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REPLAY From VP Of Vivint To Investor - Jeff Mendez
183 Plays11 days ago
What is the philosophy of an investor in the solar space? Jeff Mendez and I had an episode a few years ago where he shares his journey from retail to building Vivint and the mindset he undertakes in producing value: not only in his teams but also within himself as he welcomes continued growth.
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Transcript
Introduction and Opening Stories
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Welcoming Jeff Mendes
00:00:41
Speaker
right, what's going on, everybody? We are back in the studio, the on-the-go studio, that is. And we've got someone that is a highly anticipated guest, had some requests requests for him, the one, the only Jeff Mendes. Thanks for coming on the show with us today, Jeff. Thanks for having me, Taylor. Good to see you.
00:00:58
Speaker
You too. And we're actually recording this on a Black Friday today, so we had to get Jeff away from JCPenney. He was looking for those gold-to-go deals. looking for those deals. I had my shopping cart full and decided to leave it and come here and do this podcast today instead. yeah Much appreciated. I know it's a big sacrifice.
Retail Experience and Consumer Insights
00:01:14
Speaker
So hold on. Before we get into that, so I joined, so after graduating college, i don't know if you know this or not, but I ran Walmart stores. Oh, yeah. i did hear that. So my first store was actually here in Utah, American Fork. Okay.
00:01:28
Speaker
And I have the honor, I think I started in September as an assistant manager, and then I had the honor of opening, that back then we would close the doors. And I had the honor of opening that door with the massive crowds on the outside. So I'm alive, miraculously. There are literally, i'm i'm not this is not hyperbole, 5,000 people waiting outside that Walmart door in American Fork, Utah. Wow.
00:01:50
Speaker
And as soon as I opened the door, like the doors blew open and the crowds just rushed in, grabbing whatever they could grab. Just, it's crazy. It's an amazing case study of human behavior and just behavioral economics at its finest. Yeah. Well, and that was before they had like Amazon and all that, I'm sure. Yeah. Walmart was the epicenter of of retail. Everybody and anybody at Black Friday was there at Walmart.
00:02:14
Speaker
they'd They'd start at Walmart and then they'd go elsewhere if they chose to. But yeah, there was... There was no Cyber Monday back then. it was It was it. It was the mecca. It was the goat of Black Friday, and it was insane. It's so crazy. Like, people running with their shopping carts. They almost carrying their shopping carts that they could have it with them to be able to put their merchandise in. And then they're buying stuff that they don't need anyway. yeah They're just buying it because it's a good deal, but then they get home, and I'm sure they're like, why did i just buy this? it's just interesting. know. There's people coming out. like, oh, I saved all this money. No, you
Sales Journey and Lessons Learned
00:02:44
Speaker
didn't. You spent that money. yeah
00:02:45
Speaker
If you were save money, you would have kept it in your pocket. I know. Anyway. Pretty funny. yeah That was back when people would camp out and everything too, right? Camping out. Insane. Insane. I mean, people are banging on the door before I opened it. So I opened the doors at 7 a.m.
00:02:58
Speaker
And if I would have waited five more minutes, they would have literally run through the glass. They were that desperate. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Especially here in Utah. you know I know people have good deals out here. Yeah. But no, so...
00:03:10
Speaker
um I'm excited for today's podcast because um if you haven't heard of Jeff, probably been living under a rock, but this guy, I mean, one of the, I consider like founding fathers door-to-door. I mean, you helped take Vivint to selling and yeah did some pretty incredible things. What, 13 plus years at Vivint, right? Yeah, 13 plus. Exactly. Yep. Pretty incredible bio. You can go look it up. But yeah.
00:03:30
Speaker
So when you were with, ah you started when you were 31, right? 31. Yep. Before that, I worked at a so ah company selling satellite door to door. And that's where I met Doug Robinson, Luke Toon, Mark Toon, Ashland Buswell, David Force, Casey Baugh, Nick Hanson, lot of folks that are still within the walls of the industry. So it was an all-star cast. And I'm really proud of all my brothers that that I met at Atlas is the name of the company because they're all doing phenomenal things today. Great human beings. yeah And they they proved that it wasn't just the company. It was them. They are the asset.
00:04:03
Speaker
The company was just the platform in which they could produce on. yeah And like I said, they're doing phenomenal things today. Yeah, that's incredible. And yeah, it's funny. We're recording this couple levels below the legacy headquarters. You know, you got Doug and Luke up there. But yeah, do you think it was just like circumstance like that you met all these incredible people it or so? I don't know. feel like in today's companies, you don't see as many like I think there's some outlier effect in there and it would be an incredible case study. I think a lot of great human beings gathered together that were like-minded. There weren't a ton of companies doing direct to home back then. It was few and far between. There was definitely not people doing it year round. We were doing it year round so we could help fund the business on a year round level versus just waiting for the summers. So I think just by doing it year round, recruiting year round, selling year round, running all the different seasons, it made us stickier and it made us more long-term minded instead of just a summer fling, if you will.
Personal Achievements and Leadership
00:05:00
Speaker
And then we believe in a certain set of guidelines and principles and standards that we still exercise and believe in today. So I think those standards have helped us propel into long-term entrepreneurs and long-term business owners that know how to create value versus just looking for the dollar. Nothing wrong with looking for dollars. But if you want to truly scale and create big wealth, you focus on the value creation, the value creation the dollars that attract it, and then you're able to harvest those dollars through your value creation, not just making money. Yes, I want to talk today, you know, just before the podcast started, we were talking about just how you've created so many leaders, you've recruited so many people in your door-to-door, And I know that's a big part of what you're known for today just all the regions you're able to build over at Vivint and just the tremendous growth you're able to create over there at that organization. But yeah, before we get into some of that, I got to ask, I know now you're not, you know, like as much involved in door to door directly as before. you miss like your Vivint days?
00:06:00
Speaker
I mean, you you always miss the days. um There's times and seasons for everything. um I enjoyed my tenure there. I enjoyed my tenure at the previous company where we sold satellites, like I mentioned, Atlas Marketing. And I'm enjoying my life today. So now I'm heavily involved in real estate. yeah um I'm a big purchaser and long-term holder of real estate throughout the country.
00:06:18
Speaker
And I love the team that we built and and the life that that we're living by design today and that asset class. So you haven't gone back out on the doors just to kind of like relive glory? I mean, you're knocking doors every single day. It's just different doors. So you're knocking you know business doors, you're knocking founders doors, et cetera. And then you know we we have a lot of projects and you have to knock on doors to have people release those projects and sell them to you. yeah Life is always sales. like yeah And you're always knocking doors. The doors just change, but you're always a door knocker. That's good. Yeah. So when you started, correct me if I'm wrong, but 31, didn't you do like 300 plus accounts your first year in alarms? Yeah. So I was in my mid twenties when I was at the satellite company when I had my very first summer.
