Podcast appearances and mentions of michael donald

Les personnes appliquant la "loi de Lynch" sont généralement accusées d'avoir recours à une justice expéditive, qui ne respecte pas les droits de l'accusé. De son côté, le terme "lynchage" désigne une exécution sommaire, dépourvue de la moindre garantie judiciaire.Ces expressions sont dérivées du nom de Charles Lynch. Ce notable américain, né en 1736 et mort en 1796, fut juge de paix et colonel de la milice de l'État de Virginie.Dans le cadre de la guerre d'Indépendance, il lutte avec énergie contre les partisans de l'Angleterre. Il est chargé par le gouverneur de Virginie d'arrêter puis de juger, en première instance, toute personne suspecté de loyalisme à l'égard de la Couronne britannique.Mais, au lieu d'envoyer les condamnés à Richmond, capitale de la Virginie, comme il aurait dû le faire, il décide de faire exécuter les peines sur place. Cette pratique illégale de la justice lui sera d'abord reprochée, puis le futur Congrès des États-Unis finira par admettre que les décisions de Lynch étaient motivées par l'urgence de la situation.Durant la conquête de l'Ouest, à la fin du XIXe siècle, des foules en colère auront souvent l'occasion de "lyncher" des individus qu'elles estiment coupables. Dans des territoires encore largement dépourvus d'encadrement judiciaire et policier, ces exécutions sommaires étaient difficiles à prévenir.Les malheureux appréhendés par la foule étaient le plus souvent pendus, sans autre forme de procès. C'était le sort qui attendait aussi de nombreux Noirs américains. En effet, ils furent les victimes de nombreux lynchages, notamment aux lendemains de la guerre de Sécession.Dans ces États du Sud esclavagistes, il en fallait peu, un simple regard adressé à une femme blanche, pour qu'un Noir fût pendu par une foule en furie ou par une organisation terroriste comme le Ku Klux Klan.Votées entre 1964 et 1968, plusieurs lois fondamentales donnent tous leurs droits civiques aux Noirs américains et prohibent toute mesure de caractère ségrégationniste. Elles finissent par entrer dans les mœurs et limitent les cas de lynchages, même si un Afro-Américain, Michael Donald, est encore battu à mort en 1981. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Les personnes appliquant la "loi de Lynch" sont généralement accusées d'avoir recours à une justice expéditive, qui ne respecte pas les droits de l'accusé. De son côté, le terme "lynchage" désigne une exécution sommaire, dépourvue de la moindre garantie judiciaire. Ces expressions sont dérivées du nom de Charles Lynch. Ce notable américain, né en 1736 et mort en 1796, fut juge de paix et colonel de la milice de l'État de Virginie. Dans le cadre de la guerre d'Indépendance, il lutte avec énergie contre les partisans de l'Angleterre. Il est chargé par le gouverneur de Virginie d'arrêter puis de juger, en première instance, toute personne suspecté de loyalisme à l'égard de la Couronne britannique. Mais, au lieu d'envoyer les condamnés à Richmond, capitale de la Virginie, comme il aurait dû le faire, il décide de faire exécuter les peines sur place. Cette pratique illégale de la justice lui sera d'abord reprochée, puis le futur Congrès des États-Unis finira par admettre que les décisions de Lynch étaient motivées par l'urgence de la situation. Durant la conquête de l'Ouest, à la fin du XIXe siècle, des foules en colère auront souvent l'occasion de "lyncher" des individus qu'elles estiment coupables. Dans des territoires encore largement dépourvus d'encadrement judiciaire et policier, ces exécutions sommaires étaient difficiles à prévenir. Les malheureux appréhendés par la foule étaient le plus souvent pendus, sans autre forme de procès. C'était le sort qui attendait aussi de nombreux Noirs américains. En effet, ils furent les victimes de nombreux lynchages, notamment aux lendemains de la guerre de Sécession. Dans ces États du Sud esclavagistes, il en fallait peu, un simple regard adressé à une femme blanche, pour qu'un Noir fût pendu par une foule en furie ou par une organisation terroriste comme le Ku Klux Klan. Votées entre 1964 et 1968, plusieurs lois fondamentales donnent tous leurs droits civiques aux Noirs américains et prohibent toute mesure de caractère ségrégationniste. Elles finissent par entrer dans les mœurs et limitent les cas de lynchages, même si un Afro-Américain, Michael Donald, est encore battu à mort en 1981. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A review of "The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan" by Laurence Leamer which details the murder of Michael Donald and the criminal and civil trials that followed.   Show notes are available at http://noirehistoir.com/blog/the-lynching-book-review.

