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 how 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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: I am stoked today.
Speaker: We got an exciting episode because we got someone that everyone should know.
Speaker: If you've been in door-to-door sales or just like funny memes, then you definitely know this guy.
Speaker: We've got the master memer on the interwebs himself, Mr. Rick Martinez.
Speaker: So, Rick, thanks for finally hopping on the show with us, my man.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Appreciate it, man.
Speaker: It took us a while, but we're finally doing it.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: I was just telling Rick before the show, him and Tony Robbins have been the two hardest guys to get on the podcast.
Speaker: Haven't quite got Tony Robbins on yet, but... No way.
Speaker: But Rick took a while too, because he's a busy guy and he's all over the place.
Speaker: And we'll talk about that.
Speaker: But no, we were just in Key West, Florida, hanging out at the Noxstar event.
Speaker: And we were planning on to do a show there, but...
Speaker: Rick, he was kind of helping out.
Speaker: Things got busy and couldn't make it happen.
Speaker: So like, all right, well, got modern technology.
Speaker: Just hop on the Zoom and find me making it happen.
Speaker: So thanks again, Rick.
Speaker: Yep, thanks, dude.
Speaker: We appreciate being on, man.
Speaker: Let's dive into it, bro.
Speaker: What exactly are we going to share with the people today?
Speaker: Well, we got something exciting.
Speaker: It's always exciting when you have Rick on.
Speaker: So, Rick, do you want to, I don't know, maybe introduce how you got into door-to-door and how you first started making your memes?
Speaker: I guess a little background on them real quick.
Speaker: He runs the meme page, No Slisting, bro, which is like, you know, the biggest...
Speaker: I don't know, door-to-door entertainment page, I would say, hands down.
Speaker: It's been entertaining door-to-door sales reps for years and years now.
Speaker: Everyone loves him.
Speaker: And he's been successful in pest control, solar.
Speaker: And that's actually how we first met is because we both sold for a company called New Power here in Southern California back in the day.
Speaker: So just a little introduction for you, Rick.
Speaker: But yeah, do you want to go a little more in depth how you got into door-to-door first and started up your meme page, all that good stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker: So I started in door-to-door back in 2014.
Speaker: Six months after I got home from my LDS mission, my buddy, he was like, dude, you do so well at this, you do so well at this, but I was just, I was hesitant.
Speaker: So I spent six months working as a painter's assistant at an auto body shop, working 40, 50, even 60 hours, some weeks.
Speaker: And I finally gave in, went out on a Saturday, set a deal.
Speaker: And then that later that week it closed.
Speaker: And I was told that I was going to make like $1,400 off of that one deal.
Speaker: I was like, are you kidding me?
Speaker: And they're like, yeah, I'm like, what the heck?
Speaker: So the next Saturday I go out and I booked three more, they all closed.
Speaker: And I think like two weeks later, I'm like, yeah, I'm quitting my, my, my day job and I'm doing solar full time.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: From 2014 up until like 2017-ish, I was with a company called New Power, helped them build that thing out quite a bit.
Speaker: That's where Armstrong and I had met.
Speaker: And then I took a little bit of a break, tried out pest control with Aptiv.
Speaker: And then I was selling with Aptiv in 2018 when I started the no soliciting bro meme page.
Speaker: I was just going through a lot of anxiety, some depression at the time.
Speaker: And my way to cope was memes.
Speaker: So I found a page called summer sales fails.
Speaker: And I thought to myself, I can make way better memes and way better content.
Speaker: So that's what I started doing.
Speaker: And since then,
Speaker: Yeah, it's taken three years for the page to take off, but now I don't think I can go into any sales team without somebody knowing me.
Speaker: I can't fly into Utah or walk around Provo without someone knowing who I am, which is actually kind of insane.
Speaker: Yeah, no, everyone knows Rick.
Speaker: And if you go to like door-to-door con or something with this guy, you feel like he's the wolf of Wall Street in there.
Speaker: You just got, you know, ladies surrounding him, just crowds of people.
Speaker: Just like, no soliciting, bruh.
Speaker: So it's a pretty surreal experience.
Speaker: And I always joke just because me and Rick, we've gone to a lot of events together over the years.
Speaker: And it used to be where we were like hanging out on equal footing at these events.
Speaker: But now it happens.
Speaker: He gets lost in the crowd pretty quick because I feel like people are kind of walking around, you know, asking for autographs and all that stuff.
Speaker: So I feel glad to know Rick before he was, you know, super famous and
Speaker: everyone knew him.
Speaker: But no, you've had a ton of success now.
Speaker: And isn't it funny that back in the day, we were so stoked over making like a thousand bucks on a solar deal.
Speaker: And now it's like, people are making that.
Speaker: I remember being pumped about making 400 bucks a kilowatt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: 400 bucks as a kilowatt as a closer selling at 21 cent PPA.
