Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: 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 fell.
Speaker: I teach you to 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.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A 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.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on, everybody?
Speaker: We are back in the studio with the one, the only CEO and co-founder of Legacy Power.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: But with the one, the only Mr. Jake Ransom, thanks for coming on the show with us today.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on, bro.
Speaker: Honored to be here.
Speaker: Honored to spend some time with you.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to be a good time.
Speaker: And Jake, we've been friends for a while now over here working at Legacy.
Speaker: If you want an opportunity, hit us up for the best job in town in San Diego.
Speaker: But I'm excited for this because Jake, he is really the experience I've had working with this guy.
Speaker: He's kind of the lifeblood of the organization.
Speaker: He gets people fired up.
Speaker: He's like, if you go out and knock doors with this guy, it's a trip.
Speaker: It's an experience.
Speaker: He's like all over the place jogging door to door.
Speaker: So today we're going to be just jamming on like how he's been able to develop such a strong culture, how he just incorporates a lot of fun into this job where a lot of us, I think, sometimes complain a lot of negativity at times.
Speaker: So I'm excited for it.
Speaker: But yeah, do you want to kind of introduce how you got into Solar Jake and tell us about your experience so far in the industry?
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Well, thanks again, Taylor, for having me on the podcast.
Speaker: I seriously am stoked to be on this podcast.
Speaker: That's actually how I first heard of you was through your podcast.
Speaker: And when you...
Speaker: came to Legacy and I realized I had the opportunity to partner with you and work alongside you, I was pretty thrilled.
Speaker: That's been fun.
Speaker: Because I had known of all your experience and all your leadership abilities that you have in the door-to-door industry.
Speaker: And so I was pumped that I got to work.
Speaker: When I found out I get to work with...
Speaker: The solopreneur himself.
Speaker: So, but yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker: And I'm excited about this podcast and I know we're going to, I'm sure to talk a lot about solar and sales, specifically door-to-door sales.
Speaker: But with that being said, I'm open to...
Speaker: going wherever, whatever you want to talk about.
Speaker: I love just getting deep and having deep conversations and talk about whatever.
Speaker: So wherever you want to go and however you want to navigate this conversation, I'm down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And before that, I forgot to mention, Jake, he is the, what are you, regional manager?
Speaker: Senior janitor.
Speaker: Senior janitor, okay.
Speaker: Assistant to the regional manager.
Speaker: No, my role is director.
Speaker: So I'm a director in the Valor division with Legacy Power.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, he's running, like, San Diego, I think, is the biggest office in Legacy, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is definitely the hottest office.
Speaker: I can tell you that.
Speaker: And people wise, it's definitely up there as far as roster wise.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: San Diego.
Speaker: And then I oversee Pioneertown as well.
Speaker: And earlier this year, we launched a new team in Vegas called the Sunrise Team.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sorry to cut you off, but yeah, let's hear how did you get into solar?
Speaker: Yeah, so I've been in solar for about five and a half years now.
Speaker: And it's been such a blessing.
Speaker: Solar, I tell people this all the time, solar has literally changed my life.
Speaker: And I mean that when I say it.
Speaker: If I had not discovered this opportunity, I think my life today would look completely different.
Speaker: And how I discovered solar...
Speaker: So I was getting plugged in at a new church.
Speaker: I discovered a new church that I was going to, and I had met a couple people there.
Speaker: One of my friends that was going there was like, hey, we're doing this thing, and it's solar.
Speaker: And I was kind of seeing it from the distance, and so him alongside with –
Speaker: Two or three other guys were into it.
Speaker: And I, at the time, I was an Uber driver.
Speaker: And this was in a season of my life when I was kind of getting on my feet.
Speaker: I was newly sober.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I had just transitioned out of a treatment center and I was living in a sober living.
Speaker: And I was actually the house manager of that sober living house and also working for the treatment center that I had just went through.
Speaker: And then so doing that and then also driving for Uber kind of like during the nighttime and whenever I could, you know.
