he just bought a house down there. So I'd love to get him sold. He's point, he's pulling this, you know, he's moving, he might move in a couple of years, crap. SoSpeaker 3 (02:15):I know how to handle that.Speaker 2 (02:20):I'm his cousin. So I can't like tell him to cut the crap as much, but if I send you to his door, I know you'll get him taken care of.Speaker 3 (02:27):Yeah. I can smell the blood man. I can smell blood from far away.Speaker 2 (02:32):I better watch out. Cause now all my Houston podcast listeners that I heard that are going to be like hitting me up. So put, put a target on his back, but no, that's a awesome man. And so yeah, I mean, again, you've been having a ton of results being super consistent and we're going to get into all that. But do you want to tell us a little bit of your background, Christian? I'm like, I don't know what, how you got started in knocking doors and um, just how you got in the store and everything.Speaker 3 (03:01):Sure. My brother. Um, so on September 1st it tells an 18. That's when I got that's exactly when I got here in this country. So actually tomorrow, I guess it's going to be three years. Hasn't even been three years and just like a lot of international people. And I can relate to a lot of people from my country and from different places and different backgrounds when they get here, they, they get the cleaning jobs. So that's what I was doing. I was cleaning cars, uh, in a dealership. And then we started cleaning offices and Jean, Jean places at night and stuff like that. And it just, you know, I wasn't super happy cause I was working during the day and I was working at night and working multiple jobs and, and I was like, I've done sales in Brazil. Let's put the way I felt like I was successful. My company was doing well. I was running my company for seven years in the security industry. And that's how I started knocking doors. Actually I was knocking doors in Brazil for my, for my own company. Uh,Speaker 2 (04:11):Yeah, like singularity system, like style.Speaker 3 (04:15):Yeah, something like that. And also like pepper spray, like everything that you can have to defend yourself in a situation of risk, just because in my country, actually we're not allowed to have guns and firearms or anything like that. So happen to says you better know some martial arts jujitsu, you know, you better, you better be ready because we just not allowed to have anything. So I realized that here in the U S people could have some stuff. So it just decided to, uh, to do that in Brazil. So instead of knocking doors to talk to homeowners, I was knocking on doors of the police departments. So I'll go to every single city drive to us, small town or anything like that and say, Hey, how do you guys like your equipment? How do you guys like the boots? The Cavilers, the helmets, everything, you know, the gun holsters, like all sort of equipment that law enforcement have. That's what I was doing. I was just the main distributor say. Okay. Okay. And then he was just knocking on doors, visiting police departments. And to be Frank, you gotta be ballsy to talk to this guy.Speaker 2 (05:32):Yeah, that's crazy. That's yeah. It's funny. I'm uh, I'm taking a Brazilian jujitsu class. Uh, right now I just took my third class the other day. I'm beat up, man. Probably can't see on the camera, but I'm, uh, got bruises all over the place. So guys,Speaker 3 (05:50):I can, I can see, I can see the bruises. I did it for a little bit, but I'm more of a couple era. I don't know if haven't heard of martial arts and it's pretty, pretty cool as well. So yeah, that's kind of how I started in dental. I had this cleaning jobs kind of hated. And then I got into sales. I started with T-Mobile and then I, uh, I got a manager position and I was like, okay, that's a little better. What? I realized that I was working in a store and there was no more room for growth because other than that, I was just, I don't know, maybe I should open my own store, but if I do want to do that, that's like 500,000. Uh, and I was like, yeah, I felt like there was no more room for growth and I would have to wait for people. So what I started to do, I started to approach people outside the stores say, Hey, who do you guys use for the phone? And I started like approaching people. And I got a notice saying, Hey, you can do that. You can do that. You got to wait for people to get inside the store. Uh, and that's when I realized that, you know what? I don't want to do diet because even though I was so out of 124 people, I was number one in sales for months and months and months in a row.Speaker 3 (07:18):And by doing that, it's still even being number one. I felt like I couldn't grow anymore anymore. Uh, I, I will have to be just passive and waiting for people. And I was like, no, I want to do something where I can run my own paycheck. So I recruited myself, nobody actually recruited him, recruiting me. I started, I got into the door to door tribe, Facebook group and say, Hey guys, I want to do sales, hit me up.Speaker 2 (07:47):Like, man, I wish I would've seen that post. It probably got, probably got 500 messages.Speaker 3 (07:54):Oh my, oh my. So I sat down with every single pass, controlling the book and I talked to Santiago and Sentire said, Hey, if you just want to learn the job past control is a good way to start. And then if your career, maybe you should look into solar. So I did, I talked to flow in and I talked to a pest control company, decided the past was for me because a lot of my friends that were doing past. So I did pass for a first summer, three months in the summer, broke my arm and yeah, I was arm wrestling. And actually I was I'm wrestling my manager for over 20 bucksSpeaker 2 (08:37):InSpeaker 3 (08:37):An arm wrestling. Yeah. I can send the video so you can post on your page later.Speaker 2 (08:42):Yeah. We'll have to put that. It's like a company in the podcast. That's crazy.Speaker 3 (08:47):Yeah. So I was having, I was having a really good summer, uh, number one, rookie for the company. Um, three months in the summer had like 400 counts. Uh, I was on a pace to just 600, but because it was, I broke my arm with three months and I went back. I had a recovery and then summer was over. So all of the guys, they just came back home and I talked to the owners and say, Hey, I have a goal to do 600 accounts. My very first summer, would you guys let me come back? And then everybody was gone and I flew back to Texas and I, I started working again doing passive control by myself. That was pretty much it. Oh yeah. All of the boys that were home, it was just the owners and myself. So I did go back sold for a little bit. And then the company say, Hey, you know what, you're the only one here. I don't feel like too good choice to have just you here. And then they just sent me home. Wow.Speaker 2 (09:55):Holy cow. Some extreme dries. That's awesome.Speaker 3 (09:59):Yeah. It's just because I had a goal. So something that I want to share, if you'll let me with the, with the people, with the audience, it's just that instead of goals, to be Frank, I had more of a commitment. So I, every time when you, when you see the results that you can get, I would say it's always good to reevaluate your goals because if I didn't reevaluate myself and didn't compare, I was just trying to compare myself to my very best version of myself. I feel like a lot of times we just compare ourselves to other people and that, that can be tricky, you know, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. That can be tricky. So if I, if I take to my original goal, I want it, man. I want it to do 150 pest control accounts. And I sold a hundred my first month. Like, uh, yeah. I was in the country before, like a year, a year, a little over a year. So my English was still, I still have a lot to learn, but where my English was super, super broken, but I just, you know what, sales it's, what's going to pay the most money. So I got, I got a better, I better figure it out.Speaker 2 (11:18):Yeah. That's incredible. So I got to ask, why did you, uh, what brought you out to like the U S in the first place? Why'd you come here? Is that for school or were you just thinking you're going to work or when did you come out?Speaker 3 (11:31):Awesome. That's a great question. So BYU has always been a dream for like all of the LDS families out there in Brazil. Like people just see like, oh my gosh. Like the us in general is just to like live in the dream, you know? And then my wife, she was doing manufacturing engineering in Brazil and she, Hey, what if we go to the U S and I could just go to BYU? And I was like, okay, I support you. And we got here together. And that was initially was for school, you know? And yeah, she was still going to school and work.Speaker 2 (12:08):Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. No, I love hearing the drive ins. I dunno. Would you say like being in Brazil? I think, I don't know. You tell me I never been to Brazil, but I've been to Columbia. Maybe there's some similar stuff. That's where I did my church mission and it's like, I don't know. I'm sure it's similar in Columbia. People had nothing. Um, I imagine Brazil, there's probably a lot of poor parts and stuff like that. So I'm sure you gotta like, you know, scrap for everything and just like, you know, fighting call your way to success and everything. Um, probably more than out here in the U S we have, we have a ton out here compared to, I know a lot of countries down there. So do you think that contributes like your drive? Obviously you have like a ton of drive jelly, keep going where most other people to be bought in is industry. They're not, especially in solar, they're going to hit five, six deals in the month and be satisfied with that because they're making awesome money with that. So what is it? Yeah. What do you think, um, where do you get that drive from? If, if you have any, anything to say about that?Speaker 3 (13:09):Yeah. Um, every time when I think about drive, uh, I remember once I was talking to river rivers keener for like a while, I was just sharing like some personal stuff. And I remember it was just right when he made a post saying if you don't work hard, you're not grateful for the opportunity. That's how I always felt. It's not, I was one of the things that I learned from reading the book, grit from Angela Duckworth, gray, gray, gray book. It's just literally showing me the persistency and the grit and all of that. And when you're grateful for everything that happens. And especially when it come from a different background, I feel like sometimes here in the us, I see people actually complaining, like for not having space in the fridge. And, you know, like I came from a place where like, I will complain to not have stuff from the fridge, you know? Yeah. Sometimes we have the easiest sometimes I just feel like why fear is just so easier and never things just so, so, so cheaper that we take stuff for granted, you know, like we complain for the price of gas now, like three, $4, but in my country, 17, you know?Speaker 2 (14:35):Yeah. That's great. Yeah. That's awesome. And you reminded me, I don't know. Do you know a Leo salesman? He's like, yeah. Have you talked with him fellow Brazilian? He was on the podcast too, actually one of the earlier episodes of the show, but, uh, yeah, it's pretty crazy. He told me too how his dad first came here and same thing. I think he started out in cleaning and started his business and all that. And, um, went through like several bankruptcies, but it's just, uh, I think it's awesome hearing stories like that, of you guys that come from different countries and, um, you're just doing whatever it takes to have success. And, um, yeah, it shows an hours you're working. I asked, uh, I sent river a message because at first I was following you for a little bit, seeing you close all these deals and I'm like, wow, what is this guy doing?Speaker 2 (15:23):Is he on like sells steroids or something close in deal after deal? What is he doing? Um, and so I messaged river. I'm like, man, this guy works with you. What is he doing? And river's just like dared. He just works insane hours. He just goes out there all day, every day. And he's good at sales, but he's just putting in a ton hours. So, I mean, really, I think, do you want to give us idea how many hours are you typically working a week and give us some of your results. You've been getting to be number one rep there.Speaker 3 (15:54):Perfect. Perfect. I feel like, I don't know, uh, coming from passcode trope, I feel like sometimes the solar guys there, I don't want to say people are lazy, but it would just, we just don't work as hard as the farm guys or fast control guys. Exactly. I was eating up a friend say, Hey, what time you guys have meeting? And what time did you go to area? And my friend told me that, uh, his past patrol company, they have been at 9:00 AM and 10 30. They go to area and they work in art, in knife. I've been doing solar for almost almost 10 months now, and I'm never done to add myself. Uh, I work a lot, uh, some things that I might do differently. It's just that once I go to the doors, I just don't stop. And I really mean it. For example, my wife doesn't talk to me when I'm on the doors.Speaker 3 (16:53):And she knows that I just abide by some personal rules and some personal standards that I, I just don't do social media unless I'm posting the deals and talking about that. Like the only reason why I post and I shared that is just for personal accountability. Like it's not for visibility. It's not for the credits. Like I don't, I don't care. I have, I actually have 500 followers. Like I don't care about like how many people I have. Yeah. But you're like, the people I follow, it's just, they bring value. Like I don't follow any celebrity, like any famous people, brands and stuff. I don't have time for that. I just don't. So when I get to work, man, I have a P bottle in my carSpeaker 3 (17:46):And I just, yeah. Like I, or I, I, okay. I can't, I can say like, just being the trees and bushes and stuff, I've done it like so many times I just have a people auto. And then that said, like, I have go to gas stations, zero times I meal prep. I'm following a diet. I started a program a few months ago. I'm sticking to I, if I'm drinking anything, I take it with me. Like I just have everything to be ready for the doors in. And then I just don't stop and say, oh, I talked to 30Speaker 2 (18:21):Homeowners, 30 homers. Nice.Speaker 3 (18:24):That's my go-to. You don't have to be talented. You don't have to be super skilled if you just pull yourself from, in front of 30 people every day. I just feel like there's no way to get the results. And the only way to talk to that many people is just being efficient with the doors, you know, just cherry picking. One of the things that I do, I use my segway a lot. I love it. I wouldn't, I just, man, I don't even, yeah. I don't know. Have you ever used a segway Taylor?Speaker 2 (19:00):Yeah. Yeah. He's it. I, I forgot about it for a little bit, but then say you and river breaking them out. I'm like, man, I ain't gonna pull that thing back out because I forgot how like, you know, quicker and it makes it like more fun on the tours too, to get rejected. Just hop on the segway.Speaker 3 (19:16):Yes. Yes. Especially even if a super hard know what I do every single time. When I hop on my segway, I feel like it's a mental break. Like I don't even feel the no. Cause my brain at that moment is just trying to concentrate on getting on the segway, get it to the next house. See if their shutters are open, see the oils things as they arise, see people's homes, see like how many cars in drive and stuff like that. So it was just a lot of things that comes out automatically to the mind just cause you're used to the job. And that's my goal too. I, I remember being on an adventure with Sam Taggart and he said, and I was asking like, what should I do when I get a super-hard note? And he asked me back, what do you do? And I told him, I just fly to the next door. Like I don't let that get inside my head. I don't wait like half a second. Like whenever they're a jerk, you know? Or like super rude to me. I just two seconds later, I'm on the next door. Right.Speaker 2 (20:17):That's awesome. That's the way to do it. And like all these things, but like people expect, I don't know a lot for a long time. I thought people that were closing tons of deals had some like secret formula, my secret word track they're doing, but you heard it from Christian himself. He's not doing anything. He's just doing like simple things, super consistent. And it's like, I love how you just think of it. Not in like hours work, but no, it's just, I got to talk to 30 people. I got to get in front of 30 people because if I do, that's how I'm going to have success, so I'm going to get it right. And so for our listeners, Christian, um, how long would you say it typically takes you to get in front of 30 or 30 homeowners every day. Okay.Speaker 3 (20:59):That's a great question. So my rule of thumb is just to be driving to an area at three. And in a lot of days, I'm on the doors at three and I work until dark plus one, something that we have part of the culture, just like whenever it gets dark, you just knock one more door and really not more than one door to be just because, yeah, just because of personal standards, but as a company, like, will you just knock until dark plus one? And then yeah, whenever it gets dark, you just be careful the way approach the door. It's just being friendly. You show your badge, you know, you just, yeah. Just the way you carry yourself. Everybody knows the rules and stuff like that. ButSpeaker 2 (21:44):Yeah, that was good. Yeah. And so I did, so you're in a Dallas, right? Cause they're not going to Dallas area. That's where I started. That's where I, uh, uh, I guess got my start in pest control is, and in Dallas actually in, uh, it was pretty brutal. I didn't, I didn't throw it on as many pest accounts as you. I was pretty terrible pest, but um, I remember I got a gun pulled one time in Texas. Those, those Texans are no joke, man. You get guns pulled on you and stuff out there.Speaker 3 (22:15):Yeah. I had first month growing dollars. Same, same, same, same way brother.Speaker 2 (22:23):Yeah. And you got it. You guys got to get like permits and every city to knock out their deer. Right. And they're pretty strict about that.Speaker 3 (22:30):The city and knock sometimes. And again, it's more of a, your attitude. If you feel like you belong the place and you feel like you're all in the area, I feel like everybody's going to be receptive.Speaker 2 (22:43):Yeah. That's awesome. Well, no. So, um, another thing I see you doing a lot of Christian is, um, just getting a lot, a ton of same day appointments. It seemed like almost every deal I see you're posting up on Instagram. It's like same day, same kilowatt, same day 11 kilowatt, just big systems. And they're like majority, same days that looks like. So what do you do? Um, like tell me about that. Do you shoot for same days and what are you doing to get so many same day appointments? Cause that's actually a question I get asked a lot too from our listeners. Okay.Speaker 3 (23:16):Okay. Um, so yeah, average size. It's usually anywhere from nine to 11, that's kind of the average over there. So what we're doing, what I'm doing to get the same days, I don't even allow myself to work differently than that. Like if I'm not same day in you, I don't, I don't actually set the appointment. So it's much more of the way I perceive, uh, going to the events. And again, I think I kind of shared that with you, just listening to podcasts, like your show and many others and listening to people that have been on the job for so long. I just had to learn how to respect and love myself. When I started, I would just feel pity, you know, like, oh I, and that right now, I just feel like everybody's got a Ted story, you know, like who gives a crap? We all got [inaudible] uh, I'm the foreigner I have, I don't know where English and I don't know if I can do solar. So like, man, when I started, my goal was to close 40 deals in the year and then I've closed 60 over the last four months.Speaker 3 (24:37):Yeah. So I just, I just started to believe in myself a little bit more. For example, just the way just the self-talk every time, uh, before I even opened my eyes, that's first thing I do. I try to get myself into peak state. So I repeat a little, like a little mantra that I have for myself. Like I, I, I'm just going to share with you guys. I say today is a good day to make it a great day. Today is a good day to make it a great day. And then on the third time I put more emphasis and I jumped out of the bed and I just get ready. Today's a good day to have to make it a great day. You know? And that gets me to a different state. You know, Tony Robbins called calls it like pig state. And then I have some more stuff. So self-talk is kind of a big thing. I know Taylor McCarthy and a lot of the big players, they talk about that. So after I say that, I also share something else. I say, I'm a great salesman. I sell every day sales come easy to me because I work the hours focused. I'm enough. I weigh my mornings. I weigh my days. I'm winning my life.Speaker 2 (26:03):Boom. I love that. That's awesome. And I know you and river are big on those. I see river doing a lot of stuff like that too. Yeah, it works. I mean, and that NLP stuff. Neuro-linguistic programming. Um, yeah. It's white toner. Have you been to a Tony Robbins eventSpeaker 3 (26:20):Actually. So for August, that's the, I love, I love that you asked that. So for August, uh, fluent, they had a competition. So the number one, like the number, the top performer would get tickets for Tony Robbins. Yeah. So in a month for four now in November, next month I'm flying my wife and I were both flying. Like the company got us tickets hotels, and we're going to Tony Robbins for five days.Speaker 2 (26:48):Wow. That's awesome.Speaker 3 (26:50):It's always, it's been a dream man. Like I I've seen this guy in, like I'm not your guru and a lot of stuff since I was in Brazil, I was like, dude, he's the man. And now I'm going to get to see the legend myself. Yeah.Speaker 2 (27:04):He's the goat for sure. And yeah, you'll have, I've seen them seep speak a few times, but yeah, it's just all the stuff you're saying. Like his event you'll see it as event. And I know you've seen like his documentary and all that, but it's just like screaming and shout and the whole time jumping up and down. So like for managers that are listening to this podcast, make sure you're happy. You're teaching your reps, this stuff. And, uh, Christian just gave you some sweet, um, you know, and contagions manifestations, whatever you want to call them. Souls are good things to repeat. So are you, are you kind of telling yourself those things, like as you get up or as you get out on the doors or just like all the time Christian?Speaker 3 (27:42):Yeah, I repeat that one. Like today is a good day to make it a great day. And then I say three times and I was repeating myself. I'm a great salesman. I sell every day. So when it started, I would say I sell every week because that was my goal. And then I realized that like, why am I selling only every week? Because if I sell every week, I might be sending like four or five, six deals. And like, that's not for me. Like I can do more than that. And it got to a point. I was like, if I'm deciding to sell, just think about the guy. I don't know. Maybe someone listening to this show they've been selling two or three, four or five a month. And then my question is why would you cut yourself short and not sell for the other 25 days of the month? Yeah.Speaker 3 (28:32):I just, I, I kind of like punch myself in the face and I kind of had a serious conversation with myself and that's when everything started to change and I started to same days. So getting back to same days, I want to answer that question. Now I want to share my thought process and how I do it a lot behind the scenes. Like it's not the magical words that that's not, you know, it's just the game. They're like, why did I decide to sell one or two a week? And now I'm telling you, man, if someone, I fun talking to you on the, let's say on a Tuesday and they say, yeah, like, I'm going to be easy. Can you come back on Friday? I'm like, no, sir, I actually can't. So I'm going to show you the calendar. And I actually show my calendar. As you can see, like everybody's been looking into solar, like if you don't want to do this, that's okay. The government, they have a lot of tax incentives. That's okay. Like yes or no, whatever answer works fine with me. My job is to find people that is ready to take the money and take advantage of the program. I've never seen anyone in my life say no to save money. What time is it good tomorrow at four or a six? Boom.Speaker 2 (29:54):There you go. So you're saying that you, you said you don't do next day appointments all like a hundred percent, same days, or do you, do you ever do like next day appointmentsSpeaker 3 (30:06):That I've, I've driven back to houses and then all super solid guy in like four days later and then they no show, like if you just the numbers, like, just think, just trying to get to know your numbers. I think it's important. I know my numbers, like if I don't know my numbers, there's no way for me to increase my closing ratio and stuff like that. So there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes. Like getting to know your numbers, like, oh, how many deals you're closing a month? Cause some people say, oh, I closed. Yeah, you can have a good day. But that doesn't mean really good. Like everybody can have a good day. Everybody can have a good week, but you actually know a guy like for Dick consistency, like four or five months in a row or 10 months in a row, like a year or people being a top performer for years. Those are the guys that, that respect, like, I don't know, maybe selling three or four deals in a day. Yeah. That's good. But if you don't sell a deal next month, that's not good, man. That's not, you know?Speaker 2 (31:10):Yeah. I agree. And that's yeah. That's unfortunately like, like you said, a lot of people in solar, that's the curse of these big commissions. People see the checks coming in and then they don't work after. So that's why I tell a lot of our guys just don't even like, look at how much you're going to make. Like just go out and sell more. Right. It's gotten hit big numbers and do it consistently because that's, what's, that's what's missing. Is guys just hitting their hours and hitting their numbers consistently. Would you agree?Speaker 3 (31:37):Yeah. Yeah. And before I beginning to fall, just go and spend the money on stupid stuff anyway. Yeah. Yeah. It seems I started, you can ask flow in, like I never even touched a paycheck. Never like never, I never touch it because I finally feel like I just, I just invest the money. I like, I know Adam lab, some guys say invest 20% and yada, yada. But if auto manage your money, you can invest a hundred percent of it and just leave legislate broke. Yeah. But that's, that's just, I'm just trying to set myself up for the future instead of like the short-term goals. That's why like I go for same days. I really mean it. I talked to someone if I don't feel like they're a solid lead Taylor, I read her not have the lead then getting like a lead that I know that's not going to sh a no-show waste of time creating the proposal, wait for the proposal to get ready, driving back to the house. And then they know show me right. When I talk to that homeowner, I always, before setting the appointment, I say, Hey, when I come back, I'm going to show you two things. I'm going to show how many panels you're going to need on the roof. You know, where the panels go. And I'm going to show exactly the financial breakdown, how much money you're going to be saving. Uh, if everything makes sense. Is there any reason why you wouldn't move forward with this?Speaker 3 (33:16):I, the reason why I always asked that question. Cause if I take, give me any sort of resistancy, like I don't even set the appointment. That's not for me. Cause when I was doing solar in California, because it was a harder market, I felt like I really had to be a good salesman. You know, it was like, go for the appointment. It's like, cause I know in California you save people money. So if they latch you in, sometimes it's like a terrible lead. Like, dude, I don't want to go solar, but okay. You can come back and then you close the bill, you know?Speaker 2 (33:55):ISpeaker 3 (33:55):Mean this week I had people I've had that happen so many times in California, people like, oh it's solar. I know everything about solar. I will never go solar, but yeah, come back, show me the numbers. And then like, and they signed dogs andSpeaker 2 (34:13):That's awesome. And yeah, it's like, yeah, I forgot what I was going to say. But yeah, just being consistent set in the same days. And um, I think that's a big problem though. Is guys get this rush of excitement? I don't know about you, but when I was starting out, especially in IC in newer reps is they get this almost like rush of excitement when they can say, oh, I set a lead. I set an appointment for tomorrow, went in their head. They know is that this point is like a hundred percent not going to show crop appointments, but they just fill out the form whatever to say. They got an appointment. So I've talked with teams that don't even like recognize appointments booked anymore. We used to recognize and give like a ton of recognition for how many appointments were booked on a day.Speaker 2 (34:57):But now we sort of swapped it up and our teams, we don't even like posts when we book appointments for the most part it's because I don't know. I think, I think guys put too much focus on just that little rush of excitement when you say, oh, I've set an appointment. Or really like, as you know, when solar means nothing until you get it to install. Right. So at the end of the day, installs are king and um, you know, obviously you got to help people with the steps beforehand. But yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent. Um, I think people set way too many crappy appointments and get happy about it. SoSpeaker 3 (35:33):I've done it myself. Like I've done it myself, just trying to trick myself and maybe look really good for the company. Look good for the guys that you work with. But at the end of the day, like only closed deals and installs. That's the only metric that's gonna matter. Like the amount of people you you're getting from and the people you sign up. Oh yeah, I've done it like so many times. It's just that it really depends this tenders. You're holding yourself to, you know, as whenever I decided to like do same days and, and treat my time as the most valuable thing in the world, I felt like everything has changed. Just like, it's not just saying like, I love myself. It's just like, Hey, I don't know if we're going to have solar. I liked listening to the Michael Donner. When he says on his podcast, he was thinking it was, it was going to be the end of the solar. Remember that? I, I, I, I feel like I try to leave like that, like everyday, like, oh, maybe it's the inner solar. I bet I better take it of energy, the opportunity. This is the mother gold rush.Speaker 2 (36:47):Sure. I know the guys who are Trina like that, they're having the success. And so something that I really think is cool that you do Christian is I feel like another big thing you're super consistent on just your teens. I see you post on like, you know, pictures of books or reading workouts you're doing like you were talking about earlier the meal plan. And for me, I think I know myself, um, when I am being super consistent, I'm not as near as consistent as you. So I have a ton of respect for that. But the times where I'm working assistant or is where I'm falling, like both set schedules, those are routines. I'm doing my workouts reading, um, getting my healthy eating in. So for you, how, how big of a big of a factor would you say that is? Like your routines every day in the stuff you do before you go out on the doors, do you want to share a couple of those things that you're doing that maybe help you out just like get in the right mindset to hit the doors consistently every day?Speaker 3 (37:40):Yes. Yes. Taylor, I'm not, uh, you know, uh, I'm closed system when it comes to closing deals. But for example, I'm not the guy that's working out like crazy doing CrossFit. I'm not in the best shape I've lost. I've dropped 25 pounds so far.Speaker 2 (37:58):Yeah. You're not going to CrossFit with river. Isn't that thing.Speaker 3 (38:03):And yeah, he took me, he took me to CrossFit a few times, but it's just too hard for me.Speaker 2 (38:08):That's no joke.Speaker 3 (38:10):Yeah. But something that helped me, for example, the same consistency with some, some people have with the gym I have with the diet and with the meal prep. So I'm trying to get one thing at a time in order in my life. Cause I feel like the way you do one thing is the way you do everything, but there's no way to change everything at once. It's just tapped by stop. So I started with the diet and I, I'm pretty sure that pretty soon I'm going to be the guy just super consistent with working out. Because for the last 10 months I've been taking the cold showers and it's not like I hate it. I hate it. I came from Brazil like there. Yeah. It's like, it's a one country, you know, it's like, yeah. But I, I saw like Dora, Dora guys doing the cold showers, people doing for years.Speaker 3 (39:01):Like, you know what, I'm going to give it a try and then realize that now, like it's not that hard for me anymore. So even when I don't do a whole lot of things, I just, Hey, I've done hard things myself in the past. So even the days when I wake up late, which I do, I don't win the morning every day. I'm not the guy went in the morning everyday. I want to share that with you. But what happens is when it's game time, it's no joke. It's game time. Even when I was doing pest control, uh, it's not, uh, now if you are a little bit of a shame of Shea, uh, saying that, but our meetings was at 10 hours, the guy waking up literally and 9 58, and now I'm serious. My alarm was set for 9, 8 58. I was broke and I was going to brush my teeth for 30 seconds and fly.Speaker 3 (40:01):And for so many times I had to like pee one-on-one and eat it. Yeah. Eat like Marjorie or, or, yeah, just like do crazy stuff, you know, be slammed and punch. And they're like, yeah, that happened. Like, yeah, I was late like a lot of times, but still I was able to be number one by the end of the summer. So it's not only about waking up early or it's not only about winning the morning or really it's just implementing what you do. I don't read 20 books a month. I don't read, I read one book a month sometimes, but whatever I read, I try to implement as well. Yeah.Speaker 2 (40:51):I love that. And that's something my think is really cool too, is you're sharing the wins and the losses. I mean, you don't have to do it all a hundred percent to be number one, Christians. Oh yeah. Some guys think that, oh, I didn't. I missed my morning routine. Well, this day is shot. I'm going to get out on the doors late. Uh, this day's going good. But I think the guys that are having success, they're missing things here and there, but they're still being as consistent as possible. Like if they miss their workout or if they miss out on their cold shower or whatever, they're cutting their losses and they're still gonna make that day as accessible as possible. That's another lesson that I feel like I still need to learn sometimes. I don't know if you get out on late on the doors, don't like consider your whole day shot.Speaker 2 (41:34):Just go out and push as hard as you can for the hours you did get out instead of letting it effect your whole day, which I think is awesome. And you posted the other day, Christian. Um, I think it was on a Saturday. You posted, um, that you got out and knocked the whole day, but you didn't get like, I don't know if it was in a single appointment or a single close. And I thought that was cool, dude. Cause I'm used to seeing you post sale after sale, and then you kept that real scene. You didn't get anything on that. Saturday was that last Saturday you posted that.Speaker 3 (42:02):Yeah. So again, I work three weeks, super hard in a take, I don't know, like a few days off. So, uh, I realized the Saturdays are first solar in my opinion. Cause they can get people home. And because my goal is to same day, I was like, I'm going to be at the door. So what happen is over the last 16 weeks, five weeks I was out. Okay. Cause pretty much once a month, I'm out for training for traveling vacation, whatever it is. So what happened out of the 16 Saturdays? I worked at last of those. So last Saturday was the 11th Saturday. There was always selling and now was, I was trying super, super hard. I did get on the doors like nine, 10:00 AM and I D I didn't stop. Like I, I stopped to eat for three minutes, my meal prep at the guest.Speaker 3 (42:58):I dunno for some of my posts. I was there to just eating at a gas station and I was like, I can't, I'm on a winning streak. You know, like just the momentum that everybody talks about. So I wanted to carry that. Cause now it's a tradition. It's like sailing on. It's not even a question anymore for sure. And yeah, so I was like, I got to find the deal. And then I did, uh, for example, when, uh, when I went to Houston for the first time, it was like a month ago actually my, my first Houston installed is going to happen tomorrow. Nice. Yeah. I realized that I was having consistency consistently, but I never had a two spot in, I, and I've seen a lot of guys just selling three, four deals in a day. I was like, oh crap. How did these guys do that?Speaker 3 (43:53):You know? And I was like, you know what, I'm doing it. And wa and I did it. And then the following day, I sold two as well. Nice. And then the following day, I sold two again. And then, and then I realized that whatever is your standard, try to raise the bar. So what I mean by that, for the listeners that I sell in four or five, six, dude, just like, there's no way you're not selling 10 a month. Like why you're not selling double digits because once you do, you just do it and then it was just do it again and there, just do it again. And then was just going to do it every month because you've done it because you've done it. So, yeah, I like, I've done like 10 and then I get 10 and then 10 and then 12 and then 15 and then 16. And now like, now I want to close 20. I want to close.Speaker 2 (44:53):Yeah. That's true. And yeah, I think that's another miss people like set their standards so low and then they hit it, get complacent. Um, but yeah, I actually just got out of pot and podcasts earlier today with the Alex Hogan hall. And she was talking about that too. Just how competitions help her reps like get to a new level. And then it's like, okay, you saw yourself do 15 in a month during this competition. Like, why can't you do, why can't you do that every month now? So I think that's a key thing for managers, leaders and stuff like that. Get your guys to hit higher levels. And then they see it's possible. It's like they, once they see the four minute mile has been done, then you can't say it's impossible anymore. Like Christian just went out and did it. Right. Just went out and did it. These guys can do it. It's possible. I mean, Christian, you didn't even know, you didn't even know English from selling pest control for crying out loud. Like anyone should be able to hear,Speaker 3 (45:49):I know you don't like roaches. I don't like cockroaches as well. Okay. We got up, we got something in common. Let's get you started. Okay. The trucks are right there. You know, the Johnsons, boom. Yeah. The trucks is going to finish and then you're next on my list. I'll do super cheap. Boom.Speaker 2 (46:05):That's why I left Brazil. There are too many roaches and spiders. That's awesome stuff, Christian. Um, and then like with goals. So can you talk about real quick before we kinda wrap up here with your numbers? What, what type of metrics is there some metrics like, you know, you need to hit to hit your goals every month, like X amount of appointments. Um, is it pretty much just 30 homeowners you're focused on focusing on and then, you know, the rest will fall into place with that or any other metrics you focus on for the month?Speaker 3 (46:39):Yup. Yup, definitely. Um, so when it comes to the numbers, uh, it's important to know your numbers. For example, I'm just going to look, I have my numbers on the notes, on my phone that way. Uh, I always track, I have, uh, I've shared my calendar on social media anywhere to anyone that wants to see my calendar and how it looks like how I have my appointments, how we book it and how I know exactly the outcome. I, what I did. I color coded what I mean by that. For example, every time when I have a showing in blue, I noticed an appointment when they shows a purple. I know it's an appointment that I pitched that didn't close when it shows green. I know the people that I showed. So I have, uh, I have a visual just right in front of me. So it's, it's kind of easy.Speaker 3 (47:29):I just opened my calendar and I know, I know that I'm doing well, and I know that I'm not doing well, and I know what I have to work on. And I know what I have improved because it's visual. I just call her a code in my calendar and knowing that I it's always there. It's always available for example, um, why don't we just go, hold on. I just, I just switched phones. I got a new phone, but it was so busy working. Like I, I had owned the bot for a month, a new phone and the brand new iPad. Like he came out, I got it. And I didn't even open. I was just busy working.Speaker 2 (48:07):I know I got to close more deals than that at bed.Speaker 3 (48:12):I just moved to Utah for like two days or something. It was like, you know what, I'm just going to take the iPad and the iPhone. So I started up, but I remember, I remember, so when it comes to July, I had 41 appointments out of this 41. I have, I don't know, 18 or shows. I had like 14 that I pitched that didn't close. And I had 15 that, a page that did close and I had three, the fail credit. So I realized that August, if I ha if I wanted to have my best month, which I did, I had to do bigger numbers because it's a numbers game. So what I did, I increased my numbers. So for August, I had 62 appointments and out of the 62, 23, no show me, which is 30%. And then out of the people that showed up, I pitched 18 that didn't close and a page 16 that they'd closed. So right now I'm sitting at a 50% closing for the people that I sit down. Wait. Yeah.Speaker 2 (49:14):That's incredible. Yeah. And yeah, that's, that's no secret to, I think a lot of guys forget is like top guys, like you, any top guy that I get on this podcast, that's closing a lot of deals. They all know their numbers like that instantly. So for our Solarpreneurs listeners, um, if you, if you can't like, you know, tell back your numbers right now and go through your ratios, like Christian just did, then you're missing something there. Cause I think that's a huge thing. If you can't know your numbers, you don't know like the back of your hand, how are you going to improve them? That's what Christian has been doing. That's how he's been all day increases numbers. He's just like, oh, I need to sit with more people than it being cheap as ratios the same or improve them. I know my best months and sales.Speaker 2 (49:57):Um, yeah, I've, I've been a mad man about tracking numbers too. So that's that's um, yeah. Huge thing. If people aren't doing that. So a Christian, I know it's getting late. You're in Utah, we're doing a late night podcast right now. So Christians appreciate you for coming on. Um, we went back and forth so glad to finally get you on the show, even though it's, you know, 10 o'clock at night for you. Awesome. But, uh, Christian. So before we kind of wrap up here, where can people find you on social media and connect with you and all that?Speaker 3 (50:29):Yeah. So when I got here in the U S I actually, I didn't have social media for about like two, almost three years now. I still use Facebook, Krisha, moron, and the ground. I that's why I have like 500 people. Just pretty much all door to door people. Yeah. I started needs to grow and like, not like maybe a year ago, stuff like that. I just want to share it. Won't last thing that the numbers, they, they didn't look like this. When I started, like, I will have to sit down with five, six people to close one. So I had to work way, way harder now because it closed at 50% every day, I just got to get inside two houses and that's it, whatever your number is. If you're closing one out of four, just do the reverse engineering. Because a lot of times people, they just do like how much money they can make, but they don't break down with the reverse engineer to see how many people they have to talk to how many hours they have to put in order to get those appointments.Speaker 3 (51:35):Well, how many of these appointments are going to show how many of these appointments are going to cancel? What's your cancellation rate? Like it's important to know that stuff and just backtrack and do the reverse engineer. So cause when it started, I was like, yeah, I want to do 40 deals. And I was like, no, I don't want to do 40 anymore. And then I wanted to do 60 deals. And then I realized that I could do 16 for months. And now, now I want to close way more than that. You know, it's just, yeah, that's pretty much what I, what I wanted to share with the guys that like, it was, it was hard. It was hard, but now I'm just grateful. So we had to push for meetings, Christian Maroney, and I'm available. Like I don't care for work for a different company hours if people, Hey, I'm going to Houston, you are invited to just stay in my place. You can just work with me. I don't care, whatever t-shirt, you're working with. I don't care whatever company, if I can provide any value, if I can. Like, if I, I dunno if I can stand for the industry, if I can support any solar fallow, because I feel like sometimes people they're not happy with their current companies or sometimes people aren't happy, but they still can learn from people, you know? Yeah. Yeah.Speaker 2 (52:49):That's huge. So yeah, no, I think abundance mindset. Um, definitely appreciate that. And um, yeah, like I always tell the story, but a lot of people starting out when I started in solar, didn't have that mindset. They're like, no, if you're from a different company, I'm not going to talk to you. I'm not like sharing anything, company secrets. So I think it's awesome that guys like you now are, you know, just coming from that abundance mindset and willing to share, what's working for you and you know, specific things you're doing and saying on the doors. So a last kind of follow up question that Christian, before we let you go here, um, you, you mentioned that you, you know, increase your closing ratio and improve those numbers a lot. I just been going anything specific that you did to like increase those ratios. Do you think it was just more, experience-based just more time you needed or were you like drill on role playing like crazy? What helped you increase those ratios in your closes and all thatSpeaker 3 (53:42):Fantastic question, Taylor. I love it. I love it. So I learned at a young age, I don't know, probably most of the listeners they know Zig Ziglar. They know Napoleon hill. They know gene rum for me. Like if you're listening to, if you listen to Zig Ziglar and Jim, like, I just compensate with numbers. What I lack in skill, that's it numbers, what are lacking skill? What I mean by that? I just had to get myself in front of a lot of people until I could learn. So what made the change is that along the process, I realized that I just needed to simplify. I was making solar too complicated. I was explaining in a way that people go like, dude, I'm not sure in my car. Did he says a confused mind? We always say no, just make it simple, like stupid, simple in a sense that now every single one of my presentations, I'm pretty pretty a hundred percent confident that if I do my presentation to a third grade, they're going to understand like a hundred percent.Speaker 2 (54:55):Hmm. That's awesome. Yeah. Love that. So Christian, thanks for all the tips you shared. So for Solarpreneurs, keep it simple out there. And guys, it's not rocket science. Christian came from Brazil, barely know in English and he's killing it in this injury. He's one of the top reps in the industry. So do those simple things, be consistent, get out on the doors at the same time, be consistent in your closes, tracked your numbers like a madman. And I think that's pretty much all there is to it. So, uh, so Christian, thanks again for coming on the show and before yep. Before we let you go, I guess we pretty much went through anything, but any, uh, any final tips you want to share with our Solarpreneurs before we say goodbye,Speaker 3 (55:37):My brother, uh, I think, I think that said something that I do know that I also do. I want to share one thing like with the international people, sometimes some guys it's like, oh, like it's hard, no doors, doors for you as well. You know, just believe in yourself. And you have, I've seen so many people just getting to the industry and crushing it. I'll say that's something that I wanted to share as well just believe in yourself, this, this is for you and know your demographics. I know exactly what type of people that I closed at a higher percentage. It better send that you ratio rate. So that's, that's kinda my, the people that I go to. So when I, same days just based on their body language, they, they react. They, they talk to me the way they carried themselves. I can save from closing that deal or no. So if I don't feel like I'm closing, I don't even set the appointment. So just kind of know the people that you close easier. Cause the Indiana, the day, you don't want to be the best salesman in the world. Just go talk to, just look for the low hanging fruit.Speaker 3 (56:48):Just look for the low hanging fruits and that's it.Speaker 2 (56:51):Yeah. I love that. So w what, what are the demographics for you, Christian? What, which ones do you go after?Speaker 3 (56:59):Um, now, now it's getting to a point that I can close. Pretty much everything. It wasn't like as now. I don't, I don't have a demographics, but yeah, in Texas, there's a lot of like, uh, black people. I feel like that's a really good demographic for me. I can connect with this people really, really well, and I haven't closed. So in my country we speak Portuguese, but I learned here in dos. I, I don't close a whole lot of deals in Spanish to be Frank with you. Nah, but I like it's, it's good people. So, but that's not my go-to. I feel like, yeah, I'll say black people, but I, I like, I like styling everyone.Speaker 2 (57:42):Yeah. Let's go. Well, Christian, thanks again, my man. Sorry. I think I've said we're going to wrap up like 10 times and then you keep, you keep, you keep dropping a cold on us. So I'm like, dang, I need to ask him about this. And he follow up withSpeaker 3 (57:56):Very, very first time speaking in public. So I just can't. I just can't hold myself.Speaker 2 (58:00):Yeah, no, you did awesome, man. So I appreciate you guys go give Krishna fall. Let them know you appreciated that episode. And thanks again. We'll be connecting and talk soon, Christian. Thanks for coming on the show.Speaker 4 (58:13):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now!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 Taylor Armstrong here with another episode. And as usual, we're here to make you a sell more solar, close, more deals and get more referrals and more leads. So I kind of butchered that in show, but I'm just getting back from a little hunting trip more about that later. So apologize if I'm a little out of it here, got back late last night, trying to get back into the grain of things here and excited to get back into it. Get closing some deals before we jump into the episode today. And of course, I'll tell you more about my, uh, hunting trip for my hunters out there. If you don't care about hunting, then you can skip pass maybe the first minute or two after this. But before we jump into that, I want to invite you to a special live stream I'm doing with my friend, Solar Joe.Speaker 2 (01:36):He was on the podcast, I think about a month ago. So he's a master of objections. He has what I would say. The number one Facebook group for solar pros, um, Solarpreneur, Facebook group. Isn't quite there yet, but, um, someday his group is called solar objections and he does some awesome live streams in there, which he graciously invited me to take part in one. So that's happening tomorrow. Um, at the time, you know, you hear this episode will be tomorrow. Um, but when I say tomorrow, I mean Wednesday, October 20th, 2021, of course. So if you listened to this episode after the fact, I apologize, you're late to the party. So listen to the episode, right? When they come out and come on, turn your notifications on and get this content. You can be fresh on the announcements, but if you want to join that, it's going to be at 4:00 PM Pacific standard time.Speaker 2 (02:34):And I would love to see you on there. Hit me with some questions. I'm going to try to brush up on my objections a little bit. So hopefully I don't look like a complete idiot up there. I know I'm probably not the world's greatest at overcoming objections, but I think I can drop some knowledge in there. Hopefully help some people out. So go join in. If you want to check that out and of course join the Facebook group if you haven't already. So without further ado, jump into the topic for today. Okay. And what I want to talk about is why we need to keep solar super simple and a couple different meanings with simple. When I say simple, Hey, actually my hunting trip that I just got back from kind of ties into this. And I got thinking about it. I got asked an interesting question.Speaker 2 (03:24):Um, couple of days back, I, I always love, you know, interacting with my Solarpreneurs, with my homeys, with, uh, all our listeners here. So definitely feel free to shoot me a message. I try to respond to all of them on a Facebook and Instagram, but I got a question, um, from my friend Carston, he asked if you were to go back and start from the beginning, which skill would you put your focus in to get back to where you are now, the fastest? What would you say are the most important skills that one can develop when just starting out to maximize or maximize their effectiveness? So I thought that was an interesting question. And I want to talk about that a little bit more on the podcast. And the short answer is I would focus on keeping things as simple as possible. Hey, in simple, in the fact that people complicate their presentations too much people combo complicate the process.Speaker 2 (04:24):People come complicate just solar in general, in many different aspects. So I want to talk about some ways that we, as Solarpreneurs, solar professionals, we can simplify things and just focus on the things that matter the most. And so here's how this hunting trip kind of ties into this. This is my second, uh, hunting trail. I took I'm from Utah. So I went back down to Southern Utah, met up with a buddy, went on this little hunting trip, just, you know, the general rifle hunt, um, bought my first gun actually, um, last year. So I'm not a big time hunter. This is my second time ever. And I needed to have my buddy coming with me because I don't know what I'm doing out there. So I meet up with him and my first hunting trip, I was able to get a deer probably in like, I dunno, second morning, where out there didn't spend much time.Speaker 2 (05:20):Um, just sort of drove around and found a deer on the side of the road, shot it and was done. But this trip was a lot different. What happened was we went out it's a Thursday morning. We went out, drive around, drive around, didn't see anything, Thursday night drive around, drive around hike, hike, drive, drive, rinse, and repeat finally saw one dough. But of course, you know, you got to shoot the buck. So we didn't even see any bucks, just one dough. All right, man, what's going on? So next day, morning, drive around, drive around nothing. Absolutely nothing afternoon of Friday, um, slash evening drive around, drive around. Finally we start seeing herds of dos. So a lot more deer we see, but no box. So at this point we're just pretty frustrated because not only have we driven around, we're going to side by side at truck.Speaker 2 (06:21):Um, we're driving a lot, going all over these mountain trails, but we also hiked probably seven or eight miles up to this point. And it's like, you know, up mountains and Hills and stuff like that. So it's not easy hiking. So I'm thinking, man, why is this taking so long to, you know, see a buck? Like I usually at least see something by then. And this is me. I mean, I'm impatient. I'm not a patient guy. Like I said, this my second time hunting ever. So those that are actual hunters, they're probably hearing this and thinking, this is stupid. Cause I know guys will go out and scout and you know, search for deer for months and you know, pass on box and stuff like that. But me being a beginner hunter, not really know what I'm doing. I'm getting frustrated. I'm like, man, I thought you just go out there, see tons of bucks and you can get yourself a monster, one be done with it.Speaker 2 (07:17):But no, that's not how it was. And then the other thing is there's lots of hunters up here. So we're seeing tons of people. You might as well call it Disneyland up there in the mountains. There's a ton of people just walking around. I felt like there's crowds of hunters. So got pretty frustrating. And then finally, Saturday morning, well, we didn't see anything again on Saturday morning, but at this point I'm about ready to just call it quits, give up, okay. This is day three. I'm like, man, okay. I'm not getting the data this year. And we decided, okay, let's go out one more time. I took my car up to the base of the mountain. We didn't camp that night just because we're getting sick of camping in the freezing cold. We went back into, uh, Cedar city where Stan, um, and find the Friday afternoon slash evening though.Speaker 2 (08:11):We finally see a couple of bucks and it's a little, two point, nothing big. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw me post it, but get it, shoot it from the side of the road. And I'm stoked to finally, I get my buck, taking it to the butcher, get some meat out of it. Uh, Mike, about freaking time. So how does this tie in with solar? Well, it's not that much different. Yeah. I was not patient out there. We're going to different areas. We're knocking on doors. So to speak. We're trying to get our opportunities, but we're not getting anything we're searching around. We're a trick or treating for dear, I guess you could say, but there's no sign of anything. So sometimes that's how it is in solar. How many times are we going to neighborhoods? Maybe we're used to getting a deal closed the first day.Speaker 2 (09:05):Maybe we were, we were used to booking lots of appointments after, you know, an hour, whatever, but sometimes that's not how it's going to be. This is how it was on my hunting trip. The first time I went out, got a deer pretty much right off the bat. This time it took driving around for tons of miles that took hiking, probably like close to 10 miles when it's all said and done, and it took a ton of work to get the same result. So that's how it is in solar. Some weeks are going to be that way some weeks it's going to take twice the amount of effort to get a deal as other weeks. So that's why you need to keep things simple. You need to keep things consistent and you need to not give up. You need to take your mind off of the results and focus in the input.Speaker 2 (09:57):What are you inputting to get the results? If you focus, if you take yourself out of the results and focus more on the output you're putting in the time you're putting in, that's what you can control, right? You can't necessarily control how many people are going to sign up that week, but what can you control? You can control the doors. You knock, you can control to some degree. The people you talk to, you can control the hours you put in. Okay? There's things you can do to control your attitude. So focus on those things you can control and that's how you're going to get way more consistent results. Okay? So this is part of what I told Carson. Um, when he was messaging me, what would you focus on? And that's what I would focus on. I would focus on those things. You can control and track it like a mad man, the most successful people I know in this industry, that's what they're doing.Speaker 2 (10:49):They're keeping everything super simplified. They're tracking their numbers and whether they close 10 deals that week or whether they close one deal, they're working basically the same day they're putting in that same output as they, as the week that they closed 10 deals, whether it's one deal or 10 deal, 10 deals. So it's easy to forget. I did this couple of weeks ago. Matter of fact, where I closed a couple of deals early in the week, and it's a trap we can all fall into pretty easily. If you don't watch yourself because I got two deals closed early in the week, I started getting lazy like, okay, well, you know what? I'm not going to go knock. Um, you know, I'm just going to follow up and I'm going to see if I can get some, uh, installs, hopping a little bit quicker, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna not start knocking until a little bit later today.Speaker 2 (11:45):And what could have turned into many more deals that week? I only closed the two because I, I took down my effort. I took down my production and I got lazy because I closed the two deals. And then guess what happened after that? Both those deals ended up canceling. So now instead of having the two deals close on the week, I was at zero that's kicking myself. I'm like, man, why didn't I keep my production the same? I could have had two deals that stuck two more deals that stuck, but I got lazy and didn't do it. So at that'd be a lesson to you, focus on keeping things simple, keep, keep things, um, focused on what you can control and then track it like crazy. I've talked about this before, but keep spreadsheets of, um, you know, the hours you're putting in the doors, you're knocking the appointments.Speaker 2 (12:41):You're sitting down with homeowners, the closing opportunities. You're getting have those key metrics, make sure you're tracking them like a madman, cause that's how you're going to make improvement. And then there's an app you should all be using. If you're on the doors or however you're tracking stuff. I just have an app that my friend Earl told me about. It's called counter. You can go download it app store and you can customize it to the things you want to track. So for me, I'm checking my close deals on the week. I'm checking my appointments kept track of my appointments booked. I'm tracking my conversations on the doors. Okay? How many qualified prospects my talking to? So I would suggest tracking those things, go download that app. And on next episode, we're going to hear from one of my friends that is having some insane results, not just right now, but the past pretty much, I would say six weeks or sorry, six months minimum.Speaker 2 (13:37):I've been seeing this guy close, super consistent deals. And I think he's hit 15 deals on the month for going on. I think like six, seven months now consistently. So these are things that he actually talks about in the podcast. We did his name's Christian Maroney. So you're not going to want to miss out. That's going to be next episode. And he's going to talk about a lot of these topics. We're going to dive deeper into it. And you're going to see the things he's doing to be super consistent and get results and be the top rep at his company. So tune into that episode, I hope this helped you send it to someone that wants to simplify more. And we'll talk more about how you can simplify other things, but for now just simplify the process, focus on the things you can control. And it's not that complicated.Speaker 2 (14:24):Sometimes we make it difficult. Oh, why, why aren't they closing deals? Go back to the beginning, focus on those things that matter. And that's how you're going to get massive results. Hope that helped. And you we'll see you on the next episode with Christian Maroney, send this to someone who needs it. And don't forget to tune into the live stream tomorrow. You can make it in the solar objections, Facebook group peace.Speaker: (15:26):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now!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):Hey, Hey, Hey, what's going on Solarpreneur? Taylor Armstrong back with another episode and as usual here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better experience in the solar industry. So before we jump into today's topic, have two little announcements and one's kind of an ask. So number one, we are launching our new Solciety app. It's going to be coming out. Um, it should already be on the Google play store for those weirdos that are still using Androids. You can probably actually go get it already if you want to check it out. And for the normal people, the iPhone users, um, you're going to have to wait a little bit, I guess that's the downside with apple. They're a little more strict when it comes to, uh, you know, approving apps. So anyways, we're going to be dropping an episode soon about what's going on with that, but just wanted to give you a teaser.Speaker 2 (01:41):If you're wanting to get first exclusive access to that, be checking the app store, go to the Solciety.co And you can get first access first dibs on what we're going on, what we got going on with the soul side of the app, but it's gonna feature, you know, top training, exclusive discounts and a whole lot of other things. So definitely go get on that. When you have the chance, then number two, I'm thinking about actually to start charging a price on the podcast. No worry it's not money, but what I mean by that, I've been listening to a lot of, uh, Andy Frisella, his podcast it's called real AF, highly recommended. Um, he talks about right now, you know, mostly just issues that are going on in the U S for all of our, uh, listeners here in the USA. Um, but he starts out almost every one of his podcasts.Speaker 2 (02:37):If you listen to it with an ask and that ask, is it instead of paying them money to listen to it, you go share it with a friend you post on social media. You, uh, I don't know, help promote it somehow. And that's his price for the podcast and he, this guy's, he's got, I think like number one, business podcasts in the world, and I'd go check. But one of the most popular podcasts doesn't advertise on it at all, which he's probably the only top podcast like that, that I listened to, that doesn't have ads on it. He could be making seven figures, easy a year, popping ads on that thing, but that's his. Is it? You just go out and share it with someone. You talk about it. So I'm like, maybe I should start making that ask on my podcast. So we're trying to grow the Solarpreneur movement.Speaker 2 (03:28):So I want to make the same as to you. If you got value from this episode or any of our previous episodes, please go send it to someone, help us spread the word. We're doing all this for free. And to be blunt, I know I could be selling probably an extra deal a week with the time I spend on the podcast, but I choose to spread some value and help my peeps close more deals, because that's what it's about. And it's helped with me. The more I share what I learned. I know I, I get a lot of value from that too, and connecting with other people. So it's not like I don't want to be doing this, but anyways, that's my ask. If you got value from this podcast, please go share it with someone. And as always, you can leave a review to you if you feel so inclined.Speaker 2 (04:15):So with that being said, let's jump into today's topic. And this topic comes from just last week's experience, just like a lot of episodes do. So what happened last week? I was having a rougher week up until Friday. So how many of you have had a tough week? You're just grinding it out. You're knocking lots of doors. You're calling lots of leads, referrals, whatnot, and you're not getting anything. And I don't know about you, but if Friday comes around and I haven't closed the deal, I start feeling a little sick inside. I'm like, man, I need to get at least a few deals closed this week. I've gotten nothing. So that's why if you can get the deal closed early in the week. For me, it takes a lot of pressure off knowing that I have a deal closed thing going on the weekends, um, with some wins, if you will, but last week I didn't have any wins.Speaker 2 (05:08):Didn't have any closes. So I was getting a little stressed with it. I'm like, man, what's going on here? What do I need to do to get my few closes at least on the week? And so here's what I did. I looked, I looked for the low-hanging fruit. Hey, what do I mean by that? I looked for deals that I thought would be a lay down. And I've talked about this a little bit in the podcast. If you want to go back and listen to the podcasts around when we have Laney Dray, Mr. Door-to-Door millionaire on the show, we go into a few topics that have to do with this, but specifically in solar, what I mean is you go find people that potentially have not been talked to hardly the at all, if ever, Hey, and so I'm going to talk about how you do, and especially here in San Diego or in saturated markets, I think that's one of the keys to having success in these saturated markets is you got to look under the rocks for the deals you got to look and all the hiding places for these homeowners.Speaker 2 (06:14):Because if you're just going to cookie cutter neighborhoods, knocking all the typical stuff, yeah, you can have success. But for me, I like to have success and be able to get more quality leads and not necessarily be sifting through, you know, a hundred people that have been talked to 20 times, which sometimes is the case, especially here in San Diego. Okay. Now you might not have this issue as much. If you're in newer markets, maybe your issue there, just getting people to believe that solar works. But if you're in California, pretty much anywhere in California, you gotta be good at finding these people that have not heard as much about solar gain. The other benefit to this too. If you can find those people that haven't, um, you know, been hit up a million times about solar, that haven't really checked it out, then it's a lot easier to price the deals.Speaker 2 (07:11):What's your worth. Okay. None of this, what drives me nuts is when a homeowner has 10 quotes already and I go, okay, price me at, uh, two, five a watt. I'll buy it from you, whatever, some ridiculous number. And they're just trying to drive the pricing to the bottom. Now we seen still close those people. You just got to build value, but I love it when I can just build value and not have to sit in, pull teeth and fight on price. Okay. Makes it easier when you find these people that are quote unquote. Laydowns right. So let's talk about how do you find these people? Okay. Some of this again is going to sound familiar, but I'm going to refresh your memory. And for those, maybe you haven't heard this before. Okay. But number one thing is go off the beaten path. And I brought up Lenny grey.Speaker 2 (08:02):If you haven't read his book yet, it's called more door to door millionaire. Um, he also has his door to door millionaire, original book, two books he wrote, and he has a section on this. The entire book is super valuable. So I definitely recommend you go check it out and buy it if you haven't already. But on page one 14, if you have the book he talks about, he calls the strategy off the beaten path. And just to kind of summarize it, he talks about how he was knocking with, um, one of his rookie sales reps and where they were just hitting up this cookie cutter neighborhood. And every single person was like, Hey, you're the third guy. That's come by this week. And they were just getting hammered out. They're not having success. So after, I don't know, an hour or something, he goes onto the main highway where always the cars are speed and buying everything.Speaker 2 (08:57):And there's houses also along the main highway. But these are the houses that the longer driveways that, um, maybe they add some, I don't know, farm animals out front Barnes, whatever. They'll have bigger properties, things like that. So he says, Hey man, let's go try these houses. So they go to these houses on the main highway, instead of just talking to the cookie cutter neighborhood ones. And he says, within 15 minutes, they are sorry. You said the first house they sold that one. Then 15 minutes later, they sold the other one. And this was like, you know, just around the corner from this cookie cutter neighborhood, they'd had been knocking. It's the point of this is, and the point that he makes is that sometimes you need to go the strategy of call the over quantity. Hey, and he calls this like the low-hanging fruit.Speaker 2 (09:49):Hey, these people, they're not going to be talked to as much. You can, you know what I'm talking about. If you go to any neighborhood where they have super long Dre ways, if there are more smaller towns, if they're super spread apart, all homes like these they're way more likely to have been hit up a million times versus your cookie cutter neighborhoods. So that's the first strategy, make sure when you're out knocking. And I know some people are with, you know, the bigger companies, maybe you're with the Sunrun's, the legacies, maybe you're assigned areas and you're not supposed to be knocking different places, but even if you're assigned an area, make sure you look for those houses that are spread apart. Try to look for houses where maybe they're tough to access. Um, maybe they're they have gates in front of them. I don't know.Speaker 2 (10:42):Just anything you can note, any clue you can pick up on that. Maybe it would have been tough for any other newbie sales rep or sales rep that hasn't been listening to the Solarpreneur podcast to get access to. So make sure you do that. So that's number one. Look for those houses that are off the beaten path. Okay. And tip number two, make sure you are conscious of new move-ins is another big strategy that I've implemented. Okay. And I didn't even finish my story at the beginning, but I was having a rough week when I started out, like I said, didn't have anything and Friday that's exactly what I did. I went to a place where I didn't think many people would have knocked yet and sure enough books, like one out of every three people I talked to in this neighborhood. Okay. It was a condo slash townhome neighborhood.Speaker 2 (11:35):That's another thing that's I would classify in the, off the beaten path. And depending on your area, depending on what state you're knocking in, maybe like shared roof spaces or condos, town homes, maybe they're not allowed to get solar. I don't know. You'd have to look at what the regulations, all that in your state, but here in California, you can basically put solar on anything, even if it has a shared roof space. So keep that in mind, these like places that maybe even look like apartment complex, sometimes these places are townhomes or condos. So be wary of that and make sure you're paying attention. And that's another, I would say classification that's off the beaten path. Okay. And then the second point, um, was, um, sorry to finish my story. I ended up closing two last week on Friday and Saturday, knock on those town homes, but lay down sells low-hanging fruit.Speaker 2 (12:36):And then the second point that I was getting into before I started rambling, there was make sure you're conscious of the new move-ins. And I've talked about this multiple times as well on the show here, but make sure you're going on to Zillow, make your spreadsheet of your new move-ins. If you're assigned an area, go look up all the new people that moved in. This is the way you can target those people. You can bring up specifics in your door approach and Hey, we're just letting all the new move-ins know what's going on in the neighborhood. You guys, you probably didn't hear yet. You guys just moved in, right? Because what's super cool is you can see literally when people moved into their house right on Zillow. Okay. And I know there's a lot of other apps. Um, I'll have to put some in the show notes, but there's apps.Speaker 2 (13:23):You can get that realtors use where you can see like way more data than this. You can see, like if it's in a trust, the homes, um, like who is on the title of the home, things like that. No, there's a couple paid apps out there. Make sure you're doing that. And the best reps I know in the industry, um, are you using the strategy third going, of course, they're going to go like train reps and cookie cutter neighborhoods. They're going to knock and cookie cutter neighborhoods themselves, but they're mixing it up. Okay. Some days they're going to just the new move ins and goals. And if you're doing this strategy, make sure you're knocking around the new move ins too. You don't want to be driving for miles. And then only knock one door. I would suggest knocking all the way around, um, you know, the two neighbors on the side and then the three neighbors across the street minimum.Speaker 2 (14:17):And hopefully you have a name to drop where you can bring up the fact that you're, um, letting the people are in and say, Hey, do you know, the people just moved in next door? It's a good opener for their neighbors. Hey, but anyways, so the top guys are using all these strategies. They're going to the off the beaten path. They're doing the cookie cutter neighborhoods and then they're doing the new move-ins. Okay. And then the last point with all this is target the homes that already have solar too. Guess what? Especially here in San Diego, in California, there's a lot of homes. I've had solar for a long time. A lot of these people are getting huge, true bills where their solar is not covering everything they're using for their energy. So be conscious of that, make sure you're knocking these homes, especially if you know, maybe they have a pool or maybe if it just seems like, okay, this house is huge.Speaker 2 (15:14):They should have more than 10 panels up there. Especially those homes knock them. Cause you're going to get lots of people that either number one, they're being super conservative still. Cause they don't want to have those huge true-up bills or number two, they're paying huge, true bills. The utility that's not being covered. And these people, they already have solar. You don't have to sell them on the idea of solar. You just have to sell them on adding more panels, which is usually a super laid down low-hanging fruit sale. So that's the three tips guys, make sure you're knocking off the beaten path, including condos and town homes, depending on which state you're in and the laws and regulations around that number to make sure you're knocking the new move-ins. And even if your assigned areas, make sure you're looking those up and being aware of who maybe just moved in then number three, make sure you're also knocking the true-up systems that people that already have solar and another thing out here in California, a lot of all the new homes have to be built with solar.Speaker 2 (16:22):So for us Californians, that's another strategy that's our team has implemented go to those homes that are being built with solar because none of these homes that are being built with the systems already are sized to what the homeowners are using. So if you can find that out, you can go and look at this data. You can see how long people have been in the home and you can target maybe the people that just moved in, but also keep in mind target the people who've been there for a year because the new movements that's typically the one objection they have is that, oh Taylor, yeah, we don't want to do it. We want to see what we're using in the home. So in that case, make sure you're keeping these people in your follow-up list. And then also targeting people that have been in their homes, you know, six months to a year because they do have some data on what their electric usage history is.Speaker 2 (17:12):So that's what helped me this last week. That's how you turn a bad week into a good one as well. Make sure you're mixing it up, go off to that low-hanging fruit, but more importantly, just make sure to grains. Cause even if you're going after the low-hanging fruit, that's not an excuse to work less. And I'll be honest. Sometimes I've gotten a couple of deals from that and I've, and I've, uh, not worked as many hours as I should have. So make sure if you're using these strategies, use them with responsibility. Okay. Work just as hard as if you're grinding out in a cookie cutter neighborhood and you're only booking one out of every 10 appointments. Cause if you keep that same mindset, that's how you're going to have a lot more success is doing a combination of these strategies. So I hope that helps go share it with someone that could use the tips that's having a slower week, get out there and close some deals.Speaker 2 (18:05):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now ! 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. I am super excited for this episode. We have a live episode in the studio. I always love doing it with live guests because I think I get more out of it and more connection with the guests. And I'm super excited because we have our second lady, second girl rep coming on the show. I don't know. I don't know if you guys like get like female girls, lady, whatever. Um, but anyway, it's okay. So we've got Alex Hogan hall on the show here, live in the studio, Alex. Thanks for coming out today and coming on the show. Yeah, of course.Speaker 3 (01:15):Taylor, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to beSpeaker 2 (01:17):Here. Yeah, it'll be super fun. And she's, uh, hopefully moving our assume, but you're right now you're commuting from Utah working with the team, right? Yes, sir.Speaker 3 (01:25):Yep. Back and forth,Speaker 2 (01:26):California. You're getting sick of that. Uh, that plane ride yet. Are you guys like riding in the plane?Speaker 3 (01:31):Oh my gosh. I feel like everyone at Delta probably has to know me by now. It's the same flight.Speaker 2 (01:38):Uh, is it like you see like the same pilots and like flight attendants and stuff? Or does that change your name?Speaker 3 (01:43):I see the same, like Utah based crew. I feel like every time.Speaker 2 (01:47):Nice. Well, that's cool. And, um, so for those that don't know, Alex, she right now is the, uh, you might have to help me a little bit, but your CMO right at,Speaker 3 (01:57):Yep. I'm a chief marketing officer and chairman of the board for true power.Speaker 2 (02:02):Okay. True power in Alex. She has a ton of experience. We're just talking a little bit before the show and she gave me their own whole, you know, kind of run down of everything. She's done all the experiences she's had and, um, she's done a ton awesome stuff. So, um, Alex, do you want to give us kind of like the rundown for those who don't know you kind of how you got into the industry, how you got into door to door and, um, I guess how you got into the position that you're at now too. Yeah,Speaker 3 (02:25):Sure. Cool. So, um, so I got started in the industry back in 2015. I had just finished up college with a degree in Marine biology and I was just loved the environment of super, you know, pro hippie fixing, fixing climate change. So couldn't find a job in Marine bio. So I applied to this position to knock doors and sell solar. So I was like, look, I can do this for a petition signing or something. It's going to be easy to get paid. Um, so I tried it out. I was one of the first, uh, direct training classes over at Trinity solar out in New Jersey. Um, back in, I think of 2015. And at the time we really didn't have much training in place support systems. It was still very new to the business. Um, so I was one of the first female sales reps. They brought on board.Speaker 3 (03:11):I had to like make my own polos with the logo on it and stuff, um, at the time. So yeah, just start now and I, uh, didn't have any sales background or anything didn't think I'd ever get into sales, but I, you know, did pretty well. I am a super hard worker, so I just went straight into, um, you know, knocking every day, making sure I was working the hours and I did pretty well. I was doing about five or six a month and was able to pay off all of my student loans within the first year I was able to, uh, get my first, uh, apartment with some friends. I was able to get my first car. So pretty much everything I wanted at 22 and I was getting all that stuff covered. Yeah. And so I enjoyed what I was doing. Um, but I was starting to think about getting back into Marine biology.Speaker 3 (03:56):This was about nine months to a year later and the director of sales and I kind of sat down before I was looking to leave and they offered me a role to come in and kind of just use a little bit of experience I had out in the field understanding kind of what the field was going through to start building out their support systems. So that's covering anything with onboarding. What does our recruiting process look like? What do our competitions look like? What's our training, our marketing materials, kind of you name it. And that was kind of the stuff that I got into and the way that I did it was mostly like, you know, figuring out what problems existed in the org that I could come in and solve. And, uh, and just kind of figuring out where my hard work could get put in a place. And when you don't really have a skillset built out for something like that, a lot of what you're going to be able to do, that's unique is provide value through your hard work. So I worked my butt off or to really late hours, um, kind of whatever I needed to do to start getting that off the ground. And within, I'd say two years, I was managing a team and then took a director position at Trinity over, uh, all of sales admin, and then also recruiting.Speaker 2 (04:59):Let's go, was there a lot of like, was there a lot of girls at the time or you really, really like the only one coming into the office?Speaker 3 (05:05):So we, our office staff is a little bit heavier on the female side, lots in our different support departments. Um, but I was our first and only female director, youngest director. So yeah, not, not as, quite as much at the leadership level on the sales side, for sure. Okay. Yeah. And so that's kinda where I grew into my director level self, I guess. And then, um, I transitioned into working with legacy, uh, built out the setter closer model over there. Again, I'm very heavy on like building out the systems, kind of the backend stuff, making everything work. Um, and then, uh, after working at legacy for awhile, transitioned over into vivant solar and took on a role managing the sales marketing department there under Jason Del stra. And, uh, that was probably my most fun part of the career before branched out into consulting. I loved, you know, we had this big $5 million budget.Speaker 3 (05:55):I had a huge team. We were very heavy on the culture and that's kind of where I realized how unique and valuable it was to be excellent at building out culture. So, um, when, you know, kind of doubled down on that as the way that I could provide, you know, unique value in the industry. And so when I left Viven and got into consulting with door to door experts, that was kinda my thing. So I worked really heavily on both new hire experience, repor tension, increasing your per rep average for your team, just kind of that type of stuff that kept people around, um, long-term and could make companies unique. Um, culture is really interesting with that where, you know, I'm going back to school now and something we're learning about is how does a business provide a competitive advantage or sustain their competitive advantage.Speaker 3 (06:38):And if you think about it in door to door, our audience for marketing, isn't so much like, uh, the solar customer, as much as it is this as it is the sales rep. So that's kinda my biggest audience is how can I provide the best possible experience for my sales reps? And so a sustained competitive advantage also, you know, usually comes from something that's really socially complex. And so if you can build a really unique and interesting culture that keeps people around, it's something that's very hard for other companies to imitate. So that's going to be kind of the way that you can, uh, set your company apart from the rest.Speaker 2 (07:09):No doubt. And yeah, I saw Alex first speak actually back at door-to-door con was that last year and last year. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, got a ton of like nuggets from just her talking to door to door con. Um, and you talked to a lot of things you just mentioned, like the culture of the competitions, um, how to increase the per rep average. I remember, um, need to go back and review my notes, but it was super good, super valuable stuff you talked about. Um, and yeah, in my opinion, I think that's why we need more like girl reps in door to door is because I don't know, you've probably seen this by now, but pretty much every successful, you know, door to door rep, at least the guys we all got add, we're all super disorganized. We're all, you know, take an Adderall, all this stuff.Speaker 2 (07:53):That's like the, you know, door to door, culture and everything though. Um, in every like most, every girl I see come in and they, you know, they're on top of it. They want organize things. They just get people in line and yeah. Then matter of fact, that's how it is. Our company ran out. I told you just off, um, before we started the interview here, we got someone that used to be at Trinity solar to your name's Jeanette. And, uh, yeah, she helped us like just dial in like being so much better than, than what we were doing before though. Yeah. Um, for those that are looking for, you know, more organization, I would consider looking at, you know, bringing in some more girls in your organization because yeah. I think that's kind of the super powers that a lot of, probably not all girls, but I would say in general, um, they're definitely more organized. Is that fair to say Alex?Speaker 3 (08:39):Yeah, I would say so. I mean, that's definitely been like a blessing for me at first I was like kind of done being the only girl in my org. It was tougher for me to find mentorship, you know, connect with the male leaders that I was with. It was just, you know, there's just that barrier there. Um, so it was for us to build that relationship. So for awhile it was kind of sad, but then after I realized, you know, just like you mentioned, Taylor, like so much of my natural skill set or the things that I knew I could double down on to become unique. Like a lot of that was very different than the skill set that my male peers brought to the table. A lot of them were growing up and having success, like getting into director roles through being really great at sales. And so, um, I was fortunate enough to have kind of that mix of doing well enough with sales to really understand what reps are going through. So then when I could come in and build out those systems and provide that structure, it w it was a very specific to them and help that out a lot.Speaker 2 (09:30):Yeah. That's awesome. So how long were you like in the sales before you got into more like the like management's type stuff organization?Speaker 3 (09:37):Yeah, so I, I knocked for about a year, um, and then took a lot of referrals after that, that lasted for awhile. And then once I moved out of New Jersey into Utah referral game, kind of dried up there, um, wasn't working out there quite as much, but yeah, I still, you know, to this day, I'll go out and talk with our sales reps here and there and make sure I'm spending as much time as in the field as I can. I think it's super important to know firsthand what they're going through in order to make sure that, you know, everything we're building is the best it possibly can be to support them and, um, keep them here longterm, as everybody wants to find a home in their career. I think oftentimes we think in door to door, how, like, you know, reps don't stay that long. It's kind of fleeting. It's okay if you lose a lot of people, but I think it's, um, it's a challenge, but to think about it the opposite way where, you know, if I can figure out if I can crack the code on how people can stay longterm, I'm actually gonna have an org that connects at a way deeper level has success at a way deeper level. So that's what I'mSpeaker 2 (10:32):A hundred percent. Yeah. I respect that a ton like leaders that still want to go out and knock with their teams as all these top companies. I see all the leaders. A matter of fact, I just saw a post about a, I think it was Sunrun CEO or something shows up. I don't know if he saw that, but she shows up to a meeting and then they thought they're going to have a meet and greet after. And she's like, no, we're going to the doors who might knock them with like, wow, she's awesome. So like, I think people really expect respect that. And I've talked with reps from other organizations that don't do that, where their leaders are just coming in and doing trainings and then heading out and they're talking about all these things. I go and knock harder, go close more doors and things like that. But I think it's hard to, um, I don't know, maybe take that information sometimes if the reps don't see, oh, they're willing to do it themselves. And, um, they're going to come out and like, show me how it's done even though, I mean, I mean, I'm sure you're not to the level you were before when you're knocking consistently every day. Yeah.Speaker 3 (11:26):This is just here and there, but I mean, you're so right. Like even, you know, in the times where I've been even recruiting at the manager level, a DM will sometimes say, okay, like I am down to come over and I'll do this, that, and the other thing, but I don't really want to knock anymore. And I just think it's so silly to think that you can be as effective and be the best person for your people if you don't really know what they're going through and you're not willing to do that with them. Yeah.Speaker 2 (11:50):That's for sure. Yeah. So when you, um, like kind of transitioned more into the management stuff, more into building out the systems, things like that, was that, were they asking you to do that? Or were you kind of like, I dunno, is that, was that you more wanting to get into that type of role? Or how did that transition go?Speaker 3 (12:07):Yeah, I, I didn't really know what to expect when I first took the role. I was kind of, even in the mentality of, you know, I'll, I'll come on, I'll do this and I'll keep looking for a job that I want in the meantime. Um, but coming in, I, I didn't realize how valuable this question was at the time I was like 23, but I remember going, um, department to department the first couple of weeks of my job, because my boss was traveling to all the offices. So I'm just sitting around corporate. I'm like, okay, what am I going to do? And I went to all the departments and I said, Hey, I'm Alex, I'm working with the direct sales team. I just wanted to know, like, how do you interact with them? What problems do you run into? Like, how can I make things easier for you guys?Speaker 3 (12:42):And kind of like build that, um, kind of system up and everybody had their own opinions and things. And so not only did it build a ton of relationship equity for me, like people kind of talked about playing politics and corporate, I don't think it has to be politics, but you do need to build relationships. So I built up a ton of that equity by, um, going out, doing things for other departments, kind of seeing how I could kind of grease the wheel there between their relationship with sales. And, uh, and because of that, I noticed a ton of holes that needed to be filled, created systems and kind of, um, different problem solving solutions that I could put into place there. And then I managed it because I put it into place. So as I grew and built more systems under me and things that I was managing, I was able to convince my boss to let me bring on additional people. And that's how I got into management was purely just working my butt off and then figuring out, okay, what problems exist that no, one's either thinking about solving or wants to solve and figure out the solution to that, and then kind of build out my influence from there.Speaker 2 (13:39):Uh that's awesome. So it sounds like you're more like super proactive, like, Hey, what problems can I help with? What things can be improved? It wasn't like them doing yoga, doing this, go do this, like went out there and kind of recognize that yourself and like suggest to them, things like that.Speaker 3 (13:54):Totally. And I think that like, it applies, I think, no matter what position you're in, like anyone that's trying to get into leadership, if you can be proactive about figuring out, you know, what needs to get done, that's not getting done. What are the holes that you can fill with different solutions? Um, that is the way to kind of stand out and be unique. Yeah.Speaker 2 (14:10):Well that's, yeah, that's a good point. Good point. And so I'm with team, I know this is what you're doing at a door to door experts for awhile while was helping people kind of help build out these systems and more on the organizational thing, the rep retention. Right. Um, what was like some big mistakes that you would see as you went into a company? I'm sure you've dealt with some pretty disorganized companies and maybe some that were a mess and everything. Do you have any, uh, I don't know, cool stories of companies that were a disaster and you helped them turn things around or anything like that,Speaker 3 (14:40):Dude, that's such a good question. Um, yeah, I, I'm just thinking through all these examples, I would say one of the biggest things I noticed was if you're a smaller business or you're like a manager looking to do this for your team, you know, you're not doing it huge scale of in status yet, or anything like that. A lot of people, you don't even realize you're doing it, but you're like trying to imitate a big culture. You're trying to imitate these big players that you admire. So it's not coming from a place of like genuine, authentic, like you're trying to do what's in your reps, best interest. You're like building out systems or creating competitions or doing all these things because you think you need to, and because you think that's, what's going to work. And so it's like, it's this weird, like disconnect, like emotionally in between like you and the sales rep.Speaker 3 (15:28):So instead a big part of it was getting in touch with that. Company's like identity, like what are the things that they really care about? Who are the people that they're trying to bring on board? Like who really aligns with their core values and then figuring out how do I build out systems, build out training, uh, build it into my recruiting process, whatever a way that I'm providing what is best for the best interests of the sales rep. And that will also align with your best interest as a business or a, you know, manager simply because you're bringing on the right people. So, you know, you're bringing on the right person, if your best interests and theirs align perfectly because you're bringing somebody into your culture that shares your values.Speaker 2 (16:05):Okay. So it sounds like step one is kind of recognizing what are the core values before anything and then going out and finding people that fit into that. And that's more, would you say that's what we, what you were helping companies with as you started working with them?Speaker 3 (16:20):Yeah, I would say so because a mistake I made in the beginning was I would, you know, I just, I, I feel like I've got these systems now that could be successful anywhere. So we'd start on the system front and we'd put the stuff into place. And, um, their retention didn't go up. Like the metrics kind of, we were trying to measure, we're not really changing. And so if I looked at it, it was like this, yeah. It was just this like false imitation of what we really needed to be providing. So we started a step back and said like, okay, who are the people that we're truly trying to bring on board? Right. Like, and one thing I, um, I was telling you about this earlier, but a little Simon Senate training I saw that I think is super valuable is, uh, he, he was interviewing a leader in Navy seals and he was talking about, um, how they choose who they want to bring into their org.Speaker 3 (17:01):And he kind of drew this little graph. So one of the axis was, uh, high performance, so low to high performance. And then the other axis was, uh, culture, or, you know, how good of a human is this person kind of thing. So every company wants someone that falls under that one corner where it's high performance, you know, high, high value to the culture. Nobody wants someone that's in the low and low corner, but then, um, oftentimes people will choose the high performer. That's a bad fit for your culture over the, a low performer. That is a great fit for your culture. And I think that's a huge thing we do here in door to door because we care so much about that production, but this guy kind of defined that person as a toxic team member. So it's someone that comes on board. Um, they might be breaking your rules.Speaker 3 (17:45):They might be kind of going against your core values. And then as a manager or a leader, you're looking at this person and you're like, dang, I really want the production. So you keep them on board. You make concessions with yourself, you kind of give up some of that identity that you care so much about with your, with your team and what you guys stand for. And then you think that, that person's either, you know, providing a neutral or a benefit to the team where oftentimes if you put a top performer, that's a bad fit for the culture in place, and you prioritize them over your good guys on the team that are maybe mediocre, you know, you work with that person versus developing them. Then you're actually going to detract from the overall kind of culture and performance of everyone.Speaker 2 (18:19):That's interesting. So how do you know cause like, um, um, I'm sure you've seen, sometimes it's tough to recognize you do one, two interviews and you don't necessarily know how this person's going to work out with the team. So how do you, like, what do you do? Say you bring on someone they're crushing it, but yeah. They're not fitting into their culture. I don't know. Maybe they're like doing shady stuff or, and I'm sure you've seen all types of things going on that, like, what do you do with these reps? Do you like, Hey, strike one, strike two year out or do you like sit down and talk with them or do you like, I don't know if you see they're not a good fit in your culture, do you try to like mold them first? Or what do you do in these cases?Speaker 3 (18:55):Yeah, I would, I would say always like, step one, you should be a high enough level person too. If you have a high performer, that's not a good fit for your culture, you should be able to control that situation enough to try to mold them into what you need. Okay. So oftentimes, you know, someone's, um, uh, being, you know, really aggressive or territorial or just kind of this personality that doesn't fit with the group. If you first try to level with them and be like, Hey, like I want to provide a space for you to, you know, move into leadership here, make the most money. You can, whatever that person's goals are, I'd kind of aligned with them there and be like, I need you to do me a favor though, because you are such a high level influencer on the team because of your production level and like how well you can go out and perform that if you don't come to meetings and you do all of these things that are like against the basic rules that I'm trying to hold everybody to.Speaker 3 (19:42):And those expectations, it sucks for me as a leader because I have a tough time. Like all these people look up to, you have all this influence over them. So I need to try to hold you to those same standards if it's not, you know, just for you coming to the team, cause you don't care that much about going to the trainings every day. Maybe you don't need them as much, but the rest of the team does. And so you would be doing me a massive, massive favor if you could, you know, follow X, Y, and Z. So whatever those basic expectations are, I try to kind of set it that way. And oftentimes if you level with that person and they're like, yeah, um, I'm just doing something nice for the team like that usually connects and will resonate with people. Um, if they are still not going to be a good fit for the group, I have, you know, um, consulted people and we've said, okay, let's put this person kind of out on an island.Speaker 3 (20:25):So, you know, don't come to the meetings. We're not gonna put you on the leader board, but you're welcome to come here and sell lights out and kind of do your thing and work with me. But I can't just put you in with the rest of the team because you're kind of a bad influence on them. Um, or worst case scenario too. Like I've also, um, personally lost people that I thought were high, high performer, toxic team member. Um, and I've also had, uh, one of my roofing clients actually in Colorado, they lost their top top person that they were petrified to lose because they finally put some expectations in place like this. And he left and they were petrified that the whole team was going to leave. And now they're like five X the size that they were like this little training room where they had these influences that kept them from holding their expectations. Um, when I was there, like that was tough for them. So now that person's gone, they're able to hold everyone to a higher standard, the team actually gels a lot better. And so they've only gotten better since then.Speaker 2 (21:16):Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's like cutting the fat off, but yeah. And then I think it's that scarcity mindset people get, they don't want to let go of the golden goose, the things it's feeding them. So they're afraid to, I don't know, do sometimes what's necessary. Like a lot of times they, they probably know they need to do it right, but they're just like scared to like, I don't want to cut a guy that's closing 10 deals a month, whatever it, 10 20 dealsSpeaker 3 (21:37):For sure. And if that person leaving allows you to help everybody else in the office get one or two more deals a month and that kind of covers your 10 or 20 that you're losing. So I look at it.Speaker 2 (21:48):Yeah. I like that. I agree for sure. And so another thing I know you've helped a lot of companies with, and you're probably one of your strengths do is just the rep retention. Um, so does that, would you say that's pretty hand-in-hand with what we're talking about? Like retaining reps, just figuring out the culture first, any other ideas you have on that? Because as you know, solar, I mean, at my first company I was with, it's like, you know, trying to pour, uh, uh, like water in a colander, you know, you're trying to fill up a colander and the water is just flowing out of there and you're constantly just filling it up, filling it up every single week. I go, at one point we were recruiting, I don't know, maybe like five or six reps a week. And then we're lucky if one of them like stayed double next week. Cause we're just like bringing in these guys from, you know, restaurant, is it ZipRecruiter, indeed all these things. So yeah. In your opinion, Alex, what's like the biggest, um, I dunno, mistaken retention. I know probably a lot of that stuff we just talked about, but anything else you would say that's helps a lot that you've seen in companies you work with in retention? Yeah.Speaker 3 (22:50):Yeah. So I would say, um, first off is I think a big mistake we make in the industry is, you know, we put a lot of weight on recruiting, but then mentally people start to kind of check out of the recruiting process once that person gets hired. So as soon as that person shows up to bootcamp, you're like, cool, my job is done. This person's here. And that's what we reward people on. We say, oh, he brought in this number of recruits, but what we really care about is that person staying retained. So I'm a metric and solar that I got from a previous company, just with a ton of data, was, um, if a rep can get five sales within their first 60 days, they're 80% more likely to stay with that company six months or longer, which is a huge step for us in our industry.Speaker 3 (23:29):Right. So, um, I, you know, knowing that, I mean there's a million things you can think of to put into place. You know, how I answer the question? How can I get more of my sales reps to hit five sales in 60 days? There's a lot you can build into place there. But I think a big thing too, that should be thought of through the recruiting process and kind of, as it bleeds into that onboarding and the first couple of weeks is just kind of the journey that your, your recruit is going to have to go through in order to actually stay retained and like fully integrate this new job into their life. So for example, let's say you've got, um, someone that's working like a nine to five job. They're a young parent, young mom or dad, and they've got like a two or three-year-old at home that they put to bed at like 7, 7 30 every night.Speaker 3 (24:11):And that's like their little family time. It totally fits into their current routine. And now you're trying to recruit this person from that lifestyle into door to door. Well, if you're asking that person, you know, you, if you're feeling resistance during the recruiting process, you might immediately go to, let me throw more money at this person. And let me give them a manager title, like whatever, some of these perks that we can give versus thinking through that hesitation is more so based on the changes to their lifestyle, that they haven't thought through a solution to yet. So like this person, this example may come into your org and if they plan to like, they've always needed to be home at seven 30 for bedtime, and now you're telling them they need to knock until eight or later, every single night, that's going to be a disconnect for you guys.Speaker 3 (24:52):So you could nip that stuff in the bud, even during the recruiting process, by getting to know that person at a deeper level, know what their life is, like, know what they care about. And then, um, you know, that could be setting up a schedule where a couple of nights a week you want them out late and a couple of nights a week, you're cool with them going home because they get their doors in or they start earlier, like whatever it's gotta be. But if you can kind of figure those things out early on and mold some of the process with them, it breaks that barrier down between where they are and them being, you know, fully self-sustaining in this role, making money and working with the longterm. So I think if you can think through solving that, that is going to change the way you recruit your processes, your onboarding, your incentives, like everything else kind of falls in line. Yeah.Speaker 2 (25:34):Yeah. Okay. I love that. Yeah. That's a good point now. And I'm doing a little bit with that right now. I mean, the company I'm with now, it's like we have all these young guys that just came like young hustlers coming from, uh, Vivian alarms and stuff like that. They're all lined up for the summer. And then, um, yeah, I told you before we started recording here that I was running a team of just like 10, 15 reps. Most of us were like married guys, just, uh, I don't know, kind of doing our thing had kids, stuff like that, but now our teams, like we ha we got 30 guys that they're not married, they're off like, uh, just doing like the single guy stuff. And we're trying to kind of like, um, you know, fit into that culture and everything. And then, uh, you know, you get like girls coming on the teams too. So like there's all these different, like people that can come into the organization and from all types of scenarios, different schedules that they're used to. So, um, I dunno, do you have any like tips on say you got something like that where it's a bunch of young people and you've got some married guys, then you got some girls. I don't know. Is that how your team is right now currently or, yeah,Speaker 3 (26:36):Yeah. We've got a really good mix over at Tru. We've got, um, I'd say probably 30% of our like active reps are women, which is cool. Um, yeah, we, we have a younger Salesforce, but we've got plenty of married people with young kids and everything. Um, I mean, I think a big, a big piece of that is like, we've got all these little subcultures within our teams that I've noticed people that have similar schedules. They're kind of like breaking off and doing some of their own thing. Um, you could even incentivize the groups that start to naturally form like that to like, do little head-to-head matches. Like you can do some office level incentives with them on that type of stuff. Okay. Um, and then, I mean, just touching on bringing people into solar from summer programs, I've got like a whole thing that I've been, uh, brewing up with a couple with, you know, Brandon and Parker, a couple of old experts, but, um, we've been talking about a lot how, how different it is going from a summer program over into solar.Speaker 3 (27:32):And I think for anyone like recruiting from summer programs right now, this is a hurdle that you guys might not be thinking of people in pest control or alarms or something they're coming from this very regimented schedule. They know what they're doing. Like every hour of the day for the summer, they've got really robust training systems because they're trying to, you know, in a summer program, you need to get people, videos, get that stuff figured out, and then they need to be on the doors producing as soon as the summer starts. So they've got this whole system in place. And oftentimes, you know, a lot of us got into solar maybe because you were doing other sales and you loved the freedom and things that come with the schedule we can create. And solar, well, if you're a manager that values freedom with your time and you're kind of unstructured and you don't care if people are showing up to the meetings twice a week and stuff like that, and you recruit a group of alarm guys, like what are the chances that, that person's going to be successful in this unstructured culture where it's like, no, man, you can do whatever you want.Speaker 3 (28:25):Like kind of thing. You know? So, um, so oftentimes we see that as a perk that we got into this industry for, if you're bringing on summer teams, I would say, match what they are familiar with until they know what they're doing. And then you can let off the gas a little bit, like put something into place that feels remotely similar to what they've been going through with their training and their schedule and their structure. And it may not match what you're asking the rest of the team to do, but it's going to help those people come on board and get past the learning curve.Speaker 2 (28:54):Okay. That's interesting. So almost like having them do, even though we say you're only meeting twice a week or something, so you bring in a group of summer guys. So you're saying maybe like meet with them every day and just have them do their same schedule for a while until they start seeing success. Things like that.Speaker 3 (29:09):Totally. Because for us, we might be like, oh yeah, it's cool. We only do meetings twice a week. Like this like less structured lifestyle is what we enjoy. But for someone coming from a really regimented routine and door to door that could give them anxiety and it could keep them from like their routines on how they've learned and their work ethic and their numbers are all based on them being in a regular regimented schedule. So if you mess that up, they may not have the personal, like wherewithal to just do that themselves because they know that's what they need. Like they might not even know that. So I would say, put those guys in, yeah, like a quick 30 minute meeting every day to kind of touch base for the first couple of weeks. And once you guys, once you see them kind of get into their own like groove with solar, you can always let up and pull them into the, the, um, structure that you're holding with the rest of the group. But I think that would help with retention, like big time for summer people.Speaker 2 (29:56):Yeah. No, for sure. I agree with that. Cause you actually, that's, I'm totally, I'm working with Jason newbie and that's basically what we're doing right now because he comes from alarms, a bunch of the guys that he has on the team are from vivid alarms. So right now, yeah, he has a meeting every day. Like it used to be 10:00 AM you moved it to 12, but it's like every single day we're having a meeting, we're getting out there and yeah. I mean, the guys are producing, so it's, whatever's doing work and working and they were producing a lot more than our team that was working twice. There was a meeting twice a week. I'm like, okay, well something must be working.Speaker 3 (30:26):Oh yeah. We, uh, we just finished up our first competition as a company. And it was like a one V one and our top manager that won the whole thing came from pest control. Yeah. He's got his schedule down. He works harder than everyone else because he knows like the another trap we get into with solar is the commissions are so high right now that like, it's so tough to push people, to actually make them produce what numbers you want to see on the board. If they've got any type of limiting mindset with money or they don't need that much. And they don't think about that type of stuff. So we, um, part of our practice when we're bringing people on board is we'll even frame it during the interview process is like kind of this, this problem. We want this person to help us solve, which is like, look, you can make very, very good money coming in and solar to the point where sometimes it can be tough to make people hit the numbers that we expect out of them every month, because you might sell one or two deals and like cover all your bills for the month.Speaker 3 (31:16):So you want to relax, but how does a person that does two sales a month affect the rest of their team that wants to do way more than that could be stretching their personal limits, way higher than we've seen people in our industry do 30 plus a month, you know, like that happens all the time. So if you hire a bunch of people and you don't kind of frame it that way first, um, you can get people kind of caught in this like, oh yeah, I'm good doing one or two sales and you've got kind of this mediocre performance. So yeah,Speaker 2 (31:42):No, that's true. I mean, that's, the act is do two deals and solar. I mean, especially in California, that's still like decent money.Speaker 3 (31:49):Yeah. You might be doing better than anyone in your family has ever done. And you're only selling two accounts. So like if you're pulling someone in, that's not from our industry and they're doing two accounts a month, they think they're winning. You think that they're, uh, you know, time suck on the rest of your team. So you got to kind of figure out how to like reconcile that early on to make sure that person knows what you expect out of them. And can, you know, if they've got some limiting mindset there, you're working with them on that, that's kind of another step to helping people stay longer term is kind of getting them in the frame of mind. Like, no, I, I may be doing way better than the rest of my family, but doing two deals a month. Like I could, now that I know this skill, I can be doing 6, 10, 15, whatever. So, um, getting people kind of in that number mindset versus the money, one is big too. Yeah,Speaker 2 (32:33):I would agree. And yeah, I think it's good to bring to that point to bring people from the other industries. Because like, for me, I, I saw it on myself. I was like getting lazier and lazier for awhile just because we're guys that were just pretty much in pure soul where we weren't bringing any whales that had been in like Pesan show alarms. And so we're good with our three, four hours knocking a day and, you know, just closing her maybe two or three deals a week tops and yeah, it was good money and everything. But then once I recently, once we have did this, like merger as Tony about with Jason newbie's team, got to these alarm guys, a lot of them were working on alarm schedule, like 6, 7, 8 hours of knocking. And then, and then they're closing 30 plus deals a week. A few of them I'm like, whoa, like this is possible.Speaker 2 (33:18):And solar guys can do this much. So I think it's a, I think it's a good idea to be bringing in people that are fresh that don't know that, that don't kind of like have that lazy solar mindset. Cause in my opinion, like, um, I've seen guys that are coming from different industries or guys there may be new. Um, a lot of times they're having more success than recruiting from like other solar companies, because a lot of these other like no offense to a lot of these companies, but they have a lot of lazy reps that are used to closing, you know, one or one or two deals maybe tops a week. So, uh, yeah, I think I liked that a lot.Speaker 3 (33:54):That was kind of like, you know, I was fortunate enough to work at some of the bigger companies and pull some lessons from there. So whether I'm working with a smaller company and mid whatever, like a big, a big thing has been the pattern with the top performing companies is they expect high performance all the way through their leadership stack. A lot of times you'll, you know, you could recruit someone into a smaller dealer, um, and they've done well in the past. You want to put them at this really high level. You're either bringing them in as like a DM, maybe a regional, maybe a director. And they're like, cool. I want to come in. And this is what I'm going to do. But by the way, I'm not going to knock doors. And if they go that route, like again, I saw some of the craziest performance of my life in solar, just being at Viven and those guys all the way up through the director level, like they could be managing hundreds of reps under them and they're still expecting to hit some of the highest levels of production in the industry and leading from the front.Speaker 3 (34:46):They're like a lot of times we will get into management and you start to get sucked into the reporting and the hiring and firing and territory management and all that other stuff. And you, and you forget how high priority you should be, um, putting, actually knocking and showing up for your team, but by far and away say the biggest pattern is like you see managers, um, able to bring teams on and have them perform at a much higher level of they are leading the charge.Speaker 2 (35:11):Yeah, I agree for sure. And say, I speak in a culture. Um, I know that was, you probably, uh, learned a ton as you were, um, helping them like Vivid Solar things. And I know that's part of, we talked about a door to door con too. Um, but you also mentioned like, I think you were saying smaller companies shouldn't necessarily try to do all the things that the big dogs are doing, like the vivid soldiers of the, of the world and that and all that. So what do you see? I don't know, say you're a small company. How should the culture be different? Like in a big company, how much of what they're seeing Vivint solar and all these companies that are having a ton of success? What th what should they try and take from that? And I don't know, maybe what are some things that didn't work that you saw that companies were trying to take from these big cultures that were super successful?Speaker 3 (35:56):Oh my gosh. That's such a good question. Um, I think a big one was the way that you're spending your money to build your culture. So I think the two metrics that matter in culture are increasing your repor tension. How long are people staying? How well are they doing? And then the per rep average. So if my reps are producing two sales a month on average, can I get that to a three or four or higher? Okay. And, uh, and so I see companies, you know, especially sometimes I do my like competition training and people get all jacked up about getting into doing a competition and, um, the way you could spend $10,000 on a competition and have it be the best thing that's ever happened to your business, or you could do it and it could be a total flop. You might not get any extra sales.Speaker 3 (36:38):Yeah. So I think it's, um, figuring out how to spend your money, not just to like check off all the boxes of like, I've got the fancy things, I've got a competition where someone can like win a razor and all that kind of stuff like this high level stuff. Um, you can spend a lot less money, but gain some of the lessons from that, like, you know, motivating reps through a competition, for example, um, the way Vivian is going to handle a competition with, um, they're, you know, really flashy launch videos, really big flashy prizes, all of that stuff, you know, podcasts and video casts on like all of the people that won last year, bringing them on trash, talking like this whole thing. Um, there's a bootstrap version of that that I think can happen, um, for companies at a lower level, but like a lot of what goes into making an amazing competition can just be you hyping it up ahead of time as a manager, you knowing what the rules are and the prizes, and like letting your reps know that, um, a month in advance, maybe sometimes more letting them kind of prepare, you know, if I've got a four or five week competition coming up, um, I would launch it to my sales reps in enough time where they can move, um, obligations that they might have if someone's got, you know, I'll, I'll roll out my schedule at the beginning of the year.Speaker 3 (37:49):Most companies should do that so that their reps can kind of plan out for sure. Yeah. So if I know, like I know the main competitions I want to do, and then maybe I'll have like one or two months where it's a little bit light and offices can do their competitions. If I do that, that allows, uh, your sales reps to not have to sacrifice family time for work time. They can plan their family time around the times and the seasons where you're going to do like high level competitions. So literally just scheduling your competition's a little bit different, like that could double the production you get from one versus spending a crap ton of money on the prizes.Speaker 2 (38:23):Mm genius. I love that. Yeah. Cause most, yeah, you probably see that a lot, but like guys tomorrow we're doing a competition tournament tomorrow starts tomorrow, getSpeaker 3 (38:35):Ready. Yeah. And then like reps will go like a week without knowing their numbers in it. And they're like, Hey, what's the score? And you're like, crap. I keep forgetting to do that. And like, finally you do it. And you just like text the numbers into the group chat. Like it's not even on a graphic or anything. So, um, so yeah, like just hyping it ahead of time, setting up the rules, allowing everyone to clear their schedule, um, tracking and hyping up the numbers and what's happening during a competition, like in, as life-time, as you can to give them those updates. All of that generates that kind of competitive nature that you're looking to get out of your sales reps, that in and of itself is going to help them kind of break past their previous limits and perform way better during competitions. Um, but that was one thing I noticed at, at Vivian.Speaker 3 (39:17):I think this is a cool principle across the board. We did not make significantly more money because of the competitions we put into place, pretty big budgets for it. We would see a really big volume pop. Um, and then you'd see kind of this dip afterwards as everyone kind of relaxes. And you want to make sure that rise always kind of supersedes the dip that comes after, but even if it does, like the one thing we saw was no matter what happened at the end of the competition, the per rep average is kind of what went up. So we would see sales reps that previously had maybe had their best week of being four or five sales. Now they're doing 10 plus sales in a week and they didn't even realize that was possible for themselves. So reps are all setting this new personal record with themselves or a new personal record that they now have, you know, manager, the office just did 30 that month. Now they know it's possible. So you're kind of raising the limit in competitions to show everyone what they're capable of, which hopefully then you can kind of sustain that afterwards. And that's like, I think that's the target with competition. So how can I, what, what practices, or what way can I structure this competition in a way that's going to allow my sales reps to raise the personal limit they have on the number of sales they think they can do.Speaker 2 (40:26):Yeah. I love that. That's a massive, um, yeah, but no, it's just reminds me of, uh, my first company I was with, um, it seemed like every single competition we had, I had like some trips scheduled with my family or whatever. They would like schedule months in advance and they rolled it out like the next week or whatever. I'm like, all right, well, I'm not going to try that hard because I already know I have this like, scheduledSpeaker 3 (40:49):Exactly. That's so if you could like prevent that stuff and it changes everything.Speaker 2 (40:54):I don't know. So that's not, I think that's a huge takeaway. Um, so sweet. And so Alex, um, I know we don't have all day here, but the last thing I kind of wanted to ask, pick your brain about is just with recruiting. Um, you guys said you're, uh, you have a team of 110 reps or so right now at true power. Yep. Okay. And so you did a merger. How many reps did you have, like when you first started with that merger, has it stayed the same or have you built the team a lot since you like started the company or merged?Speaker 3 (41:23):Yeah, I mean, and I know you're kind of going through this too, uh, merging multiple cultures and systems and everything together, um, has probably been one of the most fun challenges I've had in the industry so far. Um, we're fortunate enough to have a lot of people putting their egos aside to combine leadership. You know, we've got an awesome team. Um, we started out, uh, probably trying to think how many sales reps we had. We probably had a hundred total, but active, I'd say it was probably close to like 60 or 70, um, reps that we had. And we've had some big new hire classes, but, you know, even coming from this is the area of door to drive, decided to become an expert in, um, still retention is tough. So we've kind of gone back and forth. You know, we've had big classes, we've lost some people we've changed our practices a lot. So, um, yeah, we've been able to, we've been able to grow quite a bit, but by far and away, the biggest thing that's made a difference, I think is establishing some better systems to get like our mid-level reps, um, understanding, expectations, getting support to become better and like figure out how they can kind of level up. We rolled out a mentor program, which I think is big. Um, so that is essentially, it's something Brandon I've used in the past with companiesSpeaker 2 (42:39):Legacy does too, right?Speaker 3 (42:41):Yes. Yeah. Similar. So essentially what we wanted to do was along with that statistic of let's get people to five or more sales within 60 days. Um, if you are just alone manager or you're a small company, you might have only one person that can get all of your new hires past that learning curve. Like it's just that one manager. Yeah. So, um, if that's what you're doing, you're kind of limited to only being able to bring on enough people where that person can actually truly give the amount of attention that they need to, to all of their new hires at one time to get them past the curve. So, um, rolling out something like the mentor program, essentially the mentor role as this new, uh, position in leadership where you're not quite a manager yet, but it's kind of the first step towards it.Speaker 3 (43:21):So, um, you can, as long as you're, you know, we've got some performance requirements, but as long as you're a good, uh, kind of conduit of our culture, you understand our processes well enough. Um, this person is now going to be mentor to a new hire coming in as a mentee. And their goal is to get that mentee to five sales in 60 days. Okay. Um, so we, we do like an incentive. If anyone gets to seven sales, we'll do a rookie trip for them. So they want to get their mentees to seven sales. And then we also incentivize our mentors for that. So, um, if we have mentees hitting that, they get to go on this trip as mentors get more and more of their reps through to those higher levels, we've kind of gameified it. So we've got like, you know, scoreboards and calls with just our mentors where we can kind of work a hundred percent on focusing on that new rep experience. So that's been like, you know, we, we knew that was, uh, needed to be a focus coming in. We had some big classes, we lost a bunch of people. So now we've really like doubled down on that for the fall. Yeah.Speaker 2 (44:17):That's awesome. And yeah, you mentioned you guys do like a bootcamp, right? So you're bringing in like a big, like, I guess a new class of people, almost like a university class or something. Right. I'd get them all trained a little bit. And how are you, uh, for you guys, what's your like, system on recruiting? How you guys recruiting now in yourSpeaker 3 (44:35):Good question? So, um, it's kind of twofold. Uh, Brandon Hall, my husband is our CEO and he's made his career around becoming an expert in recruiting. So, um, he's both working on personal recruiting culture within the business, but a big thing too, is how can you, how can you succeed at bringing in web applicants and, um, help them have the same experience you would if they were personal recruits? So we all know if we bring in a personal recruit, that person is way more likely to stay than a web applicant. A lot of that's just because of the ties they have in the business, the community, they feel like they have, like, they feel like they know someone that can support them, whether the person that recruited them as good at selling or not, it's just a person they can talk to if they need it.Speaker 3 (45:14):Right. Um, so just having some of those elements, so that's kind of why that's some of the reason we put the mentor program into place was like, you can bring on a ton of web applicants. Anyone can figure out how to crack the code on indeed and get enough resumes coming through. It's really a numbers game there. Um, but you know, there's plenty of tactics we do in our interviews to make sure people have their mindset shaped into. Um, I, I know what to expect. This is a very legitimate company. I don't want to let them down. A lot of times we'll go into, uh, people in our industry will go into interviews and you sound like you are recruiting for an MLM. It's just like, you're going to do so great, bro. Like, you're going to kill it. Like I know you're going to make over six figures this year.Speaker 3 (45:50):Like I can't wait to be there for it, blah, blah, blah. So you do that. And then someone's coming on board, like dang, like that guy would have hired probably anyone with a pulse. So let's see how this first day goes. So if you have someone with that mentality coming in versus holy crap, I'm so lucky to have this opportunity. I do not want to let this company down, like I'm going to come in here and kill it. Just that mentality going into bootcamp is totally different. So we definitely shape our interviews around people having that mentality, kind of coming out of it and into our bootcamp. And then we just make sure that we are providing the experience that they would get as if they were a personal recruit. So that's where they get their mentor. They meet that person before they come on board.Speaker 3 (46:28):Um, so, you know, first time they walk into a corelation room, they already know, at least that one person is going to come over and chat with them and sit with them and stuff. So it's just all those little things to help someone feel like they're, um, integrating into your team's culture quicker. If you have someone that's kind of out on an island because you don't have the time to help them as a manager, no one else can come in and shadow them. Like I think that, you know, that can be a big, uh, the first week is so important for new hires. If you are giving them like polos that are two sizes too big and having a stain on it, cause you take it from a rep that left and like, you don't have a badge prepared for them. And then you're like, Hey Frank, can you, uh, can you have this new guy shadow you? And he's like, no, dude, sorry. Like I was going to go do this, this and this. Isn't going to do it. And you're like, crap. Uh, well what about you? Can you shadow this guy? And everyone's like, no, man, sorry, I can't do it. Like now you're stuck with this reps that like, dude, like, how am I going to get trained here? So, uh, so it's just having those little things organized ahead of time. Can make such a big difference for your new hires.Speaker 2 (47:24):It's funny. That's what happensSpeaker 3 (47:26):All the time. Like, you know, when you, I mean, I, if you've ever had like a new hire come into your bootcamp, like wearing like a three-piece suit or anything, but I'd totally have that. And you're like, dude, that's my bad that I did not. I should have told you that you don't wear that to your first day, but it's moments like that where someone walks in and they're like, I'm in the wrong place. I don't know what I'm doing here. And it's like that mind, like that little mental story, they start to tell themselves if you can keep that from happening, keep them on the positive. Even with those little, little things, it makes such a big difference.Speaker 2 (47:53):Uh, no. Yeah. There's, it's funny. I've been with previous companies do where they bring in these indeed recruits and they're like, they had an interview and everything and they show up to the meet and they're like, oh wait, this is door knocking. We have to knock doors. That's like a, yeah, they don't take that in the interview. I go, no, I guess I'll come Che.Speaker 3 (48:11):Yeah. And it's such an art to talking about door knocking in interviews. Um, because you know, some companies like the mentality of, they'll just be like, yo, this is door to door. Are you cool with that? And then they'll scare away anyone that isn't okay with it. And then anyone that is like, perfect. I've weeded out the week kind of thing. Yeah. I think that mentality, you're losing a ton of people that could be open to it. Just because door to door kind of carries a negative connotation if you don't understand our industry. Um, but if you are talking through parts of the job where like, you know, we're super picky with who we bring on board and we care a lot about making sure this person's aligned with our culture and our business and what we're trying to accomplish here. And you know, you, and most of the rest of the team, you guys are going to spend a lot of your time outdoors.Speaker 3 (48:54):Uh, you're going to be out in neighborhoods because we need to make sure people are qualified for solar. So that means you need to see what their roof looks like, see what their house looks like, make sure they've got the right meter. There's all of these in-person elements to it. So you're going to be outside dealing with homeowners, kinda like that on a daily basis. So, you know, that being said, um, do you have any problems with like extreme weather or whatever you good being outside in the rain? And then P you basically just said, it's door to door. You're gonna be out in neighborhoods. You're talking to homeowners, you're in person, blah, blah, blah. You're qualifying them. Right. But you didn't say the phrase door to door to start the pitch. So then people are like, no, no, I'm totally cool with that. Like, oh, I love the heat.Speaker 3 (49:30):I love the cold. Like, whatever. They'll say these things to convince you, like, no, no, please hire me. Like, I'm still the, I wanna, I want to work with you. So they're convincing you to hire them in that instance. And then later on, like, as you, you can keep talking, you know, day in the life and get into how it store to door and talk about your culture. Now it's a little bit less of a blow, right? Like if you just come out and be like, Hey, this is a door to door position. Are you cool with that? You're going to weed out. A lot of people that would have said no in that instance, but could have said yes, if you framed it a little bit differently,Speaker 2 (49:58):It's almost like in California, how you can't really start at the door saying, I'm saying I'm selling solar doors that had like sneak your way around at first, get them to buy into that. They want to save money on energy and all that. And then the, how we do that as solar. Exactly. Similar thing. Well, that's awesome, Alex. No, some great ideas you've given us today. And for our, for our listeners kind of last question I wanted to ask you before we wrap up here, um, all, a lot of small companies, they don't have this role of someone like you. It's like super great at organizing. That's helping all put all these systems together and things like that. We didn't get one until pretty recently, actually in our company it's helped a ton. So how do you suggest people that's traditional door to door? Just like, I don't know, like manager, the sales reps a lot of times and then company owner. So what would you suggest to people that are, maybe they're struggling with all this management stuff and setting up the systems and they're hearing all these things right now and I go, dang, how do they bring someone on to implement all this, all these ideas Alex has given us all this, a fire she's spent and how do we implement these things? So what would you say to those companies that's want to like have help with getting someone that's more organized like that?Speaker 3 (51:09):Yeah. Good question. Um, I guess there's a couple ways you could do it depending on your circumstance. I'd say, um, you could bring in someone that either has experience on the doors and is just not doing well in your company. Similar, you know, I had the opportunity to, I was about to leave. I was able to take this opportunity instead. Um, you could pull someone in, you could even hire, I mean, a lot of this could be an hourly type of role, but like I would say the first, first position, which would totally pay for itself is bringing someone in to work on like new hire experience, help the recruiting process, flow into the onboarding, help that person get to their first sale. So, um, you could hire someone for that role and have that really be your focus. And then you will again have that person pay for themselves many times over.Speaker 3 (51:54):So then that new cashflow can kind of help you build out that little department if you want. Um, or I would kind of split it up amongst your management. So even if he didn't have anybody focusing on this system, um, and you just had, you know, a manager that was really focused on the interviewing process and the training, like boot camp type of training, and then you assigned yourself one or two mentors within your org that were going to help out with this new hire experience. I think that is really the most important. So you could, um, you know, I'd say first step, if you don't have any other leaders is identify people in your org that you would want to pull into a mentorship type of position. You don't need to give up any override or anything. This is just, they can be incentivized based on just getting a little portion of those first few sales, um, and kind of gamifying that. So I'd bring in your mentors and then I would start to implement some of the little systems, like a lot of this isn't super time-consuming, you're probably already doing interviews. You might just need to change the way you're interviewing. You are probably already doing a bootcamp and already trying to get them out to shadow. You just could tweak the way that you're running that system a little bit. So you're spending the same amount of time. You're just doing everything a little bit better. Yeah.Speaker 2 (52:58):Yeah. It's huge. So yeah, for all our listeners definitely consider bringing on someone like that. Um, if you're like a lot of company owners, um, if you're like myself, a lot of us are super disorganized and we need someone like Alex, I wish we could just clone Alex like 50 times and send her to every company, but you can't so listen to this podcast and then get someone to help you with that, I think is a huge key to growing and, uh, retention like Alex was talking about. So Alex, before we say goodbye here, where can people connect with you? And, um, I dunno, say what's up and thank you for coming on the show and reach out and all that.Speaker 3 (53:30):Yeah, of course. Um, so my Instagram handle is I am Alexandra hall, so you can find me on there. Um, we've got a little women's page too called soul sisters. So you can find that on Instagram too. It's Sol short for soliciting, kinda my little, a girls group. We're getting off the ground. Cool. And then, um, you know, feel free to reach out, um, Instagram, DMS. What have you, however, you guys can find me, um, for the right circumstances. I take on a couple of mentees here and there, a couple of consulting clients. So if it's the right circumstances, I'm happy to help, but yeah, feel free to reach out,Speaker 2 (54:02):Love it. So reach out to Alex, let her know. You're grateful for her coming on the show today. And we had a Suli on recently kind of talking about like the women's side of things, but that's something that I guess I kind of forgot to bring up last, last kind of tip you have with that Alex. What's what you guys said. You have 30%, uh, like female and you're coming here right now. Female reps. Okay.Speaker 3 (54:22):Yeah, we've got quite a few and I think a big two big contributors. Number one is our male leadership, um, has been very open to it. Like they are willing to do what it takes. They want to bring on more women. They see women having success in the industry. Um, so then just like even before I was working directly with them, they were reaching out to me while I was at D two D experts asking, you know, how, how can we provide a better culture for them? Like what do we need to do to provide the best environment? And then I think the second piece of it is how you build that environment. So we are already shifting, like it is happening in every company right now, where we're shifting away from just caring about maybe stronger masculine traits in the workplace. And we care a little bit more about some things that are traditionally feminine.Speaker 3 (55:04):We care more about good communication between people being capable of like, uh, understanding, controlling, sharing your emotions, like emotional intelligence, um, having empathy for your coworkers. Like all of those things are kind of more traditionally feminine traits, like healthy, feminine traits, um, workplace are already going towards that. So I think something that we're doing is figuring out how do we just integrate these two things into a great balance. That's healthy for everybody versus, you know, some things I've seen with, um, uh, more of kind of this feminist movement is like, screw the patriarchy, like it's us versus them. And like that anger is never going to get anybody anywhere. Um, so I don't think it's not, don't completely like, you know, change everything you're doing to just bring on this little girl group and have them be totally separate figure out. How can you change the way that you guys are handling your day to day in a way that kinda, um, recognizes and rewards healthy traits on kind of both sides of the fence that you've got that good balanced culture and you're building that environment. That's great for everybody. Yeah.Speaker 2 (56:02):I love it. So, uh, Alex, thanks again for all the tips you shared with us today, um, go hit her up, let her know your thing. You are thankful for her coming on the show and, uh, yeah. Let us know if there's anything we can do for you, Alex, but thanks again for coming today. ThanksSpeaker 3 (56:17):For having me on,Speaker 2 (56:18):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit Solciety.co now! 