Speaker: Man.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: Well, because when you're comparing that to pest control, it's like, you know, crazy money.
Speaker: Like, no way you make over a thousand.
Speaker: Cause that was my background too.
Speaker: I came from pest control and you're making, you know, maybe, I don't know, a couple hundred bucks.
Speaker: I know you guys are making more in pest now too, but, but yeah, that's pretty crazy how far things have come.
Speaker: So tell me though, Rick, why did you decide to kind of, I know you've been in pests now you've been doing,
Speaker: Now you're back doing a little bit of solar, but yeah, why did you decide to try out pests coming from solar, you know, and make all these good commissions?
Speaker: So the first time I did it, honestly, I was sold on the location.
Speaker: My recruiter told me that we were going to Long Island, New York, and he sold me on the fact that like, dude, we're in Long Island, we can go to Manhattan, and I was like,
Speaker: Okay, cool, yeah.
Speaker: He offered me some ridiculous, like, really good deal that at the time I was like, yeah, I mean, this is fine.
Speaker: But my whole thing was I just wanted to go to New York.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I went and I did well.
Speaker: I sold like a little over 150 with like a 690 contract value.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I was like, and they're like, dude, that's so good.
Speaker: I'm like, really?
Speaker: So the whole time, like, yeah, like the sales were there, but I was there just to go to New York, bro.
Speaker: Like for me, going to New York was a dream.
Speaker: So I did that.
Speaker: The next year I took off.
Speaker: Last year I went back in.
Speaker: So pest control is such a fun sale, right?
Speaker: Imagine like setting, if you can get a really good area where you can set a crap tenant deals, that's like the equivalent of selling a pest control account.
Speaker: You can go in and just,
Speaker: I mean, with setting, you clearly don't get paid for the sets.
Speaker: But with pest control, it's like that simple.
Speaker: You go in, hey, you got bugs.
Speaker: This is what we're doing.
Speaker: Oh, you're with someone else.
Speaker: This is why people have been switching over to us.
Speaker: And you just close them, get them set up, get them serviced, and you get paid.
Speaker: Yeah, love it.
Speaker: No, it is a quick sell.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Have you seen some similarities since you switched, you know, back and forth now kind of from pests to solar?
Speaker: Do you feel like there's been a lot of things that have helped you that you've learned in pests that you've been able to like apply to solar now?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, big time.
Speaker: Big time.
Speaker: Yeah, big time.
Speaker: Just like the option close.
Speaker: So does the morning or afternoon work better for my specialist to pop by?
Speaker: Okay, nice.
Speaker: The option clothes, trying to get them outside the house, taking them to the meter.
Speaker: This is one of the things that I learned from McCarthy that we did a long time ago was downloading the SunSeeker app and taking them around the house and showing them on the app on your iPad where the sun hours are at and say, so this is more than likely where the panel would go.
Speaker: And then just getting them to move around the house.
Speaker: Yeah, that's money.
Speaker: Yeah, that is a huge difference.
Speaker: And yeah, it's funny you say that because I'm actually working right now here on Jason Newby's team.
Speaker: A lot of our top guys came from pests.
Speaker: And that's all they talk about too, is they're just pulling people out, out off the door, they're pulling people to the meter to the backyard.
Speaker: and i feel like it's just location but getting people on like a different you know kind of mental state because as you know behind the doors people are a lot of times super reserved super guarded like what are you doing here when we can get them outside of their castle there they
Speaker: Like it's crazy how much they open up and you try the exact same clothes you maybe just try it at the door.
Speaker: It'll work just cause you're outside on their porch or in a different location with them or inside the home.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: And one of the things that I took from solar
Speaker: that I started applying my first summer and past was trying to get inside the home.
Speaker: Now, when I was in Long Island, it would rain a lot.
Speaker: I think that was the one thing that I didn't like about Long Island, how much it rained.
Speaker: So I made it really simple.
Speaker: I'm like, cool, I just got to fill this out with you real quick.
Speaker: Is there a small corner at the kitchen table I could borrow to fill this out?
Speaker: Lean in, they would give me some resistance.
Speaker: I'd be like, do you want me to take my shoes off?
Speaker: If they said yes or no, I would either take my shoes off or not and walk in.
Speaker: yeah i'd be in i'd be inside people's homes i'd be at the kitchen table signing them up for pest control nice and then just open up the conversation and then they would more than likely give me referrals nice love that yeah that's straight from new power right there yeah breast your own on that so many times it's like they can't say no to letting you in you're like
Speaker: Yeah, I asked you, do you want me to take my shoes off?
Speaker: I didn't ask you, why can't I come in?
Speaker: Like just transition straight to that question.
Speaker: But no, that's a fire question for our solopreneurs that are listening.
Speaker: Yeah, you need to be using questions like that.
Speaker: Super assumptive.
Speaker: Getting inside homes.
Speaker: Which side of the house is your meter on?
