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Losing $4M in Solar and Bouncing Back Stronger Than Ever
300 Plays1 month ago
Alexander Smith is back on today's podcast to share his mindset and growth from crushing setbacks during the establishment of Spartan Solar. From utilizing a variable chain of installers, he made the ultimate "do-it-yourself" move by handling the scale of deals and installs simultaneously: improving quality control and ease of use for his reps and customers.
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Transcript
Introduction and Taylor's Journey
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 fell.
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.
Reunion with Alex Smith
00:00:41
Speaker
All what's going on, solopreneurs? We are back with someone that is one of my favorite guests all time on the podcast. And this guy, it's been, i think, about three years since we last did a podcast. So super honored to bring back for the second time, Mr. Alex Smith. He is the CEO, founder of ah Spartan Solar. And thanks for coming back on the show with us today, Alex.
Industry Changes and Challenges
00:01:04
Speaker
We're back, baby. Actually, was just thinking about i think it. was I think it was closer to four years ago. Was it? Holy cow. Yeah, it's been a minute since Key West. Yeah, it's crazy. A lot has changed. Yeah, that was a fun event, man. I remember we did it in the, I think it was one of the Noxstar events at that like MTV house. And it was a good time.
00:01:23
Speaker
Brad, the whole camera guy. was cool time. industry The solar industry was definitely ah coming together a little bit more, right? Different companies, different leaders, different people, through people you know like Taylor McCarthy, Danny Pesce, Noxstar.
00:01:36
Speaker
There was this brief moment at where people had a lot more, there was a lot of camaraderie for the first time in the industry. Yeah, and we're coming now. It's ah you know a lot different times from them. I feel like ah you know at that time, there's a ton of excitement around solar.
Content Over Production
00:01:50
Speaker
feel like it's kind of the gold rush. Now, you know there's still tons of money to be made in solar, but ah we're coming off a year where at least, i don't I'm sure you'd say the same, but at least where I'm at, there was a lot of people that uncertainty, a lot of people left the industry. you know I'm seeing positive things again, hoping it's only up from here. But ah yeah, definitely different than when we did the first podcast.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah. And then I guess this podcast will be a little bit lower budget than last time we had your we but like ah three cameras. But yeah, it works, man. Still got two people talking. That's all you need. I don't know. i'm from four years.
Spartan Solar's Evolution
00:02:25
Speaker
I mean, I know probably take probably take ah two days of recording podcasts to update the audience on everything that's happened. But ah I don't know. What would you say are some of the bigger changes that have happened since ah we last talked from four years ago or, you know, revolutions you've seen?
00:02:40
Speaker
give the big highlights on my side and the what I've seen in the industry. so When we first had our podcast, Spartan Solar you know just launched. right It was just starting to get traction and make a name for itself.
00:02:51
Speaker
you know I went from being in an industry working as a leader, a sales leader, and two other companies prior to starting my own company and going through that learning curve. right and
Financial Struggles and Rebuilding
00:03:00
Speaker
That learning curve isn't crazy steep. You're just going from selling and building teams to selling and building teams, but now maybe running payroll, right? Having some of the tech.
00:03:09
Speaker
And so the evolution was gradual for me, right? It was like picking up new pieces that you didn't have to deal with before. And then something I got really addicted to was like building systems to make things better.
00:03:21
Speaker
right Because as you evolve as a leader, you start to run into redundancies or pattern problems or issues that arise or things you have to just do on a regular basis. And you can do it like everybody else.
00:03:32
Speaker
And you can do like you've always done it and always seen it right So commissions is one example, right where you just put in a sheet Google Sheet, you send a PDF, it's in an email. you know Historically, how you've seen a lot of people do it.
00:03:42
Speaker
Or you could grab that and be like, I don't really like this. I don't think this is the best way to do it. Maybe I could build tech and create a better solution. So as we've evolved as a company, we really became a very tech forward company. So we yeah you know have my CTO, I have my lead design, my product manager, we have, I think, eight developers, multiple designers. And so we really started pushing on creating solutions ourselves. Because there's this build versus buy mentality, right? You have knocking apps, you have proposal tools.
00:04:09
Speaker
A lot of things that I don't really want to create myself because a lot of people are in that space and great options already exist that you can just buy. But then there was a lot of pieces of the puzzle that you couldn't buy out of the box or the version of it wasn't what I was looking for because I tried a couple of them. So I just started to learn how to build my own software, how to build my own tech and be able to bring some of my vision to reality. Became really, really fun, right? Because it's like, ah, this is how you create a real company, not just a company that sells solar, a company that has infrastructure, has systems. So, you know, theoretical theoretically, you could add 500 people tomorrow and it could be a great experience for all 500 people.
00:04:47
Speaker
And tech is the only really way to do that. So from we last talked, a big emphasis over the years was building up tech and software, built out Optimus and now Spartan Leads and a few other pieces of software that's coming live soon.
00:04:58
Speaker
And that's given us a huge advantage. I ended up investing a lot of cash into that, a lot of time, money and energy, where a lot of owners, I think, were stripping cash out of the business, right? When cash was good, everyone wants to get paid. I don't think I just knew better. I didn't really know to pay myself, I guess, at that time. didn't really...
00:05:13
Speaker
paying myself. I didn't really think the way I think now. But back then, it was all about like building something special, building something unique. And that pursuit was the addiction. And so built a lot of tech, built a lot of software, where we became you know a dealer at scale. Last year, we got up to seven and a half megawatts a month. So we started to do pre pretty substantial volume.
00:05:32
Speaker
And you know I went in with a philosophy after you know one installer going out of business and really hurting my business, how to rebuild from scratch one of those one time after we met. I had to really rebuild from scratch back out of the trenches.
00:05:44
Speaker
And I remember thinking, you know what? Optionality, right? Diversification. Let's become risk adverse. let's Let's not put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak. And I thought that was like the end all be all. like This is genius. You know what mean? And it's very complicated to do that, right? A ton of different processes, tons of different installers, tons of different experiences, ah different pay. Everything is just different and variable, which was very difficult So it scaled that up and it turns out you can actually not get paid by like five installers all at once. So ended up losing millions and millions and millions of dollars toward the end of not this past year, but the previous year.
00:06:20
Speaker
And it actually got to a place where I'm like, dude, I can't, I don't know if i could do this anymore because I'm betting on hope, right? No matter how good I can be at building tech, building frontline sales, building teams and in infrastructure.
00:06:33
Speaker
If the backend, right the install timelines, the homeowner experience, the pay, right the adders, yada, yadda yada. If that side doesn't create equal or greater value than the front side, eventually that differential explodes it. right You lose people, you end up in a retention fight, and then you end up trying to just like build your way out of the problem, you know like recruit your way out of the issue, which is not fun at all, it's a hamster wheel.
00:06:59
Speaker
And so that started happening, you know what i mean? Because when you're not getting paid from various installers and you're like, oh man, this guy's not paying, okay? And now this other installer's not paying? Why is this guy not paying? Why are these delayed? What's their excuse? And then this other guy doesn't pay? And then what are your options, right? You can go sue people, you can go arbitration, and I'm doing that ah behind the scenes. That's just this long, ugly process that doesn't move anyone forward or anything forward or solve any problems live time, right, at all.
00:07:27
Speaker
And so toward the end of 2024, that was what I was dealing with. And it was probably the most painful Christmas and Thanksgiving of my life, period. a lot of people don't know it because i haven't really talked about at all just because, i mean, dude, when you're in the trenches and you're trying to come out of it, like you just figure out as a man how to do better, get better, and you can't sit and create a pity party.
00:07:50
Speaker
it doesn't it doesn't It doesn't get anyone paid. It doesn't fix any problems. But now that we're out on the other side of it, and last year was my, which is crazy because, and I think anyone should think about this for a second, you you can drastically change your life in one year.
00:08:03
Speaker
yeah And i'm I'm like living proof of it, especially as you acquire a skill set that you can leverage. And it went from being, again, worst Christmas, Thanksgiving of my life. i remember I was in Park City, actually, snowboarding, just miserable, right? Like for brief moments on the mountain, I enjoyed it because I was in fresh powder.
00:08:20
Speaker
And then reality would hit of like, everyone blowing me up over the holidays, not getting paid. and it was just
Achieving Success
00:08:25
Speaker
It was just not fun at all to be there. Everything was like a dark cloud looming over it.