00:07:01
Speaker
I was in the C-suite of the of the satellite company. And then when I pivoted over to what is now known as Vivint, back in the day it was APEC, Todd Peterson, the founder gave me really good advice. Not good advice, great advice, phenomenal advice. It says, listen, I can give you the same position you had before. I can give you the title, I can give you salary, all the all this stuff that comes with the territory in a traditional company, or I can give you the real advice, the real real, which is you need to build this thing up from the ground level so that you can have influence. Leadership is influence, nothing less, nothing more. If you're just up here and commanding the troops you know from from the high ground, you're never gonna truly understand what people in the security industry are dealing with on the ground level. And they won't be as loyal to your leadership. They'll pretend like they're listening to you, but they're not listening to you because you didn't do it yourself.
00:07:46
Speaker
So why don't we build this thing over time where it can be perpetual instead of a one and done or a two and done or a three and done. So that's what I did. i literally said, I'll follow your lead.
00:07:56
Speaker
I actually believe in what you're saying. I can't go hypocritical and say, but that's what I believe in. I can't be hypocritical and say, well, I believe you, but I'm gonna do it this way anyway, because that's the easy route. So
Building Effective Sales Systems
00:08:06
Speaker
i poke I took the road less traveled, if you will, and it was just me, myself, and I, and then you start recruiting people, recruit around 20 And then i I asked around and I said, hey, what would it take for me to be immortal at Apex, which is now Vivint, on a personal side? How many accounts I need to do to actually command troops? And I said 300. I'm like, done. So I decided to do 300 to be able to have influence. And then I created 300 accounts before it even happened in actuality. There's the law of the two creations. You always have to create things at least twice in life. I put it on paper in my mind, everything, and I said I need to do 50 preseason accounts so I can have enough iterations on the doors so that when I go deploy for the summer, I've had enough looks where I know I can go sell people. I can sell nicer nicer neighborhoods, medium-type neighborhoods, um maybe a little little bit lower-income neighborhoods, but wherever I got got dropped off, I knew I'd be able to sell accounts because I had enough looks in all those different types. I learned how to knock late, learned how to knock early, learned how to knock on Saturdays. knew how to do switchovers, and yet knew how to do new builds, knew how to do different types of you know middle class, so forth and so on. My team, so I did 300, 50 preseason, 270, two whatever summer, and then I needed another 25 accounts in extension. So I did my my final 25 accounts in September. But I funded well over 300, I think it was like 310 my first year. um And then my team did just shy of 2,000 accounts. And I had heard that if you did 2,000 accounts, you gotta watch a Breitling. And I was just a few accounts shy from funding it that year. And the next year I was able to do that with my team. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, no, it's incredible. And yeah, to to your point, I've heard like, I get people hitting me up quite a bit actually in Soler, their leaders, you know, aren't even selling themselves anymore. And they come and do these trainings and guys are like, oh, I can tell that they don't really know what it's like yeah right now.
00:09:55
Speaker
Out there in solar. So yeah, I think there's a lot to be said. Well, number one, just like experiencing yourself so you can coach the other guys. Yep. Then number two, like you said, gaining the respect of your reps and everything and be like, okay, this guy's legit. Like yep he actually puts his money where his mouth is and everything. Yeah, I've taught this principle. The reason why you sell high numbers personally so you can recruit with power.
00:10:17
Speaker
yeah And so you can command troops with power. That's really the only reason I sold big numbers personally. It wasn't for the paycheck. The paycheck was great. But later down the road, the majority of your income is on building teams, regions, divisions, companies, et cetera. But if you don't know what your troops are going through, you're you're just not gonna be that powerful of leader. I like i love that. Well, and something I experienced, like, I don't know, for me, sometimes I get just kind of like imposter syndrome, because I'm no Jeff Mendes. Like, I see people that are better than me in solar and everything. So don't get me wrong, I know I can produce, I can go out there and sell accounts in solar, but I'm not the number one guy, I'm not like the top guy in my company. So how important do you think it is? Do you think there's like, because obviously not every rep is going to be 300 account guy. So have you seen some really powerful levels or like leaders, maybe they're yeah solid reps? Listen, I don't believe in absolutes. I don't believe that you have to only be able to do this to that. It was my belief system. There can be multiple truths. Yeah. There could be a whole bunch of varieties of being able to get the job done. That was just what I chose to do. And it worked for me. It worked for my playbook. It worked for my life design.
00:11:23
Speaker
um Can you be a 100 count rep and command master troops? Yeah. In my opinion, is it going to be a little bit tougher than a guy that can sell 300? I think so. But also there's guys that can go bust out 300 security systems or I don't know what the number would be in solar. Let's say it's half of that or a quarter of that, whatever it is.
00:11:39
Speaker
Sometimes they're terrible recruiters and terrible leaders. So it's not all encompassing. It's not, let me go sell big numbers and then that's that's the holy grail of it all. It's just one of the many components that we need to be able to have that true influence. When the true leader speaks, people listen, right? So you want to be that true leader that not only can sell big personal numbers, but can train others to do the same and that can recruit others to do the same. Mm-hmm.
00:12:03
Speaker
And can also retain those assets to do the same. Some guys are great recruiters. They come in the front door and exit through the back door within a year. Because they're terrible at creating culture, terrible at creating um loyalty to a cause. And they may not invest in the company the way that they should invest. So there's a lot of moving parts in the business. It's not just a one and done or an absolute here and then the rest is cake. It takes a lot. We and I've seen it too in my solar career like some guys are really good at one thing maybe not so good at another thing. So I know you're kind of known as like a systems guy creating good systems and all that.
00:12:38
Speaker
Did you have other people around you that as you were growing these teams and everything like i don't know how would you doubt would you delegate some stuff. Yeah everything like. There's no, I hear these, report oh, this guy's a self-made billionaire. This guy's a self-made millionaire. I don't agree with that at all.
00:12:52
Speaker
I think there's no such thing as self-made. We all need partners, colleagues, cohorts, human beings around us to be able to progress. Even if you find $1,000 on the street, who left that $1,000 on the street? Another human being. You were able to create more wealth by somebody else losing that $1,000 and you're able to pick it up. So don't underestimate the power of building teams and creating networks for a bigger effect. You have to be a person of synergy, a person of building, and a person that can check ego out the door. Because if you're ego egocentric, then you're never gonna be able to recruit the masses and have a lot of people working for a cause. Does that make sense what I'm saying?
00:13:30
Speaker
So yeah, of course you have to delegate. Of course you have to empower. My leadership philosophy is this. Non-true leaders try to hoard their power. They keep it close to their chest. Why? Because they feel that if they're authoritarian, their people need them. Oh, they need me for this permission, they need me for that, they need me for this recruiting meeting, so forth and so on. Me, I believe in empowering other leaders. I wanted to walk into the building and see a basketball tournament happening without me knowing. to help recruit and to help retain assets, right? yeah I wanted to walk in and see maybe one of my sophomores training five of his rookies or her rookies that they had just recruited. I want to walk into the office and see one of my reps planning a preseason trip, a blitz, with the technicians without me knowing about it. I wanted to empower everybody where they could hold all the different keys and levers to be able to run their business within the business. Mm-hmm. And i if they surpass me, fantastic. Because if if you try to do this, you're gonna lose people. And you're not the true leader that you should be. It's all about empowering others as quickly as possible. And believing in people more than they believe in themselves. Yeah, I like that. Yeah.