Speaker: So I was doing that and I was in this kind of chapter of my life where
Speaker: I was kind of getting more and more into personal development and more and more into just growth overall and trying to become a better version of myself.
Speaker: And then started going to this new church and met a couple guys there.
Speaker: And yeah, they were like, hey, we're doing this thing.
Speaker: It's solar and like solar panels.
Speaker: And we're making like a ton of money.
Speaker: Like we're crushing it.
Speaker: And I was like, cool.
Speaker: I was like, okay, like, interesting.
Speaker: Tell me more.
Speaker: And they were like, yeah, it's solar.
Speaker: And, you know, solar is like, I feel like most people, they see solar and it's like, it's pretty sexy.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It's like kind of new.
Speaker: It's new technology.
Speaker: It's cutting edge.
Speaker: It's like newer type of thing.
Speaker: It's pretty sexy.
Speaker: I think that's kind of the general perception towards it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I was like, okay, solar, cool.
Speaker: And then they're like, yeah, we're making like the money in it is sick.
Speaker: Like we're making fat paychecks.
Speaker: And I'm like, word, okay, tell me more, tell me more.
Speaker: And they're like, oh yeah, by the way, it's door to door.
Speaker: Like it's door to door sales.
Speaker: And so when I heard that at that moment, I was like, hey, I don't think –
Speaker: I'm going to be into that.
Speaker: Like, to be real, I was like, that sounds lame.
Speaker: Like, that sounds whack.
Speaker: I don't want to be a part of that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I kind of put it on pause, still getting down in the Uber game.
Speaker: And I was still kind of, you know, friends with them and still kind of watching them from a distance, seeing them do their, you know, the solar thing.
Speaker: And then, yeah.
Speaker: I'll never forget.
Speaker: There was a kind of an epiphany moment that I had.
Speaker: And I don't know if you have had any of these moments in your life where there were like significant happenings or a significant day where you had like a realization or a moment of clarity that like sparked something inside of you to want to make a change in some area of your life.
Speaker: So for me, it was when...
Speaker: At the time, I was living in a little studio.
Speaker: Honestly, the studio was probably about the size of this room.
Speaker: Not very big at all.
Speaker: And I was getting home from driving Uber.
Speaker: I drove Uber like all night.
Speaker: I was getting home at like – it was like 3 in the morning.
Speaker: And I would pick up drunk people like from downtown because on the weekends when you're driving at that time of night, that's usually who you're picking up is like people that are like drunk from downtown and like Pacific Beach and stuff like that.
Speaker: So I was getting home and I parked my car and I was walking into my – I'll never forget.
Speaker: I was walking back to my studio, this tiny studio I was living in, and I had this moment of clarity, this realization where I realized that, man, I am capable of so much more for my life.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And like I said, I was just getting involved and learning more about personal development and finding different books and speakers and podcasts, honestly, and stuff like this that were kind of getting my mind churning, you know?
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: It's a pretty heavy thing to think about.
Speaker: When you realize that you're worth more and that you know that you're capable of earning more for yourself income-wise, there's something I think that happens in many of us, including myself, where I'm like, hey, I know I'm capable of more, so I'm ready to do something new.
Speaker: And at that time, I had heard about, to bring it full circle, I had heard about the solar opportunity.
Speaker: It was kind of lingering in the back of my mind from my friends and kind of seeing them.
Speaker: So I'm like, hey, you know what?
Speaker: I don't know anything about sales.
Speaker: I didn't have any sales experience.
Speaker: I don't know anything about solar, but let me take a risk on myself.
Speaker: Let me take a leap of faith.
Speaker: And so I just dove into it.
Speaker: I dove into it headfirst.
Speaker: No experience.
Speaker: Definitely no door-to-door experience.