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 up Solarpreneurs? Taylor Armstrong back with another episode here to make your life as a solar professional, more profitable, easier to do and more enjoyable. So if I can do even a fraction of that, you're welcome. Just kidding, but really that's what we're aiming to do. And hopefully we make it a lot easier for you to close more deals, get more referrals and have success in this awesome industry. But today I want to basically tell a little story, something that happened to me recently, that I think a lot of you, the listeners can learn some lessons from a big mistake I made. So I'm going to go through that story. But first, before I get to that, just wanted to give a shout out to, um, my boys over at, uh, knock star university. If you haven't checked out a knock star, it is a six week program I'm going through right now and they do.Speaker 2 (01:40):It's really cool. They have a competition for six weeks. They put you in a seating round, then they do weekly trainings. So if you're looking for some extra training for you or your team, um, great resources guys have over there, I'm going through it. And also just wanted to throw out a little teaser. We're also working on something super exciting that has to do is training. Uh, can't spill the details yet, but is going to be releasing very soon here. And I'm super stoked when it does to go over more details, but you can't say anything I want to, um, anyway, just a couple of quick shout outs for those that are looking for more trainings, go check out and rockstar. Um, so the story I have what's going on is, um, this is basically just to illustrate to you guys, what can go wrong with an account?Speaker 2 (02:36):The title is episode is called how I made negative $563 on a solar install. And I'm in San Diego. So especially people are familiar with the California market. You're probably thinking like, what, how do you make negative dollars on a account? Like people out here are making a thousand, 2000 at ridiculous amounts. I mean, guys are making 20, 30 grand on single accounts, even I've heard. Hey, so how can someone go to make making ridiculous money to making negative on an account? I couldn't believe it when happen to me. And I don't think I'm the first person that it's happened to. So I want to go through the mistakes I made with this particular account and hopefully help you guys avoid the same mistakes. So here's what happened in this. First of all, this was back about seven months ago, I get an online lead a which if you're not running on lane leads, why not?Speaker 2 (03:40):You should be running online leads. You should be knocking, should be getting leads from all sources. Okay. That's for another episode though, I was running an online leads that I get a lead. It's a solid lead. I go, um, set it up for next day appointment. I go, we're sitting outside. I find out it's actually a home that's hasn't been moved into yet. The dude had been renting it out and he was gonna move in with his family in the next few months is what he told me at the time. Okay. Um, unfortunately it didn't work out exactly how this guy was saying. Um, but I ended up closing the deal, um, closed it's a little bit higher. So I thought I was going to make an awesome commission on it, but here's the kicker with this account. This guy, before he moved in, he was doing a ton of remodeling on the house and he wanted to get a new roof along with this solar.Speaker 2 (04:37):And at the time I had just started working for, um, the dealer that I'm with now. I wasn't super familiar with their processes and S uh, their roofers. I didn't know exactly how you did a deal with a roof over there. This is the first deal I had. First, our roof solar combine had done with the new dealer. So I call, um, our office and I kind asked him how to do this. And I'm in the heat of the moment, which you guys should all try to close deals as quick, you know, quick as possible, not want to leave them hanging. Don't want to leave loose threads. So I'm like, all right, I'm just going to get this closed. Um, but tell me about what to price it out so we can be good to throw a roof in there because here we can, just, even if we don't have to necessarily add a roofing to the financing, you just price it high enough.Speaker 2 (05:27):We can pay for a roof with the commission is what we do a lot of times just price it high, make so much that you pay for a roof with it. So I price it pretty high. I think I'm okay. I'll be good. Pay for a roof with this. And I can figure out the details later. Right? And we were working with a roofer. His name was Juan, and he got us really good prices on roofs. So especially knowing about this guy, I'm like, okay, yeah, Juan's going to hook us up with an awesome deal. I'm going to have plenty in the commission to pay for all this. We'll be good to go. So fast forward, um, several months down the road, one does the roof and then the installer goes to install up there and they put up the system, they actually do the install.Speaker 2 (06:19):Okay. But the first problem that we encounter with as account is I get a call from the customer actually, after they had already installed the solar, they didn't do a full installation, which I'll get to in a second, they did a personal install and I get a call from the customer and the customer says, Hey, Taylor, um, I see that you didn't put gutters on with my roof. Um, you guys need to come finish up the gutters. And I'm like, okay. Yeah, I'll look into that. So I call Juan or roofer and he says, oh, I don't do gutters. The gutters that they had up there, they're rotting. They're just causing all sorts of problem when I was trying to do their new roof. So I had to take them off. So yeah, they're in the dumpster now we can't use those gutters and I don't do gutters.Speaker 2 (07:05):That's a separate thing. So I'm like, okay. So I actually don't know. Maybe some, maybe some of you listeners can tell me is that normally included with risks. I actually don't even know, but I took one's word with that. I'm like, okay. So I call the customer in, say, a Mr. His name was, uh, Z. His name was, uh, he was like middle Eastern. So he had a tricky name. So I just call him Z. I'm like, Casey, they actually didn't do your gutters because that's not included. That's going to be separate. Do you want to pay for it? And at that point, when the customer heard me even say that he was going to have to pay for something, this guy flipped the lid. He's like, are you kidding me? That is included with a roofing project. That is part of the project. I am not there on some expletives in there.Speaker 2 (07:57):So I am not paying for a roof. I'm not paying extra to put gutters in with my project, just super free. It's not listening to me, wouldn't have anything to do with it. And the good news is that he had solar on his roof. But, um, what ended up happening is we did a partial install on his home and with his other projects he was doing, he was adding like a wall around his property. And I don't know the full details on this, but the wall that he was building somehow interfered with us, being able to put, um, just the box for the inverter down by his electric panel. So we couldn't finish the installation because we are waiting for his other contractors to finish this wall. So the good news is he already had solar up there. So in my head, I'm thinking, okay, well, he can't cancel or anything.Speaker 2 (08:54):He has solar up there. So he can't cancel the project or say he doesn't want it anymore. Even though that's actually what he's threatening to do, saying I'm going to cancel. If you guys don't finish this. So it was calm from out that, but then the issue we ran into is we couldn't complete this installation. He needed to finish the other wall. Um, so what happened is he started using this as leverage. Basically he knew that he needed to finish the wall. So his, his side now was all, I'm not going to finish the wall until you guys come get my gutters from, come fix my gutters. So we were just locked in, essentially, it's still meat. I mean, we had leverage against him cause the solar is up there, but his leverage was, I'm not putting this wall in until you guys around. I'm not repairing this wall, whatever needed to be done until you guys come in, put the gutters up.Speaker 2 (09:49):So it turned into that, just a big nightmare. And the other issue is we had already actually paid one to do the roof. So Juan is paid. He's happy, he's taken care of. But in the meantime, our, you know, dealer is fronted all this money to pay one. And rather than just being locked into the stalemate, um, our office made the decision to just go ahead and pay for these gutters. So we hire another contractor. We pay the gutters, they come up and do it. That's that. And then I didn't really think anything of it until I see in my bank account. I see finally, after six, seven months find the I'm getting paid on this account about freaking time. It's been so long, been months and months and months, which we all hate waiting for. Installs. We all hate, we need to get paid on. Installs sucks. Have to wait, but find the AC it come in commission for Z. And then I look at it and this time it says 300, I think it says 300 something. I'm like, oh my gosh, 300 bucks. That's it.Speaker 2 (11:10):So you're probably asking, wait, didn't you say you got paid a negative amount on this account. So yeah, it gets worse. What happened was I got paid 301st, but then I, as time goes on, about two weeks after I got paid this 300 bucks, we get another message from the customer saying, Hey, you guys forgot to do you didn't do the back part of my gutters. You only did the front. You need to come back and do it. And our team schedules this. And by the way, I didn't really, at this point, I didn't really know what was going on behind the scenes. So, um, lock of communication and I'll get to the mistakes after this, but definitely like communication and our team just goes ahead and schedules the back gutters to be done. Not really thinking much of it. And we get this customer taken care of, but guess what?Speaker 2 (12:08):We get a bill from the contractor. We paid, I think 1500 for the gutters. Okay. Which again, I thought, you know, all this was included. Um, I thought all this was paid. I'm like, okay, 300 bucks. This is ridiculous. But then it gets worse. We end up, oh, extra money on the account. And yeah, that's why I say negative 500, whatever. It was 563 is because what happened was after we paid this contract and do the back cutters. Yeah. I am being now charge back money plus some, and this isn't even all that we owed on it. I mean, luckily our office is kind enough to front some of the money, but there's faults on both sides. Okay. So more or less moral of the story, there were a ton of mistakes made and I'm going to break down a few of them. And if you have a story like this, I'd love to hear it.Speaker 2 (13:11):Shoot me a message on Facebook, Instagram, whatever. Shoot me a message. Let me know if you've had anything like this happen to you before, but first of all, number one, know how much your roof is going to cost you. All right. Like I mentioned, at the beginning, I had no idea that the roof was going to be, um, well, as much as it was, this one was more than I was thinking we were using Juan or roofer. Okay. And here's the second mistake made is make sure you're working with quality contractors. Hey, because one, he was a great guy, but what we find out later, we actually found out one wasn't even licensed. Okay. That's why we're getting such good prices on his roofs. This guy wasn't even licensed and maybe you're fine working without a licensed roofer. Okay. Probably not in most of most cases, but if you are, um, or whatever the case may be, make sure that customer is in some type of an agreement with the roofer.Speaker 2 (14:19):Kay. And you, whatever you do, whether it's you working independently or your company or your office, make sure you're setting these things in place. What's the agreement. What's the standard of quality that you need to work? What can they do? Can they, what can't they do? Cause in our case one, he just ripped off these gutters, threw them in the dumpster. But if we would have had that set in place, what can you work on? What can't you work on? If we would've had that agreement set in place between him and the customer, then it wouldn't cause an issue. Cause guess what? That would have been once issue. He would have been dealing with the angry customer saying, you didn't do my gutters, but what did we do? We just paid it directly out of our profits. And so we had to deal with all these issues.Speaker 2 (15:03):Cause the whole time, I mean, basically the customer hired us to do the work. We just outsourced it. Right. So set some type of agreement in place. What is your roof we're going to do? What are the expectations? You can't just rip off the gutters and then get blamed for it. Right. Have that in place having in place what's going to happen. Okay. And the fourth mistake that was made and make sure your communication is super clear. Again, I mentioned that, um, we had a lot of things being paid for all of the things being scheduled that weren't clear. And a lot of it's my fault because after six, seven months of the same account for me, it got to the point where I'm just like, whatever, just do whatever. I'm not going to look at it. If it gets installed. Great. Um, out here where I'm at, I mean, I'm used to a month, one to two month installs.Speaker 2 (15:57):So after that it starts getting pretty, uh, pretty what's the word? Redundant. Yeah. Pretty redundant stuff to sit and look at these accounts that aren't going through. So make sure you have communication and don't be like me be patient with it and always look at what's going on. Okay. Cause I didn't really look at the updates that were happening with this deal. Cause I just got so tired of it, but it's important to go back and see what happened with it. See what updates were left by your team. We use a sauna personally, just like a, yeah. You know, projects management. I mean you use it for a lot of things, but in the sauna our team members would basically go on leave comments. Hey, we talked to this contract or this happened, this went down and I didn't really look much at what was paid, what happened.Speaker 2 (16:50):So you need to be looking at your team, can communication, whatever you're using, make sure you're in the loop and make sure your team isn't scheduling stuff without your permission. And I, I think I did give him permission, but again, I was just sick and tired of it. So look at what's happening. And then you as the independent contractor, which most of you should be, I highly recommend you being an independent contractor. We're Solarpreneurs. Right. We're building our own businesses. So we're taking control of all this. Okay. But if it's not, you have your having an assistant or have someone that's keeping track of all this stuff because you can't just authorize everything and not know what's been paid, what hasn't been paid. Okay. And messaged me. Um, I know some people have made like spreadsheets to keep track of adders on deals and extra costs because the last thing you want to happen is, and go negative on a deal like this.Speaker 2 (17:47):Okay. And then the last thing is just figure out a resolution with everything. I talked about how we are in a stalemate with this customer. Um, things didn't really come to a resolution, but figure out a solution on both sides. Kay. I was sick of talking to the customer too. I didn't want to hear from them, but yeah, you need to be willing to have those tough conversations with your customers, admit when you've made mistakes and then come to a resolution. Okay. So those are just a couple of things I've learned and still working on being better with complicated accounts, you got to pull out all the guns, you got to be ready for the long fight. Okay. Cause there's some complicated accounts out here, whether they need main panel upgrades, whether they need roof work. I know lots of people, um, especially out here an hour adding in AC units, they're adding and maybe even paying jobs.Speaker 2 (18:49):Um, for, I talked to guys that companies doing all sorts of things at an installation. So point is keep track of all this stuff. Okay. Depending on how your office is set up, it's very likely that you gotta keep track of this. And even if your company is organized, even if you have project managers or managers that are on top of everything, I would suggest still just being in the loop. Okay. Cause that's another thing I know for me, I've been hit with adders and things that our back offices have, uh, has done that aren't weren't right. Either where if I would have been keeping track and things like that when it happened. Okay. So just wanted to share this story. Let me know if something like that's happened to you would love to hear it love to learn from other people's mistakes, but don't get hit with a negative commission. It is the worst feeling in the world in the world and it's definitely a momentum killer. So let me know what you thought of this. Let me know if you liked hearing from the mistake and with that, learn from it. Let's move forward and let's crush it this month. Peace Solarpreneurs.Speaker 3 (20:00):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Visit www.solciety.co now! 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 up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong. Back with another episode here in the studio, hope you're doing well. And as always, we're doing these podcasts to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry. Hopefully we can achieve that for you. So today we're going to get into an episode. I just got back from an event it's called, uh, driven. Um, if you're following me on social media, maybe saw me post about it by great Amanda. So I'm going to recap a few things from that event. Thought there was a lot of speakers that can apply directly to you. Uh, you know, the solar industry and some good takeaways. I got to someone to give you a little recap on a few takeaways. I got that I, I think will benefit everyone listening to this podcast today.Speaker 2 (01:35):Um, before we get into that, we are, uh, approaching how we in here. It is October at the time of this recording. And just remember with October, you are out there and trick or treating for free money. If you're knocking doors and whatever you're doing, really, if you are sending out online ads, if you're getting leads, remember it's just trick or treating, you know, you're just trick or treating out there. So that's the little tip of this month. Make sure you come across with that trick treating mindset, any door you knock thing. All right, I'm going to get my candy today. I'm going to get my dough today. And that's the mindset you got to have. We've had some incredible guests on just got done actually with a podcast. Um, you're going to hear about as soon don't want to spill the beans on it quite yet, but uh, this dude I think set the industry record for most deals closed in a month.Speaker 2 (02:29):He's he coming up on bat here in a couple of weeks as podcasts will drop. So stay tuned for that, but um, just great takeaways I've gotten and it's to have the extreme confidence that you're going to close. Any deal that you walk up to you with, you're going to book any appointment that you S um, you know, any door you knock, you're going to book an appointment with them. Really that's the big key here is people have that extreme confidence. Hey, Andy, I always think of this job like a sport, cause really it's not that much different. The great people in sports have extreme confidence that they're the best that they're achieving. The greatest things that they're the goats. And guess what the great people in the solar industry, they have that exact same mindset. They think they're the best and that's why they're having an extreme success.Speaker 2 (03:18):So to remember that just fresh on my mind as I get out of this podcast interview. So let's jump into this event, takeaway that I had and the main takeaways I'm going to given you are from Andy Frisella okay. If you haven't listened to my podcast on 75 hard, that was few months ago. Go check that out. And I would invite all of our listeners to go try 75 hard. If you haven't, it's going to get your brain on a different level, as far as thinking and breaking past limitations. So Andy Frisella, if you don't know him, just give a little background. He started a supplement company called first forum. That's formed with P H O R M and now he speaks on just kind of like politics. He's not like a politician like speak or whatever, but he just, um, believe deeply that our country's heading in the wrong directions.Speaker 2 (04:08):So that's what his podcast is focused on. Now it's called real AEF. So another highly recommended podcast, but he just has that hustle mindset. And he's, you know, tons of people listens. I think he has like the top business podcast. It's been the top business podcasts for years and he has just a mindset that I think can apply to our industry, um, and sells directly. He's been at for a long time. So he's one of the speakers I liked. This event is called driven. It's put on by Albert [inaudible] and for the event, review is a great event. The speakers world was probably one of the best speakers lineup I have ever seen at an event. Um, Albert, I will say, I'm not a huge fan of, uh, Albert Sophie's listening to this, then I apologize, but, um, didn't love his speaking, but he did bring a lot of Latino audience to the event.Speaker 2 (05:02):He's a Mexican and, and that was a big focus of his talk is that he had success being a Mexican and I'm like, dude, anyone can have success. It doesn't matter what race you are. I know there's limitations. But, um, anyways, that overall was a great event. And as always, always be looking for ways you can level up events, I think are one of the best ways is networking with other people and then learning from amazing speakers like this. So I want to jump into a few of these takeaways. You're going to be a quicker episode, but Andy Frisella, he just talked on basically that mindset. You need to have to push past your limitations and he gave five tips. I'm going to be given examples that we can use in the solar industry on this podcast today. And then just think about how can you apply these things in your life, in all areas, because what he talked about, it applies to everything.Speaker 2 (05:55):And that's why when we highlighting Frisella in specific, um, just because I thought it's most applicable and most takeaways I got that I can go do these things in change my results today, especially when it comes to solar sales. And then number two, cause he is actually, um, I guess I shouldn't say this, um, prematurely, but if he is hopefully coming on the podcast soon, so stay tuned for that. And um, that's line work, working out the details. So don't quote me on it yet, but I got a verbal confirmation. Hey Andy, for sale, it's going to be sick. Okay. So the first takeaway and first point he made is make sure you call your mind to your purpose, make sure you know where you want to go. And this mistake I realize I've been making right now, I've got a lot going on. I've got the podcasts, we're launching our society training platform.Speaker 2 (06:49):We're making some huge changes to that coming up very soon. So a lot of work with that. And then I realized that I lose. I've lost focus on really how many deals do I want to be closing a month? What's my purpose. Hey, what, what do I want to be doing with the money I'm making in solar? And one of my goals, favorite month, I've lost purpose. And I've lost really sight on the clarity that I used to have in solar. So I want to remind, especially the people that have been in solar for a while, make sure that you call your mind your purpose. Make sure you remember what, what's my crystal clear goal. What do I want to do with the money I'm making? And um, just remind yourself why you're doing it. Vision boards are a great way to do that. We talked about it before, but put your goal on your mirror, put it somewhere you can see and then remind yourself of that.Speaker 2 (07:41):Okay? Cause I go month after month, I've been in this industry, well almost six years now. And at this point, sometimes it gets easy for me. Am I okay? I'm just going to close. I'm just going to go for a couple of deals this week, where the guys that are having extreme success, they know, okay, this month I'm going to close 15 deals and here's what I'm going to do with that money I'm making, here's the investment I'm going to make. Make sure you have that type of clarity. And then number two, Andy talked about make up your mind that rules are set in stone. So he's in me. What does he mean by this? Basically just doing the hard things, even when you don't want to do them so we can apply this, especially when it comes to solar. Um, if we're out there on the doors knocking doors for trying to get in a specific amount of duels for trying to hit a specific amount of hours, what's the minimum.Speaker 2 (08:33):What's the minimum thing that you're going to let that you're going to do this today. Right? How many hours are you going to work minimum? So make sure you have, as a rule, that's set in stone for me, we recently did. We're going to knock, um, eat no matter how many deals we have that day, we recently started talking about at our company, okay, we're going to 15 doors minimum. Even if we have, I don't know, five, six deals that day five, six appointments. We're still going to go out and we're going to hit our 15 doors. Okay. So something like that. What's your non-negotiable what thing are you going to do? No matter what's maybe it's, you're going to follow up with five people no matter what every day. So set something in stone and make sure you do it in Andy. What I thought was really cool.Speaker 2 (09:21):He talked about when we start to compromise, it leads to complacency and then that complacency, it will lead to lack of confidence, which will eventually lead to quitting. And as he said that, I'm like, well, that is why a lot of people have quit in solar because they start compromise. They start compromising the little things that they were supposed to do that day. And then what does that do? Leads the complacency. Ah, I didn't hit, I didn't hit my 15 doors today. Um, yeah, I, I don't have to do that every day. I'll just do it when I'm feeling like it. Then that leads to the lack of confidence. And most people quit after that. Okay. If they don't quit, they're going to start making way less money and selling themselves short. So that was the second point. And then number three, he talked about, get your mind clear on the specific critical tasks that are essential for you.Speaker 2 (10:10):And if anyone follows Andy Frisella, he has something, he calls a powerless. I know he has like a planner. You can go buy a new this, but it was funny. He was talking about his planner. He's like, guys, I don't even have this planner to myself. To be honest, he doesn't even have his own product. He's like, you can do this on a piece of paper in a notebook. And his thing is, write down five critical tasks that must be done to consider your day a win. So I thought that's a great idea for people that maybe you've gotten some bad habits. Maybe you're not clear on what you need to do, do this. And your daily planning, try it, pick out the five things you need to do to consider that data win and all he does at the end of the day, he puts a w next to it.Speaker 2 (10:53):If he got it done, he puts an L next to it. If he lost, if you didn't get it done. And then once you execute a specific task for 21 days, you take it off your list. And at that point, hopefully it's a habit, right? If you miss three days of that thing of that thing, that's helping you win the day. Then that task must go back on the list. So for our Solarpreneurs, think about what five things do you need to do today? What are your five critical tasks? Maybe two, you need to knock the 15 doors. Like I was saying to maybe it's you need to make, um, knocks X amount of doors or talk to X amount of homeowners or get an X amount of appointments. If some of these things, obviously you can control more than others, but think about five things that you can control, the hours you work, the, uh, contacts you make the follow-ups you do.Speaker 2 (11:45):These are all things you can control. So what are things like that? And also, you know, just things that are helping you in your, in your, what are five things you can put on the list and then start to do that. And then you're going to see very clearly if you're winning or losing. So I thought that was a great thing. Something I'm going to start implementing right away. Then number four, he said, intentionally, focus your mind on what you will gain, not what you're giving up. This is a great tip. Just in general, anything you're trying to achieve. If you focus on the things you're giving up, it's gonna make it way harder to have success. He gave the example of like a diet, right? If you focus on, oh, I'm giving up my Twinkies, I'm giving up my Krispy Kreme donuts. I'm giving up my, uh, pizza hut.Speaker 2 (12:30):Like all these things. If you focus on that piece of it, it's gonna make it way harder to have success because your mind is so focused on your mind is gonna want whatever you're thinking about. Right? So if you're thinking about all that junk food, it's going to make it way harder to have success in whatever diet you're trying to be a part of. So that's a good example, but also it applies to sales, right? Um, if I'm out there knocking doors and I have fallen, I know cause I've fallen in this chap. Um, a lot myself is I'm focusing on, oh, I gotta go out and work. If I'm focusing on, oh, I need to knock five hours today. Um, this is going to, it's going to be hot out there. It's going to suck. My legs are going to be tired. All these things, the more attention you give them, the more it gets in your brain.Speaker 2 (13:15):That's no different whether you apply it to a diet, whether you play it to sales, whether you apply it, apply it to closing deals, whatever your mind thinks about that's what's going to happen, right. Law of attraction right there. So, um, consider that as you're outworking today, focus on the good things, right? Oh, I'm going to talk to 20 homeowners out here. That's all I need to do for me. That's a lot easier than I'm going to go out and knock four hours can be hot skin. My legs are going to be tired. Repeat at yourself. This is what affirmations are for. Hey I'm I follow a river Skinner guests we had on the podcast, but he puts out a great pod podcast and great content. He gives, he talks about affirmations or something that helps them all the time. As y'all, as he's out closing deals, he's on the doors.Speaker 2 (14:02):I love myself. I love myself. I love myself. I'm the greatest salesman in the world. All these things. You're going to repeat it verbally. And it's training your mind to think about those things rather than the negatives, right? So that's how you do it. And that's a great key to success as you're out there closing soul retails. And the last point before we wrap up is mentally transform negative emotions into triggers. Hey, and a great book. I would recommend, I think I've mentioned it before, but as the power of habit by Charles Duhigg, he talks about these triggers. Okay. So think about how you can transform the negative into a trigger for the positive. A N Andy said, emotions can't force you to do anything, understand, understand that your emotions are commentators, not commanders. Okay? So even if you feel depressed, overwhelmed, use those as triggers to go out and work harder.Speaker 2 (14:56):And Andy talked about that's how he's had success in all his businesses. Any time he calls him test days, anytime where he felt terrible, he didn't want to go work. He didn't want to push that day. Old days. He pushed even harder because he knew if he could train his brain to push, even when he felt terrible and didn't want to do anything that day, then it's going to make it that much easier when he did feel decent. So go and do it have a test day. We're all going to feel like not knocking doors, where I'm going to feel like not going to that next deal. We're going to feel like we suck, but if we can push past it and do it anyways, that's going to train our brain brain to have success and execute in spite of the negative day. And then go read that book power habits.Speaker 2 (15:41):It's a, if you want to get more in depth on it, Charles, do he, he talks about all the triggers and in our habits and really ways we can set ourselves up for things to be a trigger instead of a hindrance. So that those are some key takeaways. I hope you enjoy those. So I was, um, maybe a little bit over the, all over the place with my notes here, but I thought he had some super powerful things. We can start applying today in the solar industry, my Solarpreneurs. Let me know if you have anything else that helps you on those tough days. Look forward to connecting with you more. That's the episode today, send it to someone that needs help. And that's really what we're trying to do. We're trying to help as many people as possible. So don't forget push hard even when you don't want to.Speaker 2 (16:24):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 Taylor Armstrong, your host here, and we have the first female guest ever on the Solarpreneur podcast. I'm super excited. So we got a Suli Zinck. Can I say your last name? Right. Zinc. Okay, so, so will you, thanks for coming on the show, I'm so excited to finally have a girl knocker on, so appreciate it. Appreciate you coming on,Speaker 3 (01:07):But I'll be honest. Taylor, yours was one. When I was looking into the solar industry, yours is one of the first ones that I like found. And I was like, oh, he there, there's not like a ton of like episodes, not a ton of people. This is definitely where I'm going to start because it's going to be like, he's going to be methodical and he's going to give you tips. And it's exactly been that since like what, when I started listening to you back in November. SoSpeaker 2 (01:32):Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I've been following your podcast too, and your story and, um, pretty amazing stuff. So yeah, I will say we've been, yeah, I've, I think I've scheduled a one or two other girls to come on and both of them like fell through, um, um, one of them, one of them like just no showing me and then like one responds. I'm like, all right, maybe I'm not going to chain get girls on if they do this. So maybe I left kind of bad days, my mother, but yeah. But God, we made it work and no, um, you guys are crushing it with your team and I know there's some powerhouse ladies in the industry, so I think it's important. And actually, I remember now that I think back, I remember one of my like lower reviews on the PA I think it was like three stars or something, but, um, one of the reviews was like, Taylor focuses so much on like guys, Neil, he just says, here's the thing guys. And like, he never brings on me in girl.Speaker 3 (02:27):They was like, that is going to be my one full year. And then we like failure by two of us. Go see.Speaker 2 (02:35):So yeah, that's when I realized, like, I, I gotta be, uh, you know, conscious that the ladies listen to the show and not, you know, just suggest everyone by guys and stuff like that. So glad we're making it happen though. Um, but yeah, so slowly, do you want to maybe get into your story a little bit? I know you just did an awesome interview on the, uh, the door knocker podcasts. So we probably won't go quite as in depth as you went on that podcast. So people go listen to that to you, if you want to hear kind of her full in-depth story, which was awesome. But I, yeah. Do you want to give us just a little bit of the background for people who don't know you on the podcast or?Speaker 3 (03:12):Yeah, so I'm Sui, Juliana, Zuli all the weird games. People call me on the doors, whatever floats your boat. But, um, I started in the door to door industry 13 summers ago. This is my 13th summer. Um, I just came in with like the mindset. If I was going to give up, you know, a good job, I was going to make it count. And I ended up my first summer, I just asked the team, they're like, Hey, what is the number one girl did, uh, how many accounts pest control accounts that she serviced the summer. And, and when he told me it was like three 11, I was like, all right. And, uh, but originally the person who recruited me, it was like, look, if everything fails and sucks, like I'll at least pay for your plane ticket, everything. So at least you had like fun while you're out here.Speaker 3 (03:58):And so those three weeks ended up turning into 13 years. Like later I ended up, uh, that girl had did three, uh, 3 0 9 and I finished with three 16 that summer. And then there was just no turning back for me in the door to door to industry. When I saw that there was just no cap on, on basically, uh, my pay, there's just a cap with companies. And so, um, once I realized that I was like, there's no way that I was going to go to a nine to five. And, um, two summers in, I get married to my husband of 10 years now. And then I recruited him to be my service pro and then I got in trouble for having to be a service pro because I would have him work through his lunch breaks. I would be calling him on Sundays. Like, Hey, we're going to go to these homes. And we're not even supposed to like, is a W2 employee.Speaker 2 (04:55):Like I'm a church, let me go to church.Speaker 3 (04:59):And so my branch manager was like, sweet. You can be doing this. Like, there's, this is, he works for us, not for you. And, and then the following summer, um, I, we had our first kid AMA I knocked until I gave birth to her on the doors, like eight months pregnant and still did more than like my team leader on the team. And it was just no turning back. Like I just, I just have one of those like mindsets. I just feel like I'm a little bit different in the sense, like, I, I I've seen the money. I've seen the success. I've seen what this industry can do. And I just now want to have a lot more women be in the same space.Speaker 2 (05:40):That's incredible. And no, I got mad respect because my wife she's actually, I think, seven months pregnant right now. So, um, yeah, but she's not, she's not moving much. Like I can't even imagine trying to get her out on a door. Yeah. Just imagining that, just blow my mind that you would even, you know, attempt to knock eight months pregnant. Um, so pretty incredible. Yeah. Um, have you, but yeah, I was wondering, have you always been like that competitive because I see, I don't think there's a lot of girls. They're like, oh, what's the, what did the top girl female rap do? And then want to beat it? Is it always just been like super competitive your whole life? Or where did that come from?Speaker 3 (06:22):Yeah. And so that's like one of the tips that I give to like men or people in general and the door to door to industry when they are looking at female reps in the sense of like who they're wanting to recruit, like any woman who's like been in like sports for more than one year, or I've done piano lessons for more than a year have been in karate for more than a year, or have done anything consistent that, that had a little bit of competition for more than a year. Those are definitely the people that definitely the girls that you do want to want to start with. And yeah, I was super competitive period, but, um, it's, it's weird because in the industry, like, I, my husband says it all the time. He's like, you're humble in public, but in private, you're not. And I was like, well, not like, you know, I'm just like, oh, good job. And like, whatever. And I'm like, how did they get right. That's how I have to do that tomorrow or whatever. But yeah. So those are definitely a quality that you want to look in, look for when you're looking for girls to recruit.Speaker 2 (07:24):Yeah. And I bet I can only imagine like Sunday game night at your house, you're gonna have to invite me over to one of those things. That's just likeSpeaker 3 (07:31):Been, and I are not allowed to play games together. We just don't do games because like he doesn't care enough and it bugs me. Like he won't even like compete in like UNO or anything like that. So we just don't do card games.Speaker 2 (07:49):Yeah. I won a competition. That's funny. Yeah. Well you can come next time. You're in San Diego, let us know because me and my wife, we get, we get into it quite a bit. So we'll play monopoly or something.Speaker 3 (08:02):I known to just pop up when people tell me like, Hey, just come over here at any time. I typically just go up.Speaker 2 (08:09):Okay. Well, let's do it. We'd love to have you, but no, that's awesome. So w what was your background? Were you like a sports background then? Or music or?Speaker 3 (08:20):Yeah, so I did soccer for a few years, actually got like a full ride scholarship to go and play soccer. I was just, uh, I played goalie, but I play like Ford. I also did basketball too, but I was like more of like the sucky offense player, but I was going to be like the best defense player. Like typically they were just always calling me just play events, but I wasn't that great of a shooter. I wasn't that great of an athlete. I was just competitive plus all.Speaker 2 (08:47):Yeah. That's awesome. Well, no, that's good. And yeah. I mean any, um, yeah, I think that applies to, you know, girls and anyone with a sports background. Um, yeah, you've probably seen it too, but guys that have like wrestled and done just those like kind of endurance sports too, I think are great at this because especially out on the doors, it's a mental grain, you know, andSpeaker 3 (09:11):Tracking McNeil piano, like anything consistently. Yeah.Speaker 2 (09:15):Yeah. So yeah, definitely a nugget right there as you're recruiting. Um, but no, that's cool. And so PEs, um, yeah, again, you can go listen to the other interview. I think you went pretty in depth in that soil, but, um, just the short version. Why did you decide to switch from a pest to solar then? And what was because I came from a pest background too. I don't know if you knew that, but I did it too, as summer's a pest control. And, um, you were much better than me. I would've, you would have destroyed me and pest. I think my best summer is like 120 accounts or something. SoSpeaker 3 (09:53):Yeah.Speaker 3 (09:54):They're low maintenance. Um, no, that's it, it was funny. That's actually how female knockers started. And so I did my first summer three 16, and then my very last summer, before I transitioned into solar, I was the number one rep in the company. I had serviced 1,012, uh, past accounts in like 156, uh, knocking days. But before that summer, before that summer, um, had started, I, you know, basically went to like the leadership about how we needed to have a program for women, uh, in the company. And it wasn't even like, you know, I'm not even trying to say like, Hey, girls are better than guys. Guys are better than girls. It's more of just like a space. And, um, just a little bit of awareness that I just saw. A lot of regionals and team leaders were flying to Vegas and Arizona and all these other states to basically recruit more men.Speaker 3 (10:53):And I'm like, why don't you just make this space a little bit more inviting for the 40% of people we're not even tapping into who are returning from their missions, who are doing all these things. And they're literally in our back yards. And, um, but basically I was just kind of dismissed a little bit. And so I was like, and this was before I did the thousand accounts. And so when I came home in September, just throughout the summer, I just seen how many women were rooting me on that didn't even know me. And they were just like texting me. And they were just like keeping track of like what I was doing during the summer, because I would just post weekly updates. And the amount of like women would just like reach out to me. I was just like, so like, it kept me going and I'm on a team where there's not even like women period.Speaker 3 (11:38):And so that was like the biggest thing for me. So I swore once the summer ended that I was going to do something to give back. And so I'm not a social media guru. I am not the, I don't even dress fancy. I don't even feel like I fit in with like the cool, proud, but I'm like, I'm going to start something. Even if it means that I just pay like out of my own pocket. And so I started, I finished knocking for pest control in September, and then I was like, I'm going to create a coaching program or a coaching platform for women in the industry. And it doesn't matter what the shirt that they're wearing, but I want to teach concepts that could be used in alarms that can be used in Bish that could be used in solar and whatever industry, basically for women.Speaker 3 (12:19):Because when we're going into a lot of these teams, a lot of the men are focusing their training. And it's just kind of like we forget about the emotional side. And I used to actually not want women on my team. And I thought, this is a way of me giving back and making up for that mindset that I bought into, of not wanting women on my team. And so in October, when I basically started this platform, I started recruiting, um, women just from different, I don't know, I wasn't recruiting. I basically created this coaching program and I put it out there and I was surprised at how many people I signed up and I wasn't doing it to be rich or anything like that. I think I had like 15 people and, um, I had some from vivid or alarms at some from past and, uh, some from dish and then from solar.Speaker 3 (13:07):And I'm coming from the highest summer that I've ever had in pest control, like off of this high, doing financially great. Like everything's great. And I felt like a hypocrite. I'm like, I'm over here, coaching women in the industry. And I only know pest control. So I was like, screw it. I'm going to go and do blitzes, like with everyone, just for it as a learning tool to be a better coach and to be a better mentor. And so I fell flat on my face when it came to alarms and bless the hearts of the people who do alarms. I'm never going to do that again. And then I wanted to dish and I was like, okay, you guys do not get paid enough. This is way too easy. And then I had this one girl who was on this team doing solar and crap. That's probably going to sound crappy on your and try to be on your, on your team.Speaker 3 (14:02):Yeah. And so I was like, you know what? Um, this girl had told me that, uh, she was the only girl and, um, no one on her team had made a cell for solar like that month. I, and I literally overheard teaching her concepts about like mental toughness. And the only reason that you're not going to get a deal is because you're not going out there, you know, on the doors. So I was like, all right, well, I've got to go do a blitz, um, with them. And so I ended up going and doing a blitz, um, with their team. And I basically fell flat on my face on, uh, the first three days. And I was like, what am I doing? And, uh, it was basically the competitiveness in me that I was like, there's no way that I can't like make this happen.Speaker 3 (14:48):Like I am telling this girl that I am like mentally tough and I can do all these things. Like I'm going to have to figure it out. There was no pitch for solar. There's no manual, there's no nothing. I basically wrote up a pitch. I basically just put everything together and I was all right. Um, and then finally, day three, I set a bunch of appointments before lunch and I ended up closing one and I closed one every day for the next three days. And I left with like 30 grand and was like, Chad, that was a fluke I have to do again. And so I invited a couple of my pest control buddies. We didn't tell anyone, it was just about five of us. And we would meet up every morning, just like we did in pest control. And like, again, there's no training, no nothing.Speaker 3 (15:30):We just do like, our role plays with each other. We shared our pitch and then we'd go set appointments before lunch. We were on the doors by like 11:00 AM, like every single or 10 30. And then every day each one of us comes on with a deal and we're going home with like 50 plus K a week, all of us. And I'm like, what? The crap. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, it was from there that basically my solar journey started, but basically my, uh, female knockers page just kind of like evolved from that mindset. And from that little accident, like I always tell people that I got into solar by accident and hearing themSpeaker 2 (16:06):Wow, crazy. That's a cool story. And yeah, I mean, it's awesome. You're able to connect and cause I think that's a big issue with like, I don't know, maybe guy manager, stuff like that is maybe the girls feel like they can't understand their perspectives. Point of view. I know that's how it was for me. I brought out my sister-in-law actually, um, she really struggled. I wish this was like three years ago. So I wish, um, you would have been training in the solar space at that time because I was just like, I was like, all right, just get out there, knock harder. Just do it. She was, yeah. I mean, she was pretty emotional girl and I just, I didn't really know what to do. I'm just like, I dunno, just get out there and just go knock doors. So it was rough and um, you know, it didn't have a very good summer and everything, but yeah. What do you think like for you, what you've seen solely as your coach, all these female reps and, um, leading knockers and all that, have you seen that there's like, I don't know, maybe a way that they like to be coached or treated that's different than like the guy reps or what have you seen that? Uh, well I guess from a female perspective,Speaker 3 (17:18):Yeah. Well, one we're not teaching the concept of just, uh, how to compartmentalize our emotions because a lot of times we're talking about like women and how emotional we are, but men are just as emotional. But what you guys are really good at is compartmentalizing. Like you guys can put things aside and emotions and just go do what you gotta do. Whereas us as women, that's one thing is just, we're just not being taught how to put our emotions aside for how to put them in a box just for a short time, while we focus on what we need to do in front of us. And so I spent a lot of time just working on the mindset aspect in the sense of like how we compartmentalize, like how we can overcome anxiety, how is it that we can overcome like the negative things that are happening?Speaker 3 (18:03):Because once women can figure that out on your teams who like the, the success is going to be endless. And so like my whole goal in female knockers is not to have all of us women knocking on freaking ones on one team. But my whole goal is all of us, no matter what shirt that we're wearing, because we're all gonna ha we're going to be in different phases of our lives. But to be able to have that unity and know like, Hey, I'm going to have someone who's going to understand and have my back and root me on where I'm at exactly where I literally want to be a big sister in the industry for women in every aspect of like, you're there in pest control. Like let's figure out how you can level up in pest control, but you're going to have to start with your emotions.Speaker 2 (18:46):Yeah, no, I think that's huge because for me, I don't know if this is wrong, but what I've seen is pretty much any girl that can figure out the emotional part of it. I see them have success like that. The teams I've been on. Cause it's like, I don't know for me, it's like, it seems like people are nicer to girls. It seems like bill here at Mount Moore. Um, I was always jealous of that. I remember doing pest control. I'm like, man, you can get through like way more easier pitch than I can see.Speaker 3 (19:15):And it's true. And I focus on the reasons I, I focus on the things that we have a leg up on w w as women in the industry and that we can look at them as like strengths rather than, you know, rather than weaknesses. And I feel like in solar, especially for me, my emotional side and how emotion and like how much emotion I put into, like my deals. Like people feel it, like, it's, it's just a different dynamic than a guy who's just, you know, just going through it.Speaker 2 (19:42):Yeah. A hundred percent. But yeah. Um, for you to slowly, do you have any, I dunno, like stories or examples of times where you coach like some girl reps that maybe were struggling or super emotional and I don't know, I wanted to go home, things like that and like specific things you did to turn it around. I don't know if you have any examples of people you've coached or anything like that.Speaker 3 (20:03):So I'll be honest. Um, so I've actually had like a, a couple of girls actually just on my team. Um, and, uh, they have been in another industry and they'd been with another company and, um, they basically always do use their emotions and the negativity to get in their cars and to go home and to let it bleed over to the next to the next day. And then we worked together again and I actually had her come out and we started just focusing on all the positive things. We actually took away, all the things that, that was negative for her in her life. And the biggest thing was having a car. The biggest thing was being a driver. It was being the driver and how easy it was for her to be able to get back in the car, get over here, taking that one thing away because we recognize that that was like one of her weaknesses and where, what she would use to be able to, um, let it bleed over to the next day.Speaker 3 (20:59):She ended up being one of the top producers this year, just by focusing on that one little thing. Is she still emotional? Yes. Do we still have rough days? Yes. But we were able to see a lot, a lot more success just by taking away a couple of the little things that were triggers for her. And so I, and so a lot of the girls who reach out to me who are having emotional days and things that, that stink, we, we basically just work on, find out like what some of their triggers are. We remove some of those triggers and it just makes it a little bit better to focus on the things that they can control.Speaker 2 (21:31):Um, yeah. That I love that I reminds me of that you grid the power of habit, that book they talked about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Super important principle. And it's so true. Um, I think a lot of people struggle with that being the driver and whatnot, but it's like, if you're on a diet, you need to get the Oreos out of the kitchen. Right. Get the stuff that's tempting out of the way. It's not tempting, tempting anymore. This is the same thing. If you're struggling to knock the door or whatever, it might be that trigger, like you're saying, see if you can figure out a way to eliminate it because a lot of people just solves a problem instantly. Yeah. So, yeah. That's powerful. Um, and what about like for guys, let's say you're, um, uh, you know, a guy who's managing a team with girls, um, maybe you seen guys be super successful with it. And what would you say to like, like me, for example, if I manage a team I'm trying to help the ladies out. Um, would you have any tips for like a guy trained to manage the ladies on his team and help them coaching?Speaker 3 (22:32):Yeah. It's just going to be like focusing on the little things like, whoa, what a lot of people don't understand. It's like, women are not, we're not like, yes, we're, we're wanting equal pay and all these things, but the little things like really like, matter to us, like a shirt that actually fits a girl, like actually having incentives that doesn't include a freaking wallet. That's just a one or a pocket knife or like the little things just really go a long ways in the sense of like texting and actually calling like what I do and why I don't have a car partners as a leader and in my car, because I also use that time to be able to follow up on reps. Like I'm always like driving in from like an appointment or to a house or whatever. So I'm thinking about that rep who may have had like a bad day.Speaker 3 (23:22):And I'm thinking about that girl who talked to me about this and I'll shoot her a text or a call, or like, Hey, how are you feeling today? Like using that time in, that's a focus on the business in front of me, but take care of that. People around me as well. So every night, like when I'm coming home, I'm reaching out to someone on my team to just ask them how their day was to just to ask them like what it is that I can train on that would help them personally. And it's every day it's gonna be like a new rep. And so every one knows that I'm going to reach out and at some point or time and another, and it's just something so small as like calling them regularly and like, Hey, how was your day?Speaker 2 (23:59):Hmm. That's awesome. Yeah. How do you like, remember, do you have a system set up to like, I dunno, remember, oh, this is having a hard time or keep track of all their, I dunno how big your team is, but you have, I dunno, a system in place to remember, oh, I need to call this your app. Or they were struggling with this or their numbers are down or you just going to come to you while you're driving.Speaker 3 (24:20):So one it's my, I have a good relationship with all the girls that they're just like coming to me, but two, we have a group chat. So like on our group, me, if I see that someone doesn't have a set or if like someone's numbers, like is enough or, um, or it's, I just don't see like any doors knock or anything, like I'll reach out to that person and be like, Hey, what time today? Can I come and knock with you? Or like, Hey, and so I, I, based the day, like when it's, if I have like a no show or an appointment, that's not there, I'll go and look at group me and see who's produced and who isn't. And I'll just start from there. And then at the end of the night, when I am going home, I'm just starting with someone who actually texted me and reached out to me about like an issue or problem or something.Speaker 2 (25:02):Okay. I love that. And I like this. I like your point about the little things, the shirts and the incentives and stuff like that. Um, yeah. I didn't even think about that, but I can see why that'd be a big thing. It's like a shirt that fits.Speaker 3 (25:19):Yeah. Even just that, like I had some girls come over here from another company and they're like, what? The, like, they're different from them. Like these are actually like women's shirt. And I didn't realize like how big of a deal, like it was to them. And it was literally an $11 shirt.Speaker 2 (25:36):Yeah. No, that's true. Yeah. I'm just thinking of, I don't know if you watch the office, do you watch the office? I'm just, I'm just thinking of the one where Michael takes model to them, all the girls, like, like to the mall and take small than Victoria's secret. I remember that upset. So maybe not to that level, but I think that is really important. Just being, um, you know, aware that girls probably, maybe they don't want to go, uh, dirt biking for the day or whatever. Maybe they want to get.Speaker 3 (26:12):Maybe they don't want to go on a golfing trip for like a lot of little things.Speaker 2 (26:18):Yeah. Yeah, no, that's important. Um, so cool. No, that helps a lot. Um, and yeah, I guess I wanted to ask you too. How many people are you managing right now?Speaker 3 (26:31):So at the beginning of this summer, so like our whole team, there was probably for the whole summer, about 35 of us. And, um, so I had another co-manager and then there was like another guy on the team. We're just kind of like, I had recruited him, but he had like a bunch of guys. So we were just because we all came from pests, we just kind of wanted to stick together. And so, yeah, I think he had about a 15 and then I had about 25 of like my own. So we can kind of just like combine and ran the summer together.Speaker 2 (27:05):Yeah. Big team. And, and, sorry, I guess I, I know before we started the call here, um, yeah. We're just talking about how you don't like to call yourself the boss and stuff, but you're just almost like,Speaker 3 (27:17):Yeah. I like, yeah. I just want to be the sister. Like, even when I have the, the girls like introducing me and we're like, yeah, like this boss you see now my, no, I'm just like a team member. I was like, I never want to look at myself as above them. I truly look at them as like, especially on solar. Like my, my mindset is just a lot different. Like I truly feel that I'm an employee of them, but like, I need to continually like take care of them obviously to take care of myself first. But like they come first.Speaker 2 (27:49):Yeah. I'm sure that's a huge key to your success and they can feel, um, you know, that you really care about them. Appreciate them. Um, I'm sure you learned this on your mission and everything, but speaking of missions, I think that was one of the keys to success we saw in like our missions is the more you care about people, the more they're going to respond because it's like, oh, they actually want me to get baptized or whatever. Cause they love me. And they like for like, believe in this.Speaker 3 (28:18):Exactly. I probably kept people longer, you know, just because they're not a number then who I should have. And I have like some reps who are super protective of me or just like, why don't you let them leave? Like, you're just too nice. Like you're just like, and this and that. I'm like, Hey guys, it's a GSpeaker 2 (28:34):Yeah. I know. It's super important though. Like Zig Ziglar says the more people, um, you know, the more people know you care, I forget the quote, but when people see you care, that's how they're gonna, you know, respond to you and, and wanting to do business with you, tune on a team. Yeah. Um, but the point I was, I think what I was going to ask you before I got distracted by that is also like the family aspects of the way. So I know you're a mom. How many kids do you have now?Speaker 3 (29:04):So I have three. I have a nine-year-old I haven't about to be an eight year old and then a two year old. Mr.Speaker 2 (29:11):Okay. Nice, cute, cute. So that's impressive to me. I'm um, you know, I have one kid right now, one on the way here in a couple of months. And, um, so something that I really respect about you is just being able to do all this and have the level of success that you've been all that cheap. Um, while being a mom for three kids, I don't even know cause I'm with the one kid, I feel like I'm, uh, you know, already not there as much as I need to be and not the best dad at times, things that, so, um, maybe this doesn't apply to everyone who isn't a parent, but how do you manage your time being like a mom and being there for your kids and all that, how do you manage like the family aspect of everything?Speaker 3 (29:53):So I'll be honest. And I, one person that I love in this industry is Michael Donal. And, um, one thing that he talks about is seasons. And so I just, I, I no longer, um, you know, have this like guilt of what I used to when I was in pest control and I wouldn't see my kids. So till the, till the evening, but we have the mindset, like my kids understand it. And so to my husband, that there's a season that there's going to be a season for everything. And right now my season is going to be solar. My season is in this industry is basically just like building and being able to set up our family into a position to where that season is going to be just us and still because my, my, my husband is like bought in to like the fact of like seasons. We, we just have like that mindset, like right now, like, like this very second, it's just going to be a season and it's going to end. And I know that there's gonna be a season and a time and a place for me to be with my family and with my kids. And because we both just bought into it, it just, there's no more guilt. Like he's just a thousand percent in. And, uh, it just worked out.Speaker 2 (31:02):Yeah, no, that's true. Yeah. I do remember Michael Donald talking about that too. And anyone that has a family, um, that's a topic I love is like the whole work-life balance, but any successful person I hear, they always, they say pretty much the same thing. There's no like balance. There's just gonna be ups and downs, different seasons times when you're focused on different things. Right.Speaker 3 (31:23):But when we are with our family, it's like, we are with our family. Like my husband has to intentionally like turn off my phones and put things down and, and things like that. So he's like, okay, this second, the season, this time, this moment is for us. And I'm like, you're right. So it's just about communication and working it together.Speaker 2 (31:44):Uh, your husband's name is Walter right of that. What does Walter think of all this is he, uh, I know he's probably used to the old kind of sells life by now, but does he, uh, is he kind of the stay at home dad then while you're off slinging deals? Or how does that,Speaker 3 (32:00):Uh, so it's just kinda like funny, cause people are like, well, you know, they'll try to like, get me to talk to like these women who have kids and like try to recruit them and try to do that on my guys. There's, you know, there's hot buttons and not every woman is as mobile as me, or has like a companion who, who is willing to sacrifice. Like my husband was, he had a great job. Like he loved it. He was going to school. He's making like six figures. He was doing all those things. Um, but he saw that my season was going to get us to our end goal a lot sooner. And so when COVID hit and, uh, he just saw how anxious it was going to be for me to worry about a babysitter for our kids, not being at work, the different things like that.Speaker 3 (32:41):He decided that his season was to be the best day at home dad. Like he legitimately is a lot more patient of a father. He's a great cook. And he freaking takes care of the house a lot better than me. So, you know, roles are, are, are, are different for everyone. And so he enjoys our kids. He enjoys the season, he enjoys cooking. He enjoys, like, he knows my stats better than me. Like he's always kept spreadsheets. He, he knows what I did from like my first year in pest control. Like it's a sport to him. Like he can tell you which rep that I competed with, which month can tell you, he can tell you which company, which rep has the best rep. And like, he it's like the NBA for him, like thrives off of my life. And so he is just so bought into it that he just saw how much less anxiety that I would have by him doing a great job at home with the kids. So we never questioned me being gone and one parent being home with the kids and he's just an all star stay at home dad. So,Speaker 2 (33:44):Wow. He's like the analytic he's he has all this stats and analytics down and it's almost like the side by side announcer for,Speaker 3 (33:52):Yeah. He texted me, Rick texted me the other day and was like, Hey, I'm knocking in Nashville. And I know you, I know you slayed it over here. Like, what cities did you do? Well, and I'm like, I have no clue. Give me a sec. I'm going to text the hubby literally in 30 seconds, that hubby texts me a list of places that I did well. And I sent it through and he's like, oh, whoa.Speaker 2 (34:13):Oh my gosh. That's incredible.Speaker 3 (34:16):So he thrives off of like the door to door industry and he's just the cheerleaders.Speaker 2 (34:22):So do you ever come back to him and like, I don't know, a slower day or anything and he'll like, be slinging off the stats, say, you know, how many doors did you talk to? How many homeowners starts going through stats like that to make sure you,Speaker 3 (34:35):We would get in arguments. Like it had to get to the point where like, he, because I would be in like competitions for the past and whatnot. And like, I do not pay attention to numbers. That's like one thing about me. Like, I will not look at stats. I will not check them throughout the day. And when I come home, just like, you know, if you would've only did one more account, I'm like, he's secretly like it because he knows that I don't check it. It like stresses him out because he's like wanting you to win. And he knows that I just care less than he knows.Speaker 2 (35:11):That's awesome. Here. We might have to have him on the show and go through like the stats to hit, to be successful on the doors or whatever.Speaker 2 (35:23):That's awesome. Well, no, that's, that's good. And always helps a ton to have a supportive spouse and, um, you know, be, make sure you're on the same level one to explain to them that their seasons and make the time. Um, yeah, one of our interviews, Ashton, I don't know if you know Ashton Boswell, but, um, he's over like VP of sales at legacy, but that's one of his big secrets. Is he coaches all his reps just on, um, I think he says having him set aside just like one day a week or one evening, a week, go on your date night or whatever. And that's like his big thing. He's like, yeah, he's like set aside one night. Do your date night, take a break from appointments.Speaker 2 (36:04):So I thought that was cool. And that's like something, he coaches all of his reps. Like I'm sure whether they're married or not. He's like go on a date or whatever I needed to do that I'm here. So, so, so that's cool. And I love to about hearing about people, is that just the way that their seasons and the ways they make at work? Um, so yeah, speaking of seasons Suli I know before the recording, we were just talking about how you sort of brought the whole pest control idea of the summer sprint over to solar and you guys are obviously crushing it. Um, how, how many deals is your team doing on these like blitzes and stuff? What's like an average blitz. How many deals would you say you guys do?Speaker 3 (36:42):So basically my team and a, it was like 136 days. We sold a 4.7 megawatts. Uh, we had 3.9, uh, still in the pipeline to have been installed in. Uh, we've still got 1.9 and that's in a hundred and, uh, 37 knocking days that we have in the summer. So,Speaker 2 (37:07):Oh, again, you guys are just in Texas, right? Or any otherSpeaker 3 (37:11):Just in Texas. Yeah, we just, uh, we just traveled different cities here in Texas. We just call ourself the pure blood squad. And, uh, we do, uh, 18 days on and we'd do a full week off and I make people go home. I'm like, I wasn't supposed to run a team. I was literally going to do one week a month for a whole year and call it good. But the whole team thing came by accident and just organically. And I was like, I'm supposed to be traveling. So if I'm going to do this, we're taking a week off and I'm going to go live my life. And so it's why people see a lot of like traveling stuff like throughout the summer. Cause I'm like, because I'm making the schedule I'm choosing even and make people go home. So it's been kind of night.Speaker 2 (37:52):Yeah. That's cool. And so you have a house out there in Texas or what's like,Speaker 3 (37:57):So we don't, so all of my we've been doing like Airbnbs and so I'm actually closing on a, on a property here, like right now in Texas, because the housing that I've spent on rabbis have just been like crazy. And so I'm basically just setting stuff up to where I'm not having to, to, to worry about housing, but, um, we've been in Airbnbs all summer.Speaker 2 (38:20):Okay. And so when you, when you get your house closed on, is that, are you just going to still be traveling around and then go back to your house for that week still?Speaker 3 (38:29):Yeah, like literally the like, I'm, I'm kind of like in no man's land, I like our, this property that we're going to get, it's literally going to be a rental. It's literally going to be on Airbnb, like the rest of the year. But during the summer it's going to be used to house reps because I'm cheap and don't want to keep spending 20 grand a month on housing. And so I'm like finding a way to like how's reps. And then like my place in Utah is like rented out and I have tenants on the top and bottom and like, our properties are like rented out and I live nowhere. Like I am like thisSpeaker 2 (39:03):[inaudible]. Yeah.Speaker 3 (39:05):And so until I settled down on solar and I kind of want to ride this tax credit, I'm just, I'm just not choosing a place to be, but I'm going to everywhere.Speaker 2 (39:15):Yeah. Might as well that's you guys are crushing it. And so like, is this, you're doing it all year round, just this blitz model though, or you just,Speaker 3 (39:25):So we weren't supposed to do oppose these. And that was another thing. Like, all this stuff just happens. It's like my team grows and people wants different things. And so we were, I was supposed to be done in August and then I had girls on the team. It was like local. I want to transition into closing or I want to like, get a head start for like next summer. And then it's like, Hey, I want to recruit this person. So basically what my post season is, it's just like, it's, they're just low key vivant schedule where I'm just allowing people to come and test it out. And I'm actually like looking and, and sharpening the sob, like people that I want to be leaders to take over next summer, but I only want to be a summer program. The reason people just still see me working right now is because I'm prepping training and recruiting to set up a good next summer model. Oh,Speaker 2 (40:09):Okay. Interesting. That's cool. And I don't, to my knowledge, I don't know if there's anyone else doing just like a pure summer model in solar, is there?Speaker 3 (40:19):No, no, no. It's it's, it's why I refuse to let it fail.Speaker 2 (40:25):Yeah. Pulling up by the teeth. Um,Speaker 3 (40:30):Yeah. So this is my, uh, I'm definitely sharpening things up and putting a lot of things together and place to basically set up for April 1st when we started again. So,Speaker 2 (40:40):Yeah. Wow. And yeah, what's incredible is you guys are in this summer, I'm sure you've done more than most like year round solar gummies. Like there's probably not too many year round solar companies that do that for the entire year, let alone a summer. That's incredible. So what's your arguments, I guess. Would that just come from pest control or what's your argument? Why did you even try to just do that when everyone else in the solar industry's doing all year round, what's your argument for this?Speaker 3 (41:10):So, because I, I actually dabbled in a couple of solar companies before I came here. And again, like, I, I I'm new to this. It's like, I don't even know what I'm doing. It's why I reached out to so many people in solar before I even started. Because like, I know if I'm coaching people who don't know what they're doing, that I need to be taught and be coached, what I don't know. And from the solar places that I've been and the, and the different companies, what I saw is just, it's just a lot easier to be relaxed when you live in the location that you're knocking. It's why I would never knock in Utah when I was doing pest control. The summer that I did, I spent more time at my auntie's house. I spent more time with my grandparents. I spent more times at barbecue than I did like actually knocking doors.Speaker 3 (41:55):And so I just had that same mindset. I was like, look, if I can convince people to leave their homes and come to a place where they have no friends, or they don't have no family members, like, aren't they going to work just a little bit quick? Aren't they just going to work a little bit longer? But the reason I wanted to change it from the way that pest control dynamic was where it was literally just going stay for the full summer is because I felt like there wasn't enough of a break, like mental space, like physical breaks. It was just go, go, go. And I wanted to find like a happy medium. And so I saw when people can see the light sooner, or they can see the end a lot sooner, they're gonna work a little bit harder. So I want it to have end dates every single month that people could be like, look, it's 18 knocking days. Anyone can do anything for 18 knocking days, as opposed to saying, Hey, for 365 days out of the year, and let's just go knock three or four hours every day. Yeah, no, that was what it was for me. I just knew that people were just going to be a lot less laxed when they saw that there was going to be an end date each month. Yeah.Speaker 2 (43:02):No, that makes sense. And yeah, I was telling you before we started the recording, that a lot of this stuff is you're describing like what I do, and I can see that my numbers are just cause in my head, it's like, I'm doing this all year round. I don't need it more than three or four hours a day.Speaker 3 (43:19):So we lived there.Speaker 2 (43:22):Yeah. And I've seen that. I think that's the curse of the solar industry. Is everyone coming like so many lazy reps, that's the big thing. And then solar understanding, because you won't see this level of laziness in it, like any other door knocking companies, but it's,Speaker 3 (43:37):We also like miss out on a lot of things too. Right. There's some people who just need like an extra week to think about it or like, so I feel like we have lost some deals because it's like we are coming in and going from like different cities that we basically set up appointments for like other solar companies to come in and take a bath, you know? So the it's pros and cons, I feel like.Speaker 2 (44:01):Yeah. Yeah, no, that's true. But yeah. I mean, it's just like, if you can get in there close the deals, um, you guys do a lot of like same day appointments. Do things like that as your,Speaker 3 (44:12):Especially. Yes. Like it's like same day or die. It's like same day next day. And like, period. And I just, I just incentivize like so much on same day as the next days that it just like, we, we push it like so hard.Speaker 2 (44:25):Yeah. No, I think it's no secret. I think that's how people do high numbers. Um, in solar that's all Mo fall. I don't know if, you know, morphology keep bringing up these successful people in the industry, but that's basically, I think what he did do, he just brought over what was working in alarms and other industries and apply it at a solar. And now they're doing a similar thing to you blitz and all over the place. And I'm just working hours,Speaker 3 (44:49):Same day tips. I, I remember listening to, I was like, this is money if people aren't doing this and solar they're.Speaker 2 (44:56):Yeah. It helps that done. So, yeah. Um, how would you, like, I dunno, maybe someone that's used to working just a year round model, um, like myself I'm use, I'll be honest. I haven't knocked more than probably four or five hours in a day for, I don't know, probably like six months at least just because that's what I get, you know, book my same day or whatever. And I'm like, sweet. I'm off the doors. Just hit up that appointment, go close it. And so how do you turn around? I don't know if you've brought in recruited people that are used to that model and maybe have some, uh, laziness in them of not knocking as much and coming out and doing a blitz. Do you have any tips for like how to break that or how to, um, shift that mindset to going to like a blitz model versus just doing like three, four hours a day? Maybe like you're used to as a year-round rep.Speaker 3 (45:46):Yeah. So it's hard. I'm actually dealing with that. Like right now it was like people who've been doing like your and, and stuff like that. And so I basically managed the expectation and it's why I like the Airbnb model because I let my reps know at the very beginning, like, Hey, these 18 days are for you to judge me. And for me to judge you at the end of the 18 days, you know, if you feel like this is the team for you, if you feel like, great, Hey, like we're going to move on to the next blitz. But it's also for me to be like, Hey, if I feel like your negativity or your mindset, or you're just not adding value to this team being, it allows me to be able to be like, Hey, the Airbnb ends at this date. Like, that's it.Speaker 3 (46:25):And it's one of the biggest reasons why I want it to have Airbnbs because I just didn't know how well these people were coming and going and what the dynamics would look like. So for one, letting them know that at the very beginning that, Hey, every single blitz is a trial and at the end of the 18 days, if we're going to work together and it's going to be great, Hey, I'll book you another Airbnb. But if it's not, we're going to have to part ways and be friends. And so when people have that expectation that every blitz was going to be a trial and that there was a certain amount of kilowatts. So I actually, every single month in order to not be charged their rent back, they had to hit certain milestones. And so people were always doing at least the minimum and that's all I required minimum as well as a positive attitude.Speaker 3 (47:08):And if they have those two things they could keep coming on. And so when I have like some of the, the year round reps are coming in and they're like, holy cow, I've never knocked six hours in a day. And like, not like, I'm not sure if this is for me. And so it makes it to where the expectations are already there and they can approach me. And I don't have to be the bad guy about like, this is what our team is prepping for next summer. If it works great. If not the solar industry is endless and plenty of people will take.Speaker 2 (47:37):Sure, sure. No, I think that's so important though. In so many solar companies, aren't doing that setting expectations with their reps, especially your own well, yeah, as most companies are a year round, I think that's super important for our listeners. Even if, um, you know, maybe you are doing three, four hours, but set the expectations, the milestones that people need to hit, because it's like, you can go get mad at them for not producing, but if they didn't know they needed to close two deals that week or whatever it was then, I mean, how can you get mad at them? You know, they didn't know what the expectation was. Yes.Speaker 3 (48:10):Yeah. People milestones and give them a, give them something to work towards or else there's going to be like, you know, there has to be like consequences or there has to be something in order to hurt a little bit.Speaker 2 (48:19):Yeah, definitely. And um, yeah, no, we'll, we'll, uh, we're running a little bit short on time. Don't want to keep you super late. I know we're going on like 10 o'clock there your time, which you said you're a night out, so that's cool. Um, but yeah, last couple of things. So we what's your guys' schedule for a blitz. What is your, I know you're saying 18 days on then a week off. What's like your schedule during that Boyd, do you have meetings every day? Or what does that look like?Speaker 3 (48:45):Oh yeah. Like that's like a big thing. Like when I brought other people, they're like you guys meet every day and I'm like, you don't, you guys even learn. So we, uh, we basically meet at 10:00 AM. Every single morning. We train from 10 to 10 45, our reps around the doors between 11 and 1130. We knocked from 1130, till three o'clock. Then we have lunch from three o'clock to four o'clock and then they're knocking from four o'clock to dark Monday through Friday. And then on Saturdays, we only not sell four o'clock now. And then Sundays, no one works unless they want to.Speaker 2 (49:20):Okay. Awesome. Now, are you, uh, for meetings, you guys swap and trainings or, uh, do you kind of run it?Speaker 3 (49:28):No, it's never a guessing game. Like there's some I'm OCD and, uh, that's one thing with women, women, uh, of reps. They, they want to know that there's a little bit of a structure and I feel like I kind of overly structured. So to go into those meetings where like, Hey guys, what do you guys want to learn about today? What do you guys want to look like one it's showing your team that you don't really care. You didn't really put a lot of effort and thought into what it was that they were struggling in the day before. So me and my other co managers, yes. Each single day, we would have like, one of our lead, our lead setters would take one day. We would take a day, uh, and, uh, we would rotate. And so every single day there was going to be a planned lesson, a planned discussion.Speaker 3 (50:10):We going to make sure every single day that everyone had time to be able to role play, but we would have a concept every single day. And then we would incentivize on the doors based on those concepts. Hey, if you go and do like this concept that we taught today or whatnot, you're going to be able to receive XYZ. So every single day we are training, we are role playing. Um, I just don't believe in this once a week, zoom meeting that a lot of solar companies do and just kind of like let their reps come and go like, yeah,Speaker 2 (50:39):Yeah, no, that's, I think that's super important. I noticed that too, actually, I'm with, uh, um, Jason newbie in his squad if you know him, but that's one of the things that he brought over the, I saw like an instant boost in people's numbers. It's just like meeting, because number, I think in my opinion, the main purposes, if you meet people are gonna actually gonna go out and work, right. Like if you're not going to meet the likelihood that people drag themselves out and actually go out like way lower. Yeah.Speaker 3 (51:10):Girls it's like, how do you get out of your car? Like, how do you get to area? Like, how do you do all these things? And like, the biggest thing is they're meeting once a week, so It's not their fault, butSpeaker 2 (51:23):Yeah, no, it's because yeah, I brought other people on that are seen way more success do meaning every day. And it's like, you show up, you got your game clothes on, you got your, a game base, you just get in the right mindset versus you trying to drag yourself out and, and, uh, do it all yourself. So I think that's a big secret for people that are managing teams are trained to boost their numbers, maybe consider meeting everyday, or just doing mini blitzes. Because I think that might be the future. I'm seeing almost more and more people I bring on, even if they are year round, they're doing mini blitzes like that throughout the year and going to different areas and mixing it up because yeah, it is, it is tough.Speaker 3 (52:02):So makes it more fun. Yeah.Speaker 2 (52:05):Well, Zoe, um, we appreciate you coming on the show and, um, don't want to take up your entire evening. Hopefully you got some dinner. Um, but if people want to find out more about, I know you got your own podcast and everything, so do you want to tell people where they can find out more about you and possibly, I dunno, I dunno if you're still running coaching or whatever you're doing. So let's hear about that.Speaker 3 (52:28):So you can find me on female knockers, uh, unite. Uh, I do do coaching, but since solar was just so new and I feel like I'm just trying to put like so many things together for me. I want to be intentional. Um, and so right now I'm just doing a lot more educating just on my female page, my female knockers, you can I'm uh, also my podcast is sales with Suli twice a month, every single month I'll drop some nuggets. Uh, basically the same thing that I teach in some of my coaching calls, um, and things like that. And so, um, you can find me on Spotify and all the same spots. So you can find Taylor for pretty much.Speaker 2 (53:06):No. Yeah. Awesome podcasts. I've been listening to them. They are. So, um, yeah, they play it at home. Guys can listen to them too. Right. It's not just girls.Speaker 3 (53:16):I have them episodes in there just for the guys. So check out the title.Speaker 2 (53:20):Yeah. And I fall a female knockers United page. So I think guys got me if I'm wrong, I guys are allowed to fall that through. Right.Speaker 3 (53:28):It's an open publicSpeaker 2 (53:33):Gopal that is dropping in great content in there. And yeah, I learned a ton from her podcasts and stuff. She shares, so go shoot or a follow. So I slowly thanks for coming on today. And before we let you go, do you have any, like, I dunno, final tips or things you wish you knew first getting in solar industry that you want to share with our solar printers before we say goodbye here.Speaker 3 (53:52):Yes. Definitely find people who have content. I remember the first solar company that I started with one, they basically gave everyone two shirts because they basically planned on you or one shirt because they planned on you never coming back. So that's already like a red flag for me. Um, but two, if you're going to find someone who is going to train you, who is going to basically teach you from a to Z exactly what to do, you're definitely going to find success, just control the controllables and just focus on the little things. It doesn't matter which industry you're in. You're going to find success. If you just focus on the things you can control. So no,Speaker 2 (54:28):I appreciate that. So guys, go give Sulia follow control. The things you can control, like she just mentioned and make sure you find a good mentor. Cause I think those are the keys to having success in the industry for sure. And have meetings every day.Speaker 3 (54:42):Yeah. Thanks so much Taylor for having me like literally, I, I I've found rolled your, your podcast for like a while. It's literally one of the reasons that I have the success that I do and I, I share your podcasts with everyone.Speaker 2 (54:55):Uh, thank you so much. That means a ton then that's like why I've kept it going. So I love hearing comments like that. Appreciate you Suli. So go give Suli follow and Suli we'll be in touch. Thanks again for coming on the show. HaveSpeaker 3 (55:07):A good one. Yeah.Speaker 2 (55:10):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 Taylor Armstrong back with another week, another episode, and I hope you are crushing the fall. We are getting into the fall weather, perfect time to knock. And I just got back from an event myself. Um, it was called driven. So I will preface this episode. We got back at, uh, 4:00 AM last night. Um, it was up in LA the event and I'm down in San Diego. So I'm recording this because I'm not gonna miss out on some fire content that we need to drop this week, but I am a little out of it. So if things don't make sense, they, I apologize in advance, but we're going to have a great episode. So let's get right into it. My name's Taylor Armstrong, and I'm here to help you take your solar sales game to another level, by closing more deals, journey, more referrals, and hopefully having a much better time in the solar industry.Speaker 2 (01:39):Hope you're doing well this week, I wanted to do something a little bit different, and that is we're going to focus on our friends, our dear friends, the ladies in the solar industry. I've never done this before. And the reason I'm kind of calling this, the women focus week is because we have, um, one of my friends Suli Zinc she's coming on the next episode, we had an awesome interview with her. She had some just, I thought amazing advice on how to basically better treat women in the solar industry, how to make them feel more included in, you know, in your sales teams, in your organizations, and then just how to help them really, um, sell to their potential. And I mean, it complied to guys too. So if you're a guy listening to this, don't miss out on these episodes because don't get me wrong slowly.Speaker 2 (02:35):She's one of the top sellers in the solar industry. So she knows her stuff, but they're the reason I think this applies a lot to, you know, the guys in the industry is because let's be honest, it is a male dominated industry we're working in, but almost every sales team they're going to have probably a few ladies on the team do. So how can you get them to maximize their potential? And how can you make them feel included in the team? How can you treat them with, um, you know, respect and make sure they're getting their needs taken care of? Because as a guy, I didn't know, I didn't really know how to do this. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this case. We get girls on the team. And I think at times me leading our teams out here in San Diego, I don't think I've done a good enough job at helping the ladies, you know, feel more included in maximize their potential.Speaker 2 (03:30):So I'm going to talk about a few of my mistakes on this episode, and then I'm going to give just a little preview of, um, you know, what I've learned from mistakes I've made and then things coming up on the next episode, because I think next episode with soil, you're going to hear just a, you know, the raw stuff, the things that are helping her and things that she's, uh, has seen that haven't gone the best on teams. She's been a part of. So with that being said, let's jump into it. Um, my really first experience selling with ladies in this industry, I guess a couple of stories to start all this off is I started out on pest control. As many have heard on the podcast. This was back in 20. Uh, what was it? 2012. Yeah, summer of 2012, Dallas, Texas. And I remember starting out in the summer, um, one girl that started out with me.Speaker 2 (04:21):She was also a rookie sales rep. Her name was Alyssa and me and her, me and Alyssa. We started out about the same, but I remember after a month her sales just started exploding. She was getting like four or five deals in a day, which pest control. That's pretty decent day. I was lucky to get one or two. Right. And again, I wasn't that good at pest control, but I'm like, what is this girl doing? And then I remember I started to kind of like envy her. I'm like girls have it so much easier. I mean, she's, good-looking people are listening to her, she's flirting with the guys on the doors. Like how can I compete with that? So it became kind of a limiting belief in my head. I'm like, I'm never going to catch up to this girl in girls. I think having an advantage that way.Speaker 2 (05:07):So if you're a lady list in the podcast, I mean, you want to maximize the advantage. Not that you need to be all flirty and whatnot on the doors or in your sales, but the advantage they have is people open up more generally, I would say to the ladies on the doors, right? Because they come across less intimidating. They come across, um, you know, especially if you're a guy answering the door, then you're probably going to be nicer to that lady on the other side of the door, you're probably going to hear her out a little bit more. That's the unique advantage. I think they have. That was my first experience selling with a girl. And she crushed me and sells as a lot of girls. You know, there's a lot of superstar girls sown out there today, but then what happened, I started to have, I would say kind of a negative, um, per special in that that's where I've gone a little bit wrong.Speaker 2 (06:00):That's where I've, um, not been as good of a leader, especially with women as I think I could have been had, I did a two-year mission as many. You probably also know I went to Columbia, south America. And in my mission, we were, um, they assigned district leaders, which I was a district leader. That's basically imagined like a manager for a year, a little, uh, branch of missionaries or a little like group of missionaries. Typically you're in charge of, I don't know, maybe six other missionaries. So a few times in my mission, I had to, um, I had to, you know, basically help out these sister missionaries. They were, that's why they call them, call them brother, sister in the church. Um, but I had helped these two ladies out that were in our little group or organization there in Colombia. And I just remember it was good working with them, but I also got kind of like a negative thing in my head working with them.Speaker 2 (07:01):Um, I had to deal with problems. We would meet with the leaders in the church. And unfortunately, um, one of these sister missionaries, she was causing some problems. If any of you have been to like the Latin American culture, you know that they love it when you eat their food, if you don't eat their food that they give you, it's almost like a slap in the face. So we had one sister missionary that did not want to eat peoples figured she would reject it all the time. And boy, these people in the church there, um, they were super mad about it. So I went to church every Sunday and people in the church would come up and Hey, this girl, she didn't eat our, uh, Juni, our chicken and rice, or we seen Spanish I'm in Colombia. So I would deal with that. And I'm like, oh my gosh, why can't these girls just, you know, do what they're supposed to do.Speaker 2 (07:53):So I tried to help them out. And, but I think I could've done a lot better at the time. That's where the first sort of negative started is. I don't know. I just, like, I just thought, oh man, I'm better. I'm better off just like working with guys. I don't want to do what the drama, I don't want to, um, you know, deal with that. And I'm not saying all girls are like that. Okay. But I didn't know how to really help this sister missionary out. I think I could've done a lot better. Maybe understanding her point of view, seeing where she's coming from, but I pretty much just like, man, you need to knock this off at the time. And then my second negative experience, that's the last one I promise. And then we'll get into some points when I'm talking about this is I had my sister-in-law.Speaker 2 (08:41):She came out and sold for the summer. This was back in 2017. When I was first getting into solar, I had my sister-in-law come out and it was just a terrible experience the whole summer for she was living with us in our apartment, which was fine, but I don't think she had one deal closed the entire summer. So this is where I kind of just like had even more of a negative I'm like, all right, I don't want to like deal with these girls. These girls sales are ups anymore. They're just, yeah, they're just too hard. I just kind of made up this story in my head that girls were going to be too hard. I was just better off dealing with guys. And I talk about this a little bit in the episode with SWE, but you know, basically my sister-in-law, she would, uh, not really meant for sells, so maybe she should have, you know, figured that out sooner than later, but she would just, you know, go on the curving cry and it just wasn't, it wasn't a good experience for, so that's the stories I told myself.Speaker 2 (09:47):So why am I saying all these things? Just because I, now I know that after seeing all these girls crush it in the industry, now I know the reasons you should have girls on your team. If you can help them really channel their potential and become successful. The girls I've been seen, uh, you know, have success since a few of these more negative experiences have been some of the best sells or ups I've seen. I've had a couple of my team. They've been superstars. Obviously we have people like Suli. Um, another one is solar Lily in the industry and they're just dominating if they can figure out how to channel this potential and push past the rejection. Cause really, I think that's the biggest thing that probably the ladies need to overcome. And slowly talks about this too. You'll hear more about it. If you can help them get over the, like the mental part of it, then girls just naturally I think, you know, the girls have like the talking part of it, the selling probably you down a lot more naturally than most guys in my opinion.Speaker 2 (10:59):So that's why now more than ever, if you can find these girls, if you can help them channel their potential, they're going to be number one, super loyal. Cause that's what the ladies in this industry do. They are super loyal. If you can treat them right and help them discover their potential, and then they're going to be superstars. If you can help them get past that mental peace and help them feel inclusive. Okay. So that's why you really need to learn to manage the girls on your team and make them feel good. And I've been, um, putting off, having a girl on the podcast for a while now. Um, that's why I'm so excited that we finally got solely on the show. Um, but the first sort of negative review I had on the show was this was about a year ago. She said, um, lots of good info, but I love for the hosts and guests to try to be more inclusive with their wording regarding sells reps.Speaker 2 (11:59):I am a woman sales are up. So when you discuss girlfriend or wife at home or the guys or the boys that doesn't apply to us, it makes us feel out of place in excluded. We are here and we are kicking butts, selling soil as well. Pre please recognize this. So green gorgeously, I apologize publicly on the podcast for not making you feel more inclusive. That's my bad. And that's one of my goals in the podcast is to try to help the ladies in this industry feel more inclusive. So hopefully I've done a better job at that. This was a year ago. And when I saw that, I'm like, man, I'm totally doing that. I'm just talking about the boys. I'm talking about the guys. I think I was kind of probably just dwell. I'm more on the negative that I don't want to like, you know, have girls on my team and I really want to help him anymore.Speaker 2 (12:48):So I apologize for that green gorgeously, whoever you are. And I hope you're still in the solar industry. I hope, hope you're doing well. Maybe that was silly. I don't think it was, but maybe that's silly. That wrote that was a four-star review. So thanks for not making it worse than that, but that's my first tip for you guys or whoever you are leading a team, even if you're just a rep on a sales team or if you're whatever independent, you're your own dealer, whatever girls you deal with, try to make them feel inclusive. If you're running meetings, if you are running incentives. So what can you do? How can you make these people feel more inclusive? Maybe that's if you're in a meeting, you're not saying, all right, boys, let's go let's you want to get them fired up. But think about the language you're using in my case right now, we only have, yeah, we, um, currently we actually don't even have any girls on the team.Speaker 2 (13:46):We had a few, they balanced. So that's one of the challenges we're trained to face right now is how can you get girls on the team? If you have, you know, 25, 30 guys, how can you get girls in their film comfortable? And like they're part of the team, if they're the only ones selling with you. So I think it starts with that. Try to figure out a way for them to feel included. What are you doing in your own Santos? What are you doing in your team activities? Do you think girls would feel included in that? So think about that. As you're trying to recruit girls on the team, as you're running these sales, meetings, whatever you're doing, how can you make them feel more included game that goes, you know, think about every person on your team. Obviously this can apply to guys too.Speaker 2 (14:30):Okay. So that's step number one. And then I've got two more tips. And then after that, we're going to leave it to Suli on the next episode, sorry. I know I've been a rambling about a few stories there, but the two other tips that was the first one to help them be included. And then number two, help just the girls feel part of a community, I guess, kind of dealing with being included too. So in our case, if you don't have many girls on the team, then make sure they're listening to like Soulis podcasts. There's a couple of good Facebook groups. There's some good Instagram pages. And I know my friends, solar, Lily, if you don't follow her, she's doing a like, um, I think it's on clubhouse where she has girls go on and just talk about kind of their challenges in the industry.Speaker 2 (15:18):Things like that. I think she invites guys too, but people like that, they're doing great things. So go follow solar, Lily, go follow, um, solely they have two pages on Instagram. I think they might be on Facebook too. And guys, um, I know guys can follow these pages too, so go follow them. Cause I'm actually learning more about how to, um, you know, manage the females too, by being part of these groups. So the first one is called woman United and solar solar. Really. She runs that page and she also has, I think, a clubhouse where they go and talk about it. Maybe a Facebook group too. She just got done with an event that she put on two and the other one is female knockers United, or maybe it's female knockers unite and that Soulis page. And she has great content on there. See, she features different, um, uh, lady like doorknockers from different industries.Speaker 2 (16:16):Do you? I know she has people in alarms pest control and they'll go on there. They'll show her share tips and um, just what's working for them. So whether you are a girl or a guy, I highly recommend you go follow these pages and it's going to help you become a better sales rep. And then also learn to just, you know, help. Like I said, help the girl help the girls on your team, unlock their potential. Okay. And then the last tip I have before we wrap it up here and this really deals with, you know, guys and girls, anyone really in sales or in the solar industry is just figure out your motivation. Hey, I was listening to a Ted talk, just kind of preparing for the podcast before, um, a lady that runs like a sales organization for women. And this was her big thing.Speaker 2 (17:08):Is girls more than anything that females they're not usually motivated by money. Okay. And I think this goes for both guys and girls, but she was saying, especially girls. So ladies, I guess you can tell me if that's true, but this is what the Ted talk lady said. It's usually not money that the ladies are motivated by. Even though, even if they say I want to make money a lot of times that's not it. So what is it, why do you want to make the money? And I've talked about this in previous episodes. Um, I think one of them is if you go back and listen to how to develop extreme confidence or to develop confidence in sales, I think it was probably like six months back. But I talk about this going seven layers, deep on your why. So, especially with your ladies, figure out why they want to make the money, why they want to do what they say their goal is.Speaker 2 (18:06):And then the lady in this Ted talk, I really, I thought it was cool. What she did a girl on her team. Um, once she told her she wanted to make the money, she kind of took her through this exercise though. Why do you want to make the money? And she figured out she wanted to take her kids to Disneyland. So what she had her do, she had her kids write her a note saying, mom, I know it's a tough day today. But remember we want to go to Disneyland. And her kids wrote her this note and then put on a picture. She put this on her desk. In this case, it was a like a phone sales job, but she put this on her desk. And then any time she didn't want to like make another call or she wanted to take a break, whatever.Speaker 2 (18:45):She looked at this note from her kids and her card, she was like, ah, all right, I want to take my kids to Disneyland. So for you that are knocking doors that are trying to get more appointments, consider that figuring out your why, make sure you have your motivation written out and for anyone leading a team or managing, make sure you help the ladies and anyone on your team do this. So hope that helped guys let me know what you think. And if you are working with a lot of women on your team, hit me up, let me know what's working for you. And let me know. Um, yeah, what you thought. So send this to anyone that's working with the women on the team and that I can't wait to see you on the next episode where we're going to get the one and only Suli and she's going to be dropping some fire.Speaker 2 (19:34):So we'll see you on the next one and go crush it this week. Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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):How do you get yourself in a peak mental state, prepared to close any deal and lift yourself up. When you're feeling down, maybe you're having a rough day on the doors. Maybe you got your face kicked in, in that last appointment you stepped into today. That's what we're going to talk about. How do you overcome those feelings and be ready at all times? Hope you're doing well. My name's Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time working in the solar industry. Today's episode is going to be pretty freaking awesome. Hopefully you are ready for it. And just what inspired this episode about how to get yourself in the peak mental state, two things. Number one, I'm going to see a Tony Robbins this weekend. He's at an event I'm going to call it funnel hacking live.Speaker 2 (01:39):At least I hope he is. Um, I guess we'll see. Um, by the time you hear this episode, I will be at the event. So come say, what's up if you listen to this and you're a happened to be at the summit as well, it's in Orlando. Um, but the other thing was just following some cool people on Facebook. One of my, uh, Facebook friends, hopefully you can get them on the podcast soon. His name is TJ Nilsson. He's running his company out in Vegas. So shout out to TJ. If you're listening to this, get a lot of value from your posts. Um, so quick side note, go follow as many people as you can in the solar industry. It's great to be able to see what's working for other guys connect, uh, do some networking. So I definitely suggest hopping on Facebook and Instagram as always hit me up, but fall guys like TJ and other people that have been on the podcast because a lot of them are sure, valuable content, valuable stuff on a daily basis.Speaker 2 (02:39):So TJ shared a little post I'll, um, I'll mention a few things from it, but he talks about staying in state and he went through his process of how he stays in state. I know he's had a lot of ups and down in his business and, um, this reminded me a lot of things that he does. I also am doing, um, a few of the things I'm not doing as often as I should have. And it remind me of things that I used to do that maybe I don't do as much currently. So just to highlight a couple of things from his post, sorry, I make sure my mic is plugged in here. Um, but he talks about number one to get in that states. You got to have an anchor here and we'll talk about that, but that's anchoring in a positive feeling essentially, and then stacking it with other, um, um, basically things you can do to trigger yourself in that confidence, trigger yourself in that state that you want to achieve and wants to, um, be able to get to, as you're pulling up to that deal as you're going to knock, maybe you're down.Speaker 2 (03:54):So that's the two ways of doing it and a great book. If you haven't already read, go read the way of the Wolf. Um, I have posted a few videos of this in the Facebook group. So we're premier free super group. So I've talked a little bit about it before, but just in this book, the way of the Wolf, Jordan Belfort talks about how he uses these anchoring techniques that he's going in deals. Um, when he was doing this back in his Haiti, I think he was, you know, snorting the good stuff though, cocaine. That's the powerful stuff, I guess. So obviously I don't endorse that, but I'm sure that's works too, but now I know Jordan's calmed down a little bit. So what he does, he uses these things called boom boom sticks, which we will put a link to this in the show notes and grant, if you want to support the show, that will be an affiliate link.Speaker 2 (04:50):Um, so great way to support if you would like to, if you enjoy the content. Um, but just to review what he talks about, go read the book. I received goes way more in depth on this, but he has a whole chapter on this anchoring technique. And so he says, anchoring is a process used in NLP, which is neuro-linguistic programming. And that's why I bring up Tony Robbins is because Tony Robbins, that's his bread and butter. He's all about the NLP. Basically. Neuro is your mind linguistic is language programming. So it's the language to trigger your minds in the specific things. So if any of you have been to a Tony Robbins event, I haven't only seen him speak a few times. So I'm definitely not the Tony Robbins expert, but that's what he does the few times I've seen him speak. He has you jump up and down.Speaker 2 (05:41):He has you repeat things. He has you touch. Uh, other people hug all these different things. And what he's trained to do with this is connect the information that he's giving you with the actions. Cause if he can get your emotions in involved in it, that's going to give you the best shot at really remembering it and applying it and taking action in your life. Hey, if you think back to all the memories you have, anytime it's tied with an emotion, those are the things you really remember, right? Hey, I think back to all the things I've done in my life, if they're tied to a song, for example, I listened to tons of alternative music in high school. Um, you know, everyone had those days, those good old nineties, two thousands, the alternative, uh, trying to think of examples, the Jimmy world, the, uh, you know, my chemical romance, all these like punk emo, alternative bands, all that good stuff.Speaker 2 (06:42):Anytime I turn on that music, now it takes me right back to high school. I remember the fire, the bonfires were billed. I remember jamming on my guitar. I remember going out in the Hills, jiving trucks and Jeeps. Cause that's all I was to do and can have Utah's just drive around in the Hills and go spotlight for deer and all that stuff. Shout out to all my small town people. Well, that's all we had to do. So anytime I listen to those things that triggers that emotional response, and that's essentially what you're trying to do with this anchoring process, right? You're trying to connect it with emotion. You're trying to connect it with that, feeling that a super high feeling where you did something awesome, where you achieve something great. So that is what Jordan Belfort teaches you to do in way of the Wolf.Speaker 2 (07:31):And he compares it to the Powerwall dog experiment, which you've probably heard of in psychology, right? Scientists were doing a bell every time before feeding the dog and eventually they'd ring the bell and the dog would start to salivate even without any figured. So that's what we're trying to do with this NLP, with the boom, boom. So go and go grab yourself. If you don't have a boom, boom, go grab yourself one. You can use other sands, but something unique right. And is convenient. So we're going to go through a couple stips steps here. If you want to start using this method specifically with the boom, boom, these are the steps to do this. And then we'll talk about a few ways. You can take it even further if you'd like to. So step one, if you're trained to anchor it, if you're trained to anchor that high emotion, you can get yourself prepared for those deals.Speaker 2 (08:27):Um, he, this is why they suggest scent because it's strong, right? It's strong. It can be tied to that emotion. So if you are using sense with it, number one, it must be a smell that you love. Okay. So don't go putting, I don't know, having your dog poop in a bag and smell that. Probably not going to be the greatest. Don't go get COVID for crying out loud because you won't be able to smell as that's the first step. And what is the point of a listing, a positive state if the smells repulsive, right? So find the smell that you love. You won't get tired of. And then number two, it must be a smell that is unique that you don't smell super often. Hey I'm you don't want to go, but most fries in a bag. Um, I dunno if you smell that often, but it's something you smell often.Speaker 2 (09:14):Make sure it is something unique that you're not going to smell all the time. Hey, and then number three, pick an anchor that is easy to carry and administer effectively. This means light, compact, and concentrated to get into your nose with the least amount of effort. Um, you want to be able to pull it out of your pocket or purse that moment you feel a peak state that you want to anchor. All right. So those are the three strip steps as you're picking your smell. So you don't necessarily have to use the boom boom sticks. I don't even know if I explain what that is, but just basically it essential oil and a stick that has a strong scent. So I carry them around any time I go to an a, uh, I just put it in my car at any time, I'm going to knock anytime and going on appointments at my boom, boom, stick, ready?Speaker 2 (10:03):Hey, and then the key with this is, is you need to make sure you set that anchor. So you got your boom, boom, you got your essential oils. You got your strong scent, whatever it is now, take a minute and recall an emotional state where you were maybe super successful. So maybe you just close the biggest deal of your life. Imagine that even better. If you can capture this in the moment, it's going to be even better. But if you're not in the moment of a super confident that super peak states just think back, close your eyes, you can do it right now. Close your eyes. Think back to a time where you were super confident, super high on something, um, was having a ton of success. Imagine that, and now take whatever that scent is and just inhale it. Try to connect it to the best you can to that specific states you are failing.Speaker 2 (10:56):So for me, one of the states I was doing when I was setting this up, is I in high school, I had a ton of success playing, uh, my drums, my percussion, right? I was the band nerd playing the progression. I would go out and win competitions on this instrument called the marimba. And at one point I won the state competition for the best marimba player in Utah in high school. When I was, when I won that competition, I was like, man, I'm from a small school, no one even knows what a marimba is in my town. And I just won the best marimba in the state, um, out of all these like bigger schools and stuff. So I go back to that time when I like won this award and I'm like, man, I'm the best. No one can stop me. Um, I am unstoppable on this thing.Speaker 2 (11:52):That's one of the states I went back to. So I'm sniffing my boom, boom, and I'm triggering that mental state or I'm anchoring it rather. And then what does it do if you can get that anchor set nice and deep. And now every time you smell the boom, boom, what's, it's going to do, it's going to trigger those same peak emotions that you had. So that was mine. So I think is what was your peak emotional state? I'm sure there's one in sales you've had already, but maybe you're just getting started in sales. Think back to something awesome. You did. You did. And then sniff your boom, boom. So that's how you're going to anchor it down. And then one thing, just to be careful of make sure to not overuse the recall function of the anchor. Okay. So just basically don't do this like super often.Speaker 2 (12:43):You're not going to do it like, um, you're probably not going to be doing it multiple times a day. You want to just, um, they recommend, um, the 80/20 rule. So, um, you just don't want to overuse it because then if you're feeling down, you want to make sure it's connected with the correct emotions. Um, and then it says, uh, what does it say here? She says, this will ensure that your body associates, the trigger primarily with the real feeling, just as, it's not a good idea to choose an anchor that you experience often it could be detrimental to lean on your anchor too much as your body will begin to anchor in a lower level of confidence. And so make sure with great power comes great responsibility like uncle Ben says, so make sure you're not overusing this great power, make sure you're saving it for the times.Speaker 2 (13:41):You really need it. Those important deals. So I do it before. Most of the deals that I go into and then just a few other ideas before we wrap this segment up here, a few other things you can do. And, um, music is another super powerful thing. And that's something my boy TJ Nelson talked about in his post too, is he, um, his example is he says, I'm the best while holding his left hand and a certain Wayne listens to a specific song. So he's combining kind of all three of them. He's speaking his affirmations, he's holding something physically in a different way and he's hearing something and he's smelling something. So I thought that was a great idea is many of the senses is you can activate, it's going to hit home even more. Um, so consider using music too. This is something that TJ talked about.Speaker 2 (14:37):I also do this before every deal I step into, I try to listen to something that pumps me up. Okay. And I still listen to a lot of that same alternative music that I did in high school, because that's what I to, during a lot of the times, whereas filling on top of the world. Okay. But I pick a song. I have my playlist hit me up. If you want my a playlist of music, it's probably going to be different than a lot of people's, but picks your song that makes you feel super confident and think you're Conor McGregor walking out into the ring, right? What song are you going to choose? We're fighters. We're fighting for our livelihood. We're fighting for deals. So you want to have something that pumps you up, takes you to that state and just gets you in the mood to crush it.Speaker 2 (15:24):I think of a, all you office fan Dwight. He, uh, I don't know if you remember the episode, but Dwight he's listened to his, I think metal music or something, and then banging his head against his seat in his car, stuff like that. I mean, Dwight got it right in the office. Do things like that. Just get yourself pumped, get yourself fired up. And then as you combine all these things, I've found, that's how I'm getting myself in a state to go in there. Even if I'm tired, even if I'm not feeling it, these things really helped me get in that peak state and get myself in the mood to go and clues that deal or go out and knock that door. Or if I'm getting rejected hard, sometimes I, uh, do these same techniques to bring me out of it. So let me know if you guys have any other things you were doing to get yourself in a peak mental state, but super important.Speaker 2 (16:19):Sometimes we don't think about this mental side as much and really sells so much of it is mental, right? You can learn all the closing techniques. You can learn all the cool lines, the slick lanes from Taylor McCarthy and always, you know, top closers. You can learn it all, but if you are not in the right mental state, it's going to be tough to have the success. And no matter what you say, if you're not seeing it confident, if you're not coming across as the boss in the room, it's going to be tough to close deals. So think about that. Write down. I want you to write down after this episode, what is the things you're committed to doing to get yourself in that peak mental state? Okay. So maybe you're going to start out with your boom boom stick. Make sure you get that anchoring in what is your pre deal routine, write it out and then commit to that. And then that's how you're going to be able to trigger these emotions, trigger this confidence, trigger this wave of success coming your way. Hope that helped share it with someone, you know, is struggling maybe with their clothing or struggle with their mental state and try it today. Look forward to connecting with you all. And we will see you on the next one.Speaker 3 (17:33):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Learn more about https://siro.ai/Sign up for www.solciety.co! 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 Taylor Armstrong here back with another fabulous episode. We've got a great guest here on today. We, um, always love to feature new products. New software we're finding out about here is Solarpreneurs. So I've got one that I'm stoked for you guys to hear about, and he's going to tell us all about it and kind of his background with everything. So we've got Mr. Joe Jordan on the show junkie, Joe. Thanks for coming on with us today.Speaker 3 (01:08):Taylor it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.Speaker 2 (01:11):Yeah, for sure, man. And, um, I was telling you before we kind of made the connection. I usually just pretty much delete people's messages. They send me, um, if, if I, you know, feel like they're trying to pitch me something and I'm like, oh whatever, but when you, when you messages me, it actually caught my attention. I'm like, wow, I've never heard like a product like this. So this actually might be worth hearing out. And so sure enough, I heard them out and pretty frequent awesome where you guys are doing with the product. So, uh, before we get into it, do you want us to kind of give people, uh, Jen, uh, I guess just a general overview of what your company is and what the product is that you guys do. And then obviously we'll get into a lot more detail here in a little bit.Speaker 3 (01:52):Sure. So Siro is a sales coaching platform for field sales and door to door sales teams. So how zero works reps record all their conversations with customers through CRM and they'll surface to you their most coachable moments from their conversations that day. And at the end of the day in between your own doors at lunch, whatever it might be for you as a sales leader, you can jump into each moment and respond to them with a role play or piece of advice as easily as you might respond to a text message. Okay.Speaker 2 (02:25):Yeah, super awesome. And I had never really, I mean, I'm sure most people listen to this podcast. I think most of us have just recorded ourselves on like voice memos or some type of recording app. But, um, once Joe showed me on all the features, which we'll get into in more depth here in a little bit, um, it just made it so much easier to, you know, get transcriptions that are recording, help your team out. And yeah, just so much more streamlined than trying to do this on a voice recording app and, you know, listen back to it. So, uh, cool. Anyways, that's what the is, that's what the Siro software is. And so before we get into that, Joe, do you want to kind of walk us through your background, just like cells in general and the queen here, um, kind of your background in that whole, in the whole industry?Speaker 3 (03:14):Yeah, I'd love to. So my, my story and sales starts my freshmen summer in college. I got a letter in the mail to sell Cutco knives for vector marketing, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but it sounded like something that would look better on my resume than camp counselor. So, uh, I tried it, I ended up really liking it and being pretty good at it. Um, my after my first summer, I was the only student asked to come run the division headquarters as a sales manager of the following campaign. And we started with one sales rep at the beginning of the summer and ended up hiring over 180 throughout the course of the summer and being one of the top, top offices in the company that year. And it was an amazing experience. I learned so much from that, which I'm happy to talk more about.Speaker 3 (04:04):Um, and then next up for me as I finished up college, I wanted to get really good at building things, creating products. So I did a stint in software engineering and Amazon over on the Alexa team. So, you know, Michael, my, you know, Alexa wake me up to Michael Jackson. That was us. And, uh, when I, when I graduated college, I teamed up with my partner, Jake Ronan, who also got started in Cutco, spent two years at McKinsey. And, uh, we both quit, our jobs, started working on this thing and we've been doing that for about the past year or so. And then, Hey,Speaker 2 (04:37):Love it. That's cool. Did you guys know each other in Cutco then, or you just kind of made that connection after we met each other?Speaker 3 (04:44):So it's actually a really funny story. Uh, we didn't know each other while we were at Cutco, but we were both building separate competing apps for Cutco sales reps to make phone calls through, uh, without sort of knowing about each other. And Jake saw me on the app store, saw my app reached out to me, asked if I wanted to work together and, uh, working with Jake ended up being the best decision, uh, by far that I've made so far in my, in my young business career has been an awesome partner and we've done some, some really great things together. Yeah.Speaker 2 (05:19):That's awesome. Well, that's cool. And yeah. What makes it even cores? You guys have the Cutco background because, um, I think that makes, for me that makes a lot more powerful that you guys have been in sales. You know, what people kind of struggle with. And, um, all of the sales concepts is pretty similar across, you know, all industries. So it makes it a really powerful as you guys are, um, you know, trying to get your product launched and in, in the hands of more sales teams, which is awesome. But yeah, I wanted to hear a little bit about, more about your cook co background, Joe. Um, you guys got my mad respect just because to me that sounds like a, I don't know, like a tough product to sell. Maybe you tell me, but, um, like Caicos it pretty, pretty rough start, or how has it just like getting started in Cutco?Speaker 3 (06:07):Yeah. Uh, it was an awesome introduction to sales. Um, once you get in the home, uh, doing the demo, the product actually does a pretty decent job of, of selling itself. Um, the toughest part is actually booking the appointments over the phone and that's probably what is the most similar to the door to door experience. And because of that, we've seen a lot of people graduate from Costco into door to door and do really well. Um, and the biggest things that that I learned from from Cutco, um, the first thing was just that personal growth is not just a means to other ends. Um, it's an end in itself and it's one of the most noble ends. There is, um, it was a really growth focused culture. And I think all of direct sales, including DOD is very focused on, on growth as well. And it's one of the most rewarding things that you can focus on for yourself.Speaker 3 (07:04):Um, and at the risk of sounding like I'm tooting my own horn here. Um, you know, I, I graduated from Wharton, um, which is the best business school in the world, but I would trade, um, the Wharton experience for the Cutco experience. If someone made me the two things I learned at, at Costco that I would not have been able to learn anywhere else where risk tolerance and rejection tolerance, and those two things are not optional. Those are requirements. If you want to go out and start your own business. And I think the lack of those two attributes are the number one thing, holding Americans back in today's economy.Speaker 2 (07:46):Yeah, no, I agree. A hundred percent. And that's interesting. So your Cutco, was it door to door to, or was it mostly just like phone setting appointments and going to homes?Speaker 3 (07:56):Yeah, it was mostly setting appointments over the phone and then doing the appointments. And, um, once I'd set them up, I don't tell my manager, we're not supposed to do this, but I did go door to door a little bit in one of those pushes because I was running well on weeds and then wanted to try something new. Um, as one might expect my first time out there, I wasn't too hot, but the push ended up going, going well for me. SoSpeaker 2 (08:20):That's cool. So they like to encourage you to not go door to door, then they pretty much told me, you know, don't go door to door, just focus on the phone.Speaker 3 (08:28):Yeah. You start out with, with people, you know, that you practice with, you call them book appointments, and then at each appointment, um, you know, you ask for referrals and then sort of call those guys. Yeah.Speaker 2 (08:40):Okay. Gotcha. Now what's really cool. Cause I've heard a few people that have that background that are now in the solar industry and are crushing it now. And, um, a lot of things they learned from Cutco, they're applying to their solar cells and I know it's helping them a ton. Matter of fact, we had a guest on his name was Matt Crowder. I don't know if you'd know him, but, uh, he sold Cutco for, I think years too. And he just said the biggest thing for him is the like referral principles and Cutco. Cause he was just talking about how in every Cutco presentation, the next thing you had to do was just pretty much go through their whole list of contacts and say, all right, let's see what they could, could they possibly bike at the end, just help the customer get you referrals and really incentivize them for that. So he's getting just mountains of referrals now in solar. And I think it's just cause that Cutco journey, cause he knew that every single Cutco presentation he was walking out with referrals. So yeah. Tell me about, is that, would you agree with that? Was it pretty focused on referrals? And do you want to tell us a little bit about your referral process when you were in Cutco?Speaker 3 (09:41):Yeah, sure thing. Um, it's definitely very heavily focused on referrals because the number one thing you need as a sales rep to keep your business going is referrals. Like I'd rather have an appointment where it's a no sell, but I got 10 referrals then an appointment where I sell a $1,200 set and get zero referrals. Um, and we let people know that that the best way to prep people for referrals upfront is to get them tied into your personal story. So the most important thing that I've role play with reps, um, ad Cutco is their goal sharing at the beginning of the presentation. And so, um, before I have my reps dive into their conversations, I have them say by the way, um, before we dive into this, do you mind if I share my goals with you? And after that we let the rep authentically tell their story and share why they're in this business, why they're excited about the product, why they're sitting down in front of you and what I'm working on and how you can help me towards that.Speaker 3 (10:43):And once you get someone tied into you like that, when you make a friend before you make a sale, um, and they feel like they want to help you, that's the, that's the first step to opening the door to having them give you referrals. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing you want to do is just name drop. Um, as you go, uh, people that referred you on the way to that person and it's like, Hey, by the way, but so-and-so loved about it was this with so-and-so loved about the presentation was that, um, and sort of get them feeling like everyone gives a ton of referrals. And then the last neat trick that I saw, a lot of people do at, at Cutco is when they're asking for referrals, um, they'll take a binder with everyone's referrals that they wrote down on them.Speaker 3 (11:25):They're if you collect them like on a phone or using red card or something like that, just go back in and write them down on a piece of paper afterwards. And when you open the binder to get their referrals, just flip through a bunch of pages, full of names before you get to that one page that's empty. Um, and you can sort of make a show that like, oh, I can't find like a, like an open one, wait a second. Oh, here we go. Um, and, and that, those are the sort of the, the big three tips on referrals there. Yeah.Speaker 2 (11:54):That's awesome. No, I like that. And I like the personal story. That's something my Catherine really chaired before signing. That's cool. And so for like personal story, are you talking more like kind of their business goals? Or can you give us an example for what you mean by like say I'm telling you my personal story. What would your story be? When were you when you were open in these presentations?Speaker 3 (12:14):Sure. So how to put myself in the Headspace of a 19 year old Joe here, um, it was something like, you know, I got a letter in the mail for this job and I thought it seemed kind of weird, like selling knives, but I ended up really loving this thing because as an athlete, my favorite thing about this is the harder I work and the better I get, the more money, the more money I earned, but more importantly, the more things I learned and I want to run my own business someday. And when I love about this is it teaches me how to face rejection. Um, it teaches me how to make sales, which is something that's super important, um, everywhere else and there's opportunities to advance. So my biggest goal with you here today is that you like me, you want to recommend me to your friends and you'd recommend me for the promotion I have coming up. And in order to hit it, my goal was to get to $10,000 in sales by the end of the week, right now I'm at 5,000. Um, you don't have to buy the other 5,000 just to help me out by the way Mrs. Jones, if you do, that would be great. Um, but really I'm just here to, to, to, to work on my goals and make sure we're friends by the end of this presentation,Speaker 2 (13:27):Um, that's fire. I love that. It's cool. Cause you're getting them emotionally bought in and I'm sure they taught you this all the time, but you know, people buy with their emotion, then they're justifying it with the logic. So I think, especially in solar, we get caught up more in the logic piece of it, just because solar is so logical for people. It's like, look, you're paying 200 bucks a month right now. You're only gonna pay one 60 with solar. And then so many times, especially a newer reps, that's all they focus on. Um, but then they get cancels. They get people shopping out and everything. But I think that's the important thing that, especially in solar, we forget about if you can get these people bought in emotionally and then kind of bought into your cause that, oh, you're, um, we're trying to get to more, you know, this week or whatever.Speaker 2 (14:08):I liked that line a lot and people are a lot more willing to help you out and want to see you succeed and then obviously get more referrals from it too. So that's awesome. I'm definitely something I'm going to play with that. So, uh, yeah. Personal story, make the friend and then name drop as you go. And then yeah, I remember my, my buddy Matt Crowder that was on the podcast. He said a similar thing with the name list where he would just, you know, have a sheet all filled in and then he would just pass in the sheet and it wasn't even like an option really. He just said, okay. So yeah, what we do with everyone is we just help you get like, um, at least 10 people that could potentially benefit from our product. And so I'll help you. And then he would basically just have them go through their contacts and get they'll send people not limited to den. So, uh, yeah, that's been actually helping me a ton with referrals and slower as well. Um, but yeah, that's awesome. And then anything else? Um, how long, how long did you do Cutco for, by the way, Joe?Speaker 3 (15:06):Sure. So I was a sales rep for about a year and a half and then a sales manager for a campaign and a half.Speaker 2 (15:14):Okay. What does a campaign, what does that mean?Speaker 3 (15:17):Also a campaign is a third of the year, so there's the spring campaign, the fall campaign in the summer campaign. Um, gotcha.Speaker 2 (15:25):Cool. Okay. And so after Cutco, that's, when you went and did the whole business school thing and gotten the software stuff after thatSpeaker 3 (15:32):That's right. Yeah. I was sort of doing the business school and Cutco in parallel. Uh, I was in both the engineering school and the Wharton school at Penn. So, um, I was sort of getting the business and the technical side and the sales side all at the same time. So it was really a whirlwind of, of learning. Um, and my last summer going towards the end of college was when I did that software engineering stint at an Amazon, got a chance to write some real production code for a company that has some of the best engineering practices out there.Speaker 2 (16:04):Wow. That's incredible. That's awesome. Um, so I'm curious to know at Cutco we're like, role-plays a huge same as your in Cutco is. And would you say that contributed you to you like eventually making Siro and everything? Um, tell me about thatSpeaker 3 (16:20):For sure. Um, so I was driven to start Siro by two feelings that I had while I Cutco the first was just an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the amazing experience that I got while I was there. I would not be where I am without my cocktail experience. There's no way I could have started this thing. And the second feeling was just frustration that I couldn't replicate that experience for the people I was responsible for coaching. I had a ton of people that I was working with who were perfectly capable of creating awesome experiences, having the success I had, but their results weren't meeting their expectations. And I didn't have the time to help them. And even when I could set aside like an hour to sit down with them and figure out what was going wrong, um, it was really difficult to make that time productive because someone can tell me what's going wrong, but usually they're not right about it.Speaker 3 (17:18):And sometimes reps, aren't totally honest with you about what's going wrong and it's not because they're trying to deceive you. Like when you're struggling, the first person you lie to is yourself. And, you know, we might role play, but the way they role play is not going to be the way they role play with the customer. They might say they're having trouble handling this objection, but really the problems earlier in the conversation because it didn't gain the customer's trust. So I just thought, how awesome would it be if I could be a fly on the wall in these conversation and just listened to your last three or four referral approaches and see why you're not getting referrals, you know, listen to how you're sharing your goals. So I know why you're not getting the customer on your side. And, um, that that's sort of where the idea for this thing came from just the ability not to jump in and listen to an end tire hour long breezing and listen to the stuff that I knew reps were struggling with and leave them some feedback on a, on a situation they actually had. Hm.Speaker 2 (18:11):Yeah. That's cool. And when you were at Cutco where you guys kind of doing this whole same old school stuff of district coordinator on your phones and doing that, or did you have any like similar thing at Costco where you guys recorded yourselves?Speaker 3 (18:25):Yeah, so we, we tried it, um, a couple of times, but the problem was, it was difficult to do at scale because of how long these conversations were, you know, waiting through a voice memo, even getting a rep to send you a voice memo. Once they recorded actually turns out to be a pretty big problem. Um, and not knowing when they actually had their appointments and when they missed her record. So it was difficult to do as an office system. And so we only ended up using it sparingly. Um,Speaker 2 (18:58):Yeah, no, it makes sense. And that's pretty much the same that I've seen on solar sales seems to, it's just like, um, I don't know, sales reps just think it's a hassle. They don't want to get their phones out. They forget. And then they, after Korea, like 10 times before they get one, that's like an actual conversation, things like that. So it is a big ask and pretty much the only way we've gotten our teams to do it in the past is just like incentivizing say, Hey, if you guys record this day, we'll give you like 30 bucks just for recording. That's all you need to do. And even that sometimes like pulling teeth to get reps, to actually go out and do this just because if it is, you know, kind of a hassle and it is something they have to remember and, um, put forth effort to do.Speaker 2 (19:40):So I think that's a big key that you guys have. Um, I mean, you still got to put forth that effort with Siro and we'll talk about that more, but I think it just makes a lot easier and a lot more streamlined, so there's way less hassle. And then the rep doesn't have to remember to send you their reporting. It just gets sent to the manager automatically, things like that. Um, but yeah. So tell, um, you wanna tell us a little bit more about like how it first got started then, and then why you guys decided to like focus on the door to door industry and specific for your software, Joe?Speaker 3 (20:12):Sure. So we, we were always excited, uh, about door to door. Uh, from the very beginning we were talking to guys that at Vivint and other companies in the space, and we knew it was time to double down and focus mainly on door to door, especially solar. Um, after talking with Conner Ruggio they had decided at Aptive they were willing to pay just to try this thing based on the designs we had, we hadn't even built anything written, a single line of code. And he was like, yeah, this thing is awesome. We want to try this. And that's when we knew it's time to focus the door to door space. And so we launched a pilot with Aptive this past summer. Um, and since then we've gotten 40,000 sales conversations in the system. We have over 1300 reps who have used this thing and over 4,000 coaching comments have been sent through the system. Um, and that's just in the past couple of months here.Speaker 2 (21:07):Yeah. That's incredible. How did you guys first make the connection with it? You said his name was Conner from AptiveSpeaker 3 (21:13):Conner Ruggio. Uh, one of the presidents of sales over there. We reached out to him over LinkedIn. Um, it turns out Jake and I are pretty good at getting people to read our messages, even though a lot of people get gets fan. Um, so that's how we made the connection.Speaker 2 (21:28):Yeah. Okay. That's awesome. And no, I mean, that's all it takes too is, um, I mean, we're going through a similar thing actually, right now I've told you a little bit, but we've watched her Solciety, um, kind of training platform. So we're going through a similar thing, just trying to get that big domino and get people to start using it because once people see the benefits and you have some case studies and be like, look, look what the results they got helps a ton. Um, so yeah. Do you want, do you have any like stouts on results that, uh, and any like huge improvements that you saw from people Aptive or did they tell you, like, I don't know, some cool stats that you have to report from people that have been using it so far?Speaker 3 (22:05):Sure, sure. Um, so the biggest thing that people are loving about it so far is the time savings for sales leaders. We have guys who are saying, they went from spending 20 hours shadowing to spending two hours in Siro in a week, getting a certain amount of coaching value. Um, my favorite example is Logan Porter. He's a team lead over at Aptive. Um, he said that since they started using Siro faithfully, he saw the progression of this rookies pitches and sales increase exponentially. And when you look at the number of accounts sold per day, uh, for these reps, you can predict, uh, almost exactly what day they sought a recording and Siro because their accounts like double or triple, and he loved that. But his favorite part about it was how much time it gave him back. You know, a lot of us who are, who are coaching in this industry also have our own sales to make. And it's really difficult when you feel like you have to make a choice between [inaudible].Speaker 3 (23:07):And so, as an example, Logan, the week two of last summer, so the 11 accounts personally, and that's because he was doing a bunch of shadowing this summer after a couple of initial shadows, he was mostly coaching through Siro and he was able to sell 26 accounts personally that week. So almost doubling his personal sales, just because of those time savings there. Um, now obviously pest control pitches are much shorter than like a solar closing conversation. They might be anywhere from 10, 15 or 20 minutes, but why a Janet led like a hundred reps underneath them as a regional, got to the point where he could listen to 20 pitches in 12 minutes.Speaker 2 (23:49):Wow. That's so cool. And yeah, I mean, it's funny, cause it sounds like it's almost more beneficial probably to like the managers than it is, you know, like the new reps. Cause obviously it goes both ways, but like all the time-saving aspect of it and like you're mentioning the ability to be able to focus way more on yourselves and having to go out to people's areas, do more shadowing and uh, yeah, I mean, Joe, even, so we started using, it means, um, one of our coaching clients here over at, uh, that Solciety, we started using it. And um, could you not, I had been bugging my coaching client, his name's man I'd been bugging him for probably two and a half weeks and like, Hey man, send me a recording. Let's just do like a, you know, door approach analysis. Let's see if there's anything we can focus on, help you out and does the same old story like, oh Taylor, I forgot.Speaker 2 (24:44):Oh Taylor, I didn't get any good recordings today. Oh, Taylor, um, my phone deleted it, like all this same stuff you hear from reps over and over. And then right when we got Siro hooked up for both of us is like, you know, the next hour we are already lined up and I was already able to give them feedback. And I know he's seen, you know, improvements quickly now just because, you know, it's way better system set up. So yeah. Um, I think that's the main thing is just the time saving aspect and then being able to focus, especially I can imagine if you're leading a huge team, like I was getting overwhelmed, just trying to do this and bug one person to send it to me. So I can't even imagine time-saving with like you leading a team of like 20, 30 reps and then trying to bug them all to send and recording.Speaker 2 (25:27):So I think that's huge. Um, but no, that's cool. And so, yeah. Do you want to tell, like maybe just give us a walkthrough more and we can dig a little bit more into the features and then, um, tell us, I dunno, how, how they've been helped for any, uh, I guess any more takeaways from the features. So I guess first of all, records people on the app. So I don't know, maybe give us like, I guess sell us on serial here. If you're trying to get like a new client, tell us what the features are and how it's beneficial to the teams. You don't mind.Speaker 3 (26:00):Um, so again, sort of the one sentence overview is zero keeps your reps learning by recording all their conversations and servicing to you the most coachable moments. So you can dive into each one and respond to them like you would a text message. And so what that looks like for, for guys on the doors, they'll record right through Sera, either on their iPhone, their Android, or their tablet, any mobile device. And when they're done with the conversation, they can optionally send a moment from it to their coach. So wherever they felt like they were struggling, um, and it'll go to the coaches inbox. And as a coach, I can go through this inbox, choose which ones I want to dive into based on the, of like what the rep needs help with. And once I open it up, it might be a 10 minute recording, a 15 minute recording, a 60 minute recording.Speaker 3 (26:51):Obviously I don't have time to listen to a ton of these. So what I want to do is get to the point where the rep needs the most help, give them that feedback and move on to the next conversation. And that's helpful because it saves time for me, but B because a rep can only get one or two takeaways and actually implement them at one time. Anyway. So when you're spending like an hour diving deep on a reps conversation, a lot of that hour is wasted because they're only going to be able to take away a small portion of those things. So as an example, and this was super common for me, I'm sure it's common for you guys. Um, imagine you have a rep who the customer is asking questions that are demonstrating they're, they're interested and they're asking questions. And the rep is just busy entering the questions, losing control of the conversation and they don't set the appointment.Speaker 3 (27:42):Um, so if a rep flag that for me, uh, they flag setting the appointment. I could jump in and listen to them. Um, as they're struggling to handle this, this customer's questions and the moment I hear him starting to lose the conversation, I can hit audio comment and record how they might've role-played it better. So I say, Hey, next time, just answer this question and then try something like this. But when our technician comes around tomorrow, they'll be able to handle all those questions for you and make sure you're all up to speed to mornings or afternoons work better for you. Then you send that comment will resume the conversation and you can listen for the next moment before you move on to the next one. Um, so that's sort of the, how the coaching flow works. Now. The other value proposition that I think is actually even better for reps is the chance to learn from some of the top people around the company who match my sales style.Speaker 3 (28:41):So if there's a situation that a lot of people are struggling with, maybe it's like the spouse, not home objection or explaining net metering correctly. The moment someone on the team nails it, you can just clip that portion and drop it into group meeting or the WhatsApp, put it in the training library and a recognize them for doing a great job and incentivize everyone else on the team to try and nail those things so they can get their conversations, uh, shared and sort of flex on everyone. Um, but you also educate the other guys. And the moment you give a rep, an example of a sales rep who matches their style, that's better than them crushing something. You give them a target. And I think a lot of people struggle with superficial wise, like money, motivation, things like that. But once a rep gets a vision of who they want to become, what they could be like in two to three months, if they keep learning, then they have intrinsic motivation and that's a Y um, that can actually withstand the adversity that you face every day out on the doors when it's lonely out there.Speaker 2 (29:46):I love that. And now it's cool because especially if it's like, I don't know, a new year rep or a first year rep for a newer rep, um, it's like, it doesn't necessarily have to be an experienced guy. That's getting their clips and out you be like, Hey, this is someone's for their first year two. And then they're seeing that, okay, we got a new rep, that's already crushing it. He's already being featured. And then I think it's cool for people to be able to see, um, you know, reps in similar situations and be able to, um, just have that motivation, you know, copy what they're seeing. That's cool. I didn't even, I didn't even realize that. I don't think so. It's almost doubles as like a training platform to, for the company to be able to see clips. And then so once, so can you save on there? And, um, everyone that has access to the app, they can see kind of the top, uh, I don't know, I guess overcoming objections or whatever that clip might be and they can go on there and access that later too.Speaker 3 (30:40):Yeah, that's right. So we'll silo it to your company. Um, so that only people in your company are able to access it. There'll be a trending section for the top clips at the time across any category. And then we'll create custom categories for you based on what you think reps should be able to dive into and, and focus on. Um, and because Siro, bookmarks all the key places of the conversation and transcribes it, it's really easy to find clips that will match those things. So if you know, if there's a rep that's really great at pricing, you just want to populate the training library, just like you would, when you're giving some poaching feedback, you open up one of their recordings. We'll bookmark where they went over pricing, where they encountered this ice decise breaker and where they got the business card smoke screen. Um, and you can jump right to where, you know, there'll be crushing it, um, highlight the piece of the transcript, which we'll also provide for you automatically where they're crushing it and then share it either to your group. Me WhatsApp, I message. And then right to the training library and zero.Speaker 2 (31:40):Wow. Yeah, that's incredible. So much, so much time saving right there. And then, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you, so you'll add in that you can add in your company's presentation or pitch or whatever, and then it'll like automatically kind of categorize it based on kind of what step they're on and things like that too. Right?Speaker 3 (31:59):Exactly. And that's what makes these moments as easy to respond to as a text message is the ability to jump right to them and what our conversation engine will do over time is learn your pitch. So it knows this is what pricing looks like for this organization. Um, and obviously reps will differ on how they say certain things. Um, but it will be robust enough to detect, um, uh, differences across reps and let you know where they're doing the intro pricing, um, net metering, you know, explaining your company and, and so forth.Speaker 2 (32:37):That's cool. So this thing is like learning. It's like, uh, I guess that's why it's AI, right? It's like learning your pitch and, um, becoming smarter as days, go on stuff like that. It's not going to come alive and destroy the planet or anything. [inaudible],Speaker 2 (32:58):That's awesome though. So yeah, I mean, in all seriousness, so much time saving and I noticed that too, just, um, just the transcripts. That's another big thing. Cause, um, like how many times have we have to listen just like fluff, that's going on? Just like stuff. That's not even part of the presentation where as I was using it with men, our coaching client, I was able to just skip past all the stuff that's okay. I don't need to listen to hear them talk about their dog or how fluffy their cat was or how fat that cat was. So I don't need to listen to all that. I'm just going to go straight to the meat and potatoes and give them the feedback he needs and then get out and get out of there. So yeah, that's something I was really impressed with. So yeah, ton of cool features.Speaker 2 (33:37):And, uh, Joe, I know you guys are focused primarily on companies and that's probably how it's most beneficial if companies can use it and, um, you know, share all this throughout the entire organization. But, um, do you have any right now, do you have just like individual reps or let's say other companies aren't, I don't know, fully bought in on the, on the idea yet. Do you have any examples of just like reps using it for themselves or ways that it just looks like a single rep wanting to use it, that they could, you know, be able to still get benefits with it? DoSpeaker 3 (34:07):Sure. So, um, most of our clients right now, um, started out with a handful of teams or even just one team who started using this thing. Um, we had a meeting, a sales demo the other day with the guys at Google fiber out in Utah. And the reason they set the meeting was because the rep from Aptive came over and said, Hey, like, let's try this zero thing and booked a meeting with me. Um, so if you're a rep who is excited about using Siro to record your pitches, being able to digest them faster, um, and get more access to your coach, um, let them know and send them to our website, book a demo. I'm happy to speak to them and get your team on it. And, uh, if your team likes it, then we can, we can talk about moving it up after that. But, um, we're perfectly happy to work with any sales team, larger, small, um, our mission with this thing. I think direct sales is an amazing opportunity in this country. I think it's one of the most meritocratic industries that exists and is going to equip you with the skills you need to succeed. So you know what, whatever you are larger, small, we'll put together a plan that we can, we can get you on this thing and help you achieve those things.Speaker 2 (35:24):Yeah, for sure. And, and no, I'm, I think Joe and your team, you guys are super giving and, you know, trying to really train to get it out. So, um, I think even if you just want to like check it out and go back to your team, that's how you can experience it and just try it for yourself. And then, um, for sure, go back to your team. Cause that's how it's going to be most beneficial is getting an entire team on it and getting you guys all bought in and helping each other. Um, so yeah, speaking to that before we kind of start wrapping up here, Joe, um, just, um, to be able to connect with you and get the demo and all that, is it just best to go to your website or where's the best place people can kind of reach out to you and, um, be able to book a demo and everything.Speaker 3 (36:04):Sure. Head to www.siro.ai. And you can just book a demo with us there, let us know that you heard of us from Solarpreneurs and we'll get you a discount in there as well. And I'm happy to talk to you and figure out how we can help you.Speaker 2 (36:22):Awesome. So guys, our Solarpreneurs go take Joe up on this. If you're not recording yourself right now, it's probably because of those excuses that you taught that you're telling yourself, like I was just takes too much time. It's too much hassle. You have to go back and find the parts that I'll put that are applicable to you. And what school I was telling you about this, Joe. But we had a guest on, I think it was about a month ago now about Mikey Lucas. He's a consulting, a lot of people in solar, I'm helping out a ton of people. And that was one of his top tips is tops trainings that he did. He actually did a training for our team do. And she gave us like a sheet and he was like, guys, I guarantee you, if you just start recording yourself, you don't even have to send it to managers or other people just record yourself and then go through this checklist and give yourself the feedback.Speaker 2 (37:08):And I think that's 90% of the problem. People just aren't willing to record themselves. Cause you don't even have to give your, you don't have to send it to anyone necessarily, but it's like, you know, I was a musician. Like that's what I studied in school and everything. And I think the times when I improved the most is because I was recording myself like crazy and I was going back and just me listening to it. I didn't even have to get feedback, but it's like, cause we think we say one thing, we think we're doing it one way, but the recording never lies. Right. We can go back and listen and it might be completely different how we thought we were doing it. So that's another thing. Um, just even if you're not using it with your team, start recording yourself and Siro, I think is the best tool that I've seen. I'd never heard anything like this. So appreciate you guys, Joe, for coming up with the, uh, you know, the software and it's gonna, I think it's going to change the industry. And I think you've already seen that too. So, um, yeah, I know we've got to wrap up pretty quick, Joe, but uh, any, um, we always kind of leave with just, uh, any final words of advice or anything that you can leave with that the solar industry specifically, do you feel like could help our Solarpreneurs out, out here trying to change the world?Speaker 3 (38:18):Yeah, absolutely. So my biggest thing in sales guys is you have to have a really strong why, obviously it's not an easy business and if you're wiser, superficial, they're not going to be able to withstand the adversity that you're going to face. Um, and the best exercise that I'm aware of to find a why is to think about if you were able to execute at a hundred percent and fully realize your potential for the next 12 months and truly perform to the maximum of, of your natural abilities, what would you sell? Like what numbers would you put up and then take a look at that number and think about what kind of person you'd have to become to hit those numbers. What it would feel like to wake up as that person in the morning, what it would feel like to, um, to, to interact with other people as that person and to fully embody that in your daily life.Speaker 3 (39:15):And that's a reward that is worth going after. And that's a why that can withstand the university on the doors and any plan to become that that person will include recording yourself on the doors to take ownership over your conversations, to perform at your highest ability. And whether you record those things in, in Siro or not, make sure you do record them. If you're not you're burning money and potentially even losing out on, on faster promotions. The moment I started doing this, I doubled my average order and I could have got promoted way faster had I done it earlier. So whether it's through zero or not record your conversations, if you want to do it through Siro head to www.siro.ai and I'm happy to chat. Good luck on the doors guys.Speaker 2 (40:04):I love it. Fire Joe. Thanks. Thanks again for coming on guys, go check out his software. It's going to change the way you sell, bring it back to your teams. And uh, yeah, like Joe said, whatever you do, just record yourself, even if you don't get on it. So thanks again for coming on Joe. And hopefully we get lots of people reaching out to, if anything, go give him a shout out and let him know you appreciated everything he shared on the episode today. So, Joe, thanks again for coming on my man.Speaker 3 (40:28):My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you, Taylor. All right.Speaker 2 (40:31):We'll talk soon. Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co! 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 up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here today. We're going to talk about why recording yourself is a must in today's sells environments. And also we're going to demo an exciting new software that you should be using to record yourselves more on that later. Welcome to the podcast. If you are a newcomer, appreciate you tuning in, and if you are new, we are all about helping you generate more leads, close, more deals, and get more referrals and make it a boss to be in this awesome solar industry. Hope we can accomplish that for you today. Just got back from an appointment and myself, I don't know if this has happened to you guys. I'm sure it has, but confirm with the, uh, with the wife and I'm like, Hey, uh, her name was, I think Mary Jane, I'm like Mary Jane. I'm uh, on my way.Speaker 2 (01:35):Husband's going to be there. Right? Make sure both decision makers are there. She's like, yeah, yeah, come on over Taylor. I show up sure enough. Guess what? Her husband's not home yet. She opens the door, comes outside and he's like, can you just show me what you got? And I'm like, well, I mean, I want to make sure we answer both you and your husband's questions. So she calls up her husband and sure enough, her husband's, you know, like go kick rocks tells me to get out of there. It says not interested. That's like, come on guys. That's the beauty of this industry though. I mean, you'd see it all you deal with all, you can confirm things 20 times and you still get people like that. So tests your patience, but Hey, happens to the best of us. Right? You just got to move on, go to that next door and push hard.Speaker 2 (02:25):So sorry, a little side story there, but just fresh on my mind anyways. So today's topic before we jump into that, just wanted to let you know, shoot me a message. If you guys have any topics, suggestions, if you have things you're struggling with, if you have things you want us to talk about guests, you want us to bring on the show. We're always looking for new people and we're always looking for different topics because I'm going to share, what's working for me. I'm going to share struggles that I'm going through, but really it's about you. We're here to serve our Solarpreneur audience. And we want to know what you guys think. We want to know what you're struggling with and how we can serve you better. So let us know, give us some feedback and again, appreciate all the reviews we got coming in and do.Speaker 2 (03:09):That's how we get more exposure on the show. But more importantly, if you can share this on social media, if you can send it to someone that's struggling, that's really helping us grow as well. So appreciate all the shares, all the tags on social media, you guys are awesome. So today's topic. The reason why I'm talking about this, if you haven't figured out the structure of the podcast yet for right now, it's basically every two episodes I'm coming at you with, um, things that are helping me with topics that I think are valuable with a specific things that are, uh, helping me have success that week. So it goes every, I do two episodes bringing some fire for you, and then we have a guest episode. So next week's guest, um, is someone named, uh, Joe, um, okay. I'm drawing a blank on his last name, but Joe, he created a software where you can record yourselves and use it with your teams.Speaker 2 (04:08):And it's super, super dope. You're not going to want to miss out if we're going to get into the nitty gritty of it. But, um, just to give you a little preview for next episode, um, you're not gonna want to miss out because he's going to go through all the features of the recording software and trust me, it's going to make it so much easier to record yourself and give reps feedback because it transcribes the recordings. It puts them into bite sized pieces and it breaks down where reps are struggling and tags unit. So you can give specific feedback and also makes it easier for you to give yourself feedback. So don't miss out on next episode, but today just wanted to really reiterate why it's important that you're recording yourselves. I know we've talked about that in some recent episodes. If you haven't listened to the Mike, Mike, you Lucas podcast, go listen to that.Speaker 2 (05:00):It's something that he swears by. It's something that he's used with his team to have massive improvements. Just recording yourself because when you record yourself, that's where you really see your weaknesses. That's where you see your chinks in your armor. So to speak. Sometimes we think, we think we're so awesome. We think we're saying everything super clear. We're explaining it, um, how the customer would understand, but then we would go back and listen. It's completely different than we thought. And I've talked about it. I go back and listen to my podcasts. And sometimes I think I sound freaking awesome too. And it's way different at times than I thought so happens. They're running. If you haven't recorded yourself, if you're not recording yourself, go and do it. Even if you're a super experienced rep, um, it's still important to record yourselves. I go on streaks where I'm closing deals and things are going great.Speaker 2 (05:55):And I forget that I should record myself, but I always get some nuggets when I go back and listen to any recording that I make. No matter how on fire, I feel. So I want to invite you to start recording yourselves again, this software that we're going to talk about on the next episode is going to make it 10 times easier to do that, but just wanted to get into a few reasons why you should do it more often. If you're not doing it and then leave it at that and hopefully leave you on a cliffhanger. So you go check out the next podcast. Hey, but really, um, number one, recording yourself is cause you sound much different than you think. So. Talked about that a little bit, but um, I always compare it to just learning a musical instrument, a N S mini, you know, that's what I studied in my university.Speaker 2 (06:47):I was studying percussion drums, playing it. Sometimes I would think I was playing my drums right on the beat. I was a grooving. I was hitting all the fills and rudiments and all that. If any, you know the drums, that's how you're throwing down some grooves. You're throwing in some fills. You're trying to stay on the beat. But many times I will go back and listen to myself. I would be off the beat. My fields wouldn't be how I thought they were. And it just wasn't near as good. So really it's the same thing in cells. I know I talked about that just barely, but when you record yourself, you can experience it from a different perspective. And that's why even more important than like sending it to your manager or anything is given yourself feedback. Because I guarantee you, if you give yourself the feedback first, rather than sending it out to just a manager for outside feedback, what's it going to do?Speaker 2 (07:48):It's going to force you to think what could I have done better? It's going to force you to evaluate yourself and think, did that make sense? What I was saying? Did that make sense? I was explaining it, what I buy from myself. And again, we talked about it in the Mikey Lukey Epps Lucas episode, but he has a rubric that he uses for himself, basically a little scoring sheet. And if you didn't do that, I want you to go hit up Mikey and, or send me a message. I can help you out, get that sheet from him. Cause that's what you're going to want to do. You're going to give yourself a self evaluation before you even send it to any manager or any company owner or whatever. And if you are a team, if you're leading a team right now, or if you're a company owner, make sure you have your reps think because so many times we're just, we just want to get feedback.Speaker 2 (08:39):Uh, Hey, what could I have done better coach coach me. And we're not helping our reps think for themselves. I do it too. I run a coaching program right now. We got guys in there and I have to catch myself all the time from just giving too much feedback and not having the rep think for themselves. I'm thinking back to like Yoda or something, all the star wars fans. How many times did Yoda give the direct, you know, specific thing to do versus coaching Luke Skywalker into what he thinks he should do. He made his jetties think, and that's what we should be doing as team leaders. That's what we should be doing when we coach our reps. So make sure you develop a rubric, hit me up for that or hit Nike Lucas up and then coach yourself before you get outside feedback. Okay.Speaker 2 (09:38):And then number two is try to get some video in there, gain the software we're talking about for next time is only audio, but get some video because you're going to want to analyze your body language. You're going to want to analyze how confident you look. You're going to want to analyze, um, how the interaction went with the customer, where they moving around a lot of different things you can see in video. And so we went to a, um, talked about this a lot too, so sorry, I keep drawing from this, but Danny PESI Taylor McCarthy's event, the knock star event down in key west Ford. I was out that and a lot of the, um, a lot of the different coaching moments, a lot of the teachings they went through was from Taylor McCarthy's own interactions on the doors. That was a big thing in his presentation.Speaker 2 (10:35):He kept pulling up videos of him on the actual doors and going through this, why I do this? This is why I say this supervisor. You will have that video content. And if you don't have why video content of view on the doors of view in presentations, highly recommended because people can learn from that. And that's one of the reasons why this Knox star program is so unique. They have hours and hours of footage, of live action of them on the doors of them closing deals in real time. So you use that and then get recordings from your top reps. This is a super invaluable for trainings for onboarding new people. If you can get recordings of your reps, video and audio, and then they can hear that it's going to help, help them, you know, develop their own presentation and just take elements from people that are most like their selling style and put it in their own presentations.Speaker 2 (11:33):Hey, and so that's another cool feature about the software we're going to be talking about on next episode is that it has the ability to store all these different recordings and then rep reps can go listen to the ones that are featured, um, ones that they feel like is, uh, most similar to their selling, selling style. Okay. So regardless if you use the software or not that we're going to be talking about, it's called serial by the way, S I R O regardless, if you use that, these are things you should be doing, okay. Get your own content, get your own recordings and get your own video content and make sure you have it in a place that reps are actually going to see in use. If you need help. With that, hit us up. We have got a whole training platform that companies are using and they're able to track.Speaker 2 (12:21):They're able to put their own content on there. They're able to see who is actually going on and logging into it, going through it. And they're able to test the reps on it. So if you need a solution for that, that's the next step, get your recordings in one place. And then we can help you put that in a training platform where people are really going to maximize the value they get from it. So make sure you're doing that. Okay. So three things get a rubric, score yourself, record yourself, and Hey, if you got to do an incentive, we did incentives like that all the time where let's be honest, it's tough to get reps sometimes to record themselves out there. But if you're a leaning team throwing a little incentive, we like to do the ones where, uh, you throw something random in your door presentation.Speaker 2 (13:09):We do like, I don't know, may the force be with you guess I'm on a star wars kick today, but have had them say something random in it and then give, I don't know, 20 bucks to whoever does that. That's a way to get people to record themselves, make sure people are doing it and then make sure they're grading themselves before they send it to you. And then another thing is have them condense it down, especially if you're leading a bigger team, you don't want to be going through hours and hours of these recordings, as much as you love your reps, right? Have them condense it down. This is what I do actually have a, a fitness coach right now. And I have to send in videos of the specific workouts, but he always says, Taylor, please trim it down. I don't want to watch 10 minutes of you a warming up or whatever.Speaker 2 (13:58):So I go at trimmed down the video to the specific exercise to the reps he wants me to do, and then I send it to him. Okay. And so something that software, the Ciro software makes way easier as well. But if you're going to do anything, coach your reps to send in a condensed version, the meat and potatoes of it, then it's going to help you be able to listen and give feedback to as many of these as possible. Okay? So most important things get a rubric, um, take examples from it, using, use them in trainings, and then just be a good example. Do it yourself. If you're asking people for these recordings, make sure your coordinator herself as well. So hopefully we've convinced you, you need to be recording yourself. You need to be giving yourself feedback and also getting outside feedback, but more importantly, give yourself feedback and then tune in for next episode, because we're going to be demoing the software.Speaker 2 (14:54):That's going to make it just 10 times easier, so much easier. So don't miss out. We'll see on the next one and it's shoot me some feedback. Let us know if you want us to cover specifics topics or bring on specific guests. So keep crushing hope you close some deals this week and we will see you on the next one.New Speaker (15:14):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 (00:43):Speaker 2: (00:43)Why are you thinking like a real estate agent is a must in the solar industry, and what are the things that they're doing that you're probably not in your solar business? All that and much more in today's episode of the Solarpreneur podcast, let's jump into it. My name's Taylor Armstrong. I'm here to help you generate more referrals, get more leads, close, more deals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry. Hope you're doing well. We're entering fall and I'm loving it. It's cooler. What a perfect time to knock doors, right? Cooler outside. People are not sweating their, their pants off. It's uh, just a great time. The only downside is it does start getting darker a little bit earlier here in, uh, California. It's dark by like seven o'clock, which is kind of a bummer. And then once daylight savings, time hits start at like six.Speaker 2 (01:39):So we've done some episodes on that about why you should be knocking in the dark. Really. It's not that big of a deal, right. But great time to be knocking. And so before we jump into the topic today, wanted to just, um, thank those of you that have connected with me on a social media. I put out a post about an unfortunate experience I had on a Instagram. So thank you to all those who responded and helped me with some feedback on it. You can go, uh, follow me on Instagram, if you didn't see that, but had a unfortunate kind of referral experience that I got some great feedback on. So go check that out. Would love to hear your feedback on it. I did post on my story. So maybe by the time you're listening to this probably won't be up anymore. But, um, just the long story short, I got a referral from someone and they sent me just the address of it.Speaker 2 (02:35):And I did end up closing the deal, which was awesome. So I told him, I said, Hey, got the deal. Um, locked down. I'm going to shoot you a little referral bonus. And this person, they requested that I pay him half the commission on the deal. And I'm like, well, you only gave me the address. It wasn't like a, you know, set appointment or anything. He just sent me the address and told me to go check up on him. He had closed them earlier, I guess in the year, then an up canceling. So he said, Hey, if you're around here, see if you see if you can make something happen. And I did. And he expected half the commission. So I asked for some feedback on that. So I kind of a long story, but anyways, the overruling whelming response was that probably doesn't need half the commission, but I will shoot them a referral bonus anyways, great place to connect with people.Speaker 2 (03:27):And then the other thing I wanted to ask, if you know anyone that is crushing it, anyone that is doing something unique in the solar industry, shoot me a message. Let me know about them. Um, I got a phone call from someone yesterday who someone in his office closed a 60. I think it was 64 deals last month connected me. We're going to do a podcast. So guys like that, I mean, the world needs to know about these people. 64 deals in a month. Come on, man. What are you doing? Super impressive. So if you know people like that, that hidden gem, that undiscovered talent, let me know, let's get them on the show. Let's hear what they're doing to have so much success. So without further ado, let's jump into the topic today. And that topic is why you should be treating your solar business more like a real estate agent.Speaker 2 (04:20):Okay. And quick backstory. The reason we're talking about this is per usual because of some experiences I had last week. Um, if you haven't noticed, I base a lot of this podcast off what's happening to me in real time off. What I see is working for our team and I'm sharing it here with my Solarpreneur peeps. Cause that's where, what we're about is helping each other grow. So the reason we're talking about this is because, um, if you've been listening, you've been hearing some ways I've been getting referrals, some ways that I've been trying to create the perfect customer experience. Hey, we learned about this. I went to an NOC star retreat there in key west, which I've been talking about. And two in McCarthy, he talked a lot about that. What's the perfect customer experience that you can create the PCX. He called it.Speaker 2 (05:10):And if we do that, we're going to be getting more referrals in talking about real estate agents. They work mostly through referrals, right? At least the good ones that I know they're getting a lot of referrals. They're not necessarily knocking. I know some that knock doors, but most real estate agents they're working referral based, right? They're getting leads by different ways than just going out and knocking on doors. So how can we be more like that in the solar industry? I don't know about you, but sometimes knocking doors all day. It's not the first thing I want to do. Right? And I know if anyone is doing this year round, there's probably times where you enjoy getting more referrals than out there knocking all day. Okay? If you and no offense to those that are knocking all day that's I know people are killing it that way, but in my opinion, you should be a mixed bag of tricks, right?Speaker 2 (06:03):You should be getting your referrals. You should be thrown in some online leads. You should be knocking on doors. You should be networking, connecting with other people in getting leads in all avenues possible because that's how you're going to thrive. Okay? It's like people that only did online ads. Um, one of my mentors, Russell Brunson, he talks about how he built his business. He's the click funnels guy, super successful. Um, if you haven't heard of him, but he talks about some of his early businesses. He built them only off of Google ads. And what happened was Google ads. They changed their algorithms to only benefit basically the big juggernauts that were running ads. So anyone that had a huge ad ad budget ad spend that was spending, um, hundreds of thousands a month, basically those ones, um, all the results went to them after that.Speaker 2 (06:59):And so Russell Brunson, he was, you know, a small guy at the time, a small fish in the pond and his ads dried up basically overnight. So he had to adjust. He had to open his business to different avenues, different ways, because it's like anything. If they shut down, if it's COVID and they outlaw door knocking, what are you going to do? Right. That's what happened here in California. COVID hit for basically, I don't know, two, three months, you couldn't really go out and door knock. I knew a few people that did, but I don't think they had super great results during this time. So it's like, what are you going to do? You need to be able to adapt and adjust and pivot so you can still have success. Even when these things happen, even when these surprises come up. Okay. So that's why you should think more like a real estate agent and get leads through different avenues.Speaker 2 (07:53):And so something that I have been doing, give you an example. I learned this trick from, um, my boy, Mikey, Lucas, family go listen to his podcast. He was on about a month ago, but we were talking at this event, the knock starving in key west Florida. And here's a little, a little referral hack. Write this down or remember this. Okay. You get customer's birthdays. Okay. And you remember them, you send them stuff on their birthdays. Who's doing that in the solar industry. Pretty cool, huh? Okay. And um, let me expound on that. So Mikey, the way he gets people's birthdays is what do we have to all do? When we get someone signed up for solar, unless you're doing a cash deal, I guess you gotta run their credit. Right. And what do you need to run their credit? You need their date of birth.Speaker 2 (08:50):So what Mikey does, and I stole this from him. He gets a picture every time as he's running their credit, he takes a picture of their birthday. Maybe leave the social security number out of there. Right? I don't know if you'll necessarily need that. Okay. Unless you're planning on stealing people's identities, but snap, a picture of their date of birth, and then boom, you have their birthday and what can you start doing? You can start sending them gifts every time they're having a birthday. And Mikey talked about this, he works a lot referral base. He has some huge referral chains going on. Um, he was talking about how he got, I think it was like 15 referrals from one lady. And that's how you build referral chains is you start doing those little things. And that's why I'm talking about thinking like a real estate agent, because what does real estate agents do?Speaker 2 (09:40):They send people stuff on their birthdays. Maybe not all of them, but I know a lot of the good real estate guys. They're sending gifts on people's birthdays. They're sending their postcards, they're getting referrals, they're getting repeat customers. And this is how they do it. They do it by staying in the loop with their customers and connecting with them, gain to take that even a bit further. If you haven't already go listen to, I did an episode on, uh, using a service called send out cards. Okay. Um, I think it was, I don't know, four or five episodes ago. Go check that out. Um, it was, I think it was the why you should take pictures with your customers. Yeah, that should be it. Go look for that one. But I talk about send note cards as a service I use. What's really, really cool about this.Speaker 2 (10:32):I don't think I mentioned it in the episode if I did sorry for repeating myself, but you can put in the customer's birthday as you're sending them gifts and then you can schedule, send out cards. Um, it's sendoutcards.com go create an account. We'll put, uh, if you want to support the show, we'll put our, uh, affiliate link in there too. If you enjoy the content, but you can put in the customer's birthday and then you can have emails sent to you, reminding you that, Hey, it's a John Smith's birthday coming up and then you can send out a gifts for their birthday. There you go. Little hack right there. I'm starting to do that with every single customer. If you want to create that connection, if you want to create that long-term relationship, this is how you do it. You do it by staying in touch.Speaker 2 (11:20):And for a lot of us door to door, guys, this is tough. This took me forever to learn. I came from door to door, pest control. How many door to door pest guys keep in touch with their customers. Not too many, especially yet some of these guys. So on a thousand accounts, a lot of people to keep in touch with, but this is how you create that lasting value. And this is why solar is different. Let's be honest. We're making real estate commissions, a lot of us by selling these systems. So why are we not treating solar more like real estate, more like a business, more like something that we build real lasting relationships with people, and don't just sell and get out of there super important. You do that. And that's how you're going to last in the industry is by doing little things like that.Speaker 2 (12:04):Okay. So I'll try that out and let me know if you guys think of any other ideas on how to really just create a lasting relationship with your customers and treat it more like a real estate sell. I did a little Google Google search before I did this episode and obviously real estate. They get a lot of referrals. So I searched how to real estate agents get their referrals. A lot of stuff in here that can apply to solar as well. So I'm just going to jump through them real quick. This'll probably give you some ideas as well, but the first one it says offer exceptional service again. How can you create that perfect customer experience for me, it's sending out gifts to my customers. Okay. Every single time we send them, send out cards, you send them a picture that you took with them.Speaker 2 (12:51):You send them a personalized letter, which is super quick to do with send out cards and you send them some brownies. Okay? Boom, perfect customer experience. Obviously there's more to it than that. Hopefully your team has something on the back end where you're communicating with your customer every week, sending them updates. Okay. So that's something that if you don't have set up, if you're a company owner, let us know, we can definitely help you create that and craft that more. So, uh, anyways, what can you do though, to offer exceptional service, start thinking of that, thinking of all the things that you can do, that's going to differentiate, differentiate yourself from your competitors to create that exceptional service. Number two was be a specialist. If you think are real estate, they've got signs out here, but I'm driving to different areas in it. It'll say, uh, it'll say like condo real estate specialist, um, I'll see signs based on different areas of the town.Speaker 2 (13:53):Um, like alcohol is an area out here, alcohol and real estate specialist. So that's being specific. So how can you do that in solar? Maybe it's new move in real solar specialists, maybe it's, uh, I don't know, townhome solar specialist. Maybe it's mentioned solar specialist. Maybe it's maybe you can do it based on the area. So think how can you be a specialist? How can you specialize in a specific home and the specific type of person, maybe you're Latino, maybe you're Hispanic, maybe you're that, uh, Latino solar specialist. Right? And you're focusing on all the Mexican homes, the Mexican areas in your city and a lots of people doing that. So figure out a way to be a specialist. Okay. And that's one way to really get increase your lead flow. Number three, work with local business owners, but how can you network with other people and get them to provide you referrals, to work with local business owners?Speaker 2 (14:59):So you can go to networking events like BNI. Um, there's there are events that happen should be in every pretty much every local area where you can go and network with people. And I have not done this personally. So I know people that have had a ton of success. Um, guy named, uh, Jonathan Brunetto. He's on, he's one of that power's top guys. I know he has some good content on this, but people are having success going to meetings like that. Networking number four was providing useful content to your clients. Okay. And what contents do you have right now? Hopefully you have some content out there on your website on, um, if you're using rep card, great place to put some useful content that you'd send to customers. And we are actually helping companies do this. So if you are a company owner or want to pass this on your company, we are actually helping people now get some useful content.Speaker 2 (15:53):If you don't already have that established. So hit us up. If you need help with that number five was re rewarding referrals, which obviously is a no brainer, but hopefully everyone's doing that. Make sure you ever reward your people. And, and guys don't be that person that gets a referral and doesn't pay out. I know so many people in the industry that have not paid out their refers. So make sure if you promised or referral, uh, you know, pay out and make sure you pay them out and make sure you pay him out right away, because it's a quick way to never get a referral. Again, if you do not actually pay out your, uh, customers. And it's funny, I actually had a client who had a referral. He is going to give me, but then he, uh, he said, Hey, I'll give you this referral, but I want something in writing the name, gonna get paid out on it.Speaker 2 (16:42):Uh, Mike I'm like, dude, I set you up with solar help for sure. Pay you out. Is that give me something in writing. So I literally had to write them up, you know, like a document saying that he would get paid out for his referral. So hopefully your trust, your customers have more trust than that, but it's pretty sad. Don't be the person that causes distrust by not paying out your referral refers that, give you a referrals, tongue twister right there. Hey. And then last couple six build relationship with industry leaders. Okay. Um, so who are industry leaders in solar that you can build connections with?Speaker 2 (17:26):Um, and then seven have a strong social media presence. Okay. A lot of people are crushing it in the social media game. If we've talked about some ways to get it through this, I'm not going super in depth, but just hopefully giving you some ideas here. Number eight, email implement, email marketing, automate Asian. Um, this goes back to having your marketing in place. Hopefully you have content sequences, um, texts and email sequences that can go out to people. Again, hit us up. If you need help with this number nine request testimonials, Hey, you all should be doing this. If you're following me on social media, I try to get testimonials with the majority of my solar deals. Great way to get more referrals by showing people this and having them do this. And you really anchoring yourselves. Number 10, distribute, branded material, number 11, be easy to find and contact.Speaker 2 (18:20):Okay. So this goes back to a lot of people aren't doing this. Surprisingly, make sure you're putting your number in customers' phones. Right? Make sure they're saving it and make sure you put like something about solar in there, because most of these people are forgetting your name. The second you walk out of their door, right? So if you don't put like Taylor solar or something, easy to find, you're not going to hear from these people. They're not going to come back to you. Number 12, host a party, number 13, work with a referral agent. Okay. So hopefully this gives you a few ideas of how you can start thinking more like a real estate agent. Love to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think and go connect with the real estate agent. There's another way. Okay. Get your leads from there. If you can connect with some real estate agents. So I'm just trying to get you to think outside the box. It's not just about having only one way to generate leads, think outside the box and get multiple ways of generating your leads. So I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have any other ideas on how you can generate leads and referrals and think more like a real estate agent and send this to someone that you think could use help with that as well. And we'll see you on the next episode. Peace.Speaker 3 (19:35):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. I am stoked today. We got an exciting episode because we got someone that everyone should know if you've been endorsed it or sells, or just like funny memes, then you definitely know this guy. We've got the master Miemer on the interwebs himself. Mr. Rick Martinez, Rick. Thanks for finally hopping on the show with us. My man. Thank you,Speaker 3 (01:04):Taylor. Appreciate appreciate it, man. It took us a while, but we, uh, we're we're we're finally doing it.Speaker 2 (01:10):Yeah, I know. I was just telling Rick before the show, him and Tony Robbins have been the two hardest guys to get on the podcasts. Haven't quite got Tony Robbins on yet, but, but, But, uh, Rick took a while to cause he's a busy guy and he's all over the place. And we'll talk about that. But, uh, no, we're just in key west Florida hanging out at the knock event and we're planning on to do a show there, but, um, Rick, he was kind of helping out things got busy and kind of make it happen. So like, all right, well got modern technology, just hop on the zoom and finally making it happen. So thanks again, Rick.Speaker 3 (01:52):We appreciate being on man. So let's, let's dive into it, bro. What exactly we're going to share with the people today?Speaker 2 (01:59):Well, we got something exciting. It's always exciting when you have Rick on. So Rick, do you want to, I don't know, maybe introduce how you got into door to door and how you first started making your memes. I guess a little background on him real quick. He runs the main page, no listing bra, which is like, you know, the biggest, I don't know, door to door entertainment page. I would say hands down, it's been entertaining door to door sales reps for years and years now, everyone loves them and he's been successful in pest control, uh, solar. And that's actually how we first met is because we brought both sold for a company called new power here in Southern California back in the day. So, uh, just a little introduction for you, Rick, but yeah. Do you want to, I don't know, go a little more in depth, how you got in the front door to door first and um, started up your meme page, all that good stuff. Yeah.Speaker 3 (02:51):Yeah, of course. So I started in door to door back in 2014. Um, six months after I got home from my LDS mission. Um, my buddy who's like, dude, you do so well at this. You do so well at this, but I just, I was hesitant. So I spent six months working as a painter's assistant at an auto body shop working 40, 50, even 60 hours some weeks. And I finally gave in, went out on the Saturdays, set a deal. And then that later that week it closed. And I was told that I was going to make like $1,400 off of that one deal. And I was like, you're kidding me. And they're like, yeah, I'm like, what the, so the next Saturday I go out and I booked three more. They all closed. And I think like two weeks later I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm quitting my day job.Speaker 3 (03:42):And I'm doing solar full-time. So from 2014, up until like 2017ish, I was with a company called new power. Built, help them build that thing out quite a bit. That's where Armstrong and I had met. And then I took a little bit of a break. Um, tried out pest control with active. And then I was selling with Aaptiv in 2018. When I started the no soliciting bromine page, I was just going through a lot of anxiety, some depression at the time. Um, and my way to cope with me, it was so nice. I found a page called summer sales fails and I thought to myself, I can make way better memes and way better content. So that's what I started doing. And since then, yeah, it's taken three years for the page to take off. But now, um, I don't think I can go into any sales team without somebody knowing me. I can't fly into Utah or walk around Provo without someone knowing who I am, which is actually kind of insane.Speaker 2 (04:44):Yeah, no, everyone knows. And if you go to like door to door con or something with this guy, you feel like he's the Wolf of wall street in there. You just got, you know, ladies surrounding them, just crowds of people, just like no, this listing bruh. So it's a pretty surreal experience. And uh, I always joke just because me and Rick we've found a lot of events together over the years. And it used to be where we were like hanging out on equal footing at these events. But, but now he gets lost in the crowd pretty quick, because I feel like people are kind of walking around, you know, ask him for autographs and all that stuff. So I felt glad to know Rick before he was, you know, super famous and everyone knew him, but no you've had a ton of success now. And isn't it funny that back in the day we were so stoked or we're making like a thousand bucks on a solar deal and now it's like making that.Speaker 3 (05:39):Yeah. I remember being pumped about making 400 bucks a kilowatt Gosh, 400 bucks as a kilowatt, as a closer selling a 21 cent PPA, man.Speaker 2 (05:57):I knowSpeaker 3 (05:57):That's crazy because when you're comparing that to pest control, it's like, you know, crazy money, like no way you make over a thousand, because that was my background. I came from pest control and you're making, you know, maybe, I don't know, a couple hundred bucks. I know you guys make an R or make a more impasse now, too. But, but yeah, that's pretty crazy how far things have come. So tell me though, why did you decide to, uh, kind of, I know you've been in pest now. You've been doing now you're back doing a little bit of solar, but yeah. Why did you decide to try out pests coming from a solar and you know, and so the F the first time I did it, honestly, I was sold on the location. My recruiter told me that we were going to long island, New York, and he sold me on the fact that like, dude, we're in long island, we can go to Manhattan.Speaker 3 (06:45):And I was like, okay, cool. Yeah. He offered me some ridiculous, like really good deal that at the time I was like, you know what I mean? This is fine. But my whole thing was, I just wanted to go to New York. Yeah. So I went and I did, well, I sold like a little over 150 with like a six 90 contract value. And I was like, and they're like, dude, that's so good. I'm like, really? So the whole time, like, yeah, like the sales were there, but I was there just to go to New York, bro. Like for me, going to New York was a dream. So yeah, I did that the next year I took off last year, I went back in, um, it's so pest control is such a fun sale, right? Imagine like setting, if you can get a really good area where you can set a crap tenant deals, that's like the equivalent of selling the pest control account. You can go in and just, I mean, what setting you clearly don't get paid for the sets. Um, but with pest control, it's like that simple, you go in, Hey, you got bugs. This is what we're doing. Oh, you're with someone else. This is why people have been switching over to us and you just close them, get them set up, get them serviced and you get paid. Okay.Speaker 2 (07:55):Yeah. Love it. No, it is a quick sell. Yeah. How have you seen some similarities since you switched, you know, back and forth now kind of from pests or solar, do you feel like there's been a lot of things that have helped you, that you've learned in pest that you've been able to like apply to solar now as youSpeaker 3 (08:10):Yeah. Big time. Yeah. The option close. So does the morning or afternoon work better for my, for my, uh, specialist to Papa. Okay. Nice. The option close. Uh, try and try and get them outside of the house. Take, take taking them to the meter. Um, this is one of the things that I learned from, uh, McCarthy that we did a long time ago was, uh, downloading the Sunseeker app and taking them around the house and showing them on the app on your iPad, where, where the sun hours are at and say, so this is more than likely where the panels would go and then just getting them to move around the house.Speaker 2 (08:49):Yeah. That's money. Yeah. That is a huge difference. And yeah, it's funny you say that because I'm actually working right now on here on Jason newbie, steam. A lot of our top guys came from pests and that's all they talk about dues. They're just pulling people out, out, off that door. They're pulling people, the meter to the backyard. And I feel like it's just location, but getting people on like a different, you know, kind of mental state, because as you know, behind the doors, people are a lot of times super reserved, super guarded. Like what are you doing here? When we can get them outside of their castle, there are they like, it's crazy how much they open up and you know, you try it, the exact same clothes. You maybe just try it at the door, it'll work just cause you're, you know, outside, uh, you know, on their porch or in a different location with them or inside the home. Yeah.Speaker 3 (09:39):And one of the things that I took from solar that I started applying my first summer and past was, um, trying to get inside the home. Now when I wasn't, when I was in long island, um, it would, it would rain a lot. I think that was the one thing that I didn't like about how much it rains. So I made it really simple. I'm like, cool. I just got to fill this out with you real quick. Is there a, is there a small corner of the kitchen table, like a borrower to fill this out and they would give me some resistance. I'd be like, do you want me to take my shoes off? If they said yes or no, I would either take my shoes off or not and walk in. Yeah. Maybe I'd be inside people's homes. I'd be at the kitchen table, sign, signing them up for best control and then just open up the conversation. And then they would more than likely give me referrals.Speaker 2 (10:23):Nice. Love that. Yeah. That's shaped from new power and they're drone on that. So many times it's like, they can't say no to letting you in. You're like, yeah. I asked you, do you want me to take my shoes off? I didn't ask you. I can't come in. Like just transitioned straight to that question. But now that's a fire question for our Solarpreneurs that are listening. Yeah. You need to be using questions like that. Super assumptive getting inside homes, which side of the house is your meter on? Um, cause at that point you're just being assumptive. You're not asking them yes or no. Like, do you want to do, it's not. I think that's been a one been a, one of the biggest keys for my success if I had had. And probably you do right. Rick and solar. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So yeah. Love that. And no, I think there's a ton of things that apply in, I would say just like in the work ethic too. Cause I was out in an adjustment for you coming from solar where at new power, we are only doing like, I don't know, four or five hours maybe on the doors and pest control. They're like, all right, Rick, you got to come out. We're going from a 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM or whatever it was. Was that like an adjustment for you?Speaker 3 (11:35):Big time adjustment. I was like, dude, these guys are crazy. I can not do 12 hours on the doors, but I got used to it, bro. And then during, during competition do this, this, this is what these pest control companies do well is they, they get these kids so hyped up on competition that I remember my, the, the latest sale I ever made was in the, was in an Indian neighborhood because we knew the Indians were going to be up super late. And my last sale of the day I started, I knocked this guy's house at 1140 and I, and I left his house just a little after midnight. Wow.Speaker 2 (12:15):Crazy.Speaker 3 (12:17):And I had, I had never talked to this guy before I, I saw that the garage was open. People were in the garage talking, I go up and I'm like, Hey look like we're in the middle of a competition. And we are getting down to the wire, right? Like if we win, this is what we, when we do pass control, I'm going to take care of you. And then the haggling started. And I, and then I, I stopped them as low as I could so we can get enough points for the sale. I'm like, look, tell you what, this is, what I'll do. This is the best, the best I can do. And he took it.Speaker 2 (12:52):That's fricking awesome. Did it help? Did he pass for Indian? Did he see your darker skin? Oh, you're my brother. Yeah. A littleSpeaker 3 (13:00):Bit.Speaker 2 (13:03):Yeah. No, that's good. Yeah. If you can get those Indians, hopefully he gave you a referral chain. Do they give you like four referrals?Speaker 3 (13:09):I wish no. He told me. Yeah. I'll I'll I I'll refer you to everyone, everyone, anywhere for me and anybody, but that's fine because the only thing we needed, the only thing I needed was the sales so we can win. Yeah.Speaker 2 (13:21):That's good. I love that competition. Clothes helps a lot when people and see that you're bought into a competition and people just naturally want to help out. So I use that a lot in solar too.Speaker 3 (13:31):Do they happen so much? Like even this last year, like when I was going up in the masters, like the one-on-one I would tell people like, look, um, I don't know about you, but I, I hate losing. So tell you what I'm in the competition right now, me and one of the best guys in the company was my line. Um, and, and I would show them like I would pull up on my app and I'd show them the actual competition. Like, look, I do pass control. Right. I take care of the bugs. It's nothing crazy. If I can get you done while I'm out of here, this is what I'm willing to do. Yeah. I would show them like, I would show them like the regular price, regular price, what I would do. But then I would bring in McCarthy's model home clothes and be like, look, honestly, if I can just get you done as like a marketing home for me, this, this is what I'm willing to do. I'm willing to drop it instead of this, to this. The only thing I ask is that if you use social media, just give me a shout out on your Facebook or on next door. If you can give me a shout on the next door app, I will even do the first one for free. Nice. And then that way it gets me publicity out there. It gets people to know who I am and then some referrals would trickle in that way.Speaker 2 (14:41):Yeah. That's sweet. And then would you ever pull up to the next door? It'd be like, Hey, I'm the guy that they're posting about on the next door. Did they tell you is passing by?Speaker 3 (14:51):I would have her do it right then and there. Um, depending on the situation, sometimes I would have a technician in like literally in the area now with texts attack, I'd be like, Hey mark, I'm getting one down. I'm getting one right now. And I dropped my pen and then by the time I was signing docs, he was rolling up.Speaker 2 (15:08):Yeah. Wow. That's mySpeaker 3 (15:10):Dad, dude. It's money. It's money. And then from there I would have her posts on the next door app right then and there.Speaker 2 (15:17):Nice.Speaker 3 (15:19):But my squid you have, do you have, do you have your phone on you? Cool. Can you pull up the next door app? Okay. Um, do you mind if I just take over and I just type in the thing, put my number in and then I'd be like, cool. So you can post it. I'd just have her click post and there we go.Speaker 2 (15:35):Nice. No, that's yeah. That's insane. How good that stuff works. I had a guy on our team last week. He got like six deals in this, I think in one street or something just from doing that exact same thing. Just having people post on the neighborhood, Facebook group next door. And then just saying, Hey, I'm the solar guy out here that they've been posting about in the groups. Did you already see it? And then I think half the time they're like, oh yeah, we saw that. Yeah. Yeah. I guess they said, you're going to come by and it's like instant credibility, instant trust. It's basically wherever all at that point. And they were closing. Yep. So exactly. Yeah. That's something I've yeah. I haven't tried really trading the next door stuff, but yeah, I think, uh, for those that are listening, make sure you're utilizing the power of social media is, and you know, all the nextdoor stuff.Speaker 2 (16:22):Cause that's how people go from skeptical on the doors. Do you know, knowing you're going to be there and knowing you're going to come by. So that's good stuff, Rick. Exactly. Um, so yeah, something I did want to transition into though a little bit, I know you talked just how, um, you've gone through phases, you know, ups and downs. Like I'm sure a lot of us have, you've gone through like some depression. I know some, you know, mental side of things and that's, uh, the reason I want to touch on that super common in door to door. I know a lot of people struggle with, uh, the depression, the mental stuff that's going on in people's heads. Um, so what do you have some, uh, I don't know, advice for people that are struggling with those things or just like the mental aspect, things that have helped you to continue in this industry for what are you going on? Like seven, eight years now you've been doing all thisSpeaker 3 (17:12):Stuff. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm going on my seventh year. Wow.Speaker 2 (17:16):That's crazy.Speaker 3 (17:18):Um, I would say first and foremost, um, depression is real. Anxiety is real. So if it's really bad, then go get help. Okay. First and foremost, um, secondly, a lot of the time it's, it's situational anxiety and situational depression, meaning that it's, it's things that we've done to put us into this situation. You know, ultimately the, the most common thing is, is at, in the beginning, we start doing all the little things that brings us, brings us success. Once we have the success, we stopped doing the little things I got us to where we were at and we just expect to coast off of that confidence off of the skill set off of whatever it is that, that, that got us to that success. Um, I would say focus more on the action rather than focusing on the results. So many of us are fixated on, I need to make a sale today.Speaker 3 (18:10):I need to do this. I need to do that. And then they just, what do they do? They roll out of bed 20 minutes before the meeting, before the meeting or 20 minutes before they have to leave the correlation, the correlation, they're not getting any training. They're not reading, they're not studying. They just show up and expect things to happen. Right. Um, it's, it's, it just comes down to the actions, like focus on the little things like, you know, river Skinner. And I, we post every day about winning our mornings, um, rivers doing power hour. I do what I need to do. Um, ultimately if you can stack as many wins as you can, the success will come. So if you find yourself in a slump, one of the things that I've recently talked with, a lot of people is I've approached it in more of like a therapeutical manner, meaning that, okay, what happened for you to get into this slump?Speaker 3 (19:03):Know what, what may have caused it is a mental slump. Is it like in an emotional slump? Is it, what is it? You know what, first let's classify, what kind of slump it is for most people it's sales. Okay. That's understand. We're in the, we're in the last little bit of the summer. That's okay. People tend to, you know, work really hard in the beginning, but they can't maintain that. So what, what, what did you start dropping off last month? You stopped reading. You stopped ringing the training manual. Cool. We'll go back and start doing that. If you can, if you can figure out what caused the slump, then you know how to one prevent any future slumps, um, in the future. But you can go and fix the slump that you're currently in. Yeah. So go back and figure out what it is that may have caused it. Start working on that. Start working on a few other things, just, just, just comes down to work. I agree. Sometimes salespeople, we're, we're very egotistical, meaning that we have a lot of pride. Sometimes we just, you just got to swallow your pride and accept that, Hey, you've put yourself in this situation and now it's your turn to now it's on you to pull yourself out. Yeah,Speaker 2 (20:15):I like that. It's like what Taylor McCarthy always says first comes back, uh, was the first comes, the action then comes the motivation. Exactly. And uh, yeah, a lot of guys, they're just not doing enough of the action bottom line and expect and motivation to come first. So I think it's super helpful going and analyzing those things. Like most people have tasted some sort of success in door to door at this point. So this is actually like an exercise that I am having. One of my, uh, coaching students go through right now is just go write down all the things that you successful, all the things you did during the day, when you had a ton of success or during the week you had a ton of success. And most of the time it's completely different than the things they're doing right now. Like, like you said, they're not waking up at the same time.Speaker 2 (20:59):They're not going through a routine. They're just rolling out of bed, go into the correlation. So I think those are all super important things to go and just do an analysis of really, what are you doing now with your day? What are you doing with your routines? And chances are, you're probably doing different things. If you're not experiencing the success or experiencing the right mental state that you need to be. So, yeah. Um, I liked that though. Now I think, um, I wanted to ask you, cause like you're always traveling. You're always on the road and for me it's tough to like stay in the right mental state when I'm always a, you know, like traveling all over the place and like you're in a hotel room right here right now. So, um, do you feel like you've had to adjust like being on the road so much? I feel like this point you're like, you're like Mr. Circus, you're in so many different places. Like you're always adjusting to new environments, to new people and new places. So is that hard for you? Like traveling around so much or you just kind like,Speaker 3 (21:58):It's hard, it's hard. I mean, it's, it's hard on anybody. They just come down to just, I mean the best salespeople are those who are adaptable online. Um, it's almost like the sales rep that that's, oh, do you, do you, you sell more in like rich areas or poor or poor areas? My response is it doesn't matter where you put me on because I'm just going to go talk to people and I'm going to figure out how I need to adjust my presentation. So these people will buy. And that's what it is. It's just a Jessie and just like anything in life, I think even in sales, right, you have to have like a skeleton, like an outline of what you're going to do for me. It comes down to my mornings. It comes down to how I wind down at the end of the day. And a big factor is the people who are around me. So if I can get around like really, really good high-performing individuals, it makes it simpler on me to be able to adjust to this, to the market, to adjust to where I'm at, if I'm the high producer and I'm the guy that people are supposed to look up to, then it's a little bit harder. And I got to put in more work behind the scenes.Speaker 2 (23:10):Yeah, no doubt. And that's why it's, I mean, some people aren't as good as that. I know for me, sometimes it's tough to be that way too. Like the high producer and, um, be the best guy in everything. So for people that struggle, I mean, consider getting on a team where there are like high producers and, um, B Williams, because that starts to wear at you. I know there's times at new power G where maybe we didn't have as many guys and stuff. And then I knew going out in the car group that I was going to have to be the one to actually like, you know, jump out of that car and go sell that day. And, uh, that's fine. I did that for a long time, but then it starts to like wear on you if you're constantly having to be the one that has to get out and be the one to go hit that first door. So, um, just something to consider for guys who are struggling, get some people that you don't have to drag everywhere and consider getting around like higher level people, which I know your own high level people all the time.Speaker 3 (24:09):So, I mean, in that case, it makes it simpler. It makes it simpler for me to adjust. But dude, it's still hard. Like I've, I've been in every time zone this month.Speaker 2 (24:19):Wow.Speaker 3 (24:21):Like I didn't realize that last night or actually this morning at breakfast, I was talking to this girl and um, I remembered that I was doing a podcast with you and I'm like, shoot, I can't remember what time is that? And then she's like, how do you not remember me? Because he's in California and I'm here. And then we just started talking and then I told him again, I think I've been in every time zone this month. And just like her face was like, what? Like, how were you so functioning?Speaker 2 (24:50):I know, I don't know how you do it. I mean, I mean, Rick will go to events and you're up like helping people all night talking, getting back at three in the morning and then he's up at 6:00 AM for a workout. I'm like, dude, he's fricking nuts though. You're a different breed man, for sure. But, um, speaking of like events and stuff, Ricky, um, we've like, we're talking about, we've been to a lot of events. We go to these things. Uh, I think we both have that mindset of learning, which is awesome and trying to make connections with people. So how have you, I dunno, what's your reasoning for going to all these events and how do you feel like they've helped you in contributing to like upleveling and your success and everythingSpeaker 3 (25:34):It goes back to when you and I were both at new power. We, so I guess for example, let's take a step back. Um, John C. Maxwell in the, in the 21 laws of leadership talks about the law of the lid, right? Like your, your success will only be as high as your highest performer or as high as your, your leadership, your management will allow you to get we side. I mean, granted, we were trained by really good salespeople, but that's all we knew. Yeah. So when I left and when we both left and we started going to these events, we re, uh, for me, I think I realized that there's so much more I can learn out there. Yeah. And I'd be doing a disservice to myself if I just stuck with one form or one way of selling. Yeah.Speaker 2 (26:27):And now it's cool to see you're so like abundant, because I mean, on your page, you're always promoting different, people's like training programs and trying to help guys out and, um, you know, making connections with guys. That's another thing I wanted to ask you. Like, how have you been able to just, I don't know, bill all these connections because it's not just like, you've gone to the events and the courses, like everyone knows you, you can go up and talk to Taylor McCarthy. Obviously you guys are super tight and you're helping them promote. And, um, COVID Ivers all these guys. So how have you been able to like build these relationships with them? And, um, just kinda like, I don't know, put yourself out there on like the, not just, not just, uh, like the professional relationship, but you're like legit buddies with all of these dudes and like hanging out with them and stuff,Speaker 3 (27:13):I guess. So, so the, so the key to build relationships for me is the, it's the value that I bring right aside from like my page, the value that Rick brings to the marketplace. Right? Yeah. It's just about adding value. Um, luckily for me, the, the platform that I have allows me to bring exit existential amount of value. Yeah. Um, so yeah, with like Coda Ivers, Passy McCarthy, um, and even like recently, like Jake has, you know, like some of these people I've been connecting with, it's like, it's what, what can I do? Because ultimately you're right. And you, you mentioned this a little bit earlier that this abundance, um, mentality is, there is no one perfect training course. There is no one perfect way of selling. You need to take a little bit of everything from every one and apply it to mega you're out. Yeah. So whether it is, you know, society knock DocStar ODK, Spiller academy, I would say them all, like be, especially like, if you're in solar, here's your, here's my mindset behind them. It, this solar, solar is only going to be good for so long. Right. And recently I read a quote that says that if you're lazy and you know, working hard, it's because you're not grateful for the opportunity. Yeah. So how about us in five or 10 years down the road are going to look back and think, dude, I should have done more, man. I missed out I do it all the time. Cause we, we had, um, we had an option back in the day called green day. You you remember that?Speaker 2 (29:01):Uh, no, I don't actually, was that a new power?Speaker 3 (29:05):Was that new power? So I think so what it was was a super simple PPA. It was through CPN for like clean, clean power finance. It was like before Sunrun and Sunnova became super huge in the marketplace. Yeah. You can legit go in and sign them up. Same day within 20 minutes. OhSpeaker 2 (29:25):Man, that was before I was there.Speaker 3 (29:28):It was like 2015, I think 2015, 2016, somewhere around there. Anyways. Um, dude, like I kick myself in the foot so much because I saw a little pocket in Temecula where I did like three same days. Wow. And I called the good for like a week,Speaker 2 (29:50):But dude,Speaker 3 (29:51):Like, like looking back on it, like yeah. Why, why that's why I worked so hard bro. It's because I saw the oppor, I see the opportunity that I had. That was a lazy bastard. I settled for three same days and I'm like, nah, dude, I'm good at that. I made enough money to go Dick around for a little bit. You know?Speaker 2 (30:09):I know it's so easy to do that though. And like, I dunno, that's another thing to your point before. I think that's another reason why it's important to go to events and surround yourself by high level people. Because like where we used to think maybe three same days, it was like, unreal, good. Now we go to knock star event and Taylor McCarthy did five deals in a day, probably made, I don't know, 30, 40 grand or whatever in a day. So it's like getting around these higher level people you think you're doing good? Then it's like, go join some of these competitions, go join, knock star. Um, go get in some of these groups then you're really going to see guys who are doing insane amounts of deals. Yeah. This stuff blows my mind. Like going to the events. Where's your mind not blowing at some of these events, seeing the numbers, some of these guys ofSpeaker 3 (30:55):No doubt, no doubt, dude, dude, sometimes. And here's the crazy thing is you bring a McCarthy dude. Sometimes of McCarthy will text me when he's not being active on social media. He's like, bro, I just threw down four same days. I'm like, are you kidding me bro?Speaker 2 (31:10):It's no big deal.Speaker 3 (31:11):Yeah. Yeah. He just texted me and you know, he's like, bro, like I like went out and I did this. I tried out this new thing. I got four same days bro. I'm like, what, what?Speaker 2 (31:24):It's crazy.Speaker 3 (31:25):But it comes down to, this are going, going back to the training. I distinctly remember the same day or like the week that I got those three same days in Temecula. Um, we had just learned a new way of like trying to get inside the home and I did it. So the reason why I say buy up all of these training programs is because the reason sales reps become, I think stagnate is because they have nothing else to apply and they think that they know it all. Yeah. So if you take one thing from this course and you go into, you apply it today, as you do it and you see your work, it creates this level of excitement. Yeah, for sure. And you want to do it over and over and over again. Right. But that one thing is going to get boring. After a while the same way, like a kid gets bored with its toys, they go and they find a new toy.Speaker 3 (32:17):Right. So start, start learning different things to apply. But if you only have one, like your company training, how fast are you going to go through that? That, that training platform pretty fast. Right? And if that person is on can like, if that person's best month is like 20 deals in a month, then you're now limited to 20 deals in a month. Yeah. It makes it so much harder to get 20, 21 deals a month. But if you start learning from all these different people, all these different courses, you start investing in yourself. Now you're going to raise that lead.Speaker 2 (32:51):Yeah. A super powerful stuff. And yeah, that's why I respect people like you like river. Like I just saw a river post a few weeks ago. I think he went and, or maybe was last month or something, but he goes on by his door, door, door. You um, like he's, I mean, he's produced at a high level. He's closing tons of deals and guys like you and him, you're still looking for ways to level up and improve. And Ricky's at every single, you know, knock star event and everything. And like you probably have half the stuff McCarthy's as memorized at this point because I know you talked to them so much and them on your podcast and everything, but no, it's huge. Just invest in yourself. And that's what we're trying to do at Solciety do is just bring in guys that are produced.Speaker 2 (33:36):And it's not just my training course, but we're bringing in guys who are producing than eye level. Uh, the J Cass's the McCarthy's, they're all on there and they're, we're trying to get them in one place and keep adding content monthly. So keeps it fresh. Cause I think that's what guys need. And that's how, like you said, that's how they can keep themselves from getting stagnant and just falling back into old habits. They're investing in themselves and train them improve. Um, but yeah, speaking all that, Rick, I know you travel around as we talked about all the time and you're seeing teams that, uh, maybe you're seeing good and bad, but I know you're traveling to a lot of high level teams. So in your travels there with the Martinez circus, have you seen anything? I don't know what teams are doing, uh, to be successful or anything you notice, um, and in your, all your travels going to these different teams,Speaker 3 (34:32):Um, leadership first and foremost, um, dude, it comes down to the leadership really management. How, how well management does for me, for me, the key to a good manager or leader, someone who continuously works on themselves. Um, actually here's one thing that really sticks out to me Moe Falah recently, um, I think is on my podcast or your podcast, but he talks about when you become a leader, you become an owner. You no longer, these people will no longer work for you. You work for them.Speaker 2 (35:11):That's good.Speaker 3 (35:12):I think a leader that, that can instill that, that they work for other people and they work for their people. Right. Um, I've been in situations and I've, I've been in closes where like I've seen closers drop the price down to beat out a bed. Um, and I've been in situations where like the closure will do whatever it takes for the setter to get paid.Speaker 2 (35:40):Yeah. That's awesome.Speaker 3 (35:41):You know, and after we talk about it and the, you, yeah, the closest going to make like two, 300 bucks, right. Because they, they, they had to, they had to leverage the price so the seller can make their pay. Okay.Speaker 2 (35:54):Yeah. That's important that would taken care of your, you know, team, your centers. They're the ones that are, you know, feeding the golden goose. They're the ones that are helping you get paid. So that is important.Speaker 3 (36:06):It is. And I, and I mean, on the flip side, like even seeing some of the satyrs it's like dude, some of the centers have it really well. So I guess just this congruent or this fluid dynamic between setters and closers is really good, really important to have. No one is more important than, than the other, because I mean, I've been there and dude, I mean really singly. What happens if I know, I know you, Taylor will go out and knock if you need a knock, but you're going to back to and what the heck, there is so many closers in this industry who are so freaking spoiled that they won't even go knock, you know? So, so they just expect deals to come their way.Speaker 2 (36:51):Yeah. I know it's a problem for sure. Easy to get complacent, especially if they're running set or clothes or models and they're getting fed deals. It's like, oh, I got two hours. This is what I was doing when probably the last time we were working together, Rick is because Rick was actually a setter at the time and he was getting beaten the odds of deals. So if I have like a two hour break, I bet I'm just going to wait for Rick to go get another same day or even an appointment, go grab lunch, go up, look at some means.Speaker 2 (37:26):So yeah, it's super easy to get complacent and I'm sure you'd agree. The best people in the industry though. They're not. Yeah. They're, I'm sure they're getting deals too. But like Mike O'Donnell talks about this, how between deals he's going and getting a no on the doors. He's not waiting for the next deal. He's getting fed lots of deals. I know. But between his appointments, if he doesn't have anything, he's going to go, he's going to get at least a couple nos before he goes on to his next thing. And at the end of the day, that's what the top guys are doing. They're not waiting around for the next deal. They're going after, you know, their own appointments too and, and keeping up with it. So good. Uh, good stuff right there. Well, Ricky, I know you're a busy guy out in Texas. Um, so I want to be respectful your time. I know you've got means to create and uh, you know, places to be and all that. Um, but before we have maybe one or two other questions, do you want to tell people, um, if they don't already know and they might be living under a rock, you don't know where to connect with Rick at this point, but do you want to, um, I dunno, job, or be to connect with you and anything else you're working on?Speaker 3 (38:35):Yeah. So I'm mostly active on Instagram. Uh, I'm mostly known for the no soliciting bromine page. It's just at no soliciting bra I'm on Instagram. My personal Instagram is Rick dot Martinez with twosies and they are T I N E Z Z. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm more active on Instagram. I have a Facebook or Twitter and a LinkedIn, but I don't ever check those.Speaker 2 (39:00):Okay. Who checks all that stuff. It's the boring social medias, so. Okay. Well cool. Well, Rick, we love having you on. And um, my last kind of question that I was thinking of anything you've seen delight, not do to like, I don't know, a successful person endorse it, or, um, what do you think they're staying away from? Or what do you think they're like cutting out of their lives, um, to be successful? Anything you have to say about that?Speaker 3 (39:29):I would say the most successful people that I know, oh, that's a good woman. What are they cutting out? Or what are they adding, right.Speaker 2 (39:40):Yeah. What are they cutting out and what are they not doing?Speaker 3 (39:44):Ooh.Speaker 2 (39:48):Or if you can think of stuff, they already, you can do that too. Whatever it is,Speaker 3 (39:52):There's so many, um, I would say things that take your time away from your craft. Okay. Time, time management is huge for a lot of the most successful people that I've seen. And I think I've been around just about all of them in a PR in like in, in a personal level to where they have a S they have a schedule. They have, if they don't have like a legit broken down schedule, they have an idea and they know where they are, where they need to be. At what time? Yeah. The more successful people that I've met, Carrie almost an hour by hour by hour schedule. And they plan the night before what they're going to do. And then the next day they confirm their plans by welcomes. Um, what, by what comes up the next day? I think the most successful people that I know don't leave anything up to chance. Yeah,Speaker 2 (40:51):Yeah. It's money. Yeah. And another thing is like, I don't know if you've done this before Rick, but just doing like a time analysis. That's something that I've seen top guys do. Cause I mean, the big problem is a lot of people don't even know where they're spending their time wasting their time. They think they were, uh, I don't know, maybe knocking for six hours when really it was like, they knocked, they spent 15 minutes on Instagram and they knocked a few more doors. They went and found a gas station. They might or might not even know that in their heads. So if you're struggling and that's, I think another huge key is figuring out what you're doing do at times study, write down for 15 minutes, every, you know, every 15, 20 minutes of the day. Exactly you did. And then that's going to tell you the truth. You know, it's like tracking your progress in the gym, do or tracking your sets. You can't really know what to improve if you don't even know what you did and you know, and kept track of it. So exactly important stuff for it. Uh, I know you got to go hit some doors and stuff, but any, uh, last, last words of advice you want to share with someone with a rep specifically in solar, I know you're in the solar mindset. Any, any final words you want to share?Speaker 3 (42:03):Don't miss out on this opportunity. Like I, so recently I had, I was in a team meeting and, um, it's, it's the same that Rob, Rob taught us a few years ago, Robert, um, he talked about two things, right? Life is going to be hard, no matter what, um, it's just which hard you want it to be. There. It comes down to two pains, the pains of discipline or the pain of regret, especially if, especially if you're working in these markets with high utility rates, you cannot afford to not be disciplined. You cannot afford to take time off because this time will come and it will come faster than you think. And then you're going to be looking back and you're going to be looking at your bank account and you're going to be like, I could have worked so much harder. I missed out on such a huge opportunity or you're going to be sitting on investments on whatever may be in your bank account is going to be exactly where you want it to be. If not more. And you're gonna think like, like that discipline and that pain of making that sacrifice is what's worth it. So I know for me, I've, I've, I've lived through regrets and I, and I'm not going to do it again.Speaker 2 (43:20):Yeah. Boom, that's fire. Perfect way to end. So for our Solarpreneurs, think about that next time you're struggling to get out on the doors. You're struggling to, I don't know, show up to your next appointment. Would you rather have that pain and go through it right now? Or would you rather look back and have the pain of knowing you didn't push as hard as you could have? So, Rick, thanks for coming on today. Everyone go give Rick a shout out, let him know you appreciated his content and more importantly, go follow them on his meme page if you're not already, but let's be honest. You should. Um, so Rick, thanks again for coming on and we will talk to you soon. My man.Speaker 3 (43:58):Thanks Taylor. Appreciate it, brother.Speaker 2 (44:00):Okay. Peace.Speaker 4 (44:03):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong. Back with another episode, ISpeaker 2 (00:45):Hope you're doing well today. We're going to dive into why you should be asking your homeowner's thought provoking questions, why you should be getting them to realize the benefits of solar and what type of questions should you be asking your clients or the homeowners that you talk to all that and much more in today's episode, let's jump into it. So, um, it is almost a fall here. Those that have gone home for the summer. Hope you had an awesome summer, but let's be honest. You should be doing solar all year round because it's the greatest industry to be in. There's no better thing you could be doing than helping save the planet, helping homeowners get away from the utility company. That's what we're all about here. And as usual, that's what this podcast is going to train you to do. It's get more deals, get more referrals and get more results as you're out there, starting your solar business or continuing your solar business or whatever step you're at, along the journey.Speaker 2 (01:51):So before we jump into the topic today, um, I wanted to just remind you, go hop in the Solarpreneur Facebook group, if you're not already. And then along with that, we had a solar Joe on what was it a couple of weeks ago? He has, I think probably the, I'll say the best Facebook group. Okay. Solar printer, Facebook group. Isn't quite to the level, but we're going to get it there eventually. Um, but go join both those Facebook groups, his, his solar objections, and then Solarpreneur is the one where we're talking all things along with the podcast. And we are networking with the listeners and as usual, hoping to hear feedback from what you guys thought of the topics of the episodes of the guests we had, we've had on and suggestions for improvement, all that good stuff. But the reason I'm bringing that up is because last week I had a situation where, and I'm still going through this actually, but, um, I'm doing a solar on a couple of townhomes here in California and these hos, I don't know what's going on.Speaker 2 (02:59):It seems like they're getting tougher and tougher out here. Um, the past, I don't know, year or so year or two, I've done few townhomes here and there few places with shared roof spaces. And really hasn't been much of an issue. But last week I've had some just accounts on hold and I'm trying to figure out what to do for him. Um, what happened is that each ways basically came back and said, Hey, unless you guys take out a million dollar insurance policy, you can't have solar added onto these, um, to these units. And what's funny is I talked to several people in both the communities to different communities down here, and no one had to take out a policy, a separate, uh, insurance policy. I'm like, what is going on? So we brought this up to the hos and they're like, oh, we're just, we're requiring it.Speaker 2 (03:51):Now. They basically just ignored it and wouldn't give us an answer why it was being required. So I don't know if they talked to their lawyers again or had some issues who knows, but both of them just out of the blue started requiring this. And it's a huge hassle because the homeowners, they don't really want to take out a separate policy. And then one of them did get a quote and there's probably cheaper, you know, policies out there. But the co the one customer got, it was going to cost them an extra thousand bucks a year just for this million dollar insurance policy. And that's adding that on. Do you know what he's paying with the solar? He's paying a decent amount more than he's paying every month, which even with that, he still should go solar. But, um, he basically said, Taylor, and we don't really want to like go through this.Speaker 2 (04:41):We're going to have to pay more and have to get separate insurance and tough to, you know, tough to get him back on board. If he's going to have to go through this huge hassle hassle and pay all this extra money. So anyways, the reason I'm seeing all this is because I was pretty much stumped the installer where you're using. They're like, yeah, we can't even do this. And so I'm post a comment in, uh, both of those Facebook groups, solar printer, and then solar objections just got some great feedback, some great comments from guys that haven't gone through, similar situations. Um, one was from, uh, Jake [inaudible] who's at solar academy. We're going to get them on the show here soon, but they just reminded me that it's here in California. You can't have a homeowner spend more than a thousand dollars on their solar project, like extra for anything they each way requires.Speaker 2 (05:36):So it's not fully resolved yet. We're still going back and forth with HOA, but just from the great comments and the great feedback I got posted in the Facebook groups, I think we're going to get, be able to push these accounts there now, because California, they can't make you spend more than a thousand dollars. And if the policy itself they've already spent hundreds and hundreds just to like submit their HOA applications and everything. So if the separate insurance policy is going to cost a thousand, then come up, man, you can't make him do that. So that's where we're at. And once we figured that out, I honestly didn't know that. So, um, we're going back back to the HOA with that, um, quiver with that arrow in our quiver. And hopefully we can get these accounts push through. So just wanted to say that because if you ever are stuck on deals, if you ever need a feedback from the community, that's what it's all about.Speaker 2 (06:34):We're all, I've just been super grateful to get good feedback, to get, um, great people in the industry. Sharon what's helped them. And that's where you're going to get from these groups. So I wanted to invite you if you're not part of these Facebook groups, part of these communities go get in on them because there is some fantastic nuggets there, mean shared some great tidbits of info and actually going to bring up a few more things that I've learned from the groups. So go join them and then hit me up and hope to connect with you guys in there. I try to pop in there at least a couple times a week myself. So that being said, let's hop in today's topic. And that is why you should be asking your customers good questions. And the reason I'm doing this topic today is because a few weeks back at the knock star event, um, did an episode, talked a little bit about some takeaways from it, but, uh, we are in key west Florida.Speaker 2 (07:30):And one of the topics that Danny PESI, who was also on the pod on the podcast, go listen to his episode. If you haven't already, his topic was why we should be asking better questions. And what he talked about to start it all off is just basically, there's three ways. You can convince someone to do something and one is way more effective than the other two. And so I'm going to start with the least effective in that is you telling your homeowner why solar is a good thing, just from your perspective. It's like our Mr. Customer, this is going to save you a ton of money. This is going to help your home. This is going to benefits you long-term, it's never going to increase your electricity rate. It's an awesome product. That's basically you telling them why they should do it, right? The least effective way to explain to them.Speaker 2 (08:25):And I think many of us are doing that right now. So take a look at your presentation. Are you explaining to your customers just from your perspective, why your product is good and why your program is good? If not, then this episode is for you, or if you are doing it, I should say this episode is for you because the next two ways one is better than the other, but here's the next one is you telling your customer from a different perspective? So what I mean by that is we've a lot of us have heard, like, feel, felt, found, overcome objections, right? Um, I totally understand Mr. Homeowner, you know, what do you know your neighbor neighbor across the street? Yeah, he actually had the same concern and what he found that going solar, it was going to actually help him sell his home or whatever the objection is.Speaker 2 (09:12):Right? So that's an example of you saying something from someone else's perspective, and this is a lot more effective than you just telling them, because if they can hear it from someone else's perspective and in a story format, more importantly, then they're going to believe it more. It's going to activate that right side of the brain. Um, you want them emotionally involved, right? So if you can bring up names, if you can bring up other people, that's getting them emotionally involved because people at the end of the day, buy on emotion and justify their decision with logic. So this is the next best way. And it's a really good way in before hearing this. This is mostly what I was doing. I'll be honest. It was mostly explaining too, in my presentations, I was trained to utilize just the different points from different people's perspective.Speaker 2 (10:04):And so it's a great way to sell. It's a great way to make your presentation more effective, but here is the best way. And that's what we're going to talk about today. And that is you help the homeowner realize it themselves by the questions you ask them. So if you can ask them effective questions, hypothetical questions, and get them to realize the benefits themselves. This is the most effective way it's better than even telling it from a different person's perspective. Hey, so what we're going to do in this show is give you a couple talking tracks, give you some examples that you can start using in your presentation today. So go through it and I want to invite everyone. That's listening. All my Solarpreneurs that are listening today, go through your presentation, more importantly, record it and really take a look. See if you're asking effective questions, because if you're not guaranteed, your close closing ratio is going to go up.Speaker 2 (11:01):If you can start to utilize some of these questions and homeowners are going to realize that it's just not smart to stay with the utility company, if you can master these questions. Okay. So here's a few questions. Some of these are coming from Danny PESI so, um, appreciate him. And hopefully he doesn't mind me sharing these, but here's a few examples of great, uh, questions that you can ask your homeowners today right now. So here's one, if you are trained to get the homeowner to realize that rates are increasing, how are you doing that? Maybe you're just showing them articles, which is great. Maybe you're telling stories, but if you can get them to realize logically it has to go up, that's the best way. So here's an example that Danny PESI gave us. Um, and he does that, just asking them about the grid.Speaker 2 (11:55):So he says, Mr. Homeowner, do you know how old the grid is? The one that generates power to your house? And then usually there'll be like, ah, I don't know. Probably really old. Yeah. I mean, when you guys moved here 30 years ago, it was the same grid. Right. So help them realize that it's old. Okay. And in most cases, the infrastructure for the grids, I mean, they're probably a hundred years old, pretty old. So then you say anything that's a hundred years old, do you know how much money it costs to maintain something that old? And then this is where you're directing them to the customer, realizing that their rates have to go up. Hey, so you, um, and then you, and then once they kind of realize that, I mean, if basically we're putting band-aids on the grid, right? The grid is just being maintained.Speaker 2 (12:50):It's a hundred years old and guess who's going to pay for it. We are. So you're directing with those questions. And then the last kind of question to, um, hit the nail on the head with that one is who do you think is paying to maintain it? Do utility companies and the stock holders or the customers. Okay. And anyone that has logic, they're going to say the customers. And he gave him a great example too, of like cars for anyone that is a big car fan. Maybe they have an old car sitting in their garage or Cadillac or whatever you can say, Hey, how old is your car? I mean, it's, that's what, 70, 60 years old now old car, is it pretty ed? You have to do quite a bit of maintenance on it. Yeah. I mean, it's old, right? A lot of maintenance to be done with it.Speaker 2 (13:39):So think of the infrastructure of the grid, um, SDG that's our utility company, whatever your company is. They're basically putting band-aids on it because there's so much work that needs to be done. They have to put band-aids on it. They have to spend a ton to maintain it and they're passing on those costs to us. Okay. And then, so think of, it's going to depend on your area too, maybe in your area. There's Texas, for example, I mean, all of the, uh, the freezing, right? The grid went down. Maybe there's something local going on where you can bring up, you can ask them questions about, and then they can realize for themselves that their rates have to go up. There's no other option. The rates are going to go up. Hey. So whatever your point is, think of all the points you're trying to make in your presentation, go right down.Speaker 2 (14:30):I would say two to three good questions for each difference. Um, point you're trying to make in your presentation, then start to use these in your yeah. As you're presenting to your homeowners, Hey, here's another one. Uh, given the cost of inflation, do you see your bill in the future going up or down? Great question. I've been using that and that's a good one to kind of gauge if they really think their rates are going up. Right. So if they say no, I mean, basically no one is going to say no to that. I mean, rates cost some inflation. It's expensive, but it's a good way to gauge where they're at. Do they really believe that rates are going up? Do they really believe there's a big problem? Because if people do not see a problem with the utility rates or with what's happening in the utility infrastructure, they don't see a problem.Speaker 2 (15:21):They're not going to want a solution. So that's a first, that's the first thing you can do is make some questions to really see where they're at. Did they believe, did they hate the utility company right now? Hopefully they do. And then your job isn't going to be quite as hard, but if they don't have a big problem with you till the company, you have to create that forum again by using stories and again, by using questions. Okay. And then just to go through a couple other talking points, um, I'm going to pull up actually, some that I see in the group and this way you should go join these F Facebook groups because they have great content in there. They have some great, um, great points you can use in your presentations. So this one, um, actually my friend, uh, solar Lily made a kind of a list of questions in one of the Facebook groups.Speaker 2 (16:18):Here's another example, 20 years ago. How much was gas, Mr. Homeowner? Do you remember right about $1. So if 20 years ago I would have offered you a gas card with $0 down to have your gas fixed at $1 for the next 20 years, then you didn't have to pay for it. Uh, once paid off, what would you have said? Probably it's okay. It's only a dollar a gallon right now. What would you do for that card? So, great question. She's leading the homeowner down that road, down the golden brick road in helping them realize that that's what solar is. Okay. So once people agree to these things, that's essentially what solar is. Future-proofing your homes, energy bill against inflation, and the average 4% increases nationwide. Great talking point right there. So you can go see the group. There's a lot more examples, but bottom line start using more questions.Speaker 2 (17:17):Another one that I thought of is, um, just renting versus owning, right? If you're selling loans like most people in this industry, what's the main reason you guys bought your house. Do you think if renting was cheaper at the time you guys still would've bought? What if the house was $300 a month cheaper to rent? A N most people are gonna say that they would still buy their home. Even if it was a lot cheaper to rent. Why, why, why are they saying that? If you get the homeowner, think to think why it's better to own versus rent. It's going to be so much easier to get them to believe, to buy into the product of solar, especially for those of you that are in markets, where there's not much savings with solar. You need to really drill this down into their head. That it's so much better to own versus rent from the utility company.Speaker 2 (18:11):Right. And another great guest guest we had on, uh, Alex Smith, a couple of episodes. I thought that was something genius that he does. He said one of the main things he does in his presentation is just go through that exercise with the homeowner and be like, Hey, Mr. Homeowner, um, what if it was like 500 bucks cheaper to rent here? Would you, would you do that? No. Okay. What about 600? No. What about 700? And then just take it down. Most people would pay a ridiculous amount more to own than their rent. Right? So if you can help them see this, it's going to be so much easier. I hope this helped. Okay. But again, go and write down some questions you can start using. Let me know if you want to hear more episodes like this. If you want to hear more talking tracks, I got more, but don't want to sit here all day.Speaker 2 (18:59):Just, just, uh, we should probably do like a live role-play bring in someone to go back and forth with the questions. Probably be a little bit easier, but go down and write your questions. Your talking points, record yourselves. And then this is going to make it so much easier to get people to buy-in to the vision of solar and what we're doing. Hope that helped go out and think what questions can you use today in your presentations? And then how can you make it better? How can you use the questions and the stories and from other people's perspectives, those are the two best ones. Okay. So think question first, then think a story from another homeowner's perspective and then worst case scenario, it's you telling them, try not to do that. That's the least effective way to sell your product. Hope that helped let us know what you thought and you don't want to miss out on next episode, because we are going to have the one, the only Rick Martinez on. If you're on Instagram, you will have heard of this guy, for sure. He's the no soliciting bro. He makes the coolest memes in the door to door industry. So go give him a follow, but don't miss out because he has a fire episode. He's gonna be on them for the next show. We do. That's all we got today. Keep crushing, close your deals this week, and we'll see you on the next one.Speaker 3 (20:21):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. Boom. What's going on Taylor. I'm strong hereSpeaker 2 (00:44):To help you your life easier as a solar sales professional, and close more deals, generate more referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry. So today's episode is what to do if you hate knocking, or if you're struggling to get out there and knock. And a quick prep is for that. The reason I am doing this episode is because I'll be blunt. I have struggled to knock as many hours as I want and need to lately. And I think it's a deeper issue. There gets to a point where you need to go and just identify your why, why are you out there? Go seven levels deep. So that's something that I'm going to do. And that's the first thing I would invite you to do. If you are struggling to get out there and knock doors, you're struggling with the motivation, figure out why you're even doing this.Speaker 2 (01:38):Why do you want to make, you know, six, seven figures, whatever your goal is this year, go write it down and go seven layers deep. If you haven't listened to the episode, um, I think it was a couple months back, but it was uh, about how to increase your confidence in sales. Actually, one of our more downloaded episodes, go listen to it though, because I talk about an exercise. It's great for this to just going seven levels, deep on your why and figuring out why you're really motivated to do the things that you're telling yourself you want to do. That's the first step. But before we get into the rest of the tips with that, I wanted to thank our loyal listeners. We've had a lot of great reviews, a lot of people sharing. So I want to think all those that have hopped on and shared the podcast.Speaker 2 (02:33):So wanted to just give those people a shout out and pull up a couple of reviews that people have been leaving lately. So we got to Ruff Munios. He says Taylor does an exceptional job of bringing in people that are experienced and high-performers to help elevate others. Someone looking into solar, like myself, listening and studying these interviews brings me confidence on the jump. Thank you. Thank you, Rafael. I assume you haven't made the jump over to solar yet, so hopefully you do it soon. Um, we got, uh, uh, I'm not going to try to say this, uh, username. You're cute. Okay. I'll try to say it. CUPE we're you WQ, uh, letters on there, but he says, I like how Taylor is constantly working to help the door to door space. I love how freely he gives out pro tips and shares his years of experience.Speaker 2 (03:32):Great interviews with top guests. Love it. And then he gives me five fire emojis. You just made my day QP we're you WQ thank you so much. And let's do one more for fun. We got a T pep says podcasts helped me out a lot here in Pennsylvania. One of the best podcasts about solar really goes in depth about the process of making a solar deal. Appreciate you guys. And that is how we grow the podcast. That's how we help others in the industry. And it's good karma. The more you help others, it's going to come back to you. So guys, I'm not just requesting this and not doing it myself. I go on and leave reviews for the podcast I'm listening to you do. And hopefully it's going to help me get reviews back. If you want something done to you, make sure you're actively doing it yourself.Speaker 2 (04:25):Okay. But I want to give, I think you, those that have made an effort to share and to repost and to leave good reviews on the podcast. That's what it's all about. So let's jump into the topic today. Again, we're jamming on what you can do if you are struggling to knock, or if you're just hating knocking lately, it's too hot million reasons we can tell ourselves. Right? And one of the reasons I start thinking to the future about things, we got college football coming up. My favorite time, one of my favorite times of the year is I get to watch college football, which that an MBA. That's my two sports that I watch more than any other sports. I'm a Utah Utes fan. And sometimes I start thinking forward. I'm like, man, it's going to be so nice when I can just take a Saturday, not knock, whatever.Speaker 2 (05:20):And that's the problem with college football is most of the good games are on Saturdays, right? So got to figure out a way to start recording games, but there's all sorts of things. Once we get into this phase of the year, people knock in the summer are gone. Um, sometimes you feel alone. Sometimes your team isn't producing as much. So what can you do to not fall into this trap of not producing at the level you need to and not getting out there and hustling because these months in solar, especially out here in San Diego, for whatever reason, get there. Um, hi, these are the hotter months, more than July. Um, more than August. Usually September, October are super hot months for us out here. And that's when people are getting their really high bills. So for us, it's a time when we need to be speeding up when we need to be going against the flow of people are slowing down.Speaker 2 (06:19):We need to be going quicker. So what can you do? So I'm going to go through, I did close three deals last week, had a decent week. Okay. I know there's guys closing three deals a day, but for me I'll I take three deals. I like that. And I'm going to build on that. So what I did to still produce, even though I did not feel like knocking it all last week. Number one thing I'm going to give you right here is I teamed up. I got with an accountability partner at someone that I was driving out to my areas. Hey, I know there's a lot of teams out there in solar. They don't do car groups. They don't go out together. They're just riding solo. Cause they have their own appointments. They got their own areas. But guess what? It doesn't matter if you have your own area, if you're not motivated, if you're not going to actually hit it up.Speaker 2 (07:18):So that's what I did. I recognize that I'm like, I do not want to get out there today. Do not want to go knock. I recognize that. And so I hit up one of the newer guys in our office said, Hey man, let's carpool out or areas. We're actually working like close to an hour drive away right now. It's a little bit further. So I said, Hey, let's carpool up. Let's uh, share the area. And then we can just both get out there at the same time. So this is the number one thing that helped me last week. Just get out with somebody's carpool, get your car group because it's like the circumstances you put yourself in. If you don't, if you're trying to cut out sugar, the best way to do that is not have sugar in the house. Right? And if you're trying to knock the same principle applies, get with someone that's going out there knocking.Speaker 2 (08:09):Don't put yourself in a tough situation where you have to decide to, you know, sit in the car or get out there, be with someone that you know is going to actually go get the job done, you know, is going to, um, shadow you whatever. And that's another pro tip. Um, if you haven't listened to Mike O'Donnell's episode, this is what he does. He always goes out with somebody when he's knocking. He pays someone. Um, I think it's 50 bucks. I don't know. He'll pay someone 50 bucks to meet him at the Starbucks and get out there and hit the doors. Because if he has someone out, waiting on them to go to the doors and he paid them money, how likely is he to not actually get out there and knock and have Michael Donald was doing this? The number one, you know, solar rep in the country.Speaker 2 (09:03):If he's doing this, then there's no shame in it and struggling to get out there and knock. There's no strain, shame in paying people to go out and knock. That's just Michael Donald doing the same thing. He recognizes that it will be tough for him to get out there and just knock on his own. Accord, opened the door himself. So he gets someone to meet him up. He pays someone to go meet him at the Starbucks and get out there at the same time. So if you're struggling at all, that's the first thing I would recommend. Just team up with somebody, get a newer guy in your office, get good excuse to recruit right there. Or, you know, get someone to hold you accountable. And maybe you don't have an office that's cranking ton of deals. Maybe you don't have a ton of good reps that are motivating.Speaker 2 (09:53):I struggled with this at my previous company. There sometimes are reps that weren't pushing me to work as hard as I needed to. So if that's the case, then consider getting in on our inner circle program. Okay. You can go to not CEO apply for that, but that's what we're all about is creating a group of like-minded people that need the accountability, need the motivation and are going to push to get results. So if you need help being around people like that, go hit, apply and book a call. We can see what we can do to help you out. Well, that's the first tip. And then the second thing is, I know I've talked about a few of these in previous episodes. So if you have binged a ton of episodes, you might be hearing a few of these again, but this is an app that I, I know I've talked about.Speaker 2 (10:44):It's called stick S T a C K K. And this app you can go and you can find accountability partners and you can literally place money on the line, um, for a habit, whatever action you're trained to do. So that's cool app. First heard about it from Tim Ferriss. Actually one of my, uh, favorite authors in his book, a four hour shift, great book, but he talks about this. He's trying to get people to basically falls recipes and he's like, guys, you're not going to learn how to cook. If you don't actually go through these recipes, I created and go through the book. So before you even continue in the book, he tells people to download the steak app and put money on the line that they're going to go through it. Funny part is I still haven't gone through the book, so I didn't take his advice seriously enough, but anything you're trying to do, that's a great app.Speaker 2 (11:39):You're putting money on the line and it goes to a charity that you don't agree with. Hey, so if you hate, uh, I don't know, Trump, if you hate by it and you can, don't download it and put money on the line and it'll go to the thing you don't want it to go to. So how motivating is that pretty sweet idea. Yes, me. Yes. That's the second tip. Get someone to hold you accountable on the stick app. And then the third tip actually talks about this in a little bit in last week's episode, but just develop a knocking routine and brought this up at Taylor McCarthy. He'll go get ice to really signal his brain that he's starting his knocking day. Okay. So what habits, what trigger can you put into place? That's going to trigger you. It's time to go and knock. Okay.Speaker 2 (12:31):And so I know I mentioned that in last week's episode, but it's worth mentioning again, just figure out how you can really trigger your brain to get out there and to hit those doors or to do whatever you're trying to do. Maybe it's make 50 calls that day. Maybe it's contact your referral sheet, just whatever you need to do, put a trigger around it and be super consistent. And it's so simple, guys, the success is simple. The guys that are closing tons of deals, they're not doing that many more things than the guys that aren't, but they're just doing it at a more consistent level and they're not giving up. Hey, so that's the key. I hope this helped rim. Remember those three things team up with someone and get someone newer to co go shout at you, go knock. I personally love it when people shadow me is because I can't get out of it either.Speaker 2 (13:22):I have to be out there and I'm not going to like, I'm going to show off. I'll, I'll be honest. I'm like try as hard as they can overcome the objections because I don't want people shadowing me, be like, Hey, this guy didn't even try to overcome that. So I'm pushing harder than I normally would not have closed a lot of same day deals just by having them, someone out shadow me. Hey, so that's the first one team up with someone. Number two, you've stick number three, develop your team and put sugars around you're knocking hours. You're prospecting hours or whatever difficult thing it is you're trying to do so hope that helped. Okay. Can't wait for you to go out and apply these things. Let me know if it helps send it someone who is struggling to knock and we will see you out on the doors and in the next episode,Speaker 3 (14:13):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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'reSpeaker 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 beSpeaker 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. SoSpeaker 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 feltSpeaker 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 orSpeaker 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. SoSpeaker 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 likeSpeaker 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 prettySpeaker 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 peopleSpeaker 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 thingsSpeaker 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 mySpeaker 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 profitableSpeaker 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 ISpeaker 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. ISpeaker 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 andSpeaker 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. ISpeaker 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 ISpeaker 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 afterSpeaker 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):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. What's up Solapreneurs Taylor Armstrong back withSpeaker 2 (00:44):Another episode here to help you close more deals, generate more referrals and dominate in the solar industry. Today, we're going to be talking about the two step framework that you can use today to go from one to two closes to four plus monthly. Okay. And the reason I'm seeing one to two to four, plus this is primarily for people that haven't broken through that barrier yet. Hey, that being said, if you are already closing, you know, four or 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 deals, you can implement these things and they are going to help. But the reason I'm saying from one to two to four plus is because this process, I think is the number one thing missing from people that are trying, they start hitting those consistent four plus a month. Okay. And we'll get into that. But before we jump into the topic of today, I wanted to give my boy Surge creator, a shout out.Speaker 2 (01:40):If you don't follow a Surge, he is, uh, helping a lot of guys in the solar industry, crush it on social media on Instagram, Facebook, if you don't, if you haven't heard of this guy, go shoot him a follow, look them up. And he's been actually helping us with some of our content, depending on when you're listening to this, you were probably going to see more video content that we're posting along with episodes. We're going to be posting some of these interviews now on YouTube. Okay. So we'll, um, we'll post a link. Once those things come out, but, uh, go search Solarpreneur. They might on YouTube. They might already be out as we're are recording this episode, but Serge has been helping us get some killer video content with some of our recent interviews. So we'd love to hear what you guys think of that.Speaker 2 (02:28):Do you want more video? Do you guys like the video or are you just audio people personally? I love the podcasts. I listen to podcasts when I'm at the gym, when I'm driving to deals, when I'm driving out to my turf, to my area. So I'm a huge proponent of podcasts, but I know there's a lot of people that prefer the video. So anyways, let me know what you think. I think it's good to have both options, video and audio, but we're going to be posting more and more video. And we're going to try to get some of these, uh, interviews on a YouTube. So let us know if you vibe with that, let's jump into the episode. So the two-step framework to go from one to two to four plus deals in a month. The reason we're talking about this today is because I'm actually coaching.Speaker 2 (03:19):Um, we are doing, we are accepting a coaching clients in our Solciety, inner circle. If you want to find out more about that, go to Solciety.co. There should be an inner circle tab. You can hit that and book a call. If you're interested in some, um, personal coaching and masterminding to take your cells, um, your closes up by 40%, 40 to 50% in a month. Okay. But, um, anyways, the reason I'm talking about this, one of our coaching clients in the inner circle, he is right now, he's not, he's primarily setting appointments and he has closers, but he's working up to, um, close his own deals. And he tells me, Taylor, my goal is in the next two months that we're working together. I want to get closing my own deals and I want to have five deals closed in a month. So I'm like, all right, that's an awesome goal, dude, let's, let's hit it.Speaker 2 (04:20):Let's go for it. So we've been working together three weeks or so now we're talking, we're talking, he's making some small improvements, but our last call is the reason for this episode, as we get on the call. And, um, he didn't have, he didn't have much no improvement from the previous week. We talked and I started realizing that a few of our recent calls that we had is we were talking about almost all of the sales techniques. He's like, Taylor, what do you do on the doors? What do you, how do you overcome this? Objection, how do you get more referral? All these cells, specific things, very technical what's, which is awesome to know all the technical sales knowledge and that's going to create improvements. But as I was trying to think, why, why is he making slower improvements? And this was the reasons cause we're focused so much on these little technical things that we weren't, we weren't talking as much about what needed to be talked about.Speaker 2 (05:25):And that is the behind the scenes, things that consistency, the routines that showing up every day, working the exact hours that you need, and then making sure you have your routines dialed in. So I started realizing this I'm like, dude, before we get in all the technical sales stuff, again, let's talk about what are you doing every day to show up? What are you doing everyday to be consistent in your morning routine and your evening routine in your hours knocked in your appointments booked. And that's the purpose of these KPIs, right? The key performance indicators is they help you see where the improvements need to be made. So for those that are training new teams, think about that. I think this is the number one thing for newer reps to take them from the couple deals a month to start closing four plus a month, because that's the thing that people don't talk about as much as they need to that.Speaker 2 (06:27):I see everyone wants to talk about the sexy sales techniques, the sexy closing lanes, the things that you can say on the door, what's the magic words that people are going to sign up instantly. But guess what if you're not putting in consistent hours, if you are not, if you don't have your Headspace dialed in, if you're not there mentally, if you're not following your routines, your morning routine, it's going to make it super tough to have success. Even if you are the world's greatest, closer, even if you know all the cool lanes, even if you know all the good stuff. If you read all of the sells books in the world, none of that matters if you can't be consistent. And if you can't do the small little things, day after day decree success, okay. And I brought these books up quite a few times in the podcast, but go read.Speaker 2 (07:15):I'm looking at it right now on my bookshelf. It's the slight edge and the compound effect. They talk about it. And there's a reason why those are two of the best. I would say personal development books that have been written because they're not talking about secret lines. They're just talking about being consistent, doing something small every day. And that's, what's going to create a massive results in your life. So think about that. What is the things, what are the things that you can do every day to create the mental space you want to get in? When I was at this knock star event, um, a couple of weeks back, we've been talking about it kind of all lately. Um, Taylor McCarthy, Danny Pessy two awesome, awesome guys in the door to door training industry. Um, they're changing the game of, for solar training. They got some great content, but I was at their mastermind event and they're in key west Florida.Speaker 2 (08:15):And this is something that Taylor McCarthy was talking about. He was telling us how he closed five deals in a day, all self-generated just him going out and knock. And he closed five in a day. And then he closed like 14 in the week. Um, yeah, all knocking himself, no leads, no setters, none of that. And someone was asking him like to, what did you do to create that? And the question he threw at us, he asked us to write down what our perfect day of knocking looks like. What's our knocking process in what he meant by that is, and this is a good exercise for, to go through. Um, if you have a notepad or something, it's be a great time to pause and write the answer to this down. Think back to the time when you had a massive day on the doors, massive day, closing to some of your most successful days, what were the things you did during that day?Speaker 2 (09:17):Okay. Maybe you haven't had a ton of success yet, but write them down. Think what were the routines you went through? How did you feel? What were the hours you worked make a checklist of those things. Okay. And this is something that Taylor had us do and kind of rate ourselves on. Okay. I'm sure you can notice a difference in the things you did on your days of massive success versus days where you didn't have much, much success. So notice those things. Did you take a, I dunno, ice bath that day? Did you do some meditation? Did you exercise? What type of food were you eating? How many hours did you work? Hey, some key things you can notice if you went through this exercise. Okay. And now start to think about, are you doing those things? Day after day, are you implementing falls? Little things that gave you the success that day, are those things that you implement in your day-to-day routine?Speaker 2 (10:21):Maybe so, maybe not. So what McCarthy told us is his perfect day and knocking looks like this, and this is how he, he got the five deals in a day, in 14 in a week. He said, guys, my perfect day of knocking is this nine 30 to 10. I knocked my first door. That's when I get out there before I get out, though I go in, I, yeah, my cooler full of ice. That's this trigger habit. Any of you have read, um, the power of habit. That's a great book as well, Charles Duhigg um, they talk about what are the triggers that you can put in a place for your habits. That's something to think about. So for those that are out knocking, what type of triggers do you have that can trigger you into knocking mindsets for Taylor McCarthy? He goes, and he fills up his cooler with ice.Speaker 2 (11:15):He goes to the gas station and then he gets all his drinks, his Gatorades. Cause he's not, he's not taking breaks to go, come back and go to gas stations. Right. He's gearing up for a full day and knocking. So from nine 30 to 10, before he's going to a gas station getting his ice. That's his trigger for his habit, which is getting out and knocking. So once he gets his ice, he knows, right? It's game time. That's his equivalent of like, I dunno, LeBron James chalking up his hands before the game, throwing it in the air. This is what Taylor McCarthy does. He gets his eyes. So I think what are, what's the key, what's the trigger you can put into place for when you're knocking for, when you're closing that can get you into that, right? Mindset can let your brain know. All right.Speaker 2 (12:04):It's time to go. Once I do this, that means it's time to go knock stem, to go close timing, to go work it because this job, as you know, you don't have people babysitting you. Lot of the times. There's a lot of people, a lot of solar guys out there that are getting out by themselves, much easier with the team, got respect for guys that are lone Wolf in it. But think of some trigger you can put into place. And then after that to McCarthy, he's hitting his first door from nine 30 to 10. And then from 10 to 12, he calls that just as like extra bonus time as bonus sales, anything he gets from 10 to 12 that's, um, just kind of icing on the cake. He's not necessarily expecting any deals, any, he closes from men, but he's going out there and he's just trying to talk to people.Speaker 2 (12:58):And then from what he does after that, he breaks it into, uh, quarters. And I guess it's not really for, I think he called them quarters, even though it's kind of three times thoughts. But instead of thinking, I'm knocking all day long, 10 to 12 is a bonus extra curricular time. 12 to three is his first quarter three to six is a second quarter and six to nine is his third quarter. And that's another pro tip right there. If you are knocking, um, you know, really any amount of time, make sure you break up your hours and it's something like that. The brain can manage quarters and little chunks of time, a lot better than it can. All right. We're going to be out here eight hours. That sounds pretty daunting. Right? So break it up into chunks. And that's what he does. That's his perfect day knocking every time there's a end of a quarter, 12 to three, he's going back to his car.Speaker 2 (13:58):He's getting a Gatorade, he's getting a snack, taking a little break. Okay. But he's not sitting in the car. He's not hanging out there. That's what he does. Okay. So the point of all this, make sure you have your perfect knocking day in place in the two-step framework is this number one, get a list of all the habits that are, um, contributing you, having success, write down exactly what your routines need to be. Write down the things that are helping you that have helped you have big days. And once you identify all of these habits, for example, you know, you craft your morning, your team, you exercise, you get out of bed at a specific hour, you do your meditation. This is what I talked about with my client. And then you make your green smoothie. It doesn't necessarily have to be these things, but these are just examples of things you can throw into your dailies habits.Speaker 2 (14:55):You can track. And then the other thing we put into place for my coaching student there is he wanted to be on the doors at one o'clock okay. Maybe it's different. Maybe your, maybe your goal is to just knock four hours for the day or go to X amount of appointments. But whatever your goal is, whatever you know is going to help you to have success. That's what you need to be tracking, measuring, and adjusting. So for my student, it was, he wanted to be on the doors by one, and then he wanted to be knocking until eight 30. Okay. So what we did is we assigned points to all these habits and all these things that he's trying to put into place because at the end of the day, he knew, he knew a lot of they close. It is a lot of the lines they say on the doors, but what he is missing and the reason he's not getting four plus deals in the month right now is because first he needs to get consistent with these things.Speaker 2 (15:53):First, he needs to get consistent with being out on the doors at a specific time with doing his perfect morning routine. Okay. And so if you're not closing four plus deals, or even if you are, this is a great exercise to go through, start tracking these habits, figure out what you're missing, write them all down and then assign a point value to them. That's what we've put into place. Okay. So maybe you're getting a point for waking up on time. Maybe you're getting a point if you're a green smoothie and then give yourself a couple of points for getting on the door as it can at a consistent time. And for him, it was, he wanted to talk to 15 homeowners in a day as he was out there. Cause that's what he can control. Right? He can't necessarily control how many appointments he books, but he can control how many people he talks to out there.Speaker 2 (16:48):Okay. So if you are for a rep or if you were training reps or even, yeah, if you are having success out there, go through this framework, all right. Write down the habits to things you want to be improving and then track them. Okay? This is something that every rep should do every week. Check these old things, give yourself points for them, make it a game, gain a guarantee. It's going to be something that increases the amount of cells, especially if you haven't tasted a ton of success yet, it's going to be the thing that if you are only closing one or two deals a month, just doing this, making this little change, tracking, measuring, adjusting, and seeing what's missing, that's going to be the number one thing. They can take you to four paws deals in a month. So try it, train your reps on it.Speaker 2 (17:40):Hey, let me know what you think. Share it with someone that's having trouble in their routines or being consistent and keep crushing out their hope. The end your summer is going awesome. Make sure they push super hard these months. Cause this one people are getting their high electric bills. Hope you enjoyed the episode. And next time don't miss out because we're going to have someone that is doing awesome things. His name's Dan Dunn. He is the CEO of harness power. It's a company that's, I think they're in four or five different states and his reps are doing awesome. He's doing awesome things in his company. So you're not gonna miss out on what he has to say next time on the Solarpreneur podcast. So keep crushing and we'll see you soon.Speaker 3 (18:28):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. What's going on Solarpreneurs?Speaker 2 (00:45):Secret Hack to book an extra two appointments this week and much more that's what's going to be in today's episode. We're going to jump into it. But before that, just want to give some thanks to all the people that have listened to the show. So pads, um, massive support and appreciate everyone that shared it. Appreciate the comments I receive. Appreciate everyone that is crushing it in solar. And let me know about it. That's what this podcast is all about, and that's what we're here to do with the Solarpreneur movement. And again, that's what we're doing with the podcast is helping you close more deals, generate more referrals, and have a lot more fun, hopefully, as you are out there selling some solar panels. So before we jump into the topic today, wanted to just invite you. If you haven't already checked out Solciety, go check it solciety.co have been getting great feedback from those that are already on it.Speaker 2 (01:47):Um, and if you don't know what that is, go back and listen. I think it was four or five episodes. Um, we did the Solciety breakdown on what it is, what you can expect in the training platform and why you should, you and your team should be on it. Go listen to that. If you haven't already and check out Solciety, it's going to help you close extra deals every month. And really just implement a lot of these things that you're hearing in the podcast. And it's so affordable. You guys, so go get on it. It's the best training platform that I've seen for solar. I've, I've done a lot of different training platforms. I think it's the most convenient because it's an app it's literally right in your pocket. So you can go train at any time at any hour. You don't have to have a log in.Speaker 2 (02:36):You don't have to remember your password. You're clicking on the app, you're logging in and then every month you're getting new content from the best people in solar. So if you're on an already update for this month, we are adding someone that knocks our content. Taylor McCarthy is going to be added on there, here, hopefully in the next couple of days. So you're definitely gonna want to get into that. Let's jump into the episode with all that being said, okay, I want to share with you guys something that I had forgotten about last week that helped me book an extra appointment. Okay. I only got one appointment from it, but, uh that's cause I didn't do it until later in the week. But if you follow what I'm going to tell you, it's going to get you an extra two appointments guaranteed in a week and who doesn't want an extra two solar appointments for the week.Speaker 2 (03:29):That's an extra two opportunities. You have to close up more deals. So here's what it is. Well, before I tell you what it is, um, I'll preface it. I had a rough week last week. I didn't close anything. And that's the first week that I haven't closed anything in probably a couple months, at least so definitely was frustrating. This was one of the bright spots of the week is what I'm going to share with you here is I don't want you to think that, you know, all the top guys, sometimes there's days where I go without closing, sometimes there's days where I go without booking an appointment. So for those that are listening to this, if you had a rough week, if you had a rough day knocking, if you had a rough day in your closes, just throw that to the side, focus on the positive and make it a better week next week.Speaker 2 (04:26):That's what I'm doing and that's what you should do to it. So that's why I'm focusing on a couple of things that went well for me last week, I'm sharing them with you so you can focus on the positive as well and focus on the things that are going to move the needle. And I'll be honest, there was, there's always the element of not working enough hours. So that's partly why I didn't close a deal last week. Cause I didn't have my fish in the line as much as I should have. Okay. But here's the technique that I was happy about. The, did it get me an extra appointment on the week? Okay. So this, I actually learned from surprisingly enough, I learned it from, uh, missionaries in my church. And the reason I forgot about it is because as many of you know, I did a two year service mission for my church.Speaker 2 (05:16):I was down in Columbia, south America. And the reason I got into sales is because I'm like, all right, if I go and knock doors. So in pest control cell and Jesus is going to be so easy because I already talked to people. I know how to knock doors. It's going to be ways you're knocking doors and my mission. And then I do a summer pest control. I get out to my mission and come to find out. We didn't even knock doors in Columbia. Our mission president was like, nah, you guys don't mean to knock doors. He just sent us around talking to people on the streets, doing activities with people playing soccer. So who knows maybe if I would've known that I would've never gotten into door to door cells, but glad I did change my life. But the reason I bring that up is because before I was getting ready to go on my mission, I remember I was asking some of my friends that had done their missions, like, Hey, do you guys knock a ton of doors?Speaker 2 (06:11):What's the deal? How do you go about knocking doors? And what I was hearing from a lot of them, they said, Taylor, we don't knock a ton of doors, but here's what we do. Every time we go to an appointment, every time we get like our referral, every time we go to someone's house that we're trying to follow up on, we have this little technique. We do, we knock the two houses to the side of it. And then we knock the three houses across the street. And that's it that's most of what our door knocking is. I'm like, oh, okay, that doesn't sound too bad. And so I started thinking, huh? Maybe that's a good idea. And maybe that could be applied to solar. Obviously I'm thinking this a lot later now, as you know, this was back in like 2012 when I did my mission and was talking about these things a lot.Speaker 2 (07:03):But I'm like, ah, that could definitely be applied to solar. So last week, for whatever reason as I was going on appointments, this just popped into my head again, Jay. And I will say the reason I'm talking about this is because last week I was going to a lot of appointments from our ciders, from our guys that were setting up appointments. I went to a decent amount of them. And so this is more, I guess you'd say applicable for those that are going to maybe online leads, you had to drive out to an appointment or maybe have a team people knocking the doors and you're going to some of their appointments. Okay? So it's going to be more applicable for that, but it also can be applied if you're knocking your own doors everyday, if you're doing purely self-generated leads, you could also do it with that.Speaker 2 (07:52):Because a lot of times you're not going to talk to all the neighbors around the appointments you book, right? So that's the technique is every time you go on an appointment specifically, make sure after the appointment, do what these missionaries told me, they were doing. Knock the doors next to it. The two neighbors to the side of it, then go across the street and knock the three neighbors across the street. Why should you do this? Because you already have a name right there. You have a name you can use. And the line that really worked for me last week, if you're driving or something, write this down, this is fire. So you say, think of the name of the appointment and maybe it's Joe. They say, Hey, did Joe tell you I was stopping by today? Did he let you know? He's the one with the Navy flag out front?Speaker 2 (08:45):Did he let you know, was coming by? This worked super well for me last week, it's a name someone they recognize and lucky for me, the appointments that I booked last week off this technique, everyone knew this guy in the neighborhood. So it works even better. If it's someone, uh, that people recognize or something they have out front of their house, this case, it was a Navy flag. A lot of people knew this guy. So use this start applying it. Um, what happened to me is I went to this appointment and he was one of those where he's like, okay, you got 10 minutes. I got to go soon. So I'll pop, open my truck bed in set your iPad down there, show me what you got. And anytime it's that, it's like, come on, man. We can't do this on the truck bed. I didn't tell you how many deals.Speaker 2 (09:41):Maybe in the past five years, maybe one or two deals have been closed, standing on a truck bed outside, not many. So of course it's, you know, basically a situation where you're just gonna give them some basic info and then try to reschedule, which is what I did. But that's why I started thinking about this. I'm like, okay. I drove clear out here. It was like 20 minutes out of my way to this appointment. And I'm like, all right, I need to get something out of this. If I came clear out here, I can't be wasting my time, just showing up to these appointments and not getting something from this. So I went over a couple general details with the guy rescheduled for one, his wife was there. And um, when he had more time now that's when I decided to implement this. Like, I, I know this, I know someone was in this area.Speaker 2 (10:33):It was one of our newer reps that was knocking it. I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to do it anyways. Who cares if they already talked to him? And this is something that ran through my head before is I would be like, yeah, I'm not going to knock the neighbors of appointments of my setters. Um, they probably do talk to all of these people, but guess what? Every door approach is different. What you're seeing is probably a lot different than what the guy in the area saying, even if it's from your same company and maybe they caught the people at a bad time, Hey, if anything you can say, Hey, I'm just following up on what they told you. Okay, bye. I went and then none of these people had been talked to. So I don't know if the rep maybe didn't, you know, get to them or whatever, but even if they have been talked to just try it out this week, if you're going to appointments or if you're getting out of your own appointment, make sure, just try it.Speaker 2 (11:28):Knock. The two sides knocked the one across. I went and knocked the one across to the left. So not the house directly across, but looking across to the left. And that's the house I ended up booking and the line worked perfectly said, Hey, did Joel let you know I was stopping by? So I go know what's going on, created the curiosity. And then after that, it just became super easy. It was an add on system too, which that's another pro tip. Make sure to not overlook people that already have solar or new homes that were built with solar. A lot of these people are still paying true out bills. A lot of them still have excess money. They're paying to the utility to make sure you don't overlook that. But I went and worked like a term and got a solar appointment out of it.Speaker 2 (12:17):Okay. So that's the tip start doing that. And then another bonus tip with this is if you haven't already go listen to Michael Donald's, uh, episode Michael O'Donnell. He was probably, it's been a little bit, you're going to have to go back probably 50 episodes or so, but he's been on the Solarpreneur podcast twice. And if you don't know who Mike O'Donnell is, let's be honest. You might be living under a rock because this guy is probably the top installer in the industry gets multiple golden door awards every year. But Michael O'Donnell one of my top takeaways from the podcast we did with him actually really relates to this. And it is every time he goes to appointments and he does do a lot of preset appointments from his team guys that he needs to go to their closes. So his thing is every time he gets out of them appointments, if he has any time at all, then what he does, he'll go.Speaker 2 (13:15):He calls them mini habits. So you can go listen to his episode here. He'll, it's one of his kind of core topics he talks about. But what he does is he goes and he knocks until he, he gets at least one, no. Okay. And so he has some stories with it. He tells stories of where sometimes unlock after and he'll get four or five yeses. Everyone wants to see if proposal for a, their home. So he asked to keep knocking until he gets at least one, no that's related to, if you want to take it to another level and implement that bonus tip, do what Mike O'Donnell does go till you get at least to know. And I know most days he doesn't leave. He doesn't go back home until he gets at least one no on the day. And he tributes just that little mini habits to, um, you know, dozens and dozens of extra closes on the year just by doing that.Speaker 2 (14:14):And if you are going to these, you know, preset leads or, um, appointments that other people on your team book, then make sure you're, you're also getting some self-generated deals in there. Everyone knows that's where the money's at. It's nice. You're showing up to appointments. If you do have a setter closer model, but do these little things, that's going to get you to make sure the extra money on the year, that's going to be the difference, the separator for you. And just these little things. It's the small and simple things that are going to change the outcome of your, of your story and of your success. So don't overlook those things. Hope that tip helped you guys start doing that. It's going to get you an extra two appointments again. If you are just knocking your own doors, then just try and make sure even if you have, you know, a late appointment or something that you booked yourself, go and, you know, knock the neighbors Cain, do what Michael Donald's says and get at least one note before you leave there yet. So hope that helps hope that gets you an extra few appointments this week, share it with your team, share it with someone that could use an extra appointment or two this week. And we will see you guys on the next episode. Peace.Speaker 3 (15:32):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co! 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 AlexSpeaker 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 injuriesSpeaker 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 SanSpeaker 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. SoSpeaker 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 thereSpeaker 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 literallySpeaker 2 (05:18):Nothing, no furniture in there. There's like we were literallySpeaker 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 wasSpeaker 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 toSpeaker 3 (05:54):Good. They're covering the rent that'sSpeaker 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 thatSpeaker 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 10Speaker 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 likeSpeaker 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, likeSpeaker 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 followingSpeaker 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 seemedSpeaker 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 upSpeaker 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 areSpeaker 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. SoSpeaker 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 allSpeaker 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. ButSpeaker 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 afterSpeaker 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 sidewaySpeaker 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 officeSpeaker 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. SoSpeaker 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. ISpeaker 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 TaylorSpeaker 3 (34:15):And Dan, it was the cheapest thing I ever bought. No, I was kidding the cheapSpeaker 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 toSpeaker 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 doneSpeaker 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. CauseSpeaker 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 soSpeaker 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 toSpeaker 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 yourSpeaker 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 firstSpeaker 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'mSpeaker 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 lotSpeaker 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):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