Speaker: Um, cause at that point you're just being assumptive.
Speaker: You're not asking them yes or no.
Speaker: Like, do you want to do it?
Speaker: And I think that's been a one, been a, one of the biggest keys for my success of that.
Speaker: And, uh, probably you too, right, Rick and solar.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: So yeah, love that.
Speaker: And no, I think there's a ton of things that apply.
Speaker: And I would say just like the work ethic too, because was that an adjustment for you coming from solar where at New Power, we were only doing like, I don't know, four or five hours maybe on the doors and pest control.
Speaker: They're like, all right, Rick, you got to come out.
Speaker: We're going from 10 a.m.
Speaker: to 9 p.m.
Speaker: or whatever it was.
Speaker: Was that like an adjustment for you?
Speaker: Big time adjustment.
Speaker: I was like, dude, these guys are crazy.
Speaker: I cannot do 12 hours on the doors.
Speaker: But I got used to it, bro.
Speaker: And then during competition, dude, this is what these pest control companies do well.
Speaker: They get these kids so hyped up on competition.
Speaker: that I remember my, the, the latest sale I ever made was in the, it was in an Indian neighborhood because I, we knew that Indians were going to be up super late.
Speaker: And my last sale of the day I started, I knocked this guy's house at 1140 and I, and I left his house just a little after midnight.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: And as I had, I had never talked to this guy before.
Speaker: I saw that the garage was open.
Speaker: People were in the garage talking.
Speaker: I go up and I'm like, hey, look, like we're in the middle of a competition and we are getting down to the wire.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Like if we win, this is what we win.
Speaker: We do pass control.
Speaker: I'm going to take care of you.
Speaker: And then the haggling started.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And then I dropped them as low as I could so we can get enough points for the sale.
Speaker: I'm like, look, tell you what, this is what I'll do.
Speaker: This is the best, the best I can do.
Speaker: And he took it.
Speaker: That's freaking awesome.
Speaker: Did it help?
Speaker: Did you pass for Indian?
Speaker: Did he see your darker skin?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, you're my brother?
Speaker: Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker: No, that's good.
Speaker: Yeah, if you can get those Indians.
Speaker: Hopefully he gave you a referral chain too.
Speaker: Did he give you like four referrals after that?
Speaker: I wish.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: He told me, yeah, I'll refer you to everyone.
Speaker: He didn't refer me to anybody, but that's fine because the only thing we needed, the only thing I needed was the sales so we can win.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: I love that competition cause helps a lot when people see that you're bought into a competition and people just naturally want to help out.
Speaker: So I've used that a lot in solar too.
Speaker: Dude, it happened so much.
Speaker: Like even this last year, like when I was going up in the masters, like the one-on-one,
Speaker: I would tell people like, look, I don't know about you, but I hate losing.
Speaker: So tell you what, I'm in the competition right now, me and one of the best guys in the company was my line.
Speaker: And I would show them, like I would pull up on my app and I'd show them the actual competition.
Speaker: Like, look, I do pest control, right?
Speaker: I take care of the bugs.
Speaker: It's nothing crazy.
Speaker: If I can get you done while I'm out of here, this is what I'm willing to do.
Speaker: I would show them like, I would show them like the regular price, regular price, what I would do.
Speaker: But then I would bring in McCarthy's model home clothes and be like, look, honestly, if I can just get you done as like a marketing home for me, this, this is what I'm willing to do.
Speaker: I'm willing to drop it instead of this to this.
Speaker: The only thing I ask is that if you use social media, just give me a shout out on your Facebook or on next door.
Speaker: If you can give me a shout out on the next door app, I will even do the first one for free.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And then that way it gets me publicity out there.
Speaker: It gets people to know who I am.
Speaker: And then some referrals would trickle in that way.
Speaker: Yeah, that's sweet.
Speaker: And then would you ever pull up to the next door and be like, Hey, I'm the guy that they're posting about on the next door.
Speaker: Did they tell you it's passing by?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So I would have her do it right then and there.
Speaker: Depending on the situation, sometimes I would have a technician literally in the area.
Speaker: And I would text the tech, I'd be like, hey, Mark, I'm getting one down.
Speaker: I'm getting one right now.
Speaker: And I'd drop him my pin.
Speaker: And then by the time I was signing docs, he was rolling up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow, that's money.
Speaker: Dude, it's money.
Speaker: It's money.
Speaker: And then from there, I would have her post on the Nextdoor app right then and there.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I'm like, do you have your phone on you?
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Can you pull up the next door app?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Do you mind if I just take over and I just type in the thing, put my number in and then I'd be like, cool.
Speaker: So you can post it.
Speaker: I just have her click post and there we go.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: No, that's, yeah, that's insane how good that stuff works.
Speaker: I had a guy on our team last week, he got like six deals in this, I think in one street or something, just from doing that.