Speaker: And I just kind of dove in and figured it out from there.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: So was it a couple people at your church?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: John Soriano and my friend Jordan Metesius.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then there was another guy, Michael Goochman.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: They kind of meeting them and they were kind of the ones that brought me into the business.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: yeah well uh congrats on getting sober by the way thanks bro heard that part of the story so yeah it's really cool thanks bro yeah i'm coming up on this year i'll celebrate uh nine years sober that's so cool yeah that's awesome thanks man yeah one i think i don't know but i've seen a lot of people in solar in door-to-door sales specifically specifically like we all got add a lot of people you know struggle with addiction things like that
Speaker: That's what's really cool is people take this job seriously.
Speaker: They're not only making really good money, but it's really awesome to hear life-changing stories like that.
Speaker: I know you started getting sober before solar, but I'm sure that's personal development, probably increasing being in solar.
Speaker: I'm sure those things probably help just as you've...
Speaker: like had that mind shift and everything too, right?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: And I was actually hesitant to go into door-to-door sales and further into entrepreneurship because I knew it was, especially in your first year or two, it's tough.
Speaker: Like, I mean, still to this day, it's a hard business to be in, you know, just being an entrepreneur.
Speaker: And in my first year in door-to-door, there was these times where
Speaker: uh, it was, I was super challenged and I'm like, ah, it was just like so difficult for me.
Speaker: Cause it took me a while to learn everything.
Speaker: And at a certain point I was, I was kind of in a way fearful that I was going to jeopardize my recovery.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: And I was like, man, is this, am I taking too much of a risk?
Speaker: Because I, I know, and still even now my, my, um,
Speaker: my recovery is the most important thing in my life, you know?
Speaker: So I, I've always done my best to preserve it and to protect it.
Speaker: Um, so I was hesitant about going further into, to door to door because I knew that it was going to be very difficult and, and stressful.
Speaker: And so I was like, oh man, is that going to, you know, jeopardize my recovery?
Speaker: But what I've actually learned is that, and I'm so glad I continue to persevere because what I've learned is that it's been a good thing.
Speaker: And me practicing the mental endurance to not quit and to not give up, a lot of the principles that you learn in door-to-door, and I think in entrepreneurship in general, a lot of those are the same principles that we learn in recovery.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Learning how to take inventory of kind of what's going on in our mind and understanding how to treat people well and practice integrity and always do right by people and honesty and focusing on spiritual health.
Speaker: A lot of parallels that I've learned.
Speaker: And if anything, I think being in what I've learned in door-to-door has strengthened my recovery.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: To kind of bring it to summarize that, that's kind of how I view it.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I just want to share that with you.
Speaker: Yeah, no, that's cool.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I got a lot of respect.
Speaker: I've talked to people and a lot of people in recovery.
Speaker: And it's like to get where you're at a point of staying sober and go with, you know, they got like the 12 steps, Alcoholics Anonymous and all that.
Speaker: Yeah, I definitely agree.
Speaker: It's like a lot of parallels in that, that if you can master those things, it's going to help a lot in what we do.
Speaker: So even if you're not like struggling in addiction or anything, I think that's almost a good thing for any person in door to door sales to like explore and figure out how to, you know, kind of master your emotions and...
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Sometimes, unfortunately, people, they get taken out by the stressors of being enough people that are sober that get into entrepreneurship.
Speaker: They get taken because either it's either the stress of having to deal with all the rejection and all of the battles that are involved in the marketplace as an entrepreneur.
Speaker: or also that they get taken out because they start earning the money and they lack the stewardship of what to do with the money.
Speaker: And so they had their bank account starts getting stacked and then they're like, Oh, I got a ton of money in the bank.
Speaker: So now I can kind of like, I can go party and like, I have the money to party even more now.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Which is, uh, uh, not the, not the ideal mindset to have, but yeah, thankfully I've just chosen to
Speaker: to continue to stay focused and like be able to appreciate and stay grounded both in my recovery life and in, in my business life as well.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: So I want to shift gears a little bit, Jake.
Speaker: And, um, as we were talking in the beginning, what I've really learned from you and, um, you know, respected a lot is you've been able to like lead a lot of people and you just always know how to like inspire people, motivate them.