00:14:36
Speaker
No, I've definitely
Recruitment Strategies and Empowerment
00:14:37
Speaker
seen that too. good Great leaders. Yeah, when I've had doubts, many times there's been good leaders that have kind of like believed in me more. And we all need it. Like I need leaders that believe in me more than I believe in myself. And I seek out those leaders all the time. Anytime I start feeling really comfortable with myself, I'll go meet with my mentors and they get me outside of the comfort zone. They make me feel like a little pansy.
00:14:57
Speaker
And I need that. We all need that. Is there anything like specific things that you can remember that you did that helped a lot to like empower the leaders you were building up or maybe that you saw that um you like your leaders did for you to make you have that point? I mean, it's, listen, and it's everything, it's it's in your speech, it's in your it's in your actions, it's in your daily thoughts. I was always thinking, what can I do to empower others and what can I do to scale? What can I do to create more of a unison here so that we can actually do more together? So if you would walk into my, when I was you know when i was deployed in the summers, you would walk into my office, I was always the last one to arrive. We started our correlation meetings at 11 o'clock, let me just put this on silent really quickly. We would say our correlation meetings at 11 o'clock and I would walk in at 1058. Never late. um Our rule was, our standard was if if I was late or anybody was late, we'd have to wall sit for the man a minutes late. And I didn't ever want to wall sit. And it's just disrespectful. All right. But I also made sure that I ended my meetings by 11.59. Because if i want people to start on time, I'm gonna end on time. Where a lot of leaders get it wrong is they think start time is the only thing that matters. Well, end time also matters.
00:16:08
Speaker
yeah Because if I'm telling folks the meeting ends at 12 and I'm ending it at one, that's super disrespectful. Because now I'm imposing my meeting on them. I don't know what else they have going on post that. That's their time, right? Or it's their time to get ready for the doors, get in their car group, so forth and so on. So you have to be really good at your start and really good at your end, okay? okay But i would walk it's 10, 50, or whatever. All the sales guys are sitting down already. They're in full uniform, lanyards, everything. Shirts tucked in, the whole nine. nice That way they were ready for battle, ready for the day's um task at hand. Yeah.
00:16:41
Speaker
Music was already playing, videos were downloaded, my numbers um board person was already up there. Like everything was dialed. And I would just signal like, hey, we're ready to go. Boom, and the orchestra started.
00:16:52
Speaker
And then everybody's just going on their walls. Then they would say, okay, Mendes, you're up. I would go up, I would train, i'd sick that I'd sit back down. And I ran almost all the trainings because I want to be in the highest and best use of my time. And I really get a lot of energy training. And and i I think I can create a lot of significance for my for my team. Yeah. um So as soon as I was done training, I'd sit down. Then the the guy with the motivational thought or whatever it was would do do their thing. The numbers board guy would get back up again for goals, hold people accountable. The chair guy would stand up. The chair guy would start, hey, put your chairs away.
00:17:23
Speaker
The cell phone box guy would start delivering his cell phones again. yeah The guy in charge of the car groups would say, guys, we need to be in the car groups by this time. Hurry up. Let's go. And I didn't have to do any of it. Wow. Does that make sense? Because they they own the team. I don't own the team. And I never wanted people to say, this is Mendez's team. No, I'm a member of the team. And then we would assign names to the team so the glory could go to the name of the team, not to the glory of a guy. okay That way they all owned it, not me. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, ah and that's a huge mistake. I remember like the first couple of solar companies was with, I would be managing and no one ever told me that, that you should have someone like, you know, getting numbers ready, getting videos downloaded. So I remember my first time managing, I was trying to do everything. I was like getting guys into the room, elses making sure the car group's ready. I was putting numbers on the board. mean, i I even had guys on Fridays with curfew, just making sure all the guys were, because we we had apartments all right next to each other. Running the curfews. I had another guy in charge of the cars, making sure the oil changes were done. The tires were ready.
00:18:22
Speaker
No fuel ups on Saturdays. You had to be fueled up Friday night because Saturday was Super Bowl day. Area assignment. I didn't assign area. I had an area assignment guy. i had my car group leaders. yeah Just everything was dialed. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, so something we, I guess, go through in solar, sometimes it can be a little more difficult, or maybe it's like limiting belief type thing, but we're we're not a summer program. Sure. A lot of solar companies aren't. And to be fair, even back then, sure, it's summer deployment, but you're working year round. Yeah, yeah. It's just different schedule. It's your preseason schedule, and then your on-season schedule.
00:18:54
Speaker
But it's all, you're in season. yeah you know what mean yeah yeah but like in solar um i know like alarm days most people were traveling from you know different markets going there living apartments for the apartments yep it's contained yeah like i did pest control for the summer so it's basically the same thing as that um but like with solar sometimes it can be tougher for us where we're at we have a little bit less control like it's mostly guys living in the area We're not all together. Everyone creates their own schedules to a degree a little bit. So if you were, I don't know, in solar starting this from scratch, how would you implement some of these same things in solar where we can't sometimes keep it? It's the same. It's same. And again, you started off with maybe it's limiting self-beliefs. Maybe it is.
00:19:41
Speaker
But again, regardless of what business you're in, you have to have a schedule. You have to have standards. Okay. So if the standard is, hey, you can take this much time off or we work these hours of these days and this is when we meet, then then that's what you come up with. okay I think where leaders get frustrated, it's when it's just like whatever happens, happens. yeah if if If it's whatever happens, happens, whatever happens, happens. yeah Right? But if you if you have more of a schedule, then people are going to fit in with that schedule. I say this all the time and you alluded to it. Don't manage people. i even I don't like the term manager. I'm a manager. What are you managing?
00:20:15
Speaker
yeah Like, paperwork, what do you manage? it You don't manage people, you lead people, you manage a system. So you build a system and just you you look at your 52 weeks throughout the year and then you say these are the weeks that we're on, these are the weeks that we can kind of do this and that and the other that we're recruiting or whatever it is that you're doing. And then maybe and you maybe you're meeting Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays, I don't know, in the office together. yeah Or you're doing Zooms or check-ins or FaceTime or something. But you need something in place where it's holding you and the team accountable. yeah So like me, when I go to the gym and I have my pig, my partner in gym with me, then my workouts are better and then I know that somebody's waiting for me so I can't stay in bed. yeah Right. It's an accountability partner. So all systems are perfectly designed to get the results you want to get. Lacks systems, lacks results. Sophisticated systems, sophisticated results. So can you run a really tight system, a tight ship with a full year round program in solar? One hundred percent.
00:21:09
Speaker
And if you don't think so, you've been tricked by somebody or you're just not wanting to set the brutal fact because it takes work to build the system. Yeah. yeah But get it done. Yeah, I love that. And it takes the pain out. Yeah, yeah. You know what to expect, how to expect, that when to expect. You know what I mean?