In March of 1981, Michael Donald became the latest victim in America's history of racial violence. The young Black man was beaten, killed, and lynched by two members of the local Ku Klux Klan in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, for nothing more than crossing their path. The resulting murder investigation triggered his mother, Beulah Mae Donald, to sue the state Klan into oblivion. A small comfort for the victim of America's last recorded lynching and his family. Check us out: Visit Murderish.com for more info about the show and Creator/Host, Jami. The website also has links to buy MURDERISH merchandise and become a Patreon supporter. Patrons can get access to exclusive, ad-free episodes. To sign up for Patreon, click “Go Behind the Scenes” at murderish.com OR click here for a direct link to our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/Murderish. Let's get social: @MurderishPodcast (Instagram & TikTok), @MurderishPod (Twitter), search “Murderish podcast” (Facebook). Sponsors: - Outschool: Visit Outschool.com/murderish & use code murderish to save $15 on your child's first class. - Stamps.com: Visit Stamps.com, click the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code MURDERISH for a 4-week trial, free postage, and a digital scale. - Best Fiends: Download Best Fiends FREE in the App Store or Google Play and get $5 worth of in-game rewards when you reach level 5. - Shopify: Visit Shopify.com/murderish (all lowercase) for a free 14-day trial and full access to Shopify's entire suite of features. Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime: Subscribe now in your favorite podcast app! New episodes drop every Thursday. Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirty-money-moves-women-in-white-collar-crime/id1619521092 Follow Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter @DirtyMoneyMoves. Want to advertise on this show? We've partnered with Cloud10 | iHeartRadio to handle our advertising requests. If you're interested in advertising on MURDERISH, send an email to Sahiba Krieger mailto:sahiba@cloud10.fm with a copy to mailto:jami@murderish.com. Sound design: Justin Hellstrom. Music: Some of the music in this podcast was composed by Nico Vettese of We Talk of Dreams Research & Writing: Melanie Griffin Remember, listening to this podcast doesn't make you a murderer - it just means you're murder...ish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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 E-box so, um, just, just for the record, it's spelled EPO, C H. So James gets sick, sick of correcting people. It's not E pockets epic. Right,Speaker 3 (05:07):Right, right. Whatever you want to call it. E poche 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 society 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 society. 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 society 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 societies. 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 society, 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. 

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.

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. 

Production Note: This week’s episode was recored before Derek Michael Chauvin, a former police officer for the Minneapolis Police Department was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.  The trial has been one of the most closely watched cases in recent memory, setting off a national reckoning on police violence and systemic racism even before the trial commenced. “The People V. The Klan” On March 20, 1981, Michael Donald left his sister's home in Mobile, Alabama, to pick up a pack of cigarettes from a nearby service station. It would be the last time Donald's family saw him alive. The next morning, the 19-year-old's body was found viciously beaten, hanging from a tree on a residential street in Mobile.Beulah Mae Donald, Michael’s mother, waged a lengthy legal fight to take the entire United Klans of America to court to hold them accountable for the death of her son. CBS News’ 60 Minutes highlighted The Oath Keepers, The far-right paramilitary group is home to active-duty law-enforcement officers who are training up other members to prepare for civil war. Cariole Horne wins a long-fought battle for justice! A New York State Supreme Court ruling reinstated the pension of the former Buffalo police officer who was fired after intervening when she says an officer put a man in a chokehold in 2006. Ms. Horne will receive a full pension, and backpay and benefits. The home of the ex-police officer who killed Daunte Wright is now protected by concrete barriers and a large fence - at the tax payer’s expense. Flame, Lauren, Nick and the Flamettes discuss.    Join the conversation - LIVE or online:    @monroeflame @laurenarmanih @nicksmithnews @blackeffect 

On this episode, I talk about the history of African Americans ensuring and demanding justice. I talked about the Michael Donald case, and how it became a landmark case for securing criminal justice financially. After that, I talk about the death of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the ongoing fight for racial justice. I also provide updated reporting on the latest of The Dereck Chauvin Trial and play emotional testimonies. Finally, the Last Note is touching, inspirational, and prescient. Check Out My Other Podcast: DISGRACE- anchor.fm/disgrace U.S Presidents- anchor.fm/uspresidents --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thejeremiahpattersonshow/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thejeremiahpattersonshow/support

Claudette Colvin:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvinhttps://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/29/the_other_rosa_parks_now_73https://www.npr.org/2009/03/15/101719889/before-rosa-parks-there-was-claudette-colvin Michael Donald:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Michael_Donaldhttps://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/magazine/the-woman-who-beat-the-klan.htmlhttps://www.history.com/news/kkk-lynching-mother-justicehttps://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/donald-v-united-klans-americahttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27161226-the-lynching SOCIAL MEDIA: @thebfdpodcastEMAIL: thebfdpodcast@gmail.com

Mobile Alabama - USA, one of the Gold Coasts cultural centres, known for having more players in the Baseball Hall of Fame than another city except New York and Los Angeles and boasts the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in the USA. Listen to the Hometown Murders of John Louis Evans. The first inmate to execute in Alabama since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976, and Joseph Paul Franklin , an white supremacist and murderer, and the lynching of Michael Donald by The KKK.