Speaker: Just the exact same thing, just having people post on the neighborhood Facebook group next door.
Speaker: And then just saying, Hey, I'm the solar guy out here that they've been posting about in the groups.
Speaker: Did you already see it?
Speaker: And then I think half the time they're like, Oh yeah, we saw that.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess they said you're going to come by and it's like instant credibility, instant trust.
Speaker: It's basically a referral at that point in your closing.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's something I've, yeah, I haven't tried, really tried the next door stuff, but yeah, I think for those that are listening, make sure you're utilizing the power of social medias and, you know, all the next door stuff.
Speaker: Because that's how people go from skeptical on the doors to, you know, knowing you're going to be there and knowing you're going to come by.
Speaker: So that's good stuff, Rick.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So, yeah, something I did want to transition into a little bit.
Speaker: I know you talked just how you've gone through phases, you know, ups and downs, like I'm sure a lot of us have.
Speaker: You've gone through like some depression.
Speaker: I know some, you know, mental side of things.
Speaker: And that's the reason I want to touch on that.
Speaker: Super common in door to door.
Speaker: I know a lot of people struggle with the depression, the mental stuff that's going on in people's heads.
Speaker: So what do you have some, I don't know, advice for people that are struggling with those things or just like the mental aspect, things that have helped you to continue in this industry for what are you going on like seven, eight years now you've been doing all this stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going on my seventh year.
Speaker: Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker: I would say first and foremost, depression is real, anxiety is real.
Speaker: So if it's really bad, then go get help.
Speaker: First and foremost.
Speaker: Secondly, a lot of the time it's situational anxiety and situational depression, meaning that it's things that we've done to put us into this situation.
Speaker: Ultimately, the most common thing is, is in the beginning, we start doing all the little things that brings us, brings us success.
Speaker: Once we have the success, we stop doing the little things that got us to where we were at.
Speaker: And we just expect to coast off of that confidence, off of the skill set, off of whatever it is that, that, that got us to that success.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I would say focus more on the action rather than focusing on the results.
Speaker: So many of us are fixated on, I need to make a sale today.
Speaker: I need to do this.
Speaker: I need to do that.
Speaker: And then they just, what do they do?
Speaker: They roll out of bed 20 minutes before the meeting or 20 minutes before they have to leave the correlation.
Speaker: They get the correlation.
Speaker: They're not getting any training.
Speaker: They're not reading.
Speaker: They're not studying.
Speaker: They just show up and expect things to happen.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just comes down to the actions.
Speaker: Focus on the little things.
Speaker: River Skinner and I, we post every day about winning our mornings.
Speaker: River's doing power hour.
Speaker: I do what I need to do.
Speaker: Ultimately, if you can stack as many wins as you can, the success will come.
Speaker: If you find yourself in a slump, one of the things that I've recently talked with a lot of people is I've approached it in more of a therapeutical manner, meaning that
Speaker: Okay, what happened for you to get into this slump?
Speaker: What may have caused it?
Speaker: Is it a mental slump?
Speaker: Is it like an emotional slump?
Speaker: Is it, what is it?
Speaker: First, let's classify what kind of slump it is.
Speaker: For most people, it's sales.
Speaker: Okay, let's understand.
Speaker: We're in the last little bit of the summer.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: People tend to, you know, work really hard in the beginning, but they can't maintain that.
Speaker: So what, what, what did you stop dropping off last month?
Speaker: You stopped reading, you stopped reading the training manual.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: We'll go back and start doing that.
Speaker: If you can, if you can figure out what caused the slump, then you know how to one prevent any future slumps in the future, but you can go and fix the slump that you're currently in.
Speaker: So go back, figure out what it is that may have caused it.
Speaker: Start working on that.
Speaker: Start working on a few other things.
Speaker: Just, just, just comes down to work.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: Sometimes salespeople work.
Speaker: We're very egotistical.
Speaker: I mean, you know, we have a lot of pride.
Speaker: Sometimes we just, you just got to swallow your pride and accept that, Hey, you put yourself in this situation and now it's your turn to, now it's on you to pull yourself out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: It's like what Taylor McCarthy always says, first comes the action, then comes the motivation.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And yeah, a lot of guys, they're just not doing enough of the action bottom line.
Speaker: And they're expecting motivation to come first.
Speaker: So I think it's super helpful going and analyzing those things.
Speaker: Like most people have tasted some sort of success in door to door at this point.
Speaker: So this is actually like an exercise that I'm having one of my coaching students go through right now is just go write down all the things that made you successful.
Speaker: All the things you did during the day when you had a ton of success or during the week you had a ton of success.
Speaker: And most of the time it's completely different than the things they're doing right now.
Speaker: Like you said, they're not waking up at the same time.
Speaker: They're not going through a routine.
Speaker: They're just rolling out of bed, going to the correlation.
Speaker: So I think those are all super important things to go and just do an analysis of really what are you doing now with your day?