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's huge. And what about people? um i know alarms, just like any Somersaults program, lots of people fall off. So what did what did you do? What's your thoughts on like people that maybe were giving pushback, being late consistently, or just like You promote what you tolerate. So, you know, year one, you're not going to run it the same as year two, year three. You get more sophisticated over time. Yeah.
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:21:45
Speaker
My most difficult year at Vivint was my first year. Yeah. um It was guys that were coming in from that previous company. They weren't as engaged with the product offering, with me as a leader, um with the summer model, all that stuff. it was It was hard. It's better to have a great team than a team of greats. It was a team of greats. It was an all-star team. It's almost like that. What year was that? 2004, where LeBron and company, you know, got not even get silver. They got bronze, you know, and then I think it was 08 where Kobe had to come in with coach K and then they go take gold again. Right. Did they have a team of, Did they have a team of greats in 04? Absolutely. Was it a great team? No, was a terrible team. Coach Larry Brown, terrible coach, terrible leader. And then the guys weren't bought in, right? But then then you get Kobe in the mix along with LeBron and D-Wade and Coach K, then you have a great team, right? So I'd rather have a great team than a team of greats. I had a team of greats in 08, my first summer. I didn't have a great team. I actually said, guys, in 09, I'm going a different route. You guys can go, you're all free agents. You can go to any other team within the company.
00:22:47
Speaker
Do whatever you want. I'm only gonna keep, I think it was like three guys plus me, there's four of us. It was guys that were bought in I knew I could use as building blocks because we were rowing in the same direction. And that second year, with without that base of 20 plus, with just the base of us four, we did way we did more accounts year two than we did year one.
00:23:06
Speaker
Because again, it had a great team. It wasn't necessarily a team of greats. And later, it became a team of greats. In 06, we compounded. We did like 22, 2300 accounts in 09. And then in 2010, we did 6500 accounts with with that base. wow And then the following year, we did 10,000, and then we grew it into regions, divisions, so forth and so on. it it just it's that It's that law of compounding interest.
00:23:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's incredible. And yeah, something I'm amazed is just like how you're able to compound it so much just in different regions because I've been with a bunch of companies where they try to start a new region. They try to like expand in a different state and it just tanks because yeah they don't have a solid person there.
00:23:46
Speaker
you You have to, I believe this, every company, it's a talent acquisition and talent development company, period in the story. You just so happen to sell solar. You just so happen to sell alarms. You just so happen to sell pest control or widgets or whatever. Right now, i mean, it's real estate. The commodity's real estate. Real estate, there's a lot of people that do real estate. But my differentiating factor is the systems and the leadership of the people running the company. okay That's the ultimate flex. That's the ultimate holy grail within the company. yeah The chokehold of a business is the psychology or lack of of the business leadership. yeah If the business leadership has low i low EQ and low IQ, you're gonna get low results. yeah
00:24:23
Speaker
And if they're not bought in. But if you can get a high performing human team, they can take that commodity and take it to really good heights. Does that make sense? when As an investor, I'm investing in people. i'm not investing in a product or service. I'm investing in who's on the cap table, who's the CEO, who are the people inside that C-suite, and then what does the man what are the management teams look like? yeah And I'll put my money there. You know what i mean? Yeah, yeah. I like that.
00:24:46
Speaker
So how much of a factor do you think is the company? Like you were at Vivint, but I know I've been with some companies where there wasn't a strong culture. I was trying to create it. It's harder. Do you think if you would have gone to like any alarm company at the time, you could have gotten like the same or similar results or how much was it? Could I have gotten the same results? Yeah.
00:25:04
Speaker
It's a maybe, I don't know, right? But the reason I chose Vivint is I knew that whatever I could throw at them, they could absorb it. I wouldn't break the system. yeah There were other companies that wanted to recruit me, but I felt that if I came in hard, I would break them. They didn't have the infrastructure to be able to absorb what I knew I would do within the next few years. Does that make sense? okay So yeah, you have to align yourself with the proper channel, proper platform. Yeah.
00:25:29
Speaker
But you can be in a big company and you can tank. You can be at a small company smaller company and you can flourish. There's just so many ingredients that take part of that recipe. You just you just have to know everything that's there. yes big Big is not always the answer and small is not always the answer. Again, there's i don't speak in absolutes. Yeah, yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker
Okay, that's good. Okay, well, yeah, I want to shift gears a little bit. um A lot of people know you as a guy that's recruited tons of people. sure I get questions all the time about recruiting from the podcast. So if you were, I think someone actually told me to ask you this, but if you were starting maybe say a solar company from scratch day one, what are like, yeah, what are some of your best recruiting secrets? How did you, you said you started, you got 20 guys initially, right? When you first started? Listen, as far as recruiting is concerned, you oh it's cliche, but just like ABC always be closing, ABR always be recruiting, right? And I say this all the time. If you go grocery shopping when you're hungry, what are going buy? You're going to buy junk food. So you always have to be recruiting. It's the premise of the best time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. You're always recruiting. You're only a handshake away from that all-star, five-star recruit. Yeah.
00:26:34
Speaker
So always have the recruiting goggles on and then be patient. You have a conversation I have five years ago could flourish today. In fact, i'm I'm buying two pieces of real estate right now that I've been trying to purchase for the last five years.
00:26:49
Speaker
But it's just, as I'm in it for the long game. okay Okay, and you never, the bridges that you cross, never burn those bridges down. Always keep them open. there Like be be a good fiduciary of relationships. And when you're when you're recruiting, don't treat them the way you want to be treated, treat them the way they want to be treated. Listen more than you speak. They're giving you all the clues that you need to know what it is that they want and need so that they can jump on board. And then have no fear of loss because the world's biggest lie is scarcity.
00:27:17
Speaker
There's an abundance of recruits out there. There's eight billion human beings on this planet. So there's no scarcity of human resources. Just know that it'll come and if you're confident, it it'll come. But put in the work. I say this all the time too, in recruiting, we often think that it's gonna happen by osmosis. That it's just gonna happen because we're a manager or whatever. So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:27:45
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called SolarScout. But it's not a door knocking app, it's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later cancelled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:28:08
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show. you need give my listeners a great deal, and they did.
00:28:23
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them, and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:28:36
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. So let's say that you want to put on accounts, right? In the direct to home arena, what do you need to do to be able to put on more accounts? Recruit more. You have to freaking go knock a door. yeah Like you got to knock a door. If they say no, what do you do? Go to the next one. You go to the next door. If they say no, what do you do? door to the Next door. So how many doors do people knock on average? Pest control, what solar, alarms, whatever. 40 doors, 50 doors a day. Right. But then guys say, oh, I can't recruit. I didn't have luck in recruiting or no success. And they not they talk to maybe one guy in a week. Like, what do you like? What are you? What are you thinking? yeah
00:29:09
Speaker
You have to work at the art of recruiting. And then I i say this, too, is you do tons of role plays with selling. When's the last time your team did a role play with recruiting? How to sit down with a recruit? How to overcome objections with a recruit? How to go over the offering with the recruit?