00:08:32
Speaker
And so I had to make a decision. right Do I want to just keep betting on hope and keep hoping other people figure it out or become an installer and do the whole thing? And the install side, I said I would never do because of all the liability. you know How many companies have tried to become an installer? And then how's that gone? You know what i mean?
00:08:46
Speaker
Historically, it hasn't gone too well ah for a lot of companies because it sounds great in theory, but the reality of execution is different. But luckily, I ended up meeting my business partner who had a lot of experience in that lane. We partnered up, started Spartan X in 2025.
00:09:02
Speaker
And we scaled from nothing, right? No installs. So now we're doing 75 installs a week or so. ah And all internal, all in-house. And we're in nine states. In my opinion, we've done like more or less the impossible. I was talking to Lightreach executives the other day, and we're currently the third largest partner in Lightreach out of 700 plus partners.
00:09:20
Speaker
But we're number one on compliance and quality control, which is the most important thing right now in today's day and age is like, making sure there's no fraud, there's no issues. like How do you prevent that from happening? How do you create a system that ensures that all jobs that are sold are in the best interest of the consumer at scale? like That's the name of the game right now. Can you do that? Can you create that framework? And that's where we put ah a lot of intentionality behind right in the beginning of starting Spartan X because we know that's the whip that kills a lot of companies. And I'm sure you've seen it before.
00:09:48
Speaker
yeah But defunds, clawbacks, you know all these consumer complaints. And we have none of that, which is amazing because I've never seen it at this level in Light Reach, when I was talking the executives, they were like, when you said you were becoming an installer, we would have put all our money on shorting your stock in the beginning.
00:10:06
Speaker
like We would have shorted the Spartan Solar stock 100% because we've seen it happen before, right? and Where it goes. you know they They can get the glass on the roof, but they can't pass inspection or get fast PTOs. And Now they're like, we couldn't put enough money on Spartan Solar.
00:10:19
Speaker
You have the best stock in the industry currently, is basically what they're saying. We managed to achieve their highest tier in quality control, highest tier in compliance. you know Soon we'll be the number one partner on volume two. So to put all that together inside of a year or a year and a half for the number one spot ah you know has been very satisfying. And so the transition for me from dealer, right, owning a dealership at scale to owning an installer has been like 2025 was the best year of my life by a landslide.
00:10:46
Speaker
This was the best Christmas, Thanksgiving of my life. This the most everyone in my company's made. This the most you know profitable the company's ever been. We have 24 months of cash and reserves, meaning like most companies have a two to four week runway of cash.
00:11:01
Speaker
Meaning if no money comes in, um they're out of business within four weeks. They can't afford their operational burn for four weeks. That's very common in the industry, in construction in general. We have 24 months of cash reserves, meaning we could have no dollars hit our bank account for the next 24 months, no new sales.
00:11:17
Speaker
And we could pay for everyone in operations, everyone in field for the next 24 months without missing a beat. And that level of security and safety is like something I've never had before.
00:11:28
Speaker
And having that kind of like reserve and those resources has allowed us to like build out Spartan leads, all this new tech, all these new processes, have cash to make sure that everyone's protected and there's job security and there's the ability to get promoted you know on the W2 side, on the operation side. And so you know I'll take all of the challenges we have to overcome. We have an amazing team operations too. like Great companies are truly just made of great people.
00:11:53
Speaker
like How can you create a health culture that attracts great people? That's really the name of the game on operations. Because learning the W2 world, learning the field world, that's a different beast. I'm ah um' a sales leader. You know what I mean I built sales team, very singular focus in the whole career. So it's been you know it's ah it's been a little bit of a learning curve. But luckily, I have, I think, some of the greatest partners to you know bring it to life. and I'm just kind of learning how it's done. right If anything, I'm just ah just watching it happen so I can become a better leader myself.
00:12:20
Speaker
But they're the ones executing on the operational side. you know Being in the position we're in now as a company, I feel like we're you know more or less indestructible financially, which is what I've always wanted. but So now we can just play our game. And I'll take all of the challenges have to overcome on in field, right the in spec, everything you have to overcome in the field side and the W2 installer side.
00:12:42
Speaker
I'll take that all day long over the challenges of being a dealer at scale. Working with a installers, all with different processes, all with different ownership, all with different interests, all with different initiatives, and then trying to make all of that work inside of your thing, that was the most stressful, challenging operation I've ever ran. So this is significantly easier. you know what I mean? We have a lot greater people, but this is way, way more fun because I can solve all my own problems as opposed to just hoping an installer will solve the problem I bring up to them.
00:13:13
Speaker
I can just go solve them all myself. we have the team to solve it. you know I know 2025 was a rough year for a lot of people. I cannot relate. It was the best year of my life by not just like a little bit, probably like a 15X. Wow. That's incredible, bro. Huge congrat congrats on your success, man. that's that's ah That's a crazy story, crazy up and down you had. It always makes me think, ah you know I've had smaller problems than that. I went through a similar thing. you know i never was I never had my own dealer, but... Yeah, my previous dealer, i was at a similar thing. I wasn't paid out about a hundred grand that I was expecting. It was right when we were trying to buy a house. And um yeah, I mean, my problems, they seem like nothing compared to yours. I can't imagine it being like multiple millions of dollars. in And you know this was just me not getting paid out. Exactly.
00:14:07
Speaker
So yeah, i'm insane. And I'm sure it's the level level of stress that, you know, I'm sure you had reps hitting you up like crazy. You're trying to like enjoy snowboarding and stuff like that. So I can't even imagine, bro. That's a lot of stress too to have.
00:14:20
Speaker
um But I know people have gone through it. Yeah, I've seen like just on our own own team last year, I saw two or three guys that their solar career literally ended because of clawbacks and just them not being able to deal with that yeah and just like getting sick of the solar game. So they're like, I'm done with it.
00:14:38
Speaker
So for you, it's really cool to see that you didn't let it. um and I'm sure it was really hard, but you just like came back even stronger and like you said, had the best year of your life, 2025. So what is speaking maybe to those reps that are going through similar things, I don't think anyone's gone through.
00:14:54
Speaker
Very, very few people have gone through what you have where it's been like multiple millions of dollars not paid out. um So maybe speaking to reps that are going through something similar on us on a smaller level, what would you say? What was like, i don't know, what type of mindset did you have to have to like get through this? And ah I don't know, what what do you say to those people that are going through maybe a c callback or something that did that that stuff like that? How'd you get
Strategies for Resilience
00:15:20
Speaker
through it?
00:15:20
Speaker
So ah there's a saying I really like to think about, which is if you have hope in the future, you have power in the present, right? So how can you create hope in your future? How can you create certainty? How can you make sure the thing that you're going through right now, you change the variables, you change your operating system, how you move, what you do, to where the likelihood of it happening again is is near zero, right? So like, one, you have to look at your problem, your situation, whatever that problem may be, and I know you're like, hey, it was you know only 100 grand for me and millions for you, but like whatever your biggest problem you're going through at that moment is exactly that. My biggest problem is my biggest problem. Your biggest problem is your biggest problem.
00:15:58
Speaker
They're equal, right? Because they're your greatest adversity, right? It's my greatest adversity. I like to read books like Elon Musk, the story of WeWorks, which is We Crash, Super Pump, the story of Uber. I like to read and and watch those kind of movies because I see problems and adversity at a whole new scale that other people have gone through. So it makes everything in relativity like nothing, right? Just like you described by yourself, it's like,
00:16:22
Speaker
ah This is drop in the pan versus what this guy had overcome. so that That one like creates some... you know It doesn't make it... Because if you're a five-year-old and you get your toy stripped from you, that five-year-old's going to freak out and scream bloody murder like he just lost everything. Because that is everything to the five-year-old. So it's no different than when you're an adult losing everything or having your biggest you know moment of adversity. So the faster you can have other perspective, the better. So get perspective from others, which is why even listening to a podcast like this could be nice because like oh man, that's only a $20,000 problem.
00:16:55
Speaker
That guy had a $5 million dollars problem. For me, I'm like, that guy had a billion dollar problem. You know what I that's number one is i get real with yourself for a second. It's not the end of the world. Number two is like we're all just monkeys floating around with a plan. Like the second you realize that life's not that serious, that you should take things seriously, but it's not that serious. Like we all have a plan we believe will work.