Speaker: What are you doing with your routines?
Speaker: And chances are you're probably doing different things if you're not experiencing the success or experiencing the right mental state that you need to be.
Speaker: So yeah, I like that though.
Speaker: I think I wanted to ask you because like you're always traveling, you're always on the road.
Speaker: And for me, that's tough to like stay in the right mental state when I'm always, you know, like traveling all over the place and like you're in a hotel room right now.
Speaker: Do you feel like you've had to adjust, like, being on the road so much?
Speaker: I feel like at this point, you're like Mr. Circus.
Speaker: You're in so many different places.
Speaker: Like, you're always adjusting to new environments, to new people, new places.
Speaker: Was that hard for you, like, traveling around so much?
Speaker: Or you just kind of like adjust to it now?
Speaker: Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker: It's hard.
Speaker: I mean, it's hard on anybody.
Speaker: It just comes down to just...
Speaker: I mean, the best salespeople are those who are adaptable, bottom line.
Speaker: It's almost like the sales rep that asks, oh, do you sell more in rich areas or poor areas?
Speaker: My response is, it doesn't matter where you put me.
Speaker: I'm just going to go talk to people and I'm going to figure out how I need to adjust my presentation so these people will buy.
Speaker: And that's what it is.
Speaker: It's just adjusting.
Speaker: And just like anything in life, I think even in sales, right?
Speaker: You have to have like a skeleton, like an outline of what you're going to do for me.
Speaker: It comes down to my mornings.
Speaker: It comes down to how I wind down at the end of the day.
Speaker: And a big factor is the people who are around me.
Speaker: So if I can get around like really, really good high performing individuals, it makes it simpler on me to be able to adjust to the market, to adjust to where I'm at.
Speaker: If I'm the high producer and I'm, you know, the guy that people are supposed to look up to, then it's a little bit harder.
Speaker: And I got to put in more work behind the scenes.
Speaker: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: Yeah, that's why it's, I mean, some people aren't as good as that.
Speaker: I know for me, sometimes it's tough to be that way too, like the hype producer and be the best guy and everything.
Speaker: So for people that struggle, I mean, consider getting on a team where there are like hype producers and
Speaker: um people getting from them because that starts to wear at you i know there's times that at new power ricky where maybe we didn't have as many guys and stuff and then i knew going out in the car group that i was gonna have to be the one to actually like you know jump out of that car and go sell that day and yeah that's fine i did that for you know a long time but then it starts like wear on you if you're constantly having to be the one that has to get out and
Speaker: be the one to go hit that first door.
Speaker: So just something to consider for guys who are struggling, get some people that you don't have to drag everywhere and consider getting around like higher level people, which I know you're around high level people all the time traveling.
Speaker: So, I mean, in that case, it makes it simpler, makes it simpler for me to adjust, but dude, it's still hard.
Speaker: Like I've been in every time zone this month.
Speaker: Like I didn't realize that last night or actually this morning at breakfast, I was talking to this girl and I remembered that I was doing a podcast with you and I'm like, shoot, I can't remember what time is that?
Speaker: And then she's like, how do you not remember?
Speaker: I'm like, cause he's in California and I'm here.
Speaker: And then he just started talking and then I told him like, yeah, I think I've been in every time zone this month.
Speaker: And just like her face was like, what?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: how are you still functioning i know yeah i don't know how you do it i mean i mean rick will go to events and you're up like helping people all night talking getting back at three in the morning and then he's up at 6 a.m for a workout i'm like dude you're freaking nuts so you're a different breed man for sure
Speaker: But speaking of like events and stuff, Ricky, we've like we're talking about, we've been to a lot of events.
Speaker: We go to these things.
Speaker: I think we both have that mindset of learning, which is awesome and trying to make connections with people.
Speaker: So how have you, I don't know, what's your reasoning for going to all these events?
Speaker: And how do you feel like they've helped you and contributing you like up leveling and your success and everything?
Speaker: It goes back to when you and I were both at New Power.
Speaker: So I guess, for example, let's take a step back.
Speaker: John C. Maxwell in the 21 Laws of Leadership talks about the law of the lid.
Speaker: Your success will only be as high as your highest performer.
Speaker: or as high as your leadership, your management will allow you to get.
Speaker: Dude, we saw it.
Speaker: I mean, granted, we were trained by really good salespeople.
Speaker: But that's all we knew.
Speaker: So when I left and when we both left and we started going to these events, we re for me, I think I realized that there's so much more I can learn out there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'd be doing a disservice to myself if I just stuck with one form or one way of selling.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And no, it's cool to see you're so like abundant.
Speaker: Cause I mean, on your page, you're always promoting different people's like training programs and,
Speaker: trying to help guys out and, um, you know, making connections with guys.
Speaker: So that's another thing I wanted to ask you, like, how have you been able to just, I don't know, build all these connections?