00:29:24
Speaker
What are the do's? What are the don'ts? that's good. So again, you have to be able to understand the business that you're in. Yeah. And you have to be well-equipped to be confronted with any type of recruiting situation in which you're in. Yeah. And it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any field in which you choose to become an expert in. You've got to put in the work. You've got to do the work. Yeah. Like, be listen, behind all the greats, what you're going to notice is they fell in love with the mundane.
00:29:48
Speaker
They fell in love with the boring. And they put in the time more than anybody else. Yeah. The issue that we have as as spectators is we don't see the grit and the grind and the pain and the tears and the blood and the failure of Michael Jordan, of Kobe Bryant, of Tom Brady, and all the greats. We just see the highlight reels. And we think that it's just gonna be like this. But in fact, it's you know that's what success looks like. But it's being able to go from failure to failure to failure to failure with a ton of energy and optimism where you can keep punching through all the mishaps. yeah It's learning how to dance and deal with fear. It's learning how to be empowered by the word no. And and by knowing that failure is just part of life. Again, I'll give you another analogy. Let's say that you want to play football. And I've maybe gone over this analogy with you before. I'm not sure. But you tell a coach, listen, I love the pads. I love the uniforms. They're super sick. Love the colors. In fact, I love the Friday night lights. Love the cheerleaders. Love the school.
00:30:43
Speaker
Love when the announcer calls my name. Like, I'm all about it, coach. Like, I'll play for you. But the only request I put in is I never get tackled. But I'll play for you all season long. yeah It just ain't going to happen. Like, you know you're going to get tackled. It's part of the game of football. So business, it's a combat sport.
00:30:58
Speaker
Recruiting is a combat sport. Knocking doors is a combat sport. You can't have all highs. You have to have lows too. And that's why you can't have low lows and you can't have high highs. You have to just be Steady Eddie. You look at all the greats, all the people I mentioned, Luke Toon, Mark Toon, Doug Robinson, Casey Baugh, Nick Hanson, Jeremy Long. The names go on and on for days. John Shields, Dave Force. They all know how to do this. And they know how to play the long game. They know how to keep it steady. They're not going to have low lows. They're not going to have high highs. They're just machines in a good way. Not that they're robotic, but they just know the ebbs and flows of business and they understand it's a combat sport. And that's why they're really good business people. Not just business people, but they're all phenomenal fathers, friends, like the whole person paradigm, they understand it and they do it.
00:31:41
Speaker
That's fire. That's funny. I was, you got your Michael Jordan sweatshirt on here, but um that was- Yeah, that's sweet. But yeah, I was listening to you know Tim Grover's book that he was Michael Jordan's trainer and all that. yeah And he said a lot of similar stuff to you, just barely. It's like, you know, he talked about when Michael got finally he got his championship trophy. People thought he was like crying because he's you know so happy he won the championship or whatever. But Tim Grover was like, no, he was crying because he remembered all the sacrifices he made. That's the release. remembered all the yes early mornings, late nights, all the stuff it took to get there. It wasn't like the championship. It was all the stuff.
00:32:15
Speaker
you know, sacrifice he had to put in. So yeah. Two championships, three, retires, comes back one, two, three. That's why he's the GOAT. He understood it. No high highs, no low lows. As soon as he won the championship, they're back in the gym. They're back to working. They're back to getting the job done. And that Kobe Bryant interview that's all over social media all the time, why you're not smiling, why you're not happy, what's there to smile about? What's there to be happy about? Is the job finished? The job ain't finished. And you know people people ask a lot of the folks that have been really successful, like why do you still keep going? what like Why don't you stop? like Why would you stop? like it's It's part of who you are. It's in your DNA. like You don't arrive to certain valuation or certain as a result and then you're done. The game keeps going. Why do you think Michael Jordan plays golf so intently? The game keeps going for him. Why why do you think he's in business? the The game keeps going for See what I'm saying? No, 100%. Yeah. And um well, I guess tying it back to recruiting a little bit. um
00:33:09
Speaker
So you talk about you had systems in place. You had all the processes. I'm sure you'd agree with this. When you get a really good recruit, your prize recruits, most the time, you're probably not going to get these guys after one conversation. It's like it's going to be just like your real estate deals you're talking about. So what, uh, did you have, um, I don't know your systems in place for getting these high level guys. Cause I know that for me, that's been a problem. just like, I forget to follow up. I forget. I don't, I didn't have a good system place, like follow up with these guys. And then all I see him at a different company. I'm like, man, I should know. Yeah. Of course you have to follow up. Like it's not a one and done. It's, it's, it's a lot of following up. Yeah. So how do you stay like organized? Like what systems
Overcoming Failure and Maintaining Resilience
00:33:49
Speaker
you have in place? So,
00:33:50
Speaker
it's it's it's ah it's it's It's not a system. It's not a book. It's not an app. it's You have to become that person. And it takes takes discipline. It takes time. And it takes priority. Like I made recruiting a priority. I made selling a priority. I made following up a priority. And I understood the science behind it. I understood the behavioral economics behind it. and you just have you just have to do it. And the best the best teacher's experience, you have to get out there and do it.
00:34:14
Speaker
So many people, hey, what book do you have on, I don't even know if I've read a book on systems. Oh, can you give me the manual that you're, I didn't write a manual. Like, this just becomes part of who you are. And it's not that hard. It's just a matter of doing it. You know what i mean? Like, how are you good at knocking doors? You have to go put in the time. And anytime you're new at something, it's gonna feel daunting.
00:34:33
Speaker
I remember when I was at, like I said, Walmart, we had to learn every single roll of the store. Just in case we had people absent, we could fulfill that role or at least train somebody on how to fulfill that role. Layaway, cashier, cash office, merchandising, stocking shelves, using forklifts, using scissor lifts, using power jacks, normal hydraulic power jacks, washing down the the bays, unloading trucks. I knew how to do it i knew how to do it all But I remember we would rate our cashiers on speed and efficiency on scanning. And when I first was being trained by one of the cashiers, I was like, how in the world is this cashier so fast at what she does and I'm so slow. But after a while, I got faster and faster and better and better. But something so what would seem like minuscule is cashiering. There's a learning curve to everything. you know And she would look at me like, bro, you're so slow you're the manager, what's up with you? And my goal was just to get close to as fast as she was. So what I'm getting at is you have to put in the time. If we were slow, I'd say, hey, let me turn on my cash register. And I would practice cashiering. As silly as that might sound. Store manager, running a cashier.