00:17:15
Speaker
And then sometimes we get punched in the face and it doesn't quite go the way we thought it would. And that's okay. Like we can accept that. We don't have sit in that and wallow in it. We don't have to complain about it. We don't have to create a pity party for it. We just can understand that's the way of the universe so long as moving forward, we create a better plan.
00:17:32
Speaker
It's like my evolution was I had to go from, you know at first when I had one installer go out, lost you know one to two million. I was like let me go create a better plan. What was my better plan? Multiple installers. you know Risk adverse, diversification. that worked for you know That solved my problem for about a year and a half, which was awesome. A lot of wins for a year and a half straight.
00:17:53
Speaker
So I solved that immediate problem. And then I ran into you know the industry shifting and four or five installers going out. or going, you know not paying and all these other problems. And I'm like, holy crap, this is a whole new problem I thought I already solved. How do I solve this one? The only option for me at that moment is to become an installer and control the funding in the install.
00:18:13
Speaker
So I had to make that pivot, right? So like when you have the problem you're confronted with, what pivot do you make? And that pivot might solve your issue for, a period of time and then a new thing will arise. and That's on you if you're the man or woman of the moment to seize that moment and overcome that moment.
00:18:31
Speaker
Because most people die in that moment. and If you can overcome that moment when it arises, that's what creates the greatest version of you. That's what creates the most profitable version of you. That's what creates all the value that you're hunting for. How do you make your dreams come true? Right now, i'm living my dream.
00:18:46
Speaker
Like what I've been working for for 10 years of my life, you know, going through trials and tribulations at scales of which a lot of people haven't. And, you know, bleeding, dying for it, crying for it. And finally, everything I've ever dreamed of is actualizing right now. So I'm in my dream. I'm in the moment, right? I'm literally in the moment I've always dreamed of. Everything's flowing better than I could have ever imagined.
00:19:09
Speaker
And it's all going ah in a direction like, ah it's like, I can't believe I'm the guy right now Like I'm in that position. I almost, it's like, gives me chills. i'm like, I'm there. I'm in my fucking mar dream, dude. You know what i mean?
00:19:22
Speaker
But you don't get into your dream until you do some big shit and go through some big shit. Like I had to go through each one of those. And if you know that, you know, each moment of adversity creates the version of you worthy of something greater, right? You're just stacking these bricks, brick after brick. And they always suck. Don't get me wrong. It sucks every time it happens.
00:19:46
Speaker
And I'm at that point now where i'm like, I'm not willing to go through that again. you know what I mean? That's why I had to grab all the controls, right? i had to grab every control under my umbrella to make sure that if anyone's gonna screw me, it's gonna be me at this point. You know what I'm saying?
00:20:01
Speaker
So my advice to everybody else is just, you know, it's it's long-winded, but I think it's important to know, like, all of it's necessary. You must adapt and pivot. You must become better in the process.
00:20:11
Speaker
It is the reason you will become better in a lot of cases. And oftentimes, the adversity creates the gift of fast growth, right, because it forces you to grow quickly. And adversity also makes you become the man worthy of something greater.
00:20:26
Speaker
And so you shouldn't want to continue to have more adversity, though. There's no desire for You shouldn't pray for it. You really shouldn't, because it could sound like it's a you know a good thing. ah But you should make the changes necessary to where that problem no longer appears.
00:20:41
Speaker
And then a new problem will appear. And guess what? You should expect it because that's how the freaking world works. The closer you get to what you want in life, the more resistance you're going to experience.
00:20:52
Speaker
The universe wants to know, do you really want it? Are you sure you want it? Because I will die for it. And so who's the universe going to reward, me or you, right? If I'm willing to die for it, and i mean that, like you could, you had to strip this opportunity out of my cold, dead hands, right? How I operate on a daily basis, that's how I function.
00:21:09
Speaker
Is that going to reward me that operates under that level of clarity, that level of certainty, that level of conviction, or the person that does not have that? The person that ah easily loses sight in the darkness, right? You have to be see in the dark.
00:21:24
Speaker
And so decide who you are, right? and Understand all these pieces of the puzzle are necessary to create the masterpiece in the end. And then maybe, just maybe, if you're ever so lucky, you might find yourself in your own dream.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's so good, brother. Yeah, and it just makes me think of
Learning from Adversity
00:21:40
Speaker
like, if you think of all your competitors out there, if they never had to go through problems like this, but you did when they encountered the problems or when you're when you're going head to head with your competitors and you've gone through all this stuff to get there, but they've had like an easier road,
00:21:53
Speaker
who's going to win at the end of it. Probably the person that had to go through all the bumps in the road to get there. cause it's like they know how to deal with problems like that better. but Perfect. right Another and little example in that, right? It's like, okay, what's what's another issue in the industry?
00:22:08
Speaker
um Seasonality, right? Especially when you have colder markets, you see a big slowdown in November, December, January, February, right? yeah And that's really what kills a lot of installers.
00:22:19
Speaker
So if you've gone through that pain before, but now you're, and know, for me, now I'm the installer, I'm like, how do I make sure that doesn't happen? You have to create better processes to avoid the adversity. You have to, like, if you know it's inevitable, how do you solve it?
00:22:32
Speaker
It's like, that's when I decided to build Spartan Leads. And now that's scaling to, you know, soon to be a couple hundred accounts a month coming just from Leads online. Virtual set to in-home close to get our closers paid a ton of cash, right?
00:22:44
Speaker
While at the same time, like they have triple confirmed appointments they go to. And obviously, that's awesome for the closer, for the leader. like It's a huge tool, right? Almost nobody has a full calendar stack every day. like Very few people can offer that. We can offer that.
00:22:57
Speaker
So that's amazing. But like not only is it amazing for them, it's really great for the company. Because here in December, we only dipped 10%, 15% in total production from summer months. wow January we're pacing for a month. So like that's very important for us as an installer because that keeps you know the field crews busy, that keeps ops fed, that creates that conviction because operations, know if you know this, Taylor, but like when they see dips in sales and stuff, they get really worried.
00:23:22
Speaker
Like, hey, what's going on? sales look because they They've seen the writing on the wall before. They've probably been part of a company that had to lay them off. And so you know just as important as is for us to continue to get fed, ops looks at all of that.
00:23:34
Speaker
So, you know as you've noticed, like you know issues in how the industry works or issues in how you work, let's go solve those problems. And that'll give you the advantage in the marketplace too. you're like Lo and behold, like that's how you start to build and a sturdier stool. You don't want just one leg of the stool. You want you know four legs of the stool that are all super rock solid strong so you don't have to go through the pain anymore. Yeah, that's so good. And yeah, it's in solar. I think at this point, pretty much everyone, you know, that's had success in solar that's been here a while has had to go through, you know, callbacks, not getting paid, ah some pretty big problems.
00:24:11
Speaker
You know, I can count maybe like... very few people on one hand probably that haven't had to deal with like some big clawbacks or you know not getting paid out or whatever so those people are lucky but you know that's more like exception than you know than than the norm here in solar and yeah even though uh i think it's russell brunson um but one of those big business guys I remember he was talking about how he doesn't accept people in his like, ah his, his like higher term mentorship or whatever. He's like, I'm not accepting people on that unless they've had like a bankruptcy or gone through like a failed business. Just as he was talking about how like the most successful business guys have typically had, you know, two, three like failed businesses before they find the one that has had a lot of success. Yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
So yeah, but no, I think that's a great point. The more you can just learn to like expect that you're going to have issues on the way and go through it, come out on the other side stronger. I think it's going to help a lot of guys listen to this and hopefully we help a rep out there that's maybe going through some problems to realize, hey, this is this could actually be a blessing if I push through it and then it come out stronger. going be that much better of a leader, being that much better helping my reps when they go through similar issues and come out stronger on the other side. So speaking of reps, though, Alex, um I'm sure it was tough when you ah when you didn't get paid out of these multiple millions.
00:25:31
Speaker
was curious, what did you do with your reps? Were you able to, don't know, still pay them some? Were you retaining them? Did lot people leave how did that, you know, with all your reps? That's the other piece, right? When you're a dealer, like you have very limited margin right on every single job. When you're that limited on margin, and then us as a dealer, we we're also the ones advancing all the M1s, so $1,000 M1s. So when you don't get paid on hundreds and hundreds of accounts, and you have all that M1 money out, plus you have limited margin, plus you have operational expense, you actually don't have a ton of cash to get yourself out of a problem. You're at a high risk. you know I think companies like Sunder literally just got saved by companies like SunPower. I don't think they had any margin or any EBITDA.