Speaker: Cause it's not just like you've gone to the events and the courses, like everyone knows you, you can go up and talk to like Taylor McCarthy.
Speaker: Obviously you guys are super tight and you're helping them promote and, um, Koda Ivers, all these guys.
Speaker: So have you been able to like build these relationships with them and,
Speaker: Just kind of like, I don't know, put yourself out there on like the, not just, not just like the professional relationship, but you're like legit buddies with all these dudes and like hanging out with them and stuff.
Speaker: I guess.
Speaker: So, so the, so the key to build relationships for me is the, it's the value that I bring, right?
Speaker: Aside from like my page, the value that Rick brings,
Speaker: brings to the marketplace.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's just about adding value.
Speaker: Um, luckily for me, the, the platform that I have allows me to bring exit existential amount of value.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, so yeah, with like Coda Ivers, Pesce McCarthy, um, and even like recently, like Jake has, you know, like some of these people who I've been connecting with, it's like,
Speaker: What can I do?
Speaker: Because ultimately, you're right.
Speaker: You mentioned this a little bit earlier, this abundance mentality is there is no one perfect training course.
Speaker: There is no one perfect way of selling.
Speaker: You need to take a little bit of everything from everyone and apply it to make it your own.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So whether it is, you know, Sol Society, Noxstar, ODK, Solar Academy, I would say buy them all.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Especially like if you're in solar, here's my mindset behind it.
Speaker: This solar, solar is only going to be good for so long.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And recently I read a quote that says that if you're lazy and you're not working hard, it's because you're not grateful for the opportunity.
Speaker: So how many of us in five or 10 years down the road are going to look back and think, dude, I should have done more, man.
Speaker: I missed out.
Speaker: I do it all the time because we, we had, um, we had an option back in the day called green day.
Speaker: You, you remember that?
Speaker: uh no i don't actually was that a new power yeah dude it was that new power so i think so what it was was a super simple ppa it was through cpf or like clean clean power finance it was like before sunrun and sonova became super huge in the marketplace yeah you can legit go in and sign them up same day within 20 minutes
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Maybe that was before I was there.
Speaker: I don't remember that.
Speaker: It was like 2015, I think.
Speaker: 2015, 2016, somewhere around there.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Anyways, dude, like, I kick myself in the foot so much because I saw a little pocket in Temecula where I did like three same days.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And I called it good for like a week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's what people do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But dude, like, like looking back on it, like, yeah, like why, that's why I work so hard, bro.
Speaker: It's because I saw the upper, I see the opportunity that I had.
Speaker: I was a lazy bastard.
Speaker: I settled for three same days and I'm like, no dude, I'm good.
Speaker: I made enough money to go dick around for a little bit, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: It's so easy to do that though.
Speaker: And just like, I don't know.
Speaker: That's another thing to your point before.
Speaker: I think that's another reason why it's important to go to events.
Speaker: And surround yourself by higher level people because like where we used to think maybe three same days was like unreal good.
Speaker: Now we go to a knock star event and Taylor McCarthy did five deals in a day.
Speaker: Probably made, I don't know, like 30, 40 grand or whatever in a day.
Speaker: So it's like getting around these higher level people.
Speaker: You think you're doing good then.
Speaker: It's like go join some of these competitions.
Speaker: Go join Noxstar.
Speaker: Go get in some of these groups.
Speaker: Then you're really going to see guys who are doing insane amounts of deals.
Speaker: Yeah, this stuff blows my mind, like going to the events.
Speaker: Was your mind not blown at some of these events, seeing the numbers some of these guys were putting up?
Speaker: No doubt, dude.
Speaker: Dude, sometimes, and here's the crazy thing is you bring up McCarthy.
Speaker: Dude, sometimes McCarthy will text me when he's not being active on social media.
Speaker: He's like, bro, I just threw down four same days.
Speaker: I'm like, are you kidding me, bro?
Speaker: It's no big deal, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, dude, he just texts me and he's like, bro, I went out and I did this, I tried out this new thing, I got four same days, bro.
Speaker: I'm like, what the?
Speaker: What?
Speaker: I know, it's crazy.
Speaker: But it comes down to this.
Speaker: So going back to the training, I distinctly remember the same day or like the week that I got those three same days in Temecula.
Speaker: We had just learned a new way of like trying to get inside the home.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I did it.
Speaker: So the reason why I say buy up all these training programs is because the reason sales reps become, I think stagnant is because they have nothing else to apply and they think that they know it all.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you take one thing from this course and you go and you apply it today, as you do it and you see it work, it creates this level of excitement.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And you want to do it over and over and over again, right?
Speaker: But that one thing is going to get boring after a while.
Speaker: The same way like a kid gets bored with its toys, they go and they find a new toy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So start, start learning different things to apply.
Speaker: But if you only have one, like your company training, how fast are you going to go through that, that, that training platform?