DOWNLOAD NOW Your FREE Closer Sheet here: https://closer.solarpreneurs.com/Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co! 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. What's up Solarpreneurs! Your secret weapon to closing...Speaker 2 (00:45):You're about to find out what that is and how to use it and how to increase your closing ratio by at least 10%, all that, and more in today's episode, let's jump into it. My name's Taylor Armstrong. I'm here to help you close more deals, generate more referrals and make it more enjoyable to be in this awesome solar industry. Hope you're doing well. My voice sounds a little bit nasally it's because we had a little bit of a crisis. Just got back from an event and the knock star event in key west Florida, and a little weekend getaway after that got back and we noticed something smell and super strange in the house, thought it was the trash went and took the trash out. Then, uh, hit the gym. After that, when I got back, it still smelled even worse, like what is going on here?Speaker 2 (01:39):So I'm like, okay, I go and decide to get a drink from the fridge, open up the fridge. And I noticed there's like these fruit flies all over the place. I'm going to kind of, that's weird. Then I open up the freezer. This is our spare Ridge. We have, uh, in our second bedroom here, open up the freezer and just the nastiest thing I've ever seen. All this meat just gone that ground Turkey, chicken, apparently our fridge and our freezer got shut off. I don't know what happened, but just nastiest smell. You've ever smelled a smell like a dead body in there. And I'm having nightmares about it. I don't know if I need meat for a couple of days, at least. So anyways, long story short, that is why my place smells terrible right now. Got all the windows open. So you can probably hear crickets chirping outside stuff going on, because look, if I close the windows, I'm going to pass out right now.Speaker 2 (02:37):So that's my explanation of why it might be some little nasally or something going on here, but let's jump into it without further ado. I'm going to tell you guys about a secret that I was presented with at this event. And if you haven't followed Taylor McCarthy, Danny, PESI over at knock star, they're doing awesome things. Nominee. I'm going to be sharing a lot of what they shared with us and also just networking with other people there. This is why it's important that you go to events. You don't have to go to every event. Okay? Sometimes I get a little carried away. You go into too many events. I know I've talked about that previously in the podcast, but try to go to, I don't know, an event a quarter or at least a couple of times a year, right? Pick a few events that you can go to to further your craft and network with other people.Speaker 2 (03:31):Okay? Cause that's what it's all about. That's how you're going to make improvements. They say your network is your net worth. And I can definitely attest that because some of the things you learn, not from the people, not only from the people speaking, but from the people you associate with, it's that one thing that can possibly take your business to another level. Now I'm going to share one thing that I think will help you take your closing percentage to another level. And I'm saying this because it comes, this is what a couple of guys at the event, actually, multiple guys are phone. This exact closing process and their closing ratio is at like 89 to 90%. Super ridiculous. And then if you follow Taylor McCarthy, he is closing, you know, insane amounts of deals. He closed five deals himself. The other day just went out and knocked the doors, close five in a day.Speaker 2 (04:27):And I think before that he had closed like 18 in two weeks. He's he's not doing online leads. He's not getting referrals. These are fresh doors knocked. Most of them close on the spot and that's how he does it. And so this is what he does. I'm going to share it with you. And I'm going to give you guys this sheet that he shared with us, okay. I adopted it for a Solarpreneur. This is a Solarpreneur edition. So it's got some bells and whistles on it and I'm going to gift it to you for free. All you have to do is go to sor, uh, sorry. It's closer.solarpreneurs.com. That's closer.solarpreneurs.com. So head over there and you're going to enter your email. I'm going to gift you this sheet, this template adapted first of all, printers, right? I'm not, I'm not stealing the exact sheet, but I'm going to adapt it, added a few things and need to think, um, Alex Smith, he's actually going to be on the next episode cause he's another person that's using this sheet and is closing 89%.Speaker 2 (05:36):He's actually going to be in the next podcast you hear. So we might expound on that a little bit, but head on over to that website type in your email, and you're going to get instant access to this sheet and what it is. Okay. Here's where you can start taking some notes. It's basically a comparison of what they're doing right with the current utility company versus what they're going to get with solar. And here's why this is so cool. Even last week I went to a dual, I closed it up, but the lady's biggest concern. She's a Filipino lady down here in San Diego. She's like Taylor, I've switched, I've switched, uh, cell phone companies. I've switched, um, you know, satellite companies, cable. And they've all told me I'm going to save money, but then there's always like hidden fees, something too good to be true.Speaker 2 (06:29):I just don't believe that it's going to work out the way you're saying and ended up overcoming her concerns, overcome their objections. But the biggest thing after that, she kept on focusing so much on the total price. Her panels were going to cost her like 40 grand. She needed decent amount of panels up there. And I kept on saying, you're going to pay like 80 grand to the utility company or the same amount of time. So what's the big deal. So like, yeah, that's so expensive. I don't think people pay that much for solar and it's so many panels. So I had to just like drill it into her head. Just repeat after, repeat after, repeat that. Yeah, but you're not paying anything upfront. You're just redirecting your power. It's going to be cheaper monthly bill. And she kind of got it. But now that I'm looking back, if I were to use this sheet that you're going to get access to, it would have helped so much because it's just an apples to apples comparison.Speaker 2 (07:30):What they're getting right now with utility versus what they're going to get going solar. Okay. So if you downloaded the sheet, if I were you, I would pause right now, go head on over to close.solarpreneurs.com and just download it, putting your email, okay. Get it. And then you have this in front of you. But what you're going to see is it's just, it's nothing super fancy, but it's a line down the middle of the sheet. And then you're going to see two spaces. You're going to see for the current utility company versus what they get with solar. And then it's going to have a bunch of different, um, well, we'll just break it down here. So it's going to have your offset. So just the offset of energy, obviously with the utility company, I mean, it's just a hundred percent offset, right? I mean, I don't know.Speaker 2 (08:22):Um, with that, it's more just comparing like with solar, we're going to give them a bigger offset, right? So this is just like, and see that they're not getting extra power. They're going to pay for the extra power, right. With the utility. But with solar me, we're going to give them 115% offset, which is what we usually do here. So it's comparing that. So all these different boxes, it's just a line down the middle and then it's going to give them just visually, they're going to be able to see what the difference is. They're getting with solar. And that's one of the things we learned when you go in your presentations, all you say is Mr. Homeowner. My job is very simple. Actually, all I'm going to do is just draw a line down on the Nova sheet. So you can see which what you're getting now versus what would happen with the solar.Speaker 2 (09:07):If we did get your home approved on it. That makes sense. Great. If we would submit an application, see if we can get your home approved, if not, we're not going to do anything, but that's all it is just going to draw a line down the middle of the middle of this sheet and we'll show you the comparison. That's a great way to preface what you're going to do. And then again, if they can see this visually, it's going to make it so much easier to give them, get that in their heads, get the comparison. And I know if I would've had this the other week, instead of having to just repeat after repeat, after repeat, I was just talking, right. I wasn't using the other means of communication, which is visually, which most people are visual learners. So if you can get them even write in themselves, but more importantly, taking in visually, then they're going to grasp what you're telling them much quicker.Speaker 2 (09:57):Okay. So the first one is offset the second space on there, you're going to see as monthly. So that's talking about what they're paying monthly to the utility currently, right? So monthly, maybe it's 150 with solar moves can be a hundred bucks. So you're going to write that name with them and you're going to get them obviously to agree out. So as you're presenting this, you're going to be asking them. So how much do you pay monthly and get them to tell you we're going to do another episode on questions that you can ask. Cause that's actually the next takeaway I got from the event that I'm going to start improving right away is just better questions. If you can help the customers, um, the homeowners really realize these things themselves versus you just telling them that's way more powerful than you telling them. So ask them questions, Mr.Speaker 2 (10:47):Homeowner, how much you paid monthly. Okay. So here's what would happen with the solar is instead of paying 150, you would only pay a hundred bucks. Okay. And then yearly do the math with them. Make sure it's crystal clear. Make sure they understand it. So yearly 150 adds up to 1800, right? Versus a hundred adds up to 1200. So that would be a $600 difference right. For the year. Okay. Now inflation. This is where you want to make sure you have proof of what you're saying because people are skeptical out there. If you just start throwing out numbers, you definitely want to be able to back it up so you can ask them inflation. Mr. Homeowner, how much do you think inflation is right now? 3%. Okay. So 3%. But with electricity here's, what's been happening. They just had a 10% rate increase. And this is where I like to pull up proof of what's been happening.Speaker 2 (11:41):So either go to it, depending on what market you're in find proof. Right? And I've talked about this before, bookmark your different folders and where you can just pull up this ammo of the rate increases or whatever's happened. So pull that up with them and say that they can see and then agree on a number. So is it fair to say that they're going up five to 7%? Okay. Whatever it is. Put down a number and then with solar, assuming you are doing financing, right. 0%. Okay. There's not going to be an escalator. So 0%, then you're building value in all these things. Okay? So I'm giving you the spark Noax spark notes version, but obviously you want to build value. You want to tell stories. You want to ask them great questions, which again, we'll do another episode on, okay. You're going to see next a spot that says interest.Speaker 2 (12:31):That's where you can talk about. Okay. Well right now, how much do you think it costs to maintain the infrastructure of the utility company? It's like a hundred years old. Right? Probably be pretty expensive. So in all to be blunt, you guys are paying a hundred percent interest right now. You're paying for all the repairs of the utility. They're putting band-aids on all the difference. Um, repairs are making on the equipment. So you're paying interest in that. Guess what? With solar, it's only going to be 2.9% or whatever it may be. Okay. You can put down the interest and then tax credits. Okay. With their utility. How much do you guys get any like tax benefits, paying your electric company? Have they ever given you like cash back or anything? No. Okay, cool. So here's, what's cool about the solar. Your neighbors have liked that they've gotten money back.Speaker 2 (13:25):Federal government is incentivizing people to go solar. So for this year, luckily got extended because of COVID. But they're going to give you 26% of the value of the system back in the taxes, in the form of credits. So for you, it's going to be about nine grand. Okay. Whatever it is, write it down, added home value. Again, something you want to show them proof for. Okay. But at a home value, maybe it's 15 to 20 grand pull up the Zillow article, pull up whatever approves you had, show them that they're going to get some value added to their home in California. We're saying, Hey look, have you probably noticed all the new homes are being built with solar? Have you seen that? Yeah, that's because they actually passed a law that all new homes need to be built with store hours. So obviously it's helping them sell quicker and for more.Speaker 2 (14:14):Okay. And then 25 year savings break down the numbers, break down what they're going to save 20 five-year cost investment. And then you can just add up. Okay. And here's where you can just write. Um, you can just add up straight what they're paying for utilities. So if they're paying 150 average, 1800 a year, Mr. Homeowner, what does the number 18 grand represent to you? That's how much you spent in paint over 10 years. Right? So put that down then you put plus inflation. So 20 year costs, double, that would be 36 grand plus inflation. So 25 year cost would be, what does that have that a 45, I think 45 plus inflation. Okay. So you don't have to get, yeah. You don't have to, you know, break it down. Exactly. But put the plus inflation so they can see that you're giving them like the bare minimum numbers.Speaker 2 (15:09):Okay. And then once you do this, they have all side by side. Hey, and what's really cool about this is you can leave this page with them. So guess what they're going to have in their head? My customer, the previous week, she's thinks she's focused so much on the 40 grand she's going to spend. But if I would have left this with her, she has this in front of her. She says, okay, I'm paying. Yeah. With solar, I'm paying 40 grand. But wow. Look at this. I'm actually saving 60 grand and that's. Yeah. And that's like without the inflation factor into. Okay. So start using this. I'm excited to hear what you think about it. Okay. And I'm just gonna, yeah. I'll, I'll be blunt. I haven't started using it yet because this is just content. We got straight from the, some of these top closers at the event.Speaker 2 (16:01):Yeah. But I'm just going off what I hear other people, all of the things I'm sharing, I'm just starting to implement it myself. Okay. So if other people are getting awesome results with it, it's all about the results, right? You follow people that are getting insane results. And that's what I'm sharing with you here. I'm sharing you something that people are getting insane results from 80, 90% closing ratios. So start using this. That's why I wanted to gift it to you for free. Again, head on the closer.solarpreneurs.com. You can get a copy of this and just print them off, print off 10 of them, try it this week, leave it with your homeowner, leave it with your next close. And let me know if it helped you. Hey, so I'm going to start implementing it, excited to hear what our Solarpreneur crowd thinks of it.Speaker 2 (16:50):Let me know if it's helped you and send it to someone, send it someone on your team that could also use some help in their closes. And most importantly, drill practice, rehearse, rural play like this roll. Role-play the sheet like crazy. And then come up with great questions that you can use as you're explaining it to the homeowners you present too. So that's what we got today. Hope this was valuable to you. And don't forget to tune into next episode because we're going to hear Alex Smith who is also using this sheet and has this team closing at an 80% ratio. So you won't want to miss out. This is doing crazy stuff in his business over in Florida. So we'll see you on the next one and keep closing deals.Speaker 3 (17:37):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Ready to capture the hearts of your customers? Get started with SendOutCards by clicking this link https://www.SendOutCards.com/u/starms/sendTune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. What's going on. Solarprenuer its Taylor Armstrong here with another episode.Speaker 2 (00:45):Hope you're doing well. Hope you're crushing it this week. We're going to dive into a topic today to help you crush it even more. So let's hop into it before I do that. Just want to preface. I am out here in my living room. It's a Saturday four. O'clock here, my kids asleep in the other room. So if you hear a break in the audio, if you hear a kid screaming, that means he woke up. Hopefully he won't. But just wanted to preface that. Let's jump into it though. Saturdays, hopefully you're out crushing hard. Hopefully you were hitting some doors today. I want to talk about why you should be taking pictures with all your customers. You probably heard, I think six, seven episodes ago. I did a podcast on why you should take video testimonials with your customers. That's I think the preference, first of all, try to get video testimonials with your clients.Speaker 2 (01:45):But if you can't do that at the bare minimum, get pictures with them. So we're going to hop into a couple of reasons why you should be taking photos with all your customers. Okay? Number one, if you get pictures with your customers, it is great for posting on social media. If you follow me over on Instagram, Facebook, you've probably seen, I have made an effort to be posting at least a picture or a video testimonial with every one of my customers. And guess what? I've been doing that about three weeks now, and I've already gotten a referral just from doing that three weeks. I don't even have friends here in San Diego. Really? I should say friends that are homeowners, but I got a testimony or I got a referral who was actually someone in Utah, someone that I went to school with, haven't talked to, and I don't know for five years, probably he hits me up.Speaker 2 (02:41):He says, Hey Taylor, I didn't realize you do solar, but I see you posting these videos, these pictures. Can you get me some information out of the blue haven't talked to the guy for five years, hits me up, asked me for some info. So that's why you need to be posting on social media. Just post on your stories, post on your timelines. I'm still learning this. There are guys that are way better than me at this, but bare minimum. Start just posting it on your stories. Go on Instagram, share it. People are going to notice that. And you're going to get referrals just from doing that. So that's the first thing. And the number two, if you can get a picture or a video with your customers, it's going to just keep your quiver full your quiver of stories to use in your closes with your customers.Speaker 2 (03:34):Hey, hopefully, you know, by now you need to be using stories. As you sell to your customer stories are what sells stories are. What activate that motions of the homeowner. They can't all be about numbers. Some people you're going to close that way, but if you really want to take your closing to another level, you need to get that other side of the brain activated the emotional side, because once people can have an emotional connection, that is when they're going to just fight with that with log logic and they're going to close. So what stories can you use if you have a picture or a video to back up the story and better yet, if it's someone in the neighborhood they're going to buy that story, they're going to trust it. They're going to believe it. It's going to come across way more powerful than you just telling a story.Speaker 2 (04:21):If they can tie that to a picture you're showing them or a video. I did that this week. Matter of fact had an appointment. Filipino lady here, down here in San Diego showed her, um, another lady in her exact neighborhood. She didn't know this lady, but she knew, I told her it was two streets up from her. I showed her on the map, the exact house. So I said, Hey, this is your neighbor Lolita. You may be seeing her walking her around. And then I proceeded to tell her the story of how it will lead. I had some of the concerns she had about it, damaging the roof about it's causing radiation. Yeah, I don't get that too often, but this lady was concerned about it. Um, I don't know, creating radiation, given her cancer. I'm like, okay, there's microwaves. There's things in your house that are many way more radiation.Speaker 2 (05:12):Your cell phone for crying out loud is a mini way more radiation than you're going to get from your solar panels. But I tied that all in with the story of Alita, her neighbor, that was two streets up. And because I had a picture in a video to go with that story, she bought it way more than me just toner those things and overcoming her objection that way. So if you can have something like that, best case scenario is they recognize the neighbor, but next best is you're showing on map. You're saying, Hey, it's this house here. You probably seen her out walking her dog. Then you show her the video. That's your next best scenario. And that's how you're going to crush objections that come your way as you're doing your in-home presentations. So that's two use it in your stories. And then number three, which I think is probably one of the most powerful things I've been doing lately is you can use it to send in cards to your customers.Speaker 2 (06:11):As I brought this up a few weeks ago on the podcast, how my friend river Skinner guys should all give them a fall on Instagram. Think he's at the abundant king, but you share invaluable tips all the time. He reminded me of a service that I had stopped using it's called send out cards. Okay. So again, I mentioned this, but I'm going to give you guys the exact process that I am implementing now with my customers. So I closed them up. You go to send out cards.com and I'll include a link. Go in the show notes, obviously include a link. And um, yeah, this'll be my affiliate link too. So hope you guys don't mind pay it forward. If you want to support the show would appreciate it. If you can show some love, go click on my affiliate link. There I'll get a little kickback.Speaker 2 (07:01):If you want to use this service, but go click the link, send out cards.com. And what you'll do is you can go on there and you can send out these custom cards. And the reason it's super powerful, having a picture is you can take the picture you took with the customer. You can include that in the card, and then you can write a personalized note with them. How cool was that? So we're going to get a picture with you and them. They can frame it on their wall. They're going to see it all personalized, super cute. They're going to love it. Okay. So that's the, I think one of the most powerful things you can do to get your referrals okay. In this process, just another side note with this is I send out a pack of four brownies when I send them the card.Speaker 2 (07:44):So they're getting a custom card. They're getting four brownies sent and you can choose a font in there that shows it looks like you hand wrote, wrote it. Okay. So it's not taking you much time. I have my little conventional message I send, but then I always include like one or two sentences that are specific to that homeowner. So if they had a super cute Husky, I said, Hey, loved your cute dog. By the way, if they had a, uh, I don't know, huge trucks sitting on the driveway, Hey, your truck was awesome. Let me take a ride and get some time, whatever it is, include a couple lines that are accustomed to them. And then that's going to help them feel that you actually appreciated them, that you remembered their conversation and that you, they weren't just another customer. They weren't just another client.Speaker 2 (08:32):But hopefully they think of you as a friend, after this start doing that, I promise you it's going to also generate your referrals, but it's going to help you stay in touch. It's going to set you apart from the competition. If you're not doing this, it's great for retention. It's a way of anchoring your clients. We've done several episodes on that, but you need to figure out a way to anchor these customers, to get them to stick it. Because if they get a personalized card from you, if they get a pack of brownies, the next guy that comes to the door says, Hey, we can beat whatever quote you got. We can beat the price on the solar. Do you think they're more likely to stick with you if they could just got a car and a pack of brownies in the mill? Probably so, right.Speaker 2 (09:14):They're probably going to be like, nah, don't worry about it. So it's a way to set yourself apart. And last tip I have with this, don't do it on your own. Okay? I mean, you can take the time to do it, but what I do, I have my assistant, my virtual assistant. She will go and prepare all this. It doesn't take a ton of time. I mean, you can do it five or 10 minutes, but if you're closing massive amounts of deals, like you should be as a Solarpreneur, you should be learning how to outsource things. So this is a way that you can really truly become a solar printer, figure out things. You can outsource, figure out things. You can save time on and figure out how to delegate. This is how people are taking it to the next level. They're not doing everything.Speaker 2 (09:59):If you think of successful entrepreneurs, Henry Ford, he said, I can't remember the quote, but basically he's not the smartest man in the room. He didn't know what half the things were when it come to making cars. But guess what? He had people that didn't know how to do those things that he didn't know. And that's what every successful entrepreneur and Solarpreneur is doing. They are figuring out ways to save time and to delegate. So that's my recommendation. Get a virtual assistant, or maybe you have your spouse, your wife, your girlfriend, a boyfriend, whatever. Maybe they're helping you in your solar business. Maybe they can help do this. So when I close the deal immediately, I send my virtual assistant, her name's Angelica, which she actually produces the show. So give her a thank you if you ever run into her. But I sent Angelica message.Speaker 2 (10:50):I say, Hey, Angelica, here's the picture with the customer. Then I send her two sentences that are specific to that customer. I say, uh, really loved, um, hanging out with your dogs, really loved your pet iguana in the back. Let's talk soon. So something customed to that. And then she copies and piece the message. You know, how are you type thing, um, is nice connecting and then paste the two sentences that are specific to that person. She puts it all in the card. She hits the button. Guys. This only costs. I think it's like a, I dunno, 15 bucks a card, something like that. And you're getting a pack of Bruni sent to them and it's sending a card and it's sending a picture of you and the customer. So do that guarantee. It's going to get you some results. And then if you can get a video testimonial, okay.Speaker 2 (11:43):I don't take pictures and video testimonials, so I'll shoot for the video testimonial first, if I don't get it, all you do is simply screenshots. A moment in the video where, because you know, you're taking them with you and the customer. Go follow me if you need an example, this, but you're taking them with both of you and then just screenshot a place where it looks like you're both. I dunno, natural. Okay. Sometimes it's hard at the time I've got my mouth wide open and uh, my eyes doing strange things, but find a place where it looks like it probably was a picture screenshot that, and then there's your selfie. There's your selfie with the customer. So that's my recommendations on why you should start taking photos with your customers. Try it, let me know what you think. Let me know if you guys have other ways that you are using other creative things to connect more with your customers to generate more referrals, because that's what we're all about here on the soar printer movements.Speaker 2 (12:42):It's helping you guys make it easy as possible to get more leads, generate more referrals and close more deals. So hope this helped. Let me know what you think. Share this with someone who needs a way or who needs some encouragement to take more pictures. I was embarrassed about doing this. I remember my first, like three or four years in solar, I would never do this. And um, the only time I would do it, actually, it was when we had sales competitions, because that was our proof that we were actually with the customers getting inside the homes. And then after that, I'm like a photo with the customers. Now I forget about it, but now I am seeing how powerful it can be. So just do it. It's super easy to get a picture with a customer, even if they don't want to just assume it. I've never had anyone mad at taking a selfie with them and you can sneak it if you have to. Okay. Just don't get sued or something. Okay. Yeah. Release myself from all liability. That's what I got today. Guys. Hope it helped keep crushing it, close some deals this week and we will see you on the next episode.Speaker 3 (13:51):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:00:03):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 (00:00:41):What's going on. I am excited for this episode. We've got someone that's been a long time coming with us on the show today. I've seen him speak probably three, four times. Now he's been on stages all across America and speaking of America, he loves America. He's got add a flag in the background here. So love that about our guests today. We've got, uh, Ian went on the show, Ian. Thanks for coming on with us.Speaker 3 (00:01:05):Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me, dude. Appreciate it. Glad we can make it happen. Finally, you chasing me around long enough.Speaker 2 (00:01:11):I know sometimes I got to bug people, but it gets, we're used to that knocking doors. Right. So, Hey, how you doing man persistence? Well, yeah, I know it's an honor to finally have you on. And um, I obviously heard you speak last at the door to door Fest event and I was in Dallas, um, a couple months ago now I think. And uh, so yeah, Ian, you do quite a bit of speaking now, is that right? Speak at a lot of sales conferences and stuff like that?Speaker 3 (00:01:37):Yeah, I mean, I do. I do, uh, you know, anytime, anytime I can, anytime I'm invited. So it's been, it's been cool. I've, I've had the opportunity to speak in it quite a few in the last, uh, in the recent months. So yeah, man, it's been, it's been, it's been a fun time. I love, I love speaking, so I love being able to teach in that environment. So it's been cool.Speaker 2 (00:01:56):Yeah, no, it's been awesome to hear for me. I think I first heard you probably door to door con I don't know, probably like four years ago now, so been a little bit. Um, but yeah, I know you've spoken all over and for, for our listeners that don't know Ian, he is a sales trainer and marketing expert. Um, I mean top door, uh, door to door for like dish satellite for years and years. And now I correct me if I'm wrong, Ian, but now mostly just consulting in them, building up your, uh, Patriot brands in speaking at events, stuff like that, right?Speaker 3 (00:02:31):Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I was with, uh, I was with dish one or now they're known as caliber for my entire career in door to door, um, which I started in 2009 and I ended just barely like maybe, maybe a year ago, almost so, you know, 10 plus years. Um, and, uh, so I, I sold for them for, you know, four or five years, and then I, I trained a little bit. Um, and then there, I just, I realized that what I was doing was, was working on a big scale. And so they actually had me come in and, and run the training program for them. So I built the training, I built the different training programs or different training, um, courses and things like that, that they used throughout the company for leadership and reps. And, uh, and then eventually I also took over all the marketing when we rebranded to caliber.Speaker 3 (00:03:19):So, um, awesome, awesome, awesome time that, you know, that time that I had at caliber has, has very much shaped who I am and made it possible for me to have the opportunities that I have say. And so, yeah, to answer your question, um, I haven't been on the doors for a long time. I haven't been in the door to door space for a little, I think, I think it's about a year, maybe a little over a year. Um, and now I own my own clothing brands or my own brand in general, we do a lot of different things, um, official Patriot gear. And then, like you said, I, I can solve for marketing and sales on the side for individuals and businesses. So, yeah. Nice.Speaker 2 (00:03:58):Yeah. And if you're not following Ian on social media, we definitely would recommend it. Um, he's one of the most entertaining guys. I would say that I follow on social media. Love it when you get in a, you know, political debates and stuff like that. So appreciate your fights. Give me some good entertainment.Speaker 3 (00:04:15):If you do follow me on social media, be ready for it. It's very political and just know this. We may disagree on things and that's okay. Um, I welcome everybody. If you have a disagreement or something like that, reach out to me, let's talk about it. Like those are the conversations that I want to have with people. And so rather than just following, see something, you don't like an unfollow, like that's what we need more in the world now is people to understand and talk and, you know, figure out because I think at the end of the day, we all have a lot more in common than we think we do, but we're just so we're so reactionary and we're so triggered and we're so ready to just, oh, that person doesn't agree with me. And so, you know, cut them off. And it's like, that's, that's the reason why right now I believe that we're closer to being the divided states of America than we ever have been. And we need to be the United States. So if you follow me, yes, it's very political. If you may not agree with everything, but please reach out and I'd love to have the conversation. And at the end of the day, like we can agree to disagree or we can not agree at all. And trust me when I tell you we can still exist, harm me like it's possible.Speaker 2 (00:05:17):Yeah, no, I love that. And that's what I love about you. You're not afraid to open the can of worms and actually have discussions because I think that's the big problem. That's why we're so divided. As people don't want to talk about it. People just, you know, get all off on following, you know, don't want to talk about it instead of having healthy discussions. So, um, I know definitely important. Yeah. We just, I just got back from a family reunion. Matter of fact. And um, our family union theme was a unity is pretty funny because, you know, in my, in my family, a lot of my extended family have a lot of different political beliefs and stuff like that. So we kind of had some burned, some bridges, but yeah, it was nice getting everyone together and you know, what you got to do.Speaker 2 (00:05:58):Yeah. It's important. So yeah, follow lean for that. Um, he loves, you know, talking about the hard topics too, and it's, um, getting political and love that about him. So Ian, we're going to get into a couple of things. The reason why I wanted to bring you on so bad is because I heard you speak at door to door Fest. And I know you've never, I know you haven't specifically like sold solar, obviously done a ton of door to door, but he spoke to all the solar guys at Door to Door Fest in Dallas and talked about the buyer types, which I thought is super applicable. Probably even more so in solar than I think probably any other door to door type thing. Just because solar, as you probably know, Ian, we're like, you know, meeting in homes, it's more of like a long drawn out sell than just like, you know, right at the door like you're doing in satellite and a lot of these other other industries.Speaker 2 (00:06:48):So I think even more so in this industry, it's important to recognize your buyer types recognize, um, what's making people tick and just be able to have that advantage. Cause that's, what's, it's coming too. People heard about soar at this point. People have been through the spill and heard the pitch and everything. So it's important to give yourself as many tools as possible. And I think recognizing the buyer types is a huge thing. So yeah. I want to talk about that a little bit, but I guess before we get into that, do you want to give us the quick rundown, I guess, of how you got into door to door and how that all started in?Speaker 3 (00:07:24):Um, yeah, sure. So, like I said, I, I was with dish one since 2009. I actually, I got recruited out of the freaking school gym college gym by my, by my good friend, Teagan Judd. Um, which is funny. Cause when he recruited me, it was the, like, it was the textbook recruit. It was his first year and he recruited me textbook recruit like, Hey, do I know you from somewhere? And of course I had no idea what was going on and I was completely oblivious. And so just so you guys know the textbook stuff does work like it does. And uh, anyway, you just, do I know you from somewhere? No, I don't think so. Did you do alarms? No. I never did alarms. Have you ever knocked doors? No. Well, I have an opportunity. I want to talk to you about, you know, if it doesn't, if it's not something that suits you, whatever, like no big deal, but would you mind waiting?Speaker 3 (00:08:06):I'm about to get off my shift and dude, that was, that was it like from then on 2009 until freaking 2020, you know? So it does work. Um, and the, you know, the, the simple things that you think don't work actually could, could make the biggest difference. The other thing too, this is kind of off topic and you're gonna, you're going to see me do this a lot. Cause I have just like a lot of you guys, I have literally the worst ADHD all time, but let me just tell you this guys. One thing that I feel like in the door industry, a lot of people forget the whole time I was there. I feel like no one really focused on the fourth quarter. And what I mean by the fourth quarter is you would be blown away if you knew how many of the, the biggest ballers in the top performers that I knew in the industry that I still know in the industry that are still there that were recruited in like April and may like or not April may, excuse me, March and April, March and April.Speaker 3 (00:09:01):Right? Especially April though, like I was recruited in April and all of my friends who are still in the industry that are absolute monsters on the doors were recruited in April. And it makes sense because, you know, in my case it was different. Cause I just didn't know anything. And it just happened to be the luck of the draw. But like these other guys, if you talk to them, they'll say I had, I had looked through all my other options. I've looked at different companies. I've been pitched by a bunch of different companies and I was trying to decide what to do and, and it was go time and I knew I was going to go sell. Right. But I just didn't know with who. And so guys, don't, don't like, don't discredit the idea that, that you can recruit somebody in the fourth quarter or like I said in March or even April.Speaker 3 (00:09:45):Um, and that they won't be one of your best reps you've ever had because they've already vetted the other companies. And they've already kind of like gotten to the point where if they jump on, if they jump in the ship with you, then they're solid. Like that's, it, they've already looked at the other ideas. They've already looked at the other options or whatever. So anyway, that's a ramp, but I just think it's super important because a lot of, I feel like a lot of people forget that and very, very few focus on recruiting in those months. Yeah. No, just from my experience, I've seen some of the best reps come out of those months.Speaker 2 (00:10:18):Yeah, no, I agree. A hundred percent, especially in solar because solar we're doing this year round, so we're getting recruits like Midsummer guys from pest control and all that that were selling pest control their industries.Speaker 3 (00:10:32):But anyway, so yeah, I got recruited. I sold for, I sold for, uh, four years just selling and um, and uh, I did really, really well. And then my fifth year I managed an office. And then after that, I just, I kinda got to a point where I realized, you know, Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm worth way more than just selling 300 accounts in a summer, which by the way back then when the ton, you know, I can teach, I can teach reps how to sell. I just, I realized that training was actually my passion in teaching because Teagan always empowered me to do correlations and train guys and things like that. And so I realized that was really my passion. And even though I was really, really good on the doors, it just, it wasn't my passion. And so I basically got to the point where I said, Hey, I'm going to figure out a way to make it so that I can do what I actually love doing and stay in the industry because this is, you know, like you guys know this is an opportunity unlike any other.Speaker 3 (00:11:24):And it opens a door to a life that people our age and your age dream of. And uh, and don't think it's real. Right. Anyway. So, so I did, I basically said, okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to train. And um, I train the office for a little bit and then I trained a couple more offices and I, I started to realize that, Hey, this is actually, you know, we're, we're seeing some insane results with these guys. So I actually went to the, um, to the, the COO at the time for one of the, one of the owners, basically one of the, one of the Hammond brothers. And I said, it was Jeremy. I said, Hey, I want to run the training program. You know, I want to be, I want to be an executive. I want to, I want to actually build the training program and I want to roll it out.Speaker 3 (00:12:04):Company-wide and at the time there was nothing, there was, there was no training program. Like there was no training team or anything like that. Right. Like it was just there, just there wasn't a position for that. Yeah. And he told me, um, he told me, yeah, there's, I mean, we don't have a position like that. And so we're not going to just create it, but if you go out and prove that this works, like, it won't even be a matter of if it'll just be how and when. Right. And I said, okay, challenge accepted. So I, I took off and, uh, for that summer I traveled the nation and I trained all of Teagan's offices first and I kept a binder and I kept track of all the reps that I was training personally, on the doors I kept, I kept track of all the offices.Speaker 3 (00:12:50):So basically what I would do is I would say, okay, you know, I got here on this day, 30 days prior to this day, this is what the results look like for both the individuals and the office. Right. And then I would track those results. 30 days after I left. And every single time it was like double, triple, quadruple the amount of sales, the better metrics, um, for, for both individuals and for the entire office. And so I did that. And then all of a sudden, the other regionals, because Teagan was a regional at the time, um, the other regional started hearing about what was going on. And they were like, Hey, come to my office, come to my office. And so after, after, you know, a few office visits, all of a sudden now I was visiting almost every office in the company doing the exact same thing.Speaker 3 (00:13:31):And I'll tell you this though. Like, it didn't come without sacrifice. And I think a lot of people forget this because you know, they look at me and they're like, I'm kind of an anomaly in the door to door industry because I didn't have a network. I didn't bring on a lot of recruits, but I was able to reach executive level without doing any of that. And so it's kind of like, I feel like a lot of people look at it and they're like, oh, he just kind of like, you know, he's favored or whatever. And he just kind of out there, but they don't realize that that year that I decided to prove and add the value that I knew I needed to in order to negotiate the, the position and the, and the career that I wanted. I overdrafted my bank account seven times.Speaker 3 (00:14:08):Wow. And any of you that are in door to door sales right now, you know, that overdraft, if you're, if you're doing it the right way, right. If you're, if you're doing it the right way and you're not spending your money stupidly, and you're actually like, you know, doing well, then you know, that overdrafting, your bank account is like, what? That doesn't happen. Are you kidding me? Right. And, uh, I did it seven times because, because I was living, basically I had a, my car, I put almost 80,000 miles on my car that summer. And, um, I was, I was giving all the sales away because I was all I was doing was shadowing guys. That's it? Cause, cause I could knock and I could sell, but like they didn't, they didn't learn that way. So I was just shadowing guys. And so I was basically living off of like a few sales here and there.Speaker 3 (00:14:57):But the majority of it, I was giving the money away to the reps because I was just shadowing them the whole time. Right. But I could really, really get them to, to, to perform the way I need. I knew I needed to. Wow. Anyway, so towards the end of the summer, I, uh, so the other thing I started to do was I started to do surveys. So I would survey the leadership and the reps and I would, I created these like 10 questions. I still have the binder somewhere. I created these 10 questions surveys, and I would have an answer it based on like, whether I was knocking with them or whether I was just teaching their office or whatever, if they were a leader, if their rep, and then I could take those surveys and I slipped, I slipped them under the door to, to Jeremy and, and actually at the time to do the vice president of dish itself because we were, we were partnered with dish directly.Speaker 3 (00:15:44):And so we worked directly with them. So I was literally emailing them these surveys and, uh, and I just kept sending them all summer long. And finally, at the end of the summer, or towards the end of the summer, it was probably about a month. It was probably in like mid July. I want to say, um, Jeremy reached out and said, okay man, you did it come in. Nice. And, uh, he had heard from Amir, the VP of dish who, who also saw the results and wanted to talk about it and everything. And, and, uh, they invited me in and they said, create the pitch deck and tell us what you're going to do. And I did. And, um, that was it from that day on, I, I, at the time I joined the training team and I, I, uh, I created all the content.Speaker 3 (00:16:23):I built the program from the ground up that they were using as far as how to teach reps, how to sell, whether they're are rookie or veteran. And then that just kind of evolved over the next couple of years or few years into me running the training program itself and, you know, doing all the live trainings and things like that. Um, and then, and then when they rebranded to caliber, um, I have always been very active on social media and I've always had kind of a creative bone and they knew that. And so, um, I actually ended up taking over the marketing as well when we ran into caliber. So I had a marketing team and I ran the marketing for a couple of years as well. So I was running all the training and all the marketing for a few years for caliber. And, um, yeah, dude, like I said, that's, you know, those years or those years have given me the mindset and the abilities and the skills I believe to do what I do today. And so I'm forever grateful and that's why I have, that's why I have a soft spot for the daughter ministry and I always will.Speaker 2 (00:17:21):Yeah. Wow. That's cool. I didn't know that story. That's powerful. And what I love about that is you went out and took the initiative and, you know, actually they created the training training programs. Cause I know tons of guys in the industry, it's like, they're just crossing their fingers, waiting for that opportunity to go on and I don't know, train or get told, okay, you're doing good. We're going to promote you to, I don't know, be a manager or whatever, but I think the best guys and the guys that are growing the quickest are the guys like you that went out and just was like, can I run this meeting? Can I do the training? Can I do the correlation? Can I go out to this team, train them? And that's actually how I first got into like my first management position. Do I, wasn't just going to wait around for them to be like, Hey, you're doing pretty good. Do you want to like, come be an assistant manager? I mean, I had to go and be like, Hey, can I run this training? Can I actually do a training this weekend? Or can I go out with these reps? And uh, you know, leaders recognize that. And I think that's how guys are going to get promoted and we'll get into those positions.Speaker 3 (00:18:20):Well, I think one of the most important principles that I've ever been taught and I've ever learned in, in one that I always try to teach everybody else is what you're saying. It's like too many people try to negotiate before they add value in this world in general, not only in the door to industry, but just in general, people always try to negotiate before they add value. And that's not how it goes. You add value and then you negotiate and you add so much value that the negotiation is just easy. Right. And if you think about it, that's exactly what sales is all about. It's adding enough value so that when it comes time to close, it's just like, duh, of course. Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah. So true.Speaker 2 (00:18:59):Yeah. And you, I mean, I guess you're the perfect example. I mean, you were overdrafting your bank account around it around, but in tons of miles on the car and no guarantee of anything. So yeah, that's a great example of what you're doing. Um, what was like the number before it gets to the next topic? What was like the number one thing would you say in that was like helping your teams out? Was there one thing that was like helping them double ourselves and all that? Or was it just going out and shadowing or what was like the general thing that helped your team so much? You think?Speaker 3 (00:19:29):Um, that's a great question. As far as the correlation and like the trainings go, um, the correlations themselves, I feel like 100%, it all came down to belief and energy. Um, as much I had so much belief in so much confidence in confidence in the product that we sold, like literally ask anybody what Ian thought about dish network and they will tell you, like, he thought it was godsend. Like it was, they they'll say he thought it was the greatest product on the planet and the truth. The truth is I did because I, I learned to believe in it so strongly that literally no one could tell me that there was anything better than it. And, and that confidence in that belief, in that product gave me a power. I feel like that most people didn't have. So, and, and I was able to project that onto other reps and other managers when I was in front of them training and teaching, because they could feel that confidence themselves.Speaker 3 (00:20:22):Right. So they didn't have it. It was like, how do I get that? Um, and then the energy, like this is, this is, you know, this is textbook stuff for, for correlation, but it was the energy that I was able to bring every time, because I was so excited about what I was doing because I love training. And I love teaching. I, I was, I was just always so excited and it, it was never, it was never like a downer, a negative moment when I was teaching and training people. And they could feel that they could, that energy was contagious. Right. I always tell managers, your first sale of the day is when you cross the threshold of your correlation room, like correlation is your first sale of the day, your reps, or the first sale of the day for you. And if you miss that sale, I promise you the rest of your day is going to be crap.Speaker 3 (00:21:03):And so is there, so, you know, it's, it's the, it was the intentional correlations and the energy. I feel like that made the difference for, for the office in general. And then for the reps, um, obviously the belief in the energy was, was big thing, right. But I would say the biggest thing with, with training reps on the doors was, um, was really teaching them not only how to be efficient and how to like prospect the right way, right? Like how to, how to find the right people and how to not waste time, but also allowing them to fail in front of me and then taking the time afterwards to tell them exactly why they failed a lot of trainers out there will train a rep and they won't let a sale go like in their mind, they're like, dude, I could save this so easy and they'll just jump in and they'll save the sale.Speaker 3 (00:21:55):And it's my belief. It's my opinion that the rep doesn't learn nearly as much if they, as if they'd lost the sale and then you take them to the side afterwards and say, Hey, do you know why you lost that sale? Well, no, not really. Or they might even say, yeah, I think it's this. And it's like, that is such a good teaching opportunity to say X, Y, and Z are the reasons why that sale was lost. And if we would have just done this, this and this, we would have saved that sale. And what's interesting to me is the reps always say, well, why didn't you save a sale dude? And it's like, because then what would you have learned? Right? Like, would you really learn anything from that? And maybe, but most of the time they're like, well, no, because when you get to a point where I was, especially if I'm, especially, if it's like a rookie that shadowing me, I mean to them and it's like, you know, it, it just looks easy, right?Speaker 3 (00:22:47):To them. It doesn't make sense at all. And to them, I can't tell you how many times I would always get people to say, Ian, how come you get all the lay downs? Right. Why, why is it that you get, why is it that all the lay downs that you get all the lay downs in the area? And it's like, what are you talking about? Well, I haven't, I haven't gotten anybody. That's, that's been that easy in my area and I'll be like, okay, let's go knock somewhere else. And then same exact thing, more lay downs. Right. Then I always told them the same thing. There's no such thing as a lay down, you create a lay down by, by doing it the right way and adding enough value. Right. That's so powerful. Um, so yeah, that's, I feel like that was the biggest thing was just giving them an actual learning experience by allowing them to fail and see that failure. Okay. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:23:29):Awesome. So many, so many nuggets in there and yeah, but I love that belief in energy. I mean, that's super powerful. I was actually just listening to a training this morning. It's dude's name Alex or Mossi. I don't know if you've heard of them, but he does. He does consulting for gym companies. He has a hundred million dollar company and someone asked him, what's like the number one secret and training your reps. He said the exact same thing. He was just the belief and energy is as, is his new reps, outsells, experienced ones all the time, because they have more belief and energy in the product in the beginning. So, yeah, I think that's a huge secret and guys forget about after remind myself all the time, because I've been out here doing solar for five years, but we get new guys all the time that just came from alarms or something.Speaker 2 (00:24:13):And they're like super stoked about solar. Like no way we're saving people money. We don't have to charge them anything extra than what they're paying already. And they're so excited about it. They go out and hustle eight hours a day. And um, some of these guys come out and sell circles around me just because I forget how good of a product we have in solar. Um, oops. Yep. Um, so yeah, I think that's super important. And then, I mean, a lot of other stuff you mentioned there, but just being efficient and um, yeah. I mean the leaders, I think that's a big problem though. Just in general is so many like door to door leaders are just focused on, um, you know, like the money and like you were saying, just them making money, not going out and shadowing reps. So is that something that you're big on too, is just training your leaders to actually go out and like shadow the reps and things like that? No,Speaker 3 (00:24:59):No, because here's the thing too. I don't, I'm not about giving sales away either. I mean, that's the point, right? Like when I say, when I like, I don't, I don't just give sales away either because then they don't learn anything either. Right? Like that, it's the same exact thing. If I'm just giving sales away, then all that's doing is teaching them to be, you know? Yeah. I don't know. It's just, I'm not about that. I'm not about like people getting anything for nothing, right. For not putting any effort in, so no, not that's not at all what I'm saying, but, and, and those leaders when they're, when they're training and when they're selling day shift, for sure take the sales that they make. Right. No question about it. But all I'm saying is that there's power to shadowing the rep and allowing them to fail and not saving the sale.Speaker 3 (00:25:44):And then using that opportunity to actually teach them why and what they could have done differently. What we always did at caliber was we did a three, a three tier or a three-step system, I guess, is when we took a rep on the doors. We shadowed them or, sorry, we knocked and we got a sale and then we shadowed them and we help them get a sale. And then we shadow them and we don't say anything and they get the sale on their own. I like that. Oh, if the sale help get the sale and then they get the sale by themselves. Right. And that was kind of the, and obviously it's never perfect and it never works out perfectly and there's different situations and things like that. But like that was the ideal situation. Um, but no, I don't think you should give sales away ever. I think the rep should always have to work for that sale. Um, but it's finding that fine finding that balance right. Of you're a leader. And so you make more money than they do, so allow them to have that opportunity, but don't just give it to them, you know? Right. Okay.Speaker 2 (00:26:45):No, yeah. I love that. Super powerful. Um, yeah. And I think that's missing in a lot of organizations is just actually going on shadow. Cause I know when I started, I never really had the opportunity is more just them letting me shadow, you know, the leader, the manager, seeing them get herself and then just kind of off on my own. So I think that's something that's forgotten is actually the leader actually going out and shadowing and letting them struggle through SL because yeah, that's another thing that I don't think I've ever really experienced is anytime I've been shadowed, it's usually by people that want to jump in and save cells. So I don't even think about that, letting them experience the failure. And then, um, yeah, I think recording is a big thing to recording the guys and just kind of doing a play by play with them, see what, see what goes wrong.Speaker 2 (00:27:29):So yeah. Good stuff in there, Ian. Um, so yeah. I want to shift gears a little bit, talk about some of these buyer types. And I know that's like a, probably a four hour training you could give, so we're not going to go like super in depth on it, but I did want to, you know, touch on at least a few of them and hear kind of why you thought that was important. So I guess, first of all, why did you decide to give that training yet add or Fest and what's what, how did you, I guess, come across all this and think it's so important?Speaker 3 (00:27:58):So I think the reason why I did is because I, I think that the single most important thing that someone can learn being a door-to-door salesman is how to relate to every type of person. Because it's not about the product. It's not about the pitch. It's not about the service. It's literally about how you interact with customers, the best salesman, the reason why they're the best is because, I mean, I, I always say this when I do this training, but I always say, what does it really mean to be talented? And I'll get, I'll get a bunch of answers. Always get people to say, oh, it means that you can, you know, you can prospect, right? Or you're, you're very good with your clothes or, you know, whatever. But very few people ever say the, the most talented reps are the ones that can sell everyone, anything anywhere.Speaker 3 (00:28:43):And that's true. Talent to me, true talent is you can sell anyone, anything anywhere, right? No matter what the area is, no matter what the state is, no matter what the product is, no matter who it is, you're talking to, you can sell them lights out. Right? And, and what that comes down to is knowing who the person is that you're talking to because every single person has a certain way. They want to be pitched. They want to be, you know, every person wants to be, they want their handshake shook differently. They want to be presented to differently. They want to be closed differently. Every person has a certain behavior style. And when you learn to adapt your behavior style, your selling style to their buying style. Now you have the, you literally have the perfect, um, the perfect marriage when it comes to, to, to, uh, a customer client or, uh, sorry, a customer, um, sales and relationship.Speaker 3 (00:29:41):And the, you know, we always talk about how we, we teach our reps, how to mirror customers. Well, cool. But like if I'm teaching my rep to mirror a customer and that customer isn't that type of person, like for example, let's say the customer he's talking to is a much more aggressive person, right? Just by nearing that person, it doesn't mean that they're going to actually get to them. It doesn't mean that they're actually selling them the way that this person likes to buy. It just means that they're like creating a little bit more comfortability, but people don't buy based off comfort. They buy based off trust and people trust those who they feel like actually care about them and actually have their best interest in mind. And the best way to show somebody that you have their best interest in mind, and that you actually care about them as a person.Speaker 3 (00:30:29):And you actually want to put them in a better situation than you than they were in before they got you got there is by treating them the way they want to be treated, selling them the way they want to buy. And every person has a different, a different way. And I think a lot of salesmen forget that the fact that sales is, is it's all about people. It's not about the product. It's not about the sales process. It's not about the pitch. Those things are important, but if you don't know how to actually talk to people, then you will never be able to sell. I don't care who you are. You have to understand how to communicate and how to talk to people. But not just like we always talk about, oh, communication skills and persuasion and things like that. It's, it's not just that. It's, it's literally understanding how to adapt your personality to the person you're talking to so that they can relate to you on a much, much higher and much deeper level. That's what personality selling is all about. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:31:25):I totally agree. And, um, I think that's one of the reasons I liked your training so much is because, um, in the past I've just been like, okay, well I know I'm not good at selling engineers. I'm not, I know I'm not good at selling, uh, super rich people. So I'm just going to avoid those people at all costs. And I think a lot of guys get in that mindset, but then when I heard your training, I was reminded. I'm like, okay, even though that's not like my ideal person that I like to sell to, I mean, I need to get good at selling all these people. And that's, what's going to take me to the next level. I think a lot of people forget that I was just trying to double down so much on the guys I am selling to, which is great. But like, I mean, I think everyone agrees. How about you should talk to your neighbors when they're getting their solar installed? What if their neighbors and engineer, I mean, you gotta be able to sell all these different types. Well, soSpeaker 3 (00:32:11):I would actually, I would actually disagree with that. I'll actually, so what you said when I teach reps, how to sell person, how to do personality selling, I actually teach them exactly the opposite that you just said, if they're a rookie or if they feel like they don't have their buyer type nailed down. So let's say, so there's four main buyer types, right? There's aggressive, there's social, there's analytical and there's thoughtful. Okay. Now no person is like exactly type. They might be a hybrid of two, or they might be a few different ones. Most people though have one dominant type. Right? And so when you're selling somebody, you're focusing on, like, when you, when you pitch somebody you're focusing on their dominant personality, because if you can pitch their dominant personality, then you'll be able to get past their sales wall. Their true sales wall is really just getting past that dominant personality is getting somebody to feel like, okay, this guy actually is like different than any other salesman I've ever met.Speaker 3 (00:33:07):And he's, I can relate to this guy because he's basically me. Right? And, and it's just like, if you walk into a best buy and you want to buy a TV and all you want to know is what is the bottom line? What's the price. And why is this CD better than all the other ones? If that rep walks up to you and starts talking about how your day has been and you know, do you have a dog and, and, oh, what's your dog's name? And, oh, Hey, by the way, we have this new TV that does this and this and this, like, you're not going to buy from them. You're going to walk away because they didn't sell you the way you wanted to buy. But if that rep knew that all you wanted to know was the bottom line and you wanted to know which TV was the best and why.Speaker 3 (00:33:43):And all he did was walk up and say, Hey man, how's it going? How's your day going? Cool. So check it out. Um, I'm assuming you probably just want to know exactly which TV is the best and like, why it's the best. Right. Well, let me take you over here and let me give you exactly what I think is going to be best for you. And then I'll tell you the price and then you can make a decision. Oh, boom. All of a sudden, now he's selling you exactly how you want to buy. There's no BS, it's straight bottom line. Right. You're going to be much more likely to buy from that guy. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, so again, it comes down to understanding those types and, and realizing that each of them want to want to be sold a different way. Um, before I got to remind me where we were before.Speaker 2 (00:34:31):Yeah. I was just, I was just saying, you know, like, I think it's important for guys to be able to like, you know, learn all different types. So you're saying your disputes. So you're saying you agree with being able to sell, sell to all different types? Or whatSpeaker 3 (00:34:44):Do you mean by that? No. So what I'm saying is when I teach reps, the reason why I just said all that is because the reason when I teach reps, how to do personality selling, if they're a rookie or if they're a veteran, but they haven't quite nailed down their buyer types. So let's say, let's say this guy, just his buyer type a hundred percent is the aggressive buyer, but he's still losing sales when he talks to aggressive buyers. Okay. I'm not going to tell that guy, Hey, learn how to sell this type and this type and this type and this type until he gets to the point where it's like clockwork, he hits an aggressive buyer, boom sold every single time or 90% of the time, 95% of the time. Right? So, same thing with rookies. I'm not going to teach a rookie how to sell four different types of people.Speaker 3 (00:35:28):I'm going to find out based on what that rookie seller type is like, what, how they like to sell. That's going to tell me what their buyer type is. And then I'm going to teach them exactly how to sell that buyer type so that they can crush it every single time. And then once that rookie is selling that type every single time. And once that veteran is knocking down those types every single time, then it's like, okay, now let's go to the type. That's most like that type. And now all you have to do is a few different things. And now you're adding two buyers to your arsenal. And then eventually when you get past those two, it's like, okay, now we're going to go to this one and you have to understand that you have to do this and this and this and this.Speaker 3 (00:36:06):And now all of a sudden there's three buyers to the arsenal. Right? Okay. And, and the reason why I always tell people again, to go back and answer the question of why did I decide to train on that at knock star? It's because I believe that that is the difference between talent and hard work. Everybody always says, artwork, beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but they forget that the second part to that is hard work, beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but when talent works hard, it's game over. Because if you can find somebody that knows how to sell every single type of person they ever meet, and they work really, really hard, I promise you that person is going to run circles around any salesman that ever comes across that ever comes. Right. Okay. But the problem is, at least I haven't seen it yet.Speaker 3 (00:36:54):I haven't seen a rep that has that much talent, that doesn't only rely on the talent and get complacent and not work as hard, which is why you always hear the top performers. The number one rep say, Hey, I'm not that talented. I just work really hard. I work harder than everybody else. Well, why? Because most of the time that rep is only going to be selling one or two types of people. And so they have to work harder than the talented rep. Not, not saying that the, the number one rep is not talented. They're both talented, but there's a very big gap in talent. If one can only sell one or two types of people and they have to search for those one or two types of people all day, every day, and one can sell every type of person and they don't really have to search.Speaker 3 (00:37:35):And they, those are the guys that go out and knock one street and sell six or seven accounts or whatever. And everybody's like, how the freak did you do that? And it's like, well, I know how to sell everyone. And so where you have to sell five streets to find the six types of people that you know, how to sell, or the six people that are the type that you know how to sell. I mean, I just have to knock one street and I can sell six people that are totally different types. Hmm. Does that makeSpeaker 2 (00:38:01):Sense? Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Let me ask you this. Well, yeah, in this year still going, but I was just going to ask,Speaker 3 (00:38:08):I was just going to say, I think, I think the reason why I decided to teach this all the time is because I think it's literally the key to unlocking like the absolute best in a, in a door to door salesman. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I would agree with that.Speaker 2 (00:38:23):Um, I was going to ask you, would you say, um, like for the sales reps, you train, would you say their buying type matches up with their selling type? Like the type of buyer there is that always the type of that they like to sell toSpeaker 3 (00:38:36):Every single time. So for example, what kind of, I'll just do you, for example, what kind of person do you feel most comfortable selling?Speaker 2 (00:38:46):Um, I would say the people that like to talk a lot that let me build rapport with them. Okay.Speaker 3 (00:38:54):You like the social buyers more, right? Yeah. So social buyers. Okay. They are, they are extremely talkative, right? Sometimes they'll appear to have they'll look like they have like add, right? They like to gossip. They like to talk a ton. They like to be complimented. Their greatest need in life is social acceptance. And their greatest fear is being rejected. Right. They dress, they dress like fancy or they wear bright clothes. They care a lot about their outward appearance. Right. So now I don't know you super well tailored, but I, and the other thing too is I'll, let's just talk about facial features. A facial feature for a social buyer is they have puffy cheeks, like round puffy cheeks. That, that basically signify. They laugh a lot. Right? Laugh lines from the nose to their mouth. Okay. Around her face. Okay. Now I'm looking at you right now and you have those features.Speaker 3 (00:39:51):You have the puffy cheeks right now. You're smiling and you have the line through your nose, through your mouth. You have a rounder face. Okay. You probably care what people think about you and that's okay. You probably care what you're wearing and how you look and how you appear. You obviously like to talk a lot. And you're very social because you're running a podcast and, and I guarantee you without even knowing you, I can tell you right now that one of your greatest fears is probably being rejected. Now, maybe because it's door to door sales, you've kind of like, you know, you kind of taught yourself to not be so afraid of that, but I promise you before the doors, that was probably one of your biggest, like, you probably took a long time to sign on because you were so afraid of, of rejection and of, of getting into a place where it was like impossible.Speaker 3 (00:40:38):Right? The other thing too is your greatest need is to be socially accepted. So I can tell that right now you have the golden door behind you right now, right? The golden door. Okay. You have the golden door award behind you on your podcast because you want people to see what you've accomplished because you care about that social recognition. Right? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I don't know you very well, but I just sized you up in what, 30 seconds. So, because of that, I would know as your manager or as your trainer, that the best place to put you as somewhere where there's a lot of people, just like you, because you'll sell them much easier than you would sell someone say that cares more about data and numbers and is very monotone and doesn't want to talk. And doesn't like to be happy and always seems like a freaking judge in a courtroom. Right? Someone very rich, someone, very skeptical. That's probably one of your hardest sales ever because that's the opposite of your personality. Yeah, no doubt. And,Speaker 2 (00:41:33):Um, I don't know. I might be like a hybrid too, because I don't know if you remember this, but at a door knock star, you called me up. And I was dressed like basically in sweats andSpeaker 3 (00:41:42):Just like thoughtful,Speaker 2 (00:41:45):Like thoughtful. And, uh, Ian calls me out. He's like, all right, this guy, a hundred percent is thoughtful. Look, because look what he's dressed in at Justin, like this baggy shirt, like some sweat dance and everything. I'm like, dang, maybe I should have showed up to the podcast and like a tux or something. So I can't readSpeaker 3 (00:42:02):That's okay though, because again, the thing about salesmen too, is it's kind of hard to size up salesmen as much as it is, as it is to size up just regular individuals. Because as a salesman, you kind of have to become a hybrid of everything anyway. Right. Just naturally. Um, but I would for sure, say like, you're, you're going to be a social thoughtful hybrid for sure. Yeah. So the question is when you get into a group of people, like, let's say, you don't know anybody in a room and you walk into the room, are you the type of person that's going to go strike up a conversation and be, and be the life of the party? Or are you the type of person that's going to kind of wait until somebody comes to you? And then once they, once they get to meet you, that's when the life of the party comes out. And like that's when the energetic Taylor comes out. Which, which one of those is more ofSpeaker 2 (00:42:49):What would happen? Um, I mean, I would say a combination because I don't like to be the guy that, again, like the recognition part, I know that if I'm like sitting at a party by myself, just like standing there awkward, then I'm going to be like recognized, oh, what's this guy. Like, it doesn't like talking to people or whatever. So it's all, it's not that I like have a huge desire to go talk to people, but I don't want to be recognized as someone that's just like a loner standing there. So all like forced myself to go like initiate something, just so I'm not recognized as like, you know, the guy that doesn't want to go talk to people and present himself. So I don't know if that would be like a hybrid or,Speaker 3 (00:43:23):Yeah. So let me ask you one more, let me ask you another question. We'll try to dig down. So would you say that your greatest need is social recognition or your greatest need is guarantees? Which one of those would you say is the greatest need for you in life? Um,Speaker 2 (00:43:41):I would say guarantees, I thinkSpeaker 3 (00:43:44):So you'd rather have a guarantee than be liked.Speaker 2 (00:43:49):Um, I don't know. Like, are we talking to my guarantee of success guarantee and money guarantee of happiness, stuff like that,Speaker 3 (00:43:56):Or, or even let's put it this way. Do you care more about your own personal success or do you care more about the success of those around you?Speaker 2 (00:44:05):Um, I think I would say it's success of those around me. Um, okay,Speaker 3 (00:44:11):So you, so you, so I might've nailed it at door to door, honestly, dude, you might be the thoughtful slash um, social rather than the social slash thoughtful. And the only reason I'm saying that, because I'm facing you right now and I can see your facial features and those are more on the social side. Right. Okay. But the fact that you want others to succeed and the, that you care more about guarantees and the fact that you, you would go talk to people, but you wouldn't be like super energetic about it and stuff. And just kind of more doing it because you like have to, and you are more of the thoughtful person first and the social person is the in dominant. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:44:47):I would agree with that because I was always super shy growing up as like the shyest kid in school type thing for a long time. And then, but I was sick of being like recognized that way. So I would again like force myself to try to not be shy, to try to like go out and talk to people just because I was sick of being like, oh, Hey, this is Taylor. He doesn't talk very much. So that's how I got presented, like by my own parents and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, I don't know.Speaker 3 (00:45:12):And that's a perfect hybrid because you can see like, you didn't like being, you didn't like them saying that about you because you didn't want people to think badly about you, you, you cared about what people thought about you, right? Yeah. And, and so all of that kind of just grows into the same thing. And, and again, you know, at Knox star, I called you out and I said, Hey, you're thoughtful right away. Right. Because of the way you're addressing, because of the way you're carrying yourself. And I believe you put your hands in your pocket. When I told you we were going to write that things like here, here, we're conversing and we're being social and I see your facial features. And so now I'm seeing the social side of you. So, so it's different. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So, so you kind of have to, you kind of have to just know those personalities, but realize that people are going to be a hybrid.Speaker 3 (00:45:53):And you're a perfect example of it. But knowing that I would know to put you in places where you're going to find people who are social or people who are thoughtful, and I'm not going to put you in places that are just like crazy aggressive and very skeptical. And like data driven will fall flat on your face. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So now think about how powerful that is for a manager. Let's say. And I, and I can't tell you how many times this has happened. That I'll go to an office and the manager will say, dude, this guy, he is the most outgoing, like super confident. He knows how to talk. He knows the pitch. He knows the product, but he keeps on battling or he goes out and he only gets a couple sales and it doesn't make sense to me.Speaker 3 (00:46:36):And then I have this guy and, and, and he should also be selling a ton as well, but he's not doing very well or whatever. Right. And my first question is always, okay, where are you putting the guy that's super outgoing and confident and social and, and should be selling a lot. Where are you putting him? And I'm telling you, I cannot tell you how many times this has happened, where they're like, yeah, he's in this neighborhood. And it's like a retirement community or where people are constantly going to be thoughtful and analytical, right. Because they're skeptical and they care about their community and they want guarantees and they hate change. And it's like, of course, that guy's going to suck there. He doesn't know how to sell those types of people. So then it's like, okay, put him where that other guy was, put them in the city where people are more aggressive and social. And every single time that rep comes back and all of a sudden he's selling 5, 6, 7, consistently every single. And then all of a sudden he's reaching his potential simply because he's selling the people that he knows how to sell. Wow.Speaker 2 (00:47:36):Yeah. That's awesome. That's crazy. Yeah. This stuff makes you, like, I dunno, you could almost be a psychologist. Well, with all this stuff, Ian saying these things and I'm like, dang, this, guy's like, tell him my life story. Some of these things he's able to identify. I think it's a super power, but yeah, that's actually kind of what I was going to ask you next is like, say you're a manager, you know, these things, you know, you need to put this sells wrap in like a social area. How do you recognize in these areas? It was like for you as it just kind of like city?Speaker 3 (00:48:05):No, no, not at all. So think about it this way. Right? So prospecting a lot of people, especially everyone in the door industry, I feel like, think that prospecting comes down to, you know, oh, uh, signs of life, like, oh, the doors open or the mailbox or, or the, the freaking oil marks on the thing or whatever. Right. We're just looking for signs of life. And that's all the prospecting is that couldn't be farther from the truth. Real prospecting comes down to prospecting based on the people. So for example, if I know that I know how to sell really aggressive people, if that's my buyer type, when I get to my area, the first thing I'm looking for is a signs of an aggressive buyer. So what are signs of an aggressive buyer? Well, aggressive people are very, um, confident, right? Their greatest fear is, is, uh, is, is losing control.Speaker 3 (00:48:57):And their greatest need is being in control, right? Is meaning control and always like being right. That's their, that's their greatest need. Right? They're also the type of people that don't want any BS. They're the type of person that, like I said before, where you walk into the TV store and this is that type of person they want the bottom line. That's all they want is the bottom line. All they care about is here's my problem. Here's the solution. Why does it make sense? Why is it the best? Why is it the best solution? And what's going to make it so that I'm not wrong about what I'm doing. Right. And so that I can control that situation. So those types of people are usually very, um, very like outspoken and loud, right? They're going to wear solid colors. They're going to look and walk.Speaker 3 (00:49:43):Like, they're very confident. So you have, you know, military people, you have athletes, you have, um, uh, you know, just like if I'm walking on the street and I see a huge lifted truck that has, uh, uh, a freaking American flag on the back and like a bunch of stickers about guns, chances are that person's probably pretty aggressive period. Right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. If I am, I'm an aggressive person. You came to my house, you would be finding an aggressive person. I am a hundred percent aggressive. Right. So then let's say I'm walking on the same street. And I see, you know, a bunch of, a bunch of sports memorabilia and a bunch of, a bunch of stuff like that in the garage and a motorcycle. And then on the door, there's a sign says, solicitors will be shot or there's like an aggressive, no soliciting sign.Speaker 3 (00:50:31):The chances are that person's also probably pretty aggressive, right? Yeah. But let's say I'm walking down that same street. And instead, now I see a really, really nice Escalade and their house is super nice. And there's like, like really cool or really like pretty flowers all over the place. And it just looks like it's meant to stand out and how, you know, whoever lives there, once everyone that drives down that road to say, see that house and be like, whoa, chances are, that's probably a really social person because they care a lot about recognition. Right. Okay. See what I'm saying? So you can prospect based on, based on just the outward appearances of houses, but the other thing about that is understanding personalities and understanding what kind of environments those personalities live in. So for example, cities, why is it that a lot of people struggle to sell in cities?Speaker 3 (00:51:25):Well, because cities are full of people that are super fast. Like their, their lives are fast paced. They don't want any BS. They don't want to bother with anybody. If they're gonna make decisions, they're probably gonna make it themselves. Right. They're the kind of people that don't want to just sit around and talk and small talk and be friendly. Right. There's also a lot of people that are very analytical in cities, right. They have a lot of, you know, whatever. So what does that tell me if I have a rep that sucks at selling aggressive people and it's the type of rep that is very much more inclined to selling people that are going to sit down on their porch and offer them a lemonade. Right. And talk about Joe, Bob down the street and, and like talk about their family and, and just, you know, they want to know about the features and they want to, they want to have a friendly conversation.Speaker 3 (00:52:13):There's no way in this world or the next that I'm going to put that rep in the city. Right. I'm going to take my, yeah. I'm going to take my freaking soldiers of reps, the ones that are super aggressive, very fast, very smart. Very, to the point they don't want to BS. They don't want to waste time with everybody. I'm going to put them in the city. Right. Gotcha. Okay. So, so city aggressive, analytical, right? Um, also social you'll find a lot of social people there too. But when you put people in like smaller towns, what do you think you're finding in smaller towns? Mostly social, right. Thoughtful. Yeah. Every rep likes to sell in small towns because you're meeting tons of people that are just happy and like very slow paced. And, you know, they like to give referrals because they're friends with everybody, right. People in the city, most people in the city don't even know their neighbor. True. Because again, they're just aggressive. They just, the type of people that don't care. They don't like just get to the point of life in general. Yeah. Okay.Speaker 2 (00:53:14):I see. Now, um, yeah. What about like, cause there's lots of companies that might listen to this that have huge teams, like they're just sending out armies of reps too. I mean, they're not spending the time to go through all this and recognize, you know, their selves rep buying type, selling type, all these things. So what do you say to those teams, like say a team of like 70 reps and I mean, they, don't got time to recognize all these things and give out specific areas. So, um, I don't know. Is there anything you suggest?Speaker 3 (00:53:43):Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great question. So, so I mean, obviously this that's a perfect scenario where you can put your, you know, you can put your, your reps that are this type in that perfect area and you know, that's not always going to happen. So what I would, what I would say is anytime I would go out to an office to train them, the first thing I would try to realize with a big office is, or I would try to figure out is what are they running into the most? Right. So I'll give you a perfect example. One office that I trained, um, this is years and years back. And they actually ended up being the number one office. What I realized was the people they were selling, um, in this state were very, very, um, thoughtful because their biggest concern, as I listened to their reps and their managers, I'm like, what is it?Speaker 3 (00:54:28):You guys are running into like, why are you having so much? Why are you struggling so much? Will do everybody just wants to think about it. Everyone wants to think about it. They all want cards that nobody wants to make a decision. Well, what does that tell me? That tells me that they're selling nothing but thoughtful people because thoughtful people hate change. Right. And they want guarantee and consistency. So those are the type of people that are always going to say, I want to think about it, right. Or I want more time or whatever. So what did I do? That's the situation where you have to say, okay, you have 50 reps. And every single one of them is probably a different type of, of, of seller, but we're going to teach every single one of you, how to be a thoughtful seller. Okay. So, so when everybody comes to me and says, Hey, you know, I hate it. When people make the excuse of bad area, there is no such thing as bad area area. There's just a such thing as different area. Yeah. There's no bad area. It's just different. The people are different. The pace is different. The way you need to sell them is different. Everything is different. Right. Um, but that's, again why I said at the very beginning of this, that I believe that truly talented reps are the ones that know how to sell anyone, anything, anywhere. And that all comes down to the fact that they just know people. Wow.Speaker 2 (00:55:41):A hundred percent. So yeah. For our Solarpreneurs listening, I think that's a great point. The reason I asked that Ian is because, I mean, our, our company just merged with another team. So we're sitting at like 50 reps right now. And I know our team's not taking the time out and recognize these things. So yeah. I like that answer. I mean, for people listening, if you are getting a specific objection, go out and train on that. Recognize these buyer types. Yeah. Anything else you want to say to that?Speaker 3 (00:56:07):Well, I would just say, but at the same time, if you have, you know, if your team of 50, you have four or five guys that are just absolute monsters on the doors and you want to put them in the best situation possible, we'll then focus on putting them in the best situation possible. Okay. Does that make sense? Because with a rookie you can whitewash them to learn how to sell whoever you need to teach them how to sell. If you bring in 20 brand new reps and they don't even know how to sell period. Well, it's easier to teach a puppy how to be a different [inaudible], you know, it's easy to teach to a calm puppy to be more aggressive or aggressive puppy, to be more calm at the very beginning. Right. But if you have veteran reps that are just absolute monsters and it's because they sell a certain type of way, put them where they're going to be the most successful and focus on getting them in the best situation possible and then teach all the other guys how to sell where they are. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. I love that.Speaker 2 (00:56:58):It makes sense. So yeah. Huge key there. And yeah, I'm going to take that back to my team because I'm definitely, we're not doing that on our teams right now, thinking that's a great solution. Um, so yeah, I know we're running short on time here, Ian, we barely scratched the surface and all these things. So I know for guys that haven't really heard much about these buying types. Definitely go look more into it. Do you have any books or where did you first hear about all these buying types and things seen?Speaker 3 (00:57:23):So, um, the F the number one book I would suggest is called navigate 2.0, it's literally exactly what, what I'm teaching, but this book was geared more towards like phone sales and business to business sales. So basically Fridays, I just took all the parents apples out of that book, and I made it, I tailored it to, to door to door. Okay. Um, and, uh, and so that would, that's where I would start. And then there's, there's tons of other books that you can get out there, tons of other programs and things. You've just got to kind of dive into Google and look for that stuff. Um, yeah, but I would also say what you said about psychology. Like a lot of this has to do with psychology. I actually read a lot of books on psychology, understanding how people's brains work and how their minds work and, you know, what makes them tick and what, what they want and how to give it to them. Like that's sales is the study of people. And if you're not studying people, you are missing the boat. And I promise you, you're not being nearly as effective as you could be. Yes. I agreeSpeaker 2 (00:58:20):For sure. For sure. So yeah, guys, go dive more into that super important. And like Ian said, you're not going to get it all at one time, but first of all, I think most important recognize what type of, um, you know, buyer you are, um, figure out how you can get in touch with morals, people, and then take it one step at a time. I mean, I'm still just barely figuring out what type of buyer I am. So been doing this five years. So I think a lot of people, it's probably the first time they're hearing about all these things. So go check out the book. I know you had some slides in, um, I don't know if you stopped those slides, but maybe people might hit you up if they want to see you, like, you know, a few of these slides. SoSpeaker 3 (00:58:56):The slide I do have the slides and I, I basically, I turned them into a course. So I do have courses available if they want to, um, buy the course. And then I also do consulting, like I said, I do consulting for individuals and for, for, um, offices or companies or whatever. So if you guys want to do that, just hit me up and I'll tell you, I'll tell you what we're looking at, based on whatever your needs are. Um, and then, you know, we can, we can, we can dive into for sure.Speaker 2 (00:59:21):Awesome. Cool. Well, listen, this, this one of these podcasts listened to on repeat and then go, you know, taking the information. Don't apply it all at one time, but figure it out one step at a time, the buyer buying types, and it's already been helping me. So we appreciate you being all the fire you've dropped for audience and wisdom that you've shared with us. So before we let you go in, I know we've, uh, you know, dropped you a couple of times, but social media is Instagram best place to find your where's the best place.Speaker 3 (00:59:49):Yeah. Instagram's where I'm the most active. So it's, I it's, I Winster, I w E N D T S T E R. Um, you're going to have to type in my full name cause I'm crazy shadow banned right now. So it'll probably pop up my backup account, which is, I went straight to, that's not my account. It's, it's just, I went to her, I w E N D T S T E R. Um, that's my Instagram. And then my company, Instagram is official Patriot gear, the official Patriot gear, excuse me, our website is official Patriot gear.com. Um, and then yeah, if you want to do any kind of consulting or anything like that, just, just hit me up, um, DME and, uh, and we can talk about it. You know, first I want to find out what it is you actually need. And based on those needs, we'll figure out what we, what we need to do.Speaker 2 (01:00:30):Perfect. Love it. So reach out to Ian, if anything, let him know you appreciated the wisdom he dropped with us today. And, uh, before we let you go in, do you have any, I don't know, final words of wisdom or final advice that you would share with, uh, sore reps in specific, or I guess, I mean, door to door, any last tips?Speaker 3 (01:00:49):I would just say, yeah, I'll leave you with one last thing. Okay. Um, any of you guys that are out there that are feeling like, you know, I know that it's common to feel like, Hey, I'm never going to be as good as that guy, or I'm never going to get to the top or whatever. You know, I know a lot of reps struggle with having that feeling. I'll just tell you this. If you played sports in school, you know, let's say, let's say you played football, right? When you first started playing football as a freshmen, did it ever cross your mind that, oh, I'll never make varsity. Probably not. It was probably more like I'm going to make varsity. And in order to make varsity, I need to figure this and this and this out. And I need to pay my dues over the next three years or two years or whatever.Speaker 3 (01:01:31):Right? Yeah. I think there's a common misconception in sales that sales is any different than any other skill that you can develop and that you just won't ever reach a certain point. And that's just not true. The fact is you just have to work. If you feel like learning to sell is harder for you than other people. All that means is that you have to work harder than the guys that are working hard. It just means you have to put more into it, but it doesn't mean you can't be great. You can be, you just need to actually put the effort in and, and, and do any like, just like anything else. If you're going to learn how to play the guitar, you need to have the bloody callouses on your fingers to be able to play the guitar really, really well. It's no different in sales.Speaker 3 (01:02:12):So when everybody else is partying or hanging out or whatever, you should be studying and diving in and learning and constantly making this, just everything you focus on, because I promise you that if you're just starting out here, if you only knew what actually lies behind the door, that you have the ability to open in the door to door industry metaphorically or whatever, like you would never stop pushing for that. For that goal, you would never stop pushing to open that door ever because it's, it's a life that people dream about. It's, it's, it's freedom and opportunity that most people will never have in their life. And if you only knew what that really was, you would never make an excuse of, oh, I can't do this. Or, ah, I'll just, I'll just slack off today. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree.Speaker 2 (01:03:03):A hundred percent and yeah. Um, I mean, yeah, just to finish up here, it's like, guys think they can get in this and we're making doctor's money without, uh, without a degree. Right. So why should we not to work hard? I mean, to make this amount of money, a lot of guys come in thinking it's easy, but to that point, yeah, you gotta push, you gotta push super hard, harder than you'd think. Especially the guys that struggle coming out. So love that. And so with that said, we'll wrap it up here in, um, but guys remember hit Ian up, let them know you're appreciated that sod shared. And thanks again for coming on the podcast podcast with us today. I know you're super busy, but we'll be in touch and appreciate everything you shared again. No problem. Thanks Taylor. Talk soon.Speaker 1 (01:03:47):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co! 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. Boom, shake the room of what is going on. Solarpreneurs, Taylor Armstrong,Speaker 2 (00:46):Ready to light some fire under you and get you crushing the rest of your summer. Hope you're doing well. We are in August. Now, the timing of this recording and crazy how fast the time has gone. You got one month before, basically the end of the summer. So let's go. If you aren't where you are wanting to be. Let's push hard. After this last month, we had a meeting last week where, uh, Jason newbie, the guy I work with, he showed us this video by Gary V up to post it in the show notes, but where he talks about how August is his favorite month for those that don't follow Gary V. He used to work in the wine industry and he talked about how August was basically the month where all these wine, uh, I don't know, whatever you call them, white and people who wait, make the wine.Speaker 2 (01:42):Um, okay. I don't know what the word you can tell. I don't drink wine, but the guys who manufacture the wine, right? He was talking about how they take August basically off because the whole days you think in Thanksgiving, Christmas voles, they're just slammed, slammed with customers and making tons of wine during those months. But August it's kind of their slower month. So Gary V said, he always pushed extremely hard during this month because he knew the rest of his competitors. Guess what? They're all in The Bahamas, they're out snoozing. They were taking a nap. So we should think the same way about August. Go look up that video. If you haven't seen it, push extremely hard and don't let up just because of summer is going. I do have regrets when I sold at pest control. And that is, I would always slow down in August.Speaker 2 (02:32):I knew, okay, I got two more weeks left. I'm going back to school. I'm going to slow down and enjoy the rest of the summer. I'm going to take it easy. But solar, we are a new breed of salespeople and we do not slow down. We speed up. We Zig when other people are zagging. So let's go. That being said, got done with my little, uh, rant on August today. I want to talk about a couple of things you can do to just access that motivation and really turn your bad week into a good week. Got a couple of weeks recently where they started off pretty terrible cancellations appointments, fallen through things out of my control, HOA issues and some tough situations that really got me de-motivated to start the week. And I want to share a few things I've done that have helped me turn those bad weeks into good weeks.Speaker 2 (03:29):So just in general though, before I hop into those, just yet general, you should be working as a team. This is something I talked about. When I went to a Sam Taggart's event, he's a little door to door tour, go back and listen that episode if you haven't already. But he talked about how door to door sells. It should be similar to like riding in a pack of bikes and Peloton, right? You look at those bikers, Lance Armstrong, all these guys biking, they go in packs. They go in groups. And when you're selling, especially if you're going door to door should be no different figure out a way to get in a group. And if you are not surrounded by an awesome sells organization by a great team, then get in our coaching program. That's why we just launched Solciety, did a whole episode on it last week.Speaker 2 (04:22):So go listen to that. But Solciety is designed. So you can be surrounded by people that are trained to level up, people that are trying to improve and even more so you can get into our coaching, our inner circle coaching. If you want to be held ultra accountable, get one-on-one coaching from the best and really make that jump towards your goals that you've been waiting for. So consider that. But the point is, get yourself surrounded by people who are going to motivate you, who are going to inspire you, who are doing better than you and who are, uh, driving you to improve every day. Okay? And if anything, yeah, hits some doors together. Hey, I experienced that all the time. Where last thing I want to do is go knock on that door. But lately I've been getting people out with me. I say, Hey, I'm going to go knock with you.Speaker 2 (05:14):Come shadow me, Michael. Donald talks about this golden door award winner. He had to have someone knocking him. Even Mike O'Donnell gets lazy out there, not lazy, but he knows himself that he's not. It's going to be tough for him to go get out of his car and knock by himself hard as doors, that corridor. So if you're struggling with that, get someone to train, say, Hey, meet me at the Starbucks. We're hitting the doors, meet me at, uh, Kentucky avenue. We're hitting this street. Come shadow me for a little bit. Have someone go shadow you and go out, you know, go out with someone for a little bit, switch off doors for a little bit, if need to, but really just getting your groove. Okay. Get someone out, let them see what you're doing. And you're going to push harder when someone's shadowing you too.Speaker 2 (06:06):Okay. So there they're just a couple general things. Oh yeah. And last thing, get a segue. I've been posting a little bit about that on the Instagram, but on the gram, get yourself a mini segue. Trust me. It makes it way more fun to be on the doors. Especially if it's hot outside, you can get going. I dunno, 12 miles an hour on these things. Feel the wind in your hair. You feel like a dog sticking its head out of the window. You need one of these mini segues. If you're going to be out knocking doors too. Okay. So two things though, these are the top two things that helped me in a few of these weeks that I really struggled, that I felt like my numbers were down. That I felt like I wasn't having a good week at all. So number one, treat Saturdays as the holy grail of knocking.Speaker 2 (06:56):Okay. And a lot of people know this, I forgot it for a while. I was actually with a company where we took Saturdays off crazy as it sounds, but we took Saturdays off just mostly because our VP of sales wanted to, you know, be with his family that day. So he said, uh, I'm taking that day off. Everyone else should do. It was optional. So we, I took that day off for quite a while actually. But now I am being reminded of how big Saturdays can be this day can literally turn your terrible week into an, you know, a decent week and why it should go without saying, but obviously more people are home. People are in a better mood. Decision-makers are there most Saturdays, both husband and wife are there, right? Where during the week, most of the time, it's just one spouse, depending on when you knock, right?Speaker 2 (07:48):But this allows you to set more, same days. This allows you to get in the door and close them that same day. That's why in our team here in San Diego, we say, Saturdays are for same days. You need to get out on the weekends. Push will seem days. You're getting people in a great mood and it's giving you an opportunity to get some deals without even having an appointment set up. So this is what I did actually last week. This is where I'm doing this episode because last week it was a pretty average week. I had one close, I think on Thursday, I'm like, I need at least one more on the week, especially cause I mean, uh, the knock start coaching group and working with Taylor McCarthy and those guys and Taylor, he was really pushing me. He's like, dude, I need you to hit some bigger numbers.Speaker 2 (08:41):I'm going to this next month. I'm going to an event down in key west. Tiffany, you're going to hit me up, come say hi, but Taylor's saying, Hey man, I need your producing some big numbers. Cause you're coming to this event. You're taking days off. So I'm like, all right, I cannot have a week where I only hit one. I need minimum two this week. So I'm like, okay, God's Saturday coming Thursday, Friday, we're soup for tough days. I think I was out knocking, um, five or six hours. Both of those days. I think I only got three appointments and all of them fell through all three appointments. Um, so I'm like, okay, Saturday needs to be massive. Get out there. I set three same days. And I talked about this in my Instagram stories. So apologize if you've already heard it before, but I set, um, my first same day in the morning guy was pretty chill out the door, but I get it.Speaker 2 (09:36):Yeah. I go in, he says, Hey, we're not filling out any applications, but show me some numbers. And I'm like, okay. Yeah, no problem. Um, I wouldn't expect it or do anything if it didn't benefit you. And if didn't look like it was beneficial and something you guys needed, obviously thinking that, okay, I'm going to turn this guy around. I'm going to get them closed up. I'm going to get them making a decision today. And I almost did it, but I get to the end. We built some value. I told him why as neighbors are doing it right now. I said, we need to get this soon. So you can get grandfathered named in these net metering rates. And you can get your tax credits before it goes down eventually. And he seemed to be buying it. But then when we put pen to the paper, getting the last four of his social and all that, he just laid the clamp down.Speaker 2 (10:27):He's like, no, no, I'm not doing it. He hesitated. I had him hesitated and think about it for probably 15, 20 seconds. But then he went back to it and then it just started driving me crazy. I could not get the bottom of why he didn't want to, you know, at least see if his home would get approved. Right. You're doing the takeaways. I'm doing the pull back saying, Hey man, let's just see if it's even an option for you guys. We got to do the site survey. We gotta check the home, pull back like crazy. But he was not biting on these. And he was not giving me any reason why he didn't want to at least see if you could get approved for solar. So that first same day was a dud. Um, we ended up just, he was getting frustrated and I was getting nowhere.Speaker 2 (11:13):So finally I just stood up and said, okay, I got to go. And just walked out the door quick psycho. It gets the point where if you're running in circles, getting anywhere, just move on to the next door. Right. We had run in circles for probably 10, 15 minutes was not giving me any reasons, given me nothing to work with and was just getting frustrated. So kind of stormed out of there. Then the second, same day I went to Feld credits got in pretty interested. Yeah. And actually didn't even run it. She told me she had a bankruptcy, but yeah, just how it goes. So I was feeling pretty defeated. I'm like, man, maybe this is how it's going to end. Maybe I'm only going to get one on the week, but I busted out my calm app. If you guys don't have some sort of meditation app, I would highly recommend calm or there's.Speaker 2 (12:06):Um, there's one other one. I like I'm forgetting what it's called right now, but a couple of meditation apps. I think those are key. If you're having mindset issues on the door, do a quick meditation. Okay. Take five minutes. Um, yeah, I went and they see my car for five minutes, but the key is don't get stuck in your car or wherever you're at. Right? So take a five minute meditation, get your mindset. Right. Did some affirmations. And then I got back out there said, I'm going to, I'm going to get that one that one's out there. Not leads me to my next point. The second point, which is always knock one more door. Okay. If you haven't heard this concept, one more door, always live by that live by a standard. And it's what top producers talk about all the time. Um, going back to Mike O'Donnell he lived by this every time he closes a deal, he says, I'm going to go out.Speaker 2 (13:08):I need to get at least one. No, I'm not leaving the area till I get one. No. So can be that, but just do one more. It's amazing to me. How many times where again, I'm having a terrible week or I haven't gotten anything on the day and I do one more. It turns into a close deal. Turns into an appointment. Turns my day around. So whether it's one more door, whether it's knocking till 8 0 5, when you're going to knock till eight, just think of ways you can do one more gang. I'm not telling you go all night, but do one more than you're planning on doing. And that's what I did on Saturday. I had gotten two same days. So I was happy about that. Like sweet to same day appointments got inside both of them, but there's gotta be someone that's going to close.Speaker 2 (13:58):So I go, I go, I'm knocking. I'm getting no one home. After that Saturday, it's like three 30 at that point. Usually knock 10 to three on Saturdays. So I'm like, come on. I need, I need to find someone out here. So just about they give up and I said, okay, I'm not getting people home. I need to find at least just one person that's here. So at this point I'm not knocking every door. I'm just wandering the neighborhood now found someone outside. He was a renter like Dan, I go in the back, this one of those neighborhoods where they have like garages behind the homes. And so I see one garage door open might get that's it that's my cell. I go, he answers the door, get inside. He said he had just barely gotten two quotes for solar. He's looking to get solar soon.Speaker 2 (14:50):I said, well, we got what you're looking for. Did the presentation, buckled him up? Boom, let's go. So that's how you need to do it. This is how you turn your bad weeks into good ones. My Solarpreneurs, you push, you do big Saturdays, Saturdays or four-seam days. And then you go one more door. You do one more and then you're expecting you to do you get that one last? No. Even after you told yourself, you're going to quit. Excuse me, got allergies here. So that's my message for today. Go out, be great. This week, crush your summer goals and do not slow down whatever you do. If you need that extra accountability. If you need that extra push, go on to our website, excuse me again. Solciety.co hit the inner circle tab. Click apply. Book a call. We'll see if it's a good fit for the program. So we'll see you on the other side and we'll see you in the next episode.Speaker 3 (15:52):Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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. All right,Speaker 2 (02:01):Welcome back everybody. If you guys are not familiar with me, my name is James Swiderski. I was one of the, uh, original co-hosts and guests of the Solarpreneur podcast. You guys are listening to. I helped Taylor build this up a few years back. Some of you may know me from my sales training program. I used to have called the Solar Spartan system, which is now uploaded for free, or my marketing agencies, Solarpreneur. I've been in the industry for about six years now at this point, I've owned and operated my own solar company, um, marketing as well, sales training, and, uh, Ben really an integral part of every aspect of this industry. And one thing has remained consistent throughout my career within solar. And that is training solar reps. I've trained over a thousand solar reps at this point directly, not just through videos or podcasts like this.Speaker 2 (02:56):I've actually been in the room training, sitting with reps, working with them through their mindset issues, their tactics, going out on the doors with them, listening to their calls and coaching them with over a thousand different reps. And the purpose of this series train to win is to put out some content for you. Business owners specifically, um, this podcast has primarily catered towards reps, right? And yes, we've thrown into marketing strategies and whatnot in here, but there has not been any, any specific content for how to actually train and scale a sales team, which is what I have been doing personally for the better part of six years. I've trained and scaled teams, upwards of eight figures per year. My own sales team. I'm managing over a hundred reps at one point, and I've got a couple of tactics and strategies I want to talk about over the next coming months, um, within this podcast format here.Speaker 2 (03:53):So if you like this type of content, keep tuning in, you're going to see train to win on each podcast episode. And it's going to be primarily for business owners, VPs, directors, anybody who's managing and growing a sales team. Now let's dive into today's topic and my case study and story I want to talk about here. This is stuff that I have really only taught with my personal clients. I'm working with some of the largest solar companies in the country. Um, this is stuff that I have not actually legally been able to share. I know this sounds like marketing hype and whatnot, but this is stuff I have not actually been able to share because of contract rule like obligations and, uh, privacy with clients and whatnot. And I couldn't share the exact case studies and things like that. And quite frankly, it's stuff that I wanted to keep for myself when I was operating a company a few years back, but the table is, have quite literally turned and things are different now.Speaker 2 (04:52):And I could come out and talk about some of these strategies for you to benefit and implement within your company. So the $3.2 million weekend sounds like a crazy outlandish promise. I'm just going to confront it right away. Right. Um, but if you break down the math on this 3.2 million in solar is not that crazy. And then we're going to talk about in this case study, we actually did battery sales with this. This is with the startup company called Evelar solar that it worked with back in Utah on the first part of my career, a couple of years into my career re really where I got my feet wet in the industry, um, and was able to really learn all of the aspects of the solar business to eventually start my own company. And, um, the promo that we did specifically over a weekend, um, with our 11 reps was we were introducing a new partnership with Sonnen.Speaker 2 (05:43):I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Sonnen-battery company. Um, we were introducing a new partnership with them, a new product launch and offer, and we put together a special promo over about two weeks that the very pinnacle point was a 72 hour period over. And I can't remember what holiday it was, but it was like Memorial day weekend or something like that. Um, so let's just dive into the meat here. What do we actually do? Okay. First of all, we warmed up our lists of homeowners who were current customers and past leads can at the time, I believe we had about 2,500 customers. So we had a lot of customers. Um, and then we had, I don't know, 10, 20,000 leads, right? So we had a lot of to work with, but these were dead leads that, um, most companies would consider dead stale.Speaker 2 (06:37):Right? They've been talked to a million times beat to death. Um, and nobody had called these guys in months or years. Right. Just rotting away in the CRM. Okay. So what we did is we took our list of customers, right? Couple of thousand, right? And we separated those from the other guys. And for two weeks, four to five times a week, we emailed these customers would just value content. Okay. How to save money on your electric bills, boom, walking them through an energy audit in the home, right. How to use a tax credit when you go solar, right? Whatever the content was. And I can't remember the very specifics of what it was. It was value-driven content to really just get the line of communication open. And then in the first week we introduced the offer. We said, Hey, we've got something very special coming up.Speaker 2 (07:27):We're going to call and announce it. Next weekend. One of our reps are going to call you, they're going to tell you about the new, special, our new partnership with Sonen. So you can, uh, go off the grid without your, uh, with electricity, blah, blah, blah, benefit on the battery. Just kind of hooking them and teasing them for that aspect of the promo. Right? So plain and simple. I think you guys get it warm up the list for two weeks prior, right? During this two weeks, you're also going to hype up your sales team. Step number two here. Right? And you're going to tell them, Hey, we've got a massive promo, massive drop sewn and batteries, whatever our, to whatever your offer is, Ken, we've got this massive thing dropping. You guys need to be prepared for this. We're going to have a specific contest for when this drops.Speaker 2 (08:17):Um, and you're going to involve every department, not just sales. We'll get into this in a moment, but make sure the entire company is onboard with what's going on here. Step number three is this is going to be a time sensitive promo for not just the homeowners, but it's also going to be a time sensitive promo for your reps. Okay. So what does this mean? The offer is going to be gone. It's a onetime 72 hour offer, and I believe it should be 72 hours. You could go a little longer and I've done it, but hasn't met as effective as that 72 hours. If it's one day, it's not quite long enough, give it three full days a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. You want to give it that time? Okay. And what you're also going to do is you're going to put together a commission offer for your reps.Speaker 2 (09:12):This is what we did. So normally reps would make unbeliev as, uh, let's see, 200 kilowatt is what they were doing. This was in Utah as well. So not crazy California. Yeah. But 200 kilowatt was the commission. And, uh, for battery sales, I believe it was just a flat 1000 a piece. And what they did is they two X the battery commissions. So that was also 200 kilowatt for each battery. And then we also did, um, a 1.5 X commission multiplier on normal sales commissions, just for sales made within the 72 hour period. Right? So to review, we have a time sensitive offer and promo for the homeowner. This could be 12 months free power just for the three months. It could be anywhere from we've done 36 months free power before that could be whatever you want. New battery drop. I believe the promo we did at this point was, uh, 12 months, no payments for batteries and solar.Speaker 2 (10:10):So they got a battery free of payments for their first year. Um, and then it was like a $500 back or something like that. Um, whatever there's a lot of offers you could do, but put together a time-sensitive offer for the homeowner and then a commission offer to go with it. You need the commission offer because that's going to push your reps to engage with the contest. Many business owners and clients have worked with where they make a mistake. When it comes to contests, they don't get proper engagement. And this is a real easy way to fix that. Hyping the contest up. And then, um, actually having a commission multiplier, step number four. What this process we do is we had clear action items. All right. So everybody had two lists. Every single participant in the contest blitz had a list of customers. And we had a list of leads, old leads in the CRM aged leads, right?Speaker 2 (11:04):Um, so we split those lists up into two, divided them up, right? Top producers got a little bit higher quality warmer leads, obviously, and then everybody else got the other ones. Um, and then we made sure everybody's prepared for this. This wasn't like we're wasting time on day. One of the launch trying to figure out lists. This was prepared well in advance leads were well informed. What was coming. They had lots of value in the door, right? And it was time to take some action. And then number five here. The last thing we did is we called every lead and customer twice per day, once in the morning, once in the evening morning from nine to 12:00 PM, Ken, and then once in the evening from six to 9:00 PM. So twice per day and those two sessions for the three days back to back to back.Speaker 2 (11:51):So you're calling every lead right? Twice per day, three days in a row, you're going to leave a voice memo. The voice memo is going to be about the promo. Hey, this is James with X, Y, Z solar company. We've got a special promo going on where we are offering insert your offer. It's time sensitive. I need you to give me a call back before tomorrow at 12 o'clock. So you guys don't miss this, that's it right now. Some of you guys may be saying, don't leave voice memos is a waste of time. I totally disagree. I am a strong believer in voice memos and the effectiveness, and especially in a promotion type of setting, you want to be leaving voice memos with your customers. That's how you're going to get these callbacks. And then for every single one of these calls, you're going to shoot them a text.Speaker 2 (12:44):And it's going to be a simple text of first name, question, mark, shoot the text. And you're looking for a response, right? And you just want to get an established contact so they know who's calling. And then for every single call, you make double ring, double dials. They don't answer the first one, give it a double dial, right? If you want to go hyper, hyper aggressive, triple dial, okay. You have to hit the three days in a row though. That's the key here because a lot of them will not pick up on the first day. I'd say about a 20, 30% pickup rate on the first day, second day, that's where stuff's going to start to happen. The last day, 80% of your sales are going to happen on that last day. So what are the total numbers for when we did this, actually went back into the CRM and looked at the numbers from what we did.Speaker 2 (13:32):Um, there was 42 deals and they were about $75,000 a piece on an average contract. Now you might be say at 75, that's a freaking huge, this was a sewn in battery plus solar. Okay. Almost every deal that was sold on this weekend was with a battery and sown and batteries. If you're not familiar at the time, they were about 25, 30 5,000 a piece for the small ones. Some of the bigger ones were close to a hundred grand for a piece as well. So averaged out we did about 42 contracts, 75, a piece 11 reps, 3.2 mil in revenue. So guys, this is not rocket science. I'm not sharing anything that you guys probably have not taken a stab at before, or at least thought about doing this is just straight up execution and getting your team on board. The biggest problem, as I said, company owners have with doing contest blitzes promotions.Speaker 2 (14:29):Like this is participation and participation comes from the top. Okay? I want you to remember this participation starts with you. If you are not 100% sold on this with your partners, with your managers, with your VP, this thing's not going to work. You need to have management all of your stakeholders all in on this thing. I have never been able to get a company to adopt any sort of sales training, marketing plan, a strategy promotion, whatever it is. I've never been able to get a company in my career so far to implement something like this. If all of the stakeholders were not on board, you need to have your entire team on this. So whatever you got to do, sit down with them, hype them up, talk about it. You really have nothing to lose and doing a promotion like this. That's the other thing I want to leave you here.Speaker 2 (15:21):What do you have to lose here? Because you might be thinking that the incentives could be expensive, right? Oh, we can't do a two X commission or a 1.5 X commission. Right? We'll do the numbers. If your guys generated an extra 10 deals because of this contest, 15, 20, 40 deals like we did, right? What does that pay out? Do the numbers and look at how can you afford to do the contest? Because the reality is you can't afford to not be doing contests like this on a regular basis. The top companies and clients I've worked with, they do promotions all the time. Weekly contest challenges, monthly contest, quarterly yearly. They're doing them constantly because you have to keep things interesting for your reps. If you don't have interesting promotions for your reps to get them engaged, get them excited to show up in the office, go out on the doors, right?Speaker 2 (16:16):You're going to have a high turnover rate. If you're not throwing unique, interesting offers in front of your customers on a regular basis, calling them and upselling them additional products and services. You're just literally throwing money out in the trash, right? You are wasting opportunity wasting cash. The last takeaway I will give you here is you've got to follow up with your leads, this contest. This is the most amazing part of this contest. In my opinion, these were not new leads. These were old quote unquote dead leads. Think about it. Most reps will say, oh, that's dead opportunity. They'll never go solar. Every single rep in my office when we were doing this and every client I've implemented this with, guess what? Like all of the reps say, oh, they're not going to go solar because of this or this or this. We take that out of the equation by just mixing up the leads and passing them around the company.Speaker 2 (17:14):And all of a sudden you've got reps calling other reps leads and they don't know what the situation was. They don't know what the heck happened. And guess what happens? We start closing those deals. Okay? Do not let the limiting belief of your reps or the situation or interaction your reps had with leads, taint your conversion rates with your leads. Okay? Age, the leads and opportunities are still opportunities. Take advantage of them. My friends, it will pay, let us know, hit up. Taylor, head, hit them up with an email. Find me on social. Primarily I'm on LinkedIn. Hit me up and let me know what the results of this contest did for you guys. I promise you if you do this follow exactly what I just talked about. Warm up the leads for two weeks, have a unique compelling offer with your existing product or introducing a new product.Speaker 2 (18:09):Hype up your sales team, have a special promotion for them and then send them for them. Make it time sensitive, have clear prepared items. Have the list prepared the day before two days before, make sure everybody's ready to go and then call every lead and customer twice a day, three days in a row. Voicemails texts, double rings, guys. You're going to make some magic happen with this thing. All right. I hope you guys enjoyed the content onto the next one. I will talk to you guys real soon. It's been real. My name's James Swiderski and until next timeSpeaker 1 (18:42):See ya. Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co And join. We'll see you on the inside. 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.  