00:35:38
Speaker
Cart pusher, I wanna learn how to push carts on the outside and load up with 25, I was running stores in North Carolina that'd call them buggies out there, not shopping carts. yeah And I would learn how to pack 25 and steer them from the back and everything else. And I wanted to become the best cart pusher at the store. I wanted to be the best guy at the scissor lift and fronting my my shelves with cans and all that stuff. I just wanted to be really good at everything. Again, so I could have the command of the store and so I had influence. As crazy as that might sound. yeah But yeah, it's true. Like what you're saying before is most people don't practice recruiting. And it's funny. It's part of a few podcasts I did recently. um Because what I'll do, I'll like yeah i'll record my closes. I'll go in we have this recording app. So I'll kind of like do play by record the closes. But I'm like, why don't I do this for recruiting too? I like don't think about the conversations I have when I'm recruiting. So I remember I went to a restaurant couple months back and I saw the show. you know, server seemed like a solid dude. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna try and recruit him, turn on my recording. And then, um you know, I'm doing my thing, explaining to him that I listened back and I'm like, well, half this stuff like doesn't make a ton of sense. And I'm saying, and like, I don't have to do it again and again and again and again. Listen, if, if you don't feel awkward, you're not pushing yourself. You have to get in situations where you feel awkward and weird. And I do that all the time. Like anything that you do in life, you're you're going to feel awkward at first. Yeah. So put yourself in compromising situations for the betterment of you so you can scale up you. You got to take care of you, Inc. It's huge. Cool. Well, Jeff, just to as we start wrapping up here, a couple other things I wanted to touch on. um You have five kids, right? Five kids. Yeah. Okay. And so I know you've been grinding a long time, doing your things. what When you first started at Vivint, did you have kids at the time? Four kids at the time. as a high producing you know someone that's been at all these different positions been grinding this hard what advice do you have for i have two kids right now even two kids i'm like man exhausting with two kids i got a four and a two-year-old so like bouncing off the walls half the time but uh yeah what advice do you have for people in cells or maybe they're managing teams maybe they're running companies what's been some ah key things that have helped you as your father and high producer
00:37:51
Speaker
Children are a blessing. And they're the reason why we do things. The bigger the why, the easier the hows, right? Those are holy causes. Luckily, I had four kids at the time because I was able to produce massive numbers. So I would look at their faces in my imagination and be like, there's no way I'm taking a break. There's no way I'm sitting on the curb. There's no way I'm not going to hit my goal today because I have four kids that are counting on me and my wife counting on me. So not only is it just me and my my last name and my heritage that I need to put on high, is I have to take care of these really holy causes for me. I'm the provider, I'm the one that's gonna go make this thing happen, so they made my job really easy. Now as far as being able to bifurcate my fatherly life from being on the doors, there's no such thing as work-life balance. There's never gonna be equilibrium. It's work-life harmony. So in the summers, I don't have time to be that great dad that's tucking my kids in and reading them bedtime stories and all that stuff. and I had to be okay with that. I had to get rid of that guilt trip. But then when September rolled around, October rolled around, I'm that guy. I'm tucking him in bed, I'm reading them with him, I'm taking him to the playgrounds, to the water parks, to the aquariums, you Disney, all that stuff. So that my harmony's in check at that given point in time when I can be more of that. It's like right now, we're we're in studio. I'm not with my wife right now.
00:39:06
Speaker
I'm being a terrible husband right now. In fact, she's on a flight to Argentina right now, so I can't be with her anyway. but I'm not with my kids, so I'm being a terrible dad right now because I'm with you. But I want to be in the highest and best use of my time now. So let's say that it's date night, my phone stays in the car, and I'm i'm having a date with my wife, and she's the only thing that matters to me at that point in time.
00:39:23
Speaker
yeah Nobody can call me. I mean, they can call me, they're gonna reach me. I'm focused on that. If I'm at a soccer match or I'm at a dance recital or at a gymnastics match, you bet ya that I'm gonna see every single move that my kids have. You're never gonna catch me on my phone texting or pretending like something at work is so important that I'm gonna miss a goal. There's no way I'm gonna have my son score a goal and then looks up and daddy's like on a conference call or some stupid thing that doesn't even matter. So you have to understand the ebbs and flows of life. Get rid of the notion that you're gonna have work-life balance because it doesn't exist. yeah
00:39:55
Speaker
It's easier to find a unicorn or it's easier to find Bigfoot than achieve work-life balance. Just doesn't exist. But you have to be okay with work-life harmony. And then you have to talk to your significant other, your partner, your kids, et cetera, and say, daddy's gonna be doing this at this time. So if you reach me, I'm gonna be unreachable unless it's an emergency. Here's the code. But let me do my thing so I can do my thing with you when it's time.
00:40:19
Speaker
Get rid of the guilt, get rid of the shaming, and get rid of the miscommunication with your spouse. If your spouse knows that those are the priorities, they're not gonna be calling, hey, can you please get off the doors, let's go to date night, because your spouse knows when date night happens. They know when the family vacations are. They know when when Christmas is. They know when we're gonna celebrate, you know what I mean? yeah like You just have to get organized. All systems are perfectly designed to get the results you wanna get. So my wife and i when I, when I said, hey, I'm gonna do this, she says, hey, we're gonna have to come together in a really high fashion here, because I'm gonna be deployed, I'm gonna be gone. She probably wouldn't meet me until June or July, because the kids are in school the whole nine. She says, I got you. We always knew when we would chat at night, but she's not texting me, hey, I miss you, you, do you think about this? Or should I do this? Or the kids are this? No, she had that, done. But before I left, I put the house in order. Took care of everything so that her life was easy. So my job is to relieve the hard of my kids without taking away their grit and their grind, obviously, and of my wife so that they can shine and so that I can also shine on what I need to do. That way we're all in the highest and best use of our time.
00:41:18
Speaker
i love that. Yeah, that just makes me think, I mean, you started when you were 31, four kids. So i I mean, I got two kids now. If I hadn't done any door to door before that, and just like jumped into a summer with four kids, that point I feel like I would have been terrified. Were you a nervous? Like going, jumping into something like that? If you're not nervous, there's something wrong with you. Of course, I was nervous. I mean, I cried my first, you know few weeks, like devastated, you know, you're You eat what you kill in this environment. Like if you're not putting on accounts, you ain't feeding your family. So of course there's nervousness. Of course there's, you know, there's that second guessing, third guessing, fourth guessing, fifth guessing, but you just got to punch through it. Like I say this quote all the time, but the darkest nights produced the brightest stars. And now you look back and what you remember are the highlight reels. yeah Like people ask me, what was that? I did a zoom the other day for this founder group.
00:42:06
Speaker
And they're asking what are the biggest trials in your business life? and that What's one of the hardest questions for me to answer? Because I i practice failure amnesia. Because why why would I lull in failure? like it's just It's part of my success. So I turn my failures into successes, as crazy as that might sound, because life happens for me, not to me. So even if you're're you're facing you know not being able to run payroll, if you're facing not being able to make your mortgage payment, it's just, it's part of life. It is what it is. yeah And you just have that failure amnesia because you just move on. You don't have time. I had no time it. Quite often I'd be knocking on doors, and you know how when you when you knock with somebody that you feel like, man, this guy's the goat, and then you realize it's the same customer. yeah
00:42:47
Speaker
You're not saying anything special. I don't have a different door approach, the same approach as anybody else. But they go they go with me, and then I remember this one instance, I can't remember where I was, but we're going to the next door after this door, and he goes, Mendez, did that guy dropping those two F-bombs on you not startle you?