Speaker: And anytime I bring in my own personal recruits, um,
Speaker: like the first person I introduce them to is you, because I know you're going to like make them feel part of the family.
Speaker: And like, yeah, same lines you used on me when I first walked in the door.
Speaker: I'm like, man, this guy, this guy makes me feel like we've known each other for years already.
Speaker: And I think your lines every time is like, hey, I want to, you're like, thank you so much for partnering with us.
Speaker: You know, something along those lines that you make people feel like really good about stepping in the room.
Speaker: So, yeah, what have you been, what are some strategies or what are some things you do to maybe like in recruiting, just help people like make them feel part of a family, part of the culture?
Speaker: Like what are your thoughts around that?
Speaker: And what do you try to do with new people that you bring into legacy and what's helped you in recruiting and all that?
Speaker: Yeah, love those questions.
Speaker: So I think first and foremost, I strive to keep my cup full.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because if my cup isn't full, then I can't pour into others.
Speaker: And if I'm not training myself and if I'm not constantly growing my own capacities, then I'm not going to be able to effectively lead others.
Speaker: So what I've discovered is that leadership really starts with leading me.
Speaker: It starts with leading my own life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think when we're able to successfully do that, then our people skills just come naturally.
Speaker: I think sincere leadership, it can't be faked.
Speaker: When people have that genuine ability to touch people and have an impact on people and be a helper and serve people,
Speaker: I think those people understand this philosophy that it all starts with how I view me.
Speaker: If I view me like a dirtbag and I view me like I'm a piece of crap and I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy of the success, I'm not capable of winning, I don't have what it takes and I'm beating myself up up here, then when I interact with others,
Speaker: they're going to get that version of me.
Speaker: And that's going to come, that's the stuff that's going to come across, you know?
Speaker: But if I'm constantly edifying myself and constantly pushing myself and getting myself out of my comfort zone and speaking life into myself, then it's when I get around other people that it's just infectious.
Speaker: And it's just a byproduct of,
Speaker: of me continuously encouraging myself.
Speaker: And I'm not the, I'm sometimes I'm not the best at it.
Speaker: Um, it's still something that I'm working on is, um, you know, my, my, how I view myself.
Speaker: Um, and I think it's a constant, uh, exploration and a constant journey really of how we view our own identity, you know?
Speaker: Um, but also, yeah, to answer your question, um, when, um,
Speaker: I view it like this.
Speaker: When you meet someone, I'll say it like this.
Speaker: When I meet another person, I can tell when they either added to my life, and I'm not saying anything physically or... You can just tell when you meet someone for the first time, let's say...
Speaker: or just around anyone really, you can tell when they're contributing and they're bringing life and more life into the atmosphere or if they're draining the atmosphere, if they're lowering the vibration or if they're bringing negativity.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's either a plus or a minus, you know?
Speaker: So having this awareness, dude, I want to be a plus.
Speaker: When I shake someone's hand, whether it's, like I say, a brand new recruit or there's a new dude in the office, I want to be that guy that goes out of my way to... And sometimes, by the way, we do have to go out of our way to be a blessing to others and to serve others.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But let's say there's a brand new recruit in the office.
Speaker: I have no idea who he is.
Speaker: I just saw him come in.
Speaker: He's an unfamiliar face.
Speaker: You can kind of tell he's there for the first time.
Speaker: I also try to put myself in the shoot, like in his shoes.
Speaker: And it's like, dude, if I'm in a brand new office and I don't know anyone here and I'm the newest – I'm the new guy, like how refreshing is it if someone –
Speaker: came up to me, someone took initiative and been like, Hey, what's up?
Speaker: I'm Jake.
Speaker: Like, good to meet you.
Speaker: Like, welcome.
Speaker: I'm glad you're here, you know, and sincerely gave them that greeting, which by the way, that's how you can find the leader.
Speaker: The leader is typically the one that's adding the most life.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: contributing with a spirit of encouragement the most, which by the way, you asked about leadership.
Speaker: When someone, when someone walks into the room, they should be able to find the leader.