Speaker: Pretty damn fast.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And if that person is on, can like, if that person's best month is like 20 deals in a month, then you're now limited to 20 deals in a month.
Speaker: It makes it so much harder to get 2021 deals in the month.
Speaker: But if you started learning from all these different people, all these different courses, you start investing in yourself.
Speaker: Now you're going to raise that lid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Super powerful stuff.
Speaker: And that's why I respect people like you, like River.
Speaker: Like I just saw River post a few weeks ago that he went and, or maybe it was last month or something, but he goes and buys his door-to-door U. Like he's, I mean, he's producing at a high level.
Speaker: He's closing tons of deals and guys like you and him, you're still looking for ways to level up and improve and
Speaker: Ricky's at every single, you know, knock star event and everything.
Speaker: And like, you probably have half the stuff McCarthy says memorized at this point.
Speaker: Cause I know you talk to him so much and had him on your podcast and everything, but no, it's huge.
Speaker: Just invest in yourself.
Speaker: And that's what we're trying to do at soul society too, um, is just bring in guys that are producing.
Speaker: It's not just my training course, but we're bringing in guys who are producing at a high level, um,
Speaker: The J. Kessis, the McCarthy's, they're all on there and we're trying to get them in one place and keep adding content monthly.
Speaker: So it keeps it fresh because I think that's what guys need.
Speaker: And that's how, like you said, that's how they can keep themselves from getting stagnant and just falling back into old habits.
Speaker: They're investing in themselves and trying to improve.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, speaking of all that, Rick, I know you travel around as we talked about all the time and you're seeing teams that, uh, maybe you're seeing good and bad, but I know you're traveling to a lot of high level teams.
Speaker: So as in your, uh, travels there with the Martinez circus, have you seen anything that teams are doing, uh, to be successful or anything you notice, um, and in your, all your travels going to these different teams?
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Leadership, first and foremost.
Speaker: Dude, it comes down to the leadership, really.
Speaker: Management, how well management does.
Speaker: For me, the key to a good manager or a leader
Speaker: There's someone who continuously works on themselves.
Speaker: Actually, here's one thing that really sticks out to me.
Speaker: Mo Fala recently, I think is on my podcast or your podcast, but he talks about when you become a leader, you become an owner, you no longer, these people no longer work for you.
Speaker: You work for them.
Speaker: Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker: I think a leader that can instill that, that they work for other people and they work for their people.
Speaker: right yeah um i've been in situations and i've dude i've been in closes where like i've seen closers drop the price down to beat out a bid um and i've been in situations where like the closer will do whatever it takes for the setter to get paid yeah that's awesome you know
Speaker: And after we talk about it and the, yeah, the closer is going to make like two, 300 bucks.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because they, they, they had to, they had to leverage the price so the setter can make their pay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's important though.
Speaker: Taking care of your, you know, team, your setters, they're the ones that are, you know, feeding the golden goose.
Speaker: They're the ones that are helping you get paid.
Speaker: So that is important.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And I mean, on the flip side, like even seeing some of the setters, it's like, dude, some of the setters have it really well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I guess just this congruent or this fluid dynamic between setters and closers is really good.
Speaker: Really important to have.
Speaker: No one is more important than the other because it's
Speaker: I mean, I've been there, dude.
Speaker: I mean, realistically, what happens if, I know you, Taylor, will go out and knock if you need a knock, but you're going to be like, dude, what the heck?
Speaker: But dude, there is so many closers in this industry who are so freaking spoiled that they won't even go knock.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: So they just expect deals to come their way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know it's a problem for sure.
Speaker: Easy to get complacents, especially if they're running setter closer models and they're getting fed deals.
Speaker: It's like, oh, I got two hours.
Speaker: This is what I was doing when probably last time we were working together, Rick, because Rick was actually a setter at the time and he was feeding me lots of deals.
Speaker: So if I had like a two hour break, I'm just going to wait for Rick to go get another same day or give me an appointment.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Go grab lunch.
Speaker: Go look at some memes.
Speaker: Go hang out for a little bit.
Speaker: So yeah, it's super easy to get complacent.
Speaker: And I'm sure you'd agree the best people in the industry though, they're not, yeah, they're, I'm sure they're getting deals too.
Speaker: But like Michael Donald talks about this, how between deals he's going and getting a no on the doors.
Speaker: He's not waiting for the next deal.
Speaker: He's getting fed lots of deals.
Speaker: I know, but between his appointments, if he doesn't have anything, he's going to go, he's going to get at least a couple of nos before he goes on to his next thing.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, that's what the top guys are doing.
Speaker: They're not waiting around for the next deal.
Speaker: They're going after, you know, their own appointments too and, and keeping up with it.
Speaker: So good, uh, good stuff right there.
Speaker: Well, Ricky, I know you're a busy guy out in Texas.
Speaker: Um, so I want to be respectful of your time.