00:43:03
Speaker
And I looked to him like, he did? He said the F word? Dude, he said it twice. He told you to f off or whatever. And you're a bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep. and like it I can't even remember. That's crazy. And I just keep knocking. because you just, it doesn't matter. You tune it out. Whatever you tune into, that's what you tune into. Yeah.
00:43:21
Speaker
Whatever you tune into, that's what you turn into. So you just have to really guard this and lead with this and just don't let that negativity affect you. And like I said, for me, it's failure amnesia. Not not in an ignorant way. I learn from my failures. I learn from my mishaps, but they don't own me. They don't define me.
Approach to Investing and Real Estate
00:43:37
Speaker
In fact, they're part of who I am. So I don't view it as a negative thing. I view it as a beautiful, positive, it's life, it's experience. What is it? I think I've heard you say on other podcasts, in your head, you're dead. if you get in your head, you're dead That's so cool. And yeah, I've seen that. And you know all the successful people, they focus on, it's like what you're saying, what you focus on, what you give attention to. That's what's going to be manifested. I mean, imagine if Steph Curry misses five shots in a row. What's he gonna do? Hey coach, take me out, i'm goingnna I'm gonna get on the bench or I'm not gonna shoot for the rest of the game. You gotta keep shooting. Baseball players, what's a good are like what's a good batting average? 300 is phenomenal. You get massive contracts.
00:44:14
Speaker
if you sell If you fail seven out 10 times, yeah you're failing more than you're winning in baseball. So they pay him as a part of failure. Does that make sense? yeah yeah Imagine it, oh, I struck out again. I'm in a slump. I'm done. No, you got to keep swinging. You got to keep swinging. You got to keep shooting.
00:44:29
Speaker
You got to keep knocking. Got to keep recruiting. Life goes on with or without you. Carry on. Move forward. Failure amnesia. That's huge. Yeah, and I love seeing guys that fail. So many, like I have a rep in our office that he didn't get a sell for like his first six months. And then now just last week, he got four, think four deals in a week after like six months of making nothing. So it's like guys that. those are quite often the most powerful people in the business because they've gone through so much of that.
00:44:54
Speaker
hardship that now they really value their successes. We're guys that had it easy at the beginning and then they start facing failure. They kind of wash out. I say this all the time. You know, we we talked about kids. Parenthood is the scariest hood you ever go through.
00:45:06
Speaker
And then the first generation makes it when we're talking about like true wealth. First generation is the one that makes it. Second generation enjoys it. What happens by the third generation? Destroys it it. They destroy it. So I've taught all my kids, you're all first generation. You gotta go make it. You gotta go figure this stuff out. Because if I give them the things that I didn't have growing up, I'm taking away the things that they could have. The experiences that they should go through. I want my kids going through hardship.
00:45:29
Speaker
I want them going through pain. It's a gift. Like, I don't want to just give them a silver spoon and a silver platter. They need to go build their first generation for themselves because I had that opportunity for me. I'm not going to take it away from them. Does that make sense? cool yeah Yeah, what does it to say? I don't think Jim Rowan said, become a millionaire for so he can become the person that it takes to be a millionaire or something instead of the money. I'm butchering that. No, listen, it's and like they are first generation. Like, they're going to they have to own their own keep.
00:45:57
Speaker
Right, right. Daddy and mommy ain't gonna lay it all out there for them. They have they have to go figure out on their own. ah We'll help them, we'll guide them, that's my job. But I'm not gonna gift them the things that they're supposed to go get in life. Yeah, I love that. Well, Jeff, last question or two before we wrap up here. So um obviously this podcast is solar focused, focused on the solar industry. We have a lot of guys on from other industries, so it's been awesome having you on. But um you just being, I know you know lot of people in solar, you've been to a lot of the same events and stuff like that. sure So something we're talking about before we hit record is unfortunately I've been through it all. I know a lot of people in solar have just been with companies going out of business, companies not paying, these dealers just disappearing out of thin air. That's lots of issues going on. So I don't know. what's What's your take on the solar industry and maybe what would you say to some of those people going through that or how they could maybe i mean keep pushing through? I mean, solar industry, it's in its baby stages still. It's just inception happened not too long ago. I think the first group that went out and started knocking doors was maybe 2011, right? So it's still in the infancy stage. I think market penetration nationwide is still hovering around 4%. It's a beautiful industry. It's a beautiful asset class.
00:47:05
Speaker
It's a beautiful go-to-market strategy in which you take solar direct to home where the consumer is consuming it. Will there be a lot more companies folding? Of course. Like I've already seen the movie. You know, when we were doing alarms, we saw a lot of dealers out there. And in fact, I've been involved with solar since day one. 2010, I got a phone call. One of the principals at Vivint saying, hey, can you go vet this out and see if we can take this direct to home? Goldman Sachs wants to fund a project. I'm like, sure. So I went to Arizona, scouted out, came back, says, yeah, let's go ahead and do solar direct to home. right um But will there be companies that are not property capitalized, that don't have a robust balance sheet, that don't have the foresight? Yeah, it's going to happen. um So do you need to go attach yourself to a company that can withstand, like have the wherewithal to go through all these macro and micro effects? Of course. So just be a good fiduciary and understand where you need to land so you can take your talents there so that you can flourish within that organization. But at the end of the the value is in you as a producer. It's not any said company. Just make sure that you're attached to the right company that can absorb, help you produce to its highest. But you're the number one asset, invest in you so that you can be anti-cyclical. Yeah. Where if an inflation hits, it is what it is. Recession hits, it is what it is. We know that these sales skills, they're recession proof, they're inflation proof, they're all proof. You just make sure that you're on the right platform and make sure that you're aligned with like-minded individuals that have those same aspirations and goals that you have. Yeah. and that they can actually do what they say they're going to do. People believe most easily what they desire most deeply. So sometimes we join companies because of the, oh, we're going to exit in whatever years and we're going to be billionaires. Like just be careful overextending your belief just because you want it to be true. Yeah, I made that mistake. That was the first company i was with. And it is what it is. And you move on. you And look at you now.
00:48:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. We've all been through it. And it's part of it. Yeah, and then um last question, Jeff. Speaking of investing, I know that's like your thing now. so You're doing all these investments. And matter of fact, I think last event I went to one of the Noxstar events, I think you ah spoke on investing and helped us kind of Gave us some strategies and all that. So I know and we don't have a ton of time. That'd probably be a whole separate podcast, but just some, ah I don't know, maybe some guiding principles. Yeah, some some readers digest for someone that's in solar. Like, i don't know how much money do you think you need to start investing? What were some like the first investments you did or maybe like lessons you learned from your first investments? Yeah, so I've done a lot of different and investments. I've done venture capital, I've invested in private equity, I've invested in some seed rounds, so forth and so on. And I sponsor deals currently. The deals that I sponsor, they're all based around real estate.