00:26:13
Speaker
I don't think they were profitable at all. I think they were losing money probably. And so a company like SunPower had to go in and save them because it's difficult to scale a dealership profitably. It really is, especially if you're trying to build the future. And then you have a bunch of little like, you know you get punched in the face this way, punched the face that way because you have uncontrollables because of all these different installers.
00:26:31
Speaker
So when I was going through that, it was like, the option to get people quote unquote paid on money we weren't getting paid from wasn't really there because we already paid out M1s. So of course we ended up having, you know we lost a ton of people.
00:26:43
Speaker
I actually you know had to take out five, $600,000 in credit lines on my name as a personal guarantor. I bet the freaking house this past year. I really bet the house. I bet it all. you know and If it didn't work out, this pivot, this change, ah you know the company wasn't just toast, I was toast. good thanks like I was willing to die for it though. you know what i mean I was willing to give it everything I had because I had hope in the future. Now that I knew we were going to wrangle in installs, I knew we could figure it out. I knew we could become great at it.
00:27:13
Speaker
You need that belief. so like I had to create that belief for myself and any people that wanted to stick by us and stay with Spartan. Right. So we ended up obviously losing a ton of people and not completely from scratch, but we did have to rebuild a lot, you know, this past year to get to where we're at now, where, you know, we're doing consistently, you know, four to five megawatts a month. And, you know, by summertime, we should be at 10 to 15 megawatts a month or so.
00:27:37
Speaker
ah this year, right? So we had to rebuild. So had to go through that again and go through that process because just naturally, right? When people are going through their adversity, a lot of people quit. A lot of people can't go through it. And then there's a lot of great leaders we have that, you know, were able to stomach some serious blows, you know? You know, thinking like,
00:27:54
Speaker
John Flowers, Manley, Ali. like There are some leaders that really specifically had you know installers that did not ah deliver on a lot of accounts. And see these leaders have composure and be able to push through without freaking out and go through the suck.
00:28:11
Speaker
I was just talking to one of my leaders, John Flowers, you know to the tune of like 100 plus installs they didn't get paid on as a team. um That's a lot, right? yeah And he never freaked out. He never lost his cool. He never put all the blame on me.
00:28:26
Speaker
know what I mean? He never like ah entered this death spiral, which a lot of people do when there's a big problem, right? Where they just start losing their shit and it doesn't solve any problems.
00:28:37
Speaker
He never did that. And he dwindled all the way down to like three, four guys. Yeah. And he stuck with me in January. You know what i mean? Stuck with me and was like willing to rebuild from scratch because he knew now Spartan was the installer and this was worth you know giving another push and getting what people were loyal to him to keep pushing as well.
00:28:54
Speaker
And this is just one example, right? I have other examples of this, but I think he's a great example for this because it's a pleasure to work with a leader like this. You know what mean? From my side, i was like, I'm grateful for him because the way he handled it allowed me to handle my stuff. It all worked really well together. Now was just texting him. talking about the phone over Christmas or Thanksgiving. was getting $50,000 that week something.
00:29:19
Speaker
like a fifty thousand dollars check that week or something I had another leader that was getting a $100,000 check like Thanksgiving week. wow and These guys are like you know they they they're in the same position as me. They almost can't believe the success they're having right now.
00:29:33
Speaker
and It was so cool to share that moment with them because... they went through it, right? They went through the worst of the worst and they came out on top and now they're making more money than they've before. They're guys that stuck with them are making more money than they've ever made before and they get to feel like I made the right decision. So my biggest driver is anyone that bets on me, I want to prove them so freaking right it hurts. yeah and I want to bring them to tears with the success they have because they stick with me. Because I will do whatever it takes to ensure that.
00:30:01
Speaker
And I want to give the same feeling but the opposite to anyone that bets against me, anyone that quits. I want to fill their life with regret. Not because I really want them to regret it and it's this ego thing. It's like I have this drive to prove you so wrong for thinking anything other than I will come out on top and those that are with me will win.
00:30:20
Speaker
I will prove you wrong. I will make sure I'm the winner at the end of this and anyone with me is the biggest winner at the end of this too. And so the people that bet like John Flowers on it, now they're winning bigger than they've ever won before.
00:30:31
Speaker
And it's just really cool to share that because we had to go through a lot of you know turmoil together and we had to all rebuild together. And then now it's like everyone's kind of joking about it because you know Flowers, for example,
00:30:42
Speaker
right it's like They're getting 30, 40 deals extra a month from Spartan Leads on top of what they're doing. So like they don't even have enough closers to handle it. They have a whole new problem. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, problem ever to have is what they're currently dealing with. So we just get a laugh about it now because it's like, could you imagine if you quit?
00:30:59
Speaker
Could you imagine if you were that guy that quit, dude? How happy are you that you're the freaking guy? You're the guy. You get to wake up knowing you're the guy. And because of that, everything you want is coming to life. And that's like my favorite conversation to have now.
00:31:11
Speaker
So yeah, lots transpired and some people stayed, some people quit. And well we'll see who the winner is at the end. Yeah, that's all that's awesome. And it's really cool to see the turnarounds. But ah yeah, like my experience, it was a similar thing. But you know, looking back, um I was kind of the opposite. Like i I stuck it out at a company where I kind of saw the writing on the wall, things were going bad.
00:31:35
Speaker
I think some of the leaders set some things up wrong with installers, things like that. So my experience was maybe a little bit the opposite. like I wish I would have left sooner, but like I can see on your end where you know obviously you turned it around. And I'm sure there's a lot of guys that did leave. They're like, dang, I should have trusted Alec. I should have gone through it. And it doesn't matter that I didn't get paid. And now you guys are having this massive success.
00:31:57
Speaker
So do you have any advice on that? Like maybe, I don't know, things you did or if you were in a similar position, maybe seeing like a sinking ship and all that, like what would you do or rep how how would you know to like, you know, be like, oh, I'm going to stick it out or leave.
00:32:13
Speaker
do you have any advice on that or things you did? I mean, it's a tough question. Number one, if there's smoke, there's fire. Right, so number one, if there's smoke, there is fire. So don't pretend that that fire doesn't exist and that smoke is you know just peered out of nowhere. There's probably something more serious going on within that company.
00:32:30
Speaker
ah So just, you know if you ignore the whispers, you will hear the screams. like These are just like you know mantras or little mental models I think about, right? So I don't forget the reality of any situation. and You have to remember that these things are real and where does it go from here? and what do you go Where do you go from there?
00:32:46
Speaker
So from there, it's like once you know there's smoke, if you can't get clarity around what's happening, right they don't clearly state it. If they're giving you a runaround or plan it off like it's all cool and not being vulnerable and real with you, that's when you get the hell out of there.
00:33:01
Speaker
okay right And if they are being vulnerable and real with you, then their next job as the leader is provide what's next. Like how does this get solved? How do we make sure this never happens again? And how do we come out on top? And how are we protected? And if that game plan is something you don't believe in, you get the hell out of there.
00:33:19
Speaker
Right. so you have have belief in the leader, belief in their new strategy. They have to be willing to be vulnerable and clear with you of what's going on. Right. Even if it hurts them to say it, if they're not willing to get to that level with you, you don't, they don't deserve to continue to have you in their, or you shouldn't stay in their organization.
00:33:36
Speaker
It's not a mutually beneficial relationship. You have what we call blind loyalty, which isn't good either. Loyalty good. Blind loyalty is bad. um So those are the things I would look out for is smoke, there's fire. If there's smoke, you need to get clarity around exactly what's happening.
00:33:48
Speaker
Why are we sending paper checks? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? yeah Why is this happening? And like if the answer is, oh, it's all fine, just this. like Okay, there's more to that. That's your big red flag.
00:34:00
Speaker
And then, okay, well, if you are vulnerable and you tell me exactly why, and i'm like, okay, that makes sense and I believe you. You know what i mean? Thank you for sharing that. What's the plan to make sure this goes away? What's the plan to make sure this never happens again? Because this is causing me a lot of friction.
00:34:13
Speaker
And if that plan is something you don't believe in, then you make your move. If you believe in it and you believe in that leader and they were vulnerable with you, well, then it might be the best decision to stick it out with them. like So for us, like obviously, had to be vulnerable. None of these installers are paying us. Here's what's happening. This is crap. Everyone's getting screwed. We're getting screwed. yeahda I had to be real about that.