Speaker: And a lot of times it's not even by the leader saying anything.
Speaker: The leader doesn't even have to say something.
Speaker: You can kind of just know you can be in a brand new room or walk into a new building and see a group of people and
Speaker: And the leader should be able to be identified.
Speaker: And having this awareness, I want to be easily found and seen as the leader.
Speaker: And so the more I can do to show the newest people that I'm there to serve them, the better.
Speaker: And also in my situation there, because there was people that did that for me over my life, you know, in my life.
Speaker: in my community, in my experience in sales.
Speaker: When I was the newest guy, the newest recruit, there was some dudes that took some time out of their day to pour into me and to teach me best practices on the door, to teach me, hey, let me help you critique your... Hey, let's meet up after correlation.
Speaker: It's the extra added stuff.
Speaker: After correlation, dude, I want to meet with you and sit down with you.
Speaker: We'll grab a coffee and I'll help critique your pitch a little bit and stuff like that.
Speaker: That kind of stuff...
Speaker: uh, goes a long, goes a long way.
Speaker: You know, there's, there's a lot of dudes that have done that in my life.
Speaker: So a lot of it is understanding the impact that others have made on my life.
Speaker: I feel an obligation to return the favor to the other guys, the other new guys.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: That's really good.
Speaker: Is that why you shave your head?
Speaker: Just so people like recognize you right away.
Speaker: This guy's different somehow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I just, yeah, I started, my hair started thinning.
Speaker: So that's why I started to just buzz it off.
Speaker: Well, you look good.
Speaker: You look good.
Speaker: Thanks, man.
Speaker: Well, no, but yeah, what's really cool is it kind of reminds me.
Speaker: So, you know, I did like a two-year mission for my church and everything.
Speaker: And like one of, we had a mission president that would like lead us and, you know, tell us what to do and all that.
Speaker: So one of his big things is in order to get people to actually stay, because we have baptized all these people, but I was down in Columbia.
Speaker: So it's like a lot of people would say yes and get baptized, but then they would just kind of fall off or stop coming to church and everything.
Speaker: So one of his big things is he would say you got to basically create like a friend circle for these people.
Speaker: So they need to have like kind of a responsibility, a calling, and then a group of friends too.
Speaker: And that way they're going to stay active.
Speaker: So a lot of what you do kind of reminds me of that is you make people feel like so comfortable and feel like they're part of something bigger, feel like they have a friend in there.
Speaker: And I think that goes a long ways towards just getting people to stick.
Speaker: Obviously, they got to make money too.
Speaker: But I think there's something to be said about getting people to feel good.
Speaker: And that's what you did to me.
Speaker: I remember when I was because I was pretty hesitant to join Legacy.
Speaker: And you were calling me and that definitely played a part in me coming over too.
Speaker: I felt comfortable in all that.
Speaker: So, yeah, I respect it.
Speaker: Thanks for sharing that.
Speaker: I think people need community.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: People are starving for community.
Speaker: A lot of times I see people try to figure out life on their own, make decisions on their own.
Speaker: And sometimes that can be a scary thing.
Speaker: It can be daunting to be in a new place or a new environment or a new ecosystem and not know people or not know what you're doing.
Speaker: And so when we're a part of a community, we're around other like-minded people that can help us to feel like we're a part of a group.
Speaker: We were designed, by the way, I believe God designed us to be a part of a tribe.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And when people isolate themselves, speaking for me, it's the times when I've isolated myself and I'm just, I want to distance myself from people for an extended period of time.
Speaker: By the way, it's okay to distance yourself from people from time on occasion to kind of do self-reflection and do all that.
Speaker: That can be healthy.
Speaker: But I'm saying for an extended period of time.
Speaker: You know, there's, I think it's the times when I've done that for too long and
Speaker: Um, I've tried to find solutions on my own and haven't been resourceful through other people or through a community, uh, that I've made stupid decisions and, uh, just haven't had any growth.
Speaker: You know, it's, it's, it's how we learn it's everything in life.
Speaker: I feel like most of.