Don't forget to visit the following:https://knockstargivesback.com/give-backhttps://thesolaracademy.com/https://www.solciety.co/ Speaker 2 (00:42):Solarpreneurs. We have another exciting guest today. We're back with another episode. Hope you guys are doing well today. We have someone that's been a long time coming on the show. If you're on Facebook, you had to have heard of him by now. We've got the one, the only Solar Joe. Solar Joe, thanks for coming onSpeaker 3 (00:59):Today, man. Thank you for having me, but I'm actually a good and bad cause. First of all, thank you for having me on the Solarpreneurs podcast. I've been a big fan of yours for years, man. And um, I just being invited on is, is a big honor. So thank you. But I did, I have to follow Jory Sullivan's story. I mean, how was anybody starting that one, then I'm going to do that to me.Speaker 2 (01:23):Well, we might have a few, we'll have a few between that. So don't worry. You're not going to be right after him.Speaker 3 (01:30):Some crazy stuff. That was a good one.Speaker 2 (01:33):Yeah, this is awesome. But no, we're excited to have you on. And um, I just said Solar Joe, cause I don't even, I don't even know how to say your last name. LikeSpeaker 3 (01:42):I'm still trying to figure it out myself, but uh, I think it's something like MousakheelSpeaker 2 (01:47):Mousakheel Okay. That'sSpeaker 3 (01:50):Really the number one reason why having a nickname, solar, Joe, I would go into, I would go into a home and you know, after I leave, I would write my name, Joe Mousakheel and my phone number. And they would save it in their cell phone as Joan was skill and my number. And they would never find me like, who was that guy? What was his name? So I decided to start doing solar Joe, whenever I left. I said, save that in your phone. That's Solar Joe. So when they look it up, they just remember solar started selling it and I come up. So that's literally how I got solar done.Speaker 2 (02:21):Okay. It makes sense. Yeah. No, I figured out, I figured that was part of the reason where's that last, where's that name from even what does thatSpeaker 3 (02:28):My family originally? My, both my parents are from Afghanistan.Speaker 2 (02:33):Oh, okay. Gotcha. That's crazy.Speaker 3 (02:35):So when I was a kid, I would say on propaganda, Stan, everybody, like, where's that place? What Afghanistan? What is that? Now? It's Afghanistan. Everybody knows that it's a different dynamic and I was a kid.Speaker 2 (02:47):That's awesome. Hello name? Can't say I've had, uh, anyone of Afghanistan descent here on the show. So you're the first to say that anymore. Well, cool man. Um, no excited to have you on. And um, yeah, for those that don't, everyone should know Joe at this point, but yeah, he has probably the best, uh, Facebook group for solar. He runs a solar objections group. Um, and they do a lot of like live streams in that, on how to overcome objections and really just some awesome content. So definitely if you're not in that group, I would suggest go and join it today because you're not going to want to miss the fire he has on that.Speaker 3 (03:24):Thank you so much. And I feel like I'm just like the host, right? I'm just like, yeah, let me get the best soul pros in the country to do interview. They give trainings and try to organize it. Yeah. So that the page is clean and it's really like, we're getting good value content as opposed to like recruiting and kind of spanning stuff. So I think prior to making sure it's clean and try to get as much value as possible, but thank you so much for that.Speaker 2 (03:47):Yeah, for sure, man. No, I'm trying to, we, I have Facebook group as well, so we're preneurs, but all I know I don't do as a near as good of a job at managing it in bringing on quality stuff on that. So I'm trying to learn from your Facebook group as well, but no, thank you. Yeah, we appreciate everything you've done, you know, bringing value and um, you know, teach other solar pros. So Joe, do you want to tell us kinda how you got into the solar industry and how you, uh, I don't know, decided to start the Facebook group and everything like that?Speaker 3 (04:18):Well, it started a long time ago. Well, before I even moved to California, which is 2004, I was in Manhattan. And um, back in the day, like late nineties, early two thousands, everybody was a computer specialist, right. Everybody was at, and that's where the money was. I was working and making good money, but it was like, I wasn't passionate about it. It was like a ceiling. And you were like, this is all you're gonna make. This can do for the rest of your life was like, it wasn't. I was excited about it. So when I came to California, which has its own story, I decided to switch things up and I really was excited about sales even in Manhattan because I would see the guys that sales department like happy, excited, running around energized, and our department be like boring another day, you know? So I was always like interested in the sales.Speaker 3 (05:06):So I came up to California. I was like, all right, this is my opportunity to try something different. And I just excelled. It just came naturally to me on day one. Um, whatever it was will become the number one salesperson in the company, um, top salesperson for the year. And it wasn't because I was special gift in a sales. It was like that competitive spirit and people like when you want to win and you want to figure it out, like you're going to be creative. You can think of things that people are doing. So that's when I got my, I was like, all right, I got something I'm pretty good at sales. I'm pretty good at getting people excited, getting marketing. Um, and then I got into insurance for like seven years because it was one of those jobs. You actually work nine to five and still being sales.Speaker 3 (05:54):There's not many sales jobs. You could be working nine to five and still be it's like, oh, sales jobs are like, you have to work nights and weekends cars, you know, stuff like that. So I had opportunities to get a nine to five sales job. I was like, let's go. I did that for years salesman of the year. But same thing happened though. It was like, it was just a job. Right. I was just doing it to get by and get a paycheck. I was never passionate about it. One day a customer came in and he was like frustrated. He was like, man, I got this solar job. And people are looking amazing people aren't buying it. And I had to we'll talk to me coming through what it is. And he wasteland to me, I was like, this is too good to be true.Speaker 3 (06:36):You're making money. You're saving money has been in their environment. Like what are the negatives? And it was just like, just people who don't get it. I was like, Ooh. So I started like Googling and researching and figuring this out. And I was like, I have something here, you know? So I started getting really excited. Um, and my wife at the same time, I was helping her start her own insurance company. So about after three years I felt like she was good or the world oil is running a machine. I said, all right, my opportunity jumped into solar. So I was fully aware of what solar was and how it works. I thought, right. So at the beginning of 2016, I said, you know what, let me work at the company where Elon Musk is putting his time and effort. Like he's, he's running solar city pretty much as I thought. Right. Um, and then when I worked there, I found out that's not the case. It was just not what I thought. Um, one of the, it was great though. Cause I got great training. They flew me out to Vegas. Uh, I mean I got, I read every word of his lease and PPA, you know, so I knew exactly what it said, what, what they were on. I won a couple of poker tournaments while I was out there, which is nice.Speaker 3 (07:44):I came back all this knowledge, but the thing was, this is the manager told me, he said, you know, I was like, Hey, there's no ownership options. It's just like, how am I going to almost don't want to own the solution. That's going to come later in the year, like end of the year, I was like, well, what am I going to do? You know, like, that's not an option for me. I said, you guys, I know it's not, you it's me. You know, I got to go find some other opportunities. So I was really into like ownership. Um, so I said, let me look for a place that does only ownership. Uh, so I worked at a place, I don't want to name names, but I was there for like two years and salesman of the year. Um, the great, it was just also was, it was like kind of felt like I wasn't doing what's best for the home.Speaker 3 (08:26):I was kind of like forcing whatever the company had. You know, I don't talk to the owner. I was like, you don't have to have these issues about like, I'm feeling a force-feeding thing, two chefs, more options, and they're made different finance options. You would say just shove it down. Their throat, exact words to me. I said, I just can never forget him saying that to me. And I was like, no, it is not the energy. I felt like I needed to find something that was going to be helping the homeowner as opposed to helping to sell the company. So I decided to go on my own and figure that out. So I started working with companies that are installers. Um, and I started doing solar, a seminar tour of California, which was amazing. Um, worked with set and city to city county all over California, full of restaurants of homeowners, the week full of appointments. Like it was just like killer. I like all 2020 books, but guess what happened? I've been struck down. I wouldn't from a high to zero, so I really had to start figuring stuff out. And that's what I was my, my, my first virtual was right after the app and I'd never did a virtual before that ever. Um, and I said, you know what, when I do something, I'm all in. I'm not like, oh, you just try it out.Speaker 3 (09:49):I'm not going to, when I do something, I'm let me pivot. This is a good time to pay that. So I started just trying to focus on like training, giving value content. Um, so about a year ago I decided to start the Facebook page, uh, Solar Objections now first book group. I mean, it wasn't like, I was just like, oh, let me figure it out. Let me do something. It was like from years of experience using Facebook groups, I figured what is going to be the most engaging value content. Like I feel like you're going to start a Facebook group. You should be the best person in that group. Right. So that's, that's what I did. Like, I would be a big banner of engagement. I would give you comments, whatever, you know, whatever it is. Um, there was this one time I remember a bill Murphy.Speaker 3 (10:34):I'm sure he knows. So he did a contest. Um, it was, um, whoever had the best objection handling for, I think it was, um, not right now or something like that. I answered it came up and uh, you are for $250 to sit a winner. It was crazy content, crazy engagement I won. And after that, every objection I would handle, I feel like I kept getting the highest end gate. I kept getting high comments, like highlights, high reactions. I said, you know what? This has something here. Right? So I felt like, objection, handling is a big deal. But also the word objection means more than that, right. It just means like what's going on in these homeowner's minds that had this option and they're not doing it right. That's insane. And that's what I feel like our job as a solar community is to get past like, let's figure out why then I go and sell it.Speaker 3 (11:28):So we got all the industry help them. Um, and so I was doing that engaging content and just having fun with that. Um, and it was on fire from the beginning, just a hundred to 200 people every week, just joining on their own. And then one day, um, Brett Williams, who I'm gonna have on my one year anniversary show said, he said, uh, one day he was just like, you know what? We should do a, you know, a live action role play. I always say that we should do a role play. You're on live stream. I said, okay. I'm like, okay. And I went to that Wednesday, that Wednesday, I just went to my first live stream. I had a modest album out. I'm not sure if you know who he is, he's a solar feast. And he decided to get on there and I did terrible.Speaker 3 (12:13):I was awkward. I just jumped into it. And it was like, it was terrible. Right. It was amazing. I mean, he was like tremendous like tone and overcoming objections. Closing me. It was like, I was amazing. I was like, there's something here. I was like, this is awesome. So then I got next to him. I liked Johnny Kinzer and then Glenn Meyers. And it was just like, this is fun. Right. It was just like, it wasn't even work. It was like, I'm talking to people, we're doing role-plays or having a training, you know? So it just got addicted to me. And it wasn't even like a job. It was like golfing on the weekends. It's fun. And it was the best part. It was, everybody was enjoying it too.Speaker 3 (12:58):And then, and then more people hear about it. The more people get on the show, then you'll get Michael Donald, or they get Jake has this, like it's bigger, big on his son. And so it was just like, my biggest thing was I always do is two things. I do it. Okay. I just do it. There's no, don't be scared. Just do it. And the second thing is I tried to be as creative and different as possible. And those two things is taken to me where I've gotten so far. I'm not saying I'm anywhere yet, but I definitely Excel from what I've started from this, this year. I never, before a year ago I do a live stream that I do a virtual, this all started one year ago today. Wow.Speaker 2 (13:35):That's awesome. Well, congrats on hitting almost the one year anniversary. That's a big accomplishment and I'm yeah. I can tell you just have that excitement. I mean, I can't help just like smiling and getting excited about solar when I hear you talk, let's go, go. And so I love that. Love that. And yeah, I think it's for sure as you know, um, I mean you're in LA or something, is that where you're at Sacramento SAC. Okay. Okay. Well I'm yeah, I'm in San Diego. So obviously all of California is pretty competitive. Um, you know, with the solar. And I think that SanSpeaker 3 (14:06):Diego, San Diego I'll tell you right now, most solar beasts I've ever seen in my life. So many solo monsters. And so Cal it's crazy. I like every time I can name like probably 10 right now, but I mean, how did you guys do it because of SPG and aSpeaker 2 (14:27):Everyone wants to be down here. He got the best weather and beaches and stuff like that. True. I guessSpeaker 3 (14:34):If you are the best solar pro, you can choose any of her to live. You might as well as San Diego.Speaker 2 (14:40):Yeah. But no, that's really what it comes down to though is just be indifference and, you know, just having your own spin on things. Cause especially in competitive markets, I think that's the only way that you're getting cells is if you're different. Cause every door we go through, every homeowner we doctor, I mean, they've usually got multiple quotes. They've talked to multiple people. So if you don't know how to crush these objections, overcome them and be a true professional like you and you know, other guys are teaching. Um, I think it's going to really going to be really tough to succeed for sure. So I also, yeah, I wouldSpeaker 3 (15:11):Add one more thing is caring about the audience and caring about the homeowner. It goes hand in hand, like you can go ahead and like a lot of people I noticed like love training and they give awesome value, but then you don't, they don't get the engagement. And sometimes it's not because they don't have awesome training or some values because people don't like to be talked to or don't be like to be like, um, I don't know. I feel like you're in college and he's sitting at a place where he's just giving a training deal, like engagement, people care about what they care about. So that's why I feel like I really work because I listen to the audience. I really try to figure out what they want, what they're, what they're leading. And I even asked him, I'd be like, Hey guys, you know, give me some feedback. What do you like? What don't you like? And I would take that and I would really use that because at the end of the day, that's what I'm doing this for is the audience. Right. And that's where they gave his from. So really caring about the audience and that homo wonder solar is to me is like something that's so crucial. I don't think people really underrated individually how much we should really care about. Yeah,Speaker 2 (16:13):For sure. No, I love that too. And it's something I'm trying to do on the podcast is just ask people like what, what day would you like about the podcast? What don't you like can get feedback? And I know you try to do that in a group too. Um, I heard John Lee Dumas, you heard it, the entrepreneurs on fire podcast. It's one of the biggest like entrepreneurial business podcasts out there. And he still to this day, hops on phone calls with just like, you know, random listers and says, Hey, can I call you and just say, Hey, what do you like? What, what needs improvement on the show? So I think that's a key factor. Anyone that's trained to build an audience since even, you know, as you're trained to sell your homeowners. I think it's something we can do as solar salespeople. Hey, what did you like about the process? What didn't you like? And uh, yeah, that's something super important in just making improvements in our sales process. And as we're trained, both trying to build audiences to, um, add value to, for people we, I want to ask yes too. Yeah,Speaker 3 (17:08):Definitely. Yes. Like these guests are amazing and it's like, they give so much value. It's it got to be about them, what they can offer in one thing I want to make sure I add is like there's value from the most, the least experience for the most experienced, there is value to get from them. And I'm telling you like, even somebody who's like six months in a solo, like a Joelle gossip. I don't know if you know him from, uh, Miami. I mean, this guy is a beast and he's only six months, but he, because he's different. He's funny. He's outgoing, like, right. So like, to me, it's not always about like, oh, you're seven years experienced. I mean, you got to learn from you. Like, no, it's like, there's some people kind of right off the bat, like myself. I first month with a new company I worked at after solar city, I was a salesman of the month, the first month. Right. But I'd have to knock on any doors. I just walked into a closing always to be a lot easier. Right. So anyway, I don't know I was getting onto it. Yeah,Speaker 2 (18:06):That's good. No, that's a good point that, I mean, I've, I've been doing this five years. I, I know you've been in it forever. It happens all the time where I get people coming from alarms or other industries that like outsell me their first month. And I'm like, what the heck? I got five years. These guys are coming in, out selling me. ButSpeaker 3 (18:24):I think the solar industry is unique that way. And it really is because how many Indians you can, the person coming on the first day make as much money as the most experienced solar professional. There's not many cars out there called know nothing about solar and just be the best hustler and power bill getter and appointment setter. And not knowing anything about solar and make a hundred, $200,000 easily in today's platforms. Right. And like, you don't even need to know sellers to make money and sell the industry. And that's what I started to figure out. Yeah,Speaker 2 (18:58):No, that's super unique. Yeah. I mean, I'm on, I'm on a team right now where we have probably 30 ads on our team that just came from alarms like months ago. And they're used to being on the doors, you know, like 12 o'clock and knock until nine o'clock at night. So they're coming and they're like, oh, that's that same thing we do in solar. Right? Like they don't know any better. And here I am knocking mighty now like three, four hours a day thinking I'm going hard. These guys I'm going go on all day. Yeah.Speaker 3 (19:24):But then it is a numbers game, more doors. You're going to get more.Speaker 2 (19:29):Oh no. So it's like, no wonder these guys are out selling me so a hundred percent. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I wanted to ask you, Joe. Um, I know you've as you're coming up on your year anniversary with the group and everything, like what, what was the goal was you started the group initially. Did you like envision it growing to this point? Or what was your goal starting up the Facebook group?Speaker 3 (19:48):Well, zero expectancy. I don't expect anything. I hope for the best, but I always try to be genuine. I will always try to offer value, try to help. Um, a big influence on me is Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V um, not so much that I'm following him, but he gives me good feelings that I'm doing it. Right. Right. Like you don't have to make a thousand dollars on each person. You talk to, you just give value and things work out in the end. It's proven that that right there, because I'm not making money out of Facebook or I'm not, it's not like I'm monetizing it. Just try and get value. But I talked to like, I mean, so many people every day, right. I'm able to give advice and that's always comes with it. So give me, give me, give it value. Uh, be able to, um, I just feel like I'm able to do it.Speaker 3 (20:38):It's not, it's just hard to do that. So if you're in Facebook groups and you feel like you're the most engaging person and you have some good creative posts and you're out there doing it, you may be able to do your own Facebook group too. Right. So it's not hard. It's just about wanting to do it, making it like a hobby, doing it every weekend, taking a real, like making sure you're you care about the audience. Um, give value, give, be funny, be creative. Um, you know, being gay to get people down there, like it's not, it's not somebody gets a brain surgery. It's somebody you really want to believe you believe and to do it, you know? Yeah.Speaker 2 (21:11):No, that's, what's cool. I think we both know like the money in solar is like selling solar. Like I don't think you're gonna make more money anywhere. You can make someone waiting to be made. So it's like people that think we're making big money by me doing this podcast. Are you doing the Facebook groups? Like, no, we're not. I mean, that's not where the money is at and we're making the money in solar and solar ourselves. That's what I appreciate what we're doing. And what I'm trying to do too, is like, we're just trying to spread the value and um, you know, help others. And I've gotten, like you were saying earlier, I've gotten probably more value than anything. Like, I don't care necessarily if tons of people are listening to podcasts, but just by talking to guys like you, like, uh, you know, Mike, O'Donnell all the other high level people we've had on like Gary or Bible.Speaker 3 (21:59):I feel like if it was no audience at all, I could do that once a week and talk to these amazing solar pros alone. I'm getting value out of that. Right. I'm learning so much and I'm like a sponge, so I try to pick up and learn as much from everybody. So that's a great point. That's another thing why I value it too. I'm learning each week too.Speaker 2 (22:16):Yeah, I know. So it's so awesome to be able to do that, but yeah, I mean, with that being said, do you have any future plans for the Facebook group or, um, I don't know any, any exciting stuff coming up with that or what's your plan for the future with the Solar Objections group?Speaker 3 (22:31):I mean, it's kinda like, uh, you know, I guess I golfing on the weekend, what's your goal with golf in the weekend? Our goal is just to get better and better, have fun doing it and get more people that want to do. And with me, um, you know, like that's how I look at it. It's not, I'll look at it as like, oh, I'm going to take over the world. I'm like, I I'm having fun doing it. You guys want to join me too. Let's go. Um, but I also like the interactions, um, personally, like people don't know who I am, but now they feel like they know me better because they see me on video talking every day. So they feel like they message me. Hey, Joe, I got a question about this. Like I really do value that, uh, part of it too.Speaker 3 (23:06):So, um, I will just try to make sure people know more about that. We can do strategy sessions. We can talk, give advice, um, besides that not much, um, uh, I'm part owner and the solar academy now and, uh, awesome chief for there. So a big part of it is too is making sure that the training is out there in the industry. Um, I think you are a big believer in the same thing, right? Like third-party training is so important and that's what, I'm really a big believer. I'm not a big believer of recruiting for like a platform, like, uh, tools like EPC or solar company. Because I feel like just going to recruited you, you can be good at it, but you might just waste your time. And I do anything. I can't make you be good at solar. Right. But I can know that at all, for education training that you will not lose it, that that's going to be something you can take with you no matter where you go. And I know you can get the value out of it. Right. So that's why I feel like the recruiting, the training is where my natural instinct is towards. That's not to say that, but it's really about giving value, but also making sure that there's the people know there's another training there's trainings out there. Yeah.Speaker 2 (24:13):No, I love that. And yeah, I'm sure you would agree. But when we first started in the industry, it's like, it was so tough to get training from outside sources. It's like, do you learn from your manager? And that was about it. Right? So now it's so cool. What you're doing while other people are doing the current?Speaker 3 (24:26):Well, my first training was, uh, when I worked at that, you know what my first set of restraining was at the first company, um, one right alone, one, right. To run along. That was my, that was my solar training should not be happening. I think that's a good point to bring up. Um, is that like a lot of people want to go from doorknocker to closer, right? That's the natural instinct. You don't want to just go for, you know, you want to do it all. If you can do it and make more money. But at the end of the day, what's going to happen is that you're going to not have the right information, help that home monitor. And you're just trying to make more money. And that's where I think initially is missing, is a solar training, a closure training, right? Like that extra level of knowing what you're talking about, knowing how to explain things, not a design things, knowing what the roof looks like, knowing the different parts of the roof, knowing the electrical nine, a breaker box like this doesn't come naturally people to know that.Speaker 3 (25:23):And a lot of people would rely on the company to give a true training. But no matter what company you work out, it's not gonna be, it's gonna be their training, right. It's gonna be what's best for the company. What's best for the product. It's not gonna be what's best for them. And that's, to me, it's like, yes, no matter where you work, the reason why they don't want to train you then best possible is because you'll go, cause you have all this training and knowledge. Now you can just go use that, but I didn't want to train, like you ever heard them say like, I want you to know as little as possible. I want to keep, I know as little as possible. Right? I want you to be brainwashed. So what I do cause that's, that's how we're going to make the most money together. Right. And that's why I feel like I don't want personally, that was the little as possible. That's ridiculous. Right? Like why would you want somebody doesn't know anything? I want the person that as much as possible, I'm gonna help them level that off. Yeah.Speaker 2 (26:10):No, I love that. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Joe, I wanted to jump in, obviously you're the Solar Objection guy and that's what people know you as, and I know you've had, you know, tons of the best on your live streams. Um, just hearing what they say to overcome specific, specific objections. So I wanted to jump into a few of that. Give our listeners just some, uh, actionable things. They can do some, uh, you know, maybe some one-liners things like that. So, um, yeah. Is that okay with you? If we do some, uh, I don't know, a few objections, you can give us some highlights of what the best are out there to overcome some objections.Speaker 3 (26:45):Let's go, baby. I will. Well, you're not a homeowner, so I might not treat you like, just like a homeowner, but I'll do my best to answer the objection. Give them the lines that youSpeaker 2 (26:53):Okay. Cool. So yeah, let's, let's just do a few objections. Um, you know, let's, let's act like we're in the home and everything over overcome these objections. So, uh, Joe, um, yeah, you know, we've been looking into solar for awhile. Um, but yeah, we're moving probably in like three, four years. So we just don't think it's, you know, it might make sense for us. So that's, what's been holding us back.Speaker 3 (27:16):I totally understand. And you know, moving in three, four years, like people don't know exactly when they're going to move and if you're gonna move three, four years, they feel like you want to have this big star and then you have to change things. Let me ask you a question though. And the next three, four years, how much money do you think you're going to spend, but Tricity?Speaker 2 (27:35):Um, I dunno. I mean, I guess we're like 150 bucks a month right now. So, uh, what does that mean? It wasSpeaker 3 (27:42):About 1800, 1800 a year, right? Yeah. Um, and then over the next four years, you're looking about what $7,000 maybe increase rates. It could be eight to 10. Maybe if you got some crazier rate spikes, right. That money is being spent no matter what would you agree? So instead of throwing that money away, we can put it towards the solar system that you're going to be getting your money back. When you do sell your home. Now, the goal is to make sure you have the right advisor to make sure you get the right system at the right price to know that set up for you. So you don't have these crazy extra costs that should be associated with it. And also getting a real estate agent who's green certified to make sure they understand how to help you sell that solar system to have you have that, those two things you can be in. Good shape.Speaker 2 (28:29):Boom. There you go. Love it. Love it.Speaker 3 (28:34):Yeah. I don't understand is that they're spending money on electricity anyway, you know, and that's that's yeah,Speaker 2 (28:40):No, that's huge. Yeah. I love the, you know, renting versus owning comparison. And I think once people understand that it's like clicks in their head, for sure.Speaker 3 (28:49):Well, whenever they give me numbers specifically, I like to use that against them. And that's why you said that, like, if you said different words, I would've made, they'd done a different objection, but when they see numbers like that, then they had those numbers stuck in their head. And now you can really put that money in there. Cause they said it to you. They said four years. Right? So now you say, well, four years, that's $10,000. Do you want to throw that money away? Do you want to pay yourself? Right. So I try to use the what they're saying again. Yeah.Speaker 2 (29:15):Love it. Love it. Yeah. Powerful. Um, all right, let's do another one. How about um, yeah. You know what, Joe, I love this, but I just don't really want to have another loan. Like I dunno, we're trying to keep debt down. So we might just want to like save up until we can like buy a system and not have to like do alone.Speaker 3 (29:35):Well, you sound just like my wife. She said the same exact that's amazing. She's like, I would tell you she got two car loans. We got a mortgage and we have, she does not want any more loans such told me. But what I told her was that they were spending money either way. And if we're going to get alone, why don't we get the best loan possible? What's the best thing possible. But the loan that you make the most money on, right? So you can get more loans. That's making you a lot of money or would you stop getting load? Which keep getting more of those loans. More of them, I guess let's go, right? Like bones aren't bad. If you make money on loan, that's amazing. How many times can you borrow money and make money guaranteed? Yeah,Speaker 2 (30:15):That's true. That's true. Boom. We're doneSpeaker 3 (30:17):A car loan and then we'll fix it with a solar loan. How's that sound?Speaker 2 (30:21):That's dude. That's so funny. I know if people have like, you know, loans on their cars and RV outside and it's like on, at one another loan, it's like, are you kidding me? You have like three loans and now you don't want a loan. That's actually good. And kind of be like savingSpeaker 3 (30:36):You money. This is the thing. Sometimes I miss the wind or solar pro hill here, this the automatically go to PPA or leaves. I don't like allowing you can do that. I'm not seeing anything wrong with that. And I don't want to go with it. But sometimes the homeowner just doesn't understand how good the Sloan is. And then once they realize a good loan is then maybe PIP is not the best option for them. So I think we should really make sure Homeland knows how amazing these loans are. For sure. Especially if we do it right. Because if you do it wrong, it could be bad. Right. But I'm talking about the right advisor, give them the right option.Speaker 2 (31:07):Yeah, definitely. And so as you're getting so many objections and what you're hearing from other people, how do you recognize Joe? If people like have true objections or just, you know, just treat it as kind of an excuse. What do you look for as you're hearing homeowners to be able to kind of identify if this is okay, this is just kind of excuse, or this is like legit, objection, anything you lookSpeaker 3 (31:27):For, always listened to the homeowner. And I even tell him a joke. Like I have these big ears for a reason, it's to listen to you better. Right? Like I really, I really focused on trying to listen to them what they do. Um, but sometimes there is conditions and the more experienced you get as a solar pro, the more you find those conditions and tell the homeowner. No, but that's powerful. You want to be able to hold on, to know in a lot of situations and then maybe this would be able to towards the ambassador program or referral program. Um, but if they're in the right, uh, if they're not a condition, right. Everybody knows what condition is that there's no way to overcome that objection. Right? There's no, there's not objection. Right. But most of the cases are objections. So I feel like it's, to me, it's like, I'm going to a homeowner and offering them a $10,000 check that we get the split.Speaker 3 (32:13):As long as we both sign. Like, it's ridiculous for you to say, no, I understand. Right? Like you don't know me. You don't know whom, what you're signing. It's a lot of money like that feelings, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, it sounds great, but what's the catch what's going on. So I always try and make them feel like, yeah, I totally get it. I've been there. I don't, I'm not here to like sell you something. I'm here to give you options that you may not know. You're better aware that you're not, not be aware of. Great. If you don't want to do it. That's awesome. That's no problem. But at least you should know all your options. So you make the best decision for yourself and your family. Does that make sense? Yeah. Awkward silence is good too.Speaker 2 (32:55):Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, no, it's true. And yeah, I mean just straighten objections down and really listen to people. I think everyone appreciates that. And I mean, I, what I do is I write every objection down, you know, ask them do the fact-finding this beginning of the stage. And just the fact that you're writing it down and checking them off as you actually answer their concerns and objections. I see almost just like a weight lifted from people's shoulders as you're like overcoming the things that they told you and, you know, getting close to the cell. I think it's super powerful. Um,Speaker 3 (33:24):Okay. Right. Like they want to, they don't want to feel like this is the first around crazy question. Like this is normal. Like my wife just had the same thing I talked to her about. Like that's, that's makes no feel like, um, this is really happening in my own world and they can relate more. And like when they hear their wife complaining about the lungs, like, oh, that's a normal thing that people have to know. Talk about supposed to, based on that, like my conversation with my wife about going solar. And it was just based on that, just having that car was cause it does a real story. Right? Like I didn't make that up, but by my wife with a loan, that's a real story. And that's what really helps me have real genuine stories you can use to convey to the homeowners. Yeah.Speaker 2 (34:02):So powerful. They hear it from someone else's perspective. Okay. How about this one, Joe? Um, here, here's one we hear in California probably more than, than other states. Uh, yeah. You know what I like this seems like it makes sense, but um, yeah. You know, I should probably go, I know there's like a bunch of other companies out there, so can you leave that? Do you have a card? And then, um, I want to go get a few other quotes and then I'll get back to you, Joe.Speaker 3 (34:27):Yeah, of course. This is like what I do. Like I don't actually work for a company. I actually worked for the homeowner because I want to make sure that you're getting exactly what you need. So what I can do is help you with that. But if you want to do your own, of course, I'll let you do that. So what we can do is set up another appointment after you're done with your quotes. And what we're going to do is I'll show you my best option. So you know, all the options and you choose the one that makes the most sense. So when you think your last score you're going to get next week or maybe 10 days from now?Speaker 2 (34:54):Um, yeah, probably. Yeah. I mean, we want to get it done kind of quick. So maybe like two weeksSpeaker 3 (35:00):To me. It's no problem. So do you think you'd get all your quotes done within two weeks?Speaker 2 (35:04):Uh, yeah. That's yeah. That's fair.Speaker 3 (35:06):Okay. So can you do me one favor? Um, just don't sign with anyone yet just to make sure I can give you that last option before you make any final decision. Would that be fair? That's fair. Okay. So today is the ninth. I actually have the 15th or 16th available, which better for you?Speaker 2 (35:24):Um, let's go the 15th, I guess.Speaker 3 (35:27):Perfect morning. Afternoon, afternoon works. All right. 12 or two, a two o'clock boom. So what I did there was really focused on not trying to sell you right now anymore. Right? Like you don't want to tell the person, no, don't get caught right now. You can do that. Just doesn't work for me. Like everybody's personalities are different and you can do whatever is better for your personnel works for me, but that it would work for me in the past. And what works for you today? I tried to really listen to them and get their quotes. And when they do talk to me, I let them know why, what my option is and how it's different than theirs or they like it. Great. If not they chose the other one. I did everything I could to help close that one. Yeah.Speaker 2 (36:08):Got it. So yeah, something that I've seen too, Joe, I mean, obviously in California, what's annoying is sometimes people are just cutting margins, cutting margins, and then left with nothing. And then just that's what drives me nuts about people competing. Is they just to get the sell? They dropped their commission. I don't know, a hundred bucks a kilowatt maybe, or something basically make nothing to get the cell. So it's like, come on bill value and actually add some values that are just competing on price all the time. But, um, what do you do when you have, if you're, if you're, you know, closing like that, going back, like let's say you come back to the home and um, you know, they dropped their price a ton, like, okay, Joe, um, we got another quote. It's like 10 grand cheaper than you. So what do you do at that point? Do you, um, try to like build the value and do you have any stories of where you've still gotten this sell? Like, you know, selling a lot higher than other quotes that people haveSpeaker 3 (36:59):Gotten? Well, I'll not be $10,000. I to get 10,000, no, it always comes down to every boat is different and it's really conducted educating the homeowner. Right? Like if you don't let the homeowner know that saying I'm getting 18 panels, it doesn't mean anything. How many times have you heard that Taylor? Like, oh, I'm getting 18 panels. Yeah. That means nothing. It doesn't mean anything. So like, but solar post-talk talk like that with the homeowners. Yeah. You got 17 panels here. So they think that's normal talk and it's not right. And so educating the hallmarks and know why they're making their decisions on what financing option to choose, what solar panel choose, what inverter, the choosing, what, um, uh, other upgrades they may not know about like Mr. Homeowner. Um, I notice your roof, you're gonna have different parts of your roof. I think it'd be good to have Heidi conduit in the attic.Speaker 3 (37:58):Oh, you can do that. You know that it can really separate you from the competition and making sure they know the differences and just really educating, but also like before educating listening, a lot of times when we're solo consultants, we're so focused on selling what we have and I'm just like naturally against that. I'm always like trying to figure out what the homeowner wants. Um, and sometimes you can be missing a crucial part of the game. Um, so if somebody okay. For me, I'm a little different, I try to be different. And there's so many kinds of homeowners out there. So let's think of the worst kind of homeowner we can think of. Okay. We've a homeowner. He was on the phone. He's like, Hey, I don't want to deal with you. I don't want you to come over. Just send me your quote over the phone.Speaker 3 (38:41):I got 10 other folks. I know exactly what I want. I know how it works. I know everything it takes. Um, and I asked him, if you do go solar, do you have like friends and family neighbors? Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm a guy. Everybody knows. I'm the reason searcher. I'm a solo guy. You know everything about solar once. I guess everybody's gonna follow me now in that situation, a lot of people would just drop their drawers, give it everything well or say, I can't help you see you later. Right. We, I don't want to waste my time with you. Right. It's going to be one of the other. So what I do, I think approach as well. Do you want, I ask them a question like, so tell me, why do you want to buy solar? And they'll go over all the reasons why.Speaker 3 (39:25):And so then I asked him, why don't you want to sell solar? And then add that, then they'll try to give me the reason I like, well, that's not true. That's I start over and go me objectives for them to be a solar pro. Okay. Okay. Then I'm recruiting that homeowner to actually sell solar. Now we sell the objection to have like, oh, I don't know anything about solar. Well, I'm asking you to be very experienced advisor. I build to walk you through the whole process. Oh, I, I it's, I, I'm not gonna be able to get on a platform and take too long. Actually it takes one to two hours. You'd be ready to go. So it goes from like, what? I didn't know that now I'm completely different than everybody else. They talked to their siding on my team and they give them six or seven referrals. We're about to sign up. Well, that's crazy. Let's start by talking about the different people are going one direction, go the opposite direction. And that's where I really strive, like my, what my sales game. That'sSpeaker 2 (40:22):So powerful. And yeah, that's something I've learned from, uh, well you J solar academy for sure is just, um, you know, having a basic knowledge of actually like the technology and like panel upgrades, those things. Cause guess what? 99% probably of other salespeople don't know the technology. They don't know, uh, how to recognize if people are going to need it panel upgrade or not. They don't know how to, um, you know, tell if the roof is going to need work. So things like that, if you can take the homeowner out or Hey, Mr. Homeowner, did you actually see this on your panel? Do you see this about your roof? He recognized those things and the other people that are coming, uh, didn't recognize it. Guess who they're going to want to go with. They're going to want to go with the expert and the person that actually, you know, told them the truth about these things and recognize it before that happens.Speaker 3 (41:08):Yeah. Yeah. There's like two different kinds of sales grow. Right? There's going to be the one that's sales. So just focus on excitement, getting the soul, get the next stage. And then you had the techie guys who were just like, want to explain everything thoroughly, you know, the electricity and all the roofing, all that stuff. Right. What the, what the key part that's missing is the in-between connecting those two things. The solar academy to bring it to the table, brings to the industry. It's not one or the other, it's not having the knowledge sales savvy or combined with a tech savviness. And that's where you get a monster silver on the next level,Speaker 2 (41:44):A hundred percent. And so yeah, for our listeners, um, take the time to really, um, you know, learn the objections, go in Joe's group, listen to what other experts are saying. And then also learn the technology piece of it's learning how to be an expert, learn how to explain those things. And I like what you're saying about actually like, you know, recruiting homeowners to, um, sell for you and get your referrals.Speaker 3 (42:07):Um, that's something that think about this, right? Like the biggest players in the game, millionaires and solar have one thing in common to me, I've talked to all of them and I was looking at as many as I can. I mean, and one thing that all in common is that the referral masters, they are, the referral came to have homeowners lined up referrals. So I was thinking, wait, why not? Instead of making the homeowner sell a solar, why not get be a solar pro? And then, so I actually bought the domain that'll yourself, solar.com just because it was available. And I was like, that's perfect.Speaker 2 (42:43):That's sweet. Yeah. Cause I can imagine like sometimes, you know, you're pulling teeth to get people, to give you referrals. But if people are like, you know, if they're coming more from the mindset, oh, I want to sell solar. I want to actually be on the team. Then they're actually, they're going to be much more effective. I would imagining getting referrals,Speaker 3 (42:59):Right. This is the best part. Even the ones who were like, you know, I'm just going to do it, get my own solar system. That's it even they're like, this has happened to sweet email me. Like I know I wasn't going to sell, but I have a neighbor I was talking to about it. He wants to go sell their stuff. I might as well make the commission on it. So now he's actually sending another customer that not a referral because he's actually the solo pro on the deal that I get to split the commission with him.Speaker 3 (43:25):That's the thing, that's the thing I feel like what's missing is not, it's not like, oh, we need both two things. And then the stream is tools, which is like power or tighten or, you know, any price you can sell. So it from everybody use the tools, right. But you also need the training. Right. And then sometimes we'll get the order wrong. And I would say, it's like this, I know solar is not like being a doctor, but there is some similarities to it just because you're fixing things, helping homeowner out yet, you really have somebody in your hands that you're taking care of. So imagine a doctor who a person wants to become a doctor. Okay. Now they have a choice. They can either get all the best tools in the world and just right off the bat, or they could start with all the best training in the world. Now what you want is the doctor. The one who wants to be a doctor should go towards,Speaker 2 (44:17):Uh, the best training because you, can't notSpeaker 3 (44:23):Opposite in the solar industry. The tools we'll figure out how to use it later. Let's switch that let's reverse. Let's get the training out there. And then you will get the tool thatSpeaker 2 (44:34):It's like, I've got this drill. Not sure how to use it, but, uh, but it's the best one on the market.Speaker 3 (44:39):Open your mouth. It looks amazing though. That's awesome. That's a good point. How many people started working at a company? I started blasting that company. Oh, it starts. They can do on, and this is not going on. This is problem. And they started, they have one installed. They're working out the whole time and that's their experience. Maybe it wasn't the company's fault. It might've been the solar pro there. I know.Speaker 2 (45:04):I know. That's why. Yeah. Sometimes what drives me nuts sometimes in the industry is people just hunting for like the best read, buying the best pay. And they've only got like one install under their belt and they're already hunting for better pay. It's like, come on, man. You're going to go look for better pay. That has zero training. When you have zero install,Speaker 3 (45:24):This I've always been. Even when people are trying to run through the bottom of the red lines, I would always still be like, well, are they getting adequate? Like to me, everybody should get out of run. Or what happens is the breaker box. What happens if there's like, you have to ask, it's not just red lines and red lines. Plus does everything else work too? I knowSpeaker 2 (45:44):A hundred percent. Yeah. People forget about that. So yeah. Um, super good points, Joe. And I wanted to ask you as we're wrapping up here, how, uh, what's the craziest objections you've heard in your group? Any, any stand out over the past year? Crazy ones.Speaker 3 (46:01):I mean, there's so many like, um, crazy objections when the one that's like to me, there's two of them. That's really like, just mind blowing is real estate agents. Just to me, that's the, one of the biggest things hurting this whole industry is that misinformation and real estate agents and mortgage professionals are giving out to the industry and they think they know more than everybody else. Um, so that's the most, yeah. Most frustrating objection. And I get a little, the most amped up with because they act like they're so like nonchalant about it too. They're like, yeah, no, it doesn't add value. Just cause the other house wasn't worth the same. It's like now people are getting so that's to me is like the most frustrating. But also when, um, people call it solar, a scam, it's like, okay, that means you just like, you just no talking to you anymore. Right? Like I can't even have a conversation with you to me. That's the problem with like, when you have somebody, you came out conversation with like that's to me, like my goal, like this day in my life, it's just a good conversations all day long, like this one every day, all day. But I'm begging people. I'm not convincing people. I'm just like, if you're here to listen, I'm here to help. I'm here to talk to each other. So that's why I like respect. I get the respect that can have the conversation. Yeah.Speaker 2 (47:20):I know. That's a huge pet peeve of mine is when, like a third party, like a real estate agent. The other day I had someone's financial advisor, like all my financial advisor told me soar doesn't make sense. Okay. Do they even know what this is? They have solar themselves. Like, no,Speaker 3 (47:36):But maybe a lot of money. Yeah, no, no, no. They know what it is. They know exactly what it is. And that's what the problem is. Because if they take the money out to pay for the solar system, that's less money. They have to play with it. So why would they tell him, oh yeah, he has money. They're saying no, no, not at all. It's like asking a taxi company. How do I buy a car? No buying cars, bad idea. You shouldn't do that you should just call us tomorrow when you can get up, you know, like, well you ask me for advice.Speaker 2 (48:05):I know. So yeah, those guys. Yeah. They gotta be silenced somehow. I dunno if we got, gotta start a strike against them, but it's like stop losing those deals. If you're know financial advisor, real estate.Speaker 3 (48:17):Oh, we just need to teach them. We need to just educate them. I'm like, guys, I've been trying this for years. It's not working. I don't know what else we got to do. The problem is that people don't listen or don't want to listen. Aren't going to get trained. They're not going to learn. The first key to being a good student is to be coachable, to be ready to learn. If you're not ready to learn, you're not gonna learn anything. Yeah,Speaker 2 (48:39):I would agree for sure. Um, so Joe, um, I know we got to wrap up pretty soon here. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what you're doing with soar academy? I know you mentioned your, um, yeah. Working with them more now. You're this SI chief revenue officer. Is that right? Yes, sir. Okay. Let's go. And yeah, they're doing some pretty incredible things. I know you guys just had a little retreat in Vegas. Um, yeah, I was sad. I missed out on that. Looked like that. Freaking awesome. With good time out there.Speaker 3 (49:07):Um, yeah. Connections, great people. I learned a lot. I mean, lifelong connections. It's just crazy. How, when you spend time with somebody in person for a few days, you get to know that person completely different than just from clubhouse or from Facebook, you know?Speaker 2 (49:23):I know. Yeah. It looked fun. Did you guys end up doing the skydive and stuff? I saw that was part of it or something.Speaker 3 (49:29):Yeah. So skydiving is one of those things you have to pay plan for how much you gonna pay me to do that? Nothing. No, like why would I jump out of planes? Actually, it's a funny story. A homeowner was talking about side diving and he was like, oh, I love skydiver. I skydive all the time. I was like, I might be skydive, you know, in a few weeks. Um, and he was like, well, if you skydive, I'll make sure I'll definitely buy your deal from you. But like, okay, that's an occasion where I'm going to go scratch out because at least I'm getting something like that's where my mind was shifted. I was like, well, I can get paid to do this. Let me just read on this now.Speaker 2 (50:09):Nice. So when did you send him the picture of you in there then? And then he signed the next day?Speaker 3 (50:14):Yeah, no, he definitely goes to me after that, but still, well, you know what I would do is that in house skydiving? I don't know what that's called. Oh, theSpeaker 2 (50:24):Indoor skydiving. Yeah. That's yeah. That's fun.Speaker 3 (50:28):As long as my life is not at a risk, I'll definitelySpeaker 2 (50:31):For sure. Oh, cool. And so yeah, with solar academy, do you guys have a, I don't know anything exciting coming up with that or what's uh, what's your role with thoseSpeaker 3 (50:39):Guys now? It's been amazing. It's like, they haven't even launched before I joined and now we're actually launching and I'm getting so many people like asking me about it and how, how can I get, oh, what is it? What is this other guy to me? I was word. And I just explained it very simply. It's two really main things. We're going to have an awesome solar closer training. Okay. I'm going to be able to help companies add solar to the game or they can installer and add the sales part of their game. Like if you need help adding solar or getting to the next level, solar, get on a zoom with me, I'll be able to get you in the right direction.Speaker 2 (51:16):Yeah. So guys check out Solar academy, JKS solar, Joe, and they're doing awesome things with that. And then go join the group. Any anywhere else people can connect with you, uh, Joe or anywhere else. You want to point our listeners toSpeaker 3 (51:28):Everybody get on the Solar Objections, Facebook group. If you're in solar capacity, like at all, and you want to know what's going on in solar, who's talking to solar. You want them to see the solar trainees? You want to get valued content? Not just for me. Like I said, I tried to host it. Awesome. Solar froze like a lot of posts. I don't even say anything. And you get a 50, 60 golden nuggets. And these posts go through the Solar Objections group. And in that group, we have an awesome live stream every Wednesday at 4:00 PM, PST 7:00 PM EST. This week, we have an awesome solar pro. His name is Jake Wilson. I'm not sure if he gonna, is he going to be going into the future, but go back and check that one out. We'll give you about a solar refinance, but every Wednesday, 4:00 PM, PST check us out. We're going to be live with the different, new, awesome solar pro. And we're going to have our one year anniversary show on August 11th. Um, hopefully will be out by then August 11th, Brett Williams. The one that sparked the idea in the first place will be our one year anniversary guests. So definitely check out that live stream for sure. Let'sSpeaker 2 (52:33):Go. So guys go hop on the group. Um, yeah. Tell Solar Joe, you appreciate them for coming on the show today and then go join the yeah. Get on the live streams too. Um, what I've been starting to do is, you know, make a note in your phone or something, keep track of these one-liners. So you heard Solar, Joe overcome a ton of, you know, objections today, and then you're going to hear even more when you get in this group, keep track of the ones you like and start using them because I think that's what happens guys, get on these trainings and things like that. But if you're not actually, you know, writing down the ones you're going to use the one-liners the, um, you know, overcoming the objections, then you just forget about it. So that's the thing for hopping on these trainings, make sure you're actually utilizing and implementing the content that you're hearing. So Joey, appreciate you coming on. Um, any final words of advice or anything else that's helped you, you want to leave with our Solarpreneurs before we say goodbye here?Speaker 3 (53:25):Two things, man, like first thing I wanna really excited about Peru. Um, I mean, that's going to be skin some of the excitement over the silver academy and knock star, uh, uh, daddy pesty putting it together, man. And I'm so excited about going down there. Awesome. Solar pros are going to be taking, trying to build some, uh, orphanages or buildings for young youth, uh, any help out there. So that's really amazing and that's going to be later in the year. Um,Speaker 2 (53:51):That's the website for that? So do you know the websites?Speaker 3 (53:55):Um, solar back I think is one of them stood back. Um, so it goes back.com https://knockstargivesback.com/give-back I believe too. Um, but I'll make sure what that, you know, for sureSpeaker 2 (54:08):In the notes. Yeah, I think it's, yeah, https://knockstargivesback.com/give-back, but yeah, we'll put it in the show notes. You guys can go check that out.Speaker 3 (54:14):Awesome. And the last thing I say, guys, you know, I am open. I am here for advice. I'm here to help. I'm here to give value anything you need. Um, I offer a free strategy session. Uh, it's a zoom or a phone call and make a nice, easy to get, to just go to thesolar.academy. Can I get easier than that? Right. You get a free zoom with me and we get to talk shop. Uh, I'm not going to be salesy push in any direction they want to help you out. See what I can do to give you value. Just check it out, go to thesolar.academy, thesolar.academy.Speaker 2 (54:45):All right. So yeah, take advantage of that. I mean, how cool is that you get solar Joe himself offering to do a call and help you take yourself to the next level in the solar business. TaylorSpeaker 3 (54:55):Is the man. Everybody's awesome. Pretty such great guests. Uh, check it out. All the show is the one or Sullivan was amazing. I just, I just listened to Alan. Those are off the hook. You do great at these LGS. Great question. I really appreciate being on your man. Yeah,Speaker 2 (55:09):No, I love it. Yeah. And thanks for coming on. That's all we're trying to do is, you know, up-level ourselves hear from experts like yourself. So thanks again, Joe, we'll be connecting with you more and guys tell Joe, thanks for coming on today. And with that being said, and we'll talk to you soon, Mr. Solar, Joe,Speaker 1 (55:27):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

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. What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here. Hope you're doing andSpeaker 2 (00:45):Well, hope you are crushing it this summer. Can you believe we are already almost through this summer? So crazy. If you were behind in your goals, make sure you push even harder than you think. Cause I can't believe we're sitting at the end of July. As I record this episode here, I'm like, how did it get to be already more than halfway through the year? We got a bunch of summer reps that I'm working with here and they're going home and like two weeks now, like how did time go so quickly? So let that serve as a wake up call to you. If you were behind on your goals, light some fire under yourself and let's get rolling because summer months they're the best time. And depending on where you're at, it's probably, I guess, unless you're selling in, you know, Australia or other side of the world these summer months, that's when people are getting their high bills, they're running their AC and they're feeling the pain of the electricity.Speaker 2 (01:45):So make sure you use that to your advantage. So today's topic is going to be a little bit different. Yeah. I'm going to tell you right up front, we're going to be talking about Solciety. If you've been listened to the end of the episodes lately, you've likely heard about our program that actually just released, it's called Solciety. I'm going to be dropping you all the details about it, giving you all the scoop, all the information and hopefully getting you fired up to get on the platform. Because in my opinion, it's the best in the industry. You're going to want to be on it for sure. So tune in to the episode, if you want to hear about it, if you hate training, if you hate hearing how to get better. Well, first of all, probably don't even listen to. So we're pretty we're podcasts in general, but if you hate that stuff and you hate investing yourself, then don't listen to this episode because we're going to talk about why I think you should invest in yourself through Solciety.Speaker 2 (02:44):Before we get to that though, just wanted to thank everyone who has shared the episode, who is tagged me on social media, who has given us shout outs here at Solarpreneur. That is the best way that helps us reach more people is just by you guys, me and sharing it on social media, sending it to people who can benefit from the episodes we have. So want to thank you from the bottom of my heart that has helped us grow the podcast and let's launch it even further. And again, let me know if there's anything I can do to help you guys. I love my listeners, love the audience and I always want to be delivering content that is valuable. So if you hate it, let me know if things aren't helping, let me know. And let me know if you have suggestions for guests or for topics that we can discuss here on the show.Speaker 2 (03:39):So with that being said, let's dive right into this. So I'm going to tell you a little bit, the backstory behind Solciety, why we created it, what the goal is with it. And then I'll tell you all the features and why you should be getting in on it. It's a little backstory here. You've probably heard kind of when I got into the industry, it's been about little over five years, 2016. I started in Corona, California got recruited by Dalen Pan Kerry. He's been on the show here, one of my good friends. And when I first got in the industry, it was cool. I had a Dell and train in me, but at the same time, there are few things that I wish I would've had when I first started. And this is going to tie into Solciety here. So hear me out when I first started, um, we were in a house we had like, I dunno, 10 guys in that house, close to 10 guys, I think.Speaker 2 (04:36):And a lot of the guys, you know, typical partying, typical staying up late, just a bunch of dudes in the house. So that was my first problem. I was around people that maybe weren't the most focused on selling the environment. Wasn't the greatest cause yeah, there were two or three guys that were producing good numbers that were inspiring motivating, but there were a lot of guys that weren't doing very well. They're missing around, they're smoking their weed, drinking, all that stuff, and weren't getting that many cells. So I started to notice it brought me down as we're going to meetings. I saw guys weren't producing, weren't hitting numbers that they said they wanted to hit, like what is going on? I came from pest control. And so it was a little bit different pest control guys where they're grinding in super hard for the summer.Speaker 2 (05:30):So I started to notice my production went down as I was around people that weren't working as much. I let it affect me. And we've all heard that you're the average of the five people you surround yourself with. I definitely could attest to that because I saw my numbers go down. Every time I went in car groups with people that weren't working as hard, any time I started hanging out with them more than I should have. And I remember the first course I bought in door to door training at this time 2016 that I know of. There is basically no door-to-door training at all. So I bought a course. It was, uh, from Paul Shakuri. Maybe you guys have been in the door to door space awhile now might know this cat, but Paul Shakuri, he had a podcast called, um, what was it? Door to door mastery.Speaker 2 (06:22):I think it was called. And he talked about, he was in alarms. So I would go on, it lists this guy who would get all fired up and just talk about alarms. He wasn't even selling anymore, but he would just get on and you know, basically get everyone stoked. Actually may have him come on the show here. I hit him up one time. So let me know if you want to get him on the show. But, um, he hasn't done too much lately in the door to door space. I know, I don't think he keeps his podcasts going or anything, but I bought his course. It was called door-to-door mastery. And I started going through it. I think it was like 400 bucks. And I'm like, man, this is cool. A course that teaches out to sell more to door, to door and all that guys in my house, they kind of make fun of me.Speaker 2 (07:05):They're like, dude, you're paying money just to like, like just go out and knock. It's not that hard. We have training here. So a couple of guys were like ragging on me, thought it was funny that in the mornings I was just listening to this guy on this course. But bottom line is I felt like I wasn't getting the environment that I needed when I started. Okay. There were guys that were working as hard. And then the other thing was my managers at the time. Yeah, I was great. But a manager can only help you so much, right? Depending on how many guys are in the office, depending on how big your office is, you can only get so much help from the manager. Cause they've got gotta be helping a ton of different guys. So this brings me to what we've done with Solciety.Speaker 2 (07:51):This is basically the training platform I wish I had when I started out in solar because I talked about my problems and my big problem was is number one. I wasn't surrounded by people. I felt were bringing me up. Okay. I'm not saying that's everyone's problem, but to a degree, depending on which company you're in, what in your environment, and there's always going to be lazier people, there's going to be guys not producing. There's going to be guys that bring you down to a great degree, say, so it helps get around people that can bring you up. But this is what we're trying to do with Solciety is surround guys with the best of the best with people that do have that growth mindset with people that do want to improve with people that want to go out, role-play just pick each other's brain. And I know there's Facebook groups, things like this, but what we've done, um, we have access to a training app on Solciety.Speaker 2 (08:44):So it's an app where you can send direct video messages. Um, you can send screen recordings. Um, chat basically does it all. So it's an app. We have exclusive the Solciety members and the goal is that everyone can be on their training together, competing against each other and just really surrounding yourself with the best with the people that do actually want to improve. And so that way, if you are maybe in an environment where it's not the greatest or actually talk to, um, one of our future coach clients today, um, he was just riding completely solo. So some guys are doing that too. So even more if you are alone or if you're in an environment where maybe it's not the greatest, you need to get on Solciety, okay. Cause this is what we're going to do. You're competing. It's other people you're interacting. We have video chat, we have people in there, um, talking and brainstorming, how can we improve?Speaker 2 (09:43):This is the first thing that I felt was super important. I looked back and I said, what the guys need? What did I not have when I started? And this was, I think one of the best features that we could think of as we were planning out the training platform Solciety. So that's the first thing. The second thing is just the training in general. A the other problem I had, um, even further along as I was selling solar more is I would buy these courses. There's always another course, right? Always someone else to learn from. And um, if you haven't heard the thought process be saying Solciety, we actually [email protected]. A lot of you have heard of it. It's where they take the best of the best and get them in the pot form. Right? So masterclass, it has like Steph Curry teach him basketball.Speaker 2 (10:34):It has, um, I'd have to go look, but I dunno, Serena Williams on there. I don't know, be the best in the business though. Some of the best they're teaching their specific skill skill and they're condensing it so you can learn it from that person. Who's the very best. So that's the goal of Solciety is you can get on there and you can learn from the best. Okay. So we have guys like Earl Kapule who is gratitude mindset, and we feel has really mastered the, the mindset you need to have as you're knocking doors. And as you're closing deals that we have Taylor McCarthy Knock Star himself, who is on their teaching, um, just his process to getting more leads and closing more deals, who, in my opinion is one of the best trainers for sure, in the solar space right now. And we have guys like Jay KES, who is w I've I can credit a lot of the technical technical side of soar.Speaker 2 (11:30):I've learned from him. He does great sales trainees too. And he hates it when I call him just the technical solar guy. But we have him on there with this content about roofs and kind of more of the technical aspect. And then as you've heard in some of the previous episodes, we have James who has come on, James sorter, ski, who, um, isn't selling actively in solar, but he is, um, really great around Dawn, my marketing and the follow-up, the Legion, and then just the cells in general. So, and then we're constantly adding more coaches in there, more trainings. So it's what I wish I had is because we can take all these people that are super great at their one individual skill. And we can have them all in one platform. And the other side of this is it's not a training course where you go log in and you sit through videos and you have to remember your logging and you have to, you know, get yourself to logging in every day.Speaker 2 (12:28):The key thing we want to with Solciety is we thought, how can we make it most likely, so guys are going to actually log in. So guys don't forget their log-ins. So they're motivated to log in at the end of the day, they're still going to require you to, you know, go click a button, take action. But what we did with this, we just put it all in out format. Okay. So it's an actual mobile app. You download no more remembering. Log-ins no more needing to go to a specific, you know, website on your computer, on your iPad, on your phone. It's just all on an app. Okay. So what that means for you is you can be sitting on the toilet. You can be driving in a car, okay, don't do it probably while you're driving, but you can be literally anywhere where there is service and you can be taken in that content without needing to remember your log-in.Speaker 2 (13:18):Cause you just click the app and boom, it's right in front of you. And instead of having it be the typical course where you need to watch the videos and do all those shenanigans, what we've done is we've gave him a fight it. So the app is game-based more than anything. So you log in there, you play the games and the videos, the course videos, that's just kind of the side content. Hey, what if you hate watching videos? What if that's boring? Just go through the quizzes and the games. This is what we've done on Solciety. So we've made it more game focused because that is how people learn. Okay. I go back to my college days. I know a lot of our, a lot of us, solar salespeople, a lot of us didn't go to college. Maybe, maybe some of us only went to some college, but the best way to learn.Speaker 2 (14:05):I remember this is one of the first things they taught in Southern new dire university. I was required to take basically a how to succeed in college course. This is probably the one thing I remember from that class is that the best way to learn is from quizzing yourself. It's not from reading textbooks. It's not from, um, I don't know, listening things is from quizzing yourself. It's called active learning. So we've taken that same concept. We're applying it to solar because solar skills, they need active learning. All these courses, watching videos. That's only going to do so much, but how are you actually taking in the material? How are you learning it yourself? Okay. And these podcasts are great too, and appreciate people for listening, but really to take the content, taking the material the best possible way you need to be quizzing yourself. You need to be interacting with others and you need to have this gamification because that is how you actually take in the content.Speaker 2 (15:02):And that's going to give you the best shot at applying it. So that's just a little preview Solciety. That's what we're doing with the app. Okay. But we, what we really want you to do, if you feel you can benefit from this, go check it out on the website, book a call. The thing about it. It's guys it's ridiculously cheap. We didn't want price to hold back. Anyone, whether you're a beginner or advanced in the industry, we're talking 97 bucks a month. Okay. And this is at the time I'm recording this. So it is for sure growing up. Okay. But we just launched it. We want to get as many people in, in benefiting as possible. So everyone that gets in they're going to be grandfathered in at this 97 bucks a month. But bottom line is it is going to increase in price. As we get more people on.Speaker 2 (15:49):This is our founding member. We call it the George Washington, founding father, special Solarpreneur discount. That's what we're giving you. So go get on it, get on that price before it goes up. Hey, and that is just the base Solciety membership. Okay. We're not even talking about the other tiers of Solciety that we have, but if you're hesitating, get on that. Okay. Try it out guarantee. It's gonna, they help you. If you go in there and apply the material and interact with people in the video chat, exclusive app we're using. Hmm. Then the second tier of it, we'll probably do another episode, but it's just the actual coaching piece. Okay. We have it's called Solciety, inner circle coaching. You're going to get access to the training app, of course. But then you're also going to get one-on-one access, coaching with myself. You're going to get direct access to the community.Speaker 2 (16:47):Um, you're going to get put, it's called a Solciety pod to where we place you in a group where everyone's holding each other super accountable. So it's basically just another level of accountability and another level of exclusivity where you're going to get direct access to me 24 7 access video chats. You can, don't be sending me anything appropriate, but we are going to get you. Crane can deals and it comes with a performance guarantee. Okay. So let's just a little preview. Wanted to make sure people knew what's going on with Solciety. So guys go check it out. If anything, let me know what you think of it. Okay. Um, and go check it out. Get on there. Tell your team about it. We also have enterprise packages. So if you want a Solciety for your team where we can potentially out on your content, um, in your trainings on the app, hit us up, we've got calls.Speaker 2 (17:42):You can go schedule a call and we can, um, get your team access. So again, go to solciety.com that's S O L C I E T Y. For all those that struggle with spelling, go check it out, let us know what you think. And really we, we just want people to up level. Okay. And I believe, I truly believe that this is how we can all Uplevel. It's what I was missing when I started in solar. So hope to see you on there. Hope you enjoy it. And with that said, we will see you on the next show. The next show, we have an awesome interview, actually coming up with Mr. Uh, Solar Objections, Solar Joe. Um, if you're in solar, you're probably already in this Facebook group called Solar Objections, but that's going to be next episode. So don't miss out. Let us know what your thought and we'll see you on Solciety. Peace.Speaker 3 (18:37):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:01):Hey, Solarpreneurs. What's up. Taylor here just wanted to give you a quick intro to this episode. It's going to be James Swidersky on, and he's doing a little series on how we're implementing trainings for companies that would like to uplevel their sales trainings. As many of you may know, we launched our new Solciety training app were already getting great results with it. So James is going to talk about a few things that we're able to implement within the app and ways we're getting great results, whether you're on Solciety or not. You can go and implement these things today, but you can also go and book a demo at Solciety.co. So hope you enjoy the episode and we'll see you on the inside.Speaker 2 (00:45):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 3 (01:25):Solarpreneurs. What is going on? My name is James Swidersky. And for those of you guys who don't know me, go back a few episodes for the intro. I don't want to bore you guys to death. I just want to dive right into the content today here. And I want to talk about how to hold your reps accountable. Now this is going to be primarily forward business owners, VPs directors, managers, on how to hold your reps accountable, get them motivated, and specifically my four step formula on how to do this. Just an absolutely killer formula on how to cut through the BS. Cut through excuses of, oh, I'm working 60 hours a week. I don't know. What's not working. Uh, oh, I swear. I'm putting a numbers. I'm working really hard. It's going to cut through all of that crap and just get straight transparency on the performance of each rep.Speaker 3 (02:10):So you can make critical training and hiring decisions on a regular basis to scale your company. Have you enjoyed that type of content? You know exactly what to do. So let's go ahead and dive right into it. What is the formula to hold reps accountable? First thing I like to do is identify my activities. That reps are supposed to be performing on a daily basis. You'd be very surprised how many companies don't have this clearly communicated within their organization. The best way I used to do this and currently do this with my team at epic as well. Although not solar, it's the same thing. And I learned how to do this in solar is I actually have flat screen monitors up in the office where we are projecting everybody's metrics. It is just a naked organization with metrics and metrics. I see every single as it's scrolling through how many appointments they've set, leads, calls, call time presentations, their close rate, everything transparent.Speaker 3 (03:08):The entire company can see what's going on. The entire company could see what kind of numbers we're doing as an organization. What's our revenue look like, right? What's our deal, uh, install rate. They see everything. Transparency is absolutely key here. Now that's just kind of a bonus, but we want to identify the activities that reps perform. So it's probably going to be a nine times out of 10 door knocking appointment setting, right? Presentations, okay. Follow up activities. And usually some type of referral activity, right? These are going to be customized for your business, map out your entire process, what activities they should do on a regular basis. We're going to play out an example, an amendment a minute. So you'll get some ideas from that step. Number two in this formula, identify how long it actually takes to do the activity. Okay. Again, this is, this is where it starts getting real spicy.Speaker 3 (04:03):Cause nobody does this and knows how long it takes. Go ask your reps individually. How long does it take to do an appointment? You're going to hear 40 minutes. You're going to hear two hours. You're going to hear it. Hour and half, right? You need to come to a conclusion what that average time is. All right. So you're going to ask all of your reps, do a survey, do whatever you got to do. Get the numbers, average amount, how long it actually takes to do what they do. Right? Sending out a proposal, adjusting a bid, right? How long does it take to adjust in a bid? 20 minutes, 30 minutes. How long does it take to send out a follow-up email? You got to get every activity on the board, mapped out. Okay. Step number two, three, take your results from last month for each rep.Speaker 3 (04:49):So you're going to actually go through this process with your reps on a one-on-one meeting. And you're going to take the results from their previous month, not like the previous week or days, cause that's not enough and more than a month too much. One month is going to give you a real good grasp of a rep's performance. This is also going to cut out all of those guys who were top producers a year ago and they haven't sold anything in three or four months. This is going to shine the light on that. Here's the deal. If you're a guys and you're hanging on and paying out payroll or uh, whatever, some kind of base salary or something rewarding guys and incentivizing guys who are not producing, you gotta cut that out ASAP. Okay? Only incentivize guys who produce results. Period. Cut the base commissions, cut the salaries, cut all that crap fire the lot, get rid of the old veterans who have been in the industry and who are just riding comfortable for 10 years.Speaker 3 (05:48):They are ruining your culture. They are bad apples in the barrel. Cut them out, get some fresh new young blood boom, rock and roll. Right. Again. I don't expect many of you guys to apply that because again, you've got to be willing to take a few steps back to go forward over the next several years. There's very few companies who are willing to do that. I know I'm sounding aggressive with this straight forward. I just really sick of seeing it. It's a super common thing in the industry. Any industry for that matter, you have to be willing to make some temporary sacrifices. If you want to grow okay. If you don't want to grow, I respect it. Right? Don't complain about your situation. If that's the case. All right. I'm off my soap box now. So take your results from last month for each rep.Speaker 3 (06:32):Hey Taylor, you close 10 deals. Last month you did 20 appointments. You did 500 doors knocked, whatever it is, right. Make sure they agree with their results when you're talking to them. Okay. And then next and the last part here is simply calculate how long they actually worked. All right. So let's play out an example. Let's say that a rep closed 10 accounts last month. And for math purposes, I know this is a small commission, math purposes. He made a thousand dollars per deal. He made 10 grand in commissions, right? Awesome. 10 grand. What activities made up those 10 accounts? Well, he had to go prospect and knock doors. It takes him about 30 minutes of knocking doors to get an appointment. We know how long it takes. Cool. 30 minutes equal and appointment. All right. Let's say he has a 50% close rate. He's just like on the ball.Speaker 3 (07:25):Okay. And it takes him 90 minutes driving to the appointment, having the appointment, following up at the appointment, it takes them 90 minutes to do a presentation. Okay. And he closes 50% of his presentations. And then let's say it takes him about half an hour to send out a proposal on a bid. All right. It takes 30 minutes to do a proposal, a bid. Um, that's not just the deals he closed the followup deals. And then let's say he takes about 40 minutes per account, total to close a deal. So 40 minutes of following up with calls, emails, texts, that is about what it takes to close one deal. All right. So after you map out each activity, how long it takes all of that jazz, right? You're going to come to the conclusion of the monthly results. You're going to find evicts example. Now he spent 30 hours running appointments for the month.Speaker 3 (08:17):He spent 10 hours setting appointments in the month, right? 10 hours sending proposals for the month and 6.6 hours following up for a grand total of 56.6 hours of work for the month. All right. Monthly, not weekly. And what you're going to find is most of your guys who say they're working their tail off, they're working like 15, 20 hours a month. When you do this math, I just did math for a guy who closes 10 deals a month. How many of your reps close 10? Right. Super rare. Right? You're doing pretty well. If you have a lot of 10 rep 10 deal reps, right? Most of your guys are going to be working like 15, 20 deals. I'm at 20 hours a month. Right. And what happens is for the first time with these guys, they're going to realize that they're full of.Speaker 3 (09:09):Pardon? My French. Right? They're just full of it. Right? They've been lying to themselves and you're going to find, your guys are just like, oh crap, you can't argue this. You can not argue this. And the way you make sure your reps are on page with this is you just make sure they agree with every number. So if they say it takes 90 minutes, do the math with them in front of them. For the 90 minutes. If they say they take 30 minutes to close an appointment or a 60 hours or whatever, it doesn't matter. The close rate is a hundred percent. Do the math with them on their level. Trust me. It doesn't matter how you do the math. It's always going to highlight and expose how little they actually work. And you can have a Frank conversation at this point. Now that the numbers are out in thin air, it could say, John, you wonder why you're making seven grand a month.Speaker 3 (09:59):Closing two deals a month. You're working 15 hours a month, right? What are we going to do about that? What can I help you with as your manager, your VP, or director, your CEO, whoever, what can I help you with to increase those numbers, right? What do you need help with? Do we need to hold these kinds of meetings on a weekly basis? What do we need? And have those conversations and make real decisions. The problem is it's difficult to make hiring recruiting or firing decisions or training decisions or whatever. If you don't have proper data. Okay? I preach a lot about data. The last couple of episodes, data's king, it's everything tracking is everything. That's the only reason I had two failed solar companies before starting my first successful one was purely because of tracking. All right? I had to learn the hard way.Speaker 3 (10:49):Do not do the same mistake that I did. And many others do start tracking. These things. Use this formula with each one of your reps, use this formula with yourself, with your activities, your daily pipeline, right? Whatever you're doing, this is the magic formula. So guys, that is it. That's how hold your reps accountable. It's a no BS straightforward way. It's how to hold yourself accountable. And I hope it serves you guys. Well, if you like that type of content, keep tuning in to, uh, this series I'm doing, I'm going to be dropping to fire for company owners. I know I'm calling my own stuff, my, my own stuff, fire, but I don't see anybody talking about it. So I gotta, I gotta call what it is. Right? All right. Well, it's been real guys. My name's James Swidersky and I'll see you in the next video.Speaker 4 (11:38):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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. What's up Solarpreneurs!Speaker 2 (00:41):We're back with another exciting episode and we have a special guest on today. Come on from the heat of Las Vegas, the summer heat. We got the man Mikey Lucas on Mikey. Thanks for coming on the show with us today.Speaker 3 (00:56):Yeah, dude. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah,Speaker 2 (00:58):It's my pleasure. And we were lucky enough to have him out in San Diego, hanging out with us live in the studio. He had normally he's in Vegas, but yeah, I don't know how you survive that heat man is a feeling good. The San Diego weather, like it. It's unbelievableSpeaker 3 (01:11):Dude, on the beach like two days ago. And I was like, I miss this.Speaker 2 (01:15):I know, right? Yeah. Tough to leave here. Um, yeah. I don't know how you guys do it knocking in Vegas, butSpeaker 3 (01:22):Stay hydrated.Speaker 2 (01:24):Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I got mad respect for you guys out there working in Vegas. I know you've been in this, uh, quite a long time. Mike, you're one of the vets for sure of the industry. Do you want to tell us a little bit how you got into solar and um, how you ended up in Vegas? All that good stuff. Yeah.Speaker 3 (01:39):Yeah. That's why I got recruited, um, by a, a alarm company, um, back in 2013, um, started out in Baltimore and then went to DC and then Fort Lauderdale, Miami, um, I wasn't really sold on the fact of like door to door. I didn't know it was this big of an industry. I had no really clue at that point. Um, they, the guys that recruited me originally and were like, yeah, like you can come out and make like, you know, 60, 70 grand, a hundred grand, whatever in a summer. And I was like, oh, well, the restaurant that I worked at was really slowed in the summer and school was out during the summer. So let me ask my restaurant to see if they'll let me go. And I did. And they were like, yeah, you can, you can leave and come back. And I was like done sweet.Speaker 3 (02:21):I was like, Hey, like, would it make sense for me to let them get more hours? I'm like the rookie at the restaurant, you know, 20 years old, 21 years old. And uh, they're like, yeah, that's totally fine. Like no big deal. Like you're going to go do your thing. And I was like, yeah, I'll come back for busy season for conventions at the restaurants in Vegas, on the strip. And, uh, yeah, went out. Um, absolutely got crushed my first, like three weeks, um, in, uh, in Baltimore walking those massive stairs, but uh, selling alarm systems and it was, you know, it was, there's some good crime out there. So like, you know, people were buying alarm systems, but then I knocked into, uh, two different ladies, uh, in DC at that time, which is just like just, you know, around the corner Baltimore. So, um, I saw, I saw a yard sign out and I was like, you know, our house is powered by the sun or installed for free or whatever, zero down kind of concept.Speaker 3 (03:07):And I was like, oh, that's really cool. Like I saw solar like once or twice back home in Vegas when I was growing up. And I was like, that's really cool, but it's really expensive. And then, uh, I asked, I was like, Hey, like, can you tell me a little bit about your, your solar system? And the lady was like, not having it. She had solar city and she was like, not having it something. And anyway, no, she liked to solar, but she's not having me asking her questions. Okay, gotcha. No, she loved her solar, but so yeah. It's like when you pay money for it and it's, it's cheaper. And I was like, okay, awesome, sweet. Yeah. Like, you know, I was like not having a good day selling alarms. I'd probably, that's like, you know, had one at the time, but I had to go get a second or third deal.Speaker 3 (03:42):So I just kept knocking. I was like, let me just talk to somebody. I haven't talked to them in a while. And then it was, I took over and they have an alarm system that had been solar on it in DC. And after I sold it, um, I was like, Hey, like, can you tell me a little bit about this like solar system and? They were like, oh yeah, it was this, this, this like helped out. We didn't, you know, it was like either a lease or PPA. So like, yeah, we didn't have to put any money in our pocket. And we're, you know, our rates only going up 2.9% and yeah. You know, and, uh, you know, we got a lower rate and you know, the rates were higher out there. So like they dropped it significantly. You'll see, you know, big savings or whatever.Speaker 3 (04:13):And it's like, wow, that's awesome. I asked my manager, George. And he was like, yeah, this is not what we're doing. Like we're doing alarm systems, solar take too long, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, no, like George, this is what it is like we're having people pay $70 a month. They're saving $70 a month without paying anything. So we should do this. And he's like, no, David, we're not, it takes too long. And I don't know, this is, you know, going on 20, not 20 years ago, this is almost 10 years ago now. And at that time, solar was not a big thing. So after that summer, I came home, got back in the restaurant, uh, Gordon Ramsay steak, and, um, wanted to sell, sell door to door. And at that point it was like, Hey, like, can I sell and see, you know, alarms and soul in, in, in Vegas. And they were like, yeah, we actually have an alarm solar office in Vegas. I was like, perfect. So I got into solar at that time. And, uh, I think it was 20. Got, I got 2013 or 2014 started selling then, and then moved in with solar city. After I lost a bunch of deals to solar city, I was at can't beat them, join them. So I went and got paid solar men and wages, solar city for like two and a half, three years.Speaker 2 (05:15):There you go. It's been a long time. Well, now you are, I guess, off the mic. We were talking about this. We had like a 30 minute conversation on every single origin of as a solar history. So we'll keep it, that can meant a little bit condensed version for the podcast, but you can go hit Mikey up for every last detail if you want. But yeah, I guess the, to cut this long story short, basically now you're in Vegas. You have your own a dealer with Titan that right? Yup. Okay. What 40, 47 reps you said? No, we're good.Speaker 3 (05:46):Yeah. So we, we actually just got acquired. So I sold the company, um, a couple of a couple companies actually split from it. So we sold a couple of them off. Um, got acquired by a larger company. That's like 10 times larger than this. Um, and now I'm consulting for the company. So I don't actually work for the company, but I, but now I'm a consultant for that company. So there's, there's not just not just me going out and just selling, but now I'm consulting because they don't just own one company. They own, it's like mark Cuban of the companies. Like they own all these smaller dealers like me, but I'm just, you know, peanuts, but they want, they thought that I was the best for, you know, how to teach and sell solar, you know, work for Sam tiger fell a little bit time that I was doing that and got some experience there. I was like, oh, coaching is what I do is what I like. I'm not Michael Jordan, but Phil Jackson. Yeah. I cannot be the best at hitting the three point at, you know, the law on the buzzer beater, but I can teach the team on how to get to that point. So I was like, okay, so that's what I'm doing now. Okay.Speaker 2 (06:38):So you can solve for the entire, like all their different areas. Yeah.Speaker 3 (06:43):Yeah. And then I've got a couple of clients that I still work with on the side. I'm not on the side of them with them, but you know, uh, aside from that, I would say within that contract, but, um, yeah, I'm going for going for a, to be at the largest solar consultant pay $2 million a year, which is what I'm actually like, that's what I'm going for right now. Like there's certain metrics I have to hit and that's, I'll be a consultant being paid $2 million a year. So I'm pretty excited about that. Let's doSpeaker 2 (07:08):It. Yeah. That's awesome. And yeah, what's really cool about Mikey. Um, everyone needs to be following them on Instagram. You got, um, I get some great, you know, nuggets just from following you, so appreciate you all the content you share on that. Thank you. But, uh, yeah, I know guys learned a ton from you and, um, you've coached a lot of reps, like you said, you've, we're consulting with door to door experts, Sam Taggart, um, own multiple businesses. You have, it seems like you get your hands in. Almost every business you can think of. He does it all. And we'll talk more about that here in a minute. Um, but yeah, for solar reps, I guess, what is it that draws you to just the coaching side of it? What made you realize that you wanted to be more than just the coach instead of necessarily like, you know, selling a time? What, what draws you to the more of the coaching consulting Mickey?Speaker 3 (07:52):So at solar city, um, I was never in the top 20% and then the top 20%, then you had to be selling, you know, 18 deals or more at that time. Like if you're not selling that many deals, you're not in the top 20% of the whole company. So I was still selling an average of like 11 or 12 deals a month, but I wasn't in the top 20%, but the top 200% guys always got more attention. And so it was kind of cool. Cause I was like the college kid in high college football college baseball that had a fight for the, to get up, to get to pros. And to me that top 20% going to the trips or Hawaii and whatever. Right. Um, that was pros for me. I was like, Hey, I want to be around the John. Frampton's the Taylor McCarthy's I want to be around these top guys.Speaker 3 (08:30):I, um, you know, court Reynolds and guys like that. And Elon Musk, like I want to be around these guys. Um, I, I really never was. So I had to figure out how to get to that point. So I have a, I have a soft, I have a soft spot in my heart for the guys that are the 21 to 40% company. So we can get those guys, the ones that actually have the drive. Those are the ones that actually stay a lot longer in the, because they still have to fight to make it. And they don't, you know, that you can't just rely on, you know, their good looks like they have to actually get better at it. Like I wasn't a natural born salesman. I wasn't naturally like I'm an introverted extrovert. I'm not really, it's not my favorite thing to do is go speak on stage even though I do.Speaker 3 (09:12):It's not my favorite thing to do, to speak in front of a office of 120 people. I don't, I'm not like this is, I'm so excited. I'm like freaking out sweating, sweat and doing that. But, um, yeah, just, just to help the, the 40 to 21%, which then helps all companies in all offices, in all owners out. Because if you can get those guys there, they'll stick around and there'll be loyal. So yeah, the goal was really to help the 40 to 21%. And that was the guys that actually wanted it to be there. The other guys you see, like, for instance, like yourself, probably even like, you're not alone ranger, but like, you know, a lone Wolf, but like you, you almost, you don't want to put bumpers on guys like that. You gotta let them run. Right. And then helping them find out like through person development, I've been sober now from a synthetic heroin for it's like going on nine years now. So I've had to through personal development, find out how to get better. And then that rolls over into, you know, the person development side of like getting better at not just, you know, not just going out and making money, but being a person of value. So figuring out how to do that and helping guys find what their, why is, what their passion is and you know, how, how we're going to actually change the world. I'm that weird kid that thinks I'm going to change the world. And I actually like got it. OnesSpeaker 2 (10:25):That are crazy enough to think that usually are the ones that change itSpeaker 3 (10:29):Day. I was like, dude, that's Steve jobs. I, didn't no idea. I'm like, yeah. I'm like the guy that I really think I can change the world.Speaker 2 (10:39):That's awesome. But no, I love that because I can relate a ton. Cause I've never been like, you know, that top I've always been, you know, one of the top, but I know for sure there's guys slinging more deals than I am. And that was like, basically the reason I started the podcast is just to be around that. Like you said, a lot of times, if you're not the top guy, then it's tough to get around those guys. So that's what I'm trying to change in the industry. Like Cal can we get around these top producers and learn from them and help the guys that aren't like the natural born salesman? Like I know for sure. I'm not in, that's cool to hear. We can really on that. But yeah. Another big thing you mentioned that I love is just like, there's so many guys struggling with external factors in this industry.Speaker 2 (11:16):That's holding them back. He talked about overcoming like addiction, heroin, all that. I see it so many times where that's like guys are addicted to different things in the industry. There's guys, you know, drugs, pornography, all types of different things that guys are just seeing that holds them back from having success in sales, in different things in our industry. And I love hearing guys that have overcome those things because it's a huge problem. Any guy I think, um, I mean, I'm sure you've seen a lot of guys have like add and the industry ADHD, we all want to like change stuff for all, you know, in different business ventures and stuff. I know you're in 20 different things, so it's like, how can we help guys, um, get better, maintain the focus and really get rid of these distractions and things that are holding them back. So yeah, I really just respect that, that you're trying to help, um, guys out. And so, um, I know you're consulting training right now and I want to talk about kind of shift gears. You're in quite a few different masterminds yourself. Um, we're talking about that off the mic here or off the recording. Um, so right now, how many different masterminds are you in McGee?Speaker 3 (12:22):A four. Okay. Or 5, 5, 5.Speaker 2 (12:28):See, okay. Um, so howSpeaker 3 (12:31):Plus I'm being coached by two different people right now. Oh yeah. Yeah. High performance coaches.Speaker 2 (12:35):Okay. So yeah. Yeah. That's about as many masterminds and coaches you can have at one time. Um, so how have you, I guess, how have you benefited from all these masterminds and I guess w what's the importance of those in your life? It was even gone through them.Speaker 3 (12:49):The main thing, the main, like the main, main thing that I needed was I'm not the type of person where I'm like, Hey, I want to, I, I get value. This is not me. I, I don't get value from being the smartest best looking most, uh, you know, wealthy person in the room have the nicest, I don't get value from people saying, wow, Mikey Lucas is here. Oh my God. Like, I'm like, no, like I'm just a normal person, dude. Like grew up in normal Las Vegas. Like my dad's still, my family still has our 91 RV. Like we're not special. Like we just, like, I don't get value from people being like, wow, Mikey, I mean, that happens. But like, I don't, that's not my thing. I'm not like, oh, wow, that's all I get. You know? Um, if I didn't have that and I'd think less of myself, right.Speaker 3 (13:37):I wanted to be, but I was, I was continuing to be in that position where I was always the largest fish in the room, the biggest fish in the pond. And I'm like, I gotta be uncomfortable and get into a bigger fish ponds, bigger rivers, bigger oceans. And the only way to do that was to be in a mastermind. So I got, um, invited into thrive with colehatter pass through the interview process. And it was the most uncomfortable thing in the world because I was like, these people are so much richer than I am and they're way better. And then come to find out sure. A lot of them had more money, but they're just like me and you they're just like me. And yeah. So it was, I needed, I needed personally for myself to be in an ocean that I wasn't the biggest fish anymore because I wouldn't, you know, show me your five best friends.Speaker 3 (14:24):We'll show you. We're going to be at in five years concept, like in all aspects of life. Um, but I've yeah, I've learned, I learned a ton, um, being coached by high-performance coaches, uh, Mike says next a high-performance coach of mine. Uh, they've been coached by my Michael Berg. Just got a, his program recently. Oh, cool. Um, like those, those types of, of like accountability, like nobody, everybody says they want to be held accountable if they don't really want to be held accountable. Um, for me, I get, I flourish when I'm actually being told, Hey, you're doing this really. But if you did this and this and this slightly different or somewhat better, you would get to the next level where you're gonna be able to help more people. And I'm like, okay, like that's what I need. I want to be, I don't want to be, I don't want it yet.Speaker 3 (15:01):I don't want to be yes, man. Like don't tell me, oh, you're so great at what you do. Like that's fine. I, I know that I'm not for self-sabotage. I don't want you to, I actually have to train my guys out of that. Most of them like, oh, door suck. I was terrible there. I'm like, I have to convince them to not do that. I'd say, Hey look, like, what are the three things you do right first? And then we go to one thing you did you think you messed up on the opposite round? Cause it were so pushing. Like I sucked here. I didn't do well there. I had my transition sock. My tonality was terrible. It's like relax buddy. But yeah, no masterminds. Um, yeah. I just, I know that. I don't know. And I know that I don't know everything and you know, I, I want to be around people like, you know, Henry Ford quote of like, I don't have to know everything I've got, uh, I think he said like a petroleum button, like a plastic button.Speaker 3 (15:48):Okay. And six plastic buttons in front of me with the, I can call anybody with any of the answers that I need. So just masterminds have helped me grow and see that there's so much more out there that people that actually have money that are in those types of masterminds are actually trying to give back a lot more than I thought. Cause most people think, oh, you've got money. You're uh, you know, your POS or, you know, you're just selfish. Like you drive a Ferrari. It's like, no dude, these dudes that have like nicer cars are like giving away hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars a year. Yeah. That's awesome. And philanthropy. So it's yeah. That'sSpeaker 2 (16:24):Cool. Yeah. And you can only grow if you're around people like that and yeah. Like, you know, off the recording, you're just saying how like guys know in the mastermind, if they screw over one person, then they're getting booted out of the group and they can't come back in. That's awesome to have that level of trust and that level, you know, accountability and all that. And it's like, you know, you're going to improve and take guys to the top with you. But yeah. My other question was like being in so many masterminds here in so much information from all different people, um, like how do you, how do you actually like decide what you're going to implement and how do you actually like, you know, get value from all of these and take it into one because I mean, I'm in one mastermind right now and I feel like there's a lot to like implement and, and improve on. But I can't imagine being in four and then having like two separate coaches and stuff like that. So how do you decide, okay, this, this is worth my time money. I'm gonna spend it. How have you decided to like be in that many different groups and not get overwhelmed and I guess pick and choose which one, you know, can benefit somebody.Speaker 3 (17:22):I was telling you earlier. I was like, there was one mastermind that I said I wasn't, I wanted to be in, had the money to be in, it could have got into it, but didn't remember. So I turned that one down, even though I would want it to be in that one. I'm still able to say no to certain of them, a certain masterminds. Um, luckily I haven't been in a mastermind that I didn't really appreciate and like, and learn from and grow from and also add value to. But, um, the things that I don't learn a lot about, but hold this in and I'm like trying to like, Hey, like I should probably know about this is like marketing. Yeah. Like, you know, marketing and things like that, where it's like, you know, for instance, like what you're doing now, it's like, you're building your personal brand up.Speaker 3 (18:03):And you know, I been, I was two, two years ago. I was like, I don't know why I want to build a personal brand, but I'm just a doorknocker that sells solar panels and teaches people how to, you know, develop and make money and invest money. But, um, things like that, I just archive them. I'll take notes on them and I have tons of notes and then four times a year I'll go back through and I have this ideas list. So assistants of mine, um, if I'm ever like, Hey, like that's an idea. They have a list of ideas that Mikey says, this is an idea. And it's usually something that pops up or I heard somebody saying something I'm like, Hey, that's an idea. Let's try to figure out how to do that. They have a whole list of that. I'm just archiving those, come back to Stephanie.Speaker 3 (18:44):Got them. Exactly. Exactly. Or if it's like, Hey, like, you know, I was with Dom, Dom Carney this weekend and he's, he's like a drop shipping gangster. And I'm like, I don't know how to do that. And I don't really think that has any applications to solar, but if I ever need to figure out, you know, supply and demand is like, like I can, I can go to him and ask him a question, stuff like that. So, yeah. Um, yeah, that's awesome. I'll archive them. And then, okay. So there's, there's like if you go to an event, I always teach guys this no matter what, if I ever see them at an event, I'm like, Hey dude, if you're going to be at an event like this, you know, 10 X growth con, there's going to be like three things I learned from Dave already.Speaker 3 (19:21):There's going to be like three things that you're gonna, that you're going to be able to tell me about what 2019 DOR con was about. Right. You're gonna remember like three things and that's it. So look for those three things, write everything else down and then focus on those for the next six months. And that's it. It's a good idea to just overwhelm ourselves. It's same thing in a book. Like if you told me, you know, three things you learned about pitching anything and you know what, what's the wait, what? Like, you know, they tailor what's, what's the what's what do you remember most about pitching anything? You're going to tell me two to four things. Right. And that's it. So it's the same thing. Whenever I go into a book, we try to retain everything because we're told to add like, and we're not going to be able to, then it's like reverse psychology.Speaker 3 (19:58):It's like, you're not going to remember everything. So now I got to try to remember everything. Yeah. But you're not going to, so you might as well go into it with the proper expectation of like, Hey, we're about to walk into a storm. Let's not have every, you know, let's not have the couches in the, in the, in the, you know, everything out let's, let's Batten down the hatches, go into the storm correctly and know how to navigate through this. So it's really just about being able to navigate, um, and just archiving and knowing that yes, it's exciting. Yes. It was awesome content, but you cannot apply it right now because if you do that, it's not, yeah. It's not gonna help your team. Yeah. I was going to say it's selfish, but I've learned more like you have to be more selfish to help your team out kind of, kind of thing, but it's selfish in a bad way. Yeah. Yeah. It's like using money for the wrong thing. It's selfish in a bad way because you end up going on this tangent that doesn't help your team out at all, or the people that you're around. So you just archive it. Yeah.Speaker 2 (20:46):I love that. And yeah, I agree. A hundred percent just cause I've heard, um, you know, I've spent a lot of money in like personal development, the courses, the programs, the events, but that's one of my biggest issues is I go to these things then yeah. You asked me two months later, what I even got from that thing. And there's been times where I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I can't remember anything from that. Just spent two grand to go to that event, but I don't know what I took away, like why I went to it. So I think there's people out there like, you know, like me that go to these things that don't get stuff out of it that don't apply it and that's a big issue. So yeah. I appreciate that. That's something I'm going to start doing right down the street things. I willSpeaker 3 (21:25):Add one thing to that. Yeah. Um, I learned it from Tony Robbins and you know how like he like helps people to jump up whatever. Yeah. So he talks about like your state, like if you're not in a super excited, like I'm here, I'm alive, you know, I'm alert. I'm well, like I'm in that type of a state, you know? Um, you're not, if you're not in an emotional state, it's not going to stick. So if you're kind of like slumping back, whatever, like I'm not really, I mean, I don't know what I'm gonna get out of this, but I'm gonna try to get something out of it. You know, if you don't set the proper expectation and then continue not just setting expectations that you can set all the, oh, I've got great intentions to go make a million dollars and buy a Ferrari, knock on doors, selling solar panels in Southern California.Speaker 3 (22:00):But you know, road, the good, you know, the, the road of good intentions leads to hell or whatever, you know, it's like, you don't just have to have good intentions. You don't set it right up. You can, you need to set the expectation. But if you're not continuing to stay at a high energy level of like, I'm here, like something that you have, I need for the very next level of chess, like the very next move. I need that at the, and I've, it's almost like an adventure, like a treasure hunt, like history and treasure hunts back in the day, you said it really excited me. So like, I'm always like, there's one thing I'm like, what's that the one thing was that the one thing, and then just try to emotionally with your teams after sit down and be like, how can we apply this?Speaker 3 (22:39):And what did we learn and why? And just like, dig, dig, dig, dig. Yeah. It will help your teams help. It'll help your teams get more out of it as well. Okay. And then just train on that for 2, 3, 4 months after that. Not every single time, but train on those so that they, so that you don't go spend a bunch of money on a team to go to a Tony Robbins event or Greco-Roman van or, you know, knock store, door, order van. And then all of a sudden it's like, you know, we have no idea why we did. Yeah. Sales went up. We could, but we can't duplicate it because we don't know why that's okay.Speaker 2 (23:07):Awesome. I love that nugget right there. Yeah. You're already seeing me this, that, um, what I thought was really cool is you have your reps. You're creating that culture of learning in your offices right now. And you're actually paying reps to, you know, read books. You give them like basically incentives to read a book and then train on the material they learn. Cause yeah. How many times will you just take it in? We have no idea what we remember. Think that's a big thing that will change that is go out and train someone, go out and teach someone. What you learned is grant Cardone says that to you don't truly know something until you can teach it to another person. That's some, yeah. So that's the money advice right there too. Um, but yeah, my second question with Mikey is like, with all your masterminds and coaches, all that you've joined, how do you decide, like not being in the mastermind?Speaker 2 (23:51):How do you set? Okay, this is going to be worth my time, my money and my investments. How do you decide that? Cause I know some people out there are thinking of maybe getting a coach, maybe you're thinking of joining a rockstar or I mean, we're launching coaching. There's all these coaches out there, all these programs you can go join, but how do you decide, okay, this is going to really move the needle in the direction that I need. This is going to get me the help and how, what what's helped you to, I guess, make that decision when you've tried to join these groups.Speaker 3 (24:19):What I trade places with where they're at right now. If I wouldn't trade places with Cole Hatter two years ago, I want to join his mastermind. Okay. I wouldn't trade places with ed Mylet or Andy Frisella. I wouldn't have joined the mastermind. I wouldn't, I wouldn't done it. Okay. So I, I'm not going to trade places with you right now where you're at currently, not where you're going to be. I won't join your mastermind. Hmm. Okay. Because I'm trying to get better. And I, and I, you know, you're not have to be perfect. You don't have to be perfect. And there are certain things that I don't know about with where your personal yet Cole Hatter, Andy Frisella ed mallet. But if the majority of it seems as if I would trade places with you, then I can one, I can add value to you because I'm a lot younger lung younger than ed Mylet.Speaker 3 (25:08):I can give him that spark again, that he felt at 29 years old, where I'm at and encourage him. So that's my main, that's like the main, main filter. If that doesn't pass that, then it's definitely not, but there's a significant of process after that. But that's the main thing. If I won't trade places with them and like whole life success, not just money ed, my life was a toll, you know, not a nice person. I wouldn't like any of his content. He's one of my, like, you know, idols who I look up to as an all star to me, dude. Love him. Nice. Yeah. I love that. That's great adviceSpeaker 2 (25:44):Right there. Yeah. Go see what they're doing. Um, cause he had a lot, a lot of talk for sure on social media. Um, guys seeing they're making money's driving Lamborghinis, but would you actually want to trade place with them? And a lot of guys they're super successful in business, but maybe they're going to their third doors. You know, it's like, if you don't want that, if you want all the money, go learn from them. But if you want to be successful in marriage and other stuff, don't go learn from them. Like Elon Musk. He's what launching all these coming Tesla taking rockets to Mars and all that stuff. But on his, I don't know, third gone through divorce and all that work in 80 hour weeks. Like maybe, maybe if you don't want to work 80 hour weeks and launch rockets, then go, go find a mentor that you do want to learn from.Speaker 2 (26:27):So yeah, that's a love that that's for sure. And nugget right there. Um, and yeah, I want to shift gears, Mikey. You've had obviously a ton of success in the solar industry, coaching reps, helping train. And I love what you're saying about training your reps, just creating that culture of them to learn and them to really themselves and make their own adjustments because that's another thing is like, you need a good coach, but also you need to train yourselves to, um, they really recognize things you can improve on. So can you talk about a few of the things I know we were talking off the recording here. Can you talk about few things that you've implemented in your training of reps in, in your offices that you've done to help create that culture just of learning and helping them make their own improvements?Speaker 3 (27:07):Yeah. So the main, the main thing is to create a self-sufficient golden door award-winning rep. Okay. The main thing is to create a self-sustainable golden door award-winning rep, which, you know, rep leader manager, regional manager like create the self-sustainable. So how do you get to that 0.1? It's they can, they don't, they don't need, they need, they can, they have the capability to make decisions, critical, critical thinking on their own. Most people that are in their twenties and even in their thirties, we're not taught that I don't care how many books you've read you. Weren't taught that. And if you didn't, the one thing I really like about door-to-door is that we are being challenged every single day to think critically, you know, police show up and you're like, I don't have a permit to knock your, what do I do? How do I get out of this?Speaker 3 (27:57):You know? So like you have to think critically. Right? Um, so yeah, the, the main thing is to create the self self-sustainable golden door award winner, um, in any industry that is how do you do that? There's a few ways that we do that, that I've, I've tried lots of things like, oh, it's not like a book club or like a mastermind style. But like, if you don't, if you don't take into consideration this one thing, um, it's likely going to fail, which is people only do what they're incentivized to do. So if we know that, you know, if you, if you're only going to do what you're incentivized to do, then you have to figure out what with you personally tailor how you can reward yourself, right. How you can have a specific amount of your finances put away to go and swipe a card and be like, oh, I just bought some $60 pair of Lulu shorts or whatever, right.Speaker 3 (28:41):Or a hundred dollars. I don't even know that they're a hundred. Okay. Um, I'm at the room at the Nordstrom's rack or whatever, you know, the Lulu rack or whatever, get them on sale. But, um, you know, uh, you know, find out what, what, what, what to do to incentivize you, to get to where you want to be. Um, in that we have two different things that we do that we were talking about earlier. The first one is that we pay for. So we call ourselves a personal development company that just so happens to sell smart home products. So that's when recruiting, it's a little recruiting nugget right there. Like, Hey, like, you know, oh yeah, come make a bunch of money. No. Like, Hey, come and learn how to personally develop, make a bunch of money and then invest it. So there's three parts towards not just making much money.Speaker 3 (29:20):Everyone's like, yeah, I'm making a bunch of money. Look, I've got my model three or whatever. Okay, cool. Like where are you going to charge your car out here in San Diego? Right. Then I kinda went anyways. So the money part's there, but the personal development and then also investing it is very important. So, um, what we do is we have a book club. Um, we incentivize our guys every, every, all everybody gets this, um, whether you're in or whatever. Um, and everybody has a Booklist everybody's virtually required to do this. Right. Um, but they're incentivized to do it so that it's not like, oh, I got a buck. So when, when, when I initially say test book, report, people go and start getting anxiety or freaking out. A lot of my guys, you know, they like straight a students and they're like, oh God, this is no big deal.Speaker 3 (30:02):But they're 24, 23, 29, 34 years old now. And they're like, you know, they don't want to take tests anymore, but if I can incentivize them and show them how they are going to become a better person when they do this and it's going to lead into better habits, which then gets them to what they want and the freedom that they want within their life, I can help them by paying them $50 for the book, for them to read the book or listen to the book they write, they write a two page front and back report on it. And I tell them like, look, dude, cheat. I don't care. Go online. You know, rich dad, poor dad quotes and write down all the quotes you see there. And obviously, you know, we can, we're going to tell, but I'm like, dude, like if you're loo, if you can only do one page of notes for yourself, am I asking for an essay?Speaker 3 (30:47):But if you can't write down all these two pages, I don't care writing 25, 50 font, doesn't matter, just write it out. And then they present it to a manager and they presented to a manager. It's like, it's a minimum of three minutes to the manager explaining what they got from the book. So the three things, two or three things they got from the book and then explain some of that through some of their notes. So you, you, you know, you retain roughly 10% of what you read or listen to, you know, 20 to 30% of what you read, listen to and write down. And then 60 to 80% of what you read, listened to and then go and teach. And so we've, we've kind of hacked it where we're getting people to actually teach us back to the books. So we're really helping them, reprogram their minds to understand it, think, and it's obviously, you know, they're not going to go and read, you know, I don't know Pilgrim's progress in our, in our sole office.Speaker 3 (31:33):It's, you know, they're going to read specific books, the survival guide, pitch, anything, um, how to win friends and influence people, rich dad, poor dad, um, you know, a compound effect, you know, mini habits, um, way of the Wolf that books like this month, Tony Robbins, money master. And they're gonna read books like that and they're going to come back and present it to us. Now, my managers are being taught it by somebody that just read it, that they might not have got that one nugget from that. They just got that. So they're being now taught by everybody else. It's a culture of now we're masterminding coaching and teaching everybody. So it's awesome. Then we buy the book back from them. So they, so we take a picture of the notes. We put it into a Google drive, that all their notes that they've ever written on all these books and they have access to it too.Speaker 3 (32:09):And then yeah, we're buying the back of the books. So if they bought on audible, you know, 1499 or whatever the book would cost, we, we give them back that and we give them 50 bucks for the report. So the second one we do that works out really well. We get a lot of it's, it's less, it's less like I've got to read a book and I got to write a report. Like it's people really, really want to do that. And then it also helps with the guys that are not in the top 20% of the company. They want to do that more so they can get more time with the managers. So that's another way to help guys fight, to get to the top. So they want to prove themselves by, Hey, I'm going to be reading all these books on my off time, instead of partying or going to the gym.Speaker 3 (32:43):A bunch of times, I'm actually doing personal development or while I'm at the gym, I'm listening to books or whatever. The second thing that we do, um, is that that's very important in the beginning of someone coming onto a door to door company, that they get money right away. That's one of the best ways we pay them. So we pay them off of merit, meritocracy bleed, a meritocracy Ray Dalio talks about when you pay them to personally develop, then you're making them, you know, you're making a monster at that point. That's awesome. If we want to, I want to make people that are like cold killers that are like, I can do anything, you know, pay mind to it. I can do it. Right. The second thing we do is we do that, um, uh, door knocking, critiquing sheet. So I've got a template that we go through, like body language, verbal nonverbal, um, tonality, uh, you have your pullbacks, your takeaways, your objections, and they're writing it out on paper.Speaker 3 (33:31):I just scripted it out. I'm like, Hey, like I was told, I think 2015 that this is what one of the top reps did. I was like, well, the top reps doing that, I gotta do that. I would write out, you know, what the, what the common objection I would get and then write out three ways to overcome it. And he showed me this like long book of like all these objections that he's come up with. And a lot of them are just the same over and over again. But he's just like learning and learning and learning. And, and eventually, you know, through the mysterious brain that you have, you come up with something that works and then boom, you just, you know, you're just, you're being on the craft. So, um, we did that. We got them in like a little spiral bound notebook.Speaker 3 (34:07):So they can, they're not like loose leaf anymore, a spiral bound notebook where it's like that template. We just printed out like office Depot or whatever. And then, uh, and then now they're now they're being coached and taught through that. So then we pay them $50 as well, $50 for if, if they record the door approach, if they write out the critique on it and the door closes. So if it closes on the spot, they're getting an incentive right in the beginning. And then that creates a culture of someone that's self sustainable, where they don't have to ask you for help in the future. They will ask you for help on bigger things, but they don't have to ask you for help for the little things. Yeah. And that takes a lot of your time up as a, as an owner, as a manager of an, of multiple offices. Like you can't, you don't have that as time like that. Right. And also your managers won't have enough time like that. So we're helping them become and help them find the answer instead of being like, oh, where did I put my keys? You know, it's like, not like you, you, you hung your keys on the door every single day. Cause that's your routine. Your routine is you come home and you work on your script. Right. So yeah, we pay them, we pay them to do that too. So it's awesome. That's sweet. I loveSpeaker 2 (35:03):That culture because yeah, I'm sure you've seen him. The best reps are the ones that go to the managers get the help. There's so many people that just wait to be helped and they're not the ones making the massive improvements. The guys who are going out there chasing it, taking that initiative. It's a powerful idea. Um, what about like for noggin? I'm just curious. Cause like Vegas man, it's like 120 degrees out there. Like how are you getting guys to create that culture of knocking, like getting out there? Cause I mean, I got lazy reps in San Diego and where we got like 75 degree weather out here. So if you can get guys to go out and 120 degree weather, I want to hear what's working for that. So anything you do to create that culture of knocking in that brutal heat,Speaker 3 (35:44):What's helped, um, is going in spurts. Okay. Going in sprints, um, having people around as well. So like team knocking, we do a lot of team knocking, um, where, you know, there'll be core groups of like five or 10 people going out to one specific part of the town and they're all spread out and they know that they're all out together. And then the, the car leaders, like the managers, the assistant area sales managers, there are like very in charge of making sure that the, the aura, the mindset is high listening to, you know, you know, I don't know what's that, uh, post Malone used to have friends now I've got Dan and he was like, we're not listening to that stuff. Going out to hood. We're listening to positive stuff, going out to hood like,Speaker 2 (36:27):Like the solar premier podcast.Speaker 3 (36:29):Exactly. Right. No joke, dude. Seriously. That's that's that type of stuff is what actually works is why it's, it's freaking door to door. Yeah. I need to know that I can make it that's all people want to know is that they can actually, they're going to make it through this and by hearing it from you, right. Oh yeah. Are, you know, they're gonna listen this podcast going out to it. And I'm like, oh, it was, uh, it was, uh, you know, it was a crap show out there and you know, I can still make it. So, um, yeah. So, uh, car groups works really well. Uh, keeps accountability there, um, incentivizing first or last or first store appointments, last two appointments and making that really, really hype, um, incentivizing, you know, paying for, you know, like gas cards, you know, a little, you know, if they like to go to Dutch bros or Starbucks or whatever, little gift cards here and there for like the person that's, you know, finishing the race, staying out there longer. Um, what else has worked? Uh, yeah, the spurts. So having, uh, we have somebody that drives around to each of our, each of our, um, like sections of where our guys are knocking at drop off snacks, got coolers, little drinks, youSpeaker 2 (37:32):Know, care package, careSpeaker 3 (37:35):Packages, awesome. Cold stuff. So it's pretty cool.Speaker 2 (37:39):Um, I'm just imagining call of duty, like care package dropping in the battlefield.Speaker 3 (37:44):What do you think? We got the idea though. Yeah, that's a, yeah. I mean, staying at staying super hydrated, um, one of the other things is I would mandate mandatory, make them stop in the middle of the day between one and like 2:00 PM and they would get their lunch. They'd go do crowd therapy, NormaTec and red light therapy. So they would be doing, yeah. So they were, the guys that were selling were being paid to go there. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. They'd go be paid to go do crowd therapy, NormaTec and go do rest and recovery. It's like going and being an ice bath and then going back out to work. So they were, they would eat together or in their CarGurus eat together and then wherever the cryotherapy places were at, they'd go and do that. Yeah.Speaker 2 (38:24):Wow. That's cool. I'm going to try that. I'd have to try cryo cryotherapy. It's almost like an athlete recovering before the next game or something ice bath before the game. That's well awesome. Mike, you know, I love hearing the high level stuff you're doing and um, again, go follow them. And last thing I want to kind of learn from you is just maybe some specific stuff we can go out and implement out there. Um, for those that are knocking for those that are closing, I know when you're a big things to do and takeaways, and you've talked about that on Instagram. Um, so just do a guest, I guess, give some people some specific things they can do, um, takeaways, pun in standard, right? There are some specific takeaways they can go and implement today. Um, do you mind sharing just, I dunno, some takeaways you guys use maybe in the doors and closes things that are helping you guys, you know, book appointments and close deals out there in Vegas. Sure.Speaker 3 (39:15):Yeah. Um, some of that can make the mental right away. One is record yourself. Um, for one they're not recording themselves, I can almost guarantee you, they're not recording themselves. If you're not recording yourself to take it from me, bro, I don't have to work anymore. I've got enough passive income that I don't have to work ever again in my entire life, but I continue to do because I want to make a bigger impact with like global issue stuff. So, um, and that's from me getting better and because I was recording myself on the door and then I would go back and I did, I gave it up for free. Like, I don't know, like six months ago they can DM me or they can DM you that you'll have it as well. Is that critiquing tool. Okay. If you have, if you record yourself and then you go back and you use the tool, you will get better.Speaker 3 (39:52):So that alone will make somebody more money than me giving you one pullback, spoonful, one pullback that I do, or one takeaway that I do so different from that pull back and I take away a pullback is, is like a, like a, a time constraint. You know, the main thing that people are not realizing that on doors, um, especially if you're in like a Vegas, Arizona or San Diego or Southern California area where it's, we get knocked a lot. Um, our doors get knocked a lot, um, is you have to relieve the pressure. You have to relieve the pressure. So if you're not throwing in one-liners, um, like, Hey, you know, sorry to bug ya. I actually just wanted to drop off my business card. And I'm not sure if you guys saw the trucks and I just want to invite you over to an open house.Speaker 3 (40:34):Um, did, did you guys kind of hear about that or no. See us on nextdoor or Facebook or anything like that or seeing the flyers in the mail? Um, cool. No worries. Yeah, like I said, I actually got to get going here in a second, so I don't, I don't have much time. We're the last house houses here before I get to clock out and go home. Um, so I'll, I'll, I'll do my very best to really, um, alleviate pressure that they have to buy something right now. I'm not leaving until you sign up for solar panels right now, same day.Speaker 3 (41:03):So, you know, and that, that also goes back to, you know, burning doors, right. If you burn a door you're vulnerable and it burned a whole neighborhood concept. Um, but yeah, as far as like takeaways goes, um, yeah, so I don't, I don't, you know, there's so for me, um, I tell my guys, Hey, look, you've got 15 permits per month. You can do, um, there's guys that are selling over 15 deals a month, but you know, on average, you know, they're going to hit 15 deals. I go, look, you only have 15. So if you're at 12, you have three permits left in this neighborhood because that's how many deals I'm in this month. So this month I've only got three more permits. Um, I don't know if this is going to be a good fit or not. Um, but if it, if it works out, um, you're going to love it.Speaker 3 (41:48):But the catches that I don't know if they're going to select this house because of certain things, or I don't know if this is really going to be a good fit for you or not. Um, you've probably looked into this before. Um, so there's, there's like one there. That one good one there, but it's good. Um, another one, um, is, and I put this on Instagram the other day, cause I was like, can I use some whole time? Um, and I was like, I didn't realize I did it, but I listened to a video and I was like, wait, that's a one liner. That's a break pullback. It was, uh, it was, yeah. So basically really quick. What I'm gonna do is I'm going to go check to make sure you guys have the right meter. Okay. So this was like a little secret that we do. All right here. It isSpeaker 2 (42:24):Drop that isn't secrets. I mean, I made this up. Yeah.Speaker 3 (42:27):Uh, most meters that I've seen have the symbol or the number sequence, um, 30 TA or it's TA 30. Um, and apartment buildings have like 25 or like 15 TA houses have 30 or 50 TA. So if they have a 15 TA it means they're an apartment. Can we put solar on an apartment? Okay. Yes we can. But no, we can't. Right. You're not going to knock an important apartment where they don't own the house. Right, right. They don't own the roof. They don't own it. So if they have a 15 TA it's not going to work. So I'm like, yeah. So if you have a 15 TA meter, like I'm not even gonna waste your time, you're not going to be good fit for this program. You have to pay like five, 10 grand or whatever to get the new meters. And it's just not going to make sense for you.Speaker 3 (43:05):Let me just go, make sure you have the right meter. I'm go ahead and grab utility bill. The utility usage looks like just like this. If you're not using enough usage, I, again, I'm not, I don't want to waste your time. It's very, they're really picky with who they allow into the program. I'm going to make sure you have the right meter. And if it, if it works, if you do have the right meter, I'll kind of show your options. And then we'll see whether or not, it's going to be a good fit for us to talk. Otherwise I'll just tell you, Hey, look, I'm not gonna waste your time. I'll just kind of take you off my list of sound fair, cool. Grabbing usage really quick. I'm gonna grab your, grab your meter and I walk away, boom, that, and then, and then when I get to the meter, if they come with me and there's another one, like I'll pull them out of the house and I get them to come look at the meter with me.Speaker 3 (43:36):And I'm like, look, obviously I know what I'm looking at. Yeah. I know what I'm looking at. Right. But I, I look as if I'm puzzled, you know, I'm kind of like just pointing out the here. All right. So I kind of like wipe my head, sweat off my head. And I went right back at the meter and I go, um, okay. It looks like you do the right meter. And I pause specifically, I'm not joking dramatic, positive. Cause you're like, oh my God, am I going to qualify? Cause my clients, not every time, but a lot of times, a lot more times than I have seen. And didn't even realize people that shout at me, they're like, they literally said, what's the next step? How do we get qualified? Where do we go from here? You know, what's how do we do the credit check?Speaker 3 (44:22):It is, you know, is, is, is there enough spots on this street left? And I'm like, like when you get to clients to do that, it's because they're making the, you're not like, so yeah, if you, if you, you know, if I lower the price of $3 a month and lose $3,000 in commission, you guys sign up today, um, or whatever it looks like, you know? Um, you know, so yeah, doing pullbacks and doing dramatic pause and stuff like that works, it's a lot. So it's like, you know, they want to get them to qualify. So I will pause dramatically and be like, okay, I'm good. Just in case some, some of them got them, some of them didn'tSpeaker 2 (44:58):That gets me stressed. You pause like that, man. I have to try that need like a drum roll going in the exec to pause. Oh yeah. But no, I think that, yeah, I can see that helping a ton and yeah. Any, I think any successful rep is doing that and the pull backs takeaways, because he has taken the pressure off of a yes or no decision. Like that's not the decision. Right. It's just, am I qualified or not? That's the question at that point. So yeah, I think that's a huge key, especially in saturated areas. That's basically, you know, I think the only way to sell in super saturated areas, just taking the pressure off of that decision. Um, well, cool, Mikey, I appreciate all the stuff you've shared with us today. Some golden nuggets you've dropped on us, a ton of takeaways we've gotten from, um, the content you've shared. And I know you're in a ton of different businesses. So guys go give Mikey a fall. If you're not already, he's at dropping some fire, some heat on Instagram every day. So Mikey, where can people find you on Instagram and all that and connect with you? I've got a,Speaker 3 (45:56):My Instagram, my Facebook and then YouTube. Um, so it's uh, Mikey Lucas on all three, all three platforms. Um, Twitter, I just got kinda back on in LinkedIn. I kind of just got back on too. Um, and then I've got a book that I'm writing. That's that's me being released here in just under 30 days now. So cool. And then writing for last, like two years to on entrepreneurship, uh, asking the struggles of an entrepreneur of a millennial entrepreneur and how to just encourage, you know, how to get you to stay in the fight instead of, you know, getting your Ferrari and checking out and clocking out and going home and being depressed. Yeah. So yeah, I've got to play something out and then I'll all three of my platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Mikey Lucas, am I K E Y L U C S O.Speaker 2 (46:39):All right, guys, go give him a follow, go buy his book when it comes out. Let's show our appreciation for Mikey, um, given us some secrets today. And so, uh, yeah, I appreciate you again, Mikey, thanks for everything you're doing to coach reps to change the industry and give us more success as we're out there knocking and closing deals. Um, so anything, any last, I dunno, tips or words of wisdom that you would share with, uh, any other solar reps or any of our solar preneurs before we say goodbye here, Mikey. Yeah.Speaker 3 (47:05):It's not about how much money you make. It's about how much money you keep and invest. No, the goal shouldn't be to have to knock forever. You know, I can't sit here and tell you, I love knocking on doors. I love knocking on doors because of what it gets me. Yeah. So it's not about how much money you make. It's about how much money you keep and then go and invest. That's why I'm in so many businesses and I don't run all of them. You know, the, the franchise is the ever bulls, the real estate, the Turo business, the Airbnb business. I don't run those, you know, the crypto, obviously I can run crypto, but I'm getting coached on crypto too. So it's like, yeah, make money to go and make money matter and then have passive income coming in to then pay for your lifestyle. Just yes. Make money. But it doesn't matter if you making 50 grand a year, 20 grand a year or 500 grand a year, a million dollars a year. I don't care how much money you make in one year. It's about long-term sustainability. I heard Pitbull say that years ago.Speaker 2 (48:01):Nice. Yep. Powerful, powerful. Remember guys, invest in yourself, Mike, he's doing that. I think probably more than anything with all the masterminds and everything, and they're teaching them how to invest in other things where he's getting passive income. So that's a whole new episode for another day, but again, go fall, Mikey, he's doing multiple businesses. You know, the Touro, the, the evitable, the real estate he's in it. Also follow him. And he's going to share stuff on that. So, Mikey, thanks again for coming on. Thanks for sharing with our audience today. And we'll go give you a follow and alike. We're going to go buy your book when it comes out. And so thanks for coming on today and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks Taylor. Appreciate,Speaker 1 (48:38):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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. Boom! What's going on. Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here.Speaker 2 (00:47):Hope you're doing well. Hope you're closing deals. Hope you are surviving the heat of the summer. If not come on down to San Diego, we'll take care of you. Summer here is like 80 degrees, 75. So not too bad recently had, um, some people from Vegas down hanging out with us and I'm like, man, how do you guys knock in that summer heat? I don't know how you do it. So for those knocking in the desert heat, you got my respect, but speaking of heat, we're going to be bringing you the heat, the fire today on the podcast. So I hope you are ready. I hope you're buckled up. Let's dive into it before we get into some awesome content though. I wanted to thank those that have gone and left reviews. I appreciate it so much. And I appreciate those that share the podcasts that tag me on Instagram that, uh, send it to friends, send it to people who could benefit from the content we are dropping.Speaker 2 (01:43):That's truly how we're growing the podcast. And that's how people are up leveling themselves in the solar industry. Because the more you share it's good karma, right? When you share good things, good things are going to come back to you. So appreciate that. So why don't I give a couple shout outs, um, on their reviews, we're seeing, um, we got, uh, Sean Zappa. He left early view for us here in July. He says I was struggling with some things. So I searched for a podcast to see if anyone could offer some value. And wow, the guy has made a video about everything I needed highly recommended. I'm so not sure what video you're referring to Sean, but glad we could help you nonetheless, glad you were getting some good nuggets from the podcast. Uh, we got Jacob Lee of OTB productions. He says value, value, value.Speaker 2 (02:35):Been super helpful as a new member in the solar community loved the way that Taylor teaches. Very easy to understand and identify with. Appreciate that Jacob Lee guys love it, keep doing what you're doing. And that's all we ask. We're dropping free content every week. And all we ask is that you share it with people and you know, if you like the content, even if you don't like it, go leave a review and send me the feedback. Okay? Cause we love hearing feedback. Good, good or bad. So let's dive into the podcast today. We're going to be talking about a specific objection that I got actually pretty recently. And that objection is Taylor. What happens for moving soon? Solar doesn't make sense. We're going to be moving soon. So we don't really want to do this. And there's a lot of people have good responses to this objection.Speaker 2 (03:28):I'm going to tell you why I'm doing the show is because I heard a super good response or a super good way of overcoming this that I want to share with y'all. But the way I typically would overcome it before I heard about this cool secret technique is I would just say, look, um, they've done studies on homes with solar helps them sell. If you own the solar ads, uh, 4.1% onto the value of the home. I show them the Zillow article. If you guys don't have that bookmarked, you need to go bookmark all the articles, all the ammo, all of the good things you can find online that are pro solar, right? That show that solar does help home sell. Okay. So that's what I would typically do. I would show them things like that. Articles I would bring in stories from real estate agents.Speaker 2 (04:19):We worked with from other homeowners that had the same objection, but they moved and they were fine. They were just fine. That's how it was old crummy. And that it works. Yeah, those were good ways. And I know other people have good responses, but here's something that I heard that I thought wasn't money in full disclosure. I have a, I haven't actually done this yet because I just barely heard this. But just from hearing it, I know, I know it will work. Know, I know it's going to be good. And so I learned this from my friend, Mikey, Lucas, he's actually going to be on the next episode that you hear coming up and he shared some super cool stuff. And this guy, this guy is just so giving, go give him a fall on Instagram, um, friend him on Facebook. Cause you're not going to want to miss some of the things he shares about one of the show you this, because actually something we didn't talk about in the podcast we did together, he was kind enough to come do a training for our entire team.Speaker 2 (05:23):And this is something he actually shared in this training. So I'll talk about the second thing he shared that I got from it. But super giving guy, go give him a follow up. And that brings up another point. If you are not having guest speakers come in your training, I would highly recommended guys, go connect with other people in the industry. Spread the love, spread the knowledge. Okay guys like Mike, you Lucas. He's a spread and a ton of value. Um, I know other people, other managers, other company owners, um, they also do this. They have guest speakers come in, they have guest trainers. They bring in guys, just come share their experiences to keep things fresh. Okay. I know, um, Mo fall, another guy we've found on the podcast. He brings in guest speakers all the time and it doesn't have to be live.Speaker 2 (06:14):Right. You bring people on over zoom. Um, just keep things fresh. Keep your reps excited, keep them engaged and keep them just stoked to get out there. And that's one way you can do it is bringing guest speakers, bringing in people to come talk, okay. And you can hit me up. I'm in San Diego. I'd be happy to come and drop some content on your team or I'm going, you know, I'm going through different states. So let me know, love to come and do a training for your team and spread some knowledge. So what did Mikey tell me that it's so secret in overcoming this objection here. Here's what he does. And here's what I love. And here's what I'm going to start implementing immediately. Okay. Step one. You need to get some real estate friend. It's pretty easy to do. Just figure out a way to connect with a real estate agent or someone that has access to the MLS.Speaker 2 (07:07):Just the online, you know, website online database, where you can find all the homes that have sold and look into that. Which as far as I know, um, yeah, it's basically real estate agents that have access to this. I'm sure there's other ways find someone with access to the MLS. And then on this site, you can actually see all the data of the homes that have sold, but what's so powerful about it is you can see which homes sold with solar. So there you have it. So what Mike, he does, he's given us this training. He's holding up this sheet. He's saying guys, I have this sheet sitting in front of them. I don't let them see what's on it. And tell him, going through my prison presentation. Then I get to a point where I'm talking about what happens if they sell their home.Speaker 2 (07:55):Cause you want, this is a main concern that people have, right? What happens when they sell their homes with solar? Almost every single deal I go do out here in Southern California, they have this objection, right? They've heard friends and family that it's been a nightmare for selling their home, that they had to transfer a lease PPA. And it was just a huge hassle. This is people's concern in their objection. So you need to address it, address it beforehand, before they can bring it up to a possible. So Mikey does, he has a sheet. He's not showing them in the beginning, but what this sheet has is basically a spreadsheet and it's showing a hundred people or as many people as you can fit on this sheet, he had, I think two pages of people that have sold their homes. Eight people have sold their homes with solar rather.Speaker 2 (08:49):So when people go to bring this up, say Mr. Customer, Mr. Jones, um, yeah, this actually the people in your area, in your zip code, all of these people have actually just sold their home with solar on it. Um, as you can see, there's about a hundred people on this sheet. They sold their home with solar and they're still standing, went fine for them. What, what is this doing? It's giving them proof, giving them proof that things happened that way. Right? So it's really just another thing you can add into your arsenal. Number one, go befriend. Someone that has access to this MOS, this database of homes that have sold. Number two, go through it. You don't have to do this yourself. Okay. Get yourself a virtual assistant or someone can do this for you, but take that data, put it on the spreadsheet and then classify it by zip code, depending where you are slinging your solar app.Speaker 2 (09:46):Super powerful. You can show them this sheet. Then a objection is crushed. Okay. So I'm going to be trying this again. I haven't done this yet, but I thought it was genius. So go out and try this. Let Mikey know you appreciated it. Let him know that was money. That tip he shared. And we didn't, he didn't cover this in the podcast. So I hope he's okay with me sharing this. If not, Mike, am sorry for sharing all your secrets, but I learned this from him. I'm going to go out and implement it. And then the second thing that he did share in the training he did for our team real quick, that I want to touch on is just really doing self evaluation as much as possible. So what did he mean by that is just recording your deals. Okay. We've talked about this pretty recent in the podcast, but it's a vital importance recorded.Speaker 2 (10:34):Every interaction possible you have with customers. And this serves for two reasons. Number one, you're going to be able to use that as trainings for your reps. But number two, you're going to be able to self evaluate yourself or send it to a manager or send it someone. And they can give you an evaluation. If you have these things, if you keep jacking them, these things are worth gold, right? Gives you the tools to actually improve. It gives you the play by play of what actually happened. And Mikey, he shared with us a sheet to do an actual evaluation of your door approach. Okay? So go hit up. Mikey. I know he'll gladly share this with you or I can connect. You hit me up and we can get you this sheet, but have some type of rubric. When I was in, um, high school, middle school college, I studied music as I've talked about before, we would go to these competitions and be judged on all our music performances and these judges, they weren't just doing blind evaluations.Speaker 2 (11:38):They had a rubric. They had basically a score sheet with how our actual performance was. So when we got to the end, we'd be graded. They give us like a one was superior or two was like, excellent. The goal was to get a one, but we had the tools to do this because we could see the exact sheet, the exact rubric they're granting us on. It said, okay, how's this tonality, how's this tempo. How's this rhythm. How has this intonation, all these different geeky music terms that I was judged off of. It's the same thing we need to be doing for solar. Right? So get yourself a rubric. How was my body language? How was my tonality? How was my confidence? How was my posture? All these things you need to be thinking about as you're in your presentations and as you were hitting doors, it's, that's what we talked about.Speaker 2 (12:30):That's what we jammed on. Hope you got something from this episode. Again, I can't wait for you guys to hear it. The next show we did with Mikey, he dropped some serious wisdom on us. And if you thought this was good, wait until you hear his episode. He tells a story how he got in the industry and we go over a ton of just nuggets. They're going to help you and your team out tremendously. So don't miss the next episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for the reviews. And we will see you guys on the next one.Speaker 3 (13:00):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 2 (00:45):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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. online 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 3 (01:24):What is going on Solarpreneurs. This is James Swiderski back with another train to win, where we are giving you the tools, strategies, techniques that you need to train world-class solar teams. And in this episode, I'm going to be talking about the lessons I've learned the hard way from training over a thousand reps, personally, in the same room with them through my own companies, through my clients and giving you some of these key tactics and mistakes to avoid so that you can build a world-class sales team yourself to scale your company to the moon. And if you like this type of content, stay tuned because I'm going to be coming back for more episodes. Um, right now you're going to be hearing a lot of me over the next couple of weeks, but after that, we'll dial it back to like a monthly visit I'll pop on and Taylor will be the primary guy as always the guys you liked, you liked the most, right?Speaker 3 (02:16):We all want to talk about Taylor. We all know he's the man, the myth, the legend, he's the guy, the head honcho. So I don't want to steal the light from him here. So here we go. Let's go ahead and talk about some lessons I've learned from training reps. And I want to give you my background on this too. So you see where I'm coming from and where some of these methodologies and strategies I've learned have come to pass. And the reality is my method of training reps is pretty different from what's happening, not only just in the solar industry, but any industry altogether. Um, I think that the solar industry is a little behind the times when it comes to training, developing, uh, teams marketing. So one of my core strategies and my, and how I adopt these philosophies and have gotten really great results with clients in the past is actually looking outside of solar, looking in more established industries, like real estate, um, and applying those methodologies to my team.Speaker 3 (03:14):Uh, and some of them are right, but some of them don't, and I'll be very Frank with you. What's working. What's not, um, we're only talking about what has worked well here on the show here. So, uh, how I really got into training here, which is the first important thing I want to talk about, um, is I actually was running daily meetings, right with the first company I ever worked with. This was, uh, five years ago, Evel our solar over in Utah. They are no longer in business, but, um, at the time, uh, we were doing, I would say about eight, 8 million per year, um, about a year into my career. And we were running daily sales meetings came out about 11 guys. And these sales meetings were a couple hours long. They were going really well. And our company was looking for additional sales training, right.Speaker 3 (04:03):My team. Um, and me, my time was running thin as a manager spending so much time with my reps. We didn't have a scalable system. We didn't have a, uh, course or anything like that. So our company was looking for something a little bit more scalable. So we went out and hired and bought, uh, the Sandler training. If you guys have heard of that before. Um, I think they're based out of Utah too, which is where we were added at the time and why we went with them. But anyway, we did this and they had a three day kickoff meeting. Okay. And we're sitting there and the group up, all of my guys and myself, uh, for these three day bootcamp style things, eight hours a day. And we're sitting there through these trainings and I kid you not, everybody's just bored out of their mind.Speaker 3 (04:52):You, you know exactly what I'm talking about too. If you've done anything of the sort with your team, half, the guys are messing around in the back. There's a couple of guys that are attentive. People are trying to take notes, but the stuff's just way too complicated. And the biggest overarching question, that's just hanging in the room, the elephant in the room is how the heck do we apply this to solar? Okay. Because we know that Sandler training guy, he was definitely not applying it to solar. We're just like, dude, how does this apply to solar? How's this going to actually get me to the next deal? Right? How's this going to get me the next lead? That's all my guys are thinking. It's all I'm thinking. And I'm just like, what the heck? And after we're done with this training, right? And they have a debrief with me and the other management of the team at the company here.Speaker 3 (05:41):And we're just like, what, what actually comes from this? We felt like we just wasted our cash on training that our guys are not even going to use. And that's exactly what freaking happened. Um, and this is absolutely crazy in my industry. Um, in, for enterprise sales is what I do with my company, epic. Um, there's a stat ed tech university did a study with this out of the $1.5 billion spent per year on sales training for companies. That's an average of $1,500 a year per rep, 87% of the content in sales training, live boot camps, courses, you name it, it's forgotten within 30 days. Think about that for a second, almost 90% of sales training or any it's any training as well, not just sales it's forgotten within 30 days yet we continue to do things the same way. Just simply putting our guys into courses and hoping some miracle is going to happen or doing one-on-one trainings with them where we know we just don't have time at the end of the day to do this with everybody at scale and expecting a miracle to happen.Speaker 3 (06:50):Again, miracles are not going to happen here with training guys. You need to have a proven system and process to really make things scale. And this is what I learned the hard way. So here's what happened after we invested in this training, I realized and had an epiphany moment during this training, as my guys were saying, well, Hey James, your training's way better. I knew my training was better. Right. But I couldn't be everywhere all the time with all of my reps. So this is where I decided, Hey, what if I were to go put together a process and a system like these guys did Sandler training for solar, for my guys and put it in a online learning platform. A course, I think I was doing like teachable or something at the time. And I'll just put some of my best teachings on there and make my reps go through it on a regular basis.Speaker 3 (07:41):Okay. So that's exactly what I did. And this was before, like everybody was blasting off a course on social media or anything like that. Um, I was a super early guy on this, especially in solar. I was the only guy in solar doing this. Um, so I pulled this out right? And the results just started flowing with my reps. All of a sudden I had guys that were doing a couple deals a month upwards of 12, 14 deals a month. Within 90 days, I had one guy like he starts closing big commercial contracts. All of a sudden him decides he's going to go into commercial sales, right. Just stuff started popping off with my team. Um, and this is when our company started to scale and I realized that I was onto something right. Systematizing training and having a way for reps to personally train on their own time, gave me the time to make critical decisions, update the training, lead my team, closed big contracts and make sure that I was making the most use of my skillset as a manager and a VP.Speaker 3 (08:46):Right? So some of the things I really stood out as I was scaling this team up is first. And I'm going to give you four tips. First reps needed to be engaged personally and taught at their own unique level. Okay. This is something we kind of intuitively know as we're training people that we want to tailor the training to them. But this is the problem with a third-party training ad Adam, uh, Adam Sandler with Sandler training system, Jordan Belfort, Kardon you write all great programs, great content, right? The only problem is it's not personalized to the rep. They're wondering how the heck does this apply to me? Or, Hey, I've got this problem or this limiting belief. I don't know if I could do that. And then they don't apply it. Right? So you need to be engaging your reps personally, um, making sure that your tailoring every single strategy to them and helping them on their individual levels.Speaker 3 (09:49):Right. If they're a super advanced top producer guy, like, uh, Taylor was just having a guy on the show. I can't remember. He was doing like 35 deals. It's a guy at Taylor's company. If you haven't heard yet. Um, he did like 37 deals in a month. Absolutely nuts. Right. That guy is at a whole different level than someone who's brand new. Okay. And he's going to require a totally different type of training than a brand new guy. So you've got to make sure that you have a way to personally engage and train those reps at their unique level. Just like a video game would, right. If you go and play a video game, super Mario brothers, first level, it's going to be easy. Second level, a little bit more challenging. We only learn as people when we're actually being challenged at our unique individual level.Speaker 3 (10:33):This is why, um, Taylor's, uh, platform that he's built Solciety in partnership with my, uh, company Epoch, um, is so unique because we actually use gamification and, uh, artificial intelligence to customize training difficulty for every single rep with solar specific content. Um, I'm going to do a huge promo on that, but guys go to solciety.co it's a freaking ridiculous revolutionary system. We built, um, we do a results guarantee. We guarantee you're going to sell 20% more solar or your money back within four months. So you really have nothing to lose. Go check it out. Solciety.co anyway off the soap box here. So you have to engage in personalized training. Second is having a system for reps to train on their own time. All right. People really learn best when it's behind closed doors. Okay. I know I personally do. That's my preference, but even extroverts, I've seen, like you need to have that alone time with your thoughts.Speaker 3 (11:38):If you're constantly just consuming information in the form of a personal training or boot camps or whatever, you have no time to process this and think how it applies to you. You need to give reps that alone time to do so without overwhelming them with three hour long videos, bite-sized content is key. So that's step number two, step number three, realization. Number three, here is reps need to be held accountable as many times as possible. And my goal was multiple times per day. Now you're probably thinking I'm freaking nuts right now, right? Because you're holding your reps accountable maybe twice a week. If you're really on top of the game once a day, if you're really on point, but multiple times a day, what the hell I'm telling you guys it's common sense. The more often you hold your reps accountable on their training and their results, the better outcomes they will produce.Speaker 3 (12:35):It's very simple. Okay. Reps, especially when they're beginning, usually are not driven enough, motivated enough to hold themselves accountable like this. Yeah. Your top producers, like the guy had talked about 37 deals in a month. He's holding himself accountable, right? Nobody gets those results without holding themselves accountable. But the majority of your reps are not at this level. They are not equipped with the mindset and tools yet to hold themselves accountable to high standards like this in order to get them there and develop leaders on your team that do that type of accountability. Self-accountability you've got to guide them. You gotta be their training wheels, right? So my suggestion is multiple times a day. And one way we do this with our clients and how Solciety helps is with what we call a pod check. So a pod check, and whether you sign up for Solciety or not, I don't care.Speaker 3 (13:31):I'll give you the tool here for pod Jack. Here's all it is, right? Execution is everything. The ideas don't matter. The pod check is dividing your reps, your team into individual groups and pods of five to seven members. Okay. So big problem companies have is their teams are too big. They're like 10, 15 reps, right? Um, that doesn't do well because it's just too many people at the end of the day. So you divide your pod into five to seven reps, preferably five. And you put in charge of that pot of pod leader. This could be the manager, but it could also just be another member of your team. I actually prefer that use members of your team because it builds culture and morale. And that's a real cool hack to actually develop. Your next set of leaders is start giving some of your regular reps more responsibility.Speaker 3 (14:19):Um, and in these pod checks, what you do is you have a quick five minute check-in with your pod multiple times throughout the day. And what you do is the first pod check in the morning. You do a quick check on your goals for the week, right? Where are your goals for the week on each individual rep, they give a report, Hey, I'm going to close two deals this week, I'm going to do 10 appointments. And I'm going to do five appointments a day, set, knocking doors, whatever it is, I'm going to knock three hours. They all have their individual goals. And they report those to the entire pod group. So everybody knows what everybody's numbers are. Right? And then the pod leader will actually check the CRM and the metrics and say, Hey, John's at two. He wants to get to 10. John, how are you going to get eight deals in two days, man?Speaker 3 (15:05):He's like, uh, right. John's gonna feel a little embarrassed. He's going to feel yeah. A little humiliated in front of his peers in the pod, right? This is why it works so well because extreme transparency is lacking in most sales teams. When everybody's numbers are just present and you could see who's slack on off you mark my words, what happens with your team? All of a sudden they start moving. They just start taking action because they are embarrassed. They're whatever they're uncomfortable and that's good. Your sales team should be uncomfortable every single day if you want them to grow. So that's the first part. And then they say what they're going to do for the day. What is the goal for the day? And they discuss any challenges, issues they need to overcome. And they do these little check-ins throughout the day and the pod leaders in charge of initiating these check-ins constantly in the morning.Speaker 3 (16:01):First thing, obviously 11 and morning, right before lunch one o'clock two o'clock after lunch evening, right? Making sure everybody's updating their metrics. You're quite literally outsourcing that babysitting that managers hate doing you're outsourcing that to your team and creating an organized way for your team to get involved. It's kind of like a mini networking or a business networking group, like BNI, where it's member led. You want your team coaching and pushing each other to the next level. So that's a pod check. That's how you hold your reps accountable. So consistently. Um, and then the last part I want to give you here is about motivation. Okay. So how do you actually motivate reps consistently? There's a lot of ideas on this and I'll go more in depth on some other episodes. But the biggest thing I want to talk about is action led motivation. And if you listened to my first episode with Taylor, where we introduced this series, I kind of alluded to this, but the biggest mistake that companies make with contests and incentives is that only, uh, incentivize the deal, right?Speaker 3 (17:06):The problem with this is the only guys who are, we're really motivated for. The deals are already your five, five, top five to 10% of your reps, your top producers, the rest of the guys just say, ask Gruet Taylor, Johnny, James, they're just going to get it because they're on the top of their game. I'm not even going to try it, right? This is a mistake. And quite literally, if you perform this way, it was almost no reason to even hang on to the bottom of 90% of reps. You might as well get rid of them if you're not going to incentivize them and motivate them as well. So the solution to this actually comes down to tracking, right? Um, if you know how many appointments it takes to close deal on your average rep and you know, how many leads, how many doors need to be knocked to set an appointment.Speaker 3 (17:55):And you know, these metrics by heart and you actually know them, you're not just fudging them, right. Then you will have the confidence to place an incentive or a prize or whatever. On some of these actions that create a sale, like an appointment set or a door knocked, right? Some of the top companies I've worked with, they will create their own banking system. Quite literally they'll create like a Venmo card for their reps and reps are rewarded. Every time they set an appointment, they're literally paid out instantly 50 bucks, a hundred bucks, whatever it is into their company bank account, where they could pay, pay themselves, instantly withdraw it to their own bank. Right. And start using those funds that incentivizes the action. Okay. Um, Miko, Donald's been on the show, right? He talks about the mini habits. This is mini habits, right? Whatever you want to call it, incentivizing the actions that create the results.Speaker 3 (18:50):This is how we get ourselves to do uncomfortable and difficult things as rep CEOs, founders, whatever right? Human beings. You need to give yourself a reward in your reps or reward for the first step. The second step, the third step. The only way you could do this with confidence that you're not going to lose money. You need to have the systems in place. So guys, to review here, lessons I've learned from training. A thousand reps, reps need to be engaged personally and taught on their own unique level and challenged individually reps need to be able to train on their own time and have clear tracking and expectations in place. Third reps need to be held accountable multiple times a day. Pod check is one of my favorite way to do that. Favorite ways to do this. And then lastly, reps need to be motivated with action led results, right?Speaker 3 (19:40):So the last thing I want to leave you here is the core lessons I know today as someone who's coached a thousand reps scaled multiple solar companies past eight figures per year. Um, who's personally sold over 500 deals myself. Um, these are some truths that can not be faltered with. These are things that all of the sales greats, all of the sales gurus leaders top guys in any industry will tell you are a matter of fact. And if you adopt these four principles, I'm about to give you no matter what sales training process you have, what products you have, your reps will be ahead of nine out of 10 of your competition. So here they are. Number one, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Okay? You can not expect all of your reps to want to train. If you do not have the proper culture in place, this is a mistake that nearly every sales team I see makes they have a culture against training, right?Speaker 3 (20:54):They buy a training program. And the reason they buy a training program is because their sales are poor. That's a mistake, right? One of the worst times to buy sales training is when your sales are poor cam, second, the founder and CEO just doesn't want to train their reps and they buy a training thing. It's going to fix it, right? This is the wrong mindset. You've set the culture that we are a lazy organization, essentially. Now, whether you like that or not, I don't really care, but this is the culture and what it communicates to your reps. Um, your mindset personally, around training and self-development you as the founder VP director, that mindset will bleed down to your sales reps. Um, whether you want to or not, this is how people learn. This is how parents raise kids, right? They say one thing, Hey, don't do this.Speaker 3 (21:47):But if the kid sees you, the parent doing whatever, watching TV, playing video games, eating junk food, whatever it is, the kid's going to do exactly what you just did. Right? So if your reps don't know about you learning, they don't know you're reading books. They don't know you're taking courses training. Then they're not going to want to do this. This is not a culture of accountability, uh, when it comes to learning and training, right? And then the last part is you need to cut the fat. Okay? If you've got reps that refuse to log onto their training and you've held them accountable for it, you quite literally need to fire them off your team, even if they're producing revenue. And this is the part where it takes a lot of courage, takes a lot of balls to do this quite honestly. Um, and the way that I have found that's easiest to muster up that courage to fire somebody for not training is to know your metrics, um, and know that you've done all you can to create the culture of training.Speaker 3 (22:50):And quite literally, that conversation goes very upfront, very aggressive with your team. And you say, guys, we are making a radical change to a training environment and training, obsessed culture with our team. I want you guys to do the very best you can perform at your highest level. And I've invested in the tools, training, technology, mentors, to help you get there. And I put everything on the line for you guys. Okay. And what I'm asking you is that you jump ship with us and you cut off all options and you fully commit to training and developing yourselves. And we're going to hold you guys accountable on this. We're going to answer your questions. We're going to personalize the training for you, but we ask that you do this and those of you that do not comply with this, this is going to be a true Testament.Speaker 3 (23:39):If you're a right fit for our team or not. And that's okay if you're not, if this sounds too intense for you guys, you guys can leave. That's all right, we'll give you a recommendation for the next job. I'm just letting you know our culture. We're about to make some radical changes here. And I want you guys to be fully onboard and committed to this. And after you have this talk with the team and you rally the troops, right? You go and you talk to each one of them personally, and you say, is this a good fit for you, John? Right? Like, are you on board with this? Right? And you have these conversations and you get them to commit. And you're going to find that some of your reps are going to say, this is a little too much for me. I'm not in on this.Speaker 3 (24:15):This isn't what I signed up for. And you've gotta be willing to let that person go. Now, today, it might be scary to let that person go. But what you're not seeing is this second, third, fourth order consequences of this decision by deciding to be a training organization, a self-development led organization, you are building a new culture, a new mentality, a new energy around the office, a new dedication, motivation your reps will have. You're going to start attracting better talent. You're going to start seeing better results, but you will not be able to do this. If you have stragglers who are not on board, you have to cut those guys or get them on there's no in-between so that's step number one, you can't lead a horse to water, but you, uh, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it.Speaker 3 (25:05):Principle. Number two, mindset and personal beliefs are almost always the sales training problem for reps. Okay. It is like almost never is skill issue. Okay? Your reps don't have an issue with their script on the door. That's not why they suck on the door. Okay. You might be saying, well, what do you know, James? Like, listen, if your reps had zero fear of what anybody thought about them, they would have no issue knocking doors because after five, 10 attempts, 2050, a hundred reps, right. Of just going at it and learning from rejection, they would have the best script in the freaking world. Okay. Think of it like an artificial intelligence algorithm. Okay. The way AI learns, if you're not familiar with it is quite literally learning from failure. It's just like humans. AI learns by going out there implementing a algorithm is solution to a problem and it tests it and it bounces it.Speaker 3 (26:08):Right. It bounces it back and it usually fails. And it starts doing absolutely crazy things. When AI starts, uh, working in a system, okay. It starts just failing, doing dumb stuff. If a human was a algorithm, right. An artificial intelligence algorithm, it would be like a rep walking around and pitching like people's mail boxes instead of doors. K just doing stupid, stupid stuff. Right. But every single failure leads that algorithm to learn from its mistake. And it just looks at it as testing. It's not a personal failure, right? It's just testing. It's just another way not to do it. It's just like Thomas Edison and the light bulb a thousand ways not to do it right? If your reps didn't have fear or personal beliefs or mindset issues, they would do it just like this. They would just keep showing up and showing up refining, iterating their, their, their abilities.Speaker 3 (27:03):And boom, they'd make it happen. So that's my proof skills are not the issue. Okay. Personal development is the problem with almost all of your reps, right? They have too much baggage. They have fear over what others are thinking of them. They want to be liked more than they want to make a sale. Kay. There's quite a few of these objections. They have money, mindset issues. They have issues with following up. They don't believe they could close a one-leg or appointment because they wouldn't want their spouse. The list is endless, right? So 90% of your time and your training should really be spent in this area. That's what I'm trying to get across here. So principle number three, you need to be growth minded and developing your own skillset. As a leader, right? Culture is passed down. I talked about this already. I won't go into it any further, but if you're not consistently developing yourself as a leader, it is affecting your culture.Speaker 3 (27:57):Mark. My words, principle, number four, tracking is everything. All right? And this is a big one. I hated tracking. When I was selling full time, never wanted to use a CRM. My company was always telling me to use the CRM, but you know, they didn't tell me they didn't tell me why it was important. And that is not something I learned until I tried to start my own solar company three times before having a initial success. I realized that tracking was absolutely everything. I'm not even exaggerating with this tracking and numbers just equal results. At the end of the day, business is math. The company is I've seen that survive or go under it's the ones who understand their numbers and those who don't. Now, when I say tracking, what does this mean? Right? This is not just tracking sales. This is tracking everything you possibly can in the sales process.Speaker 3 (28:54):So exactly how many emails were sent. Follow-up emails are sent by each rep. How many calls were done? What was the length of each call on the appointment setting call? How long did it take to get to setting the appointment on each phone call? Right? How many leads are set? How many doors were knocked, right? How many appointments, how long was each appointment? How long was each appointment until the credit was checked? Like you can go really in depth here. And I can tell you that the big guys, the big companies, you see the 50 to a hundred million dollar companies, they are maniacal about tracking, absolutely obsessed about tracking. So how do you get your reps onboard with tracking? Right? Cause you're probably saying my reps won't even use the CRM. Same thing as the training culture, we are a CRM tracking culture. Now get on board or get out.Speaker 3 (29:50):You don't have to be that blunt obviously, but that's what this is. At the end of the day, you have to make some very critical decisions with leading your team. If you want to scale and grow past the seven figure to low eight figure range, that's kind of where most companies plateau after the figure out their leads and whatnot, they're hiring on reps and they're getting stuck there. And it's because of these two things that do not have a training culture, they do not track properly and they do not train properly tracking culture. Absolutely key. So guys, that is it. That is what I've learned. Training a thousand reps, pretty in-depth stuff. Um, again, I don't expect a ton of people to apply it, but for the few companies out there who are saying, like I am missing a couple of these things go and apply them.Speaker 3 (30:36):This is a hundred percent free stuff. Um, I used to pay, um, charge clients tens of thousands of dollars a month for this stuff. I don't do it anymore. I don't do consulting for solar companies anymore. I'm 100% in on just training and scaling a company is through Taylor's program Solciety and my company epic outside of solar. So I'm quite literally spilling the best of the best stuff on this podcast. You guys, please go apply it. Please go use it. Um, I don't just put it out for free. I'm doing these episodes 100% free of time because I care about you guys. And I want you guys to benefit from my knowledge and experience in the industry. So I'll see you guys in the next episode. Again, if you want to check out what it be like to scale your team past eight figures per year with results guaranteed, a 20% increase guarantee in four months or less with Solciety, go to Solciety.co S O L C I E T Y dot C O or hit up Taylor Armstrong on Facebook or me on LinkedIn. And we'll set you guys up. All right, guys, I'll see you soon.Speaker 4 (31:42):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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):Yo, what's going on. Solarpreneurs. We are back with an amazing episode here and someone that I have been trying to get on the podcast for a little while here. We've got a Jory Sullivan in the house. Jory, Thanks for joining us today.Speaker 3 (00:57):Hey man. I appreciate it. Thanks Taylor, for having me on.Speaker 2 (01:00):Yeah, it's my pleasure. And we're excited to have Jory on, he is the VP of sales for at legacy. One of the VP of sales for legacy he's growing his teams like crazy. They're pushing tons of accounts and just doing some incredible things. Uh, met Jory actually at, uh, the last Knockstar events were hanging out there. Did you come to that? Uh, that, that sauna place, Jory? I can't remember.Speaker 3 (01:25):Yeah, we did. We connected in the sauna,Speaker 2 (01:29):So we were probably sitting naked together in a sauna, maybe. So God, I don't know if I talked to you in there, but got to know some guys on a personal level at that event at the end. Yeah,Speaker 3 (01:39):That was wild. Shout out to Danny Pessy for calling that one out. Yeah. KoreanSpeaker 2 (01:43):Bath house. You guys haven't been there. It's a good place to get to know peopleSpeaker 3 (01:48):If you're ever in Dallas, Texas go to a King Spa. Yeah.Speaker 2 (01:54):Yeah. You will not be disappointed. It was amazing experience. So yeah, it was fun hanging out with the jury there. And then also we realized after the fact that we're actually in North Carolina at the same, same place, same time, but unfortunately we couldn't connect there, but I made the realization later. Um, but yeah, so Jory, I'm excited to have you on here, your story. I know you're growing your teams at time. So first you want to kind of get into how you got into soar and just your background and all that stuff.Speaker 3 (02:23):Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, it probably goes even deeper than that. Um, and to, and the door to door sales, right. Uh, um, cause it all led to this like the, where we're at now and it's like, it's like the story, I don't believe in like omens, but like it all just happened, um, for a reason. So basically, um, I, I remember like I was washing dishes the summer before I'd ride my bike at 5:00 AM, three miles to go wash dishes to be treated like crap. And I was the worst employee ever. And so they told me I couldn't, I wasn't good enough to busboy. That's how bad I was. And I remember I worked my guts out some summer for, um, on my, um, in my 16th, uh, summer birthday. And I made like $2,000 and um, I got a small scholarship to go run track, um, many pounds ago and, uh, it's to Iowa.Speaker 3 (03:18):Right. And, uh, I couldn't afford a, a bus or plane tickets couldn't afford a bus ticket, but I could afford an Amtrak ticket. And I was 20 minutes late to the Amtrak. And then, gosh, track. Apple's about 30 minutes late because throughout the three days it took me to get to, um, I'll maybe four days. Um, I stopped in the city from Oregon born and raised in Oregon. Um, it stopped in the city called salt lake city. Utah didn't know much about it, heard about it in my history books. And some guy sat down next to me and he's like, Hey, in the middle of the night I was sleeping like 1:00 AM. And he's like, Hey, yeah, I sat down next to you. Cause you look inviting. And I'm like, okay. And he's like, Hey, I don't, I just got done knocking and Salt Lake, um, for a company called APX for all the old dogs out there that was 2007.Speaker 3 (04:12):So this next year, 2008. So our town seven is when I met him and I went out in 2008, but he's like, you know, I made $10,000. So in alarm systems you can probably make 12 to 13. And we could, I, I like, I was next to him for like a whole day, just like in and out trying to like figure out like, what is he talking about? I worked like crazy to make $2,000 the summer for that treated like crap. And, uh, and so we literally connected and, and when he gave me the number, I think it was the Facebook at that time Facebook or the guy that the manager, I literally just like begged him and pleaded with them and tried to blitz trips. And I was, I was barely, I was 17 years old. I was still, I was almost 18 at the time.Speaker 3 (04:58):And uh, and that's kind of how I got into the industry. I say, as long as I don't have to kill anybody like I'm in. Right. Because I mean, some of you guys know some of you guys don't know, you know, I, I kind of grew up a little bit differently. Um, so I wanted like preference the story because people always ask my story. Right. And so I want to preference a story. Do not take pity on me. This is, uh, this is something that has made me who I am and it's not actually a setback. It's, it's, uh, I call it living in comeback like mode and I think it's a step up in society. Uh, um, so I guess it all comes like, we're gonna talk about, we're gonna go deep. I don't really stress too much. A lot of people will go deep. So, um, yeah. So I guess we're going to look at it though. We're going to do it. You guys are going to know me a lot better.Speaker 2 (05:51):So take us back.Speaker 3 (05:53):So, um, man, it's both circles. We talk about this, but, um, I, I never met my dad. And, uh, I remember when I was six years old, the first day of first grade, I went to first grade all excited and I came back and, and uh, and my mom never came back. She never came back. And, uh, Joe, my brother and my sisters, we all had to go live with my grandma and golf, my grandma. And, um, and we moved from, uh, Springfield, Oregon down to COOs bay, north bend, Oregon. And, uh, that's where I was. I was at six years old and then, um, a lot of verbal, um, physical abuse. Um, and then I said, I saved that money. I was long washing dishes. Uh, this is like two summers before I was 15 years old and I saved up $800 to go to Nike running camp.Speaker 3 (06:49):Um, and, uh, when I was 15 going on 16 and my grandma was like, Hey, I need that money for rent. And I'm like, you know, I'm from 16 years old, like I want to go play sports. And she's like, that's fine. You can go. But if you come back, like you don't have a place here anymore. We can't afford you. And it, it was, it was rough. Like I remember I got caught stealing one time. Um, and I got caught. I was at like a at-risk teens thing and they asked me why I was stealing and I was broke. I don't cry very often, but I broke down and cried and said, uh, all we have is a block of cheese in the frigerator and I got into money, you know? And so, uh, it's crazy. So, yeah, so it, so like she kept her wording and, uh, and when I was 16 years old, I had to go file to be what the state.Speaker 3 (07:44):So I was an adult at 16 years old and I was going to my junior year, but I met somebody at Ryan camp and we got together, we rallied, we had culture and our culture has always been so deep in my mind. We had all these strangers from different parts of the world. We're really probably the United States come in and we weren't a team or anything. We're just a bunch of runners. And we got a massive culture. I mean, it waned the whole entire competition for champions. And he said, Hey, if you ever need anything, give me a call. Well, I did, I needed a place to live so I can finish, uh, I can finish high school. And, uh, just so happened that his family was not taken in a foreign exchange student that year. And so I was able to move over with him and, uh, and, and finish, um, finished high school.Speaker 2 (08:40):Yeah. So what happened to your, I guess, as you're telling this to your mom, what did she just like, never shut upSpeaker 3 (08:51):Drugs, drugs are powerful. And, uh, and I was actually born addicted to drugs and I had to like re like they had to wean me off and she lost custody. She finally got us back and when she got us back, you know, I took her life again. Yeah. And so, um, but she did reach out when I was nine, uh, 19 years old. Um, but, um, but yeah, it, uh, it let's say this man, like six to 19 is a big gap. Um, thank you for birthing me, but you're not my mom or my mother at that point. Yeah. It's wild. What about your dad? Is he never met him? Never met him. I never met him. So there was, I think there was a defining moment. I don't love to talk about money. I love talking about impact and the more people you act you're going to, uh, acquire the capital from that human capital is what we call it.Speaker 3 (09:51):But I remember it was a funny moment when I was 16 years old sitting on a Nelson's Lyrics, Ruth Nelson. If you're listening to this, thank you. You literally saved my life. Um, but I remember saying, I remember thinking two thoughts. Why didn't my mom want me and too, I'm going to do whatever it takes to be a millionaire because I hated the way this felt. This moment felt I hated the pain, not having enough and asking people for help. And I absolutely hated it. Um, and so, and so I remember that moment. I think there's, there's two, there's two moments when a person realizes who they are, like their why, and when they're born, then that was my defining moment as I looked back, um, on, on my journey. And, uh, and so I, there were big sports family and they, um, they, you know, all their kids got Dijuan scholarships. I wasn't very good. I got an NAI scholarship. And, uh, and that's what I, I got on that train to Iowa. And, and that's how this, all this whole massive, like, from all the pain, the verbal abuse told you're not good enough. You'll never amount to anything. Um, it all comes down to like, it happened for a reason. It made me who I am. And so I've already been at the bottom, so I'm not afraid to go there again.Speaker 2 (11:16):Hmm. That's incredible. Yeah. That's pretty powerful stuff. And I love hearing guys that came from the bottom like that. Um, I mean, obviously super powerful being able to share your stories, especially in the position you're in now. But yeah, my question is like, how do you, in my case, I never grew up like that. Um, I mean, my parents were pretty well off. I grew up in a small town, so they're like one of the richer people in the town, um, 3000 people. Um, but even me growing up that way, that had money, um, not like super rich, but in my town where most were kind of poor, definitely better off. Um, but even I struggle with like quite a bit of self doubt, um, was told, I was like too shy was twice too Chevy stuff like that always growing up. So how does it feel for you coming from a situation like that? Was it super tough to like overcome kind of all these like self doubts and this heavy stuff, do you have to do therapy or like, what did that look like?Speaker 3 (12:17):So door knocking was my actual therapy, right? And I don't care if you came from the wealthiest family or the poorest family, you have a story of overcoming and you just have to learn how to tell that story. And what happens is you, uh, anybody that follows David Goggins, he calls it a cookie jar. And that's exactly what it is. And so whether it doesn't matter what kind of past you've had, we've all done something that we're, we have some that we're good at. It doesn't need to be a state championship chip. Doesn't need to go sell 500 solar accounts in a year, but we all have stuff that we're proud of. And when you get seeds of doubt, we have to be able to pull from that cookie jar to be able to move forward, but take like this with all due respect, you have a story and you need to remember the story of victory in order to be able to go to the next level, because I still have massive doubt. Um, and, and I have to pull from my cookie jar on a regular basis to be able to operate at a high frequency throughout the day and year.Speaker 2 (13:23):Hmm. That's awesome. Yeah. I think that's super powerful and that's the next size I've actually done is just kind of write down the things, you know, you are good at that kombucha moments you have achieved because I forget all the time. I mean, I've almost quit doing this podcast probably like 50 times now, just because I feel like, oh, there's people way burner and solar. Um, I'm not qualified, like shared by smell solar. I mean, I know I'm not the greatest, but got my golden door award closed, lots of deals. And so a lot of times it's just for me right now, the things I have accomplished, the things I have done well, and that's yeah, that is something super powerful than do sound like it's been a big thing for you. So how do you coach, um, like reps that are struggling, do you have, like, I mean, I know your story is super powerful, but the reps that have struggled on teams feeling like maybe they're not good enough needing confidence. Is there things you guys have done, uh, helping, you know, your reps at legacy, they're helping them to kind of overcome these feelings of self doubt, stuff like that.Speaker 3 (14:22):Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, like, that's a phenomenal question. And so, um, whether it's legacy or solar or pest control or that you're listening to this right now, uh, make sure that you, you listen, you truly listen to, um, reps, um, or your friends or your battle buddies is what I call them. Like their battle buddies. You'll listen to them when they have the concern, get off your phone, look them in the eyes have human and let them know you care because you know, one of the laws of leadership by John Maxwell is when you touch their heart, you can touch their hand. And so, um, just knowing that you care and you're going to do everything you can to kind of hold them accountable in a way that's not offensive. Um, it's felt with love. They're going to be able to go that next level.Speaker 3 (15:14):And sometimes you have to, like, you have to like physically in-plant motivation inside them and, and like, awesome. This is, they've done. Like a lot of times when people have like, like bad months or weeks and they say, oh, this and that. I go, I go to our database and like, Hey, remember that week you sold four. How did that feel? Did it, does it feel like you feel right now if the answer is no, then we've got a lot of work to do, but the good news is you can acknowledge it. And so now we're going to actually move forward.Speaker 2 (15:45):That's awesome. Yeah, it reminds me of a, I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but, um, are you a basketball fan? Much? Yeah. Doc rivers. Yeah, the coach. Um, he's, uh, I know that's one of the big things he does with his players. In fact, this season, I was listening to like an interview and Joel and bead, he had one of his best seasons, you know, and VP caliber. And everyone's like, how does doc rivers get like these players to perform so much better? And it's because he like talks them up so much. He'll tell the media, like he has the best players. They're the best at doing this. It's like, you can get them down this deep belief in themselves. So that's like so similar in any industry, anything, I think that's what powerful coaches do, powerful leaders. So I love hearing that. Um, so for you, George, do you have, like, I know we kind of cut your story a little bit short, but when you first got into door to door, was there sort of like a defining moment for you? Was it like all sunshine and rainbows? Did you feel we'll start nowSpeaker 3 (16:46):Terrible. Terrible. So listen, if you're listening to this, you're not very good. There's still hope I was terrible. Um, I remember, I remember knocking on that first store and almost throwing up and I remember the Pomona correcting my sales pitch. Wow. Yeah, it doesn't get much worse than that, but the good news is I, I literally storm was coming. I didn't care. I was out out there till nine o'clock at night and I got my first sale and as I retired cop and he canceled, but yeah, but like, and then I had, I was just, I didn't, I didn't know how to control my emotions. Right. I don't know how, I didn't know how to think at a high level. I didn't know that really books were needed. Right. I didn't know that, um, you know, there's all the knowledge out there in the world.Speaker 3 (17:38):And just because your sales manager is not giving it to you, that you can't go out and get yourself. I didn't know. The undying confidence, this person that you see in front of, or you're listening to was I was terrible. I, I think I funded like 35 alarm deals my first summer and the next summer I funded like 45. I was absolutely terrible, but my third summer you get them over. This is like, I didn't know. I wasn't going back. I wasn't going back to washing dishes. There was nothing left for me in that town. Right. And so the third year when I got really serious, I started to, I decided to get serious about the opportunity. I started investing in myself, my thoughts, my beliefs, um, and I started to be able to be the best and win as much as I possibly can. Um, and then it just kept going from there.Speaker 2 (18:31):That's awesome. What, what, what type of things did you invest in? What was it that made the difference in your third year? Would you say?Speaker 3 (18:37):Yeah, so first of all, it was my belief system. So I was going to think it's really stupid, but, um, everyone's heard of the secret. I get it. Thoughts become things, but there needs to be action behind it. I understood that as I read this book called the secret, and I remember like, you guys are gonna laugh, like, but I remember putting a hundred thousand dollars, like on my wall when I woke up. Um, and I remember writing a hundred thousand dollars on my mirror while I was brushing my teeth. And I remember like two day, two a day, two a day, um, in alarms. And that was my, that was my belief system. And that at the end of that year, um, I had to make my 99,000 like 400 and some odd dollars. Um, and so I'm not saying that it didn't work or there's no validation behind the secret. Uh, but that was, that was the biggest thing. It's believing that I was capable of doing, and it's going to come to me before. So it's the same thing that you're talking about with the coach. Like I was believing it before it actually came true.Speaker 2 (19:34):Yeah. That's awesome. And I mean, I love hearing that you struggled at times because you get guys, other people we've had on like Sam tagger, you know, other guys in the industry, that's like they get on and just click they're instantly like instantly start slinging deals. But like, for me, it was super rough. I started off in pest control and same thing I did like, um, I did like 1 0 5, my first summer pest control. And then I had like 10 cancels. So I lost like my rent and bonus loss. Basically my whole back ends I'm like freak, should I even keep doing this? Um, so I mean, I think that's super powerful hearing guys that did struggling pushed through. So for you, what was it that like kept you going those first two summers, you said you struggled at ton. Was it just kind of a, not wanting to go back to that situation you were in or what kept you just like pushing, even though you're struggling so much.Speaker 3 (20:25):Yeah. You don't. I said, I said, um, I said, when I was 16 years old, I wanted to be a millionaire. And I believe that door to door was the fastest way to get there. Um, and, and I was going to do whatever it took to get there because all my friends were working dead-end jobs in that town. Um, and I assume I as was starting to be around people that were making a hundred to $300,000 back in 2008, nine and 10 back back in the golden years of alarms, um, I did not, I stopped thinking like they thought, and we didn't really get along. We didn't understand each other. Um, and so I decided to be around people that wanted the same things as me, the culture aspect of it. Um, and I was just committed to winning no matter what I wanted to win my race.Speaker 2 (21:19):Yeah. I love that. And that's another powerful point. I think you make is getting around the right people. I've struggled with that too. Having friends that are just, you know, working the nine to five, just doing their thing. And that was, I think was one of the big breakthroughs I had in solar is I had to, um, just pretty drastically changed the people that I was hanging out with, which sounds like you did do. Cause I mean, I think a lot of people for a year, the average of the five people you hang out with, and for me that even I thought I was safe. Once I got into door to door, I thought I was going to be okay, I'm hanging out with good people now, even starting out in door to door solar, I was still hanging out with people that guys drive out to an area. And then it's like, oh, let's sit in our car for three hours, watch game of Thrones and hang out. So that helped me back to that's. Um, yeah, I think a good point to make. So where does it go from there? Jory how did you transition from alarms to solar? And I guess,Speaker 3 (22:22):Yeah, I was my own, uh, dealer. It didn't, it didn't work out. Well, it always seems like I realized that I'm not a number one. I, don't not a CEO of a door to door company and I'm okay with that. And so my thought process is if I'm not number one, why can be a number of three and developed to a number two and still have an outstanding life? I remember, you know, like, oh, you make more money, right? It's similar to, you got the lowest red line, but there's no support and nothing, you do everything. And you're trying to, you're a swamp and next thing you know, your debts or eyeballs. And I was so sick of it. I was sick of the alarm industry. I remember sitting on a door on a curb, um, in Georgia and I was like sick to my stomach to knock another door for alarms.Speaker 3 (23:11):And I got a call on blaze, like, Hey, solar's happening? And I'm like, listen, I'll fly out and listen. Um, and one of the biggest one way to get me going is tell me I'm not wanted or good enough, because I've been told that my whole life, like, like I've been told that I've lived in that, in that, that freight like phase my whole life. And so one thing that tells me, like, I'm not good enough or like, Hey, listen, we're gonna do it without you. Um, Doug Robinson, the seal of legacy was like, Hey, Jory like, dude, I love you. Um, we're gonna, we're gonna grow this thing with, or without you, but we'd rather be with you. And I was like, oh man. Oh man. And so, um, yeah, so he's, so I sold my home in Kansas city. Um, I moved to South Carolina before the lease was there and I was one of the actual original people in South Carolina.Speaker 3 (24:06):I sold my first lease deal on South Carolina timber, first of 2015. Wow. So one of the original people and actually the person who just had on the podcast, Tim McCarthy, um, I reached out to him. I know he switched to solar before I did. And he gave me some crucial bias. He probably doesn't remember it, but he said, Jory, if you work this like summertime alarms, you around deal, destroy it. And that's the only advice. I didn't know what a kilowatt was. I didn't know how solar really works. All I knew is I can sell alarms. I can knock and I can train people. And I worked like summer alarm grind and I put it towards solar.Speaker 2 (24:53):That's awesome. Yeah. It's funny. Every, almost every alarm guy, I think that's the biggest reason they're successful. Um, I'm out here working with Jason newbie he's which you probably know him. He's top rabbit divot and everything. He's already grown his solar team in like less than six months. Um, he had a guy do 19 deals last week. They're consistently getting like nine to 10 deals a day and that's literally all he's doing. He's just having his solar team work alarm hours and just drive out like their alarms and then close them, like their alarms, like none of this next day stuff. It's just all same day. So that's awesome. Yeah. So that's pretty, pretty interesting, um, that all the alarm guys think that way and they think it's a huge reason for success. And so when, when was that? Was that 2017? You started in solar nowSpeaker 3 (25:44):2015, September 1st. 2015. Okay.Speaker 2 (25:49):So yeah, you're an old dog. I was thinking I was one of the older ones I started in 2016. So got me. Yeah.Speaker 3 (25:55):Yeah. I'm old, man. I'm the oldest 31 year old you're ever going to know.Speaker 2 (25:59):That's crazy. It's been in this forever. Um, and so 2015. And then did you start it just like a regular rep or what, how did your progression go?Speaker 3 (26:12):So basically I, I, I went to this place called Greenville, South Carolina, and I was the only rep there and they're like, Hey, if you grow it, you can have it. And we ended up growing that thing, um, in, in two years to two and a half years to installing, you know, 150 to 200 deals a month. So yeah, we're, we're pumping out about 1500 kilowatts a month and installs, um, in this little town and unfortunately utilities, we met the net metering cap and they had some discussions. Um, so that's when, um, legacy wasn't doing really well in Florida. And so, um, they basically asked where I wanted to go next while they figured out utilities. And the good part is there was a regional Ari, a place in South Carolina that, that came from, um, from one of my teams. And so, um, you know, we next up, right? This is you, you finish out South Carolina and I'll go to Florida. Um, and I'll go, I'll go help rebuild legacy in Florida. There was a time like I see what it was not very good in Florida, but now it's, I, you know, I'm biased, but I'd say we're pretty good now.Speaker 2 (27:21):Yeah. That's amazing. You said you guys are on track to do what 500. This yeah,Speaker 3 (27:27):Yeah. Between, uh, Florida and, uh, and, and, uh, North Carolina, 500 sales this month, obviously there's going to be a lag. Right. Uh, but it, it takes a village, you know, you know, and I, I came down here to Florida. It was a, you know, it wasn't pretty, um, Sunrun. We were certified part at that time. So we only sell Sunrun, you know, they, weren't amazing, they're getting operations. And I met this guy named Peter Winston, um, and, and P literally helped it was a ying and yang mentality. And he helped row like this, this Florida to the absolute monster, um, where we're at today. So big shout out to Pete because I was struggling and I'll be okay with saying that. And I think one of the biggest things about me is that I'm okay with my faults and getting better. Um, the I'm also what I think I'm really good at is working with people. I believe that are better than me. Um, or, or we elevate each other to get to that next level to be able to grow together.Speaker 2 (28:29):Yeah. I love hearing, um, just to focus on the strengths, cause like you were saying before, so many people are just focused on a what's my best red line. What's like the most I can get paid what's this, this, this, and even just recently in my office, we've had reps just like quick go chase, better red lines and everything. And it's like, dude, you can get that. But, um, you've found like three installs don't even know what you're doing yet. So don't you think it'd better be better to have the support and like grow with the team, especially in solar. So many people make that mistake. Could you agreeSpeaker 3 (29:02):If we, if we race to the bottom, it's not the, do any, is that going to do anything for the rep, their family, their family's family, everything that's gotta be, um, depend on them because at that level services, not there, um, it doesn't matter how many cells you can't get it to install. If you don't have the back office, if you don't have the culture, if you don't have, um, the systems in place, if you don't have videos, if you don't have a way to onboard people, it's not gonna work. And I've seen, I've probably seen about 30 to 40 solar companies come and go almost last year and half that's COVID. Um, and so it just, it just, it's in Florida alone through that. I of, and so it's not, it's not, uh, we can't raise the bottom. You have to raise the qualitySpeaker 2 (29:46):Yeah. A hundred percent. And so for all those listening, consider that if you guys are considered switching your whatever situation you're in, just look at the value, how much value are you getting from it, your company, are you getting back end support? Are you getting training in? Those are things that should be heavily considered, um, along with how much you're getting paid and red lines, things like that. SoSpeaker 3 (30:09):I learned my lesson in alarms trying to chase those multiples. So I won't do it again. I, I, I enjoy being able to make time for my family. And I don't want to say there's a work-life balance. A lot of us don't believe in that. Um, I believe you have to make time for work-life balance. Um, but I'm able to do that now more because of the systems that I'm in now, don't get me wrong just because I have a nice title next to my name doesn't mean I don't get out and get after it like anyone else. I think that's one thing that will separate legacy from a lot of different companies is our VPs. Um, still go out and create, you know, I've never hit golden door. I've never hit it. There was a time our, our backlog, the one I had 96 1 year and I've almost hit it, but we're average like three and a half to four month installs in South Carolina just did not fly. They're not lining up in December, but the good news is I was able to install megawatts and megawatts and megawatts. And I think now we're closer to 60, 65 plus megawatts between, um, you know, me and everyone that I brought into the legacy family or it's part of it that, um, I get to me to work with.Speaker 2 (31:22):Yeah, that's incredible. And so you had just kind of transitioned into something that I respect a ton about legacy. It just like the culture you guys have. Um, it seems like everyone's bought in really well there. And I know that's one of your big strengths Jory. So how, how do you get people to like buy in so much on this culture and like vision that, that legacy is trying to chase after, on your teams?Speaker 3 (31:43):Are you going to laugh? But, um, Tony Robbins. So, um, so I, I, I was pretty much, I think I was more of a military leader in the start. I was like, Hey, why aren't we doing this? Why are we doing this? And it wasn't effective. Like, why are we not selling? Cause I, I had a shift that everyone did not think like me, right? We just go out and get it done. And so I went to a Tony Robbins event and then I came back from the van. I felt like a big weight slips off my shoulders. And I'm like, no, I, my shoulders I'm like no more. Am I going to be a military leader? There'll be times where I can be militant with other leaders, but can't be militant with the normal rep. Cause it just, sometimes it does not flow. And so what I decided to do was create culture through fun, excitement, motivation, like getting people to bump their chest, stick, chest out, make their move.Speaker 3 (32:40):Right. Tell him, I say, I'm the best. I'm the greatest and sounds so cheesy, but they're smiling ear to ear. And through that, it is, I, what I noticed is it was allowed allowing me to get instant motivation, get instant results, but then I can work on it to be able to create, um, go for motivation to discipline if it's fun and exciting. There's nothing that gets me more when I go travel around the country or I see other people's meetings, if you're not pumped up and excited and I'm not saying don't Chubb, like Ben's right. What I'm saying is we're not pumped up excited if you don't have a little five foot girl that's really never done before, like pumping their chest and saying, oh look greatest. Like that's what these moments are for, because what it's doing is getting people to see the end result, right. The confidence before it actually happens. And I love it. There's nothing more that love is somebody making a mental shift to be like, you know what? That crazy dude that keeps telling me that I'm the greatest. And it keeps making me say it out loud. Maybe I am, maybe there's something more I can dig a little deeper.Speaker 2 (33:46):I love that. And yeah, I mean, speaking to Tony Robbins, that's basically his entire event is like jumping up and down screaming and you know, every couple minutes you got to do some second chance type thing.Speaker 3 (33:57):Well, I mean, especially in solar, there's so much moving parts and there's so much like, uh, uh, not in this like, like things you have to do, it's not always pretty or sexy and solar, um, like pushing through accounts and things like that. So if we can switch it up and we can operate from a peak state, like, man, you're going to win.Speaker 2 (34:17):Yeah. Love that. So do you have any like specific things you guys do in your meetings to get people in that peak state is like, you know, screaming as you're shouting your goals or anything specific you guys do?Speaker 3 (34:31):Um, so I would probably say the number one thing that we do is we do, uh, that we actually make our move. Right. And, and, uh, and I don't know if anybody knows what that is, but I'll kind of explain it. So basically we stand up and we operate from a position of power. I mean, just feed her about, uh, just shoulders with the part your chest is sticking out and you're, you're standing direct. And then what, I don't want to sound, let's say, let's go, let's go. Where to clap. We're to clap, good, play some music. Right. And then we'll say, make your move. And everyone's got to do some kind of power move. Like they're powerful Batman, Superman move. And they're black right at the right word at that clever SIM right. Two doors. I want them heading toward to the area, pumped up, listen to the music, ready that opened that first car door and then start moving from there. Nice. That's awesome. It's not for everybody. Right. But I find that those that don't like, it we'll eventually like, like, okay, fine. And then, then like, all right. And everyone's smiling and having a good time. I need them to leave the meetings on a high and smiling.Speaker 2 (35:39):Yeah. That's awesome. Get me pumped right now. I want to do one right now, but it's super powerful and some guys bashed on it, but I mean, it changes the states like Tony Robbins says you got to change your state. Um, and I think that's huge for developing competence, things like that too, for the onesSpeaker 3 (35:58):That bash on it. Listen, I get it. Um, you'll offer it like that, but it's not for you. It's if you're a top producer or trying to be top producer, it's for the people that, that, that you lead it's for the people that trust you.Speaker 2 (36:14):Yeah, for sure. And what about like reps that are struggling? I mean, something that you've seen it in solar, they're always the upstate just, you know, want to go work like two, three hours, get a deal here and there. And they're fine with that. How do you get people to like, just want more and set higher goals from themselves? And I don't know, push themselves more. What have you seen that works?Speaker 3 (36:39):So I, you know, I was actually on a recruiting call today and, and the guy was like, Hey, there's 20 people in my company. I'm number one. And, and, and I'm like, dude, that's phenomenal. So you're a big fish in a small pond. So why don't we utilize that same mentality, that same confidence and have you be a big fish in a bigger pond. And what's going to happen is you will see yourself, rise to the level that you need to go to when you have other people doing outstanding numbers around you, you're gonna look at the, the, the, um, CRM and be like, I can do more. I can do more. And, um, and at the end of the conversation, he's like, whoa, I never really thought about if I like some people don't think about it. If I, if I'm not the best, I strive to be the best that's going to push me to do more.Speaker 3 (37:34):Because that mentality that you just talked about. So if you're working two hours a day and everyone's praising you for that, you to leave your company, because they're not, they're not doing the best service for you or your family. Yeah. You have to stay relevant. And it's, it's been hard for me to stay relevant over the last six years and solar. And I still question my relevancy a lot of times, but then I remember these moments, these cookie jar moments, and then I'm like more, I can do more. I can impact more people. I can sell more. I can recruit more. I can give more. I can give more love more.Speaker 2 (38:14):Yeah. I love that. And I would say for guys that are maybe at smaller companies, or if you're the top guy go get in like some type of mastermind group, get around people that are doing more. That's what I think is so cool about what knocks these knock star guys are doing. And what we're trying to do here with the podcast is just connect with people that are at a much higher level, because the second you feel like you're at, you're the best in the room. Like you're just saying a minute ago. Um, I think you stopped growing sapping to me. Yeah. If you'reSpeaker 3 (38:44):The best in your room and if you're a 2020 man company, I'm not saying there's anything against it, but go give your nuggets and show somebody how to go compete and go recruit higher level people to bring that company up.Speaker 2 (38:56):Yeah, for sure. So yeah, for our Solarpreneur, make sure you take a good look at that. Don't be the best one in the room. Go join some mastermind groups, get around people that are achieving at a high level. And I'm so Jory, I love hearing what you guys are doing to build culture. Um, and yeah, for guys that, like, I dunno if you have someone on the team that just isn't producing week after week, do you guys just let them go? Or what, what does it look like?Speaker 3 (39:24):Wait, we never want to let anybody go. Right. Um, we believe our culture is all inclusive. Um, but what we would do is we would, we would have a conversation like let's and maybe there's wrong with your closing. So let's go back to setting and help you close in order to be able to kind of re energize and get that confidence back. Gotcha. Okay.Speaker 2 (39:49):So you guys start, uh, all new reps off just sending the deals. And then is there a point of transition to closing?Speaker 3 (39:56):Yeah. Unless they have experience from other companies. Um, but there's a lot in solar, right? There's a lot of moving parts and you start dealing with loans and, and, uh, ID approvals and everything else. And so I've seen so many reps come in, not have that, that, that setting. So it's not just setting here's, I here's the difference. I love about what we do here. At least in the Southeast for legacy, we bring on setters, but they're really mentees. We, our job is to pair them with somebody that's going to mentor them, coach them along the ways. And so, and they're going to be part of every single close. And I hope everyone's doing this in the industry. They're a part of every single close and we want to train them.Speaker 3 (40:40):I want to coach them to go to closing their own deals. I think I'm probably gonna be like ostracized for this. But I think one of the black balls in the industry, um, is our black eyes and history is people just having setters and never given them an opportunity to be more right. And so unless, unless they want to do that then great. But we should never ever keep someone as a setter and never give them the value. And the love that I think every person coming in the space deserves initially. And then you can make that adjustment from there.Speaker 2 (41:12):Yeah. No, that's a huge wall. I see for companies, matter of fact, one of the first companies I was with that was the whole plan. It was just like bringing people on as setters and try to keep them there permanently have no leg vision for him. It's, I mean, we recruit a lot of setters, but then once they saw that they couldn't grow past a certain point going to start closing, go somewhere else I'm of here. It's actually a ton of them went to legacy. So withSpeaker 3 (41:38):No vision people perish.Speaker 2 (41:41):Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a huge key to recruiting is you're not just saying, Hey, come join our company. I'm sure you guys are doing it too. It's more like, Hey, we weren't, we're looking for people that can lead teams. We want to open up this office. We want people, they can do this, this and transitioned into, you know, growing this area, managing this team. And yeah, I found that that worked way more effective than just saying, Hey, we're high in for solar, but it's like, no, we want leaders that can help open up, you know, our north office, ourselves office grow into this role and then people get way better vision. So, um, yes. Super powerful stuff. Jory. Um, I know we gotta wrap up kind of quick here, but any, any, uh, I guess final words of wisdom, final things you would say that's helped with your culture recruiting or anything else that you guysSpeaker 3 (42:30):Yeah. So, um, I'd probably say this. You don't have to have like a story like mine. Like my story is not, I won't say definitely not normal. Um, but my story is different, right? It's, it's a very raw and real hard story. Um, but your story, you have a story and you have to be good at telling your story. Cause I did not want to tell I, I was embarrassed that I was homeless and I had 20 bucks in two trash bags. I was embarrassed. I had literally no food in the frigerator. And, and I had, I only had like a couple of pairs of jeans. I was embarrassed. Um, and, but eventually people like, and you start sharing that story. It's very motivational. I read it in a book. And so here's my advice to go create award-winning culture. You need to go create a story and build a, tell your story to inspire others.Speaker 3 (43:25):Matter of fact, if you were to create a autobiography right now and you were to give it to a random stranger on the train and they didn't read that again, inspired, then you got work to do right. You got a lot of work to do. And I don't care where you come from. Everybody has a story. Everybody adds value and you have to go find your story, your value, and have to go share a vision with people around you and more important. If you want to create a massive winning culture, if you feel somebody that that has, we've talked about it, a leader, a lot of people want leaders. Um, but they don't want them to be like at the same level, the same title they be, you know, beneath them. If you find somebody of that caliber never, never be scared to share. Right. Never be scared to share because once you go through that wall and you're like, we're here, we're sharing. That's when it starts getting really, really good. And that's when limits start being broken and lids start being removed and everybody starts winning.Speaker 2 (44:31):Yeah. So powerful. And yeah, it just goes to anyone that shares a story like this. Like just for an example, I've had people on the show or, you know, seeing people, social media and all that, where it's all about posting the next picture with the Lamborghini, next cars are driving just all the money they're making, showing the big checks, but they never shared any like story or anything. People that are sharing, like the raw truth stories like this. I mean, they're the ones getting the intention to, so people that do have those shares, it gets the attention. And that's what people are going to be attracted to is when you're raw, when you're real. And when you can get vulnerable with people, um, I can test that cause I've seen it over and over just in the podcasts, all our episodes that always get the most lessons are where people are like raw and real like this. So, well,Speaker 3 (45:18):I don't want to take you over, but I want to say that there was a moment where I was like doing my fridge is full. I have no struggles. Right? Like what am I struggled? Somebody cancels. Right. So what happened was this guy named David Goggins first came to the scene. He's on Tim Ballou or whoever's is his YouTube. And I'm like, this guy ran a hundred miles in 24 hours. I'm like, I didn't train for them. Let me see what I can do. And I went to a 24 hour event and I literally ran a one mile, um, four, I ran a one mile lap and I ended up getting 52 miles in that lap. I didn't train. I was dead. I was hurt. My knee was broken. I was actually at the whitewater center that I was running over and over and over and over.Speaker 3 (46:02):And I felt I had to redefine who I was like the rawness, the realness. Somebody came from the comeback kid. Right. I lived in that mode. And so I, I remember laying down at 42 miles and then getting back up hobbling 10 more miles before the end of it. I didn't run as much as I want. I didn't know what Intel, but I needed to find my pain, my tolerance level. And there was something beautiful in the struggle. And so now I have that, that cookie jar moment. Now I can, I can overcome and do anything.Speaker 2 (46:32):Wow. That's incredible. I didn't know that. How, when did you do that? Is that reasonable?Speaker 3 (46:37):No. 2017. It's 2017. It was, it was terrible. It was not great because everyone was there doing it, but they're running the teams of six and there's a few of us just running. I got second place that, not that, but we're just running like just over and over and over and over again. And it was brutal, but I need to figure out who I was. I need to step out of my shell, go to my new shop.Speaker 2 (47:02):Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. No, that's awesome. Yeah. I think we all need to do stuff like that.Speaker 3 (47:08):So go run 50 miles in 24 hours or two marathons a day that will help create culture.Speaker 2 (47:18):I know, dang. I need to do something like that and felt like a whistle here, but that's awesome. Um, my cold showers are feeling like nothing compared to that. Like, I'm just going to do a cold shower. That's pushing it for me.Speaker 3 (47:30):This, this life is too short. Not to go do something crazy. Right. And people around you respect it. Whether you hit your goal or not, they attemptSpeaker 2 (47:39):Yeah. A hundred percent. Well Jory, we appreciate you sharing the story. Um, I definitely resonate. It resonated with that. I know our listeners are going to love it too. So where can people reach out to you on social media and all that, um, connect with you want to share your social media contacts? Yeah.Speaker 3 (47:56):So if you want, yeah. If you wanna like see my culture and who I am live, um, check out my Instagram handle. It's at jewelry, won't lose and actually trying to gain more followers. I feel like I don't have enough compared to what everyone's doing now. Um, or a Facebook, majority Solomon, and I don't hide the culture. I don't hide what we're doing. So if you want sneak, peeks into legacy and what we're creating, so you can either recreate retrade that in your own companies or reach out to me, um, go to Jory Sullivan. It's a lot easier to send me a DM that I'll be more happy to respond to you.Speaker 2 (48:32):Awesome. Well, Jory, thanks again for coming on the show for a member for Solarpreneurs, just be real on everything. You do get vulnerable with people, and then that's going to help you in your recruiting. That's going to help you in your culture and get people fired up to go out and work and help your teams out. So thanks again. Jory I'm sure we'll get you hopefully a few new followers on Instagram there, and we'll look forward to connecting with you more and more. Appreciate you coming on the show. Let's grow, baby. Let's grow. Let's grow. Let's do it.Speaker 1 (49:00):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 top in the morning to all our Solarpreneurs out there. We are back with another exciting episode and we've got a familiar face on, he's been on a couple episodes previously, and we're going to be starting up sort of a new, um, kind of interview series we're doing so familiar faces James Swiderski. What's up, James. Thanks for comingSpeaker 3 (01:02):By Taylor. Thank you, Matt. Thank you.Speaker 2 (01:05):My pleasure. My pleasure. And so James we're, we're talking off camera just about this new kind of calm set concept of training we're doing, which is sorta like on the company level issues we see. So you were on kind of introduced this, um, I dunno, series we were talking about kind of what the thinking was behind it.Speaker 3 (01:29):Yeah, for sure. So the new series we want to do is called train to win. And more specifically, we want to give company owners and I guess more ambitious reps that are looking to really scale their sales, some tools and strategies on how to actually develop out their sales skills. Um, this is not just specific to solar, as far as, um, people struggling with training in general, it's a epidemic in multiple industries. And, um, for those of you who are not familiar, I am the founder and CEO of a trained in global training company called epic. And what we do is we help multi seven figure companies scale past eight figures with their teams, hire reps, develop systems and processes around that. So what I'm going to do is pop on once in a while, do a solo episode about some of my experience with having trips and over a thousand reps with my company as well. So that'll be for you business owners out there, um, train to win tune in, listen to that for some specific tactics on how to train and scale your sales team. So yeah,Speaker 2 (02:38):It's a stuff that we should all be talking more about for sure. A hundred percent. And the reason I thought it was a good idea is just because there's such a disconnect in the training, in the industry, on the company and the rep level. Um, I remember starting out, I struggled with it a ton of just getting good, getting and finding good training and then actually implementing it because how companies do you know, James? I'm sure you've seen it, where they bought the card on use. They bought these trading platforms and what do they do? They didn't even hop on it. So that's a huge problem. I mean, I don't come me as a boss, thousands and thousands. Um, I mean my, my previous company I was with, we spent, I know a ton of money to get the card on you and yeah. And on it, and then it didn't increase ourselves.Speaker 3 (03:22):So solar either. That's the thing. Uh, um, I would say solar is even a little behind the eight ball on it, but the, the statistic on that actually there's over $1.5 billion a year spent on enterprise training for sales teams. Okay. And this is crazy. This stat was done by ed tech, um, their conference in 2017 and they found that 87% of sales training that was purchased for their sales team was forgotten within 30 days. So if that's not the equivalent of lighting cash on fire as a CEO, I don't know what it is. Right. Um, so yeah, that's what my company solves. I want to kind of talk about why that's the case and more specifically what you guys can do about it. Um, solar specifically.Speaker 2 (04:09):Yeah. Well, let's jump into it. And so for our listeners, our Solarpreneurs that don't know James helped us through his, um, epic platform. He helped us build out society, which we've been talking about here and there on the, on the, uh, episodes, which is the new training platform that we just released. And we're already seeing people get results with it and training it's. Um, we think it's going to revolutionize the, uh, solar training game just because it combines, you know, the learning with games you can take with a separate accountability. So we're going to talk kind of the specific things that's, um, James is doing to help, you know, just sells training in general with that system. Yeah. Dwelt within epic. But yeah, I guess, um, why did you decide to start, you know, this whole epic thing? And I, I thought it was epoch so, um, just, just for the record, it's spelled E P O C H. So James gets sick, sick of correcting people. It's not epoch, epic. Right,Speaker 3 (05:07):Right, right. Whatever you want to call it epoch the CA all right. I mean, the biggest thing I've tried to, if any of you guys know my background, right. So I got into sales consulting and training, like after I left my first solar company job, a startup I worked with and I found out, um, scaling this company up from a couple of million, upwards of eight figures. Here's what their sales team, that sales training was just fundamentally broken altogether. Um, the most common training mistakes we see actually, and I even have a few of the listed here that I discovered through training my own reps was they didn't have a predictable system to do it. Right. That's very common. And that's why guys will go by like Cardone university, Jordan Belfort, straight line persuasion, stuff like that, all great programs, the way I've taken all of these programs.Speaker 3 (05:59):I spent over a half, a million dollars in my own money on sales training programs. That's how I got good at sales. And I recommend people do that. Right. The problem was this most companies in solar and my company in particular, um, we did not have a way to measure training success. Okay. We were spending all this cash on training, but we didn't know if it was actually producing a real ROI. Right. So that was the first problem companies have. So they don't measure training outcomes and how to actually get an ROI. Um, if you are generating leads, buying Facebook ads, anything like that, right. For your business, you need to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, what's happening on the calls. And if you don't measure these things, um, we can't improve them. What gets measured gets improved. Right? So that's the biggest thing. If you own a company right now, and you're looking for a better way to train your apps, or you're a rep, um, looking to improve your skillset, the first thing you should do is establish a baseline with your skills and where you're currently at by tracking everything, um, from activities to what skills you're working on, um, your current sales pipeline, you need to make sure you're tracking. So that's, I'd say that's the first mistake I've seen, um, working with, I'd say probably a little over 45, 50 different solar companies at this point in my career.Speaker 2 (07:24):Yeah. No, that's good. Yeah. Tracking is huge. And like, my question is, how do you know? Um, I don't know, what are some specific things you track? I know you talked about it a little bit. It just barely, but like when I've gotten coaching and training, sometimes it's tough to tell what the reps it's like, oh, are they just more motivated to work? Or they like putting in a few more hours or is this like actual information helping them? So what are things that I don't know, is there anything specific you're saying, it's like, you check this thing and that's how, you know, if the training's actually working or how accurate are you seeing?Speaker 3 (07:58):Yeah. Yeah. So the biggest, um, before we get to that, I want to kind of give the big idea of this. So the big idea is to adopt what I call conscious skill development. So most reps kind of use the spray and pray method with training and companies. And that method is the most familiar with anybody. And it's proven, right? You will learn that method is to just go out there, do the craft, repeat, put in the work and you'll learn as a by-product through experience. Right. And that is effective to a degree, but you're wasting a lot of time in there is what I've found, working with teams and myself. Um, we're able to really cut the learning time by a drastic amount. And I can't give you an exact percentage or anything, but, um, I've been able to learn everything from marketing to sales, to recruiting, to basically every skill within business. Um, it's kind a running joke. Taylor and I have with things, um, I just have like a ridiculous set of skills, whether it's from producing sales videos, promo videos, marketing, email, whatever it is. Right. It's because I use this process. Um, what was your question again? MineSpeaker 2 (09:12):Was just like, are there specific things? Yeah. Are there specific things that you're like, I dunno, companies that you've been working with, it's like, okay, that's how you're going to know if it actually had an ROA or ROI or pay it off. Um, cause yeah, I know that's a big problem is like, guys can't see that it's they don't necessarily know if they improved from this training or maybe your reps were working more hours. So yeah. What are the things you're telling them? WeSpeaker 3 (09:35):Measure. Yep. So five key things specifically for solar one, it's going to be most of you guys, that's going to be knocking doors, right? A second. We have appointment setting for skillsets. We have presenting for number three, closings number four, and then five is emotional intelligence. ETQ right. There's a kind of like the five core skillsets that you need to master to really successfully sell solar. Um, how you measure these is you define a clear outcome for each activity. In other words, like what do we want to produce when we're prospecting for most guys it's we want to get a new lead, right. A new opportunity. So we define what we want to accomplish with each skill. So for prospecting, maybe it's a new lead. Okay. For some door knocking companies, it may be time spent on doors is the most valuable, uh, metric. So these metrics will be different company to company.Speaker 3 (10:35):And the way you determine what is the most valuable metric to measure is the one that produces the majority or do you have the outcomes? And you can only do this if you track. Right. That's the thing, that's why nobody does. This is because their tracking is not in place to begin with. Um, you need to be tracking, not just like leads and appointments set it's actual activities. So how much time are you spending per rep on the doors? Right? How many doors are you knocking to get a conversation? Right? These are things that you need to track if you want to have a successful training system. So go through each activity within your sales process, if you're a rapper, a company owner, and define what you want to accomplish with each particular skillset. So yeah,Speaker 2 (11:22):Yeah, yeah. That's better. Yeah. And I think a big thing that companies struggle with is just the actual tracking. Um, because I've seen, you know, I've worked for multiple companies now where it's like, they're tracking is just, um, you know, whatever's posted in like the group, me, the group chat, it's like, oh, I got a lead. We're going to put that up count as a lead. But it's like, they don't know was that leads was that qualified was actually booked with a homeowner. Uh, were they using enough energy to even count as a solar lead? Like all these things and they don't, they don't even know how to figure this out. Em, chock it. Yeah. Start majoring it. Good. So what's really cool about, um, what we've been able to do within solciety too, is we're helping companies set up just systems for actually tracking this because the truth is most people know how to know how to set up good systems to track and measure and report all these different KPIs. It's like, they're just arbitrary numbers thrown up on a scoreboard on a group chat and they may or may not be true. I mean, I've worked for all us companies where reps are just throwing up. I got six leads today where, you know, four of them were booked with people that didn't even own the home and the other two, they just put just to make them make themselves look good. So it's like, come on. You're not going to be able to know, happens all the timeSpeaker 3 (12:38):So much. Yeah. Yeah. So it's yeah, suicide. It, would've done it. It's done for you tracking. So, oh, I'm going to be secret sauce right now. I kind of had to do this as a rep or a company owner, but basically the first thing we accomplished with our enterprise setup is like, we literally will track your reps on over 45 different skillset points that we found in the industry, whether it's from door knocking specifically tailored to your business. And then we generate reports for your entire team on a weekly basis down to the rep. So you'll know exactly what's going on, um, what insights you need to make good decisions. So again, that's a, that's what we do there, but let's, let's keep moving and give them kind of the, uh, get back on track, give them the process on how to actually train and develop your skills. Um, let's do cool.Speaker 2 (13:28):Yeah. Um, so like, yeah, like we're talking about, I mean, you know, you set up a lot of these processes so you can get into the specifics, but I think the cool thing for me was just seeing the, um, interactive stuff that quizzes, um, I don't know about you, but I've gone through tons of video, you know, courses, trainings, things like that, just online courses where it's just a random video and then you're expected to remember all this to implement it. And half the time you don't even remember what you just watched. Um, so I think a big key in any training course is just actually getting tested on the material, getting quizzed and remembering it. So that's a big key that I thought was super impressive about what we've been able to develop within solciety. But yeah. What are some other things, James? Um, do you want to talk about that? And just other specific, I guess, training processes that were set up within that. Yeah.Speaker 3 (14:18):Yep. So, um, back to the conscious training thing, the way you combat this and really just accelerate your learning time, ridiculously is set a time, a minimum, I would say one hour is what I recommend with clients have each rep, or if you're listening as a rep set aside one hour where you dedicate all of your time, focusing attention to developing a skill, right? Um, best skill can be anything door-knocking presenting, whatever it is. Now, there are a couple of rules with skill development time I have for myself and our clients. We do this one. This needs to be private time. Okay. Zero distractions, nothing getting in your way. Like if you want to be really hyper effective here, it's gotta be all in. Laser-focus turn off the Facebook, turn off the notifications all in skill development, time. Second, this is not sales activities. Okay.Speaker 3 (15:09):So knocking doors doesn't count as your skill development time, right? Going on, presentations does not count. This is not actually talking to customers. That's where I don't see a lot of guys do this where they don't actually dedicate time to think about this way. If you're talking to a homeowner, right. Stuff's changing constantly, right? Something shows up, you've got to build rapport here. You're dynamically shifting you can't work on your skill set. In that case, you need to have a fixed variable. So sales activities don't count. And then third binge-watching courses and videos is not training time. This is what throws a lot of people off. Um, it's basically just entertainment, right? Just watching a bunch of videos back to back. And that's why we do things very differently with solciety to where it's just like 20 minute bite sized videos. It's not designed for you to binge watch all the videos in a weekend.Speaker 3 (16:06):It's to just choose one skill-based video, watch that implement it. Right. So that's what you want to do to set yourself up for success. Um, there's another tool with this. I like to use what I call a practice log. Okay. So this could be a digital version. This could be a paper version, whatever you want to do. I've been using this long before solar. It happens to work fantastic in sales. I actually learned this process, um, as a musician growing up as well. Um, so what you do is you document what you're training your specific outcomes, what you're working on specifically within each skillset on a daily basis during this hour. So you're productive. Um, the way I like to do it is simply just define my skill goal. So let's do it. You tailor, what's a skill that you'd like to work on and further develop right now with your sales.Speaker 2 (17:01):Um, I would say increasing my closing percentage. Yeah. Getting it up probably at about 40% right now. I want to get it up to more like 60 something.Speaker 3 (17:14):Okay, cool. So we want to set the clear outcome. We want to increase your close rate by 20%, right? Yeah. Perfect. So how do we know if we increase Taylor's close rate by 20%, we need to define that metric. So let's say that you go on 10 appointments. Right? We know that you're going to close four of them about right now on average. Right. So we know he needs to close two extra appointments. Right. Per what month week we define what we want to set. Right. If it's month, we say month, right? So you want to write these down, you got to get really granular, like how we do actually know the inquiry based it, make sure you're tracking those numbers right now to the training specifically. Right. What makes up a close, because closing is kind of a broad skill, right? I don't actually think closing is a skillset closing is handling rebuttals, handling objections and smoke screens. It's how your presentation works. Right. Right. So we need to identify like, what is the root cause that's causing Taylor's close rate to be 40% and not 60%. So let me ask you that Taylor, do you know or have a suspicion of what that root cause would be?Speaker 2 (18:37):Yeah. Um, I mean, I would say just based off of what I knew without tracking is super good. It's just getting in front of more qualified people because right now, I mean, I'll go to closes sometimes where it's like, there's a good chance. They're not even going to qualify. Um, so I guess stuff like that. And also if, um, you know, if the spouse isn't there, um, so I don't know. It just getting in front of more qualified people because my closing ratio can't increase. I'm not getting in front of, you know, like obviously my closing ratio is going to be less. If it's just talking to one spouse, it's not going to people that are lower credits. Um, if it's talking to people that have energy bills that are super low, those are all things that decrease it. So I don't know. I think for me, it's like also tracking most things like how many of these appointments are actually super qualified to even close. Um, yeah. That's just one thing I would think of that.Speaker 3 (19:39):Yeah, exactly. You answered it perfectly. So what's interesting here is Taylor thought he had a closed, a closing problem. He doesn't have a closing skill problem. This is where reps would make the mistake with this. And they go start working on like fancy closing lines and stuff like that. He doesn't have a problem with those lines. Right. He has an appointment setting skill issue at this point. So now we know, all right, the root causes appointment setting. That's what we need to spend our time on. Right. See how that works. Yeah. It's interesting. Cool. So we want to work backwards at this point. Okay. Go ahead.Speaker 2 (20:16):I was just going to say, that's probably a lot of, um, a lot of companies once they start actually tracking and getting deep into this data, it's probably like, what they'll realize is companies think they have one problem, but really it's another problem. Every day, prospecting, maybe it's getting more qualified leads. So that is interesting.Speaker 3 (20:34):Like, uh, so I used to own a marketing agency, right? Um, all the time we here in solar, I have lead problems. Right? I need more leads. I could tell you like seven to eight out of 10. It's not a lead issue. It's a offer issue. It's a branding issue. It's a training issue with their reps. They're not training the reps, how to self-generate even when they get the leads, they don't actually use them effectively. They waste 90 out of a hundred leads. Right? Um, boiling things down to its first principles is like a fundamental skill here. So how do we actually practice your appointment setting? That's what I want to talk about here. So we've got our practice log. We've set aside an hour to practice. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to divide our 60 minutes skill session into three more main parts.Speaker 3 (21:27):Okay. The first 20 minutes, we're going to work on what we call fundamental techniques, right? What are the like basic technical mechanics of setting an appointment? So in this case, this would be like how long the call should be when you're sending appointment, how long you should take on the door to set an appointment. Right. Um, what you're saying, the script itself, that's technical, that's fundamental the objections and FAQ's, that's technical and fundamental. So in this first 20 minutes, we're going to practice really just going through all of those processes. So like knowing your FAQ's just right off the bat, right? Somebody says, what if the solar panels get dirty? Boom, you can handle it without even thinking. Right? So in this 20 minute period, I'm going to go through my weak points. My FAQ's my, whatever it is, my scripts. And I'm just going to practice them. I'm going to say them out loud. I'm going to turn myself on camera right now. I'm going to practicing it that way. I'm going to record myself. I'm going to get my tonality. Right. I'm going to break down specifically what parts in there I'm missing. Whether it's tone, whether it's script, whether it's FAQ's right. We're getting very nitty gritty details for 20 minutes and just repeating that process. Right.Speaker 2 (22:43):That's you. Yeah. And this is another huge thing. I think companies, miss is just the recording aspect. Actually seeing what their reps are saying. Um, I just had another Laney, gray. I didn't, uh, he was on the episode. I think, I dunno, two episodes ago, he wrote the two door to door millionaire books. Um, but they add something. He talks about a lot in his trainings. You just actually having your reps record what they're saying on their doors, record their objection, handling and send it into their managers, sending it into the company owner, send it into the VP of sales and all that, because then they can actually diagnose and fix the problem. So that's something that I think is super powerful. What we're doing within solcieties. We're helping also companies set up that these systems bands, you know, get recordings from their reps, have them actually train effectively because how many people think they're out there, um, fall on the script, fall on how they were taught to handle the objections. And then you get out there, you listen. [inaudible] you saying? That's accountability.Speaker 3 (23:42):Accountability is a big problem with that, for sure. Yeah. So after we've, uh, worked on our fundamental techniques, right? The technical skills, that's only got to get us so far. Right next. We want to do modeling and reviewing. Okay. So the next 20 minutes, this is where your rep should be watching what your managers are doing. Hopping on a quick call with them, listening to recordings of themselves or managers or other people in S looks like specifically for the skill they're working on. This is where you review the game tape too. Right? They'll listen to their recordings. Hey, I don't like how I did this, the next practice session. They're going to work on that specific skill that identified, right. Um, the last 20 minutes is role play in implementation. So we want to make sure that we're practicing the new skills that we just learned in modeling.Speaker 3 (24:38):Right? And we're role-playing with somebody and accountability partner, right? So managers, other reps, people online and groups, whoever it is, you gotta be role-playing on a daily basis. Like this is another, just fundamental. Everybody misses, right? Sales is a predictability game, a consistency game, right? For every one day, two days, you miss selling, right? It's going to take you three to four days to make that skill up. If you go a year now, sell, watch what happens. Right. I've done the same thing too, where I go like six months, 12 months without like hopping on closing calls regularly, that skillset is almost shot, man. Like it goes down considerably and I have to get back in the ring. Right. Role playing actually going out there in the field more to get that skill place up. So that's kind of my skill session divided up into 60 minutes. Tech technique, 20 minutes modeling 20 minutes. Role-play 20 minutes.Speaker 2 (25:41):Yeah. That's awesome. It's funny how much it, yeah. I mean, James and I were both F from the music world, so I know your trumpet and stuff, but yeah, it just reminds me, it's so funny. You know, that's how practice sessions were divided up. It's like 20 minutes of technique. 20 minutes of, I dunno, improv, whatever 20 minutes of, um, whatever repertory you're working on. Yeah. It's the same stuff. And people forget about all these things in solar, but I think this is what separates truly the best from the people that are just staying where they're at is they're always working on these things. And you mentioned like, um, you know, even guys that are experienced, getting out and doing, taking cells calls, still doing role-plays. That reminds me of a story where I had my previous company. I had one of like, he was a VP of sales.Speaker 2 (26:26):He came out with me to a deal and I'm thinking, okay, this guy is going to close him. Like, no problem, 20 minutes we'll be in and out of the house, close them. And he hadn't gone to a close for probably, I don't know, maybe at least a couple months at that time. And he came to this close and he just, I mean, it was, it was okay, but he forgot a couple of crucial things. Number one, the husband was in the other room. He forgot to even invite the husband into the presentation. And, and then he, and then at the close you could tell he's just super uncomfortable. So I'm like, man, I thought this was going to be a 20 minute close. And what, at the time I was a newer rep. So I'm like, okay, he's probably doing this for a reason.Speaker 2 (27:05):He probably just knows. He's so good at closing that he didn't have to invite the spouse into the room. He's that good? So he didn't even need to invite them to get to the end. Like, no, I need to talk to my spouse. You get all the same objections. And I'm like, well, okay. That's what happens. Even guys that are, you know, at the top of their game, if they're not doing these things, they're going to be, there's no staying neutral. You're either getting better. You're getting worse. So that's, what's going to happen. Perfectly said. Yep. So yeah, I think that's a big thing we're trying to solve, but yeah. James, anything else that we're doing? I don't know, in the epic processes in solciety, uh, what, w what else are we missing? Anything else we're implementing to help, um, companies and reps improve their craft?Speaker 3 (27:48):So, I mean, I'll, I'll talk about a lot more on the specific company stuff, but the biggest benefit, um, in our program we've put together and what my company provides for Taylor as well as a content partner is the tracking, as I talked about accountability is second piece that most companies miss, you need to be holding your reps accountable for training, not on a monthly basis or a weekly, a daily basis. Okay? If you need, if we're asking and showing you right now, that training 60 minutes a day, right? You can plainly see on here, whether you take anything, what we're saying for real, or with a grain of salt, it doesn't matter. You can admit that if your reps were to train specifically on their weak points and their skills for 60 minutes a day, following this process, do you think they would get better at selling?Speaker 3 (28:38):That's an obvious answer. Yes. Right? The problem is most company owners don't believe their reps will actually put in the work with this and they don't want to babysit their reps with that. So that's where we actually come into play in our partnership. Me and Taylor here is we actually hold your reps accountable through what we call a pod check system, where they're actually holding each other accountable with quick five minute check-ins with each member of their team on a daily, consistent basis to make sure they're training and they're reaching their goals. Uh, the other part of this is just incentives at the end of the day, what are you actually rewarding and incentivizing as a business owner? And the biggest mistake, again, that not anybody, right? I'm not just picking on solar here, but it's for sure. And solar that's where I've learned this process.Speaker 3 (29:29):We're incentivizing only one outcome. Most of the time and that's sales, right? Most companies say, Hey, Taylor, go sell 10 deals. We'll buy you a Rolex or whatever. Well, Brent, you a Tesla for a year. The problem is that only incentivizes who like your top producers that know they're going to be able to do the action. The rest of your team is just like, screw it. Taylor's a rock star. I'm not going to even try. Right. This happens like every freaking time a sales contest. Um, and when I was a VP of sales, right? Um, a few years back, I was just like, dude, no matter how awesome the prizes cash, we did like a 25 grand in cash for like a month competition. One time, guess what? It's the same crap. Three reps out of the lot are actually motivated by it. Right? And what I realized is it's because we're incentivizing only results and results are so overwhelming and big to go and accomplish.Speaker 3 (30:31):Right? Our rep sees, he's got to go close 10, 15 deals to go on the company retreat. He's like, dude, I haven't even closed more than three deals. I'm not even going to have a freak. Am I going to make this happen? Right? This is why your numbers are so key, because guess what happens when you know your numbers? You can track activities and incentivize activities, not results. If you know, for a fact that going on 10 appointments as a rep is going to yield three, four closes, right? You can now place rewards right on appointment set. And not those deals where companies get scared with this is because they don't know their metrics. They don't have any trust in the system that an appointment is not just going to get fudged to get a quick reward. If you have accountability with your reps and you know, they can't be asked you all right, you can incentivize whatever you want to do, right. Make the barrier super low. So that's the final piece. We do the same thing. Um, with society, we help you craft really unique and specific incentives to your team that will actually motivate them and use action motivations and incentives rather than just results. So yeah,Speaker 2 (31:42):So powerful guys. So this is key whether you get on society or not, it's something that every company needs to be thinking about is just how can we better develop these systems? How can we better, better develop our reps to get the maximum efficiency out of them? Because if you're not doing these things, that's a big reason. You're losing reps. Companies are losing reps. It's like pouring water into a basket. You have 10 holes in the basket. If you don't have these processes and systems set up, set up, the water's just leaking out the ends of it. I mean, right now, or a matter of fact, our company's doing this exact thing. We have a, uh, Conor McGregor tickets set up for the weekend. Um, but you have to close six deals. So that's great. And yet it's going to motivate the top guys. But how about the guys that have never closed more than two deals in a week, or that have only closed one deal a week?Speaker 2 (32:28):It's like, you need to have these top incentives, but you also need to be rewarding. These little things, these mini habits as guys like Michael Donald stuff, like he's come on and talked about these things. But what are these little actions that you can reward that are going to lead to the big actions? Because not everyone's going to go out and hit six deals in their first, first week. So how can you also give them incentives? How can you motivate them? And then how can you track and set all the systems in place? Because most companies that I've seen just, I mean, they don't even know how to check their incentives. And it happens there at every company I've been with. It's like, you could talk to any rep there they've been, oh yeah, I won this incentive, but I didn't get paid out on it. Um, no keeping JackSpeaker 3 (33:09):I've personally owed a lot of prizes from back when I was selling full time.Speaker 2 (33:17):No, and I know perhaps that's the worst thing you want to do is have to go, you know, beg gear, your manager, credibilitySpeaker 3 (33:21):As a sales leader, just tanks, man. Culture just goes down. Like, why would you even want to participate in the next contest? I know. And it's not that they don'tSpeaker 2 (33:31):Want to, but it's just, they don't. Yeah, they don't, they probably don't need to know who won it. They don't have a system set in a place to track that. And then they just forget. So it's important to have someone in charge of this. And then if not, I mean, yeah. I consider her and getting on society. That's what we're trying to help companies do is really set up these systems and then track up for them. So you don't have to worry about all this. You don't have to remember it. And then we're going to help you put these systems in place and actually get reps rewarded for these little actions that they're taking. So super powerful stuff. Um, go set it up, figure out a way to do it. And James, I think we've covered quite a bit. Are there any, anything else that, um, I don't know you wanted to cover that I didn't think of. No.Speaker 3 (34:12):Well, I think, uh, I'm looking forward to putting out some solo episodes, um, to really dive deep on some of these concepts. So. Awesome.Speaker 2 (34:20):Yeah. So we're looking for it. Let us know what you thought of this guys, especially for, uh, you know, company owners. Um, let us know if there's things that you struggle with. Cause that's what James is going to be doing. Um, you know, specific episodes on is things that companies struggle with and things that we can help them improve as far as systems and processes. So at James, thanks for coming on. Um, guys, we'll be hearing more of you and we had a few, uh, sorry. We had some wifi issues. So apologize if there was some, a blitz blips in the audio, but we will get that figured out for next time. Um, so set that up and James, any final words you wanted to share before we talk next time? Okay. I guys, well, we will see you on the next show. Thanks for tuning in. And then if you are a rep, that's listening to this, make sure to send it to your company owners so they can also work on these things. Cause I know that's another problem is company owners. Aren't listening to this podcast, I'll send it to your company. Owners, send it to the guys that do need help setting up these systems. And that's it guys. So James, can we talk some more and we'll see you guys on the next one.Speaker 1 (35:24):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 (00:43):What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here to change your life as a soar sales professional, we are back with another show today, got an exciting topic, and we're going to jump right into it. I hope you enjoyed the previous episode. We have Lenny Gray the master of door to door on. So if you didn't go listen to that, go check it out. He's written two books, amazing episode have gotten great feedback. So thanks again, Lenny, for coming on the show with us in this episode, we're going to do something that I don't think I've actually done before. And that is actually take a topic suggestion from our audience, from our Solarpreneurs. So guys, if you have a topic suggestions, people you want to bring on things you want to talk about things you want to jam on. Hit me up. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook trying to be more active on there.Speaker 2 (01:37):So I'm send me a message. Let me know if you have suggestions, feedback, just anything really appreciate the comments and tips that you guys give me. And it's nice to be able to interact with, with my crew, with my solar peeps. So this tip actually comes from, um, someone that doesn't actually have their name on Instagram and talk to him. So I apologize that I never got to your name on here, but Instagram is WVRRVN. Give them a shout out if you want to go follow them. One of our solar friends and he sends me a message. Um, so it was about three weeks ago. He says, Hey brother, been listening to your podcast over the past few months, getting tons of value, have an idea for a topic, no one discusses too much on overcoming negative online reviews. Is this something you can help the community discuss?Speaker 2 (02:34):Well, my man WVRVN I hope that's not your real name unless you're some kind of droid. Okay. But, um, that's his Instagram handle. That's what we're going to cover today. We're going to jump into it. And it's something that has at times come back to bite me negative reviews. I know a lot of people, especially guys with our bigger companies. Sometimes they struggle with these and it's something that, um, guys have to learn how to overcome. Guys, have to learn how to really turn in a strength. How can we overcome this objection? So I've got three tips. I want to share with you going to be quicker episode. We're going to jump right into it. Share three tips. Things that I do that have helped me and things that I've also heard from guys at larger companies specifically, specifically at Vivint Solar. I know that's a huge company.Speaker 2 (03:27):I have a lot of friends that are managers over there. Um, I guess I should say Sunrun now because they are now Sunrun direct, but they're a large company. Um, had some pretty terrible reviews. I know that I looked him up and one time I was considering going in selling with them and this was something I always came back to is like, how do you guys sell with so many negative reviews? Like I lose deals myself with negative reviews, but how are guys over a Vivint Solar, some of these larger companies they're selling dozens and dozens of deals every quarter. And I mean, they, they seem to be just fine with the negative reviews. So I'm gonna tell you a few things that I heard from these guys, a few things that have helped me and hopefully they help. Okay. So let's get into it.Speaker 2 (04:16):Tip number one is bring it up before they do. Okay. A lot of, a lot of guys have heard this. Hopefully you've had training in your sales organization that something we all should be doing is bringing up objections before our customers. Our clients can, if you have a great book on this, go read Sam Taggart's ABC's at closing. He has a whole section on this. He calls it eight. Milling your customers, right? It comes from the eight mile movie where a M and Eminem is, you know, bringing up all the objections. The rappers can throw out them that you grew up in a trailer park. They use white trash, all this stuff. So we need to do the same thing. And this is something specific specifically for this objection that I think works great. Bring up the negatives before they can. Cause if you bring it up and if you bring it up while you're in the home, they can't go look it up.Speaker 2 (05:12):Matter of fact, pull it up on your computer right there while you're in the home with them. Mr. Customer, I know we don't have the greatest review. Here's here's why. Um, and then you can explain to them what's going on. A lot of the reviews you see anyways, are just completely false. Like things that never happened. So, okay. It's that's another point is know your online presence. You should always know exactly what is written about them. You should always know exactly what potential negatives your clients, your customers could find about you. You should know what dirt they can dig up on you. So go look that up. I'm constantly Googling my companies, my installers I'm Googling. Cause I want to know exactly what people could possibly find negative. Okay. You gotta be in the know because if you don't know it, then it's going to be surprised to you when they bring up a negative and then that's when you're screwed.Speaker 2 (06:07):Okay. So bring it up. No, your views. A good example of this. I know a lot of guys, myself included are so on. Um, so Noah, right? So Noah as the financer, as the lender. So if you go look up Sunnova they don't have great reviews. Okay. And so you've got to know this people. When I sell a deal through some Nova PP, we are alone. I almost always will bring it up. Hey, so nowhere they're the lender for this, just so you know, you can look them up. Um, but yeah, unfortunately they've done, um, they've done their own installs. They've done deals all over the country. So they have a huge client base, but they are just the ones financing this case. You're not working with them and really stress that they're working with the installation company, they said no is simply the lender.Speaker 2 (07:00):Hey, and then focus it on the installation company on the installers. And so that's something I do when I deal with Sunnova specifically. Okay. So tip number two is bring up how many customers you have. Okay. This is something that comes from again. I mentioned my Vivint Solar guys, my, my buddies that sold with Vivint Solar, while these larger organizations they're going to have tons of negatives. Okay. Sunnova is a no way as an example of that. That's just the fact of the matter. When you get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of customers of clients, you're always going to have names. So what do you do? Bring up examples, do math with them right on the spot. Okay. So you can go. Um, I mean, in the Sunnova example, they have thousands and thousands of customers across the country, right? So if you look on there, you're going to see what maybe a couple hundred reviews, negative reviews.Speaker 2 (07:56):So for example, let's say there are a hundred negative reviews. Maybe you've done 5,000 installs. You have 5,000 customers. You do the math on that, a hundred divided by 5,000. What is that? That's only 2% of your customers, right? So, I mean, do the math, show them on the calculator? You look, Mr. Customer, this, um, represents about 2% of the people we've done. See, I understand there's going to be mistakes. Um, fortunately there's, um, issues that happened, but let me ask you, Mr. Customer, how many times have you had a positive experience and not written? Yeah. About it. Like you probably went to Starbucks yesterday. Got your coffee. Just fine. Did you write them a good review? Probably not. Right. So how many people are out there that had a fantastic experience, that everything went super smooth. Write about it. And guess what those, those people were working with, I'm going to take care of you.Speaker 2 (08:57):We're going to make sure everything goes smoothly. I can pinky promise you if you want you on pig. You want me to pinky promise you. Okay, great. So we'll make sure everything goes good. So right now we're just going to get a few documents submitted. Boom. That's how you do it. Okay. So bring up the math, bring up, um, ask them, ask them how many times they've written positive reviews and that's going to, that's going to call them out on the spot. I mean 99.9% of people do not go right in positive reviews about every interaction they've had. That's just the fact of the matter. So if you can do the math with them, if you can get them to realize that people do not just, you know, write pure positives, that it's a business, then that's going to help. Okay. So that's the second tip.Speaker 2 (09:41):Bring up how many customers you have do some math with them and then get them to realize that there's going to be negatives, but we're going to get it figured out. Okay. And then the third and final tip I have is tell stories of neighbors close by. And this is where testimonials come in. If you haven't listened to the episode from a couple of weeks back about video testimonials, go listen to that and that's going to change the way you sell. Okay? And that's going to probably prevent you from even having, having to overcome objections like this, because if you can solve, um, show them solid video, testimonials of neighbors, of especially people in the neighborhood they're in, then they're not even going to bring up these things because they're going to trust people in their neighborhood a way more than anything they can find online.Speaker 2 (10:27):Right? That's why I suggest getting a video testimonial with every everyone that you can. Hey, and then another thing I learned from a lot of my guys over at these bigger companies, Vivint Solar is pull up maps. If you can get your start tracking, have your company start keeping a spreadsheet or keeping track on a map of all your installs, okay? A reference sheet sheet, utilize them, make sure you have pins on a map, something where you can pull up, pay this, how many people we've done in the area. Do you think this many people would have gone with us? If things were terrible? Probably not. And that's, what's so powerful about some of the software that's Vivint Solar, or some of these other companies have access to Sunrun is on their proposals or in their knocking apps. They can see every past customer. Right?Speaker 2 (11:19):How powerful is that? If you're in a home mean, say, um, Mr. Homeowner, this is all your neighbors that actually are already on the program. So yeah, there is, uh, negatives, but look, there are six people just in your neighborhood that are already on the program. So rather than trusting all these online shenanigans that may or may not be true, why don't we drive by? We can go look at the people that are installed in your neighborhood and we can go off of that. Okay. Obviously, if you're a smaller company company, you don't have installs, then you're not going to say that, but I mean, still can use references in the neighborhood though. Even if it's from another company, you can say, Mr. Homeowner, do you think your neighbor across the street would have solar? If things were all terrible? Okay. You can talk to these people beforehand.Speaker 2 (12:10):I've gotten lots of times, people that aren't, even with my company that just have solar on the roof. Hey, would you recommend your solar to your neighbors? Great. Do you mind if I use your name as a reference? There you go. You got a name, you got a person you can use as a reference right there, and that's going to help out a ton. So make sure you're just collecting as much social proof as possible. Get pictures out as a last resort. Um, something I heard from, um, my friend river Skinner. If he's listening to this, uh, my referencing him from one of his, uh, Instagram stories, but what's really cool is he will send out a thank you card with his picture in the customer's in it. And this is kind of off topic, but that's something super powerful. You can do get pictures with your customers.Speaker 2 (12:59):Send out cards.com I think is a website where you can actually just create online cards. You can throw your picture in there, send your customers so sort of off topic, but make sure you're collecting all the social proof as possible. This is going to help reduce cancellations and help you continue to dominate out there. So thanks again for the topic recommendation. Let me know what you guys thought. Let me know if you guys have any other, uh, ideas on, um, overcoming negative reviews, things you have done and love to hear your feedback again, shoot me your topic suggestions. Let me know what you thought and send me your guest suggestions as well. If you guys know of anyone that is absolutely dominating that we need to have on the show, let's get them on. So hope that helped hope you'll tune in for the next show. And we will see you on the flip side.Speaker 3 (13:53):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 (00:43):Ok What's going on Solarpreneurs. We're back with another show and we've got at legend in the door to door industry. He's written multiple books now, and I'm super excited to have him on the show. We've got the one, the only Lenny Gray. So thanks for coming on the show with us today, Lenny. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks Taylor. Yeah, I'm super excited. And we were talking just, um, before the recording here, how I just finished your new book that came out and, um, I had been posting just a little, like, you know, highlights of it on my Instagram every few days. And it's crazy. We've been getting just message after message. What is that book? I've never seen a book like that, but it's sent off probably 50 messages and, um, should have put it in the title. Cause I kinda got sick of sending out the same message. It's the next door to door or door to door a millionaire.Speaker 2 (01:34):But yeah, so people loved it. So congrats on the book. Plenty. It's huge accomplishment right in a book like that. So no, thank you. I appreciate it. So I, uh, it's kinda funny when I wrote the first one, it was really to kind of get out of the door to door sales industry. I was kind of doing some other things and I thought that was kind of my stamp on the industry and it threw me back in, uh, more violently than ever. So I, uh, I jumped back in and again, the first book I wrote was eight years ago. So this is uh, eight years in the making and the second book. And it's definitely, as it says in the title, it kind of takes things to the next level. So a lot more experienced, uh well-versed door to door reps seem to appreciate the second book a lot better even than the first one.Speaker 2 (02:16):Yeah. Yeah. That's how I felt for sure. So yeah, I mean, it's gotta be a ton of work right. In a book like that. I mean, I've thought about random book, but I'm like, man, it seems like so much work. So where you always well, at what point did you decide that you needed to write even a second book? So I, you know, I was an English minor in college, so I figured I'd put that to good use maybe. I don't know, but uh, didn't really have, uh, you know, a desire to write a book necessarily, but boy, I just had so much experience in so many things and it kind of another motivation for me was when I first got into the door to door sales, like late nineties, right. Forever ago, I'm a dinosaur. But when I got into these, uh, into this industry, I mean literally the company I worked for handed me a training manual that was, you know, 10, 15 pages long.Speaker 2 (03:04):And I was like, that's it? And, and I felt so unequipped to go out and knock any doors. And so I, I just felt with that as my background and then also what I heard and what we still hear in the industry unfortunately, is kind of the lie cheat and steal your way to the top. Like I just, I didn't love that at all. And I, and I I'm just so anti that, that I thought, you know, what if I just put out what I did and just put it right there on paper and let people know that, Hey, you can sleep really good at night knowing you've, you've done door to door the right way. That was kind of my motivation for writing the books. Yeah. I love that. And for those that haven't, haven't checked out Lenny as much. Um, I mean we'll post this bio and everything in the show notes, but he sold, you know, thousands and thousands of pest control accounts.Speaker 2 (03:51):Um, been one of the top reps of all time. What's your record? Like 1300 pest accounts. Yeah. About 1200, something like that in the summer. Yeah. So primarily past, but I've now I run a consulting D 2d millionaire are kind of our consulting arm and I'll tell you, I I've consulted for just about anything and everything you can imagine, uh, to, to knock on somebody's door and sale. So it's, uh, yeah, there's a lot of similarities within industries. There's some nuances that, that are a little unique. Um, solar being one of them, you know, there's some uniqueness with solar, but, uh, but yeah, obviously been around the block a couple of times. Yeah. That's huge. And I came from pest control. Um, I wish I could have done better and pest control because I was, that was one of the guys that, uh, kinda sucked a pest control.Speaker 2 (04:40):I wish I would've had you train on me. I only did, like, I don't know, 150 accounts in pest control. So luckily it's gotten a lot better in solar for me, but one of the things I love about pest is, um, if you can come from pest, I feel like you can be successful in pretty much any door to door thing. Cause solar it's. Um, I mean, we're just setting up appointments typically when we're out knocking doors. So I was used to getting full, signed pest contracts out there. So I'm like, man, all I have to do is set up an appointment. This is easy. I don't have to have them sign anything today. I don't, I collect payment information sweet. So I just went out there and, you know, um, book, the ton of appointments, getting them to actually sit down and sign up, sign up for solar.Speaker 2 (05:18):That was kind of a different skill, but uh, for you money and all your consulting that you've done now with like solar, what are, um, I dunno, maybe some similarities, some differences that you notice, things that apply across the board, what are some things you've noticed with these consultants, different solar companies. Yeah. So, you know, I think the first thing is that the concepts that I teach in my books are, you know, for the most part universal, right? Like there's nothing about body language or meta-verbal, non-verbals, there's nothing that is out there that isn't applicable, not even just in door to door, but just in regular life experience. Right? Like there's just that, that you can do. And the ways you can frame your questioning and your, your, uh, your not just your questioning, but your value building and how you build up the service that you're selling is really universal in, in any kind of communication setting.Speaker 2 (06:11):And I think with my, my solar, uh, my solar consulting that I've done for reps and for companies, it's, it's, it's a lot of, it's kinda more of the same, honestly, that, you know, I don't try to stray too far from the principles that I teach in any industry. In fact, I consulted for a company years ago, um, that actually is valued right now at over a billion dollars. It's a, a no credit check finance company. And I consulted for them and wrote all their training materials and manuals and, and kinda got on board early. I think I was one of the first six people in the room at that company. And, uh, yeah, they started from, from just an idea back in 2000. It was just right after I wrote my books, my first book. So it must've been like 2012, 2013. I kind of jumped on board and, uh, for about a year and a half, I kind of put all their processes together.Speaker 2 (07:02):And it was very similar, even though it was B2B, it wasn't even door to door. It was business to business. And again, this company is an absolute rocket ship and now they're, they're valued at over a billion dollars. They sold like a third of their company for 330, some odd million, uh, back in 2019. And, and it's just fun to see that, to help companies to get to that point, regardless of their solar, their past their finance. It it's a lot of the concepts and principles are very similar. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, I know you've, uh, you know, done it all. You've sold past, you started your own companies. Um, do you still have your, your pest company or are you just doing primarily the consulting now? No, I've got my own pest company, still a Rove pest control. Uh, we've built that in some areas we've sold it we've started again.Speaker 2 (07:52):We built, we've sold, we're kind of back in growth mode right now. We're in five states about six offices, uh, in those states. And so we're yeah, we're, we're back running, which I think it gives me a unique, uh, you know, as far as my consulting goes that there's some uniqueness with that because when I consult for people, I'm running a business day to day, I'm not just saying, Hey, this is, this worked, you know, 10 years ago, or this worked whenever, like I'm literally running a business day-to-day right now knocking doors with sales reps going out in the field, like nothing. Nothing's too big for me, I guess. Yeah. That's awesome. And I love, yeah, I think it's so much more powerful being trained from that perspective being like, no guys, I was literally out last weekend and this thing works for me and I'm not just saying this 10 years ago.Speaker 2 (08:41):Um, so I mean, it's super power on something I try to do on my podcast is share. What's currently working as I go out on the doors, myself and close deals. Um, but that being said, I mean, you've been in this forever since 1998, right. When you first started. So I didn't even know door-to-door existed. Then I was like five years old at that point there weren't cell phones either crazy enough. Like the technology nowadays is probably what what's the most different of anything in the, in the industry to me like talking to people is kind of talking to people and you kind of have your, your skillset for communicating with people that hasn't changed as much as just the technology. I mean, it's just awesome. I mean, I literally remember logging my area on the back of a flyer. You know, I'd write the addresses of the homes and check it if I sold them or exit out.Speaker 2 (09:27):If I, you know, didn't sell them, they told me no. Or if I had a call back, I, I flipped their number and I literally was handwriting everything. It wasn't until I think my third year selling door to door that I even had a cell phone. And it wasn't a smartphone, obviously it was just a, a regular dial up cell phone. So yeah, I think technology has made the door to door industry even a little bit, a little bit. It facilitates even more sales. I mean, that's why you see these guys nowadays just killing it. And I think a lot of it has to do with, well, there's more material out there to be trained on. But then secondly is I think technology is just a huge piece and helping people to maximize their, their daily skin. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it's crazy all the different tools and softwares we have, like, you know, the rep cards, the sells rabbit, all these different types of things then screw, you probably didn't have the segues and all that back when you first started.Speaker 2 (10:18):Right. I just had sneakers. That was it. Yeah. That was my, um, graffitis. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I started in 2012 and even then, um, they were just starting to come out with a few things, but they handed us, you know, our chunk of chalk and we were out there just chalking the neighborhood. Um, John X on big X's in front of the house is it said no everything. Yeah. So, um, yeah, it has changed a ton and definitely made it easier, I think. Um, but yeah, so Laney, I want to jump into kind of maybe a few specific things. I'm sure a lot of guys will go read your book, but, um, I want to share, maybe jump into a few things that I thought were super cool in your book that I learned. And then maybe you can like elaborate on a few of them and tell your experiences and kind of how you even thought of these things.Speaker 2 (11:07):Um, so I'm just going through a few of the sections of your book. And, um, one of the things in the first part you talked about like earning time and just being more time efficient, basically on the doors and something that I had never really thought of, um, was this whole three door rule where you're, you know, only if you don't talk to someone in three doors, you go, you, you know, you know, you look for someone that's for sure going to be there in the next 10. So I, that was really cool and something I didn't like, you know, talking about training about. Cause I had never really specifically thought of that. How, how did you come up with that for your guys? Was that just like, based on your experience and thought, oh, I'm going to, for sure get someone on the fourth door, how how'd you come up with these time efficiency things?Speaker 2 (11:53):I think that door to door sales to me is insanely boring. If I don't have somebody standing in front of me and you don't make any money, right? Like the only way you make money in door to door sales is you're actually talking to a homeowner. And so when I was out knocking doors early in my career and I just knock on door after door and nobody was home or I was just not getting a good response, like to me, it's like, I just, it was like I said, just insanely boring for me. And I just, I've always gotta be doing something. I'm just kind of one of those guys, that's always gotta be busy. And I just, I just hated that. So I just kind of decided, okay, if I knocked three doors and nobody answers, then I don't care if I have to walk a block or two blocks, I'm going to see kids playing out in the yard or a garage door open or somebody's out doing yard work.Speaker 2 (12:38):Just some, I got to just talk to a human being because I can only have conversations in my head for so long to where I just bore myself. So that that's kinda what it grew from. My three door rule is just, you know what, just go out and talk to people like, cause again, really you're only being effective. You're only making money. You're only having fun with this job if you're actually talking to another human being. Yeah. I think that's huge. And yeah. How many, how many people waste so much time just going door after door. And I think even with new reps, you've probably seen this too, any, but you get these new reps that are still like scared to go knock a door. And some of these guys, I can't believe it. They're like crossing their fingers. Sometimes that people don't answer the door.Speaker 2 (13:19):It's like, they feel like they're out working, but they're like, oh yeah, I'm just not having sex. They didn't talk to anyone, but I was still working. Yeah. Fire guy. Right. If I can just throw a bunch of flyers, then I'll feel like I'm, I'm being productive. So probably the wrong, probably the wrong industry, like come on guys. But yeah. So that's something that's been helping. Um, and just kinda like more specific for our guys because I always thought of that, but we never had like a set rule in place for our teams. Like, come on guys, go talk to someone for sure. After three doors. And I know you have some other sections, but anything else? Um, I guess as far as like managing time on the doors, anything else that have helped your teams and your guys out a lot for people you've consulted?Speaker 2 (14:03):Yeah. For me, a lot of it too is, is a big thing I preach on is what are you thinking about in between the doors, right? Like where does your mind go? I think the best reps that I've been around are the reps that in-between the doors they're looking for ways to improve their actually having those conversations with themselves about what happened on that last door. What could I have done better? You know, could, could I have maybe if I asked this question or man, I totally blew it when I asked that question, I asked that, yes, no question. That was horrible. Um, I gotta, you know, I gotta eliminate that. And so I think what's going on in your head space, in between doors is such a crucial steel because nowadays with our cell phones, right. Which I didn't have to bother me, uh, that being and beep and buzz and do all these things and you can have so many notifications from whatever social media platform you use or emails, text messages, you can just get bothered so much out knocking doors.Speaker 2 (14:55):It's how do you stay focused going door to door? How do you keep your head in the game? Cause all of us know that that have done this before, like door to door sales is 90% mental, right? Like 10%. Yeah. You're out knocking doors or you're out in the heat. I get that. It can be hard. That can be difficult. But the reality of it is the hardest thing is, is just having in your, in your head space, you know, making sure your, your heads in the game heads. Right. I got a guy pulling a lot out here. I think he's gone the other way though. Maybe I don't know. He might be coming towards us. Might have to run from the lawnmower. Yeah. This is real life. Now he's going to, he's going to hold right behind me and I think he's going to be out of here. So maybe we just give him a sec. All the Solarpreneurs could say hi to the lawnmower man. Yeah. It's not bad. Yeah. Lenny Lenny's out in the hood as we speak. So he might just go hit some doors after this. Why not?Speaker 3 (15:53):Why not? Actually, he's going to keep rolling.Speaker 2 (15:58):Um, it's not too loud. I can't, I can't hear it too, too much. It's probably fine. Okay. Um, but yeah. And then another, another thing as, uh, sorry, were you finished? Yeah, I was just going to say just one other thing that I talk about the book is the importance of, in my sense, worth lawn mowing and cutting lawns, you know, that section of my book and I've got a little bit of flack for that, honestly on like, uh, the DGD millionaire, YouTube channel and that kind of stuff like people, like how can you cut across lines? And I kind of share an experience that I had, you know, my only really bad experience cutting lawns, but that's another thing is just efficiencies in between doors. That's how I save a lot of time and I actually have a, a little equation I put in the book there, you know, if you're walking across somebody's driveway and down the sidewalk and up on the porch and you know, going that routine versus just cutting across the lawn, like how much time you could say in a three or four month period, it's mind boggling.Speaker 2 (16:54):Just how those seconds add up day to day. Yeah, that's crazy. And that's something that I know a lot of pests companies train in that, but when I got in solar, um, I told people, oh, you guys like none of the guys I worked with cut lawns and I was like, wait a second. You guys don't like cut across the lines. Like, no, you're going to make people mad. I'm like, like, come on guys. It's going to save tons of time that, especially for solar, I don't know. I don't know what it is about solar, but most solar guys aren't trained on that, I guess probably just cause we knock less doors then, you know, pest control and alarms where he used to be in, or probably the lazier sales reps and just knocking fewer doors. So I think that is a good thing that our solar guys need to hear.Speaker 2 (17:36):It's got to cross line, you know what I do if I, if I was selling solar and I was, um, cutting across lawns, I'd make sure when I'm cutting across lawns, that what I'm doing is I'm actually looking at the rooftop. Like I'm kind of doing a little bit of an inspection, right. And I'm seeing, you know, maybe where the sun's hitting the roof. Um, so I think, and then if you approach that home and somebody calls you out on it, like, oh, you were cutting across my lawn. It's really easy to say, you know what? I was just doing a quick inspection of your roof, you know, just kind of looking, uh, you know, at the sun angle or the, the roof angles and seeing if the solar panels would be really good for your roof, for something along those lines, to where again, I mean with the past, right, you're looking at the lawn and the grass and the ground, and you're trying to observe bugs.Speaker 2 (18:27):I think the same concept could apply in solar and it might help your pitch to somebody if you actually have some data on yeah. As I was kind of coming across your yard, I kind of noticed up here this, that or the other, um, I think it could, it could be used to your advantage during kind of that initial conversation. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. Something we do is look at their electric panels. So that's almost the same concept because the electric panels, you can tell if someone has a red sticker on their panel, that means they have solar. And um, a lot of times, you know, you're not necessarily trying to knock, uh, most of the homes that do have solar. Um, so yeah, same concept, but I think anytime you can save some time and then point out that we have a tool we use to, that I've been talking about in the podcast app.Speaker 2 (19:14):So that's a sun seeker app. So you can show them basically the angles where the sun is hitting their roof. So yeah. I liked best strategy or cutting across the lawn. Yeah. If you do that, have someone approach, you pull up the sun seeker app and say, Hey, no, I was just looking at your roof. Here's actually how the angles are hitting it. Have you heard what's going on in the neighborhood? Did Cathy cross the street tell you? Um, so yeah, I love that part of your book and um, saving time. And then the thing that I thought was really good that you, uh, mentioned, I think in a later chapter is just like on training your reps is you have them send you like recordings. I know you're talking a little bit about that. Just kind of analyzing door after door. I know you talk about having your reps send recordings of their interactions.Speaker 2 (19:56):And um, that's been one of the number one ways you mentioned to, uh, help your reps. So do you have like with companies you're consulting, do you have, um, is that something you like have them do have all the new reps do is send recordings or is that like guys are struggling, you say, okay, you got a donut, this you bagel this day, you need to send a recording or what's your, uh, philosophy with that? Okay. So I think this is one of the most key points of how you, as a manager or as an owner of a company who can influence the most amount of reps in the, in the most efficient way possible. Right? When we talk about saving time, it could even be off the doors. And so for me, when I started requiring that of my sales reps to where you have to send me so much audio per day per week, whatever, I mean, I'll give you an example.Speaker 2 (20:46):So I was in Boston last week, uh, with my office, got, I don't know, a dozen or so reps there. And in the matter of probably six, seven hours while they were on the doors, I reviewed over 40 audio recordings from that group of reps. And I've had reps that since I've kind of tweaked a few things that they were doing, that you can only hear on the doors, you can hear in a role-play, right. You can only hear some things on the doors. Once I heard him, we've had these reps that were struggling to sell, you know, daily, they have sold every day since I was out there last week. And not that I credit the ads myself, but realistically, like you can do your reps a lot of favors by going on the doors with them. That's, that's a good thing. But I think even a more efficient, depending on how many reps you have to, the better approach would be how many of these reps can I influence today?Speaker 2 (21:36):And, and that could be done in higher volumes by actually requiring them to send you audio or video of them actually interacting with real, real people on the doors. Mm yeah. That's money though. When you're training new reps, is it like a set schedule where you say, okay, you're new, you have to send X amount of recordings or is it just kind of like based on the week, or do you have anything specific set up in your company where it's, um, they have to send a certain number? Or how does that work? Yeah, when they're, when they're new out, um, you know, they have to send their manager at least weekly and we try to get the manager that's there with them, day-to-day to, to knock with them. Um, Ben kind of more of the upper level training would be, you know, you've gone a couple of weeks, your managers kind of critique you that he's kind of given you everything that you could give you as far as advice and ways to improve.Speaker 2 (22:24):Well then if we need some higher, you know, higher guns to step in, or just a different point of view, then we'll ask the manager to go ahead and sand. Either me or some of my sales department heads, just some more experienced reps, then there'll be required to send audio to them, just to make sure again, to me how one person sales can be very different than how another person sales. So how a manager, what that manager hears versus what I may hear could be different and I might connect, or my manager might connect differently than, than another rep. So I think, you know, it's kind of that concept of, you know, you, you just surround people with goodness and greatness and then it's gonna rub off on them, uh, eventually one way in one regard or another. Yeah. Okay. I like that. Yeah. Something that are, um, I mean, companies I've been with, um, struggled to kind of figure out it's just like the schedule of how much should you have a near reps shadow?Speaker 2 (23:21):Like if there's a struggling, what do you do with them? Do you just say, try something else. So for you, as you've had your pest company, like, what does it look like for a new rep that's coming on first year or they don't have much experience? Do you have them shadow like X amount of times or how do you like onboard these new reps, um, to have success? And then I guess, what have you seen other successful solar companies that maybe you've consulted do that that's been working? So what we do is we actually have, I I've developed an online training program. Um, and my online training program is probably 40 plus hours of training. Plus I have three preseason events that we do training as well, that are probably another 12 hours. And so before anybody's knocked at the door, they've gotten, uh, at least they have the opportunity to a lot of it is up to them, right?Speaker 2 (24:07):The in-person stuff is, is pretty much a given everybody attends that, um, the online stuff is kind of at their pacing. Um, but yeah, you can have up to 50 hours of just, you know, training before you knock a door. And I I've written a training manual for my own company. That's, you know, another 170 pages long or something crazy. It's like book three. Um, so again, I, I wanted my experience with my reps to be very different than what I had as a rep when I first started, you know, back in the day in the late nineties, like I just want it to be totally different. So we have 50 plus hours that our rep could get in pre-season training. Then when they get out, they're really, I'm, I'm kind of more of the mindset that, yeah, shadowing is good and you know, a manager should get out with his reps that, that, that first couple of days, first three days, at least one time and probably weekly their first month on the doors, uh, second month, probably at least every other week, unless a rep struggling, then you go back to weekly.Speaker 2 (25:06):But I mean, again, for me, we just, we gotta put the time into each rep because every rep learns differently and trains differently. So they might do a little bit of shadowing, but for the most part, all the pre-season training has like videos and audio. And it's basically like they've been on the doors even without knocking the door. Gotcha. And then say, they're coming to shadow. They're still struggling. Um, w what do you have, do you have a system in place where it's like, okay, this isn't working for you, um, like, come show you shadowed, you know, X amount of times it's not working. What do you do with the reps that are struggling in just, you know, aren't getting, yeah. So I, you know, I think of one experience I had a few years ago with a rep who in all honesty probably shouldn't have probably most companies wouldn't have hired him.Speaker 2 (25:53):We hired him because he had a friend of a friend, right. It's kind of one of those guys. And I actually personally wrote a script out for him that he could just memorize because he just wasn't getting the concepts of like the initial approach and how to qualify people, those things I write about. So he just, he wasn't an understanding of it. So I literally just wrote him a script to fit his personality and who he was and what his strengths and weaknesses are. And that script worked. You know, he stuck it out. The whole summary didn't kill it by any means, but he made money more than he would have made, you know, working fast food, uh, you know, during the summer. So sometimes it just takes that customization to, and, and not that it's easy and especially for, you know, companies that hire hundreds and thousands of reps, it's probably an impossibility, but if your company's on the relatively smaller size, like my company, we don't hire more than, I mean, we'll be in the, of probably 40 to 80 hires a summer.Speaker 2 (26:46):Like that's all like door to door is an important part of our company, but it's certainly not the only way we grow. So the reason we've kept it at that number, one of the reasons is it's just, it's easier to manage and make sure every rep has a good experience. So I know a lot of solar companies are in that ballpark probably they're, they're not hiring, you know, hundreds of reps. It's tens of reps like I am. And so I think you have a chance to connect and, and train specifically to each rep. So, yeah. I love that. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. I ask you these questions just because, um, I mean, this benefits me, this is a lot of stuff we're going through currently. So that's one of my favorite parts of doing the podcast. So I'm like, man, what are we struggling with with our reps right now?Speaker 2 (27:27):I'm going to ask, uh, you know, an expert about it. Yeah. Well, I love it. And that's, you know, that's the thing, that's what I love about this industry right now is for the most part, not like a hundred percent, but for the most part, most companies and most people are pretty open and want to help each other. Like we want to preserve the industry and give it a good name. And now there's people that are just proud that they knocked doors. Right. When, before when I started, it was kind, kinda like this, uh, I knocked doors, I know it's kind of greasy and grimy and I just, I'm kind of a loser because I just knocked doors. But now it's like, there's this pride like that I've seen in the last two decades take over now. It's like, yeah, I knocked doors. Like, I'm proud of that.Speaker 2 (28:02):And I think the more that sharing that's done and the more integrity in the industry, I think just the better, I mean, for me, if, whether it's my kids or grandkids or whatever, like I'd love for them to be able to knock doors. I think door knocking is like a microcosm of life. And there's so many lessons to be learned that help, uh, reps beyond when they're knocking doors. I'm more about building the individual than just making sure they have a, you know, a successful summer where they made money, but they had a light sheet and still to do it. I'd much rather just develop somebody to make them a better human being so that they can go off in life. When they're done knocking doors, heaven forbid they knocked doors as long as I have. Like, I don't wish that on anybody, but, um, but you know, if they go on and they become an attorney or they become a business owner themselves, or they become, you know, uh, uh, you know, they work at a business in the, in the sales department, whatever it is.Speaker 2 (28:52):Like, I just want them to be awesome. I'm going to give you one quick experience too, before the next question, if that's okay. So, um, a couple of Sundays ago, I was just at my church and somebody who had knocked doors for me happened to be visiting his family who was there. And he comes up to me and he, you know, he, you know, give a hug. Like he worked for me for a couple summers. I love the kid. He's like, listen, he's working at a software company, um, right now. And he's in the sales department at a software company. And he's like, listen, I just got to tell you, he's like, man, I'm going to make six figures this year in software sales. And he's like, I owe it all to you. Like, I credit you for teaching me the right way to do it.Speaker 2 (29:29):Cause I'm doing everything you taught me in software sales and I'm absolutely killing it. And I tell you, I mean, as I got to hold back the tears a little bit, I'm like, I'm just so proud. He's like, it's like another son of mine. I'm just proud of him. And that to me is what it's all about. Like, I couldn't care less if somebody works for me and it's one, one and done, right? Like to me, I'm going to put as much effort and energy into that one person. That's one year as I am somebody that's been with me for eight years, you know, I just, I want to develop individuals and people because beyond the doors, there's just so much more that you can learn and take from the door to door experience, uh, just into your life for personal growth and, and just betterment of, of you as a human being. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. You got to feel good about that. Um, yeah. I mean, it's happened too. It's one of the only reasons that kept this podcast going is just from guys saying, Hey, this, this helped me a lot. I love your podcasts because I've, you know, it's hard work to keep content like that going. I'm sure with your books do with like, if you, if you hadn't had so many people buy your first book, do you think you would have written a second?Speaker 2 (30:34):What that's like nobody's ever asked me that question, Taylor, that's a great question. I don't, I don't know if my motivation, let me think about that for a second. I don't know if my motivation to write. My second book book was based on the success of my first book. I, I think I felt like I left a lot out and I, you know, I'd get a lot of feedback from people that have said, man, you should have, I want you to write more inspirational stuff. Like I, I get all the tactical things. I didn't feel inspired or, you know, how do you deal with competition since door to door, still popular? Now it's like, I have a whole chapter devoted to competition. How do you get better? Or how do you make yourself better than the competition? How do you beat your competitors so to speak?Speaker 2 (31:11):Um, so I just felt like there was a lot left to be written. And honestly, what did it for me was, was COVID like I was in a homebound and I was stuck and I'm like, oh, I need to fill my time with something I'm going insane. So that's really, when I started writing that book, the second book was just kind of when I was kind of quarantined, I guess, at home with my family. So nice. Well, we're glad for COVID that, you know, sped up the process. Hopefully I have the outline written for awhile, but I, yeah, I didn't have any goals as far as when to actually put it out there. And I was just like, dude, I can, I can crank this now. Cause I got a lot more time at home than I used to. So that's awesome. But no, I love what you're saying just about, you know, how all the people that are sharing way more abundantly, because I mean, as you probably know, when it first started or even, you know, five, 10 years ago, there was nowhere near this amount of like information, you only learn from your managers now you got, you know, podcasts, you got books like yours, you got, you know, Sam tagger doing a lot of stuff.Speaker 2 (32:13):All these guys sharing their content. So it makes it so much easier to just learn and I'll have kind of more pride in the industry. Um, I mean I was buying shoes, just, I think it was two weeks ago and I was with my wife and she was like saying, she's like, she's like telling the shoe Solomon, Hey, he just needs some good shoes for knocking doors for going out in doors. And when she said that, I'm like, I like, come on Dave. He's not gonna know what that like don't embarrass me, but then, but then he was like, oh, that's cool knocking doors. Yeah. I got some perfect shoes there that I'm like, all right. I don't need to be embarrassed about knocking doors and take more pride in it. It's true. All this contents, you know, helping us give ourselves a good name, I think, um, definitely more positivity.Speaker 2 (33:01):Um, so Lenny was kind of section, the last thing you just mentioned is just the competition and um, for our Solarpreneurs or solar guys that listen, this, I think that is a huge thing in the solar industry, because as you probably seen, um, there's been tons and tons of alarm guys, pest control guys. A lot of them are switching to solar. We have huge commissions, so it's a great industry. Um, but that, especially I'm in San Diego, which is probably the most competitive solar. Margaret's definitely one of the most. So it's something we struggle with here, a ton and just like, oh, you're the fifth guy. Um, to the point where it's like, if we mentioned solar at a doorstep, we're getting the door shut instantly. So we've had to kinda, you know, change the way we approach things. Um, so for you, like as you've consulted solar companies, and I know it applies in pest control as well, what are some strategies?Speaker 2 (33:52):What are some things you do when you are getting, um, more competitive areas when you're getting no, you're the fifth guy at my door. Can you talk about some little strategies you've helped your guys with? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I think the first thing is you just call it what it is, right? Like don't wait for the person to say, you're the fifth company to come on my door today or this week or this month or whatever, like just call it what it is. Like somebody answers the door and it's, you know, it's, Hey, they're just the solar guy. I know you've been hit up by, you know, 20 other companies in the last few weeks or whatever. Like don't, don't wait. And this, this is a principle that I teach. And, and a technique that I think is important is you don't wait for a concern for the customer to actually save extern.Speaker 2 (34:33):You, you bring it up first, right? If you can address the concern first, it just adds to your credibility. And I think your, the respect factor goes up for you as a, as a door to door sales rep, if you can already bring that to their attention. So we talk about name dropping, right? If he knows my name dropping principle from the first book. So if you name drop and if you can actually address their concern for them before they bring it up, like that's huge because you know, if I'm, if I'm the person answering my door and I opened my door and I see solar, then I I'm already looking for the reason why I'm, I'm going to turn that person down. And, and if it's somebody just had already come out or I already have, you know, solar panels, which obviously you can see on like pest control, which I love about the solar industry is you can see if somebody is already a customer.Speaker 2 (35:15):You don't have to find that out by having them tell you that, you know, you're the 20th guy to come knocking on my door, just call that like you see it like right out the gate and don't wait for that to come up. And then depending on your company and how your company different differentiates from the others, that's how you start to, you know, to build your case for your company versus the, that have come by and that have already approached them and have knocked on their door and talked to them about solar before. What, what is different about you and your company versus versus the other 20 people and consider this? Like, I just think an overarching principle for door to door sales is if I go to a door and it's, you know, in a 20 year old neighborhood, and I know for 20 years sales reps have been knocking on that door five to 10 a year.Speaker 2 (36:02):So we're talking to hundreds of sales reps and I, I kind of envisioned like the, the carcasses of the dead door to door sales reps that have been, you know, just shunned off the doorstep, just laying there, you know, by the side of the door. And I'm like, how can I be different? How can I bring a different energy, a different approach that these other hundred to 200 have been turned away for? How can I connect with this person and actually make it a better opportunity for them, for what I'm selling versus what everybody else has in the past. And I will tell you this strangely enough, and some people are surprised to hear this when I knocked doors, my goal isn't to sell everybody. I talk to my goal is to get people further along in the sale than I think anybody else has that has knocked on that door.Speaker 2 (36:44):So I don't care if I end up with a sale. What I like is even when I hear the, oh, you almost got me on this, I was so close. Like I I've said no to everybody, but I almost said yes to you like that to me is a win I'm like, cause I know nobody else would have got you that far. That means that I actually succeeded on that door. So sometimes you take those little victories when, you know, you connected with somebody on a different level than the other hundreds of reps that, that, uh, that have not like that's when you know, you're actually improving and getting better at doing this. Yeah. I love that. Reminds me of the guy in the Bible king, a gripper or something he's like almost converted me to Christianity. You almost converted me to solar quite we'll get there, but you almost got me.Speaker 2 (37:26):Yeah. Yeah, no, that's huge. And yeah, I mean, you talk about some of the strategies in your book and also just like, what I love too is you talk about like, you know, the demographics, um, just some different strategies you can utilize to, um, you know, talk to different types of people. That's something that's helped us out in solar with our teams a lot is just identifying the demographics you're good with. And then, um, like for example, we have quite a few Mexican guys on our team. They'll go hit up the Mexican neighborhoods and it's like, they're celebrities out there. They're speaking the language, they're having success with that. And then you talk about just like the ways you would sell the different demographic demographics of people, um, depending on who they are, you're going to treat them different white collar versus, um, yeah. What was that color?Speaker 2 (38:13):Yeah. Yeah. So things like that. And how do, and um, I mean, pest control, how can you talk about that a little bit with your strategy's demographics? Another thing we recognized in sores, like new move-ins Boulder homes that we're going to target differently and use that data to our advantage. So how are you, um, having your guys kind of utilize that different customer data? Um, how have you seen it and maybe solar companies you've consulted too. So yeah, in the book I break down, uh, three demographics that I think would encompass any person you're going to talk to not saying they're the only demographics we can kind of make those a little bit more granular if you, if you really want to dial it down for specific industry. But we talk about in the second book, I talk about, you know, blue collar, white collar, like you said, somebody who goes into the office every day, whereas a white collar is kind of more of a business person versus maybe the person that is, you know, a works blue collar.Speaker 2 (39:07):Maybe they clean houses like my mom did when I was growing up, my dad's a policeman. Um, you know, he's, he was more blue collar. Maybe that's what it is. Um, there's different ways to approach those types of people based on their, the economics and, and you know, how they live and, and those types of things. We talk about older people versus younger people. And I kind of break down the different generations, you know, and now we've got millennials that are owning homes are buying more homes than, than, uh, you know, boomers and generation X and in my generation and, and, and those types of things. So, um, I kind of break that down a little bit about how to approach those types of people. Cause somebody who is a first-time humble homeowner or home buyer, uh, you're going to treat them very differently than somebody who's been in their house for 20, 30 years or who has his own multiple homes.Speaker 2 (39:54):Right. Um, and then we talk about males versus females, which I think is a fun one too, because there's just different ways to approach men than there are women. Um, and I think it's it, you know, even just in the questioning, uh, the things that you ask, the assumptions that you make, you can take people a lot farther, male and female, just based on doing it, you know, doing the questions or asking the questions just a little bit differently. And so that's, that's kind of a fun one for me too, that chapter, that kind of goes into those, those demographic breakdowns. But I, you know, and I think for solar, like I said, you know, for me, sometimes you, you could go more. I would think that the blue collar white collar one would probably be the most applicable than at least I've taught in, in consulting with solar companies of how, how to approach those people when you're talking about a large ticket item, um, like a solar system.Speaker 2 (40:43):Yeah, yeah, no, that's great stuff. And then with, you know, the older folks, something we utilize in, or that I've learned from a lot of successful guys is just going on with the time management. If you notice people are, you know, older guests, guess what they're probably going to be home in the afternoon. So you're seeing the handicap stickers, stuff like that go to those homes in the afternoon. Cause, um, John and Julie that are, you know, in their thirties working class, they're probably not going to be home. Um, in the afternoons, that's something we've been, um, teaching our teams and our listeners too, is just utilizing that all the different information. And it's super nice. Now I'm going along with the technology. I mean, go on the Zillow app, you can see the new homes, um, you know, you have like the sells rabbit and the knocking apps they're showing you, most of these demographics found what, what their estimated income level is. Um, how many people are probably in the household, things like that. So I think that's another huge advantage we have compared to probably when both west started is, makes it so much more easier. If you can approach a house, be like, oh, you guys have what seven people in the house. Um, yeah. And you know, all this data and it just creates so much more trust. A lot of times you have a name, you have their income, you have all this different stuff.Speaker 2 (41:58):Yeah. And I think, you know, I, I think in ways that COVID has kind of changed the world a little bit too, is, you know, the different strategy of knocking afternoons versus evenings. I talk a little bit about that in the book that's, that's changed, right? I mean, COVID actually changed that for us to where more and more people are working from home and they can live whenever, wherever they want and work, however they want to work. And so I don't think, you know, back in the day and I shared this experience in the book about the company that I worked for that just let experienced reps just work prime time, you know, after five, one year. And it just, it was a complete disaster. And, um, nowadays, I mean, we're seeing sales numbers before five, o'clock being better than they've ever been. And a lot of that is just due to, I think reps are getting smarter and if they follow the three door rule, like we talked about and those types of things, but I just think there's more opportunities in the day now because people are working from home and have a little bit more flexibility in their schedule.Speaker 2 (42:54):So it's not just the older, the older folks that, that you necessarily need to target, even though that's a great demographic to target target during the day they're home most of the day. But I, I even think just that, you know, you're going to run into more just, you know, nine to five type people who now work from home and have a different schedule than they used to have. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's a good point. Yeah. Speaking of COVID, I mean, with your company, how did you guys change your strategy? What was it like knocking pest control with COVID last year? Did it affect your guys a ton or, oh yeah, it was a challenge. I mean, here, here's the interesting thing. So we got a late start because, um, you know, we, we wanted to make sure we sent a few guys out to different markets in some markets.Speaker 2 (43:34):Honestly, we didn't knock any doors because, you know, they're governors or whatever, you know, it was kind of putting the state's hands on what to do. And so some of our markets that, you know, the governors were just a little bit more, um, leery to have people out and about, uh, you know, maybe, maybe more, more blue states, you know, don't get into politics. But, um, so we, we couldn't knock in those offices. So, so we had to put people where we could knock. And then when we did knock again, we started probably a month later than we were used to, but our numbers, like our averages were off just off the charts crazy last year. Um, we lost a lot of reps though, because a lot of reps, you know, it's a pandemic. My parents don't want me knocking, you know, this, that and the other.Speaker 2 (44:16):So we did lose a lot of reps. We didn't have a ton of reps, like we would have liked, but the reps that stuck around and actually did it, we, we got them in the right state to knock. It was an awesome summer. Um, it was just shortened and, and like I said, it was just, it was different, but, but we made it through it, you know, just like everybody else. That's still out knocking this year. Like we did it and that's, that's an accomplishment, but it was, it was definitely different. No doubt. Yeah. Luckily things are getting a lot better, but that's what I noticed. I mean, with solar, um, some guys let them affect it more than others, but even in California, which obviously is one of the, um, you know, most strict states for COVID and everything, even here, it's like most areas after a couple months, people really just kind of like sick of being stuck inside.Speaker 2 (44:59):So, you know, I noticed that guys actually came to the door. It's like, they're like, oh cool. There's actually people that exists. Yeah. I'll talk to you. So it's like, almost like they're a nicer in, in, you know, some people freaked out, but, um, I was surprised with, even in a state like California, it was, you know, after a few months, most people just got kinda over it and sick of it. So I agree. Big thing. Yeah. Well, Lenny, last thing I wanted to ask you just before we wrap up here is, um, you've been in this forever. I'm, I'm sure experienced some huge highs and some lows. So what's been like your big, uh, I dunno, toughest thing you've had to go through maybe your biggest failure or something. Like, what have you learned from that to kind of keep you going and all this?Speaker 2 (45:43):Um, I don't, I think you're probably out of all the guys I've had on the show, you've probably been in this, uh, you know, door to door for the longest of anyone in my head. So you've gone through a lot. So can you tell our listeners what's a, I dunno, that biggest, low that you experienced and how you got through it, what you learned from it? Yeah, no, I love that question. So, uh, for me, it was probably my third year knocking. Uh, I was knocking in, uh, Jacksonville, Florida, and I had, I mean, that was my best summer, you know, at the time it was, I think I sold about 700 accounts that, that summer in Jacksonville actually got kicked out of the Jacksonville office, had to go up to Macon, Georgia for a month. Cause we sold too many accounts. Me and the other guy that we're selling in Jacksonville.Speaker 2 (46:23):It's kind of funny. Um, anyway, so, uh, so we were selling there and I had that summer, I had four zeros, so, and here's, you know, for somebody that's averaging seven plus a day to get a zero, you know, it's hard to do actually. Um, but I had four of them. And at that point when I started getting these zeros, I kind of told myself. And I think I read about this maybe in my first book a little bit, but I kind of told myself that, you know what, when I wake up every morning, I have the same number of sales as everybody else and that zero. And so I can let that negative momentum of yesterday, uh, carry over with me today, or I can just start fresh and I can pretend that every day or, I mean, that's the reality. I don't need to pretend, but every day I start out with the same number of sales as everybody else.Speaker 2 (47:12):And I'm constrained, I'm in control of my own destiny every single day. And so for me, it was just that perspective of going okay, can I have bad days? Could I have bad doors? Could I have bad hours or two hours? Can I have a bad week? Sure. You know, but at the end of the, I have a new opportunity at every door and every day to start fresh, to start over again. And I don't have to carry any negative baggage with me. I think in fact, in the second book I hit on that a little bit too, is just that the difference between carrying negative momentum and positive momentum. Because the funny thing to me is I'd have reps literally, um, I'd have reps that they're doing. Um, I'd have reps that were doing great. Like they'd have three or four sales pest sales, you know, before five o'clock and then they'd say, I'm good, Mike.Speaker 2 (48:00):I kind of hit my goal for the day. So I'm done. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what are you doing? Like you got this positive momentum going, like, keep it going. Cause I will tell you this, the fourth and fifth sale of the day, they're a lot easier than the first sale of every day. And, and that's the hardest sale to me. So if you're, you know, negative momentum can carry over if you let it. But the other side of that coin is the positive momentum. Like if you're selling, if you're in a group and it's kind of like, you know, can you imagine a basketball player in a, in a game if they're just on fire and they're just lightened it up, you know, three quarters into the game, they've got 35 points and they're hitting threes and they're finishing and they're hitting their free throws.Speaker 2 (48:36):And then they're like, all right, coach, I'm good. Like, I'll just play the next game. Like I don't need to play the fourth quarter. I'm good. Like that that's ridiculous. Right. Nobody would ever do that. Um, so I think door to door sales reps take themselves out of the game when they've actually got some good positive momentum. And so that's, that's like the worst thing you can do if you're knocking doors, even if you're getting people far, you're setting a lot of appointments and you just got things going. Like we all kind of get in that zone. Sometimes knocking doors, like never give up. I mean, I tell the story about my 4th of July, you know, back in 2000, I sold 23 pest accounts in one day. That was my personal record. And it was, and I had plans my wife, I was going to take her out to dinner on the beach and we were going to do all this.Speaker 2 (49:15):We had reservations and all that went out the window because I had sold 15 by five o'clock and I was just like, honey, I'm so sorry, but I got to keep going. And I just went till, you know, till after dark to hit this record and guess what? We went to dinner the next night, no big deal. Like it was still there. The restaurant didn't go away or, you know, sell out to the ocean, whatever. So, yeah. So anyway, I just think making those little sacrifices when things are going good is so important because you never know you could have 23, 1 day in that same year, I had zeros four times. And again, it was just, that's the nature of sales, right? It's mercurial and moves around. You never know what you're going to get. The weather is going to be bad. One day, it's going to be a little tougher, whatever it is, you just make the most of when it's going good.Speaker 2 (50:01):And when it's going bad, just don't carry that negativity over with you day to day or even door to door. Yeah. That's so powerful. And that chapter in the book was super cool. You talked about, you know, the basketball players. Um, and uh, I think that applies more than pest control probably to solar is because people can go out and sell a single solar deal. They make 10 grand in a single solar deal. So we got so many reps that go out, they sell one for the month. They're like, oh, I'm good. I just made 10 grand in a month. I don't need to do anything. It's like, it's like, imagine how much better. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's a chop that so many guys fall on TV, especially in the solar industry. Um, so I think that's, um, something super powerful you talk about in the book for our listeners.Speaker 2 (50:46):If you can get in that momentum, don't be satisfied with one, especially if you're out there getting appointments, closing deals never be satisfied and make it a competition. I know is another thing you talk about in your books. So many, um, we appreciate all you're doing for the industry, your books, um, changed a lot of lives and yeah, there's going to be more and more people hitting us up asking them what book is that? So spread the word as much as we can. Um, so for guys that want to go buy it, I've got it here. People are watching the video. Um, can you tell people where to find out more about you and buy the book and maybe connect with you more? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, my books, uh, I've got any kind of version you'd want, I actually narrated the audio versions of both books.Speaker 2 (51:29):Those seem to do better than even the paperback now forever. It was, you know, the paperback out, sold everything, but right now it's odd. Everybody's likes audio and I get it. If you're driving from area to area, you can just pop me on in your car and you'll, he'll hear my voice. I recorded them. Um, in some vein, I think the audio book just recording, it was, you know, for eight hours or 10 hours, whatever they were, it was harder than writing it in some respects, it was kind of brutal. But, um, I just felt like my, my voice and the way I hit certain things and talk about certain things. I just thought it was more powerful. So anyway, I got the audio Kindle. Um, you can get the paperback, got a hard cover. Uh, all of it can be found on Amazon. That's really my, my main place, uh, where all the books are sold.Speaker 2 (52:13):Uh, my website is another place to connect with me. Um, Lenny gray.com. I've got a blog that I keep up very regularly, probably I don't know, 10 plus years of blog content that some of which is not found in my book. So if you want to hit up, I think that's just money, grade.com/blog. Um, I've got some additional training for purchase for people, probably more on the management ownership of the business that want to, you know, teach their reps what, to, what to learn in the pre-season before they actually start, start knocking doors. I've got some videos of my reps and me doing critiques of them on the doors that kind of stuff's on my, on my website as well. Um, I really, I mean, I'm on Twitter @LennyGray. I think Lenny B Gray Navy. Somebody got me first, I guess there's another one out there.Speaker 2 (53:02):Um, and then, uh, LinkedIn is another one, probably I'm most active, but as far as social media goes on on LinkedIn. So those are some of the ways to connect with them. Awesome. Well guys, go by the book. Um, it's helped me a lot. Hilltop helps help their teams and um, yeah, hit Lenny up, let them know you appreciate it and we'll come out on the show. We'd definitely appreciate it. And we look forward to seeing what you do, any, uh, any, you got three in the, in the plans, Lenny or in any future plans, you got more books or anything like that? I think so. I think so actually, somebody asked me that not too long ago and I, I, I've got some ideas with book three and actually what it'll be just, I'll just kinda throw it out a T and this is a big tease.Speaker 2 (53:40):Cause like I said, it was eight years between first and second book. Second book just came out this year. So, um, but it's going to be with these companies that I'm consulting for when I'm literally working with billionaires and how to make a billion dollar company. And so it's not just going to be based on door to door. I don't think you make billion dollar companies just on door to door. There's a lot of other facets of growing a business. And I want to include some of these entrepreneurs and business owners that I'm working with, that that are running billion dollar companies. That, that to me would probably be the next book that might be door to door. Billionaire is where we might need to go for book three. But anyway, that's kind of my thesis for it or kind of my, uh, my thoughts on it at least initially. Right? You heard it here first. So guys go Paul, any, he's doing awesome stuff for all of us knocking doors and changing the world. So thanks again for coming on the show any and we hope we have lots of guys connecting with you and we'll talk to you soon. Awesome. Thanks Taylor. So you guys,Speaker 1 (54:38):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co! 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 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. online 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. Come on. Y'all let's go.Speaker 2 (00:46):Taylor Armstrong here back with another episode, decided to switch up the intro a little bit, um, for those that have done that workout program, insanity, maybe that sounded familiar. Um, I, I do that intro because, um, during 75 Hard, the workouts, I was doing twice a day, decided to do some insanity for old time's sake. So for all my Shaun T fans, my workout friends, hope you like that intro for those that don't know what I'm talking about. Let's jump into some solar knowledge. We're going to be bringing some heat today, talking about the number one way you can train your reps. So this can be specifically talking to managers, team leaders, anyone that's trained to help grow their office, but guess what, if you are a regular sales rep, if you are trained to improve your abilities and learn as quick as possible, then this episode is also for you.Speaker 2 (01:48):So we're going to get into it. But before I jump into that to have a couple exciting announcements that wanted to share with my peeps, with my Solarpreneurs. And so, um, recently our team, we did a merger with, um, those of you that follow sells. Um, legends sells legends in the industry. Jason Newby may have heard of him. He was the top rep at Vivid for years, um, top alarm rep, and he started a solar company here in San Diego. So we did a merger actually with his team. Um, so I was working for a company called Switch to Solar. Now we are all combining we are future home. So if anyone is looking to make a switch and come join the revolution here, but future home and bring that up because Jason, his team, they are dropping a ton of value in things.Speaker 2 (02:47):They share things they post about. So definitely go shoot them a follow Jason Newby. And then, um, their Instagram is Future Home, go follow them. We're going to be posting and we're going to be changing the industry. Um, we're helping the team grow a lot. So that's the first exciting thing. And then the second is, um, just wanting to think or Solarpreneurs all our listeners for checking out the Taylor McCarthy episode on those two episodes today. And I really appreciate all the people that have shared it that have sent it to friends, sent it to people, trying to grow in the industry. Um, it has gotten away more downloads than a lot of other episodes. And matter of fact, he passed up. Um, yeah, he passed up a lot, a lot of past episodes that we had in such a short amount of time, just because of you great people that have been shared it that have been spreading the word, um, he's passed up, Danny Pessy actually, who is, um, you know, the other Knock Star guy, Taylor already passed them up.Speaker 2 (03:52):So I don't know if Danny's going to be happy about that, but we're all about spreading the wisdom, spreading the knowledge and helping each other grow. So go check that out and guys, please continue to share, continue to leave ratings. Been loving it. So it keep me going and really appreciate the comments that I get. So with that being said, let's hop right into the show today. Okay. And if you haven't caught the kind of the schedule of it's the way we're typically rolling out these episodes is I do too, where I share, um, things that things that are helping me and just kind of tell my experiences, um, things that are going on in my soul's journey. And then we have a guest. So that's kind of the formats is too with just me jamming on it and jam and the mic rocking the mic.Speaker 2 (04:39):And then we bring in a guest to share their wisdom, their knowledge. So, um, and I try to do sort of a preview for what the guest talks about just to kind of get people stoked for what they're going to share. So the next guest, um, is a legend in the door to door industry. And you probably have heard of them. If you've been in door to door for any amount of time, his name is Lenny Gray. He's written two books. Now I'm the first one is called a Door-to-Door Millionaire: Secrets of Making the Sale. And the second one is called more Door-to-Door Millionaire: Next Level Training. So if you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, you probably see me share just a little snippets of his book, a little, uh, things. I underlined things I liked about it. So I would highly recommend go check out his books if you haven't already.Speaker 2 (05:32):But one section, I just got done reading his more door-to-door millionaire book. And there's one section in particular that just reminded me of something that managers consistently fell to do. I see a lot of times, and even I, myself managing a team, I would, I forgot to do this with my reps for a long amount of time as well. So what is this thing? You might, what it is, it's recording your sales reps. It's having them send you recordings of their interactions on the door, but why is this so important? It's because a lot of times we think we're seeing something, right? We think we're phrasing our words a certain way. We think we're just crushing it and everything we're doing, but the mic never lies. And I'll be, I honest, I haven't gone back and listened to some of my, um, podcast recordings where I thought I was, you know, saying some super cool stuff.Speaker 2 (06:30):I thought I made perfect sense. And I thought what I've seen was on point, I've gone back to a few of my episodes and I'm like, man, what am I trying to say here? I sounded like an idiot. I apologize. There's been a few times where I probably sounded like an idiot gone off on tangents. Haven't made sense. But the point of that is when you go back and you re-listen to what you were saying, it helps you really learn what you need to improve, what you need to change. Same thing. I would go to Toastmasters. Um, I've talked about that in past episodes, but I will go to Toastmasters, which is public speaking training just to improve my speaking skills and to learn more about that. And I would go up present in front of all these people. I would think I had this presentation just nailed down and I would get comments that would just, just baffle me.Speaker 2 (07:25):I'm like, wow. I was actually doing that in something I've tried to improve, but I still struggle with these things. Sometimes it's just repeating words, repeating phrases. There's filler words that we all throw in as we speak that we don't even notice for me. Um, I'm trying to improve. But so, so sometimes I say, so this so that, so this, so that that's been a struggle. I've been trying to cut that from repeating way too many times. I say, um, sometimes way too many times. So I apologize if you've heard that way too much for me, but I am conscious. I am more conscious of it than I was before. I'm trying to improve those things. So this is something you need to have your especially newer reps. They need to be sending you recordings consistently. And it's going to amaze you. You're going to get recording sent to you that they're, maybe they're presenting, um, they're doing role plays in team meetings.Speaker 2 (08:22):You're going to get recordings that sometimes are complete 180 than what they, from what they did in role-play in front of the team. Cause that's just how it is, is when we get under pressure. When we get to the stage, a lot of times we can't handle the heat, we can't handle the pressure and we need outside eyes to see what's going on, or I should say outside ears in this case. So I actually did this with my team once I read this section. So for those that have the book, it's actually on page 208, Lenny Gray. He talks about this. And just to summarize a little bit of what he says, he says, every sales rep has weaknesses and these weaknesses can be exposed and corrected more quickly. When a rep has customized sales training, then he goes on to say, his company row pest control sales reps are required to send me audio and or video clips of them interacting with potential customers.Speaker 2 (09:19):So I can analyze their techniques and provide instant feedback to help them in areas they need to improve. Sometimes the timeline timeliness of the feedback is just as important as the feedback itself because it prevents sales reps from developing bad habits. So I can attest to this for sure. I actually did this with my team. Um, a couple of weeks back now, we had a newer rep on our team. Um, she went out and she was confident. She seemed like she should be having tons of success. And she'd booked a few appointments initially. Um, I think had a couple of deals closed, was doing all right. Then she started slowing down. So I said, okay, can you go after this? I'm like, all right, go record today and send me your courting of your door, approach of your presentation. Let's see what's going on. So she sent me this recording.Speaker 2 (10:15):I pull it up and to my surprise, she, he was saying nothing from the actual, um, door pitch that we given her. We give them to the script, not one word was from our script. And so everyone thought she had the stripped down. Everyone thought she was saying what she needed to, not one word was from it. Yeah, I know no this, she went on say the Surfer's door. So, um, if she's listening to this right now, nothing against you, we're going to help you improve it. But it just goes to show that a lot of times we think our reps are saying what they need to, we think we're improving. But when we get that recording, when we see what's actually going on, it makes it so much easier to help these people. It makes it so much easier to really break down their freezing breakdown and even better.Speaker 2 (11:08):If we can get, you know, a video, then you're getting them, you see body language, then you can see, um, posture, all those types of things, how they're actually positioning themselves in relation to the door, but at a minimum, just get some audio going, figure out what they're saying. And you can tell from the tonality of the voice, are they coming across confidence that they actually have the pitch down? So this is a must. We need to have our teams do this. And again, this is more for managers, but if you are just, um, say you just started, maybe you're new to the area, send this in. Okay. Most managers probably aren't requiring this of their reps, but especially if you are in a down period, even if you're, even if you've been doing this for awhile, maybe you've your production has gone down a little bit and send in a recording of what's going on to people that are crushing it out of your company.Speaker 2 (12:03):To guys that more are more experienced. See what they can tell you, see what they notice about your presentation. And that's why it's important to even for people that are experienced, continue to do, role-plays continue to get recordings of yourself, continue to get the outside analysis. Because even myself, I've been doing this five plus years. Now, there's still times where I record myself where I'm like, man, I made no sense at all. There's still times where I get up in front of my team. I do role-plays and sometimes even to this day, sometimes I make a fool of myself. It's important to practice and it's important to continually be improving your craft. I remember when I first started in door-to-door pest control, the number one thing that helped me improve is just drilling, practicing and rehearsing. Every single night, I would go to one of the top guys on our team.Speaker 2 (12:53):I'd say, Hey man, can you help me? Luckily, I had a cool guy, Micah, my boy, Micah, you're listening to the game. He would drill with me every night for an hour. We'd just repeat after, repeat it, repeat and go over it. So this is the number one thing that we need to be doing with our teams, get them to drill, get them to practice, get them to rehearse. And then most importantly, get them to record those door presentations. And if you're in a slump record it, send it to your manager. Even if they're not asking you take the initiative, you get a recording of yourself and send it in. And even just, if you listen to it yourself, like I said, it's going to expose is coming. You're going to hear the truth of what you're saying. Even without getting outside feedback. It's something that you can go back and listen to and make a huge improvements even without hearing from a manager or other people.Speaker 2 (13:46):So that's the tip. And we're going to hear more about that. When my friend Lenny gray, he's going to be on the next episode. So don't miss it. Let's blow it up. Just like we do with Taylor McCarthy. Uh, send it to people that need it, um, share this. And then anyone that's managing. If you're a rep, send this to your manager, send this to anyone that you think could use it when you think that needs to be recording themselves, because that is a huge key to success in this industry. That's what we got today, guys. I hope you liked it. Um, let me know what you think and we will see you next time for Lenny Gray. You're not going to want to miss out. It's a huge privilege having him on the show. And then let me know if you guys have any other guests you'd like to bring on the podcast. We'll talk to you soon. Peace.Speaker 1 (14:33):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 up. So we're preneurs. Welcome to another episode and I'll be honest. This is the second time I am recording this episode right now. I had some fire money content that I was spitting, and I don't know what happened cause they didn't press record, but I go and replay the recording and dead silence crickets. So I'm back for another one. So hopefully it's even better than the first time I recorded it. Um, but I am currently in lake Powell, Utah right now. So just to preface this, if you heard some waves hitting the shorter that's, what's going on standing on top of the top of a houseboat right now, recording some content for my solar preneur peeps. So I'm dedicated. I want to show you guys that I am committed to helping you improve your lives as solar cells, professionals. So let's jump into it this episode today.Speaker 2 (01:37):I want to talk about gratitude. We've talked, had a lot of guests on that have talked about the importance of gratitude. Earl capuli was one probably about a month ago. He is known as Mr. Gratitude. So go listen to his, if you haven't already. But the reason I'm thinking so much about this is because I went to a conference a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, Texas. Um, you guys probably heard me talk about it was the knock star conference, Danny PESI Tanner McCarthy that had been on the show. They run the knock star movement. They did an awesome event to definitely check out, going to their next one. Bat this event, they brought a guest. His name is John Israel. And if you haven't heard of him, he is known as Mr. Thank you a little bit different than Mr. Gratitude, but Mr. Thank you.Speaker 2 (02:24):And what he did was he wrote, uh, um, five, thank you cards a day for 365 day streets every day. And it took him about an hour and a half a day on average to write these cards. So these weren't just little, you know, little notes. These were full-blown thought out, thank you cards. And he couldn't write them, write them to more than three people. Hey, so we're cutting. Just keep writing. Thank you cards to his wife. He could only do a max limit of three per person throughout the course of a year. Pretty incredible what he did. So he wrote a book on it. He's spoken to all types of, and he's really created a movement and change people's lives in the process. So super inspiring dude. And the reason I got thinking about him so much is because I am on this boat, reading his book, it's called the Mr.Speaker 2 (03:17):Thank you project. And then the book, he just documents the journey, what he did and talks about it. And so the reason I'm thinking about it so much, because I hadn't experienced actually, before I left on this little trip that went hand in hand with some of the things he talks about. So I'll get that, get to that in a second. And actually I shared this experience on Instagram. So if you're not falling already go shoot me a fall at Taylor J Armstrong. And I shared kind of a crazy story that happens, got some feedback from some listeners here, but there isn't that remind to me is Mr. Thank you. He talks about this thing called the gratitude loop. And what happened was he was at an event eight years ago and he speaking at it after he gets done speaking, one of the ladies at the event comes up and says, Hey John, I appreciate your message.Speaker 2 (04:09):This is exactly what I came to the conference to learn. He tells him, thank you. And his response was, yeah, well I missed a couple of big parts that were really important to the whole message. I was running short on time. I'm sorry about that could have been. So he basically shot down the appreciation that this lady showed and the lady's like, okay, well, I thought it was great. Then she turned and walked away. And has he went on to think about this? He's like, what was I doing? Did I just respond to someone's? Thank you with an apology. What is wrong with me? Hey, and so I got thinking about this. How many times do we do this? It sells people. How many times do we do this in our lives? Where someone is trained to give us thanks. We shut it down. We say, no, it's nothing.Speaker 2 (05:01):We got to change these things. And I've done it time after time. Even a lot of our listeners here, you all shot me messages like, Hey Taylor, thanks for the podcast. Thanks for what you shared today. That's exactly what I needed. This helped me close the deal, things like that. And I want to apologize to those that I have shot down that things at times. Cause I know for sure I've responded with people out is nothing. Uh, yeah, well that episode wasn't that good, but glad you got something from it. I've sent out messages like that and response. So this was kind of a slap in the face to me as I was reading. This is, and that's this point with it is we need to accept compliments and reflect gratitude. Okay. So was point is if someone takes the time to give you a gift, pay you a compliment or acknowledge the great work you do.Speaker 2 (05:52):Pause, soak it in and say, thank you for your welcome there's to be said for being humble. And there's another thing to be said for allowing others to contribute to your life. It's not as much about horrifying you as it is honoring the vulnerability in generosity of another person, bold enough to take the time to appreciate you. So it's, you're someone that struggles accepting. Thanks from other people. Let that be a lesson to you. We all need to practice this thing. He calls it the gratitude loop. What it is is when you open a gratitude loop, that's you expressing gratitude saying thank you. And if that loop is left open, how do you feel? He gives an example. If you went up to a crowd that says, Hey, thank you for, I don't know. Thank you for being my friends today. They just stare at you say nothing.Speaker 2 (06:45):What's that's going to feel like it's going to feel awkward. I'm going to feel weird. You go say thank you to the crowd. They do nothing don't even acknowledge. It feels like a slap in the face, right? It's an uncomfortable, it's weird. Almost seems offensive. So that's his point with the gratitude loop is when we go around, we say, you're welcome. That's closing the loop, right? So don't leave God two loops open. And then the second piece that I learned from his book, as I'm reading here is give up the need to be appreciated for your generosity. Hey, and the story that goes along with this, the reason I'm thinking about so much about this right now is because on my Instagram, I actually talked a little bit about what happened, but the experience was is that before I left on this little trip, I'm on, I made it a personal goal.Speaker 2 (07:41):I said, okay, I want to close three deals before I leave. I got Monday and Tuesday of all is all this week. I want to close three deals can be pretty good. Right? Two days of work in closed three deals. And the reason I set the goal too, is because I knew I had, I had a handful of solid appointments set up, given my I'd given myself a good shot to actually attain the goal. Okay. And so I go out some of this neighborhood they're condos and here in California, the good news is with condos. Townhomes, H ways can't restrict homeowners from putting solar up there. They can make it super difficult, but they can't restrict it. So I use this to my advantage. This area didn't have any solar yet. So I said, okay, I'm going to go off. I'm going to cause everyone in the neighborhood, they don't even know they can have solar.Speaker 2 (08:33):First thing I do, I talked to the HOA president. Okay. And I'll make this a short story since I already chaired the majority of it on my Instagram. But I, um, talked to her actually at several appointments, but then she canceled the appointment because of some confusion. She thought it was like a government program or she was getting free software. It wasn't. So she said, okay, yeah, you lied to me. I'm not going to meet with you. Canceled the appointment. My Mike, okay. I got three other appointments set up. No problem. I'm still gonna close some deals. These people are stoked. They're like no way. Yeah. We want to go solar. We didn't even know we could have Sawyer go to them as I'm about to close the first one on the week, the guy says, okay, Taylor, whoa, this sounds awesome. But you know what?Speaker 2 (09:21):Let us talk real quick to the HOA president. Just because I don't know, we don't want to be the first ones. The neighbors are doing this and we want to make sure it's all good. So what happened? They go and talk this HOA president and she just slams the door on him. She says this kid, he lied to our community. He told me it was a free government program. This isn't it. She just completely shuts them down, talks them out of the cell. And I lose a cell. And then the other ones cancel appointments, turns into a disaster. So it went from being this golden area. I was going to close all these deals there. Now this HOA president just completely, it throws a wrench in my plans and just ends my hopes hitting my goal on the week. So I was devastated. I come up with this plan.Speaker 2 (10:10):I said, okay, this area, there's guaranteed. There's going to be deals. And I can even probably go back and close these deals that they had. I just need to get back in the good graces of this HOA president. Okay. So her name's Carol. I go, I come up with this idea. I say, I'm going to go give Carol I thank you card. And to be like Mr. Greg, Mr. Thank you like John is, you'll give her a thank you note and even better. I'm going to give her a box of cookies to go with it. That's something we do for our customers. We send them little gifts, cookies, um, treats stuff to kind of stand out, help them remember us. Let's say how many she didn't buy it, but I'm going to send her some cookies. So I go, I pick up these cookies, um, box of four cookies from a dirty dough here in California.Speaker 2 (10:57):That's a Bennett Maxwell has company. They make some giant cookies that have all these crazy flavors. She's a single lady. I'm going to give her a box of 40, these giant cookies and a thank you card. So I go right to thank you card dropping on the porch. And then I'm just like, okay, she gets home at five. I'm going to get a thank you wife. I'm going to get a text from her, a call saying, Hey Taylor, I'm so sorry. You're the best? Come close my whole neighborhood on solar. So I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm working. I'll look at my clock at five. Dave, no texts, no calls Mike. Okay. Maybe she was running late. I wait, wait, wait. Six o'clock comes. Nothing. No texts. Seven o'clock eight o'clock nine o'clock 10. O'clock no calls, no texts, nothing. I'm like, what is going on? The Carolyn, I get this. Hey. And actually deliver it to another neighbor is the one that I had almost closed, but that's, you know, camp blow to them. Got a thank you. Text from them. So I'm like, okay. I know, I know they got him. What's going on? I wait two more days, Mr. Courtney. It's been about a week now. And guess what? Still? No, thank you. Texts. No acknowledgements. Absolutely.Speaker 2 (12:17):A N S yeah, it was, it was a little sad. I was hoping I'd get something, but I didn't. And that's the reality of it. They actually used to write, thank you cards to my customers. But this experience with Carol reminded me of why he got discouraged writing. Thank you cards because sometimes I would write dozens and dozens of thank you. Cards, get nothing in return. People wouldn't even acknowledge it. And I did get results from it. I did get an extra referral here and there. People remember him, but it was the scourging that sometimes people wouldn't say anything. So John's point with this is we need to give up the need to be appreciated for generosity. How many times have we given something then been discouraged when people don't say thank you. So John's point is now this may sound counterintuitive after explaining the whole gratitude loop.Speaker 2 (13:11):Yes. When people don't reflect back that they received or valued our gifts, compliments or acknowledgements, and the natural reaction is that something is missing. The loop feels open. True gratitude is, is expressed with nothing expected in return. When you feel the frustration that someone didn't appreciate what you did for them, just remember, you never know what other people are going through in their lives, except that you did a good thing, pat yourself on the back and move on. Hey, so this is reminding me. I go like, okay, well, I sent this good thing to Carol thought. I was going to change, change my success in the area, but it didn't. And that's okay. So I'm trying to be okay with that. Hey, and John goes on to talk about how, when he was on day, I think 50 of sending out all these thank you cards.Speaker 2 (13:59):He got really discouraged because after 220, thank you cards. Only 20 people responded to thank him for the cards or even acknowledged acknowledged that they got it. And he ended up talking to, um, one of his friends later they'd send a hardtail and they said, John, I got your card a few months back. But the reason I didn't even say thank you or respond to it is because I was going through so much pain in my life. I was going through a really tough breakup. I just couldn't be present to anything positive in my life. So thank you now. But that's why I couldn't. I just was in just, was in some pretty heavy stuff to be able to respond. So think about that next time. You're expressing gratitude, trying to say, thank you. Don't expect anything in return in return. Okay. Be happy with what people respond, whether they respond or don't respond in the challenges.Speaker 2 (15:04):First solar preneurs, go out and write. Thank you cards to your customers, right? Thank you. Cards to your managers. Write, thank you cards to those that have helped you get to this point of success in your sales career. Okay? And that's how we're going to change the industry. How many, how many sales people are out there? They're just focusing on the money. Don't care about their clients. This is how we show that we care about our clients. And guess what the side effect is going to be. You are going to get more referrals. You are going to get those people that send cards back. They express appreciation. Hey, but if you don't, it's not the end of the world. How about after you send a hundred? Thank you cards. You don't get one extra referral. You don't get one person saying thanks for the card back.Speaker 2 (15:49):Can you live with that? So that's the challenge. I'm going to get John Israel on the podcast. Soon. He's lined up. Um, we're waiting for him to lock down the time with him. So if you know, John Israel go out and shoot him a message say, Hey man, we need you on the solar prenuer podcast. Yeah, we're going to get them on. But in the meantime, he was actually on Sam Tagard store or podcast. You can go listen to his experience there. Do you want to search that episode? Hey, but let's elevate ourselves to that mindset of gratitude. That's how we're going to change this industry. And that's how we're going to really have a better attitude ourselves to go out and close more deals and be grateful for the things that are happening, happening to us. Even in times like this, when you're getting shut down by each way, presence.Speaker 2 (16:37):And when deals are canceling, when everything seems like it's going to crap, these are how these are. That's how you're going to get through these tough times is expressing your gratitude and elevating your level of gratefulness to something like John Israel. Okay. So I hope you enjoyed the episode and send it to someone who's going through a tough time. Go and write a thank you card today. Let me know your experience with it. And yeah, I hope this turned out better than the first time again, second time recording it, but appreciate our listeners. And I'm grateful for all you listening to the show and sharing this content in implementing the strategy we talk about. So go out and close some deals and we'll see you on the next one.Speaker 3 (17:22):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 (00:43):We are back in the studio today, got back from a trip to Dallas last weekend, actually with the man of the hour who is here with us today, I'm excited to finally get him on the show because we have got the legends and the myths Taylor McCarthy. So thanks for finally coming on the show with us Taylor. Hey bro. I'm really happy to be here. I'm excited. We're going to get this to drop some drops. Some of the heat for everybody right now. Oh yeah. And everybody knows anyone with a name like Taylor, they're going to be bringing the heat. They're going to be bringing the value tips in the solar industry. So Taylor's in the room. Let's go. Good stuff. So, uh, yeah, we just got back from your events, Taylor, the Knockstar, um, the, uh, Knock Fest, I should say, or sorry, a Door to Door Fest, get all these events confused.Speaker 2 (01:35):Um, so it was great events. You guys put a ton of time into it. So tell me, how was it? You, you recovered from the events, you guys put a lot of work into that. Yeah, man, definitely a lot of stress going into that, like being able to prepare that big of an event and you know, wanting to deliver and have it come from a genuine place, you know, um, you know, when we first started north starting university, it was really just a project to say like, Hey, like let's get it back to the next generation. We'll do a six week bootcamp. We'll design a competition around the bootcamp where we can train, hold people accountable and really help them get results. And then it transformed into, you know, us wanting to do this event and, you know, putting together people that really had validity that we're walking the walk and making the plays right now.Speaker 2 (02:20):And you know, it turned out really good. You know, the best part about it was the relationships. I feel like I've formed and you know, just to be able to really give back and hold nothing back because you know, it's something that genuinely bothers me. Like why is there so much mediocrity in our space? Why isn't there everybody's a millionaire, right? Because we get the chance to write our own paycheck. Every single day, we get the ability to tell somebody what we're worth and go improve that on a day-to-day basis. You know, that was one thing that I wanted to deliver for people was to be able to not only give them motivation and teach them things, but to really give them something that they can take, you know, like specific one-liners or, you know, reasons why people say yes or reasons why people say no or understanding what to say when somebody says, I want to think about it.Speaker 2 (03:09):You know, that's why we designed the actual Solar Knock Cards, which has all the common objections and all the nasty words that people have to eliminate from their vocabulary. And then the slicks specifically, you know, to be able to engage people while they're on the doors and to give the door to door sales and in the best percentage and the certainty that they want to be successful. Yeah. I love that. And I tell this story all the time, but when I first started in solar, there was so much like hidden stuff that people didn't want to say. It's like outside of my company, I going get any coaching at all. Um, I literally go to top guys at other companies. So I was with a pretty small company. So I hit up the top dudes, other companies, they'd be like, no, we're not telling you anything.Speaker 2 (03:50):Like, come on, man, I'll buy you dinner. Let's go. Just like, tell me a few lines that are working for you and nothing, no one say anything. So what I love about you is you hold nothing back. And like you're saying in this event, you literally gave us, I think every line that's working for you, everything you say out there, and I've never heard someone just break it down into the exact words they're saying, which you can have vines even a couple of years ago. Um, so yeah, that's was a money events and definitely worth the money for that, for your stuff alone that we heard. Um, but yeah, what I want to ask you, Taylor, when you guys first started this whole Knox star thing, were you planning on doing live events or was it just going to be the original coaching thing is sort of evolved since you yeah, I mean, you know, just to be very blunt, like Dan was the one that took the lead on saying, Hey, we have to do this event starting to put the pieces together.Speaker 2 (04:43):And you know that wasn't initially my idea. I'm not the type of guy that's going to say, Hey, I'm throwing this huge event. You know, it's kind of like first comes to the action then comes the motivation, right. You know, we started to put one foot in front of each other and we started to kind of make the plays that we needed to make. And you know, the next thing you know is we have a full event with 400 people in it. And you know, when you're around and surrounded around all those people, you know, I really don't know what I'm going to say when I go up on stage, because I don't speak from my brain and speak from my heart the same way that I don't know what I'm about to say over the next 30 to 45 minutes, it's just, I have this intention to say, Hey, like I'm being selfish.Speaker 2 (05:22):If I don't give everything that I have back to the industry and to help other people. And that's just what it comes down to because you really think about it. How many people get into door to door sales that just straight up never make it, like they only wait make it two, three weeks because they don't know this information. And they go two to three weeks without getting paid. And then they say, Hey, um, I'm going to go back to my job at seven 11 or I'm going to go back to my hourly job. See the problem is, is there's two zones. There's the, the comfort zone and the danger zone. We all strive to achieve things like money. The greatest motivator of all is the need to be comfortable. But what happens is we get, we get frustrated. And when that frustration dwells, the average person will withdraw or they will quit, right?Speaker 2 (06:10):Because they start to self doubt themselves. They don't have that certainty. And when you're armed and you have the ammunition to say, Hey, I've got nine or 10 different ways to handle this. You know, we did a play. Somebody had a specific, you know, objection. And, you know, I handled it and everyone was like, oh, that was nasty. You handled it like four or five different ways. Well, I know nine or 10 different ways to handle that. What came out came out. But if you only have one way to end the one objection or concern, you know, then you, you really put yourself into a corner rather than learning new ways and different ways to say different things. And you know, I'd probably say that the two most important things within my presentation is repetition and clarity. I'm very clear with what I explained to people.Speaker 2 (06:55):And I repeat things over and over multiple different ways, multiple, you know, uh, multiple different ways. And I say it different, uh, in different tonalities because you know, a lot of times you say something to somebody and they don't understand. It's not what I say. It's not how I say it. It's how I can make them feel. And it's some things will just go in one ear and out the other one. So, you know, I really need them to retain this information. I do that through repetition and clarity. Yeah. And that's huge. And something you're talking about at the events is how many times have we all heard it and have a presentation we're getting ready to close. I'm like, wait, but I still don't have money for this. It's like, are you kidding me? We just went over like 30 minutes saying, it's not going to cost you anything out of your pocket.Speaker 2 (07:36):Um, so that was huge. And you gave us some solid lines to just sorta like, repeat it. Cause you don't want to repeat the same things over and over. But it's like what you're saying, if you can repeat it, approach it in a different way. And then you talked about activating the senses, getting them to write it down, things like that, which I loved bowls at points you had. So, um, so if you didn't, if you didn't go to the events, I know some people are probably itching to hear somebody of lines and everything, but do you want to give us some of the ways Taylor, that you sorta like free explain these things to not just like repeat the same, uh, you know, same stuff over and yeah, definitely. So w what you have to realize is right now, you guys are hearing, right.Speaker 2 (08:16):That's what you're doing. You're listening to what we're saying, right? And that's the first way that you learned something, but you have to realize the way that the people that we serve, these families that we serve, the way that they're going to learn solar is by hearing reading, saying, in writing these techniques, and you need to hear something, read something, write something and say something six times to retain 62% of that information. Okay. If I say things one time too, that's good. But if I tell you something and I say, Hey, it's easier by show you and I'm handing them something. Now they're starting to read and hear me, right? And then if I ask them a question and get them to talk, now they're hearing reading and saying, buying is not a spectator sport. It's an involvement sport. I am an assistant buyer, and the process is not to the customer, it's for the customer.Speaker 2 (09:14):And I need to take their hand and I need to lead them through the process. So the same way that we have a formula or a roadmap for a homeowner, when we get inside of the home, we also have a formula or a roadmap, um, for the actual, uh, door presentation, which unfortunately I just haven't seen anybody really break it down to the ridiculous of what it's going to take to be able to actually go through the process of selling somebody. And, you know, it starts with you, it starts with mentality. It starts with affirmation, right? The things that I think about are going to lead to an emotion, and that will make me feel a certain way. That feeling will make me judge myself and make a decision about the way that I'm going to approach my debt. Right? But it's the same thing.Speaker 2 (09:57):When I approach a homeowner that first three seconds, there's going to be thoughts that go into their head. Those thoughts will create an emotion. Those, that emotion will make them feel a certain way about me, my product and my service when I knock on their door. And that feeling that they have will lead to them, judging me, which will lead to their end. That decision people rarely buy up people. They don't like trust or no. So that's the first thing that I focus on. Also have like a demeanor, like, I really don't care if you do this or not like this is going to happen with, or without you. And that's the first part of where I sit and stand. Right? Um, it starts with me affirming what I want to do. I need to have affirmation, right? Affirmation. Like this is a done deal. These guys were already talking about it. You know, the next thing I'm going into is who I am and why I'm there. Oh, Hey sir.Speaker 2 (10:49):Actually, the reason I'm confident, I'll pretty much just cut to the chase. You know how you have FPL here for the electricity, right? So that's typically how I'll start my presentation. I'm telling them who I am. I'm telling them why I'm there. The reason I'm coming by is like a little bit different. I'll pretty much cut to the chase. You know how you have blank for your electricity, right? That's a very cut and dry, quick process. They're going to say, yes, I'm giving myself the best percentages and I'm taking what maybe has five or seven seconds like 20 or 30, because I've created a little bit of curiosity. Right? And that's what I want to focus on to create curiosity. I then need to tell a story. So if you break it down, affirmation who you are, why you're there. Then I need to tell a story.Speaker 2 (11:34):And I need to do that by asking a question. Typically, once I say, Hey, do you know how you have FPL here for the electricity? They say, yes. I say, Hey, I don't know if you know, right. And I might spin that to, Hey, I don't know if you know what's going on in the state. Hey, I don't know if you know what's going on here in Cape coral. Hey, I don't know if you guys remember last year, the ballot, right? You guys might've remembered. You guys voted on something called grid pardoning. That's why all the polls, the wooden poles have been switched out for metal on us. 41. We have a little bit of an issue. It is serious. We're not trying to come down on anybody. However, it is important, right? I need to tell a story to create curiosity and through creating curiosity on painting a picture in their head, also known as imagery, right?Speaker 2 (12:17):Because that's how I'm going to get them interested. Um, by telling that story, asking a question and then creating a really big problem, right? I need to create pain within the process. If there's no pain, they will not change. Right. And that's one thing. The two things that I noticed most solar professionals don't do good enough job at is really telling a story on why this is a big deal, right? We maintain a grid. That's 135 years old, right? They have to constantly maintain this grid. That's why they have all these fees and surcharges here in Florida. We get all of our power from out of state. One out of every $4 exits the Florida economy. It goes into the Georgia economy because the power goes through something. You can call the trans mission. Substation goes through a distribution substation, and then eventually gets to the house.Speaker 2 (13:05):So if I can show them something, as I'm telling it to them, and I can create that really good story on why I'm there, which is a hundred percent true. Every single time, there's no like gimmicks or anything. It's just, unmaking it very serious because it is a huge problem. Right? And if you don't feel like it's a big problem, then you're going to get transitioned off of the doorstep. One or two things is going to happen. My belief is going to teleport out of my body, into you, and you're going to feel, Hey, this kid says the part. It makes sense. Okay. Maybe we should go to step two, right? Because I'm a firm believer that no matter what situation I go in, they're in a much better situation to own their power. Then be at the mercy of the power company, right. They, instead of them taking that money every month and throwing it into a dumpster, they're now redirecting it to their piggy bank where they're writing the checks to themselves every month, because they're the owner of their power.Speaker 2 (13:55):Right. And I use a lot of glamor words, a glamor word is a commonly known word. That's uncommonly used. And I use different words like, you know, unparalleled, you know, fantastic, robust redirection. You know, there's a new program. That's gonna allow you to redirect your payment towards owning your power. It's called the redirection program. You would literally divert what you would've paid to the utility company into a piggy bank. And that would eventually end. So you own your electricity, right? So I'm utilizing these words to really pick up their senses and realize it's not just what I'm saying. It's not how I say it. It's how I make them feel. And if I can make them feel like, Hey, what he's saying is right, and this makes sense, right? They're going to move to the next step with me. They might not necessarily say I want to do this, but they're going to sit there and listen to me for those extra 20 or 30 seconds.Speaker 2 (14:46):And then there's extra 20 or 30 seconds is going to lead into an extra 20 or 30 seconds. And eventually I'm going to break them down. It's like Yukon, Cornelius, the guy from, you know, back in the day on the, on the old movies. And he's, you know, he's chipping away. Right. And you have to chip away and eventually get to the process where it makes sense for these homeowners boom nuggets right there. And I'll be your, uh, I'll be your testimony because I mean, I went through your program, just started implementing some of these lines. You're saying, um, I, I hadn't done, I hadn't gotten over 10 cells for probably the last eight, nine months granted COVID and everything. But just from him implementing these lines and going through this stuff that you and Danny taught, it was like hit 12 cells that month had my best month in the past year with COVID and everything.Speaker 2 (15:33):So guys, if you haven't what I would do, just put this whole section on, repeat, listen to the lines that Taylor saying. Cause literally just by doing those things in implementing some of these lines, it's like crazy how much of a difference that you make. Um, so versus getting them through it, whereas getting into the psychology of why people say yes, but then also realize there's a psychology behind why people are going to tell note to tell you no. And the reason people are going to say yes, right? And in, in, in door to door sales, direct sales, it isn't easy, right? 99% of people couldn't handle what we do. That's why 99% of people don't do it. Right. And you look at the, the real psychology. If you really want to understand why somebody is going to say yes to you, right? You are the product or service, right.Speaker 2 (16:20):They're going to believe more about the conviction that you have and why this makes sense for their situation and your technical skills. Right. Um, E excited and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the spirit you have within you. When I was 18 years old, I started selling Verizon file store door. I used to skip my last class, a high school and, uh, had a 1.8 GPA in high school. And I would work for $86 a sale. And, um, I remember hearing the guy with the most energy makes the most money, right? So like your energy and your enthusiasm, and then the way that you decide to serve customers, yes, you are the product or service, your energy and enthusiasm and the way that you generally try to serve people. You know, I have to build that authentic communication, that authentic connection with people when I meet them for them to feel that way.Speaker 2 (17:07):Like I am genuinely helping you. Like if I go through this process with you, you'll do it a hundred percent. You would say, yes, it's just the hardest part of my job is timing. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you apples to apples, your current situation, compared to how it would be, if you redirected towards owning your electricity and like, I'll show you the fast and then you'll make the decision. But at the end of it, and the biggest problem is if I don't understand this, like the back of my hand, you're not going to be able to understand that, to make a decision, right? And then the reasons why people will say no, because you might get to the end of your presentation. And they said, Hey, I want to think about it. Um, there's something called the circle of persuasion that you have to go through and loop back and forth and go right through this multiple times, because get the, I want to think about it.Speaker 2 (17:50):I get the, I'm not making a decision today, but I keep looping through this formula to be able to get myself to that final. Yes, because at the end of the day, they're going to commit to one of three things. They're either going to commit to the utility company and say, Hey, powering my home from the power company. And the utility company is my best option. And if they are a firm believer at the end of my presentation, that paying the fees and surcharges and being at the mercy of the power companies, their best options, cool. I'll shake their hand and I'll say, Hey, if that's the way you'd feel after I've told you everything, I need to tell you that I'm cool with that, right. Option two is they're redirecting into a piggy bank where they own their power. They're turning a liability into an asset or option three is we go to submit your application and they deny you.Speaker 2 (18:33):And then in that case, you're stuck. I mean, you could go to the seven 11, go buy a $20 scraps to get one a million dollars, say, yes, I'm buying a brand new solar system and you can't get it because the system is grid grid dependent. It's gonna inter connect to the grid, right? So utilizing takeaways and, um, the reasons why people aren't going to move forward. Number one is lingering questions, right? People have lingering questions and sometimes they don't tell you. And that's the benefit of the slicks is like the five main questions I like to go on offense and show them this before man, like people always have five main questions. What happens to my roof? What happens if I move? What is the bottom line cost of doing this? Who's going to serve as a system. And when do I start saving money?Speaker 2 (19:13):And I want to bring up all those five lingering questions beforehand. I also want to bring up, it sounds way too good to be true. Bottom line started. If you're going to fall into one or two categories, category one, everything that I just said made complete and total sense. You know, somebody that's benefited from going solar or categories here just sounds way too good to be true. And you're probably sitting there like, wait a second. What's the catch. The catch is simple. When I say that I have your full attention, right. It catches simple. What's the main reason you picked it. You know, the utility company as your provider in the first place. Exactly. You never had a second option right now. You see these lines are a natural part of me because I've internalized them. Right. And that's how you learn something is by utilizing it and then internalizing it and then you reinforce it.Speaker 2 (19:55):Right? Um, the other reason why people aren't going to move forward as an inadequate explanation of benefits, right? Different buyers require different amounts of information to be soul, right? No, nobody wants to be sold. Nobody wants to buy something. They want to own it. Right? So I need to really explain to them the benefits. And you know, what I like to do is when I go in for my clothes and even on the door, I say, Hey, there's an agenda because it gives them a roadmap. I go over four questions. They're called. Can we pay the questions that I'm going to go over your costs of doing nothing really show you apples to apples. What you're going to end up spending a month on power a year for power and how much you're going to have to actually give to the landlord. Um, next, we're going to explain to you what we believe are MCSS will try those five main buttons, remove costs, service, savings, recap, design, and I'll say the numbers.Speaker 2 (20:42):And then we'll actually submit your application. Um, with the questions are pretty basic. We want to make sure that are both, how many years have you literally it was called word of mouth advertising. And if you've lived here for six years, we want the credibility, but also the visibility from using a roof because people will see the panels. Um, peace of mind is something that people want out of this because the rates are just going to consistently go up. You know, there is one program that allows you to have a 0% escalator, meaning that your price on month one, your cost, your investment for your system would never, ever go up. We want you to understand the difference between renting and owning. That's a critical part. People are going to cancel. If they are just saving 50 bucks a month and they take out a loan, they realize it's after.Speaker 2 (21:24):I need them really to understand the difference between resting versus owning. And I want to pull a hypothetical like, Hey, what am I going to do to convince you to go back to renting your house? And I use a checkbook analogy, right? So Taylor, if you were my, if you were the customer right now, I'd say, you know, like, um, Taylor, I have a hypothetical situation for you. You know, hypothetically, if I pulled the checkbook out of my pocket right now, and I was willing to write you a check and hand it to you. Um, so I could be the owner of your home, um, because I wanted the title and I wanted ownership of the home. I would continue to live here. I would let you continue to live here, but you would just have to write me a check every single month so I could pay off the mortgage.Speaker 2 (22:05):Is that something you would do? Would you go back to renting your house? If I was willing to buy it from you and you just had to write me a check every single month, would you do that? Would you go back to rent? No way. No. Why wouldn't you do that? Because I've already been paying towards own and owning the house. It'd be like taking a step back right now. Why would I want to do that? Because you would get my house basically, and then you would get my paycheck or you would get the same concept with your electricity. Right? See, the problem is solar has been very, very, very expensive. And all these neighbors like Judy, she lives right here in the home right here on the corner. She was really smart about it, but she did not win the lottery. She did not take money out of her checking account, nor did she pivot from her stock portfolio.Speaker 2 (22:52):She just realized that if she was paying the electricity for rent or a liability, that she wanted to turn that into an asset where she now had the control. Right? And that's where I want to explain the difference between renting versus owning. And I want you to really verbalize because I can go through my, can we pay process? I'm actually writing down all the answers, right? Because when I get to the very end of the process, I want the value to be as high as possible. That when I show you what your fixed monthly payment is, that I can assume in transition and go right into, you know, the clothes and how this would make sense. Um, and then I have the 10 pillars of reasons why people want to go solar. There's $0 out of pocket. You add equity to your home. You own your power source.Speaker 2 (23:34):You eliminate fees and surcharges. People do this, that are tech savvy. You get a fixed payment twenty-five year warranty, production guarantee, the better environment, the cost into an investment. And then you get the 20% federal tax credit, crazy golden nuggets spread there. And for, for everyone, that's listening to audio, Taylor's been holding up these, um, these slicks. Um, so we're going to release the video version. I would definitely suggest listening to that. And then we'll ask them at the end where you guys can get a hold of these things, because these things are game changers too. Um, but no, I think it's super valuable stuff. So again, just re if you anyone that's listening, if you hear these lines on repeat, start to implement them, it's gonna increase yourselves for sure. I mean, I know you guys already have dozens of success, stories of people implementing these things, increasing their sales.Speaker 2 (24:25):Um, but what about Dale or for people that, um, are hitting highly saturated area? It's been knocked the ton. Oh, you're the fifth solar guy here. Cause I'm in San Diego. One of the most competitive markets done on people here, um, slinging solar. So what do you do? What are your, some of your lines for those neighborhoods where you get no, you're the fifth solar guy here and what are you doing to differentiate, differentiate yourself from all those other guys that came. So first is how you envision yourself, right? Like I do not care if they've been talked to by four other solar guys that dead, they just haven't talked to me about it, right? Because what I'm going to be telling them is completely different. You know? So like this is completely, totally different. This is completely different. So, you know, before all these companies come out and say, we want to sell you this, or we want to sell you that were utilizing you guys as reference points or what we call model homes.Speaker 2 (25:16):How many years have you guys even lived here? Right. And I want to take it away from them right now. If you've been approached about solar, you have to understand what their misconception is and you need to tell them, Hey, the biggest problem in solar is if I don't understand this, like the back of my hand, you're not going to be able to understand it. A lot of the people are telling me a lot of people say, they're not interested without actually seeing a proposal and understanding, you know, what their house would look like with the panels. And actually somebody showing them apples to apples, what their current situation is compared to their new situation. You know? So I try to get really real about their situation. I pull up their house with an application called Sunseeker where I can show them the hours that are hitting their house.Speaker 2 (25:58):And I want to actually personalize their situation right off the bat. Now, if somebody has already been talked to about going solar, you know, I want to figure out the reasons why, you know, what they were told and you know, really why they didn't move forward. But I also want to be convicted and say like, if I go through this process with you, you'll do it. You know? Like, what was the main reason you picked, you know, Edison as your power provider in the first place. Okay. You, weren't thinking about closing out the account. Right. You know, how many years have you lived here? Okay. So seven years, hypothetically, if the power company called you on the phone right now and said, you guys have been super loyal for the last seven years, we've been taking all the payments and we put them into a piggy bank for you.Speaker 2 (26:36):And on your 20 or your 25, you just don't have to pay a power bill because you own your electricity. Right? Like, um, I use specific lines, like, you know, like, um, we'll go through a quick role-play here. So like, um, like, like Taylor, um, how many years ago was it that you moved into the hall? Uh, it's been like six years now. A little bit. Okay. So six years ago when you moved into the house, I don't know if you move the furniture on yourself, you had a moving company, but that first day that you moved in, I know you didn't hesitate to call the power company. Typically what happens is you call them, you tell them your name. They said, okay, where's the B address? And then your, your, your lights is turned on and like 30, 45 minutes or whatever. But at that time, six years ago, if you would've called the power company and they said, Hey, before we turn the lights on, we need to send a representative out to your house.Speaker 2 (27:24):Kind of like I'm here right now. And you were to have two options. You are not just forced to have that one option where you had to rent the power, pay the fees, pay the surcharges, and always have to maintain this hundred and 35 year old infrastructure. They said, we have a second option because we're here right now. When we proposed the idea to actually use your roof as a power plant, where you're producing power onsite, you own that electricity. You have the ability to have a fixed payment that nine out of 10 times is going to be lower than what you currently pay. You will not pay any fees and surcharges. And then you'll have an end game with that because you're producing clean energy, right? You're also going to be incentivized, kind of like, if you go speeding 110 miles per hour down the highway, you're going to get a ticket.Speaker 2 (28:09):But when the government and they want you to do some thing, right, they're incentivizing you. And they said, Hey, we're going to actually pay you 26% of the federal tax credit to actually do this. If given that option, when six years ago, when you moved into the home, would you have at least have the representative come out to your house? Yeah, no doubt. So it was the only, the only difference is I just don't have an Edison logo on my shirt. Right? You want to paint imagery into their head to be able to show them, Hey, there's multiple options. And you know, a lot of the time when, when people are getting combative with me, you know, sometimes I'll just say, I'll just stop. And I'll say like, sorry, this is not a sales process. You're actually starting to make me feel a little uncomfortable.Speaker 2 (28:52):Right? I'm not a dentist. I've never performed a root canal in my life, nor am I looking to pull any teeth to that, right? Like, like I'm going to help you genuinely help you go into a better situation. It's just the hardest part of my job is timing. Right? That's the hardest part of my job. That's a reason why somebody is not going to move forward. Right. And then have that presentation down, pat. So we started with the affirmation who you are, why you're there creating a story and asking a question, right? Then I want to create the pain. Then I want to go into a problem. Then I want to go into the solution that I want to tell them how they're involved. Then I want to tell them how they're awarded that. I want to tell them why it makes sense. And then I want to transition it.Speaker 2 (29:34):And I want to assume, assume, assume, right? I always want to take the sales presentation as far as I possibly can. I don't want to be pushy. I'm not a used car salesman. But if I go through this process with you, you'll do it a hundred percent. You would say yes. And you have to have that conviction. The same that you're hearing my voice. If I'm like military, dude, you might not do this. Or like, Hey, this doesn't make sense for you. Like, no, like you're going to do it. It says, I have to explain it to you. Right? That's the biggest problem in the solar industry is people don't fully understand it and they try to explain it to you. And you get confused when you say no. And I would expect you to say no, right? But my job is very cut and dry.Speaker 2 (30:09):Right? I want to show you what your bill last month would have been. If you would have already had solar. And then I want to show you the actual design of the system. Do you know roughly, just roughly what you guys spend a month on the electricity, like 1 50, 1 50. Okay. So $150 is what you spend every single month to the utility company. You turn your lights on. You don't get any equity. Your power's not your house. Isn't worth more. It's not like, Hey, I've paid for power for 25 years. Now I'm going to go sell my house. And my home is going to be worth X amount more because you don't get anything in return. But if it's $150 that you spend a month fair to say over the course of a year, it's eight, $1,800, $1,800 comes out of your pocket to maintain a grid.Speaker 2 (30:54):That's over 130 years old. And it put this into perspective for you. If it's $1,800 in a year, what does 18,000 represent to you? In one year, you're giving the utility company. If you're donating $1,800 to the utility company in 10 years, what is $18,000 to you? I guess what I would have spent what I would have paid the utility company. It's 10 years of paying for power. If the rates never went up next 10 years, the rates could potentially double. They're not going to go down 50% because we use our natural resources, right? And that's why we have this problem. It is serious. We're not trying to come down on anybody. However, it is important, right? If you break down the last seven years that you've lived here, you've almost invested. Or I shouldn't say invested, I should really use the word donate because that utility company took all this money that you gave them.Speaker 2 (31:48):And I believe that these CEOs of these power companies should not be making millions of dollars a year. I believe that if we have 135 year infrastructure, we should all be paying for it. Not just the consumers. You see, I'm a consumer myself. And whenever I put myself in these types of situations, I want to find somebody with expert product knowledge. Because if I get confused anywhere along this process, I'm going to say no, right? And I use this to help the homeowner relax because your greatest enemy is the client's fear, right? And if they're scared, they don't want to make the wrong decision. So as an assistant buyer, that's the first thing on the top of my food champions. I need to really help them relax. Then I need to go into a really good, intense statement. Then I need to go through the, can we pay questions and get them to talk about why I should pick their home.Speaker 2 (32:36):Then I want them to circle the reasons why they like that. They should go solar. Then I want to explain to them what we believe. I want to show them apples to apples. Hey, this is what your average monthly bill comes to. This is what you pay average per year. This is how many kilowatts you consume per month. This is how many kilowatts consumed per year. This is what you're going to pay for power over the course of X amount of time. This is what you're getting for a tax credit. If you don't do anything. So I'm showing them apples to apples, almost like a Ben Franklin closed, Hey, if you could stay with your current situation, this is how it's going to be. If you move to a new situation, this is what it's going to be. I do not care if you do it, this this is going to happen with, or without you.Speaker 2 (33:14):I've got about 11 and more of these to do today. Um, but if you want to take a part of the project, the next step is actually getting the utility company to process the redirection. If they denied the application, then you're stuck. Right. And I take it away at that point, right? So I'm not going to sound needy, right? The same way that if the customer starts to, you know, give me a hard time. Like, I just have a demeanor. I don't care if you do it or not. It's your bill. You know, like the TVs, aren't going to look any different. They're not going to flicker the lights. Aren't going to look any different. And I almost have a demeanor, Hey, if, if you don't do this, like you, you might as well just keep the lights on. And the TV's on all day when you go to work, you know, like, it's, it, it doesn't make sense to me because I have the Zite belief that it does not make sense to them to continue to waste money.Speaker 2 (34:01):Right. I definitely feel as if people hesitate to pay full price on things they don't need to. Right. That's a jab. Right? I use that when I'm in the field, right. I definitely feel as if people hesitate to pay full price on things they don't need to. What was the main reason you picked the Edison in the first place? Okay. You guys, weren't thinking about canceling the account, right? So all these little jabs are kind of making them feel like, Hey, am I making the right decision? I want to avoid the wrong decision. Well, guess what? Through my conviction and through my passion and my product and my service, they're going to start to doubt their current situation and say, dude, we're getting screwed, right? Why would we pay all these fees and surcharges? Hey, this kid looks, the party sounds apart. He's showing me stuff.Speaker 2 (34:39):He's backing up. What he's saying. When I go to the field, I have like 14 different slicks. If they ask me about a hurricane, if they asked me the difference between the old Stouffer's the new stuff, where the sun direction comes, you know, I have all this different ammunition that I can show them something, as I say something right. And my dad has always told me documentation beats conversation. That's another thing that I say to them, like, no, everything that I'm saying is good, but, uh, documentation beats conversation, you know, this is the hardest part of my job is time. And if I go through this process with the old, do it a hundred percent, you'll do it. And then I assume transition, Hey, I'll pop back by around five. Or Hey, if there's a small place, we can sit. I go through these questions.Speaker 2 (35:20):And, uh, you know, I just have that belief that they're going to do it. You know, I don't say anything special. I don't have a complicated presentation, you know, but what I do have is I have a lot of belief in my product and service and people are going to be more persuaded by that than my technical skills, powerful stuff. And I love that. And it's true. There's so much confusion in this. Especially out here in Southern California, I think that's basically the number one reason people don't have solar. So they got confused by loss guy that was pitching like a PPA. We used program. It's a big thing out here, but we come in, we can show them different options, give them that knowledge. And then people are way more confident. I had a lady just two weeks ago. That's an older lady canceled.Speaker 2 (36:01):Cause she was confused on like one tiny thing in the documents. Didn't tell me, just call up the company in canceled. I'm like, what? Then you go back, just clarify things to her, helped her gain an understanding. And she was back on board. So yeah, I see that all the time. I'm sure you do. People don't understand it. So they just cancel. They're confused. They don't want to do it. That's what I try to say, Hey, there's a new program. That's going to allow you to redirect your payment. It's called the redirection program. So if you noticed all these people that put up the wind turbines behind their houses, or like the solar panels on the roof, they did not win the lottery. They did not take money out of their checking account, nor did they pivot from their stock portfolios. What they realized was they were at the mercy of the power company.Speaker 2 (36:43):But if they could divert that payment towards a piggy bank or they owned their electricity rather than paying for rent every month, that's something that they wanted to do. Right. See, the hardest part of my job is that timing aspect and being able to explain it so they understand it because I need them to fully understand it for them to have the confidence and certainty that they're making the right decision. I love that. That's super powerful. Okay, guys, implement those lines again. Repeat these. It's going to change the way you sell. Um, and I know another thing you do just like reducing the cancellations is those hypothetical questions. That's something that I'd been trying to implement a lot is just asking the hypothetical's like you're saying, Hey, what would you do? If, if SDG, if Edison came back, they said, we're going to switch you onto the old program, getting them to agree with that.Speaker 2 (37:29):Um, so that's super powerful. What other geometry, other things that are helping you, um, reduce cancellations and things that have helped the guys you're coaching. Yep. So there's one specific question that I asked right before I walked out of the house. Understand practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect. So you're going to need to stick this line word for word, if you want to utilize it. But if you can learn this one last line, it's going to completely eliminate your cancellations. Um, so Taylor, give me an example of your last one of your last homes. What was their average payment to the utility company and then what was their payment for solar? And give me a hundred percent offset just to make it easy on this one. Yeah. Um, I think my last one is, uh, probably one 70 was their average to the utility company.Speaker 2 (38:22):I think one about one 40 was their payments for the solar. Okay, great. So great example. All right, Taylor. So I really appreciate the time that we shared. Um, I have one question before I leave. Hypothetically, if you were to close your eyes right now and you already have the solar panels installed in the roof and you knew that you own your electricity and you knew you had a fixed payment that went into a piggy bank every month and it was $140. And you knew that rate would never go up because you owned your electricity. You had the panels installed. Um, your payment was one 40. It would never go up. And then you've heard somebody ringing your doorbell. You were cooking dinner or whatnot. And you went to go look who it was. You peeked out, you open your door and it was Edison and Edison tried to talk to you.Speaker 2 (39:10):And they said, Hey, we want you to rip off the panels. We want you to go back to renting your electricity. We want to put you into a variable rate where the rate can go up, but we're going to start you off at an average of $170, right? If that situation were to happen, you already had the panels installed in the roof. You had the $140 fixed payment that we talked about. And then Edison came and knocked on the door, try to convince you to rip those panels off. And they told you that your new rate would be one 70 and every time you made one of those payments, they would take the money and put it back into the infrastructure. And you would not have any sort of asset. You would not get the tax credit. If that situation were to happen, what would you say?Speaker 2 (39:53):Yeah, that would, that would suck no way. Would I go back onto that? No way you would never do it. And what I'm telling them at that point is their current situation. Right? I'm telling them their same situation that you're in. Right? So I've went through the process. I've signed all my documents. I've went through the final process in the night, reaffirmed that post-close closed that by asking that question. And if you really did the sales process the right way, they're going to say I would never do that. I would never do it. And then sometimes I'll, I'll take a subtle takeaway. Like keep in mind, like the utility company denies you. Then you are stuck. He better not do that. No. Well, what if they deny me? Can I call them? Is there any, can I go into the office? And I have felt that if you sell the process the right way, right?Speaker 2 (40:37):You want to take it away and you want to build that pain because understand if you don't build enough pain, if there isn't a problem, if there isn't pain, they won't change. Right. The pain, the problem, the solution, how they're involved, all the transition process works fire. Yeah. That is a game changer. I still need to memorize that because I think I've, I've tried that a few times. Uh, butchered it a little bit when I tried to do it. So definitely go back re listen to this, get it word for word and yeah, it's for sure. Going to change your cancellations. And last thing I wanted to ask you before we start wrapping up here, um, a big thing that I've learned from you is just vocabulary. Dale eliminates from your presentation. I know pitch is one of the words you don't eliminate. Taylor's making us do pushups and stuff like that when we said pitch at the conference.Speaker 2 (41:34):But, uh, can you go through for our listeners, some words that, uh, you teach you coach guys on to eliminate from their sales vocab. Yeah. There's actually a lot of the words that I completely eliminated from my vocabulary. Nasty words are words that will remind a buyer of a bad path selling experience. Right. And the pitch is one of the nastiest words, right? Let me just hear your pitch. Like you want to hear all these different pitches you should refer to pitch as an angle of a roof or a baseball throw that we'd replace pitch with the word present or presentation. Um, other words are like cheaper. I don't use the word cheaper. I use more economical, most economical or more efficient, most efficient. I don't use the word. I don't use the word appointment. Like, Hey, I'm going to set an appointment at six o'clock.Speaker 2 (42:21):I'll just pop by and visit. Right. Hey, so I'm going to actually be with the Gonzalez family at five. I'll just pop by, uh, like right at like 5 45. And I'll show you guys exactly what the panels will look like on the roof and what your bill locksmith would have been. Right? Cause people cancel an appointment, but they won't cancel a few pop by and visit. Right. Um, over the summer I had a lady that said, I am not signing any sort of contracts whatsoever today. So that's perfectly fine. This, um, you don't have to sign the contract, but what we are going to do is okay, these three forms and that's, what's going to allow us to get to the next step. And she was okay to okay. The form, but she didn't want to sign the contract because when somebody wants to sign something, they think of bad things.Speaker 2 (43:01):I just used the word. Okay, approve, authorize, or endorse. If they say contract, I really liked to use the word forms, paperwork, you know, um, agreement. But I really liked the worst forms in that situation. Um, so there, there's a lot of words that you just want to eliminate that, you know, might not help the process or, you know, they might think like, to be honest, I'd never say that I say to be blunt, right, right. To cut to the chase. I don't want to say, to be honest as I'm insinuates, like, oh, wait a second. Was he, was he honest? You know, so I say to be blunt, I try to add all, but I don't say the word free. Right? I say no costs. Right. And to be able to learn these words, eliminate them. And the opposite of a nasty word is a glamour word.Speaker 2 (43:47):And those are words like redirect or unparalleled are really getting them excited. And you also don't want to use those same word over and over and over again, if I said fantastic, nine times in my presentation, you know, then it becomes, and then it just becomes a redundant. Right. And it doesn't actually help the process. Right. The other thing that people want to eliminate is something called seal talk, seal talk is, uh, uh, and, um, um, uh, uh, or words that will take away certainty from your presentation. So when you're arming and eyeing the whole time, you know, that's called seal talk and you want to eliminate that from your, from your vocabulary as well. Yeah. Super important. Yeah. That's, that's been a game changer for sure. I was saying all of these things without realizing them. So something might've been trying to do is just record yourself because a lot of these, a lot of people don't are seeing these things, especially ums, AHS, buts.Speaker 2 (44:42):We don't even know we're saying it. So for our Solarpreneurs, go and record yourselves at guarantee, you're probably using a lot of these words without knowing it, especially because whatever everybody does, you just have to be conscious about it, right? Like in work on it, you might get 1% better every day or every week. And that's all it is, is getting really good with your vocabulary and your certainty. Because at the end of the day, the families that we serve, which I also don't use the word customers, right. I don't refer it to customers. They use the families we serve when they start to hear every other word that comes out of your mouth is odd. They're going to say, does this kid really know what he's talking about? I'm a consumer myself. Whenever I put myself in this sort of situation, I'm looking for somebody with expert product knowledge.Speaker 2 (45:31):That's part of my intent statement. Right. And if I can stick that during my intent statement and let them know, Hey, my goal is to have you commit to one of these three things, you know, that I'm really laying out the roadmap with how my presentation should go. Whether I'm on the door, whether I'm in the home. I love that super powerful stuff. So yeah, again, record yourselves. See if you are saying any of these trigger words. I know when I first got in the, in solar, I was taught to say all these things like a lot of, a lot of companies don't even teach these things. A lot of guys are saying free appointments. I had never heard that before you taught me that. And once I started replacing appointments with pop by our whole team, we've seen our cancellations go down. We've seen same day appointments, go up clear up for same day, pop bys.Speaker 2 (46:18):As we're not doing an appointment, we're just popping by later in the day. And that's when we're getting results. So, um, super powerful stuff, appreciate you for not holding anything back. Um, and that's what I love about what you and Danny are doing. Guys are changing the industry, for sure. So we're used to it being just the opposite of that. Um, so before we let you go, Taylor, can you, so I've told our podcast listeners, I was in your guys' bootcamp and helped me out, uh, just a ton in the way I sell and definitely got me results. So can you tell our listeners where they can find out more about you guys and maybe tell a little bit about your upcoming bootcamp and everything, if you guys got any spots left in that? Yeah. So it's filling up pretty fast. We just had our event, I believe.Speaker 2 (47:02):Uh, we're getting pretty close there because we want to really have that personalized touch over six weeks with every individual. Um, you can find information on www.knockstar.university or you can find all the products information about the six week bootcamp. The way we design the six week bootcamp is not just, uh, you know, a call every week and going over a specific stuff. But what we did was we designed the competition around it really hold you accountable and allows me to be your performance performance, manage you and kind of be your outside director of sales. And my job is to get the most out of you during that six weeks and really to push you, hold you accountable. Not only give you more information, but to get you to produce over that six weeks. And you know, the cool thing about it, like tell her you were within the program, you had, you know, w you had your best, uh, best month in a long time.Speaker 2 (47:54):And it was because you pushed yourself when you're up. And your proximity is around some of the top door to door salesmen all around the United States. You know, the coolest part about what we do is we get the opportunity to go prove what we're worth on a day-to-day basis. You can enter a bootcamp against some of the top solar professionals all across the United States. And, you know, there may be somebody that's listening to this podcast right now that not too many people know who you are, but you have that deep down belief in yourself, and you say, Hey, I'm going to go into this and I'm going to take out everybody. I'm going to be number one within this entire bootcamp. I'm going to be one of the guys that goes up on stage. I'm going to be somebody that's recognized, because I understand people strive to get these things that motivate them like money, achievement recognition.Speaker 2 (48:39):And when you get out of that motivator stage and you go to demotivators motivators, that's when you're going to be like, Hey, you know, I'm self-doubting myself, but you know, it starts with you affirming having a tunnel, vision, being myopic, believing what you're going to do. I remember when I was first, you know, 18 years old, 14, 15 years in the game, I heard something that said, decisions, decide your wealth. And when I stood in at a company called Platinum Protection with over a thousand sales reps, I looked at everybody in a crowd. I had long hair down to my shoulders, and I had an absolute certainty that I was going to be number one in that company, there was this no s ends about it. I didn't know anything about selling security alarms at all. I just knew that I had that absolute certainty of what I needed to accomplish.Speaker 2 (49:24):I put on my blinders and I made plays. You know, I grew up very poor. I watched my parents struggle when I guess that would be my message to everybody is, you know, whether you decide to level up and be a part of our bootcamp or your long program called United, um, or just decide to say, Hey, I'm going to do it on my own a hundred percent, but just put your head down and make the plays because you don't want to procrastinate and wait and wait and wait. You have to eventually make those plays on 31 years old. If I didn't make all the plays in my twenties, I would not be in the position that I'm in right now. And at the same time, I need to keep my foot on the pedal, right? What has got me here to this position is not going to help me get to where I want to go and I have to keep on keeping on.Speaker 2 (50:05):And that would be my advice to everybody. That's go. I love that. And I can attest to what Taylor is saying. This guy is one of the most competitive people you will meet. We did a soccer game, and I know you got a soccer game tonight, Taylor, but this guy was more one of the most, uh, rad competitors I've seen on the field and soccer him and a Moe Falah. I thought I was going to have to hold you guys back for a second. You guys were the two top guys tour. And then solar were the two top guys in a soccer team as though all this stuff correlates feed that have that desire, light that fire on yourself, and you're going to go achieve. And that's what I think has been a huge part of your success. Taylor definitely admire you for that. So thanks for dropping some nuggets with us and guys, he just dropped all this stuff.Speaker 2 (50:48):A lot of this stuff was from the boot camp. So imagine the value you're going to get from the bootcamp. So if you want additional training, go check that out. And then they also have the Knock Cards, the slicks he's talking about what you can use those on doors in your trainings. Um, working guys find those things out there is that just a knockstar.university to not start out university. You guys can find me on Instagram, Taylor MCC solar, and don't hesitate to reach out because, you know, I've watched my parents struggle. I live week to week, we always got down to our last $20. And you know, like this thing is bigger than myself. You know, God gave me a gift to be able to help others. And I want to be able to help as many people as I can. Well, we appreciate you, Taylor, thanks for all the value you're spreading in this industry. And guys go out and shoot Taylor. And also Danny, that was on the podcast. If you a few weeks back, probably when this releases go tell them you appreciate them, follow them on Instagram and thanks for changing the world. So thanks for coming on the show, Taylor, and we'll have guys sitting up and we'll talk soon. Peace.Speaker 1 (51:49):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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. Should you even go on vacations as a Solarpreneur?Speaker 2 (00:45):How should you prepare for your vacations and the best things you should be doing during your vacations? You take them. That's what we're going to be covering today. Interesting topic, something I've thought a lot about. So let's get into it. How are you? I'm Taylor Armstrong. We're back with another episode. We are changing lives. We're changing the solar industry. And thanks for being a listener of the show. Appreciate all you guys do to share the love, share the podcast and reach out to others who are needing help. So we're all about in the industry. And that's what I appreciate about seeing guys that I interact with in the industry is most people are super giving, super willing to help out. So pat yourself on the back for that. Okay. Before we jump into the topics today, wanting to give a quick update, if you haven't already heard, we are launching a full on, uh, on, on board training app training platform.Speaker 2 (01:46):It's called Solciety. If you haven't checked it out, he can go check it out as solciety.co. It's launching, uh, July 1st. So depending on when you're listening to this episode may already be out, but if not go check it out. It's going to have some dope features that you're not going to want to miss out on. And I think it's going to change the industry. Okay. And I'm not just saying that cause it's me on there. Guess what? It's not just me on there. Spoiler alert. The reason I'm saying it's going to change the industries because we're getting the best of the best all combined in one place. Okay. I know I can speak for myself. I know I got some awesome stuff to share with you all, but when you add to me with, um, you know, Taylor McCarthy with Jay Pez with, um, a lot of other guests, we have James Swiderski.Speaker 2 (02:35):A lot of other people we have that are going to be featured on the platform. That's where the magic happens. They were trying to bring the best of the best all at your fingertips. So you can literally be sitting on the toilet. You can be learning from the top guys in the industry. So go check it out, get yourself on the waiting list. We are actually currently doing Beta testing with about 20 people. We're getting some great feedback and we're excited to launch it to the public. And we're also also doing some enterprise deals. Yeah. Some stuff I can't talk about, but you're definitely going to want to be on the list and see the full features and everything when it comes out on July 1st. Hey, so, um, yeah. Anyways, check it out. And the reason that I'm bringing this as well as, because we actually have one of the experts, one of our, um, trainers featured on Solciety is on, um, the episode is on the podcast, I should say next episode.Speaker 2 (03:39):So what I meant to say, and that is Taylor McCarthy guys. This guy has some buyer, some money tips, some, some of the best content I've heard for solar guys. So don't miss out. He's next episode. So today I'm going to kind of demo a few things that he talks about the jams on, but, um, just be prepared, go listen. The next episode it's dropping on Friday, it's going to be some sweet stuff. So Taylor McCarthy he's with a Knockstar. We've talked about him. We had, um, Danny Pessy his partner in crime. He was on a while back Taylor McCarthy, he is like the ying to the yang. These guys are awesome. And so we're going to feature him. So let's jump into the topic today. A few things that, uh, Taylor talks about is, um, first of all, obviously we're talking about like vacations, should you take them?Speaker 2 (04:33):But another thing besides that, um, Taylor McCarthy, something that he does is this guy's big on social media. And he will literally like manifest his goals. He'll call them out. Um, he sold, it was some crazy number of roofs, Taylor McCarthy. He also he sold roofs, alarms he's pretty much sold at all. But he tells this story about when he manifested the number of roofs he was going to sell. I think it was like a hundred roofs in a week. I don't know something and saying, and he puts it on social media. He says, Hey, how many do you guys think I can sell a hundred roofs in a week? Yes or no. He got the feedback. And then once people voted the yes or no, he used this as fuel to inspire all the people that voted. No, he takes a screenshot of this, puts it as a background on his phone.Speaker 2 (05:24):And then he's looking at this every probably, I don't know, hour of the day, just using this as few, holds it in the fire, be like, yo, I'm going to prove these idiots wrong. I'm going out. I'm closing a hundred roof deals in a week and he does it. So that's something I thought he was. Yeah. He had some awesome advice on is guys. If, especially if you're that, that type of person, you can use your heaters as fuel, try something like that, go out and make a social media post. See how many people challenge you see how many people say you're not going to do it. Use that as fuel, prove those people wrong, prove them wrong. It's that's a money tip. You're right there. The reason I'm saying that though is because, um, at the time of this, I am going on a little trip next week, going to Lake Powell.Speaker 2 (06:18):Um, that's in Utah, Arizona, if you guys have been there, probably the coolest lake, I would say in the world, you got there's cliffs. You can jump off of you get a houseboat. Um, I know like Sam Taggart he's as retreats there with his, um, door to door game. He'll do like leadership retreats and stuff there. Todd Peterson, he actually has a houseboat. He'll take a lot of the Vivian guys there. And um, a lot of door to door guys know about it. So I'm going there next week. Usually try to go there, um, in the summer. Um, but the way this all correlates is because trips are something I've really struggled with. Um, and anyone that's an entrepreneur, that's a Solarpreneur. I think you can probably relate in solar. We're not really making money for on a trip, right? Unless you're closing virtual, which that's cool.Speaker 2 (07:09):But lake Powell, I mean, I'm out there with basically no service. So ain't no close and virtual really for me out there. And let's be honest when we're on vacations, I want to enjoy the vacation. Okay. I don't want to be necessarily doing sales calls all day long, which maybe I differ in viewpoints with some people, but that's my line of thought. I want to enjoy the vacation. I want to go all out. I want to be a hundred percent in the vacation. Okay. And enjoying myself. Not to say you can't do other things, which I'll talk about here in a second, but what sh what should you do before the vacation? Okay. You should do. In my opinion, you should go all out. You should try to close as many deals as possible. You should do something like Taylor. McCarthy does make a social media post, get some haters, but go all out.Speaker 2 (08:02):Hey and the reason I do this. I say this is because when I started in pest control, I went on a vacation. I remember, I think I went on a cruise with my family and anyone that's doing the summer grind summer sales, you know, that summer vacations, it's basically a negative. Like you don't go on vacations. It's going to kill yourselves. But the reason that kills yourselves is because what happens with guys? What happened to me especially is probably about the three, four days before vacation. Guess what? I let my guard down. I said, okay, um, I'm going to check out mentally. I know I'm going on a cruise. Yeah. My head's not in it. So I'll just take it easy. I'll just coast. Get a few cells and be good. So three, four days before my numbers went, way down, didn't sell as much.Speaker 2 (08:52):Then obviously I'm in the, in the, on the cruise ship, on the vacation, you know, not making money. And then I get back. And especially first year ups, I had to basically relearn the pitch, um, relearn the door presentation and get back into the flow of it. So it takes me of the three, four days to get back to what my numbers were. So if you do the math on that, that's three, four days before the trip, three, four days after the trip, that's eight days basically of reduced selling. I've taken to adjust back into things and then that's a week on the trip. So you add that up. Now, all of a sudden that one week, it's a little worse, right? Well, that's 15 days. We're talking now. So this is the problem with vacations. And this is the problem I've always had. It's so hard to get back into things.Speaker 2 (09:45):And it's so easy to let your mind slip. It's so easy to not push as hard if before you went on the trip, especially in solar, it's like, oh, I don't need to go out and knock because, um, yeah, I'm going to be gone. So there's no point in setting up an appointment. Right? That's been my mindset at times in solar do so how do we overcome that again? Do a Throwdown like what Taylor McCarthy is talking about, do a challenge on social media and instead of taking the days before the trip to slow down, speed up. Yeah. That's what I've seen. The truly successful people do in this industry. There's lots of guys in this industry that take tons of vacations. And I used to think, oh, you can't take a vacation. You're never going to be successful. Some of the top guys, I know at like vivant, solar managers, they're taking more vacations probably than anyone.Speaker 2 (10:36):Um, but they're making more money than anyone I'm like, how are these guys doing it? And this is how they don't let trips become a thing where it's taken them 15 days or eight days to, you know, wind back into things. And their sales are slowing down before the trip. No, none of that. They're pushing extremely hard before they're closing tons of deals. Okay. I talked to my buddy, uh, Matt Crowder. He's um, he's been on the show. He's a district manager, Vivant Solar doing tons of deals. I remember we went to door to door con, um, we're hanging out a door to door con this last time. And he says, Taylor, yeah. Luckily I closed three deals before I came out here. There was like two days, you know, that he had to sell before he came out and go door to door con.Speaker 2 (11:23):And I'm like, dang, man, I didn't even, yeah, I didn't close any. I mean, I was actually gone the week before that too. But how many times have you been on trip? You didn't close any the week before you went on trip or you didn't get the results you wanted. This is what has to change. If you're going to go on a vacation, have it be something that you push extremely hard, you get a ton of deals lined up and you give yourself a shot at closing a boatload of deals before you go on a boat. That's what I'm doing, baby. I'm going to go on a houseboat and I want to close a boatload before I leave. So my goal this week is, um, I've got Monday and Tuesday. Um, it's when I'm recording this, I'm leaving on a Wednesday. So my goal is I want to close three deals before I leave.Speaker 2 (12:13):Okay. And I mean, I'm doing everything I can control. Okay. I know these people. I can't like, you know, for some, the sign up, I'm going to hear everything I possibly can. Everything that I possibly can, but what I did, I stacked my schedule. Okay. So I knew I want to close three deals. What's my closing ratio. How many deals do I honestly need to set up to give myself the best shot at that? For me, I've closed between 40 to 50% of the appointments I sit in. So that means I need to set up at least six appointments to have a good shot at closing. Right? So you need to be doing the math in your head to, if you have a goal, if you know you're leaving on a vacation, how many deals do you need to close before you leave? And then what's the math on that.Speaker 2 (12:59):Okay. I knew that what that math was, I knew when I was leaving. So I said, okay, Monday and Tuesday, I need to stack these appointments. It can't be, um, yeah, I mean, close same day deals, but I would rather just have my schedule stacked. I don't have to worry about, um, setting anything up. I can just go to these appointments, give myself the best shot at closing them. That's what I'm doing. I got a six appointments doctor in the next two days, and I know I have a good shot at closing, three of these bad boys. So do the math. Okay. And that's what I wanted to say is before you go on a trip, use that as fuel to push hard, use it as an incentive. Okay? Just envision the trip. How much more enjoyable is it going to be? If you know, you just closed out a handful of deals before you left on the trip and trust me, it is way more enjoyable.Speaker 2 (13:51):If you know, you got money coming in the bank. If you know you close deal before it trips are way more enjoyable. Okay? So that's what you do. And then as far as like during the vacation, that's another thing is for us, for us Solarpreneurs, it's tough to turn off. Okay. It's tough to turn our brains off. We want to be making money. We want to be feeling like we're improving. And that's something that I've struggled with too, is I just feel like I'm on a vacation. I can't, what am I doing? I'm not making money. It's tough to like, I'm not growing necessarily. But get rid of that mindset. You can grow in other ways though. So I talked about using, use the trip for other things, such as relationships. You don't need to be working a hundred percent in the trip.Speaker 2 (14:45):You shouldn't be working, you know, the same way you were before, but use it to focus on other things I've talked with a lot of successful people that, um, have, you know, thoughts on that. Like work-life balance. If it's a myth and what all these guys are saying is you work in seasons, K you there's no balance. Right? And we did an episode on this recently, but balance, it's a myth. Hey, they're seasons. So you push hard. And that's what I'm talking about. You push hard before a trip and then your balance is shifting. You're not working. Then what you should you be focusing on? You should be pushing hard towards those relationships. If for me, I'm married, sin, something I'm trying to improve on. I'm definitely not perfect. I struggle with them. Yeah. Not giving my wife enough attention. So you can go give her a shout out if you want.Speaker 2 (15:38):Tell her, sorry for me not giving her enough attention. But this is something that I'm trying to improve on is use these trips as seasons to improve my relationships, improve my relationships with my friends, with my family. And then number two, using, uh, using your vacations for learning too. Okay. I always bring a good book. Bring your audio books. You're not reading the whole time, but I just got done with 75 hard where you read, uh, the 10 pages every day. Okay. In my trips, I try to read at least 20 pages. So you use it as education. And that's how, for me, as a Solarpreneur, as an entrepreneur, that's how I get that part of my brain. That still feel like I'm making progress is I use it to, you know, improve my craft. I use it to learn new things that I can go back and implement right when I get back.Speaker 2 (16:32):So that's my thoughts on the vacations and Taylor McCarthy, he's going to talk more about his throwdowns. The vacations don't necessarily have to do with what we talked about, but I just got reminded of it because I'm going to be on a trip and Taylor McCarthy talks about his throwdowns. So go make sure you listen to the next episode. It's going to be lit. Share this with a friend, if you're going on a vacation. Okay. Remember those two things use it as fuel to push extremely hard to before you leave and then make sure you use your vacation time as the season to focus on your relationships and focus on yourself, improvements on your sales skills. Okay. Fuel that side of your brain too. So that's my thoughts. Let me know what you thought. Let me know if you guys have anything else that helps you as you're preparing to go on vacations, whereas you leave. And then remember when you get back, don't take forever to get back into it. Like I did push hard. When you get back, get your pipeline backflow and back full, and don't take forever to get back into the flow of yourself. Hope you enjoyed it. Listen to next episode. Love you guys. And we'll see you on the next one.Speaker 3 (17:45):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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. What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor. I'm sure here to help you change theSpeaker 2 (00:45):World by closing more deals, generating more leads and dominating the solar industry. How are you? I hope you're doing awesome. Hope. You're gearing up for the summer and getting ready to close deals galore. You should be doing already. If you're listening to this podcast, because this is where we drop that knowledge. This is where we get you on the right track to hit your goals and crush your outcomes that you want in the solar industry. It's been nice connecting with people. Um, I've said it before in a few episodes, but hit me up on social media, trying to be a little more active there. Um, so it's Instagram, it's Taylor J Armstrong. Um, Facebook, just Taylor Armstrong go shoot me a fall. Send me a message. I've been enjoying hearing from some of our listeners and just connecting with my solar printer peeps. That's what we're trying to do is create a community and it's been awesome just hearing from people.Speaker 2 (01:44):Um, another thing is we're looking for topics that people could use some help on guests that we, uh, want on the show. So anyone you would like to hear on the show or specific topics, send me a message. We got some great feedback on, um, some potential topics coming up. Um, just last week, someone sent me a message. They're struggling with negative reviews, online, losing deals because of that. Um, so we're going to do an episode soon on that. Anything you can think of, it's much, much appreciated. I'm sharing. What's helping me, I'm sharing, what's helping our team. I'm sharing what I'm hearing. That's helping other teams. But if you guys have specific problems or issues that you're facing, I would love to hear about it. Shoot me a message, shoot me a fall. And let's connect that being said, let's jump into the episode today.Speaker 2 (02:36):I want to talk about why you should treat every objection as only a complaint. Okay? So those that have listened to grant Cardone at all, this might sound somewhat familiar. He talks about this kind of a lot. If you've read the closer survival survival guide, this is actually one of the top 10 reasons that closers fell is they treat objections, um, or they handle objections that are only complaints rather. So what does he mean by that? At first, when I first heard that I was a little bit confused and the reason I'm actually doing this topic today is because I have a few experiences that happened last week. One was where I treated an objection, um, with, uh, with too much legitimacy, I treated, um, the objection more serious than I should've and the other one, whereas I, where I did treat it as a complaint and got two different outcomes, pretty interesting reminded me of why it's important.Speaker 2 (03:41):So that's what I want to share with you. But before we get to that, I want to actually read what uncle G grant Cardone has to say about the topic. So if you haven't read this book, I would highly recommend it closer survival guide. I've talked about it a lot on the show. Some things apply to solar more than others, but specifically the, um, like just, you know, general tips on closing everything. I think most of this stuff applies. The closes. They go a little aggressive and I've will say I've tried. Um, a lot of them in solar, some definitely work better than others. Some are a little aggressive. Haven't gotten me great results, gotten people, a little annoyed and everything, but grant Cardone, he has some good tips. So let's jump into it. Let's hear what he has to say. So if you look in the book, this is number eight.Speaker 2 (04:33):Um, it's the number eight reason why closers fell. So he says sales people unfortunately have been taught to handle objections for years that are not objections at all, but just merely complaints of all the sales books I've read. I've never seen this issue distinguished over years of research, I learned that most so-called objections from the client are not actually objections at all, but just simple complaints that people automatically make throughout life. So his rule is treat all objections as complaints until further validated. This honestly is one thing that's changed the way I sell a hundred percent and I've seen it time and time again, especially if you're knocking doors, that's basically the definition of a smoke screen, right? How many times have you knocked a door? First thing right off the bat. There's not interested. Um, you're the 10th guy here. Those are complaints. They're not projections be treated as an objection.Speaker 2 (05:29):Then you've already lost, especially at the beginning, it's a smoke screen, right? So you got to treat all of those as complaints. I just think of, I have a kid now he's 19 months now. And this kid will freak out. Sometimes when he doesn't get what he wants tonight, he was, um, screaming. He wanted to a Go-Gurt. We put our Go-Gurts in the freezer, some delicious stuff right there, but he's freaking out. He's not taking no for an answer. He wants a Go-Gurt. These kids are aggressive, but if you treat those as complaints, then it's going to go away. But if I validate it, I give them what he wants. It's gonna keep on happening. You're feeding that addiction, you're feeding what they want. So this is something that's very important. Um, especially on the doors, in the clothes in grant kernel. And he goes on to say, most of the time, the closer is handling a complaint that never required more than I understand.Speaker 2 (06:29):When you treat a complaint like an objection, you validate it and turn it into something that is, is not the more you validate it and handle it. The more real, the more solid and significant it will become to everyone. The first thing I do when I hear what appears to be an objection is treat it like a complaint until further validated as a real objection. And if it is a legitimate objection, you will know as soon enough, because when you try to handle as only a complaint, your prospect will make it clear that this is more than that. But trust me, most of what you hear in the clothes are not objections. They're just mere comments or complaints, no different than someone commenting on the weather. Boom. So there you have it. That's what grant Cardone says about this. So I want to tell a few experiences that happened to me last week.Speaker 2 (07:15):Um, the first one was I was knocking doors neighborhood here in Escondido, California, I'm knocking. And then I get to this home where it's, um, single lady answers the door and she's listened to my door presentation. I'm going through it. Um, I'm thinking, all right, this is a booked appointment, no doubt. A hundred percent. And then what happens about midway through the presentation? She hits me with, oh, you know what? I've got food on. I've got food cooking. I'm kind of busy. Um, can we hurry this up? Or can you come back? And then immediately I just jumped to, oh, I'm super busy, which is good. You know, I kind of flipped the script on her said, oh yeah, no worries. I actually need to get to a bunch of your neighbors. I'm busy too. And then I try to go back into it. But what happened for whatever reason I let this complaint get in my head so much.Speaker 2 (08:10):I treated as an objection. And I, I got so psyched out for whatever reason. I'm just like in my head, I'm like, oh, she doesn't have time, better. Hurry this up. I start speed in through the rest of my presentation. Guess what? She listened to me for another, probably two minutes. And I got through everything and it was obvious. She actually had times you stepped out. She's still listening to me. But what I did, I just psych myself out. I told myself that she was busy, even though I kept talking. And I said, uh, you know what? Um, yeah, so I, I got to run to a few homeowners, but let me come back. Um, tomorrow, I'll try to get you guys tomorrow. And I just like stumbled through it. Stuttered. I don't know what happened. Just had a mental breakdown on the doors. And I turned this complaint into an actual objection that she didn't have time.Speaker 2 (09:03):I didn't let her validate it. That's the key with these things. If people validate it, guess what's going to come up again. If she said, oh, I'm dizzy. I kept going, which is good. And it didn't come back up. So I already validated in my head what she didn't validate herself. If he was truly busy, she would know like, really I got food on the stove. I got to go right now. Okay. And that's a tough one. Obviously, if people really are busy, not a whole lot, you can do. But the point of it was she wasn't busy. I mean, she was maybe a little busy, but she wasn't busy enough to stop listening to me. Right that second. So I was mad. I lost that appointments. I didn't book it. And then yeah, I was kicking myself the rest of the night had that mental breakdown.Speaker 2 (09:50):So that was the first experience I had. I treated it as a foreign objection when it wasn't. So that's the negative, here's the positive experience I had though, this actually kind of finished today. And this experience was I closed the deal last week, the homeowner was, um, psyched to go solar at someone. I followed up with a gay couple, super excited him and his partner to get solar up there. And during the presentation, he actually mentioned that yet another quote, and it was cheaper than mine. I'm out here in California. We sell high, you get these inexperienced companies that basically don't have cells, or they'll just send out, you know, bottom of the barrel quotes. Just try to win people over. So luckily I know how to sell. I know how to build value my product. I told them about our product, our warranties, um, and they had, frankly, just, you know, misquoted them had no idea how much energy use using, just throw out some generic quo, which was weird.Speaker 2 (10:51):So I kind of like brushed over it and I treated it as a complaint. Okay. I didn't like put that much time into it just because I knew I've already built the relationship with this guy. He trusts me. I'm just gonna, you know, brush over it. Show him a few things of value. Why we're different. Hey, I showed them that we were given a better interest rate, a couple of things. And I had already, I already knew his needs, so it was no big deal. Okay. Um, but what happened was he reached out today and guess what? He further validated that complaint. So now it was an actual objection. Yeah. He said, Taylor, I'm still like, I'm confused. Like why was there so much cheaper and then, okay. I know. Okay. He actually had, he has an actual objection. Now I need to go through it.Speaker 2 (11:40):Now I need to see what's going on. Now. I need to overcome this objection. So I had already closed them. He came back to me. Luckily I built the trust with him. I got to know him and his, uh, partner. And it was all good. And he trusted me. I overcame his objections. I again showed them that we're given a superior product that we're giving him a better term that he wanted because he was looking to just get as cheap as possible monthly. So we gave him the 25 year term where the other people, they gave him a 10 year term with a higher interest rate. So I really just broke down his needs. I said, Maurice, this is what you're getting. You told me you wanted to pay as little monthly as possible. Right? Cool. So this is why we're doing this. This is why we're giving you the number of panels.Speaker 2 (12:26):And I really gave them an apples to apples comparison. I broke it down now, fully overcame his objection and then boom. He trusts me after that and had no more issues with it. And he called me in, didn't even bring it up after that, but it just goes to show, I didn't treat it as a full on objection in the presentation. Okay. And even though I could have made a big deal about it, I couldn't even after he came back to me with it, I just gave him what he needed to knew, need to know about it. I didn't keep bringing it up in the call because I sent him an email for a few texts. Just explaining it. Then when we had a call after that, I didn't say, Hey, here's why we're here. XYZ. I had already overcame that objection. So don't keep bringing things up.Speaker 2 (13:15):I think newer reps, especially we get in the tendency, um, or when I was new, I got in the habit of just like immediately dropping price. If people got cheaper, quote, how would immediately drop price? If people were hesitant, I immediately dropped price. People didn't want to sign today. A drop price. That's a problem. People just want to drop, drop, drop, drop, drop price, learn how to sell, build value, write them out. If you haven't done that. This is a great exercise. Write out all the specific things that you can do in your company to build value. And it's going to help you because guess what? Most people don't know how to sell. There's a lot of solar guys that aren't listening to this podcast that don't know these things that are going to be much weaker sales guys. So go share the podcast with them so they can learn not to give you more competition.Speaker 2 (14:04):But the truth is, if you are listening to this right now, you are most likely, much more committed than a lot of average sales reps out there. You were taking your learning seriously. You are trained to improve and that's, what's going to get you there. If you learn to treat these objections as only complaints, if you've learned to build value, it's going to be a game changer. So don't make the mistakes. I made a don't be on the doors, treating these time things, treating every little word that comes out of the customer's mouth, the homeowner's mouth as fallen objections, learn from my mistakes. And when you are in your closes, same thing. If people have a cheaper quote, don't draw price, figure out what's going on with it, figure out what product and you be, the expert, you be the one to educate them, know your product, differences, know how you can build value. And that's going to help you have success in industry and close deals. So I hope this helped go out and share it with someone that could use that tip of the day, gay and go read closer survival guide. It's a good book. Go look up point number eight in the top 10 reasons closers spell. Let me know what you think of this episode. Hit me up on social media and we will see you on the flip side.Speaker 3 (15:20):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:00:03):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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. online 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. What's up Solarpreneurs. Taylor ArmstrongSpeaker 2 (00:00:42):And we're back here with another episode, and we're doing a little bit different format. If you heard the previous one, we've got a special guests back on the show. So let us know what you think of these kind of debate style topics. Um, so we've got James back on what's up, James? Thanks for coming back on the show with us. Oh yeah. It was a blast a couple of days ago. I do want to say this though. We are going to get better at this format. So we're learning a lot already from the last episode I watched it again last night, I was like, all right, I got to shut up more. I've got to ask Taylor some more interesting questions and not try to jump on everything. Like I like to. So I'm going to try to chill back a little bit. And then one of the things I think we wanted to implement was a kind of more formalized questions, like a real deal debate, where we each get a chance to respond on specific topics.Speaker 2 (00:01:39):I think we both liked it. And one of my favorite debates was the, was the Trump debates. Did you watch back bowls back in 2016? I've studied the crap out of those man. Yeah. That's a masterclass in persuasion, man. That was good stuff. And for me it was just more the entertainment factor. Cause I love Trump just ripping Hillary apart and a corner and nasty women and all that, even though I kind of felt bad. Well, that's why he's a master at it, dude. It's like it's comedy plus insulting. The other party it's like dangerous, but I know, but what I thought was interesting too is Trump. Um, they went back and analyzed this debate in Trump. If you watch him, he uses like very simple language. He's not using sophisticated words. So I was reading study over and over basically the point in very simple language. What was it like? Uh, he always had like demeaning ones, like crooked Hillary. Was that it? Yeah. And then he had lion, Ted remember lion Ted for Ted Cruz. So you would get like they're like, Lion Ted came up like nicknames for him. Like that's all they say it's yeah. Anyway, we're not doing that. We're not gonna take shots at each other, but who knows crooked James right crooked James lion lion.Speaker 2 (00:03:01):So, no, we're probably won't get that hardcore. Um, I'm probably gonna not attack James personally or anything like that, but we we'll try to give our interests shoot for it, dude. This one's going to be spicy though. I think today is a spicy topic because last time both you and I, it wasn't a real debate. I mean, come on. We agreed way too much on the last one. It was like, Hey, get good at offline then do online. If you want to this one though, this is a different, this is a different animal. Yeah. One. I'm curious to hear what you have to say on this one. Because on the last show we did, I pretty much knew what your side of the story was, what your take, but this one I'm a little bit more in the dark. So I'm curious to know what you have to say.Speaker 2 (00:03:43):Um, but yeah, the debate today we were talking about work, life balance, um, can exist. Can it be attained? Should you even have balance? So we got some juicy questions we're going to go over and yeah, I think we're just going to go to the questions I'm going to say kind of my side, what I think in James I'm sure. You'll challenge me. Sure. I'll have some stuff to say about what you're throwing down. So yeah, that's, we're going through. So should we jump into the questions or anything like that? So let's review what the topics are. So question number one. Um, what is it the belief about work-life balance that you have within solar and then what principles do you adopt for it? So that's question one, question two. What do you think is required to have success in the industry? Right. For most people, general statement and then three, what would you advise to someone who is struggling with worth work-life balance?Speaker 2 (00:04:39):Solar reps, managers, CEOs, all of the above. So that's going to be more tactic based. Like how would you actually improve your work ethic? Things like that. Yeah. Okay. Good stuff. So, yeah, I'm excited to hear what your take is on all these things. So what do you mean first? Your podcast? Taylor, question one, man. What is your belief about work-life balance and principles that you adopt with solar? All right. Okay. Let's jump into it. So here's my take on this. Um, basically what I've seen in solar is you got to have seasons. And what I mean by seasons is there's going to be ups and downs, and there's gonna be times where you're pushing super hard. And there's going to be times where you're taking breaks, where you're not pushing as hard. And I think it's a little bit different than, um, the summer sales guys everyone's heard the summer sells.Speaker 2 (00:05:30):You go out, you do pest control, you do alarms. But solar, as a lot of us are with year round. We're doing this 12 months out of the year. Um, it's a full-time thing. So when I see the top guys in the industry, they're not, I mean, we're not all knocking 12 hour days like these alarm guys, um, we're, you know, we're coming at it more strategic I'm knocking usually anywhere from four to six hours. Just depends. So, um, I say seasons because you look at these big companies, like the Vivid Solars, the Sun Runs the, all these big ones. These guys they're being super consistent, but they're having ups and downs. I see these top guys, they're taking time off. Like for example, Vivid, Solar, they have their, I think it's every six months, every three months, something like that. They have their huge competitions and they have their guys go insanely hard for, um, I don't know, a month, six weeks, whatever it may be.Speaker 2 (00:06:31):And they're all pushing each other as a team, they're all going out there, their work, maybe they're working 12 hour days for that, um, six weeks or for that month, they're pushing super hard. But then even the top guys, after that, they got to have a cool-down period. So it's like, you're pushing so hard. They're um, you know, working way harder than they normally would. They're getting a ton of results and then they're going on a trip after, or they're cooling down. And I even talked to some of them, um, a lot of them, once these big competitions start, they go to their wives and they're like, Hey honey, I'm, um, I'm gearing up for this competition. Do I have your permission to throw it down super hard because they know that for the next month or whatever, they're not, they're not going to see much of their wife.Speaker 2 (00:07:13):So they literally have to go get permission from their wives or girlfriends or whatever to not see them. So that's the way I look at it. It's just like solar, you got to have the seasons with it. And also it depends on, you know, kind of your goals. Are you trying to be just, you know, make tons of money. Maybe you don't even have wife, kids or anything like that yet. So also I think it depends on all our, on your goals. What are you trying to achieve? And I'm sure you'll get into this, but for me, it's all about having those seasons. I know that, yeah. There's going to be times maybe a month. I'm going to go insane. The hard when it closed a lot of deals, but then I got to have my balance back for a little bit. And then maybe it's going to shift towards more of my family because I got to catch back up.Speaker 2 (00:07:56):And yeah, I really respect a lot of entrepreneurs like Russell Brunson. Um, a lot of these big entrepreneurs, I think they preach a lot of the same things when they're launching books, when they're launching big projects coming out, same thing, they're working, you know, 15 hour days and just going extremely hard. But then they're going on trips and taking a vacation, stuff like that after how would you, I have a question on your thing. So how would you summarize your work work-life balance belief in like one sentence? Is it sprinting and then rest refuel, sprint refuel. Yeah, I think it's sprint. And then, um, I don't want to say rests because unless you have like a trip or something plans, I don't think you're like, I mean, you're not going to like rest always by being in sprints and then trots, maybe. So it's like sprint and then cool down sprint and then cool down.Speaker 2 (00:08:52):Cause you so not like completely off is what you're for a rest period. It's you're still kind of, yeah. I mean, I think yeah. Plan trips and stuff like that. So if you're going extremely hard, I think it is a good idea to plan like a trip or something after go get away for a weekend. So in that case, yeah, rest, but maybe you're doing like a mini sprint for a week and then maybe it's, um, you know, you're only knocking through three or four hours a day of the next week. You're going to a trot. So yeah, I think be consistent, whatever you're doing and plan the trips plan, the vacations. Um, I mean, yeah. Plan your schedule. If you know, you want to have the date night with the wife, this is something we just had a guest on the podcast, Ashton Buswell.Speaker 2 (00:09:35):And he said his biggest leg con one of his biggest accomplishments he's helped other people achieve in solar is he's taught them to schedule out like a date night every Friday with their wife. So he, he just literally listened to his interview before our thing today. That's freaking hilarious. I've listened to him because he's a work, he's a workhorse. So I was curious what his opinion was. Yeah, yeah. So yeah. I respect guys like that. I mean he's pushing insanely hard sometimes, but he says like, no matter what's he's always having what's important to him also scheduled out in advance. The, I think it's like that. Um, sprints. No, when your sprints are no, when your wrists are, but yeah. Should always be planned and then have those times where you're pushing hard. It shouldn't be always just, you know, doing the minimum work to get minimum results.Speaker 2 (00:10:23):If you're just closing one deal week after week, you shouldn't be happy with that. But I think plan for some sprints and plan to get extreme results too. And that's gonna bring you fulfillment. So that's my take care. So salt. We're not, we're not a hundred percent off on those to be honest. No, that was a surprising answer. I was expecting more Tim Ferriss, four hour workweek answer. Now. That's good. I agree with the sprints thing, for sure. It's funny. I think of you as the Tim Ferriss four hour workweek, just cause you talk about the, you've talked about the book a lot, but what you actually practice is not necessarily the stigma. Yeah, well, no, I do like that too. And you we've talked off camera. That's why I hire like an assistant and everything because yeah, trust me at the end of the day, I want to work, you know, usually as little as possible and get the max results, but I enjoy what I do do.Speaker 2 (00:11:19):I like being on the podcast. So cool. So you want to answer the question? Do you want me to go? No, you got to say my take on this work-life balance is I'm not going to attack. Should you be working all the time? Should you be, uh, balancing all the time? If that's a thing, whatever that you call it, I'm going to attack the concept and the idea of work-life balance and why? I think it's flawed. I actually think the idea of, oh, I'm trying to live a more balanced, wholesome life, right? I'm trying to be balanced in all these areas. I think that's flawed. And it's been number one killer of people's success, especially in solar. So I'm not against what Taylor's saying necessarily. I'm against the idea of work-life balance that we have in our society today. Right? Um, I think our society, we can all agree with this, right.Speaker 2 (00:12:12):Society has gotten a lot more soft PC people getting banned on social media for talking about stuff. Trump gets banned for six months on Twitter for talking about things, right? Like world's change of getting pretty weird with stuff, right. And in general, like people have become a lot more, whatever I'm going to use the term weak-willed. Okay. Um, I was listening to, uh, another podcast the other day. Uh Valuetainment podcasts, one of my mentors, Patrick Bet-David, as the host of that. And he was talking about how the military is adopting a new concept. And I can't remember what it's called, but basically they're taking away the tools and strategies they would use to basically tough enough soldiers, get them used to rejection and pressure where they're drill sergeants will literally go in. And, um, anybody who's been in the military and has stories about that knows anybody who's been in there, right.Speaker 2 (00:13:09):You literally day one boots on the ground, the drill sergeants are just demeaning. Right? Just swearing at you, just going off on. Right. Just hard. Just trying to like break you down. Right? So the military is literally getting rid of this as we speak right now with soldiers, which I completely think is a terrible idea. Um, I did have quite a few family members who served as well. And they're just like, dude, that that goes against everything. Cause it's what are we incentivizing? We're incentivizing soft, weak type of culture. And I think in general right now, um, the reason we have so many problems with anxiety, uh, substance abuse, alcoholism, uh, porn addiction, uh, you freaking name it, right? Anxiety is at an all time high. And if I look at the stat here, I looked this up. So 40 million adults in the us age is 18 and you're 18 or older.Speaker 2 (00:14:03):And over 18% of the population is diagnosed with some sort of common mental illness like anxiety and these stats. This was not existence 40, 56 years ago, right back in the forties and fifties when our grandparents lived. And Taylor, how old are your, uh, are your grandparents alive? Still? Yeah. They're still kicking there. Uh, yeah, I think they're late seventies. Yeah. What is your grandparents do like for living like your grandpa? Um, one grandpa was a music professor, Utah state, um, go Aggies and then the other one was a dentist. So dentist. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if the conversations you've had with them, what they go like, but I can tell you with both of my grandparents. So one grandparent, he was an entrepreneur, a very successful on a couple of eight figure companies. One was an electrician, um, and talking to both of them, these guys worked like a hundred hours a week, like their entire life until they retired in their seventies.Speaker 2 (00:15:09):Right. Um, that's the kind of culture I grew up with and my dad adopted the same thing. I grew up watching my dad be out the door, working at 6:00 AM and get back at 8:00 PM, six days a week. Right. So it's like, that's kind of how I grew up. That's what I'm used to. So when I come from that background, like obviously that experience is familiar to me, right? So I think the, uh, the concept of like the 40 hour work week, the work-life balance is more of a cop out and an excuse to not put in the effort to realize their fullest potential. And I believe that my theory is that most mental illnesses, um, unhappiness, anxiety, depression, divorce, things like that are all caused because people are not realizing their fullest potential. And this 40 hour work week type of setup is to blame.Speaker 2 (00:16:05):So that's my big idea on this. Um, so what do you think about, yeah. Yeah. I think, I think I agree with that, but like for someone in the solar industry, let's say someone's starting out. Um, like, would you tell them if they're thinking of doing this like full-time career or whatever, would you tell them, Hey, go out and work like 40 hour weeks? Or would you have them? I dunno, maybe go easy in and like, just do like a 20 hour week. What, what would you tell a new guy starting out? Like, do you think someone's going to get burned out by doing 40 hour weeks in solar, say they're hitting doors are doing, you know, going out and doing this prospecting quite the opposite, quite the opposite. Here's the problem I see. And why people are not successful in solar. I've coached several hundred directly.Speaker 2 (00:16:54):One-on-one solar reps to whether it's under my own company, whether it's people are Solarpreneurs. So I've done this quite a bit. I can tell you that the reason solar reps are unsuccessful is not because they burn out. It's almost never going to be because they work too hard. Okay. Can we both agree on that? That sales reps are not going to fail because they work too hard. Have you ever seen this? I've never seen this man. There's some lazy reps, right? But it's like, dude, nobody, it's such a small percentage of people that end up burning out. I hate the term burnout. I'll never use it except for on this podcast for this example. But anytime you see someone searching like, oh, what if I get burned out? Or aren't you afraid of burn out? I would say like one out of 10 people actually experienced burnout and the other ones, they just need a quick two, three hour refresh break, get back in the game, get re-energized on their goals.Speaker 2 (00:17:54):What are they doing things for my case, for the sales rep thing to get back to this, I think every person who is new to sales, working on a commission basis, um, they need to get a little bit of a taste and glimpse of what they're really capable of as a, as a human being. Okay. We're living in such a fraction of our potential as humans. I don't know. You know how we only use like 40% of our brain, right? We've heard this study. Yeah. Something like that. I think that applies to everything. Uh, Tim Grover, right? Relentless guy. He talks about how in that? No, it's David Goggins. Sorry. He talks about how, when you think you're done and your brain's telling you, you're tired to throw in the towel. You're only 40% of your capacity. 40%. Okay. That story we tell ourselves of, ah, I should just take it easy.Speaker 2 (00:18:46):Maybe I should just go call it a day. It's five o'clock on a Friday. Today's Friday. We're recording this it's five o'clock on a Friday. Maybe I shouldn't knock doors or maybe I should take Saturday off because it's, you know, we're good to go. That's cool. If that's what makes you happy. But if you're just accepting that belief, because that's what mom and dad told you, that's what society has told you at the 40 hour work week. You're never going to get to see what you're capable of. So my advice to the rep, the diagnosis from Dr. James here is doctor to go and give everything you possibly can for a time period, set a week set a month. I don't care what it is and go balls to the walls. I'm talking as hard as you freaking can literally push yourself to the brink of failure.Speaker 2 (00:19:38):Okay. And that is when you're going to recalibrate what you're actually capable of. What is your work ethic actually capable of? First time I did, this was I believe in high school. Right? So again, grew up with a super hard work ethic to begin with. But I played trumpet in high school, did a lot of competitions. And I remember my dad literally sat me down and he said, Hey, like he had this talk with me about work ethic. They talked about capabilities. Like, what is your actual capability as a person? And he challenged me to do this, like for a month to get into a, it was like a statewide competition thing. Right. Um, and I didn't believe I could, I was uncomfortable with it. He said, just go with it until the competition and see if you could do it. Just go all out.Speaker 2 (00:20:21):So I did. And I remember, and again, it's not people will disagree with this. Right. But I literally took two weeks off of school, ditched all of my classes. I had practice trumpet all day for two weeks. Yeah. I failed like a bunch of tests and stuff like that. And I was like 14 at the time. Right. My mom wanted to kill me, like all this stuff. Right. She wanted to kill my dad in particular. Right. But I wasn't your dad, a principal. He is now he was in a music education though for like 25 years. Okay. Yeah. He didn't say skip school. That was me. Who decided to do that? He said just work really hard. So I did, and I got a taste very early of holy crap. Like I got into the competition shortcut, right. Instantly became top of the class. I was failing earlier.Speaker 2 (00:21:16):I was like, that was just two weeks I was able to accomplish this. Right. So ever since then, that mentality has been baked in. And that's what I did immediately off the bat with solar. When I got me to just do it. And I was 19, I just came in. And my first week I blew in 65 hours at a mall kiosk talking to people. People are like, dude, what the hell is wrong with this kid? Like going on? I knew that if I put in the work, the work will take care of me to on that trumpet. It was a trumpet lesson I got from a famous jazz musician, his name's Roy Hargrove. And he gave this advice to everybody. He always says, if you take care of the music, the music will take care of you. Right. I apply the same thing with work.Speaker 2 (00:21:56):Take care of the work. The work takes care of you every time I've never seen it fail. That's good. Well, man, I think we kind of agree because on the same stuff, so maybe this isn't as much of a debate as we thought, because I think, I think I pretty much agree with most of that, but it's nothing to disagree with. I mean, we'll get into it more if you know what you want in life, which we have not touched on is a big part of this. If you'd know what you want with exact clarity and you know, what makes you happy? You'll do whatever it takes to get that. It's the people who don't know what they want that make up the excuses, the work-life balance. I'm going to take this day off this day off, stuff like that. Yeah. No, I agree. Fun. Interesting side note on David Goggins speaking to him. Um, I think I might've told this story a few episodes back at Sam Taggart, but he was supposed to speak at, at the door to door con events last time. But I guess you didn't show up because of COVID when all the other speakers did really David Goggins was a spooked. Didn't want to show up because of COVID I'm like, well, isn't he supposed to be the baddest mother effer on the planet talking to the show, honestly, we'll off. COVID capable of catching it.Speaker 2 (00:23:11):That's what I was saying. And then John's scare off COVID yeah. John Maxwell. Who's 80 years old shows up, but kind of like yeah, yeah. Goggins of all people. Yeah. He's he's gonna, you know, whatever. Yeah. Spending too much time in California. Maybe. Yeah. I get out. But yeah, no good stuff, man. So yeah, the only thing I'd add to that, and maybe we'll get into this too, but you kind of touched on it. They're just bigger than I think it depends on what are your goals in the industry? What are you trying to achieve? Um, speaking to that, I was just listening to podcasts the other day. Um, John Lee Dumas, he does the Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast and this guy has been making, um, doing 2 million revenue for like the past eight years. Um, so a super successful podcast, but he hasn't grown in like eight years.Speaker 2 (00:24:01):Just been 2 million too many years. So in this interview I listened to, he says, people ask him like, why don't you like, why haven't you scaled it? Why you just keep doing 2 million, don't want to don't you want to increase, increase by 5% a year or something. And his answer is no, that's not really my goal. I'm fine. I only work five days a month right now. Um, I have 25 days off those five days. I go extremely hard. I'm working like, you know, 16 hour days for five days, but then I have 25 days off. I have a team of like six people. Um, so yeah, I'm happy where it's at. And that's that's my goal is that I can just do whatever I want, have the freedom to be who I, uh, who I want to be with, where I want to be.Speaker 2 (00:24:45):And then have a business that I love doing. That's gets me excited to work those five days in a month. So I think it comes down to, or like, what are your goals? Are you trying to achieve that freedom? And I think I lean more towards that, which is maybe where we agree less. That's why I like the whole four hour workweek stuff. Cause, cause I'm the same as Johnny do, as I want to do whatever I want. And I like when I have my kids, I want to put them in sports and all that. Just be able to go to their games whenever I can and not have to be tied down to the work. So that's my goal. But maybe for the guy getting into it again, are you a new rep? Maybe you don't have a family. Maybe your goal is to just make as much money as possible.Speaker 2 (00:25:24):And um, your iron wheel wills, maybe you're going to knock eight hours a day for the next, um, two months. Even those guys, I think they still need to have their seasons and you know, go harder during other times. But yeah, I think that's another important factor in this. What are your goals? What are you trying to achieve? Is it make as much money as possible or is it, you know, have time to have that freedom and to go where you want to go take days off when you want to take days off. So that's my other side of the, they respond on this. Yeah. I have an interesting perspective on this one. So I believe that if you're truly, I don't believe people are seeking freedom. That's where I'm going to disagree. I don't think the biggest thing people are seeking freedom. I think they're seeking happiness and someone's happiness.Speaker 2 (00:26:12):Can we agree on that? That people want to be happy. It's not because you can be free and unhappy. Can you agree with that? Yeah, that's true. Okay. So happiness is what we're really after as people, right? If you're truly happy and content with where you're at, um, you've succeeded at the highest level of my opinion, right? You have made it. That is success. Success doesn't have to be the fancy cars, the contests at your company, the vacations. It doesn't have to be that if you're happy without them. Okay. But my problem is the, and you see it all the time, the very exact moment that you end up desiring something else that you don't have. Maybe you get jealous that someone else is more successful in one area. Maybe you're jealous that some guys outperforming you at your company for a minute and you compare yourself a little bit and you say, man, I wish I could do that.Speaker 2 (00:27:10):And then you make an excuse on why you can't do that. That's my problem. And I would say that person is not truly 100% happy because they see that person, they see a part of themselves in that person, often case they'll say, Hey, maybe I could do that. I think I could, if I actually did what this guy did, I think I could accomplish that. Right. But what do they do? They say, they're not willing to put in the work to do that. It's not worth the sacrifices to make that happen. So if that's you and you say, Hey, it would be nice to make, I don't know, 500 grand a year selling solar, but I'm not willing to work the hours that is required. Then you need to do one of two things. One examine your work ethic and adjust to be in line with what you want or to step down and say, I would be okay without having that thing.Speaker 2 (00:28:03):And if that makes you happy then cool. But if it doesn't and you say, uh, I don't want to have to tolerate that. Right. That's when you know you've got to change something. Yeah, no, I think there's a ton of excuses in the industry too. I've had tons of reps on my teams, um, where basically they sell themselves out of a competition before it's even started. Oh dude, that's the worst of competitions then try to like give up. Yeah. Yup. Like, no, I'm not willing to, you know, push hard. So yeah. I don't really care. I just want to, you know, be happy. You just want to like quit. And so that's the other, that's nice. Don't think that person's happy. Yeah. I don't, I don't think they are. It's an excuse. Yeah. So they're complacent. So I say all this stuff, but honestly I think it is pretty dangerous for solar reps because a lot of people are telling themselves right now.Speaker 2 (00:28:54):Yeah. I'm happy. I'm fine. Just making a hundred grand a year. And um, cause I wanna, I want to go on my trips. I want to do my vacations and I want to do me and maybe, yeah, maybe those people are only working like three hours a week, three hours a day. We'll get into that about tactics. People don't work as hard as they think they work. That's the other side of this. Yeah. Cause I think it comes back to what you're saying at the end of the day, we can do way more than what we tell ourselves we can. Yeah. You're only using 40% of the brain or whatever. You can push way harder. That's why David Goggins. That's pretty much his whole basis of his book. Can't hurt me. That you can do way more than you think again, you just gotta be pushed to those levels. That's why he ran. He went through bootcamp or whatever with, I think it was a leg. Um, he ran, what was it like a hundred miles while he's was puking. He's done all of it. Yeah. He's bleeding. He's peeing blood, throwing up dehydrated, broken everything. Yeah. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:29:57):Can I give you a formula on this that I use? So I have a formula I use when I'm coaching people for this stuff. And just so you know, like behind the scenes, I'm coaching a sales rep on that I've coached sales reps from zero to 500 K in their first year. I have one student who made a million bucks in a year. Um, all of it is mindset Taylor and I could agree like it's, it's all freaking mindset. There's, there's not that many tactics you need to know to make it. I remember the interview. I said I was reviewing with, uh, Ashton Buswell. Right. Um, he already said, he's like, I'm not the best sales guy in the world, but I just worked my guts out. That's the secret, right? Yeah. I've experienced the same thing. I'm not really good at anything. I'm just good at working pretty much.Speaker 2 (00:30:39):And that's the advantage. Um, but there is, there is this formula, use this three step formula on how I can basically help someone be aligned to figure out where they want to be. So this is what it is. This is the happiness, happiness formula. And this isn't my proprietary thing. I've gotten this from a lot of mentors, but one is, you got to know what you want out of life and exact clarity, right? Not just, oh, I want to have financial independence. That's not specific. How are you going to make your money is more important than if you actually make it okay. So how are you going to make your money? What's your house going to be like, right? What kind of cars are you going to drive? And the reason you get specific about all of these things is because the next time you see someone driving a fancy car and you're like a little jealous of it, you should have already determined in your mind.Speaker 2 (00:31:28):Pre-advance what kind of car you want to drive. And you're happy and content with, right? If you don't go all out and really paint a picture of what your entire life looks like, you're going to face problems with this. The person, person who is exactly clear on what they want is the most dangerous. Uh, second is you've got to get real about your capacities, abilities and talents as a person as well. So for example, let's say I wanted to go play basketball. I'm not LeBron James. Okay. I'm a skinny white kid who is not tall. He's not strong. I can't freaking dunk. I can't shoot free throws. Right? My coordination is so freaking bad. Anytime someone plays like a, so Joseph Taylor knows Joseph, right? My old business partner. I remember one time he came out to San Diego and we played like us who's ball or air hockey.Speaker 2 (00:32:21):This guy beats me 15 to zero. I literally lose every game, 15 games that are like, I have the worst coordination ever. Dude. It's terrible. So I can't be a top level sports player. It's not in the cards for zero chance. Right? So this is another thing I really hate too, is our cultures all everybody's equal. Right? Everybody could do whatever they want. They have no, they freaking can't. There's no way, Hey dude, it's like follow your passion, go work. And what you love follow you make a business out of it or all the business things, the worst. Right. Everybody's trying to pop up a business. Right? Like, and I used to think that I was one of these guys too, that maybe shouldn't be in business and that, you know, I'm here five years later and I'm still doing well with it. And I'm like, okay, that is in the cards for me.Speaker 2 (00:33:13):But since I was a kid, I was also hustling, like doing shoveling people's driveways and stuff like that since I was like eight years old. Right. Mowing lawns for people. Right. So it's like, that's been in the cards since I was a young age and I enjoy doing that. So I know my abilities and my gifts and talents that goes into my capacity. Right. So you have to understand that if you're not a great communicator and you're not great at, uh, selling people necessarily, right. Look at another facet of the solar industry. There's a lot of ways to make money. My partner, Joseph old partner, right. He's not great at sales, but he's really good at marketing and systems. He's really good at people and coaching, right? There's a spot everywhere. Maybe you're better at mentoring team members. Right. Maybe you'd be a better manager in solar.Speaker 2 (00:34:03):Right. So that's aspect two. And then three is what is the amount of effort you're willing to give? Okay. So sometimes people say, I want all the crazy stuff. I am super gifted and talented. I have all these persuasive skills. I'm great with people, but I'm not willing to work 60 to 80 hours a week to get it. Well, we've got to readjust something because guess what happens when someone's not aligned, Taylor all of the problems. We talked about addictions, anxiety, depression. Um, Taylor was watching my old, uh, video yesterday about like my personal story coming up in solar. Right. I used to have anxiety attacks a lot. And in the store, main story I talked about, I talked about the first time I had it, I was coming back from deployment. I'm driving home. And also my arm starts going numb. My next go numb.Speaker 2 (00:34:56):I'm like fricking busy season up the right half of my body is I had to pull over. I'm freaking out. I'm like, what the do, my vision's getting blurry. I'm like, dude, this is like a heart attack. Like what is this? Right. So I ended up getting in the back of an ambulance, heading off to the ER, right. And the guy's just like, dude, what the heck kind of stress do you have going on? And he's like, dude, it's not hard tech. It's like, you just have an anxiety attack. I'm like what? Uh, and the cause of that was very simple. My aspirations were here. I wanted to be one of the best solar reps in the entire plan. Right? Just number one guy. Right? My work ethic down here, I was working pretty hard, but I was not living up to my highest potential.Speaker 2 (00:35:42):I was not asking for the help getting the mentors I needed when I knew I should be. I wasn't living up to that potential. It wasn't putting the fuel in the tank. There was that misalignment and that's what caused all the problems. So in summary, you got to figure out what you want. What are your capabilities and talents, be honest about it. Ask others around you. Everybody has them. Okay? Like, it's not like there's, I don't believe anybody is born without a special, unique ability or talent. You've just got to find it. And they get the right amount of effort with your aspirations. If you want to make a million bucks a year in solar, newsflash, you're not going to do it working 30 to 40 hours a week. You're not, maybe you can 10 years from now. I know guys who do it, we've been in it for a decade.Speaker 2 (00:36:24):But the next decade, you better be willing to work 80 hours a week. Right? Yeah. Talk with your wife, talk with your family and say, Hey, the next five, 10 years, it's going to be, it's going to be intense, but this is why I'm doing it. This is important. Get on the same page. So yeah. I'm good. I love it. There we go. Yeah. I think another big myth, man. And you'd probably agree. So many people are just like, follow your passion, follow your dreams. If you don't love it, don't do it. But yeah, I've come to rise. I'm like against that man. Cause so many people they come in and they don't love solar. They don't love a few things and they quit. So I think the millennials, I don't know if it's millennials or what, but like it is millennials and yeah, it's the, it's the, it's the same.Speaker 2 (00:37:10):It's the same reason. Same cause of why we have the PC ultra dude. It's the same thing. Yeah. It's like, yeah. You're not going to love everything you do about what your job is, but like go out and work, go out and grind and go out. And yeah. So that's, you know, you got the Gary V side of things, Gary V is just like, you know, work, work, work, grind, grind, grind. Same thing we're talking about right here. Like if you really listen to what Gary's saying, he's not work, work, work. It's self-awareness it's what do you want? And you say, you want that, this is what you need to sacrifice. Like, are you willing to sacrifice? Yes or no? Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, but yeah, that's, that's a big problem. Especially here in San Diego, all these new people we try to hire drives me nuts.Speaker 2 (00:37:58):So many people just like quit. There I go. I don't want to make a ton of money about west coast. That's my biggest gripe about west coast since I moved back. So I moved back to Utah. Right? I was out in San Diego for a couple of years, LA right. West coast. My gosh, dude. Like if you want to be surrounded by people who go after it, it's not the place to be man. It's, it's uh, it's difficult to find a running mates. People who are willing to really go after it and don't want to just chill and smoke weed all day. Exactly. Yeah. It's tough. But anyways, so yeah, we spent a lot of time on question one. Yes. We jumped to question two. Yeah, go ahead. Your term. So question two is, what do you think is required to have success in the industry?Speaker 2 (00:38:50):Um, the good questions or just overall let's what are we thinking here? Is this like for the new guy? We kind of talked about that for me. I think it's pretty well. Whether you're new or old. For me, it's pretty much the same answer I think. But do you want to start that one out? Find some levels of success? Cause I, we just barely got off a rant on why you need to be defining what success is. So let's start with like, what's like the first level of success in solar. Would you say? Um, I would well, I would say depending on the market, and this is a tough one, because if we're talking about putting on the market, I mean, I've got a buddy that's out in North Carolina, he's he has a pest control company. He's making six, you know, I think 60, 70 grand a year or something like that. Super happy. Um, that's enough money for him to pretty much do whatever you want. So we're there. The bills is level one. You've replaced your job with the solar income. Okay. What is required to do that? Taylor?Speaker 2 (00:39:56):Um, well I think anyone starting out new in the industry, I think it's going to require no matter how you do it, if you're new in the industry, you're going to have to work extremely hard even to hit that level. In my opinion, it's the amount of people that fell in this. It's pretty astounding. We bring on dozens and dozens of new guys every few months. And if they're new to the industry, haven't done any sells. It's it's not, it's a steep learning curve for them because they've never knocked doors. They've never like, had to be their own boss and had to dig up the motivation to go out there and hit doors. How long, how long did it take you to start making a stable income in solar? Yeah, for me, I would say probably like two years, honestly, cause I was out here, but I came out single, just living with the dudes in like a company house.Speaker 2 (00:40:47):So for me, yeah, I paid, I had barely any expenses, so it's pretty, pretty quick to get to that point. But if it's someone that's coming with a family that's never done solar and never has a lot of expenses to pay. I think they're going to have to push extremely hard. And we've had guys that came in, realized this pretty quick that they're going to have to treat it like a full-time job and actually work 40 hour weeks to pay all their bills and get to that level. They weren't willing to do it. Like I thought I could just go out and knock like an hour and then show up to some appointments, make tons of money. But yeah. Yeah. Well it's 40 hours if you're actually working though. Yeah. I mean, that's why I think the target shouldn't even be 40. It should be like 60, at least, because most people they're not calibrated on what work actually is.Speaker 2 (00:41:35):We'll get into that tactics, but that's a good point. Yeah. So yeah. But yeah, no, I think to get to that level as a new rep, you got to put in some extremely hard effort and again, seasons, once you're, you know, know how to do all these things, no. To knock the doors, no. To close the appointments, which took me like two years, I would say to get to that point now. Yeah, I can. I'm pretty confident saying I could, I could go out and work probably three, four hour days and have enough money to pay my bills. Um, enough money to save on top of that. It's not going to get me way ahead, but yeah, I'm confident now that four years into this, I could spend four hours a day and be just fine. Save up some money. But yeah, anyone I think is going to need to put in a ton of effort to even get to that level.Speaker 2 (00:42:21):Unless you're like a natural born salesman. You hear though, Jordan Belfort, he talks about that. How he's a natural born salesman and he can do things way easier. So capacity and ability is higher, right? Yeah. That doesn't mean you could look at a guy like Jordan and say all he's he's cause take Jordan for example. Right. He could go and sell and putting in very little effort and still do better than the guy who sucks at sales and grinds his butt off. Right. Jordan could still beat that guy. Just like, like LeBron, James could beat me at basketball without trying. Right. And I could be sweating my butt off just going hard. Right. I could go and train for the next six months and it'll still be the same thing. Right. Because his capacity is higher. But does that make Jordan happier? Because he's playing at a low level. Absolutely not. Jordan is still has to realize his fullest potential put in the work to reach his highest potential as well. So when you see guys like that natural born sales guys, and they're just winging it, they're just as unhappy. Yeah, I agree. I mean, that's why you get like Connor McGregor, for example, about winning fights lately. And I think it's for him, he's achieved the money that success. I think he's lost money personally.Speaker 2 (00:43:39):That's tough. That is rare to find a guy who start, but the cutoff point I've seen where like 99% of sales reps start throwing in the towel is about 250 grand a year about a quarter million a year. That's when they say I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. I know people get complacent. So yeah, no, that's a big problem. Um, but yeah. What do you think? I don't even know if we got to the question really, but we just talked about that the entry level 60, 70 grand a year. Right? So above that, I think the next level on that, I'll just add into this too, to, to contribute to we won't trade off on it because we've kind of been going with it, but I'd say the next level is like that quarter million a year, right? That is uh, you're in the top. You're in the top 1% of the world income earners, top 10% in the U S if you make a quarter million year, right.Speaker 2 (00:44:38):It's enough where you pay your taxes, you can drive the car as you want. You could go to the events you want, you can take care of a family, right? It's fairly comfortable. You can invest some money into Bitcoin, whatever the heck you want. Um, quarter million, right? That kind of level. Um, I agree with Taylor when you're starting out, basically you should just work as much as you possibly can when you're starting out. Um, full-blown like, well, above 40 hours a week, you want to make that learning curve as quick as possible. You want to build that momentum. I think after you hit that point, um, it's a standard, I would say 40 to 50 men, 40 to 50. If you've been at it for a few years, you could do the two 50. Uh, I would even say five years, honestly. I would say it probably takes five years of that to get to where you can work a normal full-time hours, 40 hours a week at two 50.Speaker 2 (00:45:31):Um, on depends on if you want to reach it sooner. Yup. Oh yeah. Yeah. If you want to reach it sooner, I'd say double it. ADA, if you want to hit two 50, I've seen guys. So I've coached guys, uh, a guy, his name's Devin Koretsky he's in Texas. He hit 500 grand his first year. Right. Guy works 80 hours a week, like straight up. That's how you do it and like our real 80 hours a week. Wow. So yeah. And no, I mean, it's again, it's relative to like 250 grand in California. That's still good money. But like, I mean you got taxes. Yeah. Yeah. That's like a hundred grand in Utah texts to us. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, if you're in one of these level, then next level above that that's going to fall more into your CEO category. That's seven figures plus.Speaker 2 (00:46:27):So if you want to pull down a million bucks, I get this a lot. Right. So I was the big preacher back in the day. If you listen to my podcast, I talk about all the time, the million dollar income, like top, top, top tier, right? The truth is it's so freaking rare to find a guy who is willing to one has the abilities to get they're willing to put in the work ethic to get there, right. And sacrifices to get there. Um, that I don't even talk about it anymore because nobody freaking makes it and nobody's should I agree that most people should want to make that much money because reality is you don't need all of the crap that you could buy with a million bucks a year. Most people don't, they really just want to impress other people. They want to look cool with this, this, this, right.Speaker 2 (00:47:14):And that doesn't really make them happy. There are a few small percent where it does make them happy. Being able to contribute, take care of other people, donate to their church or their foundations and stuff like that, that kind of person. And that does make them happy. They have to work and live an entirely different lifestyle. There's no such thing as weekends. There's no, I'm going to be at home, having dinner with my wife every night at six o'clock. Right. It doesn't happen. You talk to your wife and you say, Hey, I'm not going to be able to make it to dinner every night. Right. Are you okay with that? Just that communication going on. Um, so yeah, that, that is just a complete level. Like your mindset is not your mindset switches from what's the least amount I could do to put into this to what's the most amount to, uh, able to tolerate.Speaker 2 (00:48:04):It's not like, Hey, how many hours can I just put in and get my it's like, how much am I willing to go? So the breaking point. Yeah. And yeah, again, I think that's why it's important to have like a rush where you have a month where you go extremely hard, see what that level is, see what you had to give up to actually hit that. Yep. Maybe for some people say that, right? Yeah. I did that. And so for some people maybe it's like, oh, I actually had to give up a lot less than I thought to achieve this level. Cause a lot, a lot of guys again are just telling themselves, oh, I'm not going to have them. That level of success. That's going to require me to like cut out everything. I'm going to be unhappy. I'm going to have to spend way less time with my, uh, you know, my kids, my wife, husband, where if you do this big push, maybe it's maybe it's way better than you thought.Speaker 2 (00:48:55):And another principle that I think we've talked about before is the, I think it's a Parkinson's effect or whatever. It's like Parkinson's law, Parkinson's law, whatever amount of time you have, you'll get what you need to done. And that level of time, a lot of guys they're, they're spending time on tasks. They're spending like three hours on stuff that they could possibly do in like an hour. Um, so it's not cited according to like, are you doing that big rush and maybe things that are taking you four hours right now, maybe just the fact that you're working harder, have more appointments stacked on top of each other, stuff like that. Maybe you'll get those same things done in an hour. So that's why, how about like bills? That's a good perspective on that as guys will say, oh, I've got till this time in the month to get money for my rent, basically that's a common one.Speaker 2 (00:49:44):I see where Parkinson's laws in real effect. Here's a cool exercise for you guys that are in that boat. Like just month to month bills at paying the thing, really set a deadline with yourself. That's the we're on a stat tomorrow's May 1st right. Go and say, I need to make all of my bills for the month, by the end of the first week of May and pretend like it's the last week of May. Right? And guess what freaking happens, dude. Everybody really does this. It's just like, boom. They make it happen. And it's like, what, what happened? Right. Same thing. I know. It takes me back to my college days. I would spend like weeks on a report on like a paper I had to write and I was not get anything done. And then somehow magically the night before the due date, I knew I had to get done.Speaker 2 (00:50:33):So I'd stay up and get it all done. And like a night when I was working on it before that, but I just didn't have the push to get it done. So it's like, and I think you told me, didn't you have times where you, you had to pay your employees, make payroll and stuff and all the money to pay him. And then you just pulled cells out of your butt at the day before payroll is due. I've done that my entire life, basically. Um, anybody who has started a company and just went through the grind of learning, how to manage a company, hire people, pay for payroll, stuff like that. Um, and maybe they're not as great as at finances. They're good at making it, but they're not good at managing it like me. Um, I've had to do that so many times where it's like, I've got to make payroll next week for all of my people, what am I going to do?Speaker 2 (00:51:18):Something went down a bunch of deals. Didn't go through something like that. Where, where am I going to come up with this cash? And it's just the commitment level on that. Right. And just doing whatever it takes to get there. And it happens, man, if you stay open to things and you take control of your mind and you stay positive stuff comes your way. Like every time if you're aligned, putting in the effort, doing all that stuff we talked about. Yeah. That's good stuff. Well, we'll get to tactics. Yes. We jumped to number three and then wrap this baby up. Okay. You're up? All right. So number three is what would your, your advice to someone who is, or what would you advise to someone who is struggling with work life balance the tactics? Okay. So here's what I would advise is something I actually just barely got through doing.Speaker 2 (00:52:05):Um, and it's a 75 hard, which probably I did actually a podcast episode. So you can go back and listen to the episode, just kind of what I learned from it. But the reason I'm saying this is because 75 Harvard, it forces you to be consistent on things in your life. And we're probably gonna create one, actually geared towards solar thinking. That'd be a good idea. Um, but it forces you to just do these little tasks every day. You, uh, you know, two 45 minute workouts drink a gallon of water, read your 10 pages. Um, take a progress picture. You have to do them for 75 days straight. And I think that's the single biggest thing that's holding this industry back is guys just aren't consistent. Okay. And even if you, even, if you just worked, I don't know, five hours a day, whatever, like just kind of the minimum, it's going to make you probably six figures or whatever.Speaker 2 (00:52:57):If you do that, you're going to at least achieve success. But the reason why so many people are filling in this industry is they're not doing those things. They get one cell on the week and then guess what they're dropping down to like maybe two hours the next day, or they're not pushing as hard where if you just were consistent, um, you're going to achieve way better results. It kind of reminds me of like the stock market. I've read this tactic on like the stock market, um, where guys try to like the curve. They'll try to invest when it's low and then have it go high. So dump a bunch of money in guys will lose money and everything. But a big tactic that people do in the stock market is just put in a consistent amount of money every month, whether it's high, whether it's low.Speaker 2 (00:53:40):And you're almost guaranteed to see returns on that because you're just putting in consistent money. It's consistently going to grow it's compound effect. So that's my thing is for something tactical, go out and do like a challenge like 75 hard, and then just figure out what you're going to commit to. Um, Michael Donald though, who everyone, probably the number one solar cells guy. This is his big thing too, is just doing them all the mini habits. So figure out what small things you're going to commit to for him. It's like between appointments, he's going to knock until he gets at least one no between every appointments. So that's what he's committing to and that's what he's being consistent with. And yeah, he saw huge, huge results. So that's what I think is something tactical, go out and do a challenge and then figure out what you can commit to.Speaker 2 (00:54:26):That's what I think. What about you, James? I agree with the challenge. So number one, I have five short tactics. So recalibrate your definition of work-life balance. We've talked about it a bit. See what you're actually capable of. Do an event, do a challenge. I bet you 75 hard showed you what you're capable of mentally, right? Like, oh, I, it felt impossible at day 15 here I am day 75. I'm still rocking. Right? Get one of those moments where you just go all out. Like I'm talking about you sacrifice every single thing in your life for that one thing, while it may not be what you want to be. Long-term you need to see what you're capable of as a person. That's my belief there. Uh, number two is determine who you want to really be, who you actually want to be, not what other people want you to be, right?Speaker 2 (00:55:15):There's a big misconception on that. Do you actually want the things you're talking about? And if that's true, you'd be willing to sacrifice things to get there, which we'll get to point number three is prioritize actions, not time. So this is the employee mindset versus the entrepreneur mindset, the Solarpreneur mindset. If you're in sales, you work on a commission. You need to have an entrepreneur mindset, not the employee mindset. The employee mindset is it takes X amount of time to do X. Okay. Completely wrong. You can just switch out of that and focus on action. So don't focus on working 40, 60 hours a week. Like we're talking about focus on hitting four appointments, a day, six appointments a day, whatever that level is to break down your goal, hit that if it's one appointment a day, do it knocking a hundred doors a day, do it.Speaker 2 (00:56:04):You need to have those measurable KPIs. And if you break it down and really say, oh, okay, it takes me two hours to knock 30 doors, 35 doors, something like that. Right. I don't know the stats are there. Okay. You can break that down and say that's actually two hours of, but what if you were able to cut it down to 90 minutes? I've seen guys who ride around like a, uh, like an electric scooter in between doors and stuff like that. Segway I've even seen. I've had a student who rides a segway. Yeah. He timed himself. He cut off 30 minutes today for writing that segue and was able to get an extra 30 minutes and knocking it. Okay. And if you can knock five doors in that and set one extra appointment, that one extra appointment a day compounded over six days a week appointments a week, six, 12, 1824 appointments, extra a month close one in five.Speaker 2 (00:56:58):That's fine deals, dude. Yeah. From writing a fricking segue. See what I'm saying? So the top pro guy who focuses on actions and shaving off that fluff stuff, uh, the next one is never sacrificing the urgent for the important. So a lot of guys mismanaged their time because something comes up, uh, a delivery shows up. I'm terrible at this. Like, I love Amazon packages. Right. I get Amazon packages like almost daily. And I want to just go to the mailbox and check them out in the middle of the day. Right? Yeah. Or set something up that I got. And then there goes the rest of my fricking afternoon, getting distracted by some dumb Amazon thing. When I could've just batched it on one day a week and made it my Amazon day. Right. Um, that's sacrificing the urgent quote unquote for the important, another one I've had with guys who are married as well is they take, uh, family calls throughout the day.Speaker 2 (00:57:55):So they're working right. And they should be at work like grinding hard to 11 to 3:00 PM. Their wife just calls them here and there and nothing wrong with communicating with your spouse. And you should. Right. But when your spouse is, cause I, you know, I'm not married, but I know it. I know it happens at these conversations. It's like, oh little Johnny did this little Johnny there's this problem. Can you believe whoever said this, that's planting distractions in your mind. You can't get that focus back. So have that conversation with your spouse and say, Hey look like we're both on the same page with this goal, this lifestyle we want to create. This is what's got to happen. Get honest about it. Clear that stuff. Uh, next one is you said this great place, the important things first. So date night with your wife, that's important.Speaker 2 (00:58:45):Do it first. All of my mentors who are happily married men, they've got four or five kids, right? They've been married 25 years. They say this time and time again. That's what I'm going to apply to. When I get married as well is date night. I'll put it in. Boom. Lock it in the calendar. It's an appointment with your wife. Some of the guys I know literally set it up on Calendly with a scheduling tool with their wife and have the wife book at it. Like if she wants to talk to them, book it on a calendar. It's, it's a serious appointment, right? If that's important to you do it. If the gym Taylor just got back from the gym, right? That's important. Block that baby in. If I don't block in the gym, I'm never going to the gym. Right? I'll forget about it.Speaker 2 (00:59:27):Has to be scheduled. Um, last thing, and it's my biggest, one of all is once you know all of the above, you know what you want, you know what you're capable of. You gotta be ruthless and cutting out everything that is not moving you towards that. This is the stuff you are screaming inside because you don't want to cut. This is the video games. This is the junk food is the distractions. This is the tough conversations with your spouse. This is the social media scrolling. This is checking the Amazon packages. This is the sleeping in, this is the not working out. When you know you should be taking care of your health. This is the eating, the fast food. Realize that though, the, those though, these things seem small and manual, they make up the entire difference because when you compound these little bad choices over time, like Taylor says, if you're consistently doing these little things good or bad, they will completely make or break your entire life and your happiness.Speaker 2 (01:00:29):I made this firm decision this last year that I was going to get like really serious about cutting out distractions. Like YouTube. I love scrolling around watching freaking YouTube videos. Right? Uh, another one I cut to was video games. This last year I went off the walls and played video games, like super hard for like a month, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. It was toxic for me like dude. So I love FIFA, right? I'm a huge FIFA guy. Right? I played FIFA 21. When it came out for like an entire week straight 12 hours a day. This is what happens when I have video games around. It's like, okay, I can't even work if the stuff's here. So what did I do? I fricking, literally sold my gaming laptop, sold all the freaking controllers, got rid of all of the stuff out of the house. It's not available.Speaker 2 (01:01:19):And I committed. I'm like, this is not me. This is not my potential. This stuff does not belong in my life. It's not what I want. It's not what makes me happy. It's gone. I've done the same thing with alcohol pornography, junk food, all of that crap. So if you want to keep on, keep hold of those things, just realize it's going to cost you everything if it's not in align with your goals. Yeah. My drop love it. Nuggets freaking nuggets right there. So I love it. We've covered a lot. And um, long, longer episodes, let us know what you thought, guys. We covered a ton of material in there. Um, so hopefully you took some notes, cause that is a ton of stuff to cover. Um, but James, actually, speaking of appointments actually got ahead to one here. I'm going to close up someone here, here in about 45 minutes.Speaker 2 (01:02:12):So better wrap this up. But um, let us know if you like these kinds of debate style. And I guess this one wasn't as much of a debate because I think we actually saw eye to eye on pretty much everything, but by the end of the day, I don't think there's going to be a debate, but I don't think there's anything really to debate there bro. Cause like, I mean it's just principles. This is what is going to get you to success. So I think in this one it's pretty, uh, white and black for me, like pretty clear that these things are going to cause success. These things aren't so, uh, James, thanks for coming on the show. Um, any last words before we wrap up, that's it guys. We'll see on the next show and uh, thanks again. Peace.Speaker 1 (01:02:53):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 What's up Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong here with another episode.Speaker 2 (00:46):Why should you do whatever it takes in deals and what technologies should you be implementing today? That and much more, what are we talking about in the episode today? So let's jump into it first. I want to say, go, um, follow me on Instagram. If you haven't already, I would love to connect with more you guys. Also on Facebook, trying to be a little bit more active on the social medias ever since we did a couple of social media episodes, a few weeks back, but, um, if you are following me, I did a little demo of a new tool that is seriously a goal of mine. You guys need to be using this, and we've talked about this tool actually on previous episodes, we had the founder come on, uh, Brad Mortenson can go listen to that episode, but the tool was RepCard, which hopefully all you are using by now.Speaker 2 (01:39):But more specifically, what they came out with was a physical card. It RepCard, it's an app. You can go and do the whole customer follow up. You can send your digital business card, but what they came out with is money is a physical card that you can literally just tap people's phones and it pulls up your digital business card, right there, gay, no need to text them. Then open the link, you tap their phone and boom, your card is pulling up right there. What's sweet about it is you can go on there and you can save your contact straight from that digital card. So you can just tap, save his contact. They're going to be in your phone now and it's going to make it ways you're to follow up with people, get referrals. I did old demo demo of it. So I obviously can't show you in the audio here, but, um, it's nice because they can see all your, your views to then go on there, leave your reviews.Speaker 2 (02:36):Um, they can see probably other people in the neighborhood that left reviews, which you should be encouraging them to do. And then with the top of a button, they can also send a referral. They can submit a referral for you. Okay. So I highly suggest that you go get this, um, RepCard hit me up and I can connect you with the guys over at RepCard and then get the physical. I think it's like a hundred bucks. Um, you can get just a card that says RepCard on it, even tap. And I think for an extra a hundred on top of that 200, you can get a, a card with your picture on it, with your company and everything. Okay. So go get one of these things. It is a game changer and I'm already using it. Definitely noticed a difference. Hey, so that's the first, um, thing I wanted to introduce to you guys, and then seconds.Speaker 2 (03:28):Um, as far as technology goes, um, another thing we've talked about is we are launching a full custom training platform. Um, it's called Solciety, and I'm sure we will be doing a full launch episode, but just to kind of give you guys the teaser on it and hopefully get your stoke for it. It is looking super bomb. So you can go check out just a preview we've um, finished some videos and things like that. So solciety.co is the website for it. You can go check it out there, but what we're actually going to be doing is doing this for teams. So you, if you or your team is interested in having a full custom training platform for your entire company, this thing's going to be a game changer for you. So whether you're a rep or needing it for your company, um, this is a full app you can get on your phone.Speaker 2 (04:22):It has training games from the best in the industry. We're constantly adding more coaches instructors on there. I'm on there. Um, guys like Earl Kapule, Jay Pez, James Swiderski, we're getting some heavy hitters on there. So you're not going to miss out. The full launch fit is actually on July 1st. Okay. So it might already be out depending on when you listen to this, but if you listen to this, right, if you're in June, listen to this episode, go get on there. Cause we are doing some special things for those that are, um, doing sort of the beta testing and getting on it before it fully launches. So you can go check that out at solciety.co You guys are not going to want to miss out on that. Okay. So let's jump into the show today. Um, today I want to talk about just why you should do whatever it takes in your appointments.Speaker 2 (05:16):And this is something that I've seen that top producers have that those, um, that really helps set them apart. That really helps them close more deals than anyone else is. They just do whatever it takes. They're so persistent. They have the ability to just keep going when others would quit in a deal. Okay. So giving an example, guys like Jason Newby, he has an office here in San Diego, actually met with their team last week. He's growing to about 40 reps. And I think he's only been a how to soar company like two or three months now is that like 40 reps. Um, and then one of his guys probably going to have him on the show here, um, his first, I think first month and a half or so, he's closed almost 40 deals, something like that. And I'm like, man, Jason, what are you teaching these guys?Speaker 2 (06:08):What are you guys doing? And something that he tells his guys. And I know he himself does. I was on a little panel with them at the door to door conference that I went to too. And he just says, Taylor, what we're doing is we're just not quitting. We're just persisting in deals. We're not really following up. They're not even doing any follow-up. They're just going balls to the walls. Just getting deals closed and just not taking no for an answer. Okay. I'll receive. You're not going to be. Yeah. Or you're not going to make people super mad and you gotta be, um, you know, that sneaky, persistent, you can't be the guys that just keep taking nos, nos, nos, nos, nos, and you're coming out. And what the same thing, but what Jason does with his team is he's an expert at picking and rolling it, just weaving through, through these objections, just being super assumptive, assumptive, and getting these deals locked down.Speaker 2 (07:05):And so it's something super important, just doing whatever it takes. Hey, in a story to go with it that I've experienced personally. Um, a few weeks ago, it was on a Saturday is having a slower week. And I said, okay, today I don't care. I'm going to go out. I need you a same-day deal. I think I only had, I don't know, I was at one close on the week, so I'm like, okay, need to finish with at least two, I'm going to go out Saturday and they hit it hard and they go get at same day deal. It's closed them up, flock it down. So I had no idea what I was going to do. Um, but I came across this deal, I'm knocking. And it was actually like first or second door I knocked and he tells me he's already signed with another company.Speaker 2 (07:49):Um, he says, I'm good, Mike. Oh, cool. No, that's awesome. Uh, yeah, what company you signed with and we start getting into it, just had a conversation. It went less from a sales pitch to more, just a conversation, right. Which is something you all need to be doing. Think of any interaction you have as not a presentation, not a sales pitch, but a conversation with a human being in front of you. So I just started chatting with him. We start talking, he tells me who he went with. And, um, lucky for me, it was a company I was super familiar with. I knew their sales process. Um, I had friends that were, you know, reps at this company, things like that. So I'm like, cool. Well, you know what? We've had several people actually switched our program from that. Um, what I'll do, I'm just going to have our engineers take a look and then we'll get some info back for ya.Speaker 2 (08:42):But yeah, we've had, we've been able to get several people, um, better program, better warranties, uh, better equipment. And then also save them a bit more monthly on what they're paying. So let me see at what I can get with, get for you. And then I'll come back by when they're done. Okay. So I was super assumptive. I didn't say, um, are you okay if we come back, give you comparison? I said, no, um, we're going to have them do this. And yeah, let's see. We can do for you. I'll be back. I'll pop back by. So it wasn't an appointment. It was a pop by, and that's what I did. So I came back, started going through everything. And if you guys listened to previous episode, I talked about how important it is for you to know your competitors and actually know their contracts that possible, know what people signed.Speaker 2 (09:31):So lucky for me, I knew exactly what type of program this guy was in. I knew the ins and outs of what he had agreed to. And I ha I helped him actually pull up his paperwork from the other company. And we went through it. I showed them, were you aware of this? And there's several things that, um, I'm sure they didn't like, you know, lie to them or try to not tell them things, but things that he might've forgotten that weren't, um, you know, it's been beneficial for him. I went through all these things and it gave me such great credibility. I'm just showing them these things. I say, go to exhibit B, go to this point. And he, he saw that. I knew, um, yeah, knew this competitor pretty well. So if you can do that, no, your competitors talked about it in a previous episode.Speaker 2 (10:18):Um, but I did whatever it took. He was not planning on switching. And then, um, what I did is he got hit with the cancellation fee, but I said, no problem. We're going to take care of that. So really I just did whatever I needed to. Um, he kept on shooting objections, reason why, uh, reasons, even though he did want to switch, but reasons why he couldn't reasons why it was too hard. And I just gave him the answer for everything. Oh, you got a cancellation fee. No worries. We'll help you get through that. Oh, your HOA is already reviewing your old design. Oh, no worries. Yeah. Your neighbor actually there, they went through the same thing. I told them stories of people that had switched to us that were that far along in the process and really just helped him, um, feel that I was going to take care of them.Speaker 2 (11:05):I was going to give them the best offer and I was going to be there for him. So that's what set me apart. And that's what helped me get that deal. Okay. But really just doing whatever it took in anything, he came at me with, I gave him a solution. Okay. So help people find solutions, help people get what they want and you are going to be rewarded with deals. Okay. And then another, um, yeah, another actually situation. Just last weekend. I had a appointment, um, this was the next day appointment and set on a Friday. He went back on a Saturday and it was pretty closed off. Um, he was one of these guys wearing two face masks. Any guy that you see, especially at this point, that's wearing double face mass. I know they're they mean business. Okay. They're going to be tough.Speaker 2 (11:52):Close. Um, I don't know what it is, but people coming at you with double face mask, they are, they're no joke. So he comes with two face masks, um, come to the door and I had prepped him beforehand. I said, um, when I first set the appointment, I said, Hey, we're going to be coming back and all come. Um, just inside your home, it's going to be on a computer. I have all the, all the information, all the details with you. So when I, uh, pop by tomorrow, that's what we'll do. We'll go with you. And he had told me, he's like, ah, okay. And when I came back to the house, he said, well, yeah, I don't feel comfortable with you coming in the home. So we're just gonna have to go outside. So I didn't have much of a choice. He takes me outside.Speaker 2 (12:32):He refused to let me in inside the house. And we're just standing back on his AC unit. Okay. He says, just set your stuff here, show me what you got. And I'm like, oh my gosh, everyone knows that if you can't get inside the house, um, if you can't get at that kitchen table, you are fighting a major uphill battle. So I'm in his backyard. I know it's going to be a really tough close, but again, I'm just thinking, okay, what is this guy bought? He's bought lots of other things. I can close this. He's a buyer. And does another thing that helps me a lot. Grant Cardone talks about this, but just look for things that they have bought. They have the Tesla front, do they have, um, out of camper, look up their cars, look at all the things they have purchased in the past.Speaker 2 (13:20):Okay. If you can build your evidence, this evidence in your head of things that they have purchased, then that's going to help you. Even if loo look for things that seem like silly that people would buy, it's like, okay, they have this, uh, I don't know this pile of junk here that they bought. They spent money on. Okay. They can definitely buy some soar. They can definitely let me help them out with solar. They're willing to go buy stuff like this. That's a little games I play in my head that helps me a ton. Just looking for that evidence of things they have purchased in the past. Okay. But we were going, I'm fighting an uphill battle. And my goal was just take it as far as I could. Okay. Some of these, you know, it's going to be a tough close, like this one, but take it as far as you can see where it goes and we go through it.Speaker 2 (14:08):He's skeptical. He's not wanting to sign today. But, um, just pushing through the deal, just being assumptive, I've eventually get them to close. Eventually get them to do the unthinkable. That he was no way he wanted to do that day. I said, okay, we're just going to get the ball rolling. Um, we need to did the takeaway, Hey, we need to see if we can get your home approved, where you, we need to fill out these forms and then have our guys come check it. And the meantime, yeah, you can re you can review it all. This is our agreement. We're going to summit with you. You review it all. Worst case scenario. If you feel like something isn't working for you guys by all means, let me know. And then no problems at all. We'll just scrap the whole thing. But this, um, I mean, obviously we, if we get it approved on our end, you can't think of anything that wouldn't be beneficial for you.Speaker 2 (14:58):Right? Mr. Customer. See what he says, do go a trial close and he's like, no, everything, everything looks good. Um, yeah. Seems like it would work for us. Great. Well, yeah, we'll just get a few forms and they're just going to verify the credit and then, uh, we'll fill out a couple of forms that there you'll get everything that I told you in writing. And then we'll get this started for you. Then hopefully cross our fingers. It does go well on our end. Hopefully we don't have to turn your home down, but, um, yeah, it's going great. Showing them a few testimonial videos, um, got them sold on the credibility that we built with the people we had already helped in the neighborhood. Okay. So just do whatever it takes. Don't quit and deals. I see this so many times where people just quit and deals.Speaker 2 (15:43):They do not want to get to that uncomfortable point. And I still get super uncomfortable in almost every deal I go to because no one wants to sign up the first day. Everyone wants to think about it. Everyone wants to, um, you know, have 10 days to review the contract. Okay. But our job is to get people to take action. Our job is to get people to realize that by waiting, they're missing out on things. So have that mindset and really just think of yourself as someone serving how many people are not going to do this because they get scared of waiting. How many people are not going to do this because they weren't doing with someone that helped them understand the benefits and that helped them take that action. Okay. So that's the biggest thing our industry needs as closers guys that can close them on why they should have an appointment to see their solar proposal, which don't use those words, but, um, have a pop by and see their solar information, right.Speaker 2 (16:40):For the words that I use. So think of that as you were out there and knocking as you out there, setting appointments as you're out closing deals, just do whatever it takes. Um, I think how far can you go? How uncomfortable can you make it that they feel like they need to get in on this? Okay. And then use those tools. Guys, go check out solciety, the training platform, get yourself a RepCard, a physical card. And then last thing, send us questions. I loved hearing from our listeners. What questions you guys have? I went and talked to Jason Newby's team last week, um, was able to go in for one of their trainings. And it was cool. Got to stand up here. Some of their questions that a lot of new guys have. So if you have suggestions on who you'd like to hear on the show, if you have a, I dunno, questions, concerns anything you want us to jam on in the show, give you, what's working for us here at Solarpreneur and, um, yeah. Have experts on, they can talk about it. Let us know. We'd love to check those things out and thanks again for listening. We will see you guys on the next episode.Speaker 3 (17:51):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 what's up Solarpreneurs.Speaker 2 (00:43):Back. We're gearing up for the summer. We are today. Memorial day is when I'm recording this episode. You'll probably hear it later, but we are ready for an awesome summer to close enormous amounts of deals and take advantage of these hot temperatures that we're being given right now. So I'm excited. I'm ready to start crushing some summer deals. I hope you are in whether you are a summer sales rep or you're doing it year after year after year, like myself, take advantage of this summer, coming up and use it to really jumpstart your deals. So I'm excited for an episode. And first, before we jump into anything, I need to give a huge thank you to you. My listeners, um, I just, we just got our hundredth review over on iTunes and I am super appreciative. So if you are a long-time listener or you're just hearing these episodes, give yourself a pat on the back right now.Speaker 2 (01:44):I love you guys and appreciate the support that you've given us over the years of we'd done this. Um, it's been a long time. If you look back, we've been doing this podcast since 2018 now, and as I've said before, there's no way I would have kept this going. If it weren't for people sending me comments, leaving reviews, uh, let me know that it's helped them. And then on top of that, just me being a little benefit as well. I'd tell a lot of people that even if guys don't listen to the show, it's helped me learn more. And it's helping me connect with guys who are really doing some awesome things in the industry. So thank you again. Thank you for helping us get to a hundred reviews and yeah, I hope you are taking some good stuff. That's helping you in your cells from the Solarpreneur podcast.Speaker 2 (02:34):So that being said, let's jump into it. Um, I did a little presentation two or three weeks ago. We had an event here in San Diego, which we're actually going to be having more. So I'd love for you to come out to our next one, if you want to find out more, um, yeah, shoot me a message. We actually have, I think a list we can put you on that would notify you for any future events. Um, but it was a good event and we had myself, we had Earl Kapule here in San Diego. Who's been on the show, uh, Brent Attaway our marketing guy. Um, and Jay Pez, another big guy that does events with the soar academy here in San Diego. We all spoke at it. We had a good turnout, probably around 30 people there, um, which we didn't promote it a ton, but it's just good to kind of, um, you know, connect with others network and then hear from some of the top minds in solar.Speaker 2 (03:32):So what I want to talk about today is just, um, what I presented on at this event. And we had some pretty cool slides that we went over and obviously I'm not going to do the whole presentation. It was like an hour, hour and a half presentation that I gave out this event. So I'm not gonna, um, do an hour and a half podcast right now. But if you want the slides that we did, um, hit me up and definitely send you those. But the title of the presentation I did at this event was called how to separate yourself from the competition, actually being as how to stand out from the competition. And the reason they did this is because here in San Diego, there's there are so many solar companies. I went to church this last Sunday and someone in at my church came up and said, actually, I already hooked them up with solar, where they came up and said, Taylor, since you hooked us up with our soar and got the process started, we've had like four or five guys come to our house.Speaker 2 (04:30):And this is in the past month. So I don't know what it's like in other markets, maybe areas are getting hit up that hard, but four to five people in a month, it's like one floor guy knocking on the door a week, right? So that was pretty saturated here. Guys get hit up a lot. And if, especially if you're in a saturated market like San Diego, if you're not progressing, if you are not hustling, then it's going to be really tough to have success. And so that's what I, that's why I did my presentation on that is just because in saturated markets, you need to stand out. You need to think of ways to be different. And even if you're not in a saturated market, if you can do these things, it's going to get you even more cells. Okay. If you're in a market that hasn't been touched much at all, it's going to be easier sells, but really implementing strategies that I'm going to talk a bit here about in this episode, they're going to help you have even more success, even if you're not in a saturated market.Speaker 2 (05:27):Hey, so let's talk about a few of them. Okay. And so, first of all, I have a story that happened a few weeks back that illustrates a couple of these points. I was down in Arkin around two of Vista here. That's just kind of the suburb of San Diego and actually got a referral from a deal that I was working with. And funny about this deal. I had gone to him. He had already signed with another company and I thought we could get them like switched over. I, you know, built some value. I showed them what's different about our products, what we had to offer him. And he's like, Taylor, that's sweet. Yeah. Helped me get switched over. And what happened was he ended up being basically a really far along in the process. He was going to get hit with a huge cancellation fee.Speaker 2 (06:17):Actually, he didn't even know how to fully cancel it. So by the time I was helping him get the process started with us. He calls me, um, like early in the next week and said, Taylor, actually, I can't cancel they're on my roof right now. Sorry, am I doing it? Then you get to them fast enough. So I got beat to it. But what happened with this deal? He actually gave me a referral. He got installed by a different silver company, but Yami referral, uh, which was his son. So this was the other deal I went to. And that's what I want to talk about. So I show up to his son's house. Um, it's the referral and never had a referral like that really where they sign with another company. And, um, you know, gave me the referral, even though they got installed by someone else.Speaker 2 (07:06):Um, but I'm talking to a son I'm saying, Hey. Yeah. Um, unfortunately we were able to get your dad installed, but he did like our program way better. There are some good benefits we're able to offer to him. So I think you're going to love it. Okay. And so I made some crucial mistakes with this, um, appointments that I'm going to bring up here. Um, but as I'm going in the appointment, it's going pretty well. He's telling me what he wants. I'm going through the fact finding saying, Hey, what's your experience? What do you want out of solar? Um, what are you looking to do? Which everyone should be doing, you know, taking out your notepad, writing down what his experience has been with solar written down, what he wants written now, what questions he has. And then as I'm figuring out these things, he tells me, oh, you have two or so I do actually want to get AC and a new roof included in with my solar deal.Speaker 2 (07:58):So at this point it kind of throws me for a curve ball. I'm like, okay. Um, yeah, let's look into that. And um, yeah, so he wanted to make it a huge project. He wanted to add in all these extra things, which some people do this, but I prefer to just hopefully keep it as simple as possible. I personally don't love adding all these things in, even though it can be super powerful if you were adding in different products and different home improvements into the project. But of course I'm like, okay, no worries. We're going to get you this. Yeah, we can do that. No problem. So we're going through in the deal. And, um, it became pretty obvious. I went on to, I wasn't ready to necessarily add these different home improvement products in with the deal I was telling him we could get them for him.Speaker 2 (08:44):But truth is I had no idea how much those things were going to cost. Um, I had no idea, um, you know, how to get those things started right. Then I just thought, okay, I'm gonna sell his deal. Hi, I'm going to add in, you know, 10, 15 grand on the total cost of the project. And that should cover it. Um, actually it was more than that cause he wanted a roof too. So I think I added in like 20 grand for a new roof in AC, so a pretty big project. Um, and then we're going, he's like, and everything about it. And we're talking with him and his wife and we got them approved for credit. Everything's good. Then we go to sign the dotted line. The wife comes out sweeps out of nowhere and says, Taylor, yeah, I just don't feel comfortable. I know you're saying you didn't get us the AC ans um, the new roof, but it's not detailed anywhere in the contract.Speaker 2 (09:37):And yeah, it seems like you're not prepared with that yet. So we're going to have to hold off. Um, and then we can get back to you. So my big mistake was I wasn't prepared to have these things added in and these homeowners, they could sense it. They knew that I didn't know what needed to be added and exactly they knew I wasn't ready to fully close this deal. And so it killed me, the wife, since that. And then ever since this time, I haven't been able to get back in touch with them, unfortunately. And they were comparing me with another company too. It was funny actually the same company installed their dad. They gave him the referral. He gave them the referral originally first, but then he gave me them after he gave it to me after and said, Hey, um, get my son to switch.Speaker 2 (10:25):Cause I think he's going to sign with this company too. So I still trying to get in touch with them, but a couple of points from this deal I want to talk about. Okay. Is number one, um, know your competition. Okay. And the big mistake I made with this referral and his dad is, I didn't know the competition. I didn't know who they were going with. I didn't know anything about them really. So I wasn't prepared to show them the differences. Okay. I said what I thought based on what they told me, but I didn't truly know what they were being offered. They told me the company and there's so many here in San Diego. It's tough to know them all. Um, but what I should have done in hindsight is figured out all these details. Okay. And uh, even better if I could have had a contract saved, maybe from this other company, maybe what they're offering would have helped out a ton.Speaker 2 (11:23):I was on a Instagram the other day. Um, yeah, someone I follow her. Name's Kiarra. She's going to be on the show here. She does. A lot of virtual sells. Virtual closing has a team and she demoed her a sells portal that she uses with her team. And I thought this was a great idea. Something that you could implement yourself or with your team. She saves an entire folder of dozens, of different contracts from other companies. Just these she's collected over the time, over time. And as someone says, they're comparing, she has multiple contracts. And what, most of the time she has contracts from the exact companies that people are comparing. That's something you can do. As you're meeting with people, as they're comparing your product CP, you can get their contract and then save that bad boy. You can have those contracts saved. Gene that have that animal stored up.Speaker 2 (12:21):It's going to be so powerful. If you can be like Mr. Customer, oh, here with you with XYZ company. Oh yeah. Actually one of your neighbors, they were thinking of going with them. Matter of fact, here's, here's their agreements that they had, but I'm just going to point out a few things that they didn't like, and this is coming straight from their agreement. Let me show you here real quick. Boom. You pull up the contract, you show them those things. Do, you can have stuff like that. Saved. If you can know your competition, like the back of your hand, it's going to be so powerful. You can help these people switch. Hey, and then in another this something we did actually back when I was doing pest control, we knew all the companies, our wholesales manual, it had, um, a bunch of different competitors listed out exactly what they're offering and it, um, it really helps you be perceived as the expert.Speaker 2 (13:10):If you can tell your customer, oh yeah, we've dealt with them. This is exactly what they're doing. And pest control is, oh, they don't have the, uh, they don't have their agricultural license. So they actually can't spray the yard. We have our agriculture license. We can cover the yard. We can cover these different types of pests. And I would get destroyed by people sound passenger right now. It's been a long time since I've been out on the doors, sling and pest control. But the point is, if you can know all these things, if you know what's being offered, you're perceived as expert in, is going to make you that much more powerful in your closes. Hey, and so I wasn't prepared. I didn't have, um, you know, contract saved from the other company. And I wasn't prepared in the fact that I didn't have these things factored in.Speaker 2 (14:00):Did he wanted, he told me he wanted AC factory and he told me he wanted a new roof. So if you can know these things beforehand, it's going to help you be prepared as possible. Hey, and I've been tell you I've lost a lot of deals over time, just because of the simple fact that I haven't been prepared and little things, little delays, um, things like the home is in the trust. If a homeowner has a home in a trust, you need to know those things because most finance companies that you deal with, they're going to need copies of those trust documents, right? So things like that. And the way to be prepared is try to do a mini backfire in your, um, as you set the appointment, right? And sometimes it's not always possible. Maybe you're doing a same day appointment, but if you're sending your appointment, ask these things.Speaker 2 (14:51):If they're older homeowners, Mr. Customer has a home in a trust. Um, if the roof isn't looking great, Mr. Customer, how old is your roof up there? If they, uh, have an older electric panel, Mr. Customer, do you know how many amps their electric panel was? No. Well, let me take a look, let me grab a picture of it then. You know, uh, things like if they're going to need an electric panel upgrade, so gather as much information as you can be prepared, figure out what they want, figure out why they haven't, hadn't gone solar and that's going to help you have all your ammo ready, locked, and loaded so you can close any deal. So you can be ready for any scenario that you come across. Okay. So that's just a couple points that I talked about in the presentation a few weeks back again, if you want the slides from this, hit me up, happy to send them.Speaker 2 (15:42):I went over, um, you know, way more details, had a lot more specific things in it, but just thought, I'd give you guys a recap. And those are a few things you can do to set yourself apart from the competition, save contracts from other companies, know your competitors, and then be prepared, be prepared to throw an extra, a home improvements projects, um, be prepared with prices, be prepared with everything you need. And then that's going to help you just lock down the deal the first time and not opt to have it been in this. Follow-up like I'm going through right now. And so if this helped you share with someone, thanks again for helping us get to a hundred reviews, you guys are awesome. And this is how we're going to change the industry is by knowing our competitors and being experts. So go out and do those things and keep crushing.Speaker 3 (16:33):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co! 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 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. online 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 what's up Solarpreneurs.Speaker 2 (00:43):We are back. We are alive from door to door Fest here in Dallas, Texas, and I'm stoked today because not too often, do we get to do a live interview like this. And we have got the man the myth, the legend river Skinner on today. So river, thanks for coming on the show. Excited to have you.Speaker 3 (01:00):Yeah. I'm excited that we do get to do it live because I think you've missed kind of like a element. Yeah,Speaker 2 (01:06):I know. I love it. It's cool. I've never done one from my hotel room, so nice stuff offSpeaker 3 (01:11):View of unmade beds, you know?Speaker 2 (01:15):Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. My dirty clothes are sitting right behind, uh, you know, the mic, the camera here. So don't mind that if we don't get in the S what he smells there, did a few workouts. So if you smell smoky clothes, that's mere river, but I can handle it for 45 minutes. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I'm excited to be here. So river, we just heard you speak here at door to door Fest and you gave an awesome talk on recruiting. We'll dive into that. And you're here in Texas. So we want to hear all those things our listeners want to know, but yeah. Do you want to kind of share maybe how you got into solar and your story with that? Yeah.Speaker 3 (01:50):Um, I I've always been into sales. I grew up, you know, eight years old. My dad will actually, you know, my dad, my whole life owned produce stands, and he's paying me $3 an hour to work at the produce stands. And he ended up telling him, he's like, Hey, listen, I can pay three bucks an hour. Or if you sell watermelons for me, I'll pay you 50 cents a watermelon. I'm like sweet. So every person that came through the door, I came through the door, but came into the sh into the produce stand I'd, sell them watermelons, make 50 cents a pop. And I was making more off my commission than I was on my hourly pay. I'm like, this is awesome. So, anyway, so I got recruited into door-to-door from one of my dad's other employees named Aaron, Aaron invited me to go satellite with him.Speaker 3 (02:33):And I went and sold satellite with him. Um, that summer, the summer I graduated, um, that following year, no two years later, uh, one of my good friends, um, just was like, dude, why are you not selling solar yet? I'm like, I don't know. Um, so I started recruiting. I got recruited in Utah to sell solar sold solar for a month. I sold eight deals my first month. And, um, back then I, that was like 10 grand or something. And I was like, ecstatic. I was like, oh my gosh, I just made 10 grand in a month. Um, I wasn't making good money previously, um, in door to door. So like, for me, that was like, awesome. And I just fell in love with the product. Uh,Speaker 2 (03:15):That's awesome. I know it's, especially in Utah, it's, uh, I got out of Utah, so scared of selling all the, you know, Mormons and stuff out there, and they're intimidating, but you know, lower rates. So I'm in California, but yeah. Have you been with someone and you died, you feel like, and I know now you're in Texas. What, what do you feel like the differences are between the markets you've like gets pretty similar to, I haven't experienced both Margaret. Um,Speaker 3 (03:43):I think Texas is unique in the sense that, you know, it's deregulated and, and, and a lot of the utilities they're deregulated. Some of them are co-ops where it's just one utility. So it's really different in the sense, like, you don't know, like, Hey, you're not with SDG and E you're not with Rocky mountain power. You could be with one of a thousand different power companies. And so they could be paying 8 cents a kilowatt hour to 22 cents a kilowatt hour. And you have no idea until you collect their power bill. And so that's something that's really unique to Texas is that you're kind of like Easter egg hunting. It's like, Hey, it may be a super sexy prop, or it may not be, um, you know, comparative to Utah, but, you know, Utah, I think, I think there's great. I grew, I started selling in Utah and I sold them Boise where rates are even cheaper than Utah. And so I've never been to a market like California, where, you know, you're showing people these crazy savings. I've just never, I don't even know what that's like. And so Texas,Speaker 2 (04:37):Anytime my friend, thank you.Speaker 3 (04:39):So Texas is, you know, if they have a large bill, great. If they're not paying anything, that's fine too. I'm used to some people with low rates. Um, but at this have a higher rate than great. Yeah. So that's awesome.Speaker 2 (04:51):So, yeah, I'm sure we'll talk more about that, but yeah, what I really wanted to hear, so river, you, um, you won the, the boot camp, they were doing the knock star bootcamp, right? You were at a winner for your group. Yeah. And so for our Solarpreneurs that don't know, um, knock star, if you guys haven't checked them out, they do great trainings. We're at the conference right now. And they have a bootcamp that they do, um, think three or four times a year or something like that. And then they have a tournament that goes on, may do just kind of head to head. They put you in teams and they pick a winner that sells the most during the, uh, six week competition. So river, he won his competition. How many deals did you do in that, those six weeks orSpeaker 3 (05:31):Honestly, it wasn't like that crazy amount. I think it was like 13 or 14 deals in that amount of time. But, um, during that I sold them all out, you know, out of those 14 or whatever nine of them were in one day. Um, and so that was cool. I just didn't workSpeaker 2 (05:47):As hard as I could. They saved all your, your work for that weekend. Yeah.Speaker 3 (05:51):So, um, yeah. Was like 13, 14 deals. It was kind of in this time period where the net metering just changed in Utah. And I was like, ah, I don't, you know, I just kind of put my, I put my feet up, you know,Speaker 2 (06:03):Well, that's incredible nine deals in a day. And I remember when that happens, that's actually when I first hit river up to do a podcast, cause everyone was posting about it. Um, you know, a super crazy number nine deals in a day. My record was four in a day. So I'm like, wow, this kid did more than double what I did in a single day. He's gotta be on some sort of sales steroids or something like that. That'sSpeaker 3 (06:27):A skill that I, I was thinking in my brain the way I think I'm like what I see people doing when people do something amazing, it gets people really attracted to them. Right. And it's really good for recruiting because you establish yourself as an expert. So I started asking myself, what could I do that when people would start giving me more credibility? So people would trust me to come and work with me. Um, it was for, as for recruiting and as I was like, I could do, you know, try to do 50 deals in a month. I could start to do this or that. And honestly, I messaged Sam Taggart and I was like, Hey, what's the record for like the most in a day. And he's like seven, I'm like, sweet. I'm gonna make it. I'm going to do double-digit solar one day. No one's ever done it.Speaker 3 (07:07):And I know someone has, we'll get into it, but, um, I'll sweet. He said seven, I'm gonna do 10. And that's my goal. And so I started realizing like, cool, how am I going to do this? And it's I sort of asking myself that question. Um, and so I'm like easy. I'm just going to set up one Saturday, just as much as I can. And so I started just asking people like, Hey, would you mind doing a 7:00 AM appointment? And in my mind prior to that, I would never have asked that I might call 7:00 AM, boom, seven, 10, 11. So I had an, I had an appointment every hour on the hour from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Wow. And that's the real trick. The solar, in my opinion. Yeah. Closing solar is easy, right? As long as you follow the process, you can enter the homeowner.Speaker 3 (07:47):They trust you. Uh, you answer questions, you know, how to, how to, um, rebuttal to, to the basic objections. What if I move, what happens to my roof, et cetera, it really all just comes down to opportunities, right? So the real challenge of closing 10, nine deals on a day, wasn't the closing part. It was getting in front of the homeowners. And if you get enough in front of enough homeowners, then the new close you'll close a high volume. That, that in my opinion is the real, the real trick to solar is just getting in front of homeowners that are interested in the product. And so that's, that's what I went out and did you know? It was really crazy for me. I closed, like it was like seven, eight, nine, 10, no, seven, no showed closed. My eight, 8:00 AM closed by 9:00 AM, closed by 10, 10:00 AM close by like 11:00 AM.Speaker 3 (08:32):And I heard back, I wasn't keeping up with the appointments then sort of picking and choosing which appointments were the best. Yeah. Um, anyway, so I had like seven by like two, 2:00 PM. And then I got caught up with a few customers, but long story short, I was at eight and, um, I had one other opportunity left and I went to her house, she there. And so I called her and she was like, Hey, she texted me. She came at a party. I'm like, how long is the party? She'll be back at midnight. I'm like, cool. I'll be at your house at midnight. She's like, perfect. So I went to my last appointment at midnight, ended up talking to her husband and close the last one. And at 1:00 AM is when we finished up documents, five of the nine got installed. I've heard some people talking crap. Like all of them canceled only four, four out of the nine. So, but you know, for me, I went back and you know, for me, I just realized like, wow, you can really do a lot in one day. If you put your mind to it, I later found out there's people that close, you know, 17, 18. And that, that boggles my mind because literally there's no more time in a day in my opinion. Um, but it was cool. Yeah. WellSpeaker 2 (09:41):That's incredible. And no, it's, it's kinda like you hear the guy who broke the four minute mile or whatever everyone thinks these things can't be done, but then when you hear someone do it, it's like, yeah, that guy, right. It is possible. And someone's going to go and do the next thing. Right. So I'm sure you got a lot of people gunning for you and yeah. I've heard people, you know, closing more. We got a Ashton Bushworth. Don't know if you heard of him, but yeah. Let's do a podcast. Yeah. He closed, I guess. I think it was 22. I think he too. Yeah. So he claimed that it's probably true, but yeah, he had everyone lined up, I guess just like doc, obviously you can't be in that many appointments in a day, but yeah. I think you just set up something similar where it's like, okay, everyone signed the documents, you know, at 12 o'clock on a Saturday. Right, right. Yeah. But still it's like crazy. The amount of preparation it takes for that. And commitments and 7:00 AM till 1:00 AM. Yes. And the thingSpeaker 3 (10:33):That I realized from that, and I think that I actually got a lot from KnockStar was you can, you, you can get a lot more deals than you think, and you can get a lot more than you think by asking certain questions. I think we stop. I think I stopped coming up with solutions a lot of times when I'm not committed enough to getting the results. So like my first customer, um, the, uh, what was the last names of Bradford's? Um, the Bradford's they messaged me and said, Hey, don't come over. We're not interested. Well, I already talked to them and I said, Hey, I want coffee for my ADA. It was at 8:00 AM. Hey, want to come back and want some coffee? So I had some coffee ready for me. And she texts me and said, Hey, I'm not interested anymore. I said, okay, that's fine.Speaker 3 (11:14):But I still want my coffee. And um, she's like, oh, I'm not ready. I'm like, well, I'm at your door. And I was just texting her. And then she came in, opened up the door and then I got into the home and closed it. Whereas prior I would have just been like, whatever canceled appointment, just wrote it up as not closed. Yeah. Same thing with, um, another appointment, that one, uh, you know, I was supposed to be there at 10:00 PM. I went there. She wasn't there. I asked to come back at midnight. People will do a lot more than you think if you just ask. Um, and I think a lot of times we give up too early and closes, although this wasn't a great story, I would have had 10, but I sat in this guy's home for three hours. I literally tried probably 20 different clothes on this guy.Speaker 3 (11:57):And he never told me no, he just was like, he just kept on saying, I dunno, you know, that sort of language. I just kept on going and going and going and going. And, um, you know, but I ended up closing him. But what I did learn was like, you can get a lot more people than you think you can, if you just continue to go and continue to move forward, instead of just being like, oh, there's an objection. Okay. No worries. And then you edit out. I think that's what I do. Sometimes I give up too early. I think some people give up too early as well. When really when they meet resistance, it's an opportunity to move forward. Yeah.Speaker 2 (12:30):And I love that you like set it up on a day too. I'm sure. Just having it all set up. You already decided, okay, I'm going to hit the nine. And then it's like, whatever, I didn't hit it.Speaker 3 (12:41):I had a failed credit and I had that dude, like, I was like, pull my hair out frustrated. I'm like, dude, just do it. That was my last closes. I'm like, I'm like, let's just do it. Like, let's just do it anyway. Close. Raise my hand. Well, I don't know. I know you don't know, but let's do it anyway. I just was like, I don't know what else to say.Speaker 2 (13:00):I mean, you're trying to break the record. So I imagine you probably had a few closes where it's like, look, I'm in a competition, but you helped me like close. Did you pull out that one to pull out the contract?Speaker 3 (13:10):I did it as a pre-frame. I just said, Hey, you know, I, I have a goal. Um, I've never done more than three in a day today. What we're gonna do is we're helping 10 homeowners move forward today in order to do that, um, I have some extra incentives for you guys to make it worthwhile, to help you move forward today. Um, to help you guys out for you guys helping me out. So at the end of this, we're gonna get everything moving forward. Does that sound fair enough to you? And it gave a logical reason, although I really didn't offer them anything additional. Um, they, in their mind, they're thinking, well, I'm getting a better deal than I normally would have for X reasons. Yeah.Speaker 2 (13:44):Cause it's crazy. I've started using that. And I mean, obviously we're not always in a competition, but if you bring that up with homeowners, say, look, we're trying to help as many people as possible. Um, in a way you're not lying to them, but you know, I'm trying to beat my record, trying to help this many homeowners have a personal goal. It's like, if you can get that emotional of all evolves, then sure you saw him that day. It really helps a lot. You're more motivated than people see. It's like, oh, this kid's really trying to help a lot of people trying to win the trip to Hawaii. I remember when I won my first like big competition that was like every close, like, Hey, will you help me win a trip trip to Hawaii? I'll send you a picture when I'm there. We please help me.Speaker 2 (14:22):And like, boom, boom, boom. People love when they're like on your side of the team. Right? Grant Cardone has that close. Like, come on, be my superstar. If you're going to be my superstar today. Right. Sign here. I love that though. I love that. Yeah. But no, a ton of respect for what you did, obviously, you know, top, top a 1% top would probably 0.0, zero one that have done what you've done. So well, thank you. Super impressive. Um, and so river, you gave an awesome kind of talk the other day here at door-to-door Fest about recruiting. And I like what you're saying, how you did something big to kind of boost your recruiting. So tell me about your results. Did you have a, I don't know, an influx or recruit recruits come in after I did this big, I can'tSpeaker 3 (15:09):Tell you how many recruits I got, but I can tell you, I, I literally, my DMS was like 60 people, just people, people cheer, like people are genuinely good. Like I didn't break an industry record. Like I thought I did, but people still were like, wow, that was impressive. And they wanted to cheer, cheer me on. People want to cheer you on too. So when you do something like that, people are like, wow, that's awesome. And so I just connect with a lot of people and you know, my, I kind of track how many people are looking at my stories. And that day, usually it's like seven, 800 people a day that they, it was like 2000 people, 2000 people, every single story we were just watching. And so that was really, really cool. But the thing that I believe about recruiting is it's not about, um, it's not about saying the perfect thing I used to think.Speaker 3 (15:54):It was always about like, what's the perfect line to say, what's the perfect this or that really what I found with recruiting is it's more of a networking than poaching. Like people look at it as like, I'm going to get this person. I'm gonna get this person. Instead. What I look at it as is like, how can I connect with that person? And how can I become their friend? How can I build a relationship with that person? And my goal isn't to recruit you. My goal is I have an, I have an abundance mindset. I think that's the best way to live. There's so many people out there that are wanting to come work for me. There's so many people out there that want to have solar on the roof from me. Um, so I don't need to get caught up on one person, one customer, whatever, like they cancel.Speaker 3 (16:31):If they don't go through this recruit, doesn't want to come on, no big deal. There's tons of other people that come on that want to come on. Um, I just want to connect with those recruits and I want them to win. And so if at some point me becoming their friend means that they're open to coming, working here. Great. But either way, what I want to do is I want to establish myself as an authority and I want them to feel comfortable going to me for help, and I can go out there to assist them. So I have four or five people I can think of right now that are messaging me through Facebook or Instagram that are out there selling pest control or different products or solar. And they're like, Hey, how would you overcome this? How would you do this? I'm struggling with this. And I just give them free advice. And maybe we get to work together someday, but more, I'm just trying to build my network and build myself as somebody that's truly wants to give value because money follows value. And I know if I continue to push value out that eventually the money will return and the re and the recruits will come. Um, because I'm building my, um, what's the word reputation. Hopefully, hopefully a good reputation as well. I like to think so for sure.Speaker 2 (17:38):And I love that in your, um, yeah. Your talk the other day, you just talked about be the person that you would want to, um, like have people look up to you basically. I can't remember how you phrased, but basically become that person that people would look at first before you try to recruit, because if you're not producing at a high level, if you're just, you know, if you're barely working yourself, then why would people want to come work with you? Right.Speaker 3 (18:03):It's it's like you write, like you use all the hut. You just told me 150 deals in a year. Like that's insane. Um, so like, people will want to work with you because you, they know that you can lead them to where you've gotten, right? It's not some secret that you sold 150. You're amazing. But what you could do is you could teach somebody the same way to be amazing, just the way that you are. And so now you have credibility. And so what I believe is when the is ready, the recruits will come. So now it's like, cool. The leaders now ready? Like you now know how to teach somebody to get where you're at, because you've gone where they want to go. And so the first step is always developing yourself to be a person that other people want to follow you follow, and then you'll start to see you'll, you'll naturally start to find more opportunities to recruit when you're, when you're a better leader. Yeah. I loveSpeaker 2 (18:51):That. So do you have, like, was there a time when it like shifted for you? Like in the beginning? I mean, I'm sure you were always like this, but yeah. I mean, did you have a big shift where you started seeing tons more recruits come in or any, like, I don't know, changes and, and you may notSpeaker 3 (19:05):Like this because of your pod, your podcast. So forgive me. But, um, I, I went to Thailand and, um, I was, I was in 2016 and I was kind of depressed. I kind of always like asking about getting out of sales. Like maybe I can't do this. And, um, I actually took mushrooms for the first time, and this is why you might like it. But, um, I took those and what that did was it gave me a perspective and the perspective was, I looked at myself and I S and I said, why do I, why do I look at myself in such a, a small way? Why do I look at myself and think I'm not good? Why do I look at myself and think I'm sad? Why do I have this perspective, um, of the world and of myself? And when I, and I was like, that's really not serving me.Speaker 3 (19:52):And it really flipped my PR perspective to be like the only reason why I am insecure. The only reason why I am depressed or sad is because I'm choosing to look at life that way. And so when I got done with that experience, which I look at mushrooms as more of like a, uh, a medicine than a drug, when I got done with that medicine, I felt healed. And I, my perspective switched. And that's when I, when I got home from Thailand, I moved to Boise, Idaho, which that I believe that people have these, we're talking about it at the panel. People have these growth spurts, and it's usually over a three month period. And that was when I've truly, I came back to Boise and all of a sudden it was like, boom, I started getting recruits. I started selling more than I ever had. I started the team sort of doing better than I ever had. And, um, it was just crazy. And so that, uh, thatSpeaker 2 (20:46):Awesome shift, so moral of the podcast, do yourself a favor, get some shrooms in, if you feel called to do that, like makes you like see outside yourself and the effect that it, that itSpeaker 3 (21:01):Gives you, but more than anything, it's not like you need something external to do that, but more, it was, I got, I got, that was the way for me to start believing in myself. And when I started believing in myself, that's when, when better things are to happen. Yeah.Speaker 2 (21:15):That's awesome. Yeah. He almost had me convinced I need to try shrooms, but I'm sure there's other ways. Yeah, absolutely not. Yeah. But no, that's awesome. And so, um, yeah. What are, as far as like recruits, how many people would you say you've like personally recruited or contributed to? Do you have a stat on that?Speaker 3 (21:34):I don't have stats. I'd say, you know, a couple hundred, um, I'd say personally, um, you know, there's, I worked with some great people like Jess Regan. Um, he recruited a lot of people for our organization. Um, over the past year, we, you know, but my team that's recruited a lot of people as in a lot, you know, over the past year, probably 450 people have been recruited organization, but that's not just me. Um, that's just from our whole team's effort, but personally like personal recruits over the past couple of years, couple of hundred, um, you know, some still work for me, some don't, um, by recruited a few people. Yeah. Yeah. But that's what I love about recruiting is I, like I said, I don't care if you work for me or not. I just hope that in some way, in some way that if I did get to work with somebody that when they leave my organization or if, if we no longer work together that they can say I had a positive impact on them.Speaker 3 (22:33):Um, you know, there's people that I can think of that have gone off to do awesome things are in great spots of life. And I like to think that hopefully I had some sort of positive impact on their life. And that's why like to recruit is because I believe if they come work for me, that there'll be put in a better position than they were before. Um, if that's not true that I don't want to recruit them. And, um, that's why I love recruiting is because it's an opportunity to help change people's lives. So it, you know, and I don't know exact stats on my recruiting. I have, I have no idea. It could be 150 people. It could be 300, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Tough toSpeaker 2 (23:09):Say. I mean, social media, you've pride. Lots of people you've maybe brought in indirectly and stuff like that.Speaker 3 (23:15):And I actually, you know, kind of going back to it, I don't think I'm the best recruiter. I do think I'm a great networker though. I do think I'm a great networker, but I don't think I'm the best recruiter. Um, but I do know that networking over time is what's going to pay off. It's more a long-term thing than a short term thing. Yeah.Speaker 2 (23:31):And I think the abundance mindset you have, that's one of the things I admire the most about what you're seeing is because there's so many reps, I'm sure you've been approached by people like, Hey bro, what's your red line? How much you make them per deal. I, in fact, I was in an, just like a month ago and this punk kid comes up. He's like, Hey, what are you doing on my turf? He's like knocking. I'm like, I've been here for a couple of weeks. Just, you know, getting some customers he's I gotta get that outta here. You don't even, you make trash and like stars in thinking he trying to like recruit me by like, say, I'm like, dude, do you think that that's gonna make me want to come work with you? Like, yeah, I can tack you mean saying, yeah. I mean,Speaker 3 (24:11):I think with recruiting, you gotta be, I mean, that's just a scarcity mindset, right? There's a limited amount of people in this neighborhood. Dude. How many times have you been through a neighborhood after another solar rep? And if you close deals in that neighborhood all the time, I've been to neighborhoods where people have come behind me and they've closed deals that I couldn't have. Like there's always going to be more homeowners. There's always going to be enough roofs. But when it comes to recruiting, timing is everything. And you never know when the timing is right. So if he would have approached you and said, Hey man, how's it going for you? Good. That's awesome. I've been in here. Just barely gotten here. Have you been in here for awhile? Sweet. I'm stepping on your toes. I can go find another turf. Okay. Okay, cool. Um, you know, this is what I've noticed in this neighborhood.Speaker 3 (24:50):You might like some of this, let me follow you on Instagram. You seem like a cool dude. And then you start talking to each other and you start communicating for the next three or four months. Let's say you're in a bad position with where you're at, which I'm not sh I'm sure you're not, but maybe you are. And then he helped you out in some way. He was cool to you. You're way more likely to go to him to talk about the opportunity he may have offered you then being like, you know, yeah. Being a Dick,Speaker 2 (25:17):Like, no. Yeah, no, that's you and you never know. It's like, like you said, maybe they have a pay issue. Maybe their company doesn't pay him like a year down the road or something happened. Maybe their company goes out of business and then who are they going to go to? They're going to go to the people who like cheer them on, who hit them up on social media, which I know you're talking about too. Just, you know, connecting with guys and networking. Like you're saying she has been huge for you, but yeah. Um, I want to hear a little bit about like the social media, uh, speaking of that, can you talk about just kind of what your, how you connect with people on social media and how you, um, I dunno, maybe strategies for guys who want to get better at the networking part on social media, because I'm not good at that. So yeah.Speaker 3 (25:59):I think one just being real and being vulnerable, right? Like sharing, sharing your things that you're, you're struggling with, right? Like you don't have to throw up on people, but just sharing your story, you know, Hey, I, I, I, I had depression growing up, you know, one thing for me, I grew up and I was on Zoloft. I was on antidepressants growing up, um, you know, struggle with that. I've struggled with, with being insecure. And when I share that part of me, there's other people out there that have dealt with the same thing and it makes me connect with them. And so by actually sharing your story and doesn't always to be sad, it can just be like documenting the journey. People will connect with you more, um, and sharing the good and the bad. And the next thing is spending time networking. And so I do what I do every day is I spend actually let me rephrase that.Speaker 3 (26:47):I used to do it a lot more. I can be better at it. I do a hundred touches on social media day, meaning that I, I talk to, or communicate with a hundred people a day, whether that's just sliding up in their DMS and just congratulating them. If it's a quick response of like, I see someone sell a deal, I'll just swipe, swipe up and say, nice job, brother. Um, you know, if I see somebody that, you know, whatever, I'll just find a way to connect. Just little comments, a little comments, I'll just talk to them and, um, just communicate with them. And then what I'll do is I'll just go find people that I'm interested in, in networking with and I'll follow them and I'll just start cheering them on, you know, over time, I'll just, you know, start to get to know them, sort to ask them questions, maybe take a video of myself, send them a video of me telling them, you know, what I'm grateful for about them.Speaker 3 (27:32):What I see in them, what what's powerful about them just spending time investing in other people, like just, just constantly be outpouring, love, gratitude, appreciation, value, and give out all of that for free, give out all your tips and secrets. If anybody wants to know, you know, anything I do that has got me to be, you know, somewhat, I feel like successful, at least I'm, I, I feel like I'm in a decent position and I have a long ways to go. I'm an open book and I want to give that to everybody because I believe the more I give out the law of reciprocation is going to give me back that tenfold. And so, you know, that's kinda my goal with social is how can I just give more out to the marketplace? Hmm.Speaker 2 (28:11):Yeah. It's sweet. Yeah. We just got, had the, uh, Mr. Thank you. You spoke here at door-to-door fists. Want to get him on too, but writes down, you know, five, thank you cards a day for a year. Yeah. And it's like, you don't have to be that extreme, but I mean, you did kind of your version of that on social media, I think, or that's what you've been doing.Speaker 3 (28:29):One of my, what I call them DMO daily method of operations. Um, you know, I believe in routines, I believe in a morning routine, very strongly, you know, work out every day, drink a gallon of water a day, re read, read a book every day. Um, meditate every day. Um, gratitude journal every day. But one thing that I've been working on is sending three people, a text message or a message every day of why I love them and why I'm grateful for them. Awesome. And, um, it could be anybody, like I mentioned, will Smith the other day will Smith. Is he going to respond to me? Maybe not, but if I send three texts a day, I got this from Jessie yet. So if I sent three text messages a day, that's 300, that's almost a thousand a year over the next 10 years. That's 10,000 messages.Speaker 3 (29:12):If I send 10,000 messages out over the next 10 years, do you think that one, one person liked will Smith would respond to me maybe? Right. And I made a connection with somebody I normally wouldn't have. Or you messaged somebody. He, Jesse talks about that. You have three things you consult, you congratulate, or what was the third one you can salt based or you can soul meaning if somebody has something that, um, or compliment, I was the third one. Okay. So consult, like somebody lost somebody in their family, something happened, you send them a message of con you know, consoling them hate, you know, I know you're going through a hard time. I just want to let you know. I love you. And I appreciate you. Um, and I'm here for you. If you need anything, you know, I'm thinking about you consoling, complementing, Hey, you know, I was thinking about you.Speaker 3 (29:59):One thing that I think you're really good at is I think, you know, specifically you, I think you're very, very sincere and you're very genuine, but more than that, you're a really good listener. And you're very, very attentive, which I love that about you. Right? So if you can make compliment somebody every day, that's awesome. Or you can congratulate somebody, Hey, I just saw that you, um, closed 10 deals this week. Congratulations. And that shows a lot about you. I just wanna let you know, I watching you, I'm seeing, you know, I'm rooting for you or whatever, right. But console congratulate or compliment. And you do that three times to three people. You can just open up your phone, go to your contacts list and just start scrolling through people until you feel someone that's on your heart. Boom. And then you can just record a video type out a message, whatever, but it takes what, five minutes, a day.Speaker 3 (30:47):Super easy to do. Super easy. Not to do, but once again, I'm a networker, not a recruiter. And then boom. Yeah. Or go, just go through your messages on Instagram or on your phone. Just scroll to the bottom who haven't talked to in two years. Okay. Boom. You know, you still love them. You still used to like them. I just haven't talked to you in two years, so, boom. Hey buddy. I know I haven't talked in a while. I know we're not super close friends, but I do want you to know, I I'm thinking about you and blah, blah, blah. Right. Just making touches every day.Speaker 2 (31:16):I love that. That's awesome. And yeah. Think of every solar person did that. If every solar printer did that, that'd be crazy. I mean, we'd be getting more deals for sure. Because yeah. I mean, think of even just from a sales perspective perspective, if you're doing that, I bet you get at least a few people you're being like, Hey, what do you do by the way? Yeah. Can you get me some solar panels? I mean, that's a side effect, but even besides that, it's like, you're not trying to recruit every person, but how many recruits have you gotten by doing stuff like that? Probably dozens, same thing with cells. Um, yeah, I think that's a huge key in anything we're doing, just having that mindsets and not looking for their award, but just doing it anyways. And then, you know, karma results are going to fall and to have success. So yeah. That's super cool. You're doing that. Yeah. That she got trained by Parker winder, right? Yeah.Speaker 3 (32:05):He had a conversation with me like four years ago, a long time ago and he taught me something, you know, be highly intentional, but lowly attached that always touched. Did he teach you that? I think he did. He's talking about my quadrant. So anyway, I, you know, I think that's how it is with life. Like, you know, just expect everything you want in your life, as long as you're putting in the work and you're being that person that will come. You just don't know when. Yeah. But so I'm highly intentional, but I'm lowly attached and you don't know, you don't know if that's going to be the customer that's going to buy. You don't care either way. You're not controlled if they choose to choose to buy or choose not to buy, but you are highly intentional and going into it and just live in a space of like, you, you trust God, you trust the universe, whatever you believe in that, what you want will come eventually, as long as you're doing the right thing. Nice.Speaker 2 (32:53):Yeah. It's money. Boom. See, I take note of that. Um, said money tip right there. Um, but I wanted to ask you too, um, river, do you have, like when you're reaching out to people, something that's, um, is tough for me on the social media thing is just, I get distracted, super easy ADT start wasting time on the social media and um, you know, end up just watching cat videos. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. So for you, when you're doing all the, obviously we know social media is good for all these things reaching out to guys, did you have like a set schedule or are you doing it? I know you're probably doing it intentional, but what's your kind of process as you go on social media and not get like distracted and actually have intention. When you're on social media, I spendSpeaker 3 (33:36):So much time on my phone and it's not good. Um, so a lot of is I'm just strolling and I'm just watching people's stuff like not being intentional. And I just naturally will. I'll just naturally at the end of the video, I'll just type something on that. Mainly at stories. Yeah. Um, but no, like when I do it intentionally, it would be, I do my morning routine and then I'll after a morning routine I'll send and then I'll, then I'll get my phone after I've done my stuff and then I'll get my phone, open it up. Then I'll send the text messages, then I'll do the a hundred reaches, like reaching out when I'm doing it optimally, but I'm not as consistent. Yeah. Well,Speaker 2 (34:10):Yeah. I'm glad you struggle with it too. Not just me.Speaker 3 (34:13):It literally knows exactly what you want to see. It, it knows. I want to watch golf videos, fighting videos and motorcross videos and success videos. Those are like the four thing. It's like all of that. And I'm just like, oh, this is so entertaining.Speaker 2 (34:27):Oh no, they hate it. Um, yeah. So, no, I think that's key though. I was trying to be intentional, obviously easier said than done. Yeah. Um, but yeah. The other thing you talked about too in your presentation is just, um, I know he had the top golf story, recruiting guys at top golf the other day. How much of what you do? Are you like constantly as you're out just doing, I don't know, bowling activities, are you always looking for guys to recruit or do you have kind of like a set thing you try to do when you see all these guys could be good? Yeah, I can,Speaker 3 (34:57):I can be better at it. You know, Taylor McCarthy says, you know, you don't go anywhere to recruit you, recruit everywhere you go. Um, and for me it's more of, I'm not like that's not what I'm searching out. Like, you know, people that are do MLMs. Yeah. My, my, my dad is, that's what he does for, he has a produce stand and he does MLM. So I have a lot of respect for that, but I also get the, um, the NFL, the no friends league with MLM where it's like constantly, Hey, how you doing? Cool. Well, guess what? You can make $7 million tomorrow. If you get three friends, I get eight friends, but you have to be one of my friends, I sign up and it's just like, you're always looking for the pitch. Um, I just more as I go throughout my day, if I see someone open up the opportunity, Hey, it seems like, you know, this is a really good line for recruiting than I learned from Taylor.Speaker 3 (35:41):Um, he's, you know, Hey, especially like, let's say it's a waiter, let's say it's someone that's not really in a high level position. Hey, you seem to be really good at your job. You know, you're like I was at, um, four seasons and the person that was cleaning my cup clubs, I said, Hey, you seem to be really good at this. Um, is this a career for you? And obviously no, either like, no, it's not my okay. Cause you would do really, really well at what I do. And then you kind of pause really? What do you do? Well, I basically do the same thing that you do. I just serve people and I talk to people. Um, but I just get paid a ton of money for it. You know, I, our company actually just got off a hiring freeze. I can't, I, you know, I couldn't promise you a job, but I could get you an interview. Uh, I could promise you to interview. If I got you an interview, would you show up? That's like a great word track that Taylor taught me that I use quite a few times. Copy and paste word for word it's the money line. And I didn't create that. I just, I just, I just learned from everybody and try to try to take what works for the people and apply it.Speaker 2 (36:48):Yeah. Well that's Moneyline and yeah, I don't know if we mentioned it, but you won, um, what was the best recruiter at door to con but would've by the people, the people. Yeah. OnceSpeaker 3 (36:58):Again, you know, I don't think I'm the best recruiter. I just think I have influence in social media. So I got voted the most.Speaker 2 (37:04):Yeah. Well, and that just shows the influence you have, like, even if you're not people still recognize you and you have the amount of influence that. Yeah. It was good for seeing the results. Cool. So, yeah. Um, yeah, you know, your stuff and obviously you've had a ton of success. Um, so yeah, we appreciate you all the stuff you've shared river. Um, and then last thing I wanted to ask you just like in Texas, um, or yeah, you had the story about the guys at top golf that you recruited the other day. How, how big have you grown in your, um, um, you told a really cool kind of story about your transition from Utah to Texas, just kind of the struggles you, um, you went through and I know there's a whole, um, thing that changed in Utah with the net metering. So for our Solarpreneurs, can you kind of tell that story? Just, um, we like to hear about, you know, the failures, the struggles, and obviously that sounded super tight.Speaker 3 (38:00):So the net metering changed in Utah and long story short, we went on a blitz while we're trying to figure out a solution. We went in that blitz and Boise came back, thought we had a solution last minute we found out we didn't and there was a meeting. And, you know, I basically, we basically, you know, I, I basically didn't do a good job, um, in that meeting, leading those people, which led to a few of our main leaders, uh, in Utah leaving, uh, which led to about 75 people leaving the company over the past. That was pretty much starting in December from December, like April, we went from like 160 reps to like 75 reps and keep in mind we were recruiting people through that time period. So we will ask them a lot more than just the one 60 to 75. It was like, we probably lost like 80, 90 people.Speaker 3 (38:51):And then we were still recruiting people at, does that make sense? Um, and so we just lost a ton of people and, uh, you know, it, it, it literally brought me to like a place of like, man, I, I should not be, I should not be in leadership. This, this sucks. This is, and a lot of people that are very close to me left and, um, yeah, it was very emotional. And so the thing that I, uh, you know, I learned from that was one to be upfront and honest when you don't have a solution, because I pretend like I didn't feel like we were fine. The second thing is, is when there were, we pretend like we had a solution, I told everybody else to go and sell. It's going to be fine. You're gonna love it. And I, I was like, it was during that time I was kicking my feet up.Speaker 3 (39:32):And during that competition, I was because I shouldn't worry about it. I don't want to have to deal with the new net metering and have to learn it. So I was just like, put my feet up. So the thing at the second thing I learned is I need to do so if I'm going to ask someone else to do something hard, I need to be right there beside them and doing it with them. Um, and there's many more lessons I've learned, but what I'm grateful for is where we're going. We want to have a thousand reps and where we're at today. And the lessons that I've learned from that is gonna help me become the leader that can lead a thousand reps that I may not have learned without that, without that lesson. And so it's, it's given me a huge gift to, you know, the thing that I learned, John Frampton, I listened to that talk.Speaker 3 (40:15):He said, go look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, would you follow you? And I did that. I went into the mirror is in my truck. I could almost do it in my truck. I opened up my, my, you know, my little sun visor popped it open. I looked at myself, so what I follow me and I had a notebook. And a lot of, for some people I would like in these situations that would fall, man, I'm doing this well, but there's a lot of situations where I was like, hell no, I wouldn't follow you. And, um, it, it led me to see my weaknesses. It led me to see some of my downfalls and, um, now it's time to improve, right? It's now time for me to work on myself, to forge myself more into the leader that people need to have to be successful. And so it's been a gift, but, um, one of those gifts were crying. A lot of those games were some, some dark nights where of self doubt and insecurities and frustrations and heartache. And, um, but going to the darks where you get to the light. So I finally feel like I'm through the dark little house a couple of weeks ago, so,Speaker 2 (41:20):Well, I feel for you. Yeah. I was just glad when all those net-metering changes happened in Utah, I'm like, dang, I'm glad I already sold my parents' solar grandpa. I'm glad I'm in San Diego and Utah. Yeah. So yeah, I feel for you, man, didn't seem like, you know, super tough, all that changing overnight. I mean, kudos to you, but no, I really respected dude for being super honest, super raw with all the people that follow you. Cause there's a lot of like, as I'm sure you've seen a lot of people, I know that it's just flashed their, you know, cars flashing their money, but that's all we know about them. And people really respect the things you're talking about and not just seeing the money though, you know, Lamborghinis and all that. So one day, one day I'll get saved. So yeah. Um, so river, before we wrap up here working, do you want to tell people a little bit about your podcast, your brand, your, your, or gear and all that, where they can find all those things? Yeah.Speaker 3 (42:15):Um, so the valid morning podcast, you can find on all social media platforms or on all podcast platforms. I upload one, I try to do it, you know, five to five days a week. Um, but I haven't been consistent lately, but there's, uh, over almost over 200 episodes on there. Um, so tons of content for you to sift through and to, you know, kind of hear what's going on inside of my head and my perspective. So go to the valid morning podcast, listened to that, um, river James Skinner on Facebook and then river Jay Skinner on Instagram, just shoot me a follow and a DME. If you, you know, if you, if you heard this from the solopreneur DME and, uh, you know, let's just chat and I'd love to love to connect with you and, and help and serve given anyway. Awesome.Speaker 2 (42:55):Well, we appreciate you coming on. So guys go out, hit river up, tell them you appreciate them for being raw for sharing his story on the podcast. And we'll have guys in touch with you river and any last, uh, I dunno, words of wisdom you want to share with our Solarpreneurs before we say goodbye here.Speaker 3 (43:11):No, just be grateful. Be grateful. Your situation's better than you think it is. So just be great. Cool.Speaker 2 (43:15):Awesome. Be great guys. Go out and share this with someone who can value from it and, um, tell wherever you appreciate them again. And we'll see you guys on the next show. Thanks Ken river. Thanks.Speaker 1 (43:28):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 what's up SolapreneursSpeaker 2 (00:42):Taylor Armstrong. Here we are back with another great week, another awesome week of content for the podcast. So before we get into the show today, you are going to learn how to recruit more quality reps, how to stop losing reps. And we're going a little, get a little podcast preview for the week. What else do we have coming up here? So before we dive into that, I wanted to have a rather ask a special request. We are at 96 reviews on iTunes, on podcasts. And my goal is I want to get to a hundred reviews. So if you could please do me a favor, we need four more, who are my four players that are, that are going to come in clutch. I need four superstars to go and leave me an awesome review. And then we're done no more reviews after that. I'm just kidding.Speaker 2 (01:36):You can be number one oh one if you want, but I would really appreciate it. If you could go leave a review and let's get to a hundred reviews, let's change some lives and then also share the podcast. If it has helped you so special request, please do me a favor, help me out. Yeah, but besides that, we've got a great week of content here at Solarpreneur. Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about recruiting. Some things you can do to improve on that and actually really kind of the focus of the week because our special guests we have coming on later in the week is River Skinner. You may have seen him. He's big on Instagram. He's got a podcast and we've got them coming up later this week on the show. So I'm stoked to have him. Um, and he actually spoke at door to door Fest in Dallas, that I was at a few weeks back at the time of this recording, he had dropped some serious value on us and shared some ways that we can recruit shared some things that he does, um, have helped him win awards for being top recruiter.Speaker 2 (02:41):Um, recruit a team of, I think he had 75 reps at one point huge teams. So he has some serious secrets he's going to share with us. You don't want to miss out on the next one. So today I'm going to kind of give an update on a few things that happened on the recruiting front here in my office, in San Diego, and then just kind of preview a few things. Give my thoughts on a few things that actually River spoke at the events and hopefully get you excited to go hear what the next episode brings. So let's get into it. Um, this week on the recruiting front, I had sort of a loss good and bad. Um, so the bad news is we lost one of our top dudes to another team, but the good news is he is still on, um, in our office.Speaker 2 (03:30):He's just on the north team. Um, so what happened was, um, he he'd been working with us for awhile. He might listen to this. So hopefully me saying this will get them to come back and join our team again. But he'd been working with us for a while, was doing good, having some successes, we got them trained up. Um, but we have, um, he did live more in the Northern area. So he'd started hanging out with guys from the north team, which is fine. Well, yeah, we're in San Diego, we got north NSL team. Um, it's more just the names of the team. We've got guys living in all parts of San Diego, but he started spending time going to the gym with the enemy. Just kidding. They're not enemies, but hard or north part of the team, a few guys, he was going to the gym with them, spending more time with them.Speaker 2 (04:24):And um, then he approached me actually last week and he said, Taylor, um, Hey man, I appreciate all you've done. Um, yeah, I love the training I've gotten from you. But, um, I just feel like partly because of area and then partly, um, because I've been spending a lot, a lot of time with the Northern guys and they've been coming to some of my closes, things like that. Um, I just feel like it makes more sense to me to go on the north team. I want to hop on their team and um, their closing style. I really like, it's been vibing with me and that's what I wanna do. So I'm like, all right. Um, yeah, I mean, it's the same team at the end of the day, so yeah, you can do whatever. And I was a little bitter about it, all knit, um, tried to be cool, but I was a little bitter.Speaker 2 (05:14):I was like inside. I was like, what the heck? We've trained. You, we've helped you get some successes. Why you want him to go on the other team? And I got to thinking about why did he actually want to join the team? Is he just saying like, is actually because of what he said or why they want to? And I know partly it's because of the reasons he told me, but at the end of the day, I started thinking and I'm like, man, if I would have provided them more value by what I helped him have more success. Um, and he saw that I was the reason he was getting success. Um, my training was delivering more value than anything else. There's no way you would've switched. There's no way. Cause if we can help guys achieve level of levels of success that they haven't seen before, then they're not going to leave.Speaker 2 (06:04):If we can help them feel like family, help them feel part of something bigger than themselves, they're not going to leave. So that's a mistake I made is I failed to give him enough value. I failed to make him, um, feel like family and he wanted to go to the other team. And part of it was because he's good friends with these other guys. I mean, he's going to the gym with him. Um, I actually lost another recruiting battle. Um, a few months back, I was trying to get my, uh, I guess you call my cousin-in-law. I don't know my cousin's husband. He was trying to decide between pest and solar. And um, I'm like, bro, you gotta come do solar. Anyone that knows anything knows solar is where the money is that it's where people want to be. We got people switching from pests all the time.Speaker 2 (06:55):That's what I, I came from. And um, when I was talking to him and he's like, yeah, Taylor, that makes sense. Um, he agreed that he could make a lot of money. There's more potential to make bigger money. Um, but then he left and at the end of the day it's cause he had like four or five buddies selling pest control. That's a big factor too. Sorry to get off on a little tangent there. But if you can help guys just, um, feel like they're part of a family, become their friends and get that environment. Then it's very unlikely that they're going to leave. So I think that's a huge thing that people forget about. Okay. And so speaking of those things, I want to go over three, just points that I feel will help, help you. Number one, recruit more and then help you.Speaker 2 (07:42):Number two, retain the, the guys you do recruit. And some of these are going off of what River shared in his, um, in his presentation at the event. So you'll hear a little bit more of these in depth, um, on the next episode too, but I've got three points. Okay. And I want to get into them here. So number one is add value and focus on becoming a better leader. Hey, so River talked about this. How, if you can focus on becoming a great leader, first focus on becoming a great performer, then you're going to naturally bring in quality recruits. And he talked about the reticular activating system, which if you guys aren't familiar with that, that's basically the part of your brain that, um, recognizes things. So for example, um, probably a lot of people have heard when you're going to buy a specific car, a Tesla or something.Speaker 2 (08:37):You start noticing all the Teslas. A recent example for me is I started doing this, um, program 75 hard, which a lot of you have probably heard of. And right when I started doing it, I suddenly, I started seeing way more people around me doing the same challenge on social media guys. I never recognized, um, their posts. Um, I started seeing 75 heart everywhere. And so what does that have to do with recruiting? If you can focus on becoming a better leader, then you're going to start district and I, as leaders, you're going to start to recognize those traits. If you're developing those leadership qualities, those leadership traits within yourself, you're going to start to recognize those and other potential recruits. You see, Hey, and so how can you do, how can you, um, become a better leader? Well, that's um, yeah, that's a topic for another episode, but you know, focus on reading leadership books, um, focusing, focus on improving yourself, um, yeah.Speaker 2 (09:42):Practice leadership in other, um, and other things you do. Um, guys go to church guys, go to, um, different classes, things like that. How can you be the leader in those settings? That's one way you can do it. Okay. But example that River gave, um, two that can directly correlate to your recruiting is just cheer other people on, Hey, Rivers being on this, he would go and, or he'd still does all the time on social media. He'll add people on Facebook, Instagram, people that are in the industry, different companies, all that and cheer on their wins. This is something that I started doing when River talked about this. I mean, add me at other people in the industry. Um, guys are posting when they're closing deals, Hey, 12 kilowatt system closed today. And naturally I want to be like, dang, I wish I could have closed that a big deal, but try to change that attitude, change it from the jealousy and cheer those people aren't on, Hey, you're going to gain more respect.Speaker 2 (10:45):And that's one way to also practice your leadership skills here. The second point that's very important River also talked about in his presentation is be vulnerable, practice being vulnerable. And it's something that I do. That's why I share my losses too. In the podcast, you guys know, I make a lot of mistakes trying to improve every day, but it's important. Share your losses too. What things do you need to work on? And you see a lot of guys on social media that make this mistake. They're all about posting the pictures in the lamb bows, posting them with the gold chains, with the money flying up in the air, all that stuff. If that's all you're posting, then you're yeah. You're missing a huge opportunity in attracting those people that want to see your faults, your weaknesses too. People love hearing the juicy details. People love hearing what your failures failures are.Speaker 2 (11:41):And I know that because when I've shared my failures, guess what? It gets way more comments, way more people dm'ing me, shoot me comments. Then if I post my successes, believe it or not. In fact, I've had just this last week, I had two or three calls with guys. It's, I'm wanting to hear about some of the programs. We have a sole solciety, shameless plug. If you want to go check it out. But some programs and guys that wanted to potentially come work with us in San Diego, they hit me up. And that was, um, probably the biggest compliments I received. So appreciate those guys that I talked to. And um, yeah, they just said, Hey, I like how you share your losses. I like how you share everything that's going on. Um, it makes me feel like I can trust you a lot more than these guys that are just posts and closing deal after deal.Speaker 2 (12:33):Um, nothing never going wrong. And that's the other thing, establishes trust. Cause we all know guys that are just flashing their Lambo is flip, flashing their wins all the time. They've got losses to Hey, but if, if they can share it, then we're going to trust them. We're naturally an example. This is, um, I'm big in the click funnels. That's kind of a marketing community. Um, but a lady that had spoken at several of these ClickFunnels events that I went to her name's Natalie Hodson and what she did, she sold, I think it was 4 million of a $37 product online, which is insane bonkers. And the way she did it is she basically posted a video of her peeing, your pants, like after a workout or like mid workout and her kind of hook for it was, Hey I'm um, I recently gave birth. Um, and you can see here, I actually just peed my pants during this workout.Speaker 2 (13:36):And so I've compiled a product to help you. So you don't pee your pants for all the pregnant mothers or people that recently gave birth. And everyone just bought this $37. It was like an eBook or something. Everyone bought it. She had self herself herself. And it was just because she had like her message. She had her message of vulnerability. So think of ways you can do that as you're recruiting. How can you share the losses any next time? You're in an interview next time you're talking to someone about the job, be real with them, share your losses, share things that, um, that maybe they don't want to hear. Okay. Cause if you can be real with them, that's how we're going to establish that trust. Hey, and then the last point is do something that makes you stand out is another thing that River talked about is he went and he closed nine deals in a day.Speaker 2 (14:29):Some you might've seen him. Um, he documented it. He set up all these deals on a Saturday, he was working from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM and he had just backed back, back to back deal after deal. And he ended up closing. I mean, his goal was like 12 or something out of the day, but you close nine, which is incredible. And um, yeah, he told us that when he did that and when he compost that fee, um, he looked at like his post stats and he was getting like, I think triple or quadruple the views they normally got on just like his regular posts he was making because he did something incredible. He did something great. Okay. So for those that are trained, you attract recruits or especially, you know, use social media to recruit and get people wanting to come join your organization. Think what can you do?Speaker 2 (15:21):That's going to blow some people's nines. Hey, can you go close nine deals in a day? And it doesn't have to be incredible as that, but maybe it's, I don't know, doing like a cold bath challenge. Okay. Earl Kapule one of our guests. He does these cold bath challenge where he goes and jumps in ice baths for five minutes. Um, maybe it's um, I dunno, talking to 50 homeowners in a day, maybe it's knocking from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM in a day. All these things are, I mean, just something that most people aren't doing, what can you do to turn some heads? And if you start thinking that way, how can you, or, um, you will be able to attract some attention and you will be able to, um, get people, you know, hitting you up and saying, Hey, what do you got going? How you pulling this off?Speaker 2 (16:14):Okay. So that's the flip side of it be vulnerable, but then also think of things you can do to, um, to really, you know, turn some heads, get some eyeballs, think of some big accomplishment, some feet you can do. Hey, so that's the tips. And again, you'll hear more about these things when we get into river's episode. So don't miss out. That's coming up here in a few days. So hop on that one, but let me know what you thought of this. Let me know. Um, if you guys appreciate the content like this and we will see you on the next one, don't forget. Please hit me up with four more reviews. If you wouldn't mind five ads and value. Hey, thanks again for being on a loyal listener of the show. And we'll see you guys on the next episode.Speaker 3 (17:01):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 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.  

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!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 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. online 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 what's up for, for me. Where should you go to door to door tour?Speaker 2 (00:45):Should you invest in this event, plus a full re recap of the event? Hey, we're going to get into it. I'm Taylor Armstrong here to help you close more deals, create more income in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals and hopefully make it easier to be a solar pro in today's changing industry. So I want to talk about before I get into this event, recap and give you my recommendation. If you'll go before I get into that, I need to tell you guys about an app that if you are not using to take notes, you are killing yourself. Okay. This app it's called Notability. Okay. Write that down or download it right now. Um, I think it's cost like 10 bucks or something, but this app literally has been a game changer. In any event, I go to anything I need to take notes in, especially for solar specific things.Speaker 2 (01:48):And here's why the app, what it does. It lets you record, um, the presentations. So you're recording, which I know you can just use like a voice memo or other ways to record these apps, but what's super cool about it and was a game changer. Is it pairs the recording with the actual notes you're taking? So let's say you're at an event and you write down a really cool line. You heard, um, Hey, this person says, um, at a really cool line on how to get inside the home to book an appointment. Then as you write that, it'll pair it with the exact audio from that exact moment, you know, let you just click on that note and you'll get to hear what was happening at that precise moment. That was super cool because I go through, I take all these notes and then a lot of times it's like, I don't know exactly what the context was.Speaker 2 (02:46):Um, or there something that I want to hear, maybe their intonation, how they're saying a specific line and all you do. You click on the note and boom, it's going to take you to that exact moment where they said those things, even here are the, you can hear the line they're using, um, exact words they're using. So for example, this events that I just got done with the door-to-door tour, which I'm gonna talk about here in a second, but Sam Taggart, he had a lot of great lines that you used on, um, his closes on his solar closes and I'm not going to be able to write down word for word what he's saying. A lot of times he's seen these exact lines one time, but with this app, I can go back. I can click on the exact moment and I'm going to hear his word tracks.Speaker 2 (03:34):Now I can go back and review them and I can really get them into my brain and be able to implement them. So for those that are going to this event, or even for those that are just going to solar, I dunno, team meetings or events, um, you know, anything you go to where you are taking notes, get this app and it's going to change your life. Got to give a shout out to, uh, my boy, uh, Matt Romero. He's the one that pointed me, this my friend. Um, so thank you Matt, for showing me, tell me about this app and hit me up. If there's any other cool apps you guys are using to help you close more deals or to help you gain a better education at solar events or whatever it may be. So I just wanted to give you a heads up about that app before you go to an event.Speaker 2 (04:22):So let's dive into the episode, which is, should you go to door to door on tour? Hey, so this events put on by Sam Taggart and um, depending on when you're listening to this, if you're listening to this, when it came out, he's probably still on tour doing these events. Okay. So go, go get your ticket. You can go check it out. We can post a link to the actual website. Um, we had Sam on the, uh, podcasts, probably like five, six episodes ago at the time of this one. And he did share a little bit about the events, what was going to go on with it. Um, but I just got done attending the events, um, two days ago, the time of this recording. And I'm going to give you my honest, my real, my raw review on it and tell you if you should go, if you're on the fence.Speaker 2 (05:14):Okay. So here it is. I think you should go, okay. Probably not much of a surprise, but it's only like 50 bucks, which is insanely cheap. Okay. Probably one of the cheapest eventual ever get a go-to and it's only a half day, so it's not a long event, but he does pack some action into there. He give you some sweet solar content and what was really cool about them. And we went up in orange county here in California. And when he got there, I assume it will be the same at all the locations he's going to, but Sam gets up and he says, all right, how, uh, what different injury industry that we got here? Solar pest control, alarms, uh, meat and kid. You not, I think it was 99% of the room here in California was doing solar. So I'm like, yeah, that's what's up.Speaker 2 (06:08):Solar is the best. Yeah. Um, so it was super cool. Everyone made the right choice, everyone out here with someone solar, which is the right product, which is the best product, which is the gold rush right now. He gotta be in it. That was super cool to see. Yeah, there was only, I would say there's maybe, I don't know, 150 people, maybe 200 this event. Um, and yeah, almost everyone was in solar. So it was cool to see. So what Sam does really, he just, um, basically tailored, tailored to all the solar since we are all selling solar in the room. So that was nice. We talked about some specific things. So other stops on the tour, I don't know if there's a bunch of meat sells them in there. Maybe he's going to be talking about, um, how to sell your prime rib, better, how to describe meat, who knows, but chances are in all the stops.Speaker 2 (07:04):There's probably going to be a lot of solar guys. I would imagine it. So that's why I'm definitely going to recommend it. If you were in the solar industry, I think it's going to be an awesome event for you. And we're talking 50 bucks, come on. It's only a half a day, so you're not even needing to take a day off work. You can still be slinging your deals, just take the morning off and then go rush to the doors right after go hit your appointments. It's going to get you a refreshed hit. So let's jump into a little recap. Um, and I'll give you my opinion on a few of the topics. He covered, things like that. So I'm going to pull up my notes from Notability here. Hey, um, so I'll get you a little bit excited for it. Um, he gave the example of just how we should treat, um, solar, like riding a bike in a Peloton.Speaker 2 (07:54):So you say at Peloton. So if you think of these bikers that go out there in Peloton and they got their group of 10 different bikers and Sam, he just got done doing an Ironman. So he was sharing his experience with that. He gave the stats and everything, and he said it's 27 to 50% easier to ride with the pack. Very specific stat in there, um, takes away resistance, um, makes you have to show up, makes you have to show off and you take turns carrying the weight break in the wind, right? So he made a cool analogy that as we're out selling, this is the importance of having a team. And this is why I would recommend to everyone be on a team, okay, solar, you're going to perform better if you're in a team there's guys that go out and try and just be free riders.Speaker 2 (08:43):But I can tell you a hundred percent of the time you're going to perform better. You are going to push yourselves more. If you are on a team, if you're seeing guys out produce just today, we had my brother, that's our, he goes and closes three deals on the day and I'm like, dang, man, how do I catch up to you? I got one close on the day, but he got three. And just seeing those things, it motivates you. It motivates you to want to be better to improve. So Sam talked about that, just how it's, um, a vital importance to get on a team and then learn from it, learn from your team members and use them to push you. Hey, and then another thing he talked about is just 10 secrets that he's learned from dozens and dozens of interviews you've done on the podcast.Speaker 2 (09:30):And they're pretty similar to what I would say after interviewing dozens of the top solar pros on the Solarpreneur podcast. Okay. So you'll probably hear this, but number one was think bigger. Number two is win the morning. Number three, always get better. Number four, don't make excuses. Number five, work more number six, consistency, number seven efficiency slash time management. Number eight, don't take advice from bad reps. Number nine, compete, number 10, have a mentor. And so these are common correlations that's Sam has seen. And what I see too, as we interviewed these top guys, they all talk about these things. And so Sam broke it down in, I was honored to be on his podcasts a few weeks back as well. Um, so if you haven't heard that you can go check out Sam's PA uh, podcasts, the D2D podcast. Hey, and then there's a few financial guys that came Ed Kinsey, um, and tax guy, uh, Brady Slack, what she's been on this podcast.Speaker 2 (10:36):So that's cool. You get some financial training from it. Okay. But the majority of the day it's Sam just, um, really tailoring the specific solar secrets, specific things that are working out there. Okay. And the one downside of the event, Hey, maybe Sam's going to be mad that I'm giving the con of the Venter, but Hey, I'm going to get real. I'm going to get raw. I'm going to get honest. The Caren was the VIP lunch. They didn't have lunch for me. I show up and I'm like, where's my lunch, the hex. And I wanted my prime rib sitting on a plate here and I haven't gained anything. I think there's more people than he anticipated that signed up for the VIP lunch. So I guess they ran out of food. Um, so I guess my advice, if you bought the VIP ticket pack, your backup lunch, put your sandwich in your back pockets, your tater tots down there too, because there might not be enough food.Speaker 2 (11:33):I'm sure you learned from it, but Sam fearlessness, uh, send me some lunch or let's go, let's go grab some lunch. Since I didn't get lunch from my VIP ticket, by what I was honored to be on the, uh, experts panel at the VIP lunch. So I got to jam with some dudes up there and share some things that are helping my team and things that I've learned from Solarpreneurs that have been on the show. Hey, so that's just a little event teaser, a little recap of it. Hey, but it's worth your money guys. Go, go spend the 50 bucks or the 120, I think is the VIP package. Go check it out. Um, it's going to be great for your team. She'll try to get your team there. I think it's great for team building for networking. Go out and connect with people.Speaker 2 (12:23):Go out and add guys on Instagram and post your wins on Instagram. If you're listening to this podcast, golf, shoot me a fall on the gram. It's at Taylor J Armstrong. Okay. Cause I am trying to be a lot more consistent. I'm posting my wins on there and posts and tips and tricks that are working for our team. And I'm posting the highlights of what we're doing on the day-to-day behind the scenes. So shoot me a follow. Let me know you heard the podcast and let me know if you guys can think of anyone that is crushing it, that we haven't had on the show. We'd love to have him on Hey, so that's the event recap. It was a fun event and obviously we got a lot more notes, a lot more details that I didn't get into here. Sam went into more specific things and had some great lines for closing, um, for, uh, on the doors.Speaker 2 (13:12):So again, download the app and then you're going to be able to go listen to these notes and listen to the exact word checks, which is super important to actually digest the content. So that's the recap. Let me know if you guys have any feedback from going to the event. Let me know if you agree with my highlights of it, if you don't agree. And I'd be curious to know, did Sam cover the same topics when he went to your city? I went in California, but he's going all around the country doing this. Okay. So hope you enjoyed this. Let me know what your thoughts and we will see you on the next episode. Peace out.Speaker 1 (13:49):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.Speaker 3 (15:18):[inaudible]. 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.