00:34:31
Speaker
And then, but here's what we're going to do. We're going to launch our own installs. We're going to control the funding. We're going to control the installs. There's no more delayed timelines. We're going to have fast pay. we're going to make sure everything's taken care of. Like, this is how we're going to do it. This is who's running operations, you know, who's done over 35,000 installs a quarter. This is just running field. This is just doing this. You just see what I'm saying? Yeah. Like I was going to lay out the plan and it's like, for some, they're like, I can buy into that.
00:34:54
Speaker
And for others, they're like, I don't think they're going to pull it off. And then they quit. Right. And then that's how it all works. And that's how short. Yeah, that's good. I love that. And um yeah, I think definitely some of what was happening in my previous company, yeah, we weren't giving clarity on and I think I should have turned the other way. So i think that's really good advice. And, um you know, even at my current situation, there's been some stuff that hasn't gone great. We still work with multiple installers. We are just like you. We're starting to push our own installs a lot more and ah been some bumps, but it's starting to come out on the other side a lot better. But there's similar things like that where installers weren't paying, we had massive callbacks. I still had callbacks last year, not 100 grand callbacks, luckily, but still had callbacks. And um you know we had we were faced with, um luckily, the the leaders were transparent, and for like, hey, guys, these are callbacks we're having, this is why.
00:35:48
Speaker
And ah what they did to solve it is they started paying. And I think a lot of companies are doing this now, especially dealers, but they started shifting to not paying out 100% of the commission until M3 was achieved. Because that's where the callbacks were coming. is like you know you didn't have PTO on these things. And then the installers clawing people back because there was like weird stuff that was called out that they couldn't get PTO on.
00:36:11
Speaker
So a lot of reps were unhappy about it. They crap. 80%. Now they pay out like the rest of the 20% on the PTU. It's in the best interest of everybody because you should have an incentive from all the way from the sales rep to the leader to the company you know yeah to get that thing to the final step sometimes the reps need Sometimes the homeowner's need it. Sometimes the company's need it you know and field's need it. So everyone should be tied to that. So it is the right thing to do. So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San
Tools and Innovations in Solar
00:36:44
Speaker
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.
00:36:51
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 Solar Scout. 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 canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:37:14
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.
00:37:29
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.
00:37:42
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. Yeah. Yeah, so that was good. And then another thing that some our good the summer guys weren't happy about is just... you know It used to be um every install where you getting paid typically like the week after an install right away. But now there's a lot of cases where you don't get M2 funding until you know maybe there's stuff that wasn't submitted fully.
00:38:01
Speaker
And now it's like you know you wait a little bit longer to get the M2 funding to at least get paid that. So a lot of things that has taken, it's been an adjustment for reps and all that. But, um you know, I think, like you said, if you're just vulnerable vulnerable with guys, explain the bigger picture.
00:38:17
Speaker
um And, you know, it's not just a bunch of BS, but it's actually like reasons that make sense. Why is this happening? Yeah, it's like, okay, I can understand that. like the Installers have gone out of business and a lot of them is because they've paid out all this money and then not getting funded on jobs. And like, okay, well, that makes sense. Yeah, it sucks that we're not getting paid. Maybe it's quick. It sucks that we're but having to wait maybe a little bit for like all the money. until it gets PTO. But but yeah, it's like like you said, you get happier customers and now we're actually incentivized to get PTO quicker and that means you know probably more referrals, better customer experience, and ah yeah, better all around. It all works in the end. ah
00:39:00
Speaker
But there's been a massive shift, right? like We're so lucky as an installer, we started this past year. right So we started during the TPO revolution, you know what mean? Where Big Beautiful Bill was on the way, loans were completely going out. You know what I mean? We just so happened to start more or less at the right time and pick the right lenders and pick TPO option.
00:39:19
Speaker
Because for most installers, for those who don't know, it's like the process of getting funding on a loan is virtually, ah you know, a monkey could do it. You need these three photos and you need to just, it looks like they're solar on the earth. It doesn't even need to work. And they'll send 100% of it.
00:39:35
Speaker
And then when TTO providers, because now they have a vested interest in the PTO, which is where they get paid and where they can capture more cash and in the front and the end from more debt providers, their guardrails are way more tight. Like 90-90 photos, they need to be perfect. You can't have a sticker out of line. You need to have every single thing working at every single moment. PTO is not enough. It needs to show the system all producing.
00:39:57
Speaker
So the requirements to get funding and everything are so much more strict. It's like, you know, what it would take to do 100 installs back in the day is now the equivalent in a week is now the equivalent of doing like 150 to 200 installs.
00:40:10
Speaker
the complexity of it So it's a lot more on their side. So a lot of installers had to figure out that shift and didn't quite make a you know smooth transition transition over to it, which is why a lot of them are going out of business. And a lot of them are used to getting paid 100%.
00:40:22
Speaker
at install, and now all of a sudden, even as the installer, they're getting paid, you know they they say 80-20 from the lenders, but really, when you do the math, like how they do it with the equipment, with direct pay equipment and stuff, it actually shakes out, for those who don't know, closer, like an installer getting like 65 or 70% and then another 30 or 35% at PTO. So an installer is now used to getting all their cash up front.
00:40:45
Speaker
Imagine you're shifting like 30, 35% of your money is held to the end. That's not just all your profit. That's ah you know that's your expenses as well. So you can see if you don't build a business around how that works,
00:40:57
Speaker
yeah you very quickly run into a cash flow crunch. And most people don't know that, but that's that's what happens and why you have to, we got lucky. We built the beast in this economy, in this ecosystem.
00:41:08
Speaker
So this is what we were designed You know what I mean? We have no baggage, we have no whip, we don't havelawb you know we don't have clawbacks, we don't have fraud, we don't have all these things that a lot of installers, when you, Say you install 15 a week, right? People don't know this. And then you have like, say you have five clawbacks. That's all of your profit. That's all your positive cash flow.
00:41:28
Speaker
It could take five installs to clear all of your positive cash flow. So you have you know five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 clawbacks. Now you didn't just bring in cash and break even.
00:41:38
Speaker
Now you're negative cash flow, so you're bleeding cash. So it doesn't take much to turn an operation upside down. And you have to be really diligent and really dialed to make sure that doesn't happen to you.
00:41:49
Speaker
And most reps don't know that. It doesn't take much for that to occur. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, it's crazy. Well, I want to talk about um some some leadership as we finish up. Our last question around that, Alex, and then we can get into some leadership stuff. That's cool. But ah so you guys, know at we age we just had ah one of your...
00:42:09
Speaker
your main leaders sam manley on the show uh you know really solid region and everything he's got going on um but yeah we're talking a little bit just about like speed install speed to pto so um you know reps always complain they want quicker installs and then um you know now as we're shifting if we want ptos too before as reps just cared about the install and then like for they don't care after that because they got paid 100 so But for you guys as an installer now, what do you do to anything you guys do that's maybe unique or ah for like customer quality and you know keeping reps happy, getting PTO as quick as possible? Anything that you've been able to do to speed that up and you know yeah have better quality? Yeah, I'll give you a breakdown few things. Number one, it's all the intake process, right? If shit jobs enter your operational pipeline, you're going to have shit results.
00:43:01
Speaker
Jobs need to have everything they need to be a good job, to have good results. And so when a job is sold with us, it goes through a whole quality control check. and So a lot of reps don't work with us because they sell bad business and they would never operate here.
00:43:14
Speaker
So for us, we check the consumption, we match against the bill. If there's more than a 5% variance of what the rep said the customer's consuming or producing, in reality, it fails review, it never becomes a project. Wow. What are we doing? we're projecting We're protecting our pipeline.
00:43:28
Speaker
We're also protecting against what? Angry customers 12 months from now that turn into a defund, which kill good business. You know i mean? One defund, 10 projects, good business. So you can see like it's exponential. That's why you have to be very smart. So we have welcome call, 21 plus questions, yada, yada. So we have very strict intake to make sure customers know everything they're getting. So 12 months from now, they're happy.
00:43:48
Speaker
Soon, we're actually going to have the system set up to where when you put in the usage or you extract it from the utility company directly, the system will tell you exactly what to sell with or without a battery, no exceptions. So you only sell what's most optimal based on that utility company and how they use power.