Speaker: life is, life is all about relationships.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It's all about who you know.
Speaker: It's all about who can share with you the next opportunity, who's going to open the next door, who's going to give you some guidance or some direction to help.
Speaker: Dude, one person could change, forever change the trajectory of your life.
Speaker: You know, so it's like you never know who you're going to meet that can completely change and revolutionize the way that you think that can set you on a different course.
Speaker: You know, I'm fascinated by that.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Speaker: Yeah, and I want to, before we're out of time, I want to touch a little bit on just like culture.
Speaker: So here over in San Diego, I remember something that I was a little like maybe concerned about when I first came in is like we got a huge office here.
Speaker: It's like, I don't know, I don't even know what 100 people maybe.
Speaker: Yeah, it's poppin'.
Speaker: It's a big office, but I'd always been part of smaller teams.
Speaker: So I was hesitant.
Speaker: I'm like, man, if I join this, I'm just going to be another face in the crowd.
Speaker: There's not going to be maybe as much accountability.
Speaker: And I guess those are some of my concerns.
Speaker: And maybe some people will listen to this.
Speaker: are with us, small offices, big offices.
Speaker: But I think I've been surprised at like how well, even though it's a big office, you know, we're kind of divided up into squads and we got like a group chat that's popping, things like that.
Speaker: So what are maybe for our listeners, what are like some strategies being a part of like a bigger office?
Speaker: How would you say that you've been able to help create a really good culture and still kind of have that element where you feel like you're part of a smaller group and have accountability?
Speaker: Maybe some stuff you do in the group chat.
Speaker: Can you speak to that for our listeners?
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: That's a great question.
Speaker: And I definitely... It's intentional.
Speaker: We want to have...
Speaker: What we don't want to have is people on the team feeling like they're a small fish in like a giant ocean of people.
Speaker: Because if that happens, people just get lost in the sauce.
Speaker: And it's harder to track people where they're at and hold people accountable to making sure that they're doing well and living a solid life like inside of – on the team and like in their personal life as well.
Speaker: And so we – and this is kind of a valor philosophy is we do want to grow.
Speaker: We want to grow massively and accelerate this thing and blow this thing up.
Speaker: But as we're growing, we don't want to lose sight of the intimacy and the tight-knit feel.
Speaker: I think when you get to –
Speaker: a group of like, let's say 50, 50 people.
Speaker: If you have an office of 50 people, I feel like that's like a, a solid group.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: I feel like that's a pretty,
Speaker: Just overall, like when you think of like a door-to-door sales team, like 50 people is like a healthy number, you know?
Speaker: So we're at the – so the San Diego team is – there's like 100 people on our roster.
Speaker: When it starts to get above 100 people, I think that's when it gets more and more difficult.
Speaker: Now, you can have one office of 100, 150, 200 people.
Speaker: It's possible.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, but it's, it could be wise to eventually start, begin to thinking of some type of break, break off group at that point.
Speaker: Um, thankfully we, we, we have our structure with the squads and the squad system, which, which will help.
Speaker: You can have one pretty big team and there's still accountability through the, through the squads.
Speaker: But I think in general, if you have a team, once you get past a hundred reps, it truly does, um, become more and more difficult for, uh, for you to,
Speaker: maintain that tight knit feel.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, I think that, and then to answer your question about communication, I've always, I've always been an advocate of, um, how I've always been an advocate of over communicating.
Speaker: I think a lot of the downside, the, the, a lot of the downfall of teams and leaders who are leading teams is just simple miscommunication, um, or the leaders just straight up don't communicate enough.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So sometimes I feel, okay, am I over, is this too much that I'm telling the leaders and myself to like continue to do these announcements or reminders or encouragements and stuff like that?
Speaker: But I always lean more towards over communicating.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think this is a good nugget right here, especially for people who are leading and developing teams.
Speaker: I think over-communication most of the time is a good thing because if there's a constant announcements, constant reminders of happenings and stuff like this, then that's going to be – the team is going to constantly be hearing from the leader and from the other people on the team.