00:49:39
Speaker
um It's gonna be either manufactured housing complexes, or it's gonna be multifamily housing complexes, otherwise known as apartments, yeah and then some storage units. So me for investing, what I look at nowadays is I look for cash flow. I feel like cash flow is the holy grail all business. I want to see cash flowing assets that will actually pay me dividends throughout the year.
00:49:59
Speaker
Monthly is the best. Quarterly is the second best. Semi-annually, eh, annually, eh. So I'd rather have cash flow producing investments that can pay me now. And I also like investments that are very tax efficient that can help me lower my tax liability. If I'm trading my paper, my USD for paper, meaning the stock market, I'm just trading paper for paper. yeah And I don't really have that much of a true tangible asset. I just have a paper holding and the stocks can go like this. And what happens with stocks quite often, we're we're not very disciplined. We buy when it's hype and then we buy when we're scared or we sell when we're scared. So what is what is that?
Conclusion and Resources for Growth
00:50:35
Speaker
if they're If we're buying on the hype, you're buying high. You're paying, you're overpaying. And then if you sell when you're scared or when you feel like the stock is tanking, then you're selling at ah at a low price. so And then you do that and then people just say, oh, investing's not for me. So I say this all the time.
00:50:50
Speaker
There's no such thing thing as a good investment, only good investors. So you have to become a good investor first, understand the investment, know what a good buy looks like, know what a good liquidity event looks like, yeah and know what you're after.
00:51:03
Speaker
Today, I'm 47 years old. I've taken my moonshots. I have, a like I said, a lot of different investments. Today, i only buy or I only invest in things that give me cash flow. And the things that I buy today pay me monthly.
00:51:16
Speaker
Okay. So back then, were you when you first got started in investing, what were like some of your first investments? Traditional investing. Just what everybody else does. because you know i didn't have the I didn't have the education.
00:51:28
Speaker
But I wanted to invest. I knew that dollars in my bank account were going to be worth less and less every single day due to inflation. So I invested in the basic stuff. you know I'd buy a few stocks here. i'd I'd put money in my employee stock ownership plan. Put money in a 401k, which is terrible advice. Now that I know...
00:51:44
Speaker
about all the fees and all the restrictions that I had to be able to utilize my own money and what the government's doing with my money with their bonds and the treasuries and everything else. um But I've invested in it at all, but it's just me reading and creating networks and going to seminars and studying and then investing myself and then creating my own investment thesis that puts me where I am today. yeah Again, when you're first starting, like my dad didn't teach me how to invest. He didn't invest. He doesn't know how to invest. yeah And then you just have to start figuring it out, getting around the the right circles, having the right mentors, reading the right books, and then just digging really deep and then understanding it so well that you can invest with certain certainty, right? Where you want to be anti-cyclical, you want to be, like I said, very tax efficient, and where you want to be able to see cash flow. Quite often when guys invest, they're basically giving the people that they're investing with an interest-free loan.
00:52:32
Speaker
they're not seeing checks throughout the process. Right. Sure, you get equity, but where where am I seeing my money? So even if I'm doing an equity deal now, I do preferred equity, where I'm getting almost like debt terms, but I'm also getting equity in my deal. That's when I do private equity. And then when I do a real estate, the the way real estate works is you're getting all those benefits from the onset because you have cash flow via your rents, your NOI. You have depreciation because you can do a cost aggregation study and you can take bonus accelerated depreciation.
00:52:59
Speaker
You have durable revenue because once you get a tenant inside your building, they're durable. They're going to stay in there. It's not like a restaurant, I own restaurants too, but you have to open your doors every single day and hope and pray that your customer base will come through and purchase. Same with solar, if you're not you're not knocking doors and creating accounts, you're not gonna collect, you're a dancing bear, you only get paid when you're dancing.
00:53:18
Speaker
So I like durable revenue, I like tenant pay down, where my tenant is paying down my principal, paying down my interest, and then I have a really good exit strategy, in which doesn't require me to sell the building. Because you take on debt, good debt by the way, it's good leverage at really good percentage points, better than single family residences. And then when you hit a certain level in NOI and occupancy, then I can go to the agency, Freddie, Fannie, et cetera, do a cash out refinance, get my money back in my pocket tax-free because you don't pay taxes on debt. And I'm still collecting checks every month and I still own my assets, still in the building, but my cash is back in my pocket. So it's a really powerful strategy, but it's taken me a while to learn it and get it to a point where it's awesome. But it just takes time, just like recruiting, just like selling, just like everything else. that's like That's cool. So if guys want to learn more about like investing, I know investing, do you have other people do like the- Yeah. we I allow co-invest. um I allow people to participate alongside with me. i put my money in first. They can come load their money on top. They can take part of all the depreciation I take part of. I share everything pro rata. Okay. And they can go visit my website. I think it's studio168productions.com.
00:54:20
Speaker
Nice. They can follow my podcast, which is Live Life lived like by Design. Sorry. It's on YouTube. It's new But there's a lot of different um resources out there. Yeah. cool Cool. Happy to help out wherever I can.
00:54:31
Speaker
Appreciate that. So, um yeah, guys, go give Jeff a follow. And, um yeah, have social media. are you, Poppy ah Mendez or something? I think it's Jeffrey Mendez Poppy. It's not that hard to find. Okay. They call you Poppy because you're like the dad to everyone. So yeah so I'm from Puerto Rico and Poppy's utilized, like that nickname is heavily utilized. Like I've had friends that are Poppy, Papito, Papote, Papiting, Papichulo. Yeah. So... I think it was like 07 around there. One of the guys, hey, Poppy.
00:55:00
Speaker
And then it just caught. And then everybody, lot of people call me Poppy now. Because of the Puerto Rico thing. Plus, I was older at the time. I had four kids. So like, oh, he's Poppy. He's the old guy. I was wondering because did my church mission down in Colombia. Yeah.
00:55:14
Speaker
Like they called like the little kids Poppy. Yeah. In Puerto Rico, it's Poppy everything. It's everybody's Poppy. Oh, they'll say, Poppy, come here. Poppy, I got little poppies. They don't even know you. like pop Come here. So people know that. So they call me Poppy, but I'm like the OG Poppy of Utah, I guess. okay My Puerto Rican friends laugh at it, but here, here it's endearing. Here it's cool. We'll take it. Cool. Jeff, thanks again for coming on. pleasure guys, thank you inviteding me yep shoot shoot him a DM, let him know you appreciated him coming on. Go follow his podcast. He's got some great content coming out. What do you like? Five, es five episodes in. Yep. And a lot more to come. Yep. So every, I think weekly, weekly, you're dropping new content. So go give us podcasts. I follow already some incredible guests he sat on. And, um, yeah, um, I know we could do more. Hopefully we'll have you on the future, talk more on investing, some of this other stuff. Let's do it.
00:56:01
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on today. What's the chef? Appreciate the end invite. Much love to you guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hey, solopreneurs, 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.
00:56:18
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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