00:44:02
Speaker
So therefore, every customer should be happy. So that's like how we're addressing the root of it. Because that's really what the industry needs. Because some reps do things intentionally wrong. A lot of reps unintentionally don't do things properly, you know, because it's complicated with net billing, etc. So this would will kill that.
00:44:17
Speaker
Now, once the job enters the pipeline, what do you control as an installer? Just for all of you guys to know, speed site survey is number one, right? The faster you can get the data from a complete site survey, the better.
00:44:27
Speaker
So we make sure we have a 24-hour availability across the board. And if ever and there's a day where it says 48 hours for scheduling at point of sale, we fix that within a day. You know what I mean? Because that's what triggers everything. So site surveys being 24 hours is number one. Number two, as an installer, what can you control next? It's like how fast can you get from site survey to engineer plans created, structural electrical stamps done?
00:44:50
Speaker
And then once you have all that done, you can create the utility packet for a lot of utilities to submit for preliminary approval, right? So it's a race to do that and do it perfectly. And so for us, the race is from site survey complete to permitting, we need it done in under three days and utility in under three days.
00:45:07
Speaker
Why? Because it's a game of hot potato. How fast can you get what you do, perfectly done, and pass it on to the next person? right Because then you've got to for the AHJ and you told the utility company, no exceptions. That's how you guarantee fast installs, and then you also don't install before you have not only permit approval, because we'd be installing like half you know twice as fast right now if we just did permit.
00:45:27
Speaker
But then there's utility preliminary approval, which if you bypass that, it's a ticking time bomb for PTOs. So you've got make sure you have both. ah And then you just schedule, you get it to rate once you have both, you schedule it and you're good to go. But it's a game of hot potato on operations and the operations that could do all of the front end as quickly and as perfectly as possible.
00:45:48
Speaker
That literally is all that determines how the backend works. And as long as you don't, ah accept just and a permit, you know you make sure everything is dotted and crossed. From there, it's not hard to guarantee a clean inspection is passed on the first time. And then a PTO, our average PTO timeline is sub 30 days in nine states from install. ah That's only possible if everything done is done perfectly before that, and you don't install before things being complete or approvals being there.
00:46:15
Speaker
And then you don't really run into these clawback issues. Yeah. Wow. That's great. Yeah. I didn't think of it that way. It's cool, but yeah, just focusing on the things you can control. And then, um, yeah, it's, it's funny cause reps will be like, Oh, it's the installers taking way too long.
00:46:31
Speaker
But then, uh, you know, lot of newer reps don't understand. It's like, yeah. And you got to wait on permitting. Our solution is this, though. So like in our software, we
Leadership and Management
00:46:40
Speaker
believe radical transparency creates trust. So in our software, a rep can go in and see like you know in every stage a million things that have taken place and all the timestamps by the minute.
00:46:51
Speaker
So like if you want the information and want to understand everything happening in your project, it's not just like you're in permitting or engineering. no No, no. Here's the billion things that have happened in engineering at the exact moment it happened. Here's the reason for rejection, whatever it is. Here's what's been done next. So you can get the play by play by the minute for your entire project.
00:47:09
Speaker
And that I feel like is like how we show that, hey, you know, some projects, obviously, you know, the goals, everything to move as fast as we want it to move. But if there's an issue to the project, like you can go find the answer yourself.
00:47:20
Speaker
And there's no getting frustrated, right? Because you can, there's clarity around it. So as long as a rep can find clarity and like find their own answers, ah frustrations tend to go down. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, he's super smart. And I think every installer should do that, have that clarity. Because, you know, I've i've worked with a lot installers in the past where it's like, you just call someone in the office and there's not a ton of clarity. And then um yeah and then we just joke, we're like, man, these... These office people, they don't give a crap about our deals. They're just getting paid hourly.
00:47:50
Speaker
It's like they don't care at all. and And it creates sales, which is like, and that's a death spiral too. Yeah. Yeah. the opposite sales need to They're on the same team for sure. i know. Yeah. Yeah, now yeah our company is actually working with, I think it's like a third party project management stuff, but they're like incentivized to get stuff in quick.
00:48:11
Speaker
And so um I thought that was a good idea. Like I think they give them like certain bonuses as long as they can like, you know, submit stuff quick and all that. They probably get paid. They're drunk at PTO, so their interests are aligned and it all makes sense. You need to have mutual interests. Our list really work quite that well. Mutual interest to the end result is what's needed. Yeah, that's so good. Well, that's awesome. Well, so before we wrap up here, Alex, I know we were talking little bit before we started just about... I think there's a lot of people listening where...
00:48:43
Speaker
and Maybe they have had people leave, um but like we're mentioning, people that are sticking it out now, I think they're going to be the future leaders of the industry. And um they're going to be the guys that grow the most.
00:48:55
Speaker
So ah for people are listening that maybe they're trying to take the next step in the leadership. um Do you have any advice around that? I know you've helped some you know massive leaders in your organizations, guys you just mentioned, Sam Manley, some of your other leaders.
00:49:09
Speaker
grow a ton over this past year. So um what's some advice or what are some things you see that can help guys, you know, grow from maybe they're just a high producing rep to like leading a team and step into that next level of leadership? Would you say? Well, number one, i would never, i don't really work closely with anyone that doesn't really want it, first of all.
00:49:28
Speaker
And the only way you know someone wants it, Patrick and David said this, but it's their level of urgency. How fast do they act on the moment? How fast they act on the plan? Do they execute? Is there like this fire underneath their ass to figure it out quickly and to bring the plan to life? So like number one, you have to have that or you don't really want it. You have massive urgency. You have to really want it.
00:49:48
Speaker
And then number two, as a leader, as you want to grow, You got to think about it ah like creating blueprints. So when it's just you selling, it's that, it's just you. So what blueprints do you need to create for you? Well, you need to have your door blueprint. You need to have your daily blueprint.
00:50:07
Speaker
You need to have your closing blueprint. That's simple. like What do you do on a daily basis? What are your times? What are your blocks for what? right so You wake up this time, you go to the gym, you have these hours for knocking, you have these hours for calling, callbacks. you't mean like You create your basic blueprint for your operating system. What's your door script blueprint?
00:50:25
Speaker
What's your closing blueprint? What slide deck do you go through to guarantee the end result you're looking for? Okay, you're not getting the end result, go refine it. You're getting more cancels, find the gap, go solve that in the process. So in the beginning, it's simple, right? But even most people don't do that.
00:50:40
Speaker
Now, a lot of companies should hand you these blueprints, and that's a matter of you doing it and then retooling it for you. So think about it like blueprints, right? So those are the three blueprints you figure out in the beginning.
00:50:50
Speaker
As you grow, what's next? duplicating yourself. This is a monkey see, monkey do business. It's not rocket science. ah There's a saying, which is from Southwest, like, planes on the ground make no money, right? Planes need to be in the air. Assets must be deployed. Your duty as a leader is to deploy assets, and you're your greatest asset, and then your people are your greatest assets. And so, and you can can you create a blueprint to make sure that your people are deployed for the proper hours?
00:51:18
Speaker
Create the blueprint to ensure that happens. And then if your blueprints are good enough on the closing the doors, you should be able to successfully translate that over into someone else being just as good or maybe better or maybe a little bit worse as you.
00:51:30
Speaker
And if you could do that ah for a group of five, 10 people, you'll create your foundation. you want to You want a group of yous running around. If you can create a group yous running around and they need to watch you go do the thing, they need to see you on the door in the home.
00:51:43
Speaker
If you understand leadership, you should understand this one principle, which is I got to a point where I realized I will never go close a deal for $5,000, not $10,000. not for ten thousand dollars and they're like, well, that's all the deal's worth. No, it's not. That deal to me is worth anywhere anywhere between $50,000 to $100,000 plus. And like, how is that deal worth that much without, you know, doing max rate grandma PPW BS that people do? I hate.
00:52:09
Speaker
Yeah. Well, the only way that's worth that kind of money, if you're ethical, is if someone else or multiple people see you do the thing. And then they can learn how to do the thing and do it themselves.
00:52:20
Speaker
So as you grow as a leader, you should never be in the home alone. Someone should be watching you operate. What you do should be the same every time. You should make the same jokes. you should One thing I realized in watching comedians, right this is like how it's a parallel I draw.