Speaker: I've firsthand seen, for example, we have our group me, that's our main thread of communication amongst the team.
Speaker: So every single time, if the group me is dead and there's not a.
Speaker: pretty consistent activity in the, in the group me, that's a reflection that the team is, is dead.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: But on the contrary, if you have a group me or your, whatever your group, a group chat is, if that thing's constantly popping off, that's a direct reflection that you have a healthy team because where there's consistent communication,
Speaker: There you have a healthy team.
Speaker: And it's just, I've been doing this for long enough where I've been able to see that.
Speaker: You show me a team who their communication threads are not very active.
Speaker: That's a huge red flag.
Speaker: And that's most of the time an indicator that you don't have a healthy team.
Speaker: If you have chat, your communication threads that are constantly turning and burning, that shows that people are active, they're engaging, and they're wanting to grind and grow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it'd be interesting to go back and, I'm sure you've done this, but go back and look at the numbers and correlate it to the amount of messages in the group meet.
Speaker: I'm sure it would match up.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Where there's the most messages, there's probably the most deals being closed.
Speaker: Totally, totally.
Speaker: And yeah, I didn't like understand that.
Speaker: Like, you know, I knew that it's good to be active and all that.
Speaker: But until I got here and saw how much you guys focus on that, I'm like, okay, I see that there's a big difference.
Speaker: Having a culture of honor is so important.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's why we're so big on if anyone gets, you know, let's say a closer gets a boom, gets a deal.
Speaker: Like the expectation is that every single person on the team like shouts them out and shows them love and celebrating one another is so huge.
Speaker: Because where you lack honor...
Speaker: you lack a sense of respect.
Speaker: And as soon as you, that sense of respect diminishes amongst the team, it's really hard to build momentum.
Speaker: What honor does is it creates a foundation for, for massive growth because when you have that spirit of celebration and honor, people want to be a part of that.
Speaker: Um, people want to be around people who are, uh, congratulating and celebrating one another.
Speaker: So, um,
Speaker: Everything from if you get an install, like everyone's showing you Matt to a deal.
Speaker: If it's a, this is the even better yet.
Speaker: This is the best.
Speaker: If it's a brand new guy, like we're talking about the new guys, right?
Speaker: Brand new guy setter setter gets his very first bill.
Speaker: Like do got his very first bill to me.
Speaker: That's badass.
Speaker: And I, as the leader, I, I want to see every single person on the roster showing.
Speaker: Cause how good is that going to make that brand new guy feel?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All these people like are showing me mad, mad love because I got my first bill.
Speaker: That's a huge milestone to get your first bill by yourself.
Speaker: Like you went up to the door, you pitched it and you got a bill, set a clean appointment.
Speaker: That's a huge milestone and that deserves to be celebrated, you know?
Speaker: And all that's going to do is just continue to feed into that culture of celebration and culture of honor, which again is so important.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: And yeah, I've seen it with guys I brought in too.
Speaker: Like one of my guys, Logan, for example, he's like, I know you've helped me work a lot with him.
Speaker: And he's a guy that it took a lot longer to, you know, find deals, find success.
Speaker: I love Logan.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's been so patient.
Speaker: He's such a good example of someone who just has refused to give up and stay determined and...
Speaker: keep his eyes on the prize and, and stay focused.
Speaker: And yeah, now he's just now starting to see more and more results, which is, which is killer.
Speaker: I think half the battle in this business is literally just not giving up.
Speaker: If you don't quit sooner, eventually you'll be at around for six months and then you're on the team for a year.
Speaker: Once you hit that, if you hit that year milestone, it's,
Speaker: very likely that you're like on a good path to, to be making some killer income and be crushing it, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, something I've learned from you is like, if you see that the group me isn't active enough, slowing down, like every time without fail, Jake's in there texting us.
Speaker: I'm like, y'all better wake up the group me.
Speaker: Like that thing's looking dead.
Speaker: Like what's going on?
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Cause again, that's a huge red flag.