Speaker: I know you got memes to create and, uh,
Speaker: you know, places to be and all that.
Speaker: But before we have maybe one or two other questions, do you want to tell people if they don't already know, they might be living under a rock if you don't know where to connect with Rick at this point, but
Speaker: Do you want to, I don't know, drop where people can connect with you and anything else you're working on?
Speaker: Yeah, so I'm mostly active on Instagram.
Speaker: I'm mostly known for the No Soliciting Bro meme page.
Speaker: It's just at No Soliciting Bro on Instagram.
Speaker: My personal Instagram is Rick.Martinez with two Z's, M-A-R-T-I-N-E-Z-Z.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm more active on Instagram.
Speaker: I have a Facebook, a Twitter, and a LinkedIn, but I don't ever check those.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, who checks all that stuff?
Speaker: The boring social medias, so.
Speaker: Okay, well, cool.
Speaker: Well, Rick, we love having you on.
Speaker: And my last kind of question that I was thinking of, anything you've seen to like not do to like, I don't know, a successful person in door to door, what do you think they're staying away from?
Speaker: Or what do you think they're like cutting out of their lives to be successful?
Speaker: Anything you have to say about that?
Speaker: I would say the most successful people that I know.
Speaker: Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker: what are they cutting out or what are they adding, right?
Speaker: Yeah, what are they cutting out and what are they not doing?
Speaker: Or if you can think of stuff, you can throw that to whatever.
Speaker: There's so many.
Speaker: I would say things that take your time away from your craft.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Time, time management is huge for a lot of the most successful people that I've seen.
Speaker: And I think I've been around just about all of them in a, in like in, in a personal level to where they have a, they have a schedule.
Speaker: They have, if, if they don't have like a legit broken down schedule, they have an idea and they know where they, where they need to be at what time.
Speaker: The more successful people that I've met carry almost an hour by hour schedule.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And they plan the night before what they're going to do.
Speaker: And then the next day, they confirm their plans by what comes up the next day.
Speaker: I think the most successful people that I know don't leave anything up to chance.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's money.
Speaker: Yeah, another thing is like, I don't know if you've done this before, Rick, but just doing like a time analysis.
Speaker: That's something that I've seen, you know, top guys do because I think the big problem is a lot of people don't even know where they're spending their time, wasting their time.
Speaker: They think they were, I don't know, maybe knocking for six hours when really it was like they knocked, they spent 15 minutes on Instagram.
Speaker: Then they knocked a few more doors.
Speaker: They went and found a gas station.
Speaker: They might not even know that in their heads.
Speaker: So if you're struggling, that's, I think, another huge key is figure out what you're doing.
Speaker: Do a time study.
Speaker: Write down for 15 minutes every 15, 20 minutes of the day exactly what you did.
Speaker: And then that's going to tell you the truth.
Speaker: It's like tracking your progress in the gym, too, or tracking your sets.
Speaker: You can't really know what to improve if you don't even know what you did and kept track of it.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Important stuff.
Speaker: Warwick, I know you got to go hit some doors and stuff, but any last words of advice you want to share with someone with a rep specifically in solar?
Speaker: I know you're in the solar mindset.
Speaker: Any final words you want to share?
Speaker: Don't miss out on this opportunity.
Speaker: So recently I was in a team meeting and it's the same that Rob taught us a few years ago.
Speaker: Good old Rob.
Speaker: He talked about two things, right?
Speaker: Life is going to be hard no matter what.
Speaker: It's just which hard you want it to be.
Speaker: It comes down to two pains, the pains of discipline or the pain of regret.
Speaker: Especially if you're working in these markets with high utility rates, you cannot afford to not be disciplined.
Speaker: You cannot afford to take time off because this time will come and it will come faster than you think.
Speaker: And then you're going to be looking back and you're going to be looking at your bank account and you're going to be like, I could have worked so much harder.
Speaker: I missed out on such a huge opportunity.
Speaker: Or you're going to be sitting on investments on whatever it may be and your bank account is going to be exactly where you want it to be, if not more.
Speaker: And you're going to think like, damn, like that discipline and that pain of making that sacrifice was worth it.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: I know for me, I've lived through regret and I'm not going to do it again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: That's fire.
Speaker: Perfect way to end.
Speaker: So for our solopreneurs, think about that next time you're struggling to get out on the doors, you're struggling to, I don't know, show up to your next appointment.
Speaker: Would you rather have that pain and go through it right now?
Speaker: Or would you rather look back and have the pain of knowing you didn't push as hard as you could have?
Speaker: So Rick, thanks for coming on today.
Speaker: Everyone go give Rick a shout out.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated his content.
Speaker: And more importantly, go follow him on his meme page if you're not already.
Speaker: But let's be honest, you should.
Speaker: So Rick, thanks again for coming on and we will talk to you soon.
Speaker: My man.
Speaker: Sweet.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Appreciate it, brother.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Peace.
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