In 1981, the top R&B song was "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. The must-see movie was Halloween II. Although the 80's seemed a bit progressive compared to earlier times, the lynching of 19 year old aspiring carpenter, Michael Donald proved that we still had a long way to go. His death sparked the lawsuit that left the Klan bankrupt. This is his story... Follow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3e1z0eR Follow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3erzeMp Welcome to Black History Moments! This podcast is all about Black history and the stories we've left untold over the years. Hosted by Shaakira White We strive for accuracy in our storytelling. Sources used can be found below: Book: 13 Loops by BJ Hollars, https://www.history.com/news/kkk-lynching-mother-justice, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/magazine/the-woman-who-beat-the-klan.html --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blackhistorymoments/support

Candice speaks candidly on the racial terrorism Black people faced after slavery was abolished. Website: crimenoirthepodcast.com Case Sources -https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore/migration - https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws - https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5.html - https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-lynching-america/ - https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/ - https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration - https://www.history.com/news/kkk-lynching-mother-justice - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Michael_Donald - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching

The guys go in on Robert Kraft, the craziness of R. Kelly, Michael Cohen's testimony, The momo challenge, and more...

12-17-18 Interview 2/1718 Michael Donald Edwards is in his thirteenth season as producing artistic director of Asolo Repertory Theatre. As a boy he attended Catholic schools where he was steeped in theology and philosophy and thought of becoming a priest or a teacher. He didn't see a play until college, where he discovered what he […]

The World Cup Final may be 5 months away but it's not to early to look forward to it. This week, we speak to photographer Michael Donald about his book, Goal!: Intimate portraits and interviews with every living FIFA World Cup™ Final scorer. Some topics we discuss are: How 1986 was a turning point in football Post-world cup fame Unsung World Cup final goalscorers Marco Tardelli's goal and celebration in the 1982 World Cup Donald nearly stealing Emmanuel Petit's World Cup winners medal

On the morning of March 21, 1981, the body of 19-year-old Michael Donald was found hanging from a tree in Mobile, Alabama. The years that followed saw the conviction of his two killers and a civil case brought by Donald's mother which bankrupted the largest Klan organization in the United States. In this episode of The Modern Law Library, we speak with Laurence Leamer about his new book on the case, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan. He shares details about how and why Donald was killed, what became of his killers, and how the case also brought Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center into greater national prominence.

On the morning of March 21, 1981, the body of 19-year-old Michael Donald was found hanging from a tree in Mobile, Alabama. The years that followed saw the conviction of his two killers and a civil case brought by Donald's mother which bankrupted the largest Klan organization in the United States. In this episode of The Modern Law Library, we speak with Laurence Leamer about his new book on the case, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan. He shares details about how and why Donald was killed, what became of his killers, and how the case also brought Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center into greater national prominence.

On a Friday night in March 1981 Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile, Alabama in their car, hunting for a black man. The young men were members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America. They were seeking to retaliate after a largely black jury could not reach a verdict in a trial involving a black man accused of the murder of a white man. The two Klansmen found nineteen-year-old Michael Donald walking home alone. Hays and Knowles abducted him, beat him, cut his throat, and left his body hanging from a tree branch in a racially mixed residential neighborhood. Arrested, charged, and convicted, Hays was sentenced to death—the first time in more than half a century that the state of Alabama sentenced a white man to death for killing a black man. On behalf of Michael’s grieving mother, Morris Dees, the legendary civil rights lawyer and cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a civil suit against the members of the local Klan unit involved and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. Charging them with conspiracy, Dees put the Klan on trial, resulting in a verdict that would level a deadly blow to its organization. My guest, Laurence Leamer, has written about this event, uncovered new information, including the climate of hate created by former Alabama governor, George Wallace that led to this lynching. Laurence Leamer is a New York Times Bestselling author of over a dozen books including the Kennedy Women and The Price of Justice. He is with me via Skype from Washington DC to discuss his latest book The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan.

In 1984 attorney Morris Dees sued the Ku Klux Klan on behalf of the family of murdered a 19-year-old Alabama man Michael Donald. Journalist and author Laurence Leamer discusses the case, and his book "The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan" on The Steve Fast Show.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Women chronicles the powerful and spellbinding true story of a brutal race-based killing in 1981 and subsequent trials that undid one of the most pernicious organizations in American history—the Ku Klux Klan.On a Friday night in March 1981 Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile in their car, hunting for a black man. The young men were members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America. They were seeking to retaliate after a largely black jury could not reach a verdict in a trial involving a black man accused of the murder of a white man. The two Klansmen found nineteen-year-old Michael Donald walking home alone. Hays and Knowles abducted him, beat him, cut his throat, and left his body hanging from a tree branch in a racially mixed residential neighborhood.Arrested, charged, and convicted, Hays was sentenced to death—the first time in more than half a century that the state of Alabama sentenced a white man to death for killing a black man. On behalf of Michael’s grieving mother, Morris Dees, the legendary civil rights lawyer and cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a civil suit against the members of the local Klan unit involved and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. Charging them with conspiracy, Dees put the Klan on trial, resulting in a verdict that would level a deadly blow to its organization.The Lynching brings to life two dramatic trials, during which the Alabama Klan’s motives and philosophy were exposed for the evil they represent. In addition to telling a gripping and consequential story, Laurence Leamer chronicles the KKK and its activities in the second half the twentieth century, and illuminates its lingering effect on race relations in America today. THE LYNCHING: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan-Laurence Leamer

You are now about to witness the strength of no knowledge.

You are now about to witness the strength of no knowledge.