Speaker: Cause what's that, what, what that's showing is like, if your communication threads aren't popping, you're,
Speaker: It shows that there's a lack of care.
Speaker: And when there's an increased sense of care and respect and really at the end of the day, it's just love.
Speaker: It's teammates loving on each other and having each other's back.
Speaker: I think that's been a huge...
Speaker: That's been one of the main factors that have led to the fruit of our division of valor.
Speaker: We just have a sincere identity of love.
Speaker: Like we just want to love on each other and continue to pour into each other because we know that's just going to lead to more fruit in our bank account and not just in business, but also in our personal lives.
Speaker: So again, we need community.
Speaker: We need people.
Speaker: We need...
Speaker: peers and friends in our life that are speaking life and speaking love into us.
Speaker: This is what I love about you, bro, is because since I met you, you've been nothing but kind.
Speaker: and genuine and just an overall, your spirit is so authentic.
Speaker: And for how much experience you have in solar, you're not puffed up at all.
Speaker: And you're not braggadocious.
Speaker: You're not full of ego.
Speaker: You're someone who's a student.
Speaker: That's why you run your podcast because you're always wanting to learn.
Speaker: And I have so much admiration for the way that you operate because mainly of your humility and your student mindset.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I want to tell you that, bro.
Speaker: Appreciate that.
Speaker: Thank you, brother.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I tend to, that's something I struggle with is almost being like not believing in myself enough.
Speaker: Cause I've always been a student, but something I personally struggle with is just like, you know, believing that I can be like really good.
Speaker: And that I do know a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause I get it a lot sometimes too.
Speaker: So I'm right there with you.
Speaker: I'm working on that too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, Jake, it's been awesome having you on.
Speaker: Unfortunately, our producer behind the camera here.
Speaker: Already?
Speaker: He's got a soccer.
Speaker: Dang, we were just getting warmed up.
Speaker: I know, I know, right?
Speaker: We're going to have to schedule part two or something.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, stay tuned.
Speaker: But our producer's got soccer practice or something here.
Speaker: He's got to go, too.
Speaker: But no, we'll definitely do another part.
Speaker: But before we wrap up here, just to end, if people want to reach out more or hear more, you know, dimes from you, possibly join the team, where's the best place to connect with you, Jake?
Speaker: Yep, I'll tell you right now.
Speaker: And it has to be specifically FaceTime.
Speaker: It has to start with the FaceTime.
Speaker: So don't start with the text.
Speaker: Don't reach out.
Speaker: Hey, this is so-and-so.
Speaker: It has to begin with the FaceTime.
Speaker: And even if it's obviously going to be an unknown number, I'll still answer it.
Speaker: So my number is 619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619-619
Speaker: 573-3152.
Speaker: Like I said, don't text me and don't call me specifically a FaceTime.
Speaker: And even if it's, I know it's from an unknown number, I'll still answer it.
Speaker: So that's going to be the best, the most ideal way to reach me.
Speaker: In other words, if you, if you reach me like that, then you're automatically in.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You don't know, you're already on the team.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Hired.
Speaker: You're hired.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So don't spam them too much, but definitely reach out.
Speaker: And then if maybe on Instagram, people want to follow your content and all that.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: At Pluto Tectonics.
Speaker: Pluto Tectonics.
Speaker: That's me.
Speaker: Follow me.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Would you like love space or something?
Speaker: I've never heard the story of you in Pluto.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pluto is my nickname.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: A lot of my friends call me Pluto.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Like it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: All right, man.
Speaker: Well, thanks again for coming on.
Speaker: So guys, go shoot Jake a DM.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciate him.
Speaker: Shoot him a FaceTime.
Speaker: And start to implement these things in your team.
Speaker: Make sure you have a group chat.
Speaker: Build the culture.
Speaker: Love your people.
Speaker: And those are all things that are going to help your team for sure.
Speaker: So thanks again, Jake.
Speaker: It's been fun.
Speaker: Love you, bro.
Speaker: We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Okay.
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