00:52:35
Speaker
So Shane Gillis, I will love him. I saw him live at Hard Rock right in Florida. Absolutely killed it, demolished. a week later, I flew out to Maryland and took the whole team to Maryland to see him, because he was in Maryland.
00:52:50
Speaker
So now I saw Shane Gillis twice in one week. And I was like, I wonder how the second time is going to go, like what I'm going to think about it on round two, because he's saying the same things, right? So I get in there and i was like, oh my God, this is the same thing as becoming a sales professional. So this is what I noticed.
00:53:06
Speaker
80% of what he said was the same, but the way he said it was like the first time he ever said it. 20% was variability for the crowd, for being in Maryland, in that atmosphere, in that environment, right? He pulled from the people that he was around. But 80% was the same. 20% was adjusted for the place and the environment and the people.
00:53:25
Speaker
ah And I realized, i was like, that's all we do. The best salespeople... They have a script they follow. They make it sound like the first time they've ever said it, right? So it feels authentic. And that put me as the watcher of Shane for the second time, I forgot I already heard all the jokes. It felt like the first time I was hearing it and I was dying even more this time around.
00:53:44
Speaker
And then there's the 20% variability for the person in front of you, right? For the home you're in, for the environment, right? you got to cater to how that individual operates. It's an engineer, it's yada, yada. And so if you understand that principle, then for you, you need to provide your people with what? A script where they'll end up be able to do 80% of it and 20% will be them.
00:54:05
Speaker
And if they can see you do that over and over again on the doors and in the home, they see exactly that play out. Guess what? Soon you could tell the Shane Gillis jokes the same way. Wow. Soon you'll have a little bit of your own personal touch on it, but it's like, damn, that's fire, right? And that works.
00:54:19
Speaker
And 80% of it will be exactly like that person taught you. 20% will be just you because of the crowd in front of you. Does that make sense? Right? So that's how you build something and you duplicate that on the doors and in the home. Again, never do either alone as a leader.
00:54:34
Speaker
Okay, now what? Now you've created a team, you've created ah a high-functioning organization, you have a weekly blueprint, a monthly blueprint, a quarterly blueprint that everyone adheres to. This is how we operate six days a week. These are our hours, these are the non-negotiables, these are the standards. right You as a leader must enforce it yourself on yourself first.
00:54:50
Speaker
Here's how this whole thing works. And now you have production. Everyone's doing well because guess what? There's a bunch of yous running around. They should be doing well. It's not rocket science. They should be doing well because you're doing well.
00:55:01
Speaker
And if you're not doing well, they won't do well. It's really all it is. And then, well, what's next from there? How does the evolution continue? Well, now you've created systems and blueprints that work, right? So now you're becoming a leader. You're creating value.
00:55:14
Speaker
What are the things you want to tackle next, right? In my evolution, how I explain it, is I started to tackle more complex things that nobody tackled. right All the things I just outlined, everyone tackled. Is someone on your team tackling how to get to a 75% realization rate?
00:55:29
Speaker
Are you figuring out a system to guarantee 75% of all homeowners go solar? Are you creating a system around retention? When they go to cancel, what do you do as the leader? How do you guarantee a high percentage of those cancels get back on the table What are you creating as a framework to add more value that other people commonly aren't attacking or they don't have good systems for or they just completely null and void? They just leave it up to the game, right? These are just the averages. So your next evolution as a leader is to tackle the complexity, to tackle the complex, the things that no one likes to attack.
00:56:03
Speaker
but the things that'll create value for the company, it'll create value for yourself, for your team, because if you could create systems and hand it over on a silver platter and like, hey, I am this team and I created going from 60% to 80% realization rate, here's exactly what my team does on a daily, weekly basis to ensure this. Here's how we close, here's how we attack retention, here's we attack change orders and on holds, here's our process. If you do that and you have the results to back it, that company,
00:56:32
Speaker
will build you up into the next person, right? You'll become the VP of sales of that company, you're gonna become the president, you're gonna become a partner in the company, you're gonna own a piece of that company, and then all you do is continuously attack the complexity, build systems, get results, and then put it on someone else's plate to carry over in a maintenance mode across the board.
00:56:51
Speaker
You build it, and then it maintains. You refine it and then it maintains. And if you repeat that pattern over and over and over again, all of a sudden you become someone worth making $10 million dollars a year. That's so good.
00:57:04
Speaker
that's i feel and think I think that's just a shift in most people's thinking. um Because so many guys, i myself, a lot of times I've just thought, oh I'm just going to have the setter. I never want to set, like for example, setter closer. I know lot of guys are like, oh, I never want setters to close their own deals because then going to have less deals close.
00:57:25
Speaker
And so they just don't think that way. i'm like, oh, i I would never have the setter come to my deal. like I don't want them seeing learning how to close. It's just like... So many people are like, you know, they they just want to protect their one or two setters and then they stay at that. Maybe they close a decent amount of deals themselves. But um it's just, yeah, just I love the way you talked about it. Like the 80-20 comedian and all that. And it's funny because even ah I saw that in a couple bands we went and saw. Like some of the bands I follow we went and went to their concert. Now would watch like the live, um you know, performance of them at past concerts and
00:58:00
Speaker
Just like you said, 80% of the stuff the the jokes they tell before their song. Oh, this song is about this. Is it the way they describe it? It's like, it's like repeat the same with they professional it' the same thing.
00:58:11
Speaker
Yeah. So that's the, yeah, I love that analogy. I never heard that before, but it's so true. And so, yeah, but no, I think that's huge. And for people listening, like you said, I think if can just learn to think, Every great leader and every person that's developed, and that's something I've noticed is ah pretty much they're all good at creating those systems and developing other leaders, developing other people.
00:58:33
Speaker
so bob me these you know Systems can sound vague and complex. right That's why I like to call it blueprints because it's just a frame. right It's a structure you follow. you One, two, three, four, five, six. This is how you build the house. First you lay the you know you dig the ground, you make it flat. you know what mean? It's a very organized system. It's not that complex. So don't like get overwhelmed with this systems thing. Because i remember the beginning, it just sounded so opaque. Like, what is a system?
00:58:57
Speaker
Because Jeff Mendes really taught me that in the beginning. You don't manage people at scale, you manage systems. i like, that sounds good. yeah What does that mean? Like, how do I do that in principle and practicality? just Just remember, it's just very basic blueprints. It's like, when this happens, then this happens. It's these if-then statements across the board.
00:59:15
Speaker
It's step one, two, three, four, five, completion, right? Start completion. That's a system. Okay, here's another example of a system, right? You might want to build a retention program. If you want to build a retention program, what's the framework for it? Okay, well, the first you need to create the script for it.
00:59:29
Speaker
Then you need to create how people get paid if a deal gets saved. Okay, you're not gonna be the one calling them forever, so what do you need to hire? Okay, you need to hire three people that are overseas because this is their hourly rate, so this is what it'll cost on a monthly basis.
00:59:41
Speaker
And then based on this script, how does the handoff work so that deal gets brought back to life? Again, how do people get paid so there's no resentment or animosity getting built up for the retention program, right? So you want everyone to be happy.
00:59:53
Speaker
Okay, and then what's all needed, right? All the resources that are needed, all the people that are needed, that's the blueprint, right? And then a company can bring the blueprint to life, and then you get to have the luxury of what's next within your system, right?
01:00:06
Speaker
Just always remember this, like your next, this is why it gets fun, this is why you should be like excited about this, is because then once you create that, what do you do next? You track it, you apply it, you bring it to life, and then you look at the results, and you have to have some sort of dashboard, some sort of executive dashboard. If I showed you all my dashboards I look at, I'll show you after this call some of this stuff, you'll be like, dude, that's so sick.
01:00:26
Speaker
Because like that's all i look at. Because then I could track all my systems to see how they're working. And I could find gaps right away. I'm like ooh, there might be a problem here. Let's dive in. Oh, there is a problem.
01:00:37
Speaker
Let's refine it. Okay, we're going to change this, change that. Let's see how that works. And then you're just tracking and refining, tracking, refining. And then once you got it to a place, you're like, yeah, this is good. This is a good process.
01:00:48
Speaker
Now you're like, boom, boom, boom. You guys are the people managing it. You're the people running it. And I'm gone. Yeah. on to the next thing to figure out, and then it's just like, that's all you do. So that's that's how systems work, guys. It's not rocket science, but i think it's important to understand contextually like how that actually works in practice.
01:01:04
Speaker
I like that, and I like blueprints. It's true, people make it so complex sometimes, but yeah, if you break it down like that. Complex is any institution. If it's complex, it will not work. Your people cannot follow it. Make sure it's simple. If the second it sounds complex and you start checking out, everyone else will check out. You have to remember that.
01:01:23
Speaker
You got to catch yourself in that moment because oftentimes one we write down seems so great, but it's so complex. There's so much in it. It's like, that's the one that'll kill everybody. No one's going to be able to do it. So just make sure the second you see that there's too much complexity within the thing you're building or doing, you kill that.
01:01:40
Speaker
Right. And you're like, oop if I'm overwhelmed, if I'm checking out, you got to guarantee that everyone else is going to fall in the same boat. So now you got to make it more simple. So just remember that part too. It's like, it has to be simple or will not work.
01:01:51
Speaker
Yeah. So good. So good. yeah Well, we've we've gone through a ton of stuff. Thank you so much for coming on today, Alex. Before I forget, I know we dropped this in last podcast, but in case people aren't already following you or want to you know learn more about Spartan and all that, what's the best way to get in touch with you guys? I don't know if you want to drop Instagram or yeah whatever the easiest way. Yeah, yeah.
01:02:12
Speaker
You know, join Spartan Army is the Spartan page. And then Alex H. Smith is my page on Instagram. Yeah, i'm very active on Instagram. So if you're going to get a hold of me, it's it's probably through IG.
01:02:23
Speaker
Cool.
Spartan's Transformative Impact
01:02:24
Speaker
And I heard there's there's no longer a requirement that you have to have a six pack to work with you guys. Is that right? No, it turns out don't need to make it a requirement. You just need to become the example and people shall follow. Okay, you might not start out, but you join Spartan, you'll probably have a success. If you get in the best shape of their life, they need it.
01:02:44
Speaker
Lose 80 pounds, they get jacked, they get shredded, they make a lot of money. I don't know, it sounds like a good life to me. Yeah, yeah, I know, Sam. See, he crushed it, man. think the first podcast I do was Sam. Down 90 pounds, Sam looks like a new human, looks like his old human ate that last human.
01:03:00
Speaker
that's I don't know, I don't think there's anything cooler from my side of seeing people like transform physically out of their own desire and want while winning in business. like You do both at the same time, you're rare.
01:03:10
Speaker
you're valuable and you know, you're going to be able to enjoy what you create because you're healthy. No, that's awesome. Like people on the outside looking in would think you guys are like a bodybuilding company or something, but it's like, Hey, make great money. You change, you know, change relationships, change. And it's not just about the money changing all aspects of life. So I love it.
Goal Setting and Progress
01:03:30
Speaker
Love seeing that. one Yeah. well Cool, bro. And then last question, just to wrap up here. um I know you crushed it in 2025, Alex. So for twenty we're in 2026 now, beginning in 2026. What are some goals? or
01:03:42
Speaker
Now what do you do to to make 2026 the best year? What are some things you're looking forward to now? Yep, so ah you know every quarter we get very clear on what we're building for that next quarter.
01:03:54
Speaker
So that comes down to creating a thematic goal, which is like an overarching you know target that everyone's running toward. right So like everyone can you know win in that, it's the company objective. And then within that, we create defining objectives.
01:04:07
Speaker
right So like if all of these things were to happen, all these things were to be built, all these systems created, yada, yada, would we guarantee that that thematic goal is hit? And in a quarter, will we look like a new company? Will we have evolved? Will we be better?
01:04:20
Speaker
And so every quarter, we create our thematic goal and our defining objectives. And then we go execute with who must do what, right whose response for every defining objective, and we make sure we hit that number at the top.
01:04:32
Speaker
And so every quarter is a new evolution. ah you know Right now our target this quarter is very simple. It's 1300 sales at a 65% realization rate company-wide. These are clean deals, not just signatures.
01:04:43
Speaker
um And then our defining objectives, right? Some of them is create Sparky customer video journey system. So we're creating like an emotional touchpoint to the customer where like every stage update, they're going to get a video of Sparky. he's our like you know Geico has his gecko, Spartan has his Sparky.
01:05:01
Speaker
He'll guide them through their current stage, what's next in a fun comedic style way. And then they'll get updates every step of the way. So they have an emotional connection. They're excited to get yeah their Sparky video update.
01:05:12
Speaker
right So we want to create brand connection to Sparky. And then we want to become a household name. So we're building out our meta presence right now. So building out by the end of the year and this quarter, the initiative is to create all the content, the virality, what's needed on Meta and on Instagram to become eventually a name where when people ah knock on the door, they're like, I've seen Sparky, I've seen Spartan.
01:05:35
Speaker
guarantees
Focus on Quality and Metrics
01:05:36
Speaker
That's a layup, right? And that deal goes stand yeah um you know we want to We want to save 10% of all cancels. That's one of our defining objectives. So 10% of all cancels we want to save.
01:05:48
Speaker
ah So creating the process for that, right? That's underway as we speak. Spartan leads, we want to generate $2 million dollars in commissions for our sales reps in Q1. Added commissions they wouldn't have had without Spartan leads. And we're going to smoke that. That's another defining objective. A competitions engine.
01:06:05
Speaker
Right? So right now we're doing our Setter Wars Rolex competition where teams of three setters are competing for ah three Rolexes. So like very cool competition. But we're building out this engine that has duplicatable results on the recruiting front, on the lead front, on all those other front. So anyway, what i'm defining is like all our defining objectives for you guys.
01:06:23
Speaker
yeah And so that's what we're attacking this quarter, which will lead to the inevitable target being smashed, right? As it should. And then we will create new defining objectives and a new thematical next quarter. So that's an exercise we go through every quarter. And it's fun because then you're like, you're like, oh, we do all this stuff. We're going to be a new company.
01:06:39
Speaker
like And that's what gives people hope in the future, right? Because they see the evolution. They're like, oh, this company is going somewhere. You want to be able to create that within your team, within your company. And the only way to do that is to become clear about what is that you need to make or what is you need to do.
01:06:53
Speaker
And so overall, like our strategic annual operating plan for the year, like we're very like so meticulous in how we want to grow because there's a saying, it's you know ah volume is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is king.
01:07:07
Speaker
lot of installers have that upside down.
01:07:11
Speaker
vanity They have no profit, and you know what I mean? and They have no cash, right? So we don't believe in that. We would rather be better than bigger. It turns out bigger is not better. Better is better.
01:07:22
Speaker
So we want to create the best company, unit economic, profitability, everything, and scale that up over time. So by the end of the year, our strategic operating plan, we should be landing about 125 to 150 installs per week is exactly we should be hitting by the end of the year.
01:07:40
Speaker
And that'll adhere to our growth over the next you know few months, three quarters. Yeah, that's dope, bro. Well, dude, you got very specific goals. um Yeah, i mean, just listen to those goals. um sales rep, you're not going to have ah you know specific stuff maybe like that. But think a lot of even just sales reps listen to that. You just hear how Alex talks. He knows his numbers. He knows exactly what he, and the metrics he needs to hit.
01:08:06
Speaker
And even if you're just a brand new rep. Yeah. hey some dad I'll show you some dashboards. I'll show you how grand you want to get. that's what it Yeah. Yeah. But, ah but yeah, that's a mistake. I think a lot of, you know, even new reps make, they're not granular with their goals. They don't even know their numbers. They don't even know how many doors they knocked last week. So how can you, how can you expect to change things if you don't know the basic numbers and, you know, KPIs and all that.
01:08:30
Speaker
So. spot on Thanks for having me, Taylor. Yeah, bro. Thanks. Thanks so much for coming on, man. And hopefully we can do another podcast before four years. Let's, ah you know, let's take it sooner than four years because so much we can have, so much we learned from you and such a great podcast.
01:08:45
Speaker
So, um but yeah, everyone go shoot Alex a follow if you're not already and shoot him a let him, let him know your biggest takeaway. think we can at least do that for him. And yeah, appreciate you brother, for coming on the show today, taking the time and I can't wait to see the goals you crushed this year.
01:09:01
Speaker
Let's go, baby. We're back. Let's go. Let's go. Thanks, Alex. Hey, solar
Community and Future Plans
01:09:07
Speaker
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01:09:18
